Psalm 37
1 Do not fret yourself because of evildoers; *
do not be jealous of those who do wrong.
2 For they shall soon wither like the grass, *
and like the green grass fade away.
3 Put your trust in the LORD and do good; *
dwell in the land and feed on its riches.
4 Take delight in the LORD, *
who shall give you your heart’s desire.
5 Commit your way to the LORD; put your trust in the LORD, *
who will bring it to pass.
6 The LORD will make your righteousness as clear as the light *
and your just dealing as the noonday.
I’m thinking about the cost of focusing on evil doers. You know, the politicians who like to spew anger, the media that likes to give them show time, the greed that makes us think mostly on ourselves, until some small story of kindness interrupts us and we think, “I could do that…maybe.” And then too soon we are back to ourselves…mostly.
I’m thinking about salvation on this day after Ash Wednesday. I’m accepting as a given that Jesus saves us, pays for our self absorption and all its distortions of our goodness, sin really. That is the cross really. I’m wondering if we/I notice that is focused deeply on the cross, his crucifixion, made sense of only in his rising and our puzzling. It’s like the neck of the hourglass, all our life passes through it. Like “being saved,” but the real meaning follows, the long years of our transformation.
We keep remembering that it felt easier to not change, to think mostly about me or mine. Easier to not know God loves me and beckons me to be transformed, to greet life daily with the caring heart of Jesus, a mind that can not stop meditating on how we can be better toward each other. There really are two tasks in the transformation Christ invites us into and Lent asks us to pray or meditate upon.
◦ What now in me should I open up to be further changed, transformed into Jesus heart/mind? What have I held onto that I will release? What have I resisted that I will now take up?
◦ What in my daily life, my community, my sphere of influence, can I help to transform into a place reflecting Christ’s actions of care?
It is good to enter any season of life open to the transformation salvation asks of us/me.
