We Want a King

We Want a King!

October 6, 2024
Judges 21:25, 1 Samuel 8:1-22 (especially v. 5, 19-20)

In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.

Judges 21:25

But the people refused to listen to Samuel and said, “No! There must be a king over us so we can be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us and lead us and fight our battles.”

1 Samuel 8:19-20

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We no longer cry out for a King, but we are still crying for our leaders to fight our battles for us.  We expect our politicians and our military leaders to protect us from other nations, to protect our jobs and our bank accounts, to keep us healthy and well-fed and educated, to maintain a comfortable infrastructure of roads and schools and public servants, etc., and to uphold a particular moral and ethical code for society to function freely.

Though we all have different ideas about how our leaders should go about meeting these needs, how they should fund their projects, and how involved they should be in our everyday life... we are all ultimately  asking for... or voting for the same thing.... We want leaders who will make us strong and competitive like "other nations" and who will "fight our battles for us".... whether our battles against foreign governments, against poverty, against sickness, against crime... against anything that may disrupt our comfortable lives.

Israel’s rejection of God was to have a King like other nations which had ultimate authority over them to  protect them as he saw fit, just like other kings did.  Our leaders are not so powerful... there are limits... checks and balances built into the system... and we view our "kings" as representative of our interests, no matter how diverse and even incompatible those interests may be.

By expecting our leaders to represent us and rule based on what "we the people" deem right and wrong, have we actually reverted to the period of the Judges?

Is it possible that a government "for the people, by the people" is just another way of saying that "each person does what is right in their own eyes..." and that we legitimize it by seeking political representation to make law reflective of what "is right in our eyes".

If this is indeed the case, might our pride and our failures in the American experiment of "self-government" simply be the result of our original sin.... the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and our innate desire to decide for ourselves.... above any king or ruler.... and even above God himself, what is good and evil... and what is right and wrong for us?

And so we find ourselves at a crossroads.  We are living in crisis much like the children of Israel and we have a choice to make.  Will we continue to cry out for a King... whether absolute or merely representative of our own opinions and desires or will we accept that we have had the perfect King all along... that God’s covenant with us still stands... that God has invited us to become citizens of a Divine Kingdom which is not of this world.... and that our very lives depend not on who is in charge of the laws on earth, but rather on how well we obey the laws of Heaven!

Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done... on earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen.

Not Alone

Not Alone

September 29, 2024
John 13:34-35, 1 John 4:7-17

“I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.  This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other.”

 John 13:34-35

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A story is told of a pastor who trudged through the snow to a rustic log cabin where a parishioner lived.  It had been several months since this hermit of a man had stepped foot in the church, though church members often saw him around town.  The man welcomed the pastor in, offered him a hot cup of coffee and they sat down together in the warm glow of a crackling fire. 

Following their brief but cordial greeting, silence settled over the space.  Not an awkward silence, mind you, rather a holy silence, filled with the whispers of the Holy Spirit to both pastor and parishioner alike.  After a while the pastor reached out and, with a set of wrought iron tongs, he pulled a burning ember out of the fire and placed it carefully on the stone hearth.  The light from the tiny wood chip faded and smoke began to rise.  In no time, this little isolated fire had gone out.

The pastor then carefully placed the smoldering ember back into the fire and in an instant, it glowed brighter than before. 

As he stood up to leave, the parishioner finally broke the silence.  “Thanks for the sermon, preacher.  I’ll see you on Sunday.”

Just like the man hidden away in the warmth of his secluded cabin, there comes a point when our isolated embers will burn out.  We are indeed the church scattered as we live out our faith in our everyday, individual lives, and we must be the church gathered, remaining in the Holy Fire of God’s love  expressed through the love of one another in community. 

If God is love, then relationships are the necessary channel through which that love is expressed and known. As those who seek to follow Christ’s example, we cannot pick and choose who we will love based on preference, affection, similar interests, or agreement of opinions.  We must love as Christ loved us.  We must be vulnerable, serve one another, and open our hearts to the stranger. 

