Good morning…
“I keep this quote by my bedside,” she wrote, sharing words from Lisa Beamer, whose husband died on 9/11.
“Who is becoming whole again on your watch? What is being healed by your influence? How is God redeeming His creation by way of your life?”
Then she added, “And I pray for God’s grace to recognize the opportunities and respond with love.”
When there is an opportunity to love, I also want to recognize and respond. So I get out my journal and open to three fresh pages. The first page receives, “Who is becoming whole again on my watch?” On the second page I ponder, “What is being healed by my influence?” And the third page is topped by, “How is God redeeming His creation by way of my life?” In prayerful solitude, I will listen attentively, allowing the Spirit to fill my time and guide my pen. I trust God to gradually illuminate more of my personal purpose and my special function in the eclectic body of Christ.
Might you also carve out some sacred time for solitude, taking a similar deep dive with God?
Let’s pray, ponder, and pass words back and forth with our brother Jesus, who opens our path to God’s healing way: “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty” (Matthew 5:43-45, MSG).
…Sue…
