Living in the Spirit
July 26, 2016

Scripture Reading: Hosea 11:1-11

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
   I took them up in my arms;
   but they did not know that I healed them.
I led them with cords of human kindness,
   with bands of love.
I was to them like those
   who lift infants to their cheeks.
   I bent down to them and fed them. –Hosea 11:3-4

Being selfish and ungrateful for God’s love causes the Lord much pain, and it sets us on a path toward a fragmented life where our full potential will never become real. Jesus Christ foresaw a kingdom where all creation works together to the glory of God and realizes the abundance of God’s love in all aspects of life.

I do not think most of us consider that every human is gifted with skills and talents that are necessary for the kingdom of God to be actualized. We throw many away because of handicapping conditions. I coordinated planning for a state human services agency several years ago. At a planning retreat, I was trying very hard to get the directors of the various service divisions to set measurable, attainable goals. The head of the division serving the developmentally disabled doggedly insisted on setting a goal of 100% employment attainment among the people served. In exasperation, I finally said, “You know that is impossible.” To which the blind head of the vocational rehabilitation division replied, “They use to say that about the blind.”

We also readily toss aside prisoners, people of colors or who speak languages other than ours, children who cannot learn because they are hungry and poor, and the mentally ill.

Hosea describes well the love of God we are called to emulate. Our failure to respond to that call results in a fragmented world adrift on a sea of indifference, if not outright hostility, which  in the final analysis is self-destructive.

Prayer: Lord, give us the courage to set your kingdom’s coming as our ultimate goal and guide our steps toward attaining it. 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.