Day 142: Examples of Light

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."  1 John 1:5-7

This passage should give us all hope.

It first defines how we are to live our lives.  We need to make sure that our faith manifests itself in our lives through our actions.  We teach the best and spread the Gospel the best through our actions, for that is how others can conceptualize things.  Over the past week now, I have made many Chinese dumplings (餃子 and 小籠包).  I'm a guy who likes to learn things from books, and that works quite well with most recipes I've encountered.  However, the trademark of dumplings is their pleats.  I have read countless instructions on how to perform them, but they all turned out to be disastrous and plain odd.  But, after watching one video, I was able to understand how to fold them properly.  After a few dumplings for practice (and eating, of course) I feel that I have made quite some progress.

The way we live our lives becomes a light for many who are around us.  If we demonstrate our faith, just like a video, people will be able to understand all that they have heard from Christianity.  In fact, we too will begin to understand the bible and teachings better when we live our faith.

The latter part of this passage is what should give us all hope.  It says that when we live our lives faithfully, we will have fellowship not just with God, but with everybody around us.  Now, it is amazing enough to have fellowship with God, but it must be reassuring to be in the company of the many faithful who are walking in the light.  People who live around us, going through many of our same challenges, should make us feel closer to God.  The reason why we'll be in good company is because we will all be heading in the same direction, albeit from different starting points.  When we wander without God, we will end up in so many places that are unfulfilling.  Many will actually find themselves heading backwards towards destruction.  But, when we walk towards and in the light of God, we will find all of those who are walking in the same direction.  Those people will be able to dust off your shoes, provide you with water, hand you a coat if you need one, and will welcome you to the glory of God.  We need to provide that fellowship, because it is our duty as Christians.  The light of God is God's unconditional love for all of us.  When we provide that fellowship, we will see the light grow not only around us, but also in us.

Day 141: Finding Peace with God

"He who seeks the Lord will find knowledge with righteousness, and those who seek Him rightly will find peace."  Proverbs 16:4

This proverb suggests a progression.

The first part of this proverb talks about the beginning of a life of faith.  In the beginning, we will find out about the bible, the different stories, some of the lessons, and maybe a bit about theology.  We will learn how to pray with the favorites selected from different parts of the bible and from tradition.  All of it, at first, is knowledge.  And this is great for all of us.  We need our minds to be filled with good knowledge, for the mouth only speaks drawing from what the mind and heart know.  Think about a dialect of a spoken language.  The people who speak different dialects do so because of what they are surrounded by.  If there are many people saying "y'all" as a second person plural, then you probably will, too, over time.  I know of many foreigners who adopt "y'all" after living in the South for a while.

The latter part of the proverb gets to a core message.  When we seek the Lord rightly, we will find peace.  Today, we all need more peace in our lives.  We are being bombarded with society telling us what we need to know, how much money we need to make, what job we need to do in order to make said money, whom to marry, what to buy, what house to live in, how to speak, how to live "well".  That's a lot for us to handle.  But, the last thing we need is to go to church, or even to approach the bible, or God, and come out even more stressed than before.  That's not why we are Christians.  We are Christians because Jesus came into the world to bring us peace.  We don't need to worry about what's going on around us.  We don't need to concern ourselves about so many societal rules because our salvation has come for us.  We have a place prepared for us in heaven!

Our faith will progress from knowledge to peace.  The good thing, though, is that we don't have to wait for years to get this.  We can do it now.  We can find peace through our religion.  It all comes down to how we live our life.  We have to live knowing that God is in control.  We have to pray knowing that God is taking care of us and hearing us, and - more importantly - God is speaking to us.  We need to read the bible knowing that there is wisdom that we can apply to everything in our lives.  We have to go to church knowing that God is great and that we will achieve peace through our prayers, our praise, and our love.  We have to take the love that God has given us and spread it all over our lives so that we can make the world that much better.  When we live our faith, we will find peace.

Day 140: Transformation by God

"These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.  For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error."  2 Peter 2:17-18

I found this message to be harsh, but it is an important reminder for us and how to live.

We all have a host of temptations that attempt to rule over us every day.  Sometimes, we overcome them; other times, we are overcome - thus is life.  In addition to being overcome by temptations, we will go out of our way to justify ourselves by judging all of those around us for everything we can imagine.  We will start to speak great words that are just empty.  When we do that, though, we become empty wells or weak clouds.  We give up all control over our lives to whatever temptation that comes our way.

Now, this might sound like a dead end, but that's not the case.  Sure, we can become like an empty well or a mere cloud, but we were all created in God's image.  God is working in all of us.  We don't have just one option to give our control over to temptations.  Instead, we can hand the control over to God, the expression of perfect, unconditional love in our lives.

When we try to talk our way through our temptations and our sins, we only become further enslaved by our sins.  However, when we start to adopt everything that God teaches and tells us, we can start to transform our lives.  It might start with just words.  Rather than deceive ourselves with our own words, we can speak the truths that we learn through God.  Once we speak them, we will start to live them.  Once we live them, we inch closer to God.  As we go further down our journey, we will start to become much more like God.  We need to allow for God to do the work in our bodies so that we can continue to heal. 

 

Day 139: Accepting Change

"He who rejects instruction hates himself, but he who gives heed to reproofs loves his soul."  Proverbs 15:37

This comparison cannot be any more extreme than this: hate and love.

Why is this necessary?  Well, if we think about this, it applies to so many different aspects of our lives.  In a general sense, we need to be willing to learn from everything, especially our own mistakes.  We can go forth in our lives doing things the same way we've always done them, but if that is harmful, we only bring ourselves further and further into damage.  When we accept change in our lives, we can turn away from anything that harms us and become better people.

In a spiritual sense, this is important because it is our whole life we are talking about.  Jesus speaks to us every single day.  It's only when we accept the change that Jesus calls for us to do that we will be able to become better people.  Accepting that change will involve not just a confession by word, but also a change in how we live our lives.  We need to live out that change.

