Shoved by Grace

  This week, my mind goes to the idea of "purpose." I suppose it is because, after more than six months in Texas, I still don't feel as though I've found a calling. Also, I just spent a great weekend with my family at my son's senior voice recital for college. Listening to him sing, with such obvious joy, I was reminded of the words from the movie Chariots of Fire . In the movie, Eric Liddell, who was training to be a missionary, told his sister, "Jennie, I know God made me for China someday, but he also made me fast. I feel his pleasure when I run." God created each of us for his pleasure, purely out of love. Like a loving parent, I know that God is pleased to see us each find our place in the world. As my children grew up, I often told them that "God has given you each gifts and talents and it is your job to figure out how to use them for the glory of God." It's all part of that "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven...

I woke up this morning to the news that there had been yet another horrific act of violence, this time in St. Petersburg. And I'm still trying to get my head around the death of so many civilians in a US-led coalition bombing of Mosul last week. And the terrorist incident on Westminster Bridge. Everywhere I turn, I see another example of human beings inflicting terrible violence on their so-called enemies. Even our President has now been accused in court of "inciting violence" with his words. And today in my Scripture study, I read "Do not love the world, or anything in the world." (1 John 2: 15) That seems like an easy instruction for us, in the face of such actions. But how do I reconcile the words of 1 John with the statement, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son." ? (John 3:16) How am I, as a Christian, supposed to respond to the violence and hate around me? Am I to just give up and declare, "Of course this world is rott...