John O’Donohue invites us to bless the space that exists between us so that the walls of division may have no place to stand, and that love will bind all of creation together in the heart of God. 

As a popular benediction from the United Methodist Hymnal declares,

Go now in peace to serve God and your neighbor in all that you do. Bear witness to the love of God in this world, so that those to whom love is a stranger will find in you generous friends.

__________

Consider a time when you felt the most lonely or isolated, when you felt like a stranger.  How did you experience God in that season of your life?

What does “community” mean to you?  Where do you most experience authentic community in your life?  Where do you truly belong?

Honest Faith

Honest Faith: Moving from Certainty to Trust

September 22, 2024
Hebrews 11:1, James 2:14-26

Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see.  The elders in the past were approved because they showed faith.   By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.

Hebrews 11:1-3

My brothers and sisters, what good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it? Claiming to have faith can’t save anyone, can it?  Imagine a brother or sister who is naked and never has enough food to eat.  What if one of you said, “Go in peace! Stay warm! Have a nice meal!”? What good is it if you don’t actually give them what their body needs?  In the same way, faith is dead when it doesn’t result in faithful activity.  

James 2:14-17

_______________

“When the brilliant ethicist John Kavanaugh went to work for three months at ‘the house of the dying’ in Calcutta, he was seeking a clear answer as to how best to spend the rest of his life. On the first morning there he met Mother Teresa. She asked, ‘And what can I do for you?’ Kavanaugh asked her to pray for him.

‘What do you want me to pray for?’ she asked. He voiced the request that he had borne thousands of miles from the United States: ‘Pray that I have clarity.’

She said firmly, ‘No, I will not do that.’ When he asked her why, she said, ‘Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of.’ When Kavanaugh commented that she always seemed to have the clarity he longed for, she laughed and said, ‘I have never had clarity; what I have always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.’”

~ excerpt from Ruthless Trust, Brennan Manning

For far too many Christians, faith is simply a matter of believing that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died to forgive our sins so that we can go to heaven when we die.  Salvation is a simple transaction, his life in exchange for ours. 

Scripture knows nothing of this transactional faith.  There is nothing about believing  a particular theological truth to get some eternal reward in return.  Rather, faith in scripture always results in faithful action, in some sort of movement, or as Kierkegaard scholar Aaron  Simmons puts it, “Faith is Risk with Direction.”

In some ways, Kierkegaard’s Denmark was similar to today’s American South in that so many people simply assume they are Christian by virtue of being born into a Christian home or a Christian culture.  He was convinced, however, that such certainty on the sole  basis of where we were born had no resemblance to the kind of faith Jesus asked of the discipled when he said, “Drop your nets.  Come, follow me.” 

Honest faith moves us to action.  It does not give us certainty, but rather hope in possibilities we cannot yet see or know.  Faith always requires risk.  Are we willing to trust when the path is uncertain; to risk everything to truly follow Christ for the sake of love?

The Sin of Certainty

The Sin of Certainty

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Experience
September 8, 2024


1 John 1:1-3, Romans 8:16

see also:
John 5:39-40, Matthew 7:15-23

We announce to you what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.  The life was revealed, and we have seen, and we testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us.  What we have seen and heard, we also announce it to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:1-3

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“We announce to you what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have seen and our hands handled, about the word of life.”  In other words, what we proclaim to you about God is what we ourselves have seen, heard and touched.  Or to put it another way, we are sharing with you our “experience” of God.

Some have said that we cannot trust our experience because we are fallen human beings tainted by sin.  While there is certainly truth to the ways sin skews our perspective, it is equally true that we cannot know  anything except through the lens of our lived experience.  There is no idealized form of any object that can be described apart from the way one perceives it.  If ten people were to describe a particular tree, for example, there would certainly be similar elements such as color, parts like bark, leaves or branches, perhaps certain textures, etc.  And yet each description would be so unique in other ways that one might wonder if they are all describing the same tree.  One person might notice tiny holes from bugs that were eating at it, and another might notice the moss along the base.  Still another might zero in on a birds nest or a particular knot where a branch seemed to grow in an unlikely direction.  All of these details say as much about our experience of the tree as they do about the tree itself.