In school, I was taught that doing drugs was bad for the body.  It's bad because each use will continue to damage the body, and if done enough times (the amount depending on the individual) it would lead to an addiction, which was very difficult to turn back from.  We learned to point our judging fingers towards those who used drugs.  That's an extreme case, but it still explains this proverb to me, because it's very easy to look at other people and see how they're damaging their lives with their own habits.  We can see when our friends are in destructive relationships, dead end jobs, or making bad decisions for their health.  We say to ourselves, "they must truly hate themselves."  This proverb, though, calls us to point that finger back at ourselves.  We need to investigate all that we do.  Are we willing to accept change?  It's easy for us to point out that necessity in others, and since we already can, can we do that to ourselves?  Can we truly live out that change?

The only way we can love our soul is by accepting and living the change that Jesus calls us to do.  It will involve a commitment, but we have already made that commitment in our baptism that we remember every time another member is added to our great family of baptized people.  We have to remember that we are in this world, constantly resisting the devil, fighting the good fight.  We need to stop hating ourselves and, instead, start bettering ourselves.

Day 138: Leading with Love

"The ways of righteous people are acceptable before the Lord, and through them even enemies become friends."  Proverbs 15:32

This proverb is inspiring to me, and the first thing that comes to mind is: lead by example.

We are to lead by example because that's the way to establish a way or a path.  Paths are formed by lots of effort.  It can be over the span of ages, with the feet, hooves, and paws of many trodding on the same path, or it can be made with the effort of one or more workers making the path.  The important thing to remember, though, is that all our examples should be things that will bring others towards God.

Indeed, the proverb says, "through them even enemies become friends," which means that there is a clear path that leads to righteousness.  And, in Godly terms, we understand that our notion of righteousness involves transforming our lives to bring us closer to becoming manifestations of the unconditional love that God has for all of us.  This means that we need to put aside all our prejudices along our journey of purification.  It's not enough just to confess with our mouths and words.  We need to live our faith.

Leading by example will involve lots of effort on our part, especially because we have to know where we ourselves are going.  We can figure this out with our prayer and our bible reading.  We will find out that God is always calling upon us to love our neighbors.  And, when we truly adopt this principle of love, we will start to bring others into our community purely by our example of love.  Leading by example doesn't just mean to teach others about our ways.  Leading by example means that we will lead ourselves forward with this example.  It'll be a process, but it will be rewarding for us and for all those around us.

Day 137: Strengthening a Community

"Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.  As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.  If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.  If anyone ministers, let him do it with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever.  Amen."  1 Peter 4:9-11

One of the underlying themes of 1 Peter is the teaching about building a community, and the means to build up a community is love.

Perhaps, though, the idea of love being thrown around so many times in one letter gets to be too abstract.  Indeed, as I learned in writing school, love is an abstraction.  My idea of it might be very different than another's.  But, fear not, for Peter has given us an example of how to show love.

The love that is used in this letter is the word agape, which gets translated into Latin as caritas, which is where our word charity comes from.  In fact, in some older texts, charity comes closer to meaning a love that builds up a community, as opposed to our modern meaning of doing things for the less fortunate.  And that concept is important to understand, because it helps us to imagine how we can accomplish building up a community of love, the Kingdom of God.  Peter shows us that it comes about with using our unique gifts.

Think about how a church is run.  There's a priest who teaches the congregation.  There are lay ministers who also take on the role of teaching.  There are musicians who lead the congregation.  There are people who take to writing announcements in the bulletin or in social media platforms.
There are fellowships of people who devote their time to using their crafts for the less fortunate, such as knitting shawls for those who need them during the winter, or cooking and serving food for the homeless.  There are many things that can serve the community all around.

So, this is where we all can come in.  None of these things works without people actually giving their time and talent to these ministries.  The only way to build an effective community is by using one's gifts for the common good.  A community grows when each person grows individually.  We have to figure out how we can provide for the bettering of our communities.  If we have questions, there are plenty of people we can ask.  We show our love for our community when we not only speak about the love we have for one another, but when we actually show it with our actions, putting all of our gifts to good use.

Day 136: Being of One Mind

"Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous."  1 Peter 3:8

Don't we need more of this today?

We live where we emphasize the self much more than the community.  We emphasize getting our way before we start thinking about everybody around us.  But that's not what we're called to by God.  Instead, we are called to build up communities.  We are called to live with love.

The interesting thing about the above command is that it implies that love is the way to be of one mind.  Things would be so much easier these days if everybody were with one mind.  One does not need to look far to understand what a privilege it is to have people of one mind.  Aside from a family (which itself might be divided), there are political parties that are doing just that - parting people.  In a party, people will side with one another in a concerted effort to demonize the 'other'.  That's not what we're called to do.

The good thing about this command is that it already gives us instructions on how to go about being of one mind.  We need to have compassion for one another.  We need to love as sisters and brothers.  We need to be tenderhearted.  We need to be courteous.  In other words, we need to be nice people.  That's it!  Just be nice to one another.  We have learned how to be nice to one another as children.  In fact, it is as we grew up that we started to learn about all the exceptions.  Be nice only to people who have the same color of skin as you do.  Be nice only to the people who like things exactly as you do.  Be nice only to those you find attractive.

Instead, we need to erase all those exceptions from our minds and start to unite as one community of love.  It doesn't take much effort.  We can pray and meditate and look through the bible for answers to questions that we feign, but the only way we'll accomplish this is if we actually do.  Do be nice to everyone.  Do love everyone as you did when you were a child.

Day 135: Being Students

"Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious."  1 Peter 2:1-3

As Christians, we are devoted to living a life as a student.

We will forget that sometimes.  In school, there are usually some students who might understand concepts more easily than others, so those students can help those around them.  But, in the end, the teacher still has more knowledge than the students.  Perhaps later on in their lives, the students will have the same, if not more, knowledge and wisdom than their teachers.

