Better Yet

  “So don’t’ let anyone condemn you for what you eat or drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths. For these rules are only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality.” Colossians 2:16-17

  Which begs me to ask…How does the reality of Jesus impact, change, shape and influence my life?

  First of all, this reality touches everything no matter if I am on a mountaintop or on the Black River. Jesus is a constant presence who is with me and beside me in all things. Because of him, I hunger to be better than I am. I really, really want to understand the kind of love God wants all of us to experience!

  That is a prayer that has been central to my faith, wanting to understand love. But understanding is only the beginning. There have been lots of beginnings…

  Love isn’t something that Jesus does. Love is what He is.

  So where have “rules” impacted that understanding.

  I confess to struggling with judgment but it hasn’t only been about other people. It has been aimed directly at my own heart. Condemnation is judgment’s partner in crime.

  Oh.

  A slice of humble pie has been served. It is the sweetest pie ever!

  I want to do better. And I am. Slowly. I can be thankful for my job whose foundation is one of acceptance and grace, where there are loads of opportunities to practice letting go of prejudices (judgment in action). It’s a job where I am exposed to lives whose path is far and beyond my own middle class experience. And I am blessed and stretched and grown each time my “normal” is shaken up.

  My job is a blessing that pours an understanding of God’s love and grace into my life outside of work. The more I practice and the more I am challenged, the more loving I will become in my interactions with everyone: family, friends, the cashier at the grocery store, the slow driver...

  So I will end with a prayer.

  Lord, forgive me for judging Your beloved children, Your creations. Reveal to me where my ability to love is broken. Grow me beyond the spoken and unspoken rules that have shaped so much of my life and attitudes. Grow me beyond trying to live according to the rules of what a life of faith looks like. Set me free of the independent, fear based behaviours that like to rule the roost.

 

  Lord, I lift the smallest of prayers to You, the one that falls from my lips all the time, that is core to all I desire and all I believe You to be:

  I WANT TO DO BETTER!

 

  In Jesus’ name I pray. AMEN!

  There is much to think about this morning.

  And I also want to clarify what I mean by the "rules". I am not talking about obeying traffic laws. I am talking about the rules that have only served to create distance between God and His children.