Living in the Spirit
August 11, 2016
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 11:29-12:2
By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had received the spies in peace. . ..
Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better so that they would not, without us, be made perfect.
–Hebrews 29-31, 39-40
I cannot say it better than Viktor Frankl: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
A psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Frankl took the lessons he learned from his detention and used them to challenge all to understand better the meaning of life. While our lives do matter in real-time each day, we choose how to live, and our choices affect all future generations. The author of Hebrews stresses this truth in our scripture today. We journey with God every moment of our lives and the steps we take will shape the world well beyond our existence.
In all the genealogy work I have done on both sides of our family, I keep finding two consistent traits. Our ancestors were people of faith and were hard workers. I see those same traits in my nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and nephews.
As we enter another election year, we must take the impact seriously our decision will have not only on us but on the generations to come. Living for today only is not one of the options on God’s tasks list.
Prayer: Lord, guide our decision making. Help us to see the panorama of our nation and world. Help us to understand the complexities of life our decisions impact. Grant us wisdom in our discernment. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.