Something to Do With God's Help

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 THE MESSAGE)

Weakness as Strength

I think as I age and gain wisdom that I'm learning that my greatest strengths are not what I thought they were. No they are not my leadership or academic achievements, but they are the things I try not to notice and hope others don't see. They are my insecurities, places where I have failed and not achieved to my full potentia; my fears when I'm in the presence of others I consider superior to myself. They seem to be the things that remind me of my own humanity and fallibility. I would really like it the other way around, but the words from Jack Barnard in his book How to Become a Saint: A Beginners Guide really ring true for me:

Our weaknesses really are our greatest assets -- they are not simply strengths held with a bit of modesty. The extent to which we grasp this truth is our own case is the measure of our humility.

Just maybe I'm growing in this area.

Working for Justice

There’s no way to hang onto the Christian faith without taking seriously God’s longing for equality for the total human family. Lots of people have heard of God being just, but they don’t even think about attempting to literally embody that justice. “What does that mean? How much privilege do I have a right to hang onto? How much privilege do I have a right to pass on to my children? Do I have a right to spend all my resources seeing that my children get a university education when other children don’t get any education at all?” That’s privilege. People say, “Well, if I can educate my children, they are then going to use their education to work for compassion and justice.” But that doesn’t normally happen. That education is usually used for self-advancement and perpetuat¬ing the separation.
– Gordon Cosby