Walk in His Ways

March 3, 2012

Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Today you are making this agreement with the LORD: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the LORD is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God, as he promised. Deuteronomy 26:17-19

But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Matthew 5:44-45

Piety

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and

I—I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Father, help us to walk the narrow path of your ways. Lead us not in the ways that others go but show us the road less traveled upon.

Study

Jesus turns the covenant up a notch or two. For years, people have been following the golden rule. But now, Jesus takes this covenant to a higher level. We do not just have to love our neighbors. Our neighbors are those who are like us. Jesus says we have to do more. Following the Law of Moses as laid down in the Hebrew Bible is not enough. We must do more. We must imitate the unconditional, perfect love and mercy of the Father.

The Father does not make the sun rise only upon those who are his followers.

These days when it is so easy to forward a hateful story or joke via e-mail, we must not do what others do. When it is so easy to take the path of fear of those who are not our neighbors, we must not do what others do. When it is so easy to follow the path of fear, we must not be afraid.

Action

How can you opt-out of fear and loathing of those who are not like you? Maybe you can start by scrubbing your e-mail and inbox of jokes and stories that Jesus would never send to you.