If each person would notice different aspects of a tree, how much more will each person have their own unique experience of God.  Even scripture is not “immune” from the impact of experience.  The Biblical writers to not have an objective source of information about God that is universally accepted as scientifically tested and verified fact.  Rather, they each write through the lens of their own experiences of God in their lives.  Abraham encounters God in the visitation of three strangers.  Moses experiences God in a burning bush.  Elijah sees God in the all consuming fire, hears God in the silence, and is nourished by God through bread and rest under the broom tree.  

People experience Jesus differently too.  The lepers and the tax collectors, for example, have a very different perception of who he is than the Jewish leaders who put him on trial.  Everything we know about God is mediated through someone’s experience and more likely, through the culmination of many people’s experiences throughout the centuries including our own.  In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that we “...received a Spirit that shows you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry, “Abba, Father.” The same Spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children.  (Romans 8:15-16). 

God sent the Spirit so that we could fully experience his loving presence and share that experience with others along the way.

We do not see things as they are. We see things as we are

~ Rabbi Shemuel ben Nachmani, as quoted in the Talmudic tractate Berakhot (55b.)

When the Bible isn't "Biblical"

When the Bible Isn’t Biblical

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Reason
September 1, 2024


Romans 12:2, Acts 17:11

see examples of problematic scriptures such as:
1 Samuel 15:1-3, Exodus 21:20-21, Ephesians 6:5-6

This is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: I am going to punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel: how they attacked the Israelites as they came up from Egypt.  So go! Attack the Amalekites; put everything that belongs to them under the ban. Spare no one. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.”  

1 Samuel 15:2-3

Don’t be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you can figure out what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and mature.

Romans 12:2

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When reading the passage above from 1 Samuel 15:3 about God commanding the slaughter of every man, woman, child and even infant among the Amalekites, one would think someone might pause to question whether this is actually what God desires.  It doesn’t exactly sound like the loving God we see in Jesus, or even the God of the Old Testament who brought his people out of slavery and walked with them even through the valleys of the shadow of death. 

Yet to my shock and horror, I actually sat in a church meeting where church leaders said that all Muslims should be killed before they kill us and mutilate our children, or at the very least be run out of our country.  I’ve heard pastors say that gay people should be locked up behind electric fences and separated from society.  And I’ve been personally told by a church member that he should beat me to a pulp until admitted that my stance against violence was foolish and that I must fight back if I wanted to live.  In each instance, they used passages like the one above to justify their positions.

Like the text in 1 Samuel, these are extreme examples and fortunately do not represent the majority of Christians.  Nevertheless, passages like this and other “God ordained” violence throughout scripture have been used time and time again to justify violence of every kind: “Holy  Wars”, oppression, slavery, and even genocide. 

Other texts have been misappropriated in different ways; to subjugate women both in the church and in the family and society, to elevate our nation to the status of “God’s chosen” or “The promised land” over and against every other nation, or to justify abuses of power and authority in the name of God’s will, among others. 

The point is simply this.  When we turn off the rational minds that God gave us and interpret scripture at face value with no consideration for context, history, trends and progressions, literary style, and any other number of factors, we can quickly assume that every verse is a prescriptive example or instruction for how to live in all times and all places.  Certainly there are such passages, such as the greatest commandment, to love God and neighbor.  But most reasonable people do not assume that passages about genocide, slavery or other forms of oppression are offering us universal principles for all times. 

We need reason to understand how to appropriately interpret and apply scripture to our lives and in our world and we need the Spirit to renew our minds so that we may discern with humility and wisdom.

