Deacon Pam Shearman
What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of people. That is what love looks like. ~St. Augustine
“YOU HAVE TO CHANGE!”
Those words are hard to hear. When is change hardest? When it happens to us! We may be happy about change when we choose it, on our terms, with grace and understanding for slip ups. But when it’s imposed on us, we feel uneasy, vulnerable, or outright resistant. You would think that after all the complaining of all people of all time, we would have found a way to improve the process of change.
One way to ease change is to go through it with someone we trust. Our theme this week is “Trusting Others as We Change”. It’s having a trusted person by our side - someone who loved us as we were, accompanies us as we are, and can see the beauty of what we’re becoming. It’s the freedom to be vulnerable when we stumble, trusting they will know whether to pick us up or to wait for us to rise on our own.
Jesus did all these things for us. He embodied God’s caring presence and mission for the world. But take notice -God’s mission in the world is not just about change. It’s about radical transformation! (Romans 12:2) We who call ourselves “Christians” are given the grace to embody Christ’s transforming presence in the world. In the waters of baptism and at the Lord’s Table, we are invited to put on Christ. We are given the grace to carry God’s mission of transformation into a hurting and vulnerable world.
When we trust God to form us into the image of Christ, we take the first step in becoming. We are becoming someone others can trust with their changes and vulnerabilities. Our faith is hopeful, sometimes persistent, always active in love, even as everything changes around and in us. For some of us, the change we feel now is daunting. For others, it’s the becoming that we’ve been waiting for. For all of us, the change is easier when we walk with God and with someone we trust.
Dear Past, thank you for the lessons I learned.
Dear Future, I’m ready.
Dear God, thank you for giving me another chance.
If I can’t always be wise, let me be kind.
If I can’t change the world, let me help just one other person.
If I can’t give away riches, let me give love.
Let others know me for my kindness, for that is the greatest glory of all.
Amen.
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