Reflection
What if our behavior as those who profess to be Christian was so bewildering to others that they could only assume it was God centered? What if those of us who were serving in public roles and proclaimed to be Christian lived the gospel with such integrity that people would say “We have never seen anything like this!” What if the concern for the needs of others, the compassion for those suffering from injustice, and the tolerance for differences that we revealed took people unawares and left them feeling wonder and astonishment? What would be the effect of that? Would they think we were simple or a bit deranged or, perhaps, would we be what Christ called us to be: leaven that would change the whole social system, salt that would give it savor?
Prayer
Help me to be the change I wish to see.
Action
In what small, particular way can my life astound others with its integrity?
Suggested Reading
“Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
‘Your sins are forgiven,’
or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk?’
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth”
-he said to the paralytic,
“I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”
Mark 2:1-12
Will we let ourselves become a Church that calls and welcomes sinners with open arms, that gives courage and hope, or are we a Church closed in on herself? Are we a Church where the love of God dwells, where one cares for the other, where one prays for the other?
Pope Francis
You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.
Henri J.M. Nouwen
When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.
Dom Helder Camara,
Don’t tell me about your God with your words. Show me about your God with your actions.
Steve Maraboli
May our actions and our love be evidence of who You are.
Nicole Williams
The believer’s job is to shine out Christ in their living and in their speaking.
Henry Hon
It is fatally easy to think of Christianity as something to be discussed and not as something to be experienced.
William Barclay
True faith manifests itself through our actions.
Francis Chan
Christianity does not remove you from the world and its problems; it makes you fit to live in it, triumphantly and usefully.
Charles Templeton
To think is easy. To act is difficult.
To act as one thinks is the most difficult.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon