I know it’s been awhile since I posted to my blog. The new year seems to offer a great opportunity for this.
Some people make resolutions for the new year. Sometimes I do this and, they sometimes stick. Mostly they don’t. This year, I am prayerfully reflecting on my values. These are not values I actually hold to all the time, but rather the values I desire to live in every area of my life. So, following is a bit of a prayer and reflection on what I am asking from God to live out in me.
Truth:
I don’t want to buy into things that are not true just because they are currently fashionable. I want to know truth; I want to search out truth in every situation, not just take whatever everyone in my particular tribe says is true.
Mercy:
St. James says, “mercy triumphs over judgment…” How can I know mercy in my life now? How can I show this mercy to others?
Love:
I want to learn more and more how to love in every situation. I like the way Catholic Bishop Robert Barron defines love: “to will the good of the other for the sake of the other, not my own.” It is a “great act of the will” to love another. I want to always to choose to act and speak for the good of the other.
Justice:
I want to continue to learn what justice is in light of truth, mercy and love. I am not sure I truly understand justice. I mean there are so many voices pointing out what justice is or what it should be. I want to know justice from God’s perspective. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount; “blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” I would define righteousness as justice from God’s perspective.
Faith:
In order to have all these in my life, I must also value faith and everything that it entails; walking in the Spirit, hearing the voice of God saying; “this is the way, walk in it…” knowing Jesus, the Christ who lives in me by his Spirit and walking daily in the Spirit of God following his voice.
Courage:
I need courage to carry out all these things. This means I must recognize when I am moving toward people-pleasing. People pleasing is not truth, mercy, love, justice or faith. People pleasing is basically all about me; all about making myself comfortable. People pleasing is sin. The thing that keeps me from really acting in the way God calls me to act is what scripture calls “fear of man” or another way to say it: people pleasing. It is the very opposite of courage and I constantly struggle with this. I must have courage to walk into my fear of being rejected by others. If I am rejected because I am following the way of truth, justice, love, mercy, faith then I can know that God, by his Spirit will comfort me. I want to look past immediate comfort towards the comfort that God provides.
Lord, give me the grace to put my eyes on you. You are the one I seek to please. You are the one at my right hand; the one who goes before me and guards me from behind; the one who surrounds me with all these things I am seeking for this year. I confess to you that these values I have listed are not ones I consistently hold to. I am asking you for the grace to live out these values. I know that I need you for this. I believe that it is Christ in me who desires these things in my life and it is Christ in me who is the hope of glory; that is, the hope of the very realization of these values in and through my life. May Christ in me live out these values through me as I shed the values of the flesh, the evil one and of the world.
GarThoma 