As students, we are called to maintain certain disciplines.  I'm sure there are many teachers out there who wish to have students who are not judgmental, kind, patient, and, above all, willing to learn.  We are not supposed to be correcting our teacher, and we are definitely not supposed to be correcting our fellow students.  Think about this: we are students of the ultimate expression of wisdom (some would even say we are students of Wisdom herself); so how can we even know more than the teacher?

We are called to desire to continue in our learning and our application of our learning.  But the only way that will work is if we put aside all evils around us.  And, in this passage, evils are things that separate us from one another.  Being students requires us to make the classroom into a community of love, support, friendship, and help.   That's how we will be able to apply what we learn, as well.  We are learning how to live with one another to build up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.  When we start to apply all the love, all the acceptance, all the understanding that Christ teaches us, we will grow into greater beings.

Day 134: Purification through Love

"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart."  1 Peter 1:22

This command implies an important message.

Today, there are so many Christians out there who turn their setting apart for the Lord into a show of utmost pride and arrogance.  They will say, "Since I am holy, I can no longer associate with anybody else who isn't holy in the exact way that I am."  Obviously, this becomes a problem for building a community, for there will be a separation of us vs. them, rather than looking out and seeing potential new members.

Some people out there will even turn that arrogance into pure hatred, continuing to separate them from the outside world.  They will deceive themselves, thinking that because they are holy, nobody else can possibly be.  They think that with their purification through Jesus, they are entitled to become judges of everybody around them.  But that's completely in contrast with what we have been told.  Jesus has commanded us many times to love not only our neighbors, but our enemies, those who are strangers, the sick, the poor, and even those we don't even understand.  That's what the above message gets at as well.

We have been saved through Jesus.  We have been made whole because of Jesus.  We are loved because of Jesus.  How does anything else besides love make sense after this purification?  Because we have been purified with the God of love, we too should show our love towards everybody else out there.

Day 133: Building up a Community

 "Is anyone among you suffering?  Let him pray.  Is anyone cheerful?  Let him sing psalms.  Is anyone among you sick?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord."  James 5:13-14

I feel like this is something that we've distanced ourselves from in recent times.

We look at church like a place that exists far away from home that is only open on Sunday mornings.  It loses its spirituality over the week and becomes just a building.  We also become divorced from everybody at church once we leave on Sunday.  Yet, that's not what the point is.

When I read the above passage, I think about how important a church was to the community.  All of the activities that are listed above (and even after this passage) are things that we normally associate with church.  The thing is, though, that there isn't any fine print.  There's nothing that says, "If anyone is sick at church," or, "If anyone feels cheerful at church," or "If anyone is suffering at church."  It's plain and simple.  We are the church, and we take it everywhere we go.

The other side to consider is that we need to make sure the church is a community, not just a bank, where transactions happen between a teller and a customer.  Instead, we attend church as a community.  We should be willing to join hands in prayer and healing at any given moment.  We should feel as if the church is our second home, if not our fist.  We need to have camaraderie between all the members.  If there are issues, then we should make sure to go forward and solve them.  Rather than let evil break into our communities, dividing them and infecting every person, we should be guarding all the good that comes from our community.

Our faith is not something that we just say.  Anybody can crack open a prayer book or (in that case) look up the Creed page on Wikipedia and recite the words with no faith.  That's easy.  It's living our faith that we are called to do.  When we read the bible and learn what to do, we can build up our communities to become stronger.  It takes a great effort to build up a community, but when we do, it will benefit us, healing us, and celebrating with us.

Day 132: Direction

"Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away."  James 4:14

Right off the bat, we should remember that our lives are in God's hands.  God has the ultimate say in everything that goes on.

Imagine how great it would be if we could predict everything that would happen in the next year, next day, or even the next hour.  We would be able to plan for absolutely everything.  But, at the same time, we wouldn't have all too much to live for.  We would have all the answers, and we wouldn't have much else to do.

We live where we can't tell what's going to happen next.  So, we work on ourselves so that we can be ready for absolutely anything.  One of the greatest tenets of Jesus' preaching is, "be ready".  But that's all we can do.  It sounds pretty restrictive at the start.

Our lives our precious.  We can't control everything that affects them.  I like the metaphor of the vapor.  It's similar to smoke.  When you look at smoke, it floats in so many different directions, and I'm sure much of that depends on how the molecules of air are moving in around that smoke.  Then, there are also basic traits of heat, such as the circular motion that comes from the source.  Eventually, no matter which way the smoke goes, it dissipates as it reaches higher and higher.  We cannot grab smoke and manipulate it.  All we can do is prepare everything from the source and hope that things go in the direction that we want it.

Right now, our lives are going.  They are going in so many different directions.  You might get a call for a new job offer.  You may receive a message about the death of a relative or a friend.  You might get hungry.  You might do nothing.  The only thing we can do is prepare ourselves.  The way we prepare ourselves for the future involves realizing where we want to be.  This will involve prayer and meditation.  This will also involve lots of study and practice.  If we don't prepare, things will only go in different directions, whether we like them or not.  We can't complain if they don't go in the way we want them to go.  At the same time, we cannot say that everything will go according to plan.  We just need to remember that our lives are in God's hands.  God is working in our lives.

Day 131: Learning Self-Control

"Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.  See how great a forest a little fire kindles!"  James 3:5

We need to remind ourselves of this message as often as possible.  In fact, we should think this verse before we even begin to speak.

If you haven't figured out by now, James is probably my favorite book of the bible.  I find that this chapter is a great explanation about how our words affect our lives and the lives of those around us.  And what better time to talk about words than in the middle of this heated presidential race in the United States?