Reading with the Saints

Reading with the Saints

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Tradition
August 25, 2024


2 Thessalonians 2:15, Hebrews 12:1, Romans 15:4, Matthew 28:19-20

see also how Jesus uses tradition - "You have heard"
Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-45

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through
endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.

 Romans 15:4

_______________

Whether we come from a religious family or not, we all grow up with traditions.  Perhaps we remember family traditions around holidays, birthdays, trips, or other special occasions.  Maybe it was as simple as Sunday dinner at a family member’s home or a weekend movie or game night.  No matter how small or elaborate, our traditions say a lot about what our family most values and those values have shaped much of our lives. 

In addition to family traditions, we also have religious traditions.  For some, that tradition may simply be that you didn’t go to church at all, but maybe a grandparent or other family member had a church at some point.  For others, it may have just been going to church on Christmas or Easter, or perhaps you were one of those who was in church every time the door was open.  Regardless of how often or how little you were in church, you no doubt learned something about faith from members of your family or from your church.  Some of those traditions may have given you a negative view of faith or religion, others may have been very positive.  But again, all of these religious experiences helped form our value systems and our faith or lack-there-of.

My own religious tradition was a mixed bag.  I grew up in the Catholic church and hated it, but I didn’t know there was anything else.  As a teenager I was “saved” in a Baptist church.  As a college student and young adult I branched out to a number of different denominations and finally landed in a United Methodist Church when I took a job as a part time youth pastor in 2003.  I chose to remain United Methodist for a many reasons, but when I look back on my religious background, I am deeply aware of the mixture of pain and blessing from each congregation and tradition.  Some things I have grown beyond and others that I once rejected I have come to appreciate more deeply in more recent years. 

Just as our own religious experiences are part of our tradition, so the larger tradition of church history has shaped our denominations and even much of our culture.  No matter how fresh or modern a church might be, it is still rooted in a long tradition of faithful saints who have gone before us.  We are not the first to study the Bible, to worship God, or to have a relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit, and we will not be the last. 

In all of our efforts as humans to make our mark on the world and leave our legacy, it is easy to forget that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.  As we study the scriptures, we can find tremendous blessing and wisdom in walking with the Saints who have gone before us, both ancient and recent. 

We cannot escape it. 

The tradition is part of who we are.

The question is, how will we allow it to teach us, to shape us, and to bless our lives?

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

The Myth of Sola Scriptura

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Scripture
August 18, 2024

Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:105, John 20:30-31

… God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. 

Hebrews 4:12

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In the 16th century, church leaders challenged various forms of corruption and abuse in the church, ultimately leading to the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, or “Scripture Alone.”  Martin Luther, John Calvin and other Protestant Reformers said that Scripture alone is the ultimate authority in matters of faith, over and against the rules and traditions established within the church.  People, they believed, could err in their judgment or even intentionally spread false teachings and heresies, but Scripture was always unchanging and reliable.

In theory, this sounds reasonable.  After all, we as Christians believe the Scriptures are the inspired Word of God and as Paul writes to Timothy, are useful for teaching, for showing mistakes, for correcting, and for training character (1 Timothy 3:16).  The problem is that no one can read the Bible in a vacuum.  The fact that we are not reading in Hebrew or Greek means that there is always at least one layer of interpretation in the  translation itself.  Not to mention all of our preconceived ideas about God, theology, and what we have been taught.  In some religious education, theology classes are required before taking Biblical Studies, which ensures that when students actually get to studying the scripture, they are already steeped in a particular  denominational viewpoint on how to interpret it. 

The Wesleyan tradition still holds scripture as our primary source of authority when it comes to knowing God, but we also recognize that scripture always comes to us through various lenses of interpretation and that it is quite possible for us to get some things wrong.

