Friday, April2, 2021
What Boat Are You In?
Have Any Room for Others?
Psalm 147:14
He grants peace within your borders; he fills you with the finest of wheat.
Ephesians 2:14
For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.
Words of Grace For Today
While we struggle to get more than the next person, or more than we had yesterday, or maybe just enough to survive, we put ourselves in competition with others for limited resources.
Or so we think and say.
It is not so much that resources are unlimited, it is that life abundant does not require that some have so much, and others not nearly enough. More and more and more does not provide life; it only corrupts the life right out of us.
God’s peace, not only between nations, but within our borders, and between us all, even in our families and homes, does not require more and more and more.
God’s peace requires a reality check: we are God’s creatures, ‘they’ are God’s creatures, which means there is no real ‘they’, only ‘us’ all together.
Today we remember that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice to demonstrate that God is not interested at all in our sacrificing each other in order to ‘get ahead’ or ‘to get our fair share.’
God is very interested in us sharing life, and all that makes up life, with others. Sometimes that looks like we sacrifice our own possessions or privilege or comforts … or even our own lives … in order that others may live. In reality we can only share what God has given us, a loan, as stewards. Everything is intended for everyone. God lived and died as a human to demonstrate that to us as clearly as possible.
Dr. Bonnie Henry points out that during Covid 19 we may all be in ‘the water’ together, but we certainly are not in the same boat. Some have luxury yachts and others are bailing out the dingy to save their lives.
It’s time we got everyone in a ‘safe boat.’