“He
Makes His Sun on the Bad and the Good” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)
I say this not by way
of command, but to test the genuineness of your love by your concern for
others. For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your
sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might
become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:8-9)
Praise the Lord, my
soul! (Psalm 146:1b)
“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
Lord, thank You for being merciful, not fair.
Study
It’s not
fair.
It’s not fair
that a wonderful family member who prays, serves, and tithes gets cancer, and
the awful person who just got sent off to prison for sexual abuse is healthy as
a horse are loved equally by God.
It’s not fair
that the evilest political leader in the world (select a name) and Malala
Yousafzai, the youngest ever Nobel Prize laureate for her advocacy of female education
in Pakistan, are loved equally by God.
It’s not fair
that people like Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Koch brothers, and that the woman who quit her lucrative Beltway bandit job to work for the Church are
loved equally by God.
But they are.
Sure, actions
have consequences, if not here, then when we face the Lord after death. But He
delights and hopes for our hearts to be unhardened and open to His love and
mercy. His hope for us springs eternal. May we open ourselves to accepting that
hope… and believe that with His love, the very worst among us may be redeemed.
Action
Write down
two nice things you can say about the person on earth, whether you know him or
her personally or not. If you can’t think of any, write down what God might say.
No comments:
Post a Comment