mindaTHINK: Spiritual Journal

A much simpler page today. Text is from Matthew 5 & 6, two of my favorite chapters in the Bible.

"Here's another old saying that deserves a second look ' eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? Here's what I propose: 'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

You are 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. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. if you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.

In a word what I am saying is grow up. You're kindom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.

But be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding.

When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure---'playactors' I call them---treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks. Just do it---quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out.

I sometimes think if I could really meditate on this passage daily and make it real and alive in me, I would really change in a miraculous way. I keep coming back to this when I feel lost. I'm a girl who struggles with the bugaboos of fairness and pride, so these are my touchstone verses.