Rather than Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone), we might say a more accurate way is Prima Scriptura (Scripture First, or primary).  Reflecting on John Wesley’s practical methodology for interpreting scripture and doing  theology, Albert Outler coined what is known as the “Wesleyan Quadrilateral,” consisting of Scripture,  Tradition, Reason, and Experience.  Of course scripture has more weight than the other three, but this process of theological reflection reminds us that whether we like it or not, scripture is always interpreted through the lens of the other three.  When we read the Bible, we cannot separate ourselves from the church tradition in which we were taught.  We cannot and should not shut off the intellect God gave us.  To ignore reason leads not to a perfect understanding of scripture, but to a blind acceptance of what someone else told us it means.  And finally, we can never separate ourselves from our own experience, particularly our experience of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  God’s word is alive and breathes in us through the Spirit, teaching us how to apply what we read in our own unique context and circumstances. 

When we recognize these lenses, we open ourselves to the work of scripture that seeks to penetrate our hearts and transform our souls.  We come humbly, acknowledging that we have much to learn about the text from those who have gone before us, from deep study, and even from the fresh voice of the Spirit today.

Seen and Heard

Seen and Heard
August 11, 2024
Back to School Sunday

Matthew 18:1-5, 19:13-15

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples,  and said, “I assure you that if you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Matthew 18:1-5 (CEB)

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Jesus teaches that to enter the Kingdom of God, we must become like a little child.  Ironically in our culture, like the culture of Jesus’ day, children are often dismissed or ignored.  They are to be taught, but we rarely learn from them.  They are expected to listen and to respect adults, but adults so often refuse to listen to and respect children in turn.  Children, our culture says, are to be “seen and not heard”. 

This also sadly applies to our own “inner child” who may have a lot more to teach us than we realize.  No matter how much responsibility, stress or even trauma we have built up, our inner child is always with us and is often wounded.  Here are a few ways to know if your inner child is hurting:

• Hypersensitive to emotions, constructive criticism, and negative situations.

• You’re a chronic people pleaser

• You seek heavy validation through achievement

• Your sense of worth is tied to your work or productivity

• You feel numb or avoidant of your feelings

• You avoid conflict like the plague

• You find it difficult to set and stick to healthy boundaries in relationships

So how can we begin to nurture and care for our inner child so that we can get back to that child-like spirit that Jesus invites us to? 

Here are a few ways to start:

• Acknowledge and validate memories from your childhood, even the painful ones.

• Listen closely and pay close attention, especially when dealing with tough emotions and which emotions you tend to most gravitate toward.

• Reconnect with your sense of joy, remembering what it felt like to be a child and maybe even picking up a favorite childhood hobby again.

• Be silly, use your imagination, let go of having to have everything under control.  Have fun.  Play.

• Be curious and excited.  Allow yourself to be amazed by the beauty and joy of life.

• Be fearless.  Take risks.  Try new things and don’t be afraid of failure. 

• Live in the present moment and fully experience the depth of your feelings.

What is God trying to teach you right now through children in your life?

… through the younger generation in general?

… through your own inner child?

We spend our whole childhood wanting to grow up  faster.
But we spend our whole adult life, wanting to go back to the simplicity of being a kid again.

anonymous

 __________

Source Material from:

• 20+ Inner Child Activities to Heal and Feel Alive

• 6 Important Life Lessons We Can Learn From Children

Stay in Love with God

Stay in Love with God
August 4, 2024
Psalm 105:3-6, Colossians 2:6-7

Give praise to God’s holy name!
    Let the hearts rejoice of all those seeking the Lord!
Pursue the Lord and his strength;
    seek his face always!
Remember the wondrous works he has done,
    all his marvelous works, and the justice he declared

Psalm 105:3-5 (CEB)

So live in Christ Jesus the Lord in the same way as you received him. Be rooted and built up in him, be
established in faith, and overflow with thanksgiving just as you were taught.

Colossians 2:6-7 (CEB)

_______________

The third simple Rule from John Wesley is to “attend upon the ordinances of God.”  In short, this means to attend to regular spiritual practices like prayer, fasting, Bible Study, participation in worship, etc.  These are the practices that helps us nurture our ongoing
relationship with God.