I truly enjoy this metaphor of the tongue as being something that starts a great fire.  It means that there is a lot to see just because of the tongue.  We can see the light, the glow, and the smoke; we can smell both the somewhat pleasant aroma of woods burning and we can smell the unpleasant odor of too much smoke; we can hear the crackling of wood, the popping, and the gusting wind of a blaze.  In the same way, our words project so much forward about us, many more than we might think.  What might be disturbing, though, is that our words will have this effect, whether we want it to or not.

I can think about how different body parts have become popular when thinking about fitness.  Men work on their chests and biceps.  Women work on their glutes and their legs.  Yet, to be truly fit, one must work on the entire body.  Needless to say, though, a man's arms and a woman's rear will be among the first things that people will notice.  They will be the signs that one actually works out.  Then, one can start to evaluate the rest of the body: nice shoulders, broad back, balanced legs to arms ratio, and such.

If this is inevitable, then there must be a simple solution.  There are many people who will start to work out just to improve those specific parts of their body.  I'll be the first to say that I started working out just to build up my arms.  I spent so much time just working them out (to no avail, in my stubborn ignorance).  However, that is what brought me into learning more about working out.  I found out about the little muscles that are very important to pay attention to in order to avoid injury.  I found out about core strength.  I learned about functional fitness.  I found many different exercises that I liked.  I'm sure that this is the same for many who currently try to maintain some level of fitness (I must concede that these days I merely try).

The same enthusiasm and encouragement happens when we learn to tame our tongues.  We can start to learn how to speak well.  Through much research and careful reading, we can pick up new words for our vocabulary.  We can learn much more about other people.  We can learn about the great words spoken by Jesus, our saints, and many other spiritual writers and speakers.  We can even learn great things from other fields when we take the time and put in the effort to improve our tongues.  And, once we start to tame our tongue, we can start to work on other aspects of our lives.  Maybe we'll find a prayer we really like and we'll improve our prayer life.  Maybe we'll find a preacher we like and join a new community.  Maybe we'll get into a habit of reading more.  Maybe we'll even get inspired to start helping others out in our communities.

We need to pay attention to how we live our lives.  We need to pay attention to what we are putting out into the world.  When we do, we will be able to improve ourselves in ways that will only bring us closer to God.

Day 130: True Faith

"If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead."  James 2:15-17

Here is a sharp way of putting this message.  Unfortunately, this same issue still applies today.

With the rise of social media becoming platforms for people to project all their feelings, including support and denunciations, there have been some ideas that have become quite popular.  One of these that has been getting lots of backlash from secularists is the notion of stating, "Pray for ___", where the blank is usually a country/city in the West.  I must admit, I agree with the secularist argument.  In fact, James even agrees, as he has written above.

For many, church has become something more of a habit rather than an act of devotion.  There's nothing ever planned on Sunday mornings, and there are many places that don't even open on Sunday, so what better to do than to go to church?  And that's all that happens.  Crowds fill up the pews in churches all over the world on Sundays, but that's all that happens.  So many people will show up on Sundays, but when it comes to volunteering for charities or giving time for other things, nobody shows up.  You can wear the cross around your neck, but are you ready to pick up the cross that is still lying in your room?

The truth of the matter is that our faith should be producing works.  Our faith is not something that just stays stagnant.  I mean, there are countless examples that remind us that our faith is not dead.  Jesus never says, "Say you believe in me, but stay seated."  No, in fact, Jesus says, "Follow me."  We have the Holy Spirit guiding us to do many great things in our lives.  The word Spirit comes from a word meaning breath/wind.  If it's still, it's no longer a breath or wind.  In this same way, we should be looking at all of our aspects of our lives in faith.

Why do we read the bible?  We should be reading for answers and for a strengthening relationship with God.  Why do we pray?  It should be so that we can keep up our communication and have a moment to breathe in between living our tough life and continuing with more works.  It should also be a chance for us to receive strength to continue.

So, when it comes to praying, it shouldn't just be a post on Facebook.  It should be a true meditation, one that gives us strength to do all that we can to help out those around us.  Our prayers should be our calls to action.  God calls us to action during our prayers.  Our faith calls us to action.  Our faith calls us to lead, to follow, to act, to love.

Day 129: Unwavering Faith

"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind."  James 1:6

This is one of my all time favorite verses.  It taught me so much about faith when I first read it, and each time that I come across it, it bears the same weight on my life.

As Christians, we have to live our lives faithfully, and one of the ways to do that is to do everything out of faith.  We should be able to point all of our actions back to our faith in the one God.  Our love should come from our faith.  Our practice should come from our faith.  Our hospitality should come from our faith.  Our faith is the root to everything that we do.  If we do not have faith, we don't have anything.

Imagine if you asked a close friend or your partner to do something.  You ask simply because you expect/know that it will be done.  You have forged a relationship with this person because of the amount of trust that you have put into this person and because you know that there will be support coming from this person.

When I think about this, I immediately wonder why I would ever cast any doubt upon God.  I mean, why would I pray if I don't even have a reason to pray?  Why would I get all worked up, kneeling on the ground, reaching up with my hands, shouting before God if I am not expecting for my prayer to get answered?  That sounds like an awful lot of effort for something that doesn't matter.  Even worse, why would I place so much doubt upon the being who has guided me and saved me and transformed me in so many different ways?

God should have all of my trust.  I shouldn't have to wander away from time to time just out of curiosity or doubt.  That makes absolutely no sense.  If I do all of that, I become as a wave.  I cycle above and below the water, and I only live as long as I don't bump against a rock or any other body floating on the sea.  That's not a very good lifestyle for me to adopt.  Instead, I should be prepared to communicate with God.  More importantly, I should be prepared to encounter God, even when it might be a shock to me.

