Day 13, Wednesday, Book of Faith – Lenten Journey
“Thy will be done.” In order to answer the obvious question, “What is the will of God,” the author uses the verse from the prophet Micah. “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” Although one cannot argue with the comprehensive nature of this answer, I know that if asked this question out of the blue, I would have given a different answer. I would have said, even more comprehensively, “love.” Certainly my answer does not at all negate the answer from the prophet Micah. None of the prophet Micah’s actions would be possible without love. They are all expressions of love. I’m just saying . . . .
I really like how the author then challenges us to think about all of our decisions or actions from the perspective of these criteria from Micah. How does a decision we make about something as a congregation reflect doing justice? How does it reflect our love for kindness? How does it reflect walking humbly with our God? It is a good and helpful template not just for decisions and actions we take as a congregation but also individually. I might offer this, however. If it gets to be too difficult pondering the justice or the kindness or the humble walking aspects of whatever it is you may be considering, then my answer might be a little simpler. How does it reflect the love of God? I’m just saying. . . .
WOW… you took the words right out of my mouth! The first thing I thought of and actually said to myself as I was walking today was “love” – we should love as Christ first loved all of us!! I could say great minds think alike, but lets be truthful here – my mind isn’t all that great, sharp, with it, whatever. There are times when I wonder if it isn’t on hiatus!!!
Seriously though, I do think that love is the answer. If we truly loved one another wouldn’t we treat each other differently. Wouldn’t we give ourselves away more freely because someone needs a service we can provide, wouldn’t we give of our possessions more freely because someone needs something that we have an abundance of, wouldn’t we be more forgiving because a characteristic of loving is to forgive. It certainly is something to aspire to – loving everyone – unfortunately we are by our very nature sinful human beings. BUT if we truly make the effort to try and we pray for guidance I think we can all get a bit closer to the goal.