In modern times, we don’t think as much about “ordinances,” so it is often reframed as “Stay in love with God.”  In other words, do whatever you need to stay in love with God.  Consider any loving relationship you have; a marriage, another family relationship, a friendship, etc.  Every relationship takes work.  You have to spend time together.  You have to communicate with each other.  You have to have a genuine interest in one another’s lives.  You even have to serve one another, which sometimes requires sacrifice. 

Spiritual practices or disciplines are the ways we do all of these things with God.  They are like a trellis that supports our relationship with God and helps us grow more deeply in love with our creator.  Without these regular spiritual practices, it is nearly impossible to live out the first two rules, to do no harm and to do good.  Why?  Because it is our love for God and God’s love flowing through us that produces the fruit of good works. 

Here are a few questions to consider as you think about your own trellis, or “rule of life.”

1. What rhythms / practices is God inviting you to establish or strengthen at this time in your life?

2. Tinker with arranging your calendar to  accommodate your chosen practices. Rearrange where necessary. Experiment. Revisit and revise it.  A rule of life is to support growth in holiness of heart and life.

3. What do you feel are the challenges you might face as you seek to live into these new rhythms?

4. Consider the arrangements that will need to be made. How will you need to adjust your schedule in order to consistently choose this rule of life?  What conversations or arrangements do you need to make with those with whom you live and work?

5. How do you need prayer from another as you move forward?

“IN THE FINAL ANALYSIS there is nothing we can do to transform ourselves into persons who love and serve as Jesus did except make ourselves available for God to do that work of transforming grace in our lives”  (Robert Mulholland, Invitation To A Journey).

Do Good

Do Good
July 28, 2024
3 John 1:11, Acts 10:38, Luke 4:18-19

Friend, don’t go along with evil. Model the good. The person who does good does God’s work. The person who does evil falsifies God, doesn’t know the first thing about God.

3 John 1:11 (The Message)

You know about Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed with the Holy Spirit and endowed with power. Jesus traveled around doing good and healing everyone oppressed by the devil because God was with him.

Acts 10:38 (CEB)

_______________

“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”

While the attribution of this well known quote to John Wesley is heavily questioned by scholars, it remains true to the Wesleyan Spirit and the second of our General Rules, “to do good.”   As our conference youth put it, we are called to “do good however, whatever, wherever, whenever, forever.”

Like our rule last week, “Do no harm,” the rule to “Do Good” seems fairly simple and straight forward, but there are a lot of  open ended questions.  How much good must we do?  How often?   To whom?  How much do we have to sacrifice for the sake of doing good to others? 

I once saw someone pose the question, “What is the least I have to do and still be a Christian?”  While we may not ask it quite so crudely, if we’re honest we often ask a lot of similar questions.  We try to be good people, but in the back of our minds we may question if we have been good enough or if we have done enough?  The truth is there is always more to be done and compassion fatigue is very real.  Our resources are limited, not only financially, but also physically and emotionally.  We don’t always have enough information or enough bandwidth to do all the good we would like to do and it is easy to feel overwhelmed and give up altogether. 

I think that’s all the more reason to reflect again on the quote so often attributed to Wesley.  Consider using it as a prayer of examen at the end of each night.

1.  Today, did I do all the good I could do?

2.  Did I use every means possible to do good?

3.  Did I do good in every way I thought of?

4.  Did I do good in every place I went?

5.  Did I do good to every person I encountered?

6.  Did I keep doing good to the end of the day without giving up?

If we’re honest with ourselves, the answers will often be “no.”  We all fall short and these questions should never make us judge or shame ourselves.  They should, however, invite us to ask in every moment, what is the most good I can do, right here, right now, in this situation… and trust that God will use it and multiply it and that it will be enough.  They also give us an opportunity to celebrate and give thanks for the good God empowered us to do.

In what specific ways is God calling you to do good this week?