Communication with God is difficult because God is not like every other human being on the earth.  God is God.  Therefore, we need to prepare ourselves to talk to God.  It's not that God isn't going to listen, but it's that we are going to lose sense of God when we go unprepared.  There are some easier preparations, such as by attending church or reading the bible.  But the real test comes when you approach prayer.  Is your mind ready to speak to God?  Are your hands ready to reach for God's hands?  Are your ears ready to hear what God has to say?  It's only when we are prepared to communicate with God in faith that we will have a rewarding conversation.

Day 128: Love in a Community

"Let brotherly love continue.  Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels."  Hebrews 13:1-2

This is plain and simple: look after one another.

Don't we all have stories to tell one another?  We can talk about how we each have different challenges to face every single day.  One person can describe the pains of work.  Another can describe the pain of not having work.  Another can talk about loss.  Yet another can talk about the stresses of marriage.  We all have troubles.

When I read this, I thought about how important it is to stick together.  It's so important to make sure that our communities only get stronger and greater as the days go on.  We cannot allow for petty fights to divide us in this life.  Why entertain strangers, though?  I mean, we can never tell if they are going to be kind or rude.  We can't determine if they'll repay us.  In context, it almost seems that the second half of that verse was more of a concession.  Of course, we should always be prepared to entertain angels or people of the Lord.  But, at the same time, we shouldn't think of such a reward (a blessing) to be the sole purpose of our hospitality.  Instead, we should be thinking about what we need in this life.

I thank God for my family and friends, because they are all faithful to me, and I try my best to be faithful to them.  I have people who want to see me succeed, and I want to see all of them succeed.  My mom is the best example, who always looks out for me and always offers her help in so many different forms.  I hope that I can be the same way back to her. 

I appreciate that kind of support.  It might be contained within a small circle, but it is incredibly magnificent.  Now, I can't even imagine how much better life would be if everybody started supporting one another.  I know of so many different people who work in fields that I'll never be interested in or even knowledgeable of.  And, I appreciate when they can help, just as how I feel a joy in being able to offer my own services to people who need help in things that I am quite knowledgeable in.

Let's think more about the Kingdom of Heaven rather than our own personal gain in our lives.  Let's build up the Kingdom by circulating the brotherly love that we are all capable of giving.  Let's be more Christ-like.

Day 127: Giving Peace

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."  John 14:27

Happy Pentecost!  Come Holy Spirit!

Today is the day that is usually identified as being the founding of the Church.  It is the day of yet another promise fulfilled.  It is a day we remember Jesus bringing all of us together under one accord.  It's also a day where we celebrate the diversity of languages, which is something that I hold very dear.

For the past few days, I'd been thinking about what the language trope meant in the story of Pentecost.  Sure, it was a way for the people to show that they were fully equipped to preach in every place.  It was also a concrete sign of the coming of the Holy Spirit.  But, when I went through the readings in the Lectionary Page, I saw that the Tower of Babel was in the readings as well, which gives a different perspective on language diversity.

I found that a major theme in Pentecost is the idea of redemption.  God scattered the people from the Tower of Babel and confused their language.  God then starts to unite people through a gift of the Holy Spirit - that of language.  Language diversity comes about because of sin, and then it comes back as a blessing.  These are two almost opposing views on language diversity, but they are important for our growth.

There are so many different things happening in our lives right now.  There are things that keep us going, and there are things that keep us back.  However, God is the one who can show us how to manage everything.  We have the Holy Spirit as a guide in our turbulent lives.  The Holy Spirit is a breath of fresh air when we are trapped inside an office, a basement, a hospital.

In the language learning communities I am a part of, I see many people who want to see language diversity to go away.  They see the diversity as a barrier, and, in reality, they have quite a point.  Imagine if we could get all our ideas across without any challenge in terms of language.  There are others, though, who want to learn more languages so that they can gain more perspectives on life.  I like to see languages as a gift from God.  Yes, I wish I knew how to speak all of them, but the fact that I don't and probably won't is beautiful, because it means that there are people who will always have stories to tell me.

Jesus has also shown us how to look at things in a very good way.  Throughout his earthly ministry, he guided his disciples very closely.  He made sure that they understood everything with his teaching.  However, he also had to depart from them and head to heaven.  In the end, they were left with peace.  Jesus offers peace to all of us.  We can concern ourselves over all the challenges in our lives, but at the end of the day, we can relax on the peace that Jesus leaves us.  Unlike the gifts that we can give, ones that can only be used for a certain amount of time before fading, the peace and the Holy Spirit are gifts that guide us throughout our entire lives.

So, when you look at the big picture of your life: all the struggles that lie behind and ahead of you, the problems that face you, the difficult things that might scare you; remember that we have a way to get through the trouble.  It involves an open heart to receive the peace that Jesus has given us.  It's knowing that the hills are there so we can have something beautiful to look at on our journey.  It's knowing that we have no reason to be afraid.  It's knowing that no challenge is too big for us.  It's knowing that God is gathering all of those who have wandered off with comfort.

Day 126: Seeing into the Heart

But the Lord said to Samuel, "Have no regard for his outward appearance, nor for the maturity of his stature, because I have refused him.  For man does not see as God sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord sees into the heart."  1 Samuel 16:7

Imagine how great it would be to have the power to look into someone's heart as opposed to the outward appearance.  We would accomplish so much more as a society.  No more race.  No more gender.  No more discrimination.  Just the purity of one's heart is all we'd need for everything.

But that's not the world we live in, unfortunately.  We live in a world where the first thing we see is color.  If that color is different from our own, that person is all of a sudden the 'other'.  We will treat that person differently, I'm sure usually negatively.  That other doesn't know what I do or what I've been through.  That other is going to mess things up that I and my people have accomplished.

This is where we need to take on God's example: impartiality.  We need to start looking at the heart of our neighbors rather than their outward appearance.  It's difficult, but how do we even start?  The people who are around you probably have eyes, a mouth, a body, skin, hair, and many other features that you probably already have.  So, after getting through those similarities, wouldn't you think that there would be a heart in there somewhere?  A soul?  A being with feelings and thoughts?

