And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Colossians 3:14 (MSG)
Touch for Good – Thinking High Series – Part 7
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
The biblical revelation is about awakening not accomplishing.
I find myself, with my modern and western ways of thinking and being, reducing faith down to behaviours and dot points. I turn it into a binary list of do’s and don't's, a stubborn orthodoxy, and a cheap grace that only goes as far as I am comfortable. To die to that self and awaken to the life of Christ within me, is a joyous and challenging life-long journey. It takes place as I let go of my ego and self-centredness and see myself as part of this wondrous, illuminating tapestry God is weaving through the world, past, present and future. Faith is not something that we do, or even a belief that we hold. Faith is what we participate in when we join our lives with Christ and awaken to the connection that we've always have had with him.
It’s participatory. What happens here and now is important, because WE – the collective ‘we' – are important to God. And in turn, essential to each other.
Set your mind on things above. Think heavenly. Redemptively. Inclusively.
Teilhard DeChardin said, “The physical structure of the universe is love.”
Thinking high is thinking beyond “myself” – not to the exclusion of myself, but as being part of a beautiful and vibrant story: God. Me. Others. Triune and holy.
Frederick Buechner said, “The life that I touch for good or bad will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place and time my touch will be felt. Our lives are linked together. No man is an island.”
In the first devotion of this series, I mentioned an impassioned speech by Aussie icon, Noni Hazlehurst, in which she implored us all to flood the world with joyous stories and believe in our shared goodness. I think that that is imperative when it comes to overcoming the terror and evil around us. Thinking heavenly is taking good and love and light and washing the darkness, the broken and the pain with it.
You overcome evil by doing good. By love.
“Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it. Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness.” Paul, Col 3:9-15 (MSG).
YOUR TURN! Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
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