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 082: Devotion to Faith

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."  Hebrews 12:1-2

This author makes it sound so easy.

Many times, we can encounter things in our lives that "look easy on paper," and we accept that they are only easy in theory.  Yet, when I think back at these things, I realize that we prefer to turn away the minimum amount of effort required and, instead, opt to put in no effort.  In the same way, I feel many of us approach the Gospel.  Jesus calls us to follow him, but we have so many things that are holding us back.

In order to train for endurance running, or even just in efforts to lose more weight while running/walking, one can put on a weighted jacket, usually around 20-30 pounds of weight.  If anyone who is reading this has ever had to carry around a backpack for high school or college (or if you have yet to break such a habit), you know that carrying around so much extra weight will slow you down.  It also makes you sweat, and in Houston, that can be quite miserable (although, when I was in Chicago, sweating in the dead of winter under layers of coats is even worse, since you walk straight from the cold into heat, causing even more sweat).  I have tried many times to lighten my load in my backpack, but it always seems to creep back up with the amount of books I like carrying around.

But, the thing is, we are already running the race.  This isn't the race that you compete against one another.  This is a marathon.  This is a race against yourself.  The good thing, though, is that we already have all the equipment/assistance we need.  In this race, we are already running; therefore, we have no need for the extra baggage of sin to hold us down.  In this race, we have the one goal of running to Jesus, and when we look at him before us, we find that we can endure all that comes in our way.

Sin, indeed, is a baggage.  When we give into temptation, we waste our time.  We degrade ourselves from all the work that we had put into bettering ourselves.  When we lie, we only lie to ourselves, forcing us to believe the stories we are making up so that we can convince others.  When we envy others, we waste our time burning up in hate rather than building ourselves up.  Sin slows us down.

So, look to Jesus.  Read the Gospel.  Listen to his voice when you pray.  Feel his presence in church.  Be a part of his body when you commune.  During this Holy Week, remember that we are all looking towards Jesus, who leads us through all the worst suffering to the greatest redemption.