" The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.""You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man."
- Psalm 12:6-8 (ESV)
Who Am I?
I am every man.
I embody, every extreme.
I am the plundered poor.
I am the plunderer.
I am he who treasures and keeps the Word.
I am he who wanders.
I am guarded.
I am he, from whom the guarded must be protected.
I am pure and I am vile.
I am all in one - a complete package.
I am beloved ...
I am grateful.
I need and receive grace.
At every punctuation mark of this precious Word,
I see myself.
I identify.
I do so, reluctantly.
God, you have done so, in Jesus, intentionally and redemptively.
Today, I shall rather be plundered than plunder.
I shall prefer to be defrauded than to defraud.
Let me not exalt vileness.
Let me not wander.
May I cherish that which is precious and ...
May I live in the grace that is freely given.
Thank you for another day to learn to learn ...
To embrace your truth and to be transformed by it.
Of all the people I know,
I desperately need it.
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What Is the Right Thing to Do?
The ethics of faith are not always easy to sort through.
Our basic commitments are and we thank God for those anchors, anchored to one anchor.
However, to apply truth is something God calls us to work at sometimes, pray through, struggle with, and stay awake with. That is because we are always balancing things which require a perspective beyond ourselves to balance.
We are trying to do what comes naturally to God, to feel each person's pain and distress and desire the Shalom of every people and nation.
Easy to God, but difficult for us. Not impossible, and the difficulty of it is no excuse to settle into complacency, to focus our attention on a few sources, close our hearts and minds, or harden our hearts.
To be God's people in the world is to move beyond self-interest, even the interest of survival and safety, and embrace something larger - a Kingdom that has no boundaries or borders or language of its own among men. This is just one example of many of the issues with which the people of God must wrestle.
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What about My Neighbor? - Homelessness and Fishing
At this point, it is not about teaching people how to fish. Many poor folks are very good fisher-people. It is about access to the lake, river, ocean, or pond.
They are very resourceful at survival, but to thrive takes something more.
It is a physical law that everyone must be somewhere.
That may be homeless camps for some. Perhaps these camps truly are problematic, but they exist because of an even bigger problem and we're not touching it.
Everyone is going to go somewhere today. Everyone. I have been extremely busy for the last year and have not engaged in solution-building at the level that I would like and I suspect I should.
We need creativity, energy, and tough-minded compassion, and we need engagement at the level that we all own the issue.
Without that, no one wins.
Begin Thinking and Let Your Thoughts Grow
I am every man.
I embody, every extreme.
I wonder who I am every day.
Every day I wonder what I should do.
Every day, I wonder about some neighbor and I wonder what he or she is thinking, feeling, needing.
God, enter into my wondering that it may not just be wandering.
Teach me to think and keep me in Your thoughts.
Amen.
