WHAT MORE CAN I DO?
The day
after my husband died, my sons and I went to Staples to buy the poster boards,
glue sticks, etc. for the Photo array which seems to have become de rigeur for funerals these days. While we there my son said, “I think this
will change how I see people in stores for the rest of my life. You never know what people are going through
even as they are doing mundane things like this. This is the worst day of my life and I’m in
Staples!”
I thought
of this as I read Matthew 19: 16-22 where the young man asks Jesus what more he
should be doing to find favor with God.
Jesus told him, “Come, follow
me.” Now the young man had said that he obeyed the Commandments, gave to the
poor and did all the things an honorable person should do. But Jesus responded, ”Come follow me”. Well,
isn’t that what the young man was doing?
Aren’t the commandments and good works all that is needed to live a life
in Christ?
Not
according to Jesus. A life lived in Christ requires us to see each human being
as just that, a human being exactly like ourselves and to act accordingly. Wars, civil strife and crime all have one
thing in common. It is required that we
dehumanize one another in order to kill.
Many years ago, John Donne wrote, “Every
man’s death diminishes me”. That is a true statement. We are all alive on this planet; all the
creations of God, bound by our common origins and connected intimately with one
another.
So how do
we go about this? Does this require
heroic effort? Not really.
It is pretty simple.
Give up the grudge, forget past hurts, forgive, ask forgiveness, blow
the horn less, be patient, genuinely look at people as you go about your life
and remember that you don’t know anything about anybody’s true life so you have
no right to judge. In every situation if
you listen you can hear Jesus say, “Follow me”.
With love, Carol
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