Rev. Shawn J. Smith

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind at this point that we are in the midst of a truly unusual year. The problems that we see all around us come at us with a heightened urgency that can easily drown the most optimistic among us. Virus, job loss, injustice, broken systems, riots, houses up for sale, homelessness on the rise, fires out west and so many storms in the ocean that we have to start to use the Greek alphabet.

Like I said, it makes me want to shout “What is going on?!? God, help!!!”

Then in the midst of the storms in this life that threaten to overwhelm me I hear a quiet whisper in my soul to have me do some heart work.

In Romans 8 we read,

³⁵ Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all day long;
    we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

IF this is true, THEN I must not submit to fear and surrender. Instead I must ask this divine love to change me so that I may be the change I pray will happen in this world.

I will never be able to convince another person that they need to change. I cannot make someone stop their destructive thoughts and practices. When it is all done, when the day is finished all I can control is me. Can I submit myself to the divine love? Yes. Will I and if I get side tracked will I come back to the path of life? Will I stand in the gap between the divide minds that demand satisfaction and invite to the table in a spirit of love?

Will I do heart work?

I will. I make that choice today. Please join me. Please join me in doing some much needed heart work. As far as I can see the course we have been on to date has only ripped us further apart and threatens to destroy in the name of being right.

Lord, lead us in the way of love.