Our walk through the Season of Lent this year has drawn me back to the central truth of our faith that God is love and through God’s love our lives and our world can be changed forever. It is as simple and grand as that. God is love – extravagant, reconciling, cross-shaped love.
God is not political force, though God’s love may motivate political change.
God is not the power of an empire or of a religion, though God’s love can redeem the damage of either.
God is never coercion.
No. God is love.
Read the Gospels and see the way Jesus reaches out to people on the margins, to the hurting, the searching, to disciples, including both men and women. Read the letters of John to the early church. God is love.
Know God. Know love. Sacrificial, self-giving love.
Sometimes a love that says, “Yes!” and sometimes a tough love that says “no” but always love.
This is what those first disciples knew, and it changed their lives. Because it changed their lives, over time, it changed our lives, too. Know God. Know love. God’s extravagant, reconciling, cross-shaped love.
It is as simple and grand as that.
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(and with God's love in mind and heart... )
"Lenten Blessings"
may you see goodness in this day.
may all the forces that push against the light of Christ be vanquished by love.
may those who follow Jesus trust and live more fully in his Way of mercy, peace, inclusive love, unmerited grace, kindness, holiness, discernment and steadfastness.
may you resist the base instincts of human nature that make idols of aggression, violence and power.
make you be engaged in bringing reconciliation and unity in a time of division and conflict, through mutual respect shaped by embrace of the equality we share before the cross in our need for forgiveness.
may you be refreshed by fierce hope as your code word and gratitude as your theme for living.
may this be a day for courage and remembrance of the God who came to walk among us, who chose to suffer, as well as share joy and laughter, as a human being, and who lingers near in Spirit.
may this be a day for repentance and transformation that we may be fit for the kingdom of God and witnesses whose lives embody the truth of the Savior who died for all "while we were yet sinners."
may the healing you need and the world needs, of body, mind, emotion and spirit, come soon and God’s perfect intentions for peace and wholeness be realized even today — O Lord, yes, today.
may those who work for peace in all its forms be protected from illness and harm by the Spirit of God and every one of us find ourselves among their number as co-workers, partners in making the dreams of heaven come true.
Grace and peace,
Bob Guffey
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