Lent

March 31, 2020

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Lord God helps me;
   therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
   and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
   he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
   Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
   Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
   who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
   the moth will eat them up. –Isaiah 50:7-9

God’s judgment of us is the only judgment that matters. We must, however, remember that one of the things God judges is how we love one another. Thus, we must be in close communion with God for God to help us understand when we are correctly interacting with others, when we need to change our behavior to better represent God’s ways in our ways, and when we need to lovingly take a stand that may put us at odds with others.

One of the first lessons we learn as children is that everyone is not at the same level of development as we are. We can walk while our baby brother crawls. We learn to play with younger siblings and friends at their level while continuing to develop our level, and even be the less experienced persons to someone older. That is a pattern that functions in all aspects of life including our faith development. How we walk with each other as we grow and learn makes a big difference in our maturation and in how we impact the maturation of another. James W. Fowler’s Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning has been helpful to me in understanding that principle.

I have also learned, generally the hard way, that the reaction someone has to me may not have anything or little to do with me at all. Someone having a stomachache or arriving at a meeting after arguing with one of their children or having had a painful childhood experience that clouds their thoughts may react surprisingly on the subject under discussion. And that goes both ways. We all have had to interact with people when we were dealing with burdens or distractions that modify our behavior. Sometimes we need to just let those encounters go and sometimes we need to deal with them outside the immediate situation. All times we need to seek God’s guidance as we self-examine what we could or should have done differently.

Prayer: Lord, in these days of sheltering at home or going forth in the face of an epidemic to meet essential needs grant us the wisdom to understand each other and to practice abundant love. 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 America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.