It seems to me that the striving for power in this world is one of the greatest evils. The need to feel yourself more powerful than someone else is addicting. The thing is God calls us to be servants. Servants are not the people in charge. If we love others we do not wish to feel more important than them. We want to uphold them and help them to be the best they can be. Remember that we are called to love.
Forgiving God, help us to push down the desire to be more powerful than others. Those who love seek love not power. AMEN
It is so easy to be compassionate to those people that we like. But what about the people who have hurt us in some way? That is not so easy. Too often we hold a grudge and always look at that person differently. Recently someone who is not my favorite person came down with cancer. The diagnosis made me think about my own feelings and that my petty complaints were of no consequence. I have been moved to compassion but I should have been there from the beginning. We never know what is going on is someone else’s life. We must learn compassion for all mankind.
It is so easy to sit in our comfortable homes and do nothing. The people that need help can be so unappealing. They may be dirty and homeless. We may feel that if we give them money they will spend it on alcohol so we don’t help. but Jesus didn’t ask us to judge the situation. He said we should help no matter what. Even the unlovely. If you don’t want to give money carry snack crackers in your car or a toothbrush and toothpaste. We can always do something!
Yet we still persist in worrying. We want to fix things. We want to be in charge. Sometimes I think we expect to handle things better than God. What are we thinking? Turn your worries over to God. Do it even if you have to keep doing it again and again. God never gets tired of handling it.
Every day we have choices to make. The choices determine our path. Today opportunities to choose hatred, violence, dissension, and other negative ideas is in our face every day. Our world is in crisis. Maybe it has always been but due to our methods of communication we see and hear it every day. We can’t fix everything. We can fix something…..especially ourselves. We must choose love. In every situation every day. We must do this. It is imperative. Choose love.
Hear God in Other Voices 