I don’t find the connection between suffering and blessing that Jesus makes in the Beatitudes very comforting. However, he seems to be getting at something deeper that the beatitudes regularly posted to social media are missing.
There’s no pressure this morning to be mistake free. We can all breathe a sigh of relief because we are all going to make mistakes, probably lots of them. But we can grow towards persistence in faith, persistence in hope, and persistence in love by simply never giving up.
I challenge all of us to follow Jesus to sacred places where there’s room for permanence, stability, silence and meditation. I hope we can all find a place like that because in this current world …
So sit back, put your feet up, and have a little fun, first imagining what that new heaven and earth might look like, and then turn to the harder work of the two Great Commandments.
We were designed to listen with our hearts, to perceive with the eyes of the soul. Praise and enjoyment of God’s flamboyant, enthusiastic artistry expressed in all the beauty of the world – indeed of the universe – is our duty.
In direct counterpoint to the dominant strains of competition and striving that too often poisons our relationships with others, Jesus as the new Moses leads us into loving people rather than things.
Sometimes love comes to us in the smallest, loudest, and hopeful voices of children.
You laid down your commandments, * that we should fully keep them. Psalm 119:4
Resist by being persistent.
In volunteer organizations, you don’t always get the help you want, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the help that is being offered.