Psalms 5, 6 * 10, 11; Isaiah 1:21-31; 1Thessalonians 2:1-12; Luke 20:9-18This parable we are given today in Luke, although another prediction of Jesus' death, is difficult in another way for me. For we face analogous rejection today. Perhaps this is the want of a Christian's life, to be fighting against the world around us, to be under-siege so often. Or at least, at times, that is how it feels. Quite honestly, this is an exhausting calling at times.
And it is not only rejection from the people who ignore Christ's extended hand of love, there is strong rejection of whole classes of people within the world of Christendom: conflict with the "outside" world and conflict from "within". There are days were the discouragement at all of this brings the exhaustion level to such an increased state that it is hard to get up in the morning.
When I have those moments, I think about, and pray about, those folk who have found the church a place of peace, whose lives have been radically transformed by God's love, newly found in their lives. Remembrance of those eyes gets me out of bed and infuses me with a hope and a foundational belief (and a reminder) that the kingdom comes in God's time, not mine. I only have to keep working on this small piece of it.
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Copyright 2008, John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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