Today’s Readings: Psalm 1; Ruth 3:14-4:6; Matthew 24:44-51; 2 Peter 1:5-11; Psalm 81
In my first teaching job out of college, I had a supervisor that I looked up to immensely. She was a woman who I thought struck the perfect balance between pragmatism and idealism. She had a real heart for the students in our juvenile detention school and a sense for what we teachers needed in order to do our jobs. The first year we worked together I thought she could do no wrong. Apparently I wasn’t alone in thinking that for after just a year, she got a huge promotion and went to work for the state department of education. One day while I was on vacation, I called her up and arranged to meet her for dinner when I was passing through the city she now lived. The dinner started out great, but then something happened. The waiter made a mistake with her order. I didn’t think this was a big deal, but apparently my former boss did. She made a huge scene as she publicly humiliated the waiter. I was mortified at her behavior! In that one moment, much of the respect I had felt for my former boss melted away. I realized she knew how to treat the people that mattered to her career but was clueless about how to treat anyone she considered inconsequential in her life. The author of today’s passage from 2 Peter made a point of addressing the importance of connecting our faith with basic human decency when he wrote: “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others” (2 Peter 1:5-6 from The Message). Those words reminds us that our faith isn’t just an internal matter that simply affects how we think or feel – our faith ought to be something that spills out into every facet of our being in the external world as well. People ought to look at us – as a popular hymn suggests - and “know we are Christians by our love.” All of this makes me wonder: “If a third-party observer were to watch you at one of those ‘insignificant’ moments in your life as you interact with an ‘inconsequential person’, would that third party see those qualities of good character evident in you? As you go forth today, realize that when it comes to living out our faith there truly is no insignificant moment or inconsequential person. Til next time…
In my first teaching job out of college, I had a supervisor that I looked up to immensely. She was a woman who I thought struck the perfect balance between pragmatism and idealism. She had a real heart for the students in our juvenile detention school and a sense for what we teachers needed in order to do our jobs. The first year we worked together I thought she could do no wrong. Apparently I wasn’t alone in thinking that for after just a year, she got a huge promotion and went to work for the state department of education. One day while I was on vacation, I called her up and arranged to meet her for dinner when I was passing through the city she now lived. The dinner started out great, but then something happened. The waiter made a mistake with her order. I didn’t think this was a big deal, but apparently my former boss did. She made a huge scene as she publicly humiliated the waiter. I was mortified at her behavior! In that one moment, much of the respect I had felt for my former boss melted away. I realized she knew how to treat the people that mattered to her career but was clueless about how to treat anyone she considered inconsequential in her life. The author of today’s passage from 2 Peter made a point of addressing the importance of connecting our faith with basic human decency when he wrote: “So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others” (2 Peter 1:5-6 from The Message). Those words reminds us that our faith isn’t just an internal matter that simply affects how we think or feel – our faith ought to be something that spills out into every facet of our being in the external world as well. People ought to look at us – as a popular hymn suggests - and “know we are Christians by our love.” All of this makes me wonder: “If a third-party observer were to watch you at one of those ‘insignificant’ moments in your life as you interact with an ‘inconsequential person’, would that third party see those qualities of good character evident in you? As you go forth today, realize that when it comes to living out our faith there truly is no insignificant moment or inconsequential person. Til next time…
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