Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure"-- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. [Rev 19:7-8] We’ve all been to weddings. Everything focuses around the bride. My favorite moment is to watch the groom as he catches the first glimpse of his bride, he’s overcome by her beauty – she’s prepared herself specifically and especially for this day. Now imagine, how does the bride of Christ prepare herself to be radiant for her beloved? Righteous deeds, good works… As I pondered this passage and how it applies to this season, I heard “Un-becoming” . I sense that this season we are in is a cleansing period, a time of preparation. UN becoming who we’ve become; busy, weary, anxious, overburdened, chameleon – being who others want or expect us to be. Lost, depressed, frustrated, needy. And instead, shed the shackl
What if? What if we stopped reacting to the words of the few whose goal it is to stir up dissention? What if we ignored those who pointed fingers at others different then themselves and just loved people anyway? What if we let go of past sins and offenses of our ancestors and instead embraced each individual? What if we hated injustice, instead of hating people… Call me naive. Call me a dreamer. Call me ignorant. But what if… What if instead of being puppets yanked about by the “man behind the screen” we realized that the “few,” though loud, do not represent the whole. That those few who spew hate are evil. What if instead of believing and responding to the hate-hype we just simply turned it off. But it’s much more than that isn’t it? There is an evil in this world and it’s out to kill, steal and destroy us! To pit brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, people against God… But, what if we put the blame where the blame lies and stopped blaming our neighbor for the