What It Takes

Let’s go fly a kite. Look out for some delight. Stop, look, listen and shout out that we have hearts God gave us to share with whomever needs a hug, a friend, a shoe, an apple, a cup of cold water, a treasure from Jesus.

I wake in the night tossing and turning, challenging my soul if I’m doing the right thing, or the wrong thing, which might be quicker, or easier, or less risky. One way or the other, we must out-fight sin. Sin sort of stirs around in your body like a big pot of stew. It looks tasty, there is an abundance of it, and it’s pretty easy to get a spoon and guzzle it down. But, is it good for us? How does sin get inside of our body?

What advantage did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? You have been brought from death to life. The end of those things are death on earth as well as when the time comes to hike up that long ladder, that slippery one which the non-straight ones slip off of and never reached the hands of whomever has their hands out to grab them on that final umph to step on the first cloud where the angels await.

Slavery is the toss here. Once we were slaves to impurity, that kept multiplying when it got easier and less dangerous. But that didn’t work or win one any kind of reward. So now try the other branch - be slaves to righteousness for sanctification. When we were slaves of sin, we could basically do pretty much what we thought we wanted to do, whatever the circumstances. Righteousness rested and so there was no advantage to get benefits from the things of which we are now ashamed, embarrassed, and horrified that we even thought about linking on to them. There was no reward there, there was only shame, and shame walks one straight path to death. That is the only ending in that situation.

Now, through the grace of God and good hard work and prayer and promise, there is grace and goodness, freedom from sin and no more death. You are on the right side of God’s heart. There is no more presence of sin and slavery, but just the joy and satisfaction of being offered eternal life with God. The end, I say again, we are told again, is death, a healthy trade in for eternal life forever with God and the angels and hopefully our friends and family and the dreams we always had as they rolled down the road to happiness.

What it takes to be in the good line? Jesus specified: whoever welcomes you, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, i.e. God the Father. Whoever even welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward and whoever welcomes a  righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous. And whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones - or big ones - in the name of a disciple - Jesus declares, as his Father promises, that  none of these will lose their reward. Streets are packed with the homeless, those in despair, the lonely, the frightened who must roll up in cardboard boxes, those who usually have to escape from police or whomever rounds up the homeless and mentally ill. It’s a whole world in all big cities and so far nothing has made it better. So many of them, men and women are too frightened to live in a shelter or a room full of other people or even in a large box that keeps off the wind and snow. I remember one woman in Memphis who would only sleep on a particular park bench near the Mississippi River. She always looked clean. She always managed to stay alive. She will always be in my heart.

There is no excuse or reason for someone to pass by a starving or thirsty little one, and add to that a big hug. Once we are in, once we have given and shared and helped and loved and tried to make someone’s life better, freer, healthier and joyful, even that tiny cup of water or test a Starbucks has value, and the least of the least will be healed, saved, and given a reason to smile.  But once given in the name of a disciple, or you or me or anyone who doesn’t have time to stop and get involved, but they pass up what was on their itinerary that day, and having stopped, hugged and smiled at some little one suffering, lonely, or just wide eyes with smiles and languages we may not know, but we can always stop and smile and tell them about Jesus, Son of God. So, know well that none of those who do these things will lose their reward, and that is eternal life in the kingdom of God, where I pray there will be floods of happy, smiling children who remembered when someone gave them a smile and a cup of water.

~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com