Go to Jesus' command.  Show your neighbor love.  God can see into our hearts because God is all seeing.  But, at the same time, we can see into other people's hearts just by acting in love.  We will start to see what we want.  We will be the gateway into communicating straight to the heart as opposed to the social construct that we have grown used to.  Just as God can look at us and see God's image, we can see ourselves in our neighbors.  When we see that way, we can start to see into the heart.

Day 125: Our Faith in God

"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful."  Hebrews 10:22-23

This is a message that relates to another that James writes in his own letter, which is one of my favorites.

Faith is hard.  For a strictly logically focused mind, faith can be counter-intuitive, with there being little to no instant, tactile rewards for faith.  But, the epistle writers in the New Testament made sure to encourage all of their readers to continue in faith.  This is because faith is the most important requirement for our relationship with God to strengthen.

I like that the word faith really only occurs in two places in common English parlance: religion and relationships.  I don't think this is a coincidence at all, and I think there are many things we can learn about how to live religiously through the lens of a relationship.  In American culture, one of the most celebrated, if not the most celebrated, things in life is the romantic relationship.  I will admit that I put such an importance on romantic relationships almost immediately after coming out of the closet.  Sure, my family joked about the necessity for them, specifically so that we could have new babies in the family, but I will say that most of the emphasis has been of my own doing.  It was something that I strove for, going on countless dates, engaging in countless social meetups, and praying to God for.

Now that I am in a committed with a great boyfriend, I am learning more about myself.  There are, of course, many things I need to learn in order to have our relationship continue to grow.  However, the way that I learn about these things is by keeping up a constant communication between my boyfriend and me.  Communication is the only way I'll be able to learn anything about him.  Communication is also a great foundation for faith because it's an expression of interest in the other person.  It shows that I am willing to learn more and get even closer.  It also helps me keep my boyfriend in my mind.

Faith is much more important in our relationship with God, for God is the ultimate expression of love.  We learn so much about how to treat those around us through the ways God has transformed us.  However, we can allow for many different temptations to seize us at anytime, leading us away from our relationship with God.  Perhaps the strongest factor leading to such an overwhelming attraction to temptation is a lack of knowledge of the beloved.  When we wander around, knowing little to nothing about God, we start to find the things that we are looking for in other entities.  When we find ourselves seeking to make ourselves better, we will look for the instant gratification that comes from money rather than God.  When we look for satisfaction in our lives, we will look for self-destructive activities rather than edifying ones that we could find in God.  In other words, we lead ourselves astray from God by our desire to remain ignorant of all the good that God is.

This passage from Hebrews reminds us that we have been transformed by God in ways that only make us better.  God has cleaned us from every impurity that has infiltrated our lives.  God has promised us love, life, success, and so many other things.  And God is delivering on each of those promises every single day.  We need to be listening to God speaking to us and answering our questions rather than our own voices that lead us astray.  We need to ask God with the intent of seeking God out as opposed to just asking just for the sake of asking.  We need to make God a part of our lives so that we can continue living in a faith that is rewarding for our life.

Day 124: Change that Saves

"But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation."  Hebrews 9:11

This is a message that is so pertinent to today, especially for those who wish to see the Church continue to grow.

To start, this passage refers specifically to the new tabernacle that Jesus brings about with his coming to earth.  He instituted something that was drastically different: one sacrifice for all eternity, a complete forgiveness of sin, love of God.  That's quite a change from the older Mosaic tabernacle, but it was necessary for the spreading of the Gospel.

Today, there are many churches that are dying everywhere, and those congregations are turning to many different consultants from different places.  Some are even looking to consultants for large businesses so that they can make the best business decisions.  But, I would say that there is a fundamental issue: we hold onto our old customs, even if they do lead us straight to complete failure.

We want to be comfortable.  We know that things that have sustained us for long stretches of time should still work.  At the very least, those things are comfortable.  When I was a little kid, I loved eating fried foods as my main source of food.  However, over time, I gained lots of weight because of my decisions, and, even more recently, I'm finding that fried foods make my stomach upset for quite a long time after enjoying.  Yet, I want to be able to eat them because they are so good!

I am sure that we all have issues that we could talk about.  Maybe you can't run as far as you used to.  Maybe you shouldn't see that one ex lover who used to be great in the past but now only serves as a temptation to you.  Maybe you can't sit in front of the TV all day because of the threat of debilitating weight complications.

We need this same sort of mentality with our churches.  The churches are not ours; they are God's.  As such, we need to remember to listen for God's advice on all matters.  That might mean that you will have to start playing different music.  That might mean that you will have to incorporate more modern language, or even an entirely different language.  That also might mean that you will have to dissolve a community and embrace another.  I cannot speak for every church that is out there, but I do know that there are always difficult decisions to be made.  And that's where we need to start remembering what Jesus has done.

Jesus has come into the world to bring us all closer to God via change.  Jesus wants to change us all for the better.  That means that we need to be going back to God every chance that we get (which is, of course, all the time).  Jesus is showing all of the good things that are in existence.  Most of all, we need to remember that Jesus is going to be working in our communities, even when that means that our hand prints will be supplanted by his.

When we allow for Jesus to renew us, we will be able to change for the better.  We need to open up our arms that were once crossed in front of us so that we can welcome Christ's embrace.

Day 123: Spiritual Awakening

"But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich."  Luke 18:23

I read something recently that said, "The truth hurts a lot before it feels better."  That's how I feel about this verse.

Jesus speaks to us all through a Gospel of truth that seeks to save us out of pure love for us.  Of course, the truth is the first part that is going to hurt.  It's going to hurt because it's getting us out of our comfort zone.  It's the thing that will call you out of your bed and into the streets.  It's what will reveal all the imperfections in your life that you have grown to become quite used to.  Jesus wakes us up.

