Advent
December 11, 2020
Scripture Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil.
May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
When one works for many years in the same vocation stages, its foundational qualities become ingrained. As a policy analysis and planner for over 25 years, I am oriented to expected outcomes. Thus, I smiled when I read Strong’s Concordance explanation of the word “good”:
good, excellent in its nature and characteristics, and therefore well adapted to its ends*
What we do now has immediate impacts and flows out into the world to touch the lives of others we may never know we encountered, furthering God’s plan. Good begets good, and evil can and does produce evil. My fourth-grade teacher told everyone in the class by word and deed that we mattered and could do and become anything we wanted, with hard work and determination. I believed her. I do not remember her ever spanking anyone. (Spanking was the standard form of punishment when I was in grade school, usually applied in front of the entire class to set an example.) Yet, beyond teaching us reading, writing, and arithmetic, she taught us, in many ways, the art of making good choices. Before happy faces became a thing, she made similar faces for each of us and pegged them to a board at the front of the room. When issues requiring discipline arose, the students involved had to decide themselves if what they were doing was the right choice or a wrong choice. Bad choices were identified by turning the faces from a smile to a frown. The faces were returned to a smile when the behavior was corrected. That may sound crazy to teachers today, but I think it worked because that teacher loved each of us for who we were at whatever place in life we were at that time. Every single student felt that bond.
God accepts each person where they are and loves them unconditionally. Sanctification, making someone holy, can only start from that level of acceptance. When God makes us holy, God enables us to hold fast to what is good and abstain from evil as we share God’s love among all God’s children.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for loving us enough to reinforce our good and expand its work beyond our limitations. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/2570.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.