Living in the Spirit

August 13, 2020

Scripture Reading:
Psalm 67
May God be gracious to us and bless us
   and make his face to shine upon us,
          Selah
that your way may be known upon earth,
   your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
   let all the peoples praise you.

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
   for you judge the peoples with equity
   and guide the nations upon earth.
          Selah
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
   let all the peoples praise you.

The earth has yielded its increase;
   God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
   let all the ends of the earth revere him.

The Hebrew word, mishor, translated equity in the above scripture is anchored in the idea of a level place, uprightness. I like the phrase all things considered in thinking about equity. We judge children using equity. The Child Development Center at my church has a series of outcomes for each age group that measures if a child is on track within the expected range for various developmental skills. Teachers will pay attention to these measures as they direct play and other learning opportunities. While I was never in childcare, I have no doubt my mother worked on my eye/hand coordination and my bet is it still ranks in the lower percentile of normal to this day. I, however, cannot remember being unable to read and comprehend, and much was expected of me in those areas as a student.

God knows each of us better than anyone, even ourselves. God knows what talents and skills we were endowed with at our creation and knows whether we are developing and using them to their highest level. We have a responsibility to test ourselves, try new things, and become fully the person God created us to be. Beyond that, though, we are called to assure that every one of God’s children can do the same. That is not happening in our world today, and we as a world, nation, state, city, and neighborhood are poorer in all aspects of life for it. The Kingdom of God will not flourish until all of God’s children are enabled to contribute their worth.

Such empowerment begins with

• quality prenatal and ongoing health care;
• adequate food, clothing, and shelter;
• quality educations targeted toward enhancing each child’s talents and skills;
• development of an economy that puts people first; and
• enrichment of values centered in loving God and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Such empowerment flows through all aspects of societies, from our health care system to governments to faith-based communities. God’s values can thrive in differing forms of governments and faith-based entities if we share God’s vision of the world.

Prayer: Parent of all People, bless us with your insight in seeing what kind of a society we can be if we start with loving ourselves and all others. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4334.htm

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.