I'm writing this from a hospital bed, where I have come to after quite a number of rounds of tests in order to find what's causing my stomach to feel bad.  I find that the Gospel works in the same way.  It puts us into sometimes seemingly uncomfortable situations in order for our doctor, Jesus Christ, to let us know what we need to do to improve.  Do we need to eat less of the gluttony that exists in our lives in the form of spending money and eating unreasonably exorbitant food?  Do we need to exercise more in our lives as spiritual beings, with prayer and reading?  Do we need to calm down from the stresses of life?  Jesus is there to tell us what to do and how to do it.

In this reading, we find that there is a rich man who is sorrowful after hearing that in order to attain ultimate spiritual greatness, he needs to give up his money.  I interpret this not so much as a condemnation of money, but as a condemnation of the care of money.  This man has defined himself by his money.  How many of us are guilty of similar things?  Do we like to show off our worth with our clothes, shoes, cars?  Do we like to flaunt our degrees with high language and off-putting, vacuous philosophical discussions?

Jesus is calling us to remember to care for all those around us.  We need to give our time, talent, and treasures to all of those around us in order to continue the work of the Kingdom of God.  We need to get up out of our comfort zones so that those who live in discomfort can have a breath of relief.  In fact, we might even find new relief when we find ourselves out in the world doing the work we are called to do.

Day 122: Welcoming Others

"I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."  Luke 18:14

Perhaps something that I come across quite frequently is this: I'm too messed up for church.

As I read the bible, I learn that this is never a valid excuse.  All throughout the bible, there are countless stories of people whose names get to be associated with holiness who lived lives that are quite far from being perfect, let alone "holy" in our eyes.  In fact, you can look at all your church leaders who stand up before you, but you may forget that they are all humans.  Every single one of them.  I have to say that I am quite blessed to be part of a family that has two priests in it because I have been able to understand that God calls any kind of person to the ministry.

However, the excuse of being to messed up for church has one other factor that is not quite as easy to debunk.  That factor lies in the congregation.  We have done a pretty decent job as Christians at bringing the message of Jesus to many people, even if it doesn't seem like it.  The bible is easy to publish and distribute.  So many verses have come into common parlance in the West, and some have even made their way outside of the Western world.  There are churches on every inhabited continent, and there are Christians proclaiming the Gospel through countless media.  But, to be frank, we have also done a good job at bringing the same issues that were plaguing the communities in Jesus' time.  I have heard way too many times from many of my friends that they were turned off by church because of how one person spoke.  People try to spread their gospel by invoking hatred and fear from the start.  Yet, that's not what Jesus did.

Jesus never missed an opportunity to remind people where they belonged.  He even told his disciples whenever they thought that they were doing everything perfectly that they had it all wrong.  Jesus reminded all of his followers about the same message, that God has come into the world in order to gather all the people in a warm embrace of unconditional love.  Anything outside of that message was not right.

Think about a rose.  We think of that flower as being one of the prettiest flowers in existence, and we produce so many of them that they are commonplace.  Two days ago was Mother's Day in the USA, and, of course, there were many roses.  When you look at a bouquet or even a rosebush, the first thing you'll probably notice is the actual rose.  It's not until you try to pick it up or look much closer that you'll find the thorns.  I find that many Christians out there today are doing the exact opposite.  We have people showing off their own thorns rather than the beauty of the flower.  What's worse is that in reality, there are no thorns in the Gospel.  Jesus took care of the thorns of sin and death with his crucifixion.  Now he just calls us, with a flower of love, to come closer.  Rather than project our own internalized hate towards all those around us, how about we learn to project our love to everyone? 

Day 121: Building up with Love

"nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!'  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  Luke 17:21

If there isn't any other reason to come together as one church, this is the one.

Jesus says this in response to the Pharisees, who were people who did a pretty good job at isolating themselves from everybody else.  They considered themselves the purest of Jews, alienating the rest of the ethnically Jewish people who were in the area.  They came up with so many different interpretations of the law so that only a select group of people would be able to become true Jews.

I don't have to say much else in order to bring this same issue up to today's world.  At the highest levels, we have many bishops, pastors, and other major leaders calling for discrimination of anybody they feel should be taken out: women, the ill, any LGBT person, single parents, orphans, people of different races, non-English speakers.  If we delve even deeper into supposedly united denominations, we can see issues that break communities apart.  Even at the parish/mission/church level, there will be people who want to tear the congregations up.  The worst is that now, with the availability of social media, everybody has a platform they can stand upon to shout and make their points, bringing out their own poison and breeding weeds among the wheat fields.  They will all spread their hate with the same conclusion: See here! This is how the Kingdom of God will be, once we clean it up.

But that's not what Jesus preached.  Jesus made the image plain and simple: the kingdom of God is within you (or y'all, the Greek is plural).  I'm sure we all know what happens whenever teams break up, or when people decide to go their own way, deviating from a great team project - failure.  When we decide to take on the role of a schismatic in a community, we cannot lie that it will be a way to build up a community.  If we are going to maim the body of Christ, that's exactly what we will do.  Rather than build up the Kingdom of God by uniting all the many residents, we will be taking it apart, brick by brick, and, ultimately, execution by execution.  There will be no kingdom to speak of when we finish up our goal of dividing people up.

We are called to learn how to live with each other.  And why is that, exactly?  The Kingdom of God relies on one thing: the abundance of love.  If we do not have love, we cannot be builders of the Kingdom.  Before we start to take construction into our own hands, we have to take a moment and think, are we acting with love?  If not, then reevaluate what you're doing.  God has worked through all of our lives, showing us what the miracles of love are.  How about we start bringing love into our communities to build them up?

Day 120: Guidance

"But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.'"  Luke 16:31

This is something that relates to parenting.

Jesus reprimands those who are listening to him, for he wants them all to become followers by word and deed.  Yet, he knew that there would be some who wouldn't listen or take his words to heart.  In the same way, I see that this is the role of a good parent.

