Living in the Spirit
June 8, 2016

Scripture Reading: Psalm 5:1-8

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
   will enter your house,
I will bow down towards your holy temple
   in awe of you.
Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness
   because of my enemies;
   make your way straight before me. –Psalm 5:7-8

One of the greatest challenges in life is avoiding being goaded into being unrighteous when one is constantly bombarded with discrimination and oppression. What is it said about bullies? They rarely get caught. The one who gets caught is the one that finally swings back at them. How does one practice turning the other cheek while working toward justice in our world today?

I have never been a boxing fan, yet I have come to hold high regard for Mohamad Ali, whose life is being celebrated this week following his death. He was one of those people who could maintain their own self-worth in all humility, even have fun with it. Accepting one’s innate self-worth as a child of God is hard enough for most of us. Doing that while walking humbly with our God is even harder. Yet it is exactly what we are called to do.

I believe this can only be done by keeping our eye on the end result and not getting caught up in the chaos life routinely throws in our path. Let it go, walk away, pick your fights are all necessary reactions toward attaining a just world. Investing the time with God necessary to find our straight way enables our steadfastness.

Prayer: Lord, set your plan so firmly in our hearts and minds that we are enabled to keep our focus in our journey toward justice. 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.