We pretend sometimes that we will find a one-to-one ratio to “niceness” and spirituality. Kindness, maybe, but niceness, no. Joy? Oh, yeah. Sweetness? No guarantee. Much of life is lived best because we exercise holy defiance.
Quick example: Someone recently said to someone in front of me in a long line “Life sucks, doesn’t it?” I guessed he meant it to suggest he shared the sense of the long wait. But the person to whom he spoke said back “Well, I love my life, but this moment isn’t so hot!” No, I didn’t hear ‘what do you mean life sucks? It’s great! What’s the matter with you? Don’t you know about life in God … ‘etc. Just a gentle counter. But that is still holy defiance.
Sure, we see holy defiance when spiritual people stand against the powerful for the poor or against a government when it kills or wars or degrades people’s lives. But you will have several opportunities today to be defiant in the best sense, right in your day’s work and in your evening rest.
You will be tempted toward numbness by your television or electronics; you will be invited into negativity by the news manipulators (some of them in your own back yard). You will be lured toward self centered-ness and averted from touching the creation by much that will come your way.
Defy!!! Love! Care! Walk in the wind! Feel deeply, and hope against hopelessness. Pray! Read. Plan your datebook around love, faith, and doing good. God is making you strong. Use your gifts.
1 comment:
I was in A&L Feed Store a couple of days ago. A woman working there asked if she could help me, I told her what I was looking for. As she helped me find it, she asked how I was doing--you know that polite question. I said I am blessed. What? she asked. I repeated that I am blessed. That stumped her. Then she asked why. How did I get blessed? I told it comes from my faith community, my church. She said she used to go to church. It was so wistful. After I paid for my purchase, she said she might try going to church and that she really wanted to feel blessed.
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