Growing up, and even to this day, my mom disciplines me whenever I do not listen.  I don't like it many times, but after I get over the shock, I realize that she only wants the best for me.  She wants me to grow and to live a fulfilling life.  I see that Jesus was the same.  If we as children don't learn how to listen to our parents, then how will we listen to anybody else around us?  How will we listen to others who don't provide us with food, nor converse with us, let alone even know our name?

To take these questions even further, how will we know what to listen for in the end times?  How will we know what direction to walk in?  We are very fortunate to have something as concrete as the bible.  In the bible we have many different stories telling us how to live a good life.  We have advice readily available to us.  And, above all, we have the Gospel of love being relayed to us throughout many lives, particularly that of Jesus, the ultimate sign of love.

I know that I have been blessed with a parent who shows me unconditional love and who leads me to God.  However, I do know that others are not blessed in that exact same way, sometimes even lacking a parental figure entirely.  The good news, though, is that we have the parental words of Jesus ready for us to receive.  Sometimes they are fatherly, and other times they are motherly.  We need to listen to these words and take them to heart, for Jesus wants us to come back home, and we will only be able to do that if we grow up at home.

Day 119: Standing Up

"He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much."  Luke 16:10

This is a harsh call for all of us to remember where we belong.

We all live in this world where there are lots of jet streams that are beating against our heads every day.  Those winds consist of discrimination, disrespect, and pure hate.  However, we cannot let those things bring us down.

I thank God that I am living in a time when the American people are getting over their fear of non-heterosexual relationships.  Sure, there are still many challenges, and I do receive a curse from time to time, but I do have quite a bit of support, not the least of which comes from my very family.  At the same time, though, I know of countless people living in this same country, and even in my same city, who face discrimination from their own families for various reasons.  Traditions can be harmful, just as they can be comforting.  I have friends whom I talk through these situations they face.  I can usually come away from these conversations with a praise to God for helping me have an easier time than others.

And that's where this verse comes in.  Many times, when we see everything going quite well for us, we start to lose sight of what actually is going on around us.  There are wars going on in different countries, and there are terrors being made both abroad and in our backyard.  There are governments sanctioning the murder of countless people for being who they are, and there are mobs of people who want to make sure that things won't get better around here.  There are many poor people wandering the streets, unable to afford any sort of healthcare for some seemingly simple diseases, and there are yet even more people who won't have a roof over their head when it rains.

I have to remember to show the same love that God has shown me.  God has reached down to my level to hold me, and I need to do the same for everybody who is around me.  The Gospel calls all of us to reach out and spread the Kingdom of Heaven.  And what exactly is that Kingdom?  It's a kingdom of love.  It's something that we haven't ever seen here on earth, what with all the corruption, money, and greed that has existed in every single government known to history.  The Heavenly Kingdom is the realm of love that exists between gays and straights, cisgendered people and transgendered, colored and not, the rich and the poor.  If God can reach for each one of us, who waver in our faith and abandon God entirely from time to time, so too can we reach out to all those who live in our same world breathing our same air.

Day 118: Ultimate Authority

"For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.  For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God."  Hebrews 3:3-4

Here's an important message pointing us towards the source.

There are many things out there in the world today that look very good.  We can even talk about the different buildings that house churches, some that are quite detailed and marvelous to look at.  We can talk about the many different ministries that are out there, doing so much good in the world.  We can refer to different people who are making a difference out there.  All of this, though, can cause us to stray from the source of all the good things in our lives.

Jesus even took time to point this out quite directly.  He pointed to different structures and said that they will all disappear in the end.  In the same way, we can see that all of these different things around us will have their end.  I remember Boston, which had many large church buildings all over, but after the congregations had died out, there were buildings left over.  Many were converted into apartment complexes, rendering the old presence of a once thriving congregation completely dead and out of memory.  We can look at history to find many other stories of great wonders being destroyed.  Talk about the World Wars, when we have lost many great structures in many different places because of conflict.

However, when we see these great successes around us, we need to remember that they all stem from the same source, God.  God is the one who has made all these things great, and God will continue to work.  That will involve a cycle of life and death with buildings, ministries, churches, families, friendships, and many other things.  The most important things, though, is to remember to praise God in every moment.  God has everything under control.  Let's praise God for that! 

 

Day 117: The Example

"For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted."  Hebrews 2:18

This is one of the greatest reasons for which I follow Jesus.

We, as humans, like to find things in common with one another.  When we need to speak to large crowds of people, one of the things people recommend is that we find something in common with all those people.  Even more poignant, how many times have you immediately responded to news with something that makes the news about you or connected in some way to you?  When somebody says, "My friend is not doing so well right now," you immediately reply with, "Oh yeah, I've had something myself."  We always want there to be a connection.

Not surprisingly, we want for the same connection to exist between us and our God.  If I may be brash, take a look at what so many artists interpret how Jesus looks.  Look at all the many depictions of Jesus in our movie screens, TV screens, pictures, ads, paintings.  Jesus was a brunette, white man, with long hair and a not too long beard!  Now, if we look to scientific evidence, there is almost no way Jesus could have looked like that.  Yet, that Jesus that shows up in our English-speaking, America-centric because he looks like your run of the mill American man, with one or two distinguishing features.  That depiction of Jesus connects us as Americans with him (although I don't quite identify, with me not being of directly European descent, but hear me out).

Depictions aside, though, we do have something universal about Jesus that transcends his Middle Eastern heritage or Hellenistic Gospel or any of the countless traditions that have risen from his ascension.  Jesus lived as a human.  Jesus felt the everyday pains that we do, the hunger, the heat, the struggle of working for long periods of time, the frustrations with friends, the human desire to survive.  On top of all that, Jesus shows us so many ways we can overcome the temptations that face us everyday.  We are not alone in our struggle, and we are being offered a helping hand.  Reach out and take it.