Ministry Updates for Thursday, May 14th, 2020
Scripture for Reflection – Hebrews 5:13-14
…for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.
Reflection – Transformation
The world of faith is hard to describe, often difficult to see, and sometimes ‘counter-intuitive’. These realities make it easy to ignore our faith development, or to put off dealing with it until tomorrow, which too often never comes.
It is something to believe God loves us. It is something else to believe God’s love for us will not always be comfortable. God has placed us in a creation where there is difficulty and challenge. Early on in our lives, we are shielded by parents or guardians from that difficulty. We are fed milk. As we grow in our ability to process food, then we are fed solid food. And more is expected of us. Sooner or later, we find these higher expectations to be a good thing.
Early on in my adult life, when I was still a spiritual infant, to use the terminology from our passage today, I wanted to survive and be comfortable. But then I grew in faith. I needed something more solid. I began a quest to find meaning in my life and in the world.
Victor Frankl, a holocaust survivor said, ‘It is the exceptionally difficult external situation which gives a man the opportunity to grow spiritually beyond himself.’
Friedrich Nietzsche, a theologian, said something similar, ‘Man… does not deny suffering per se: he wants it, he even seeks it out, provided it can be given a meaning.’
The situation is different for each of us. I doubt anyone sought out the holocaust. But I know many people who sacrificed sleep, family time, and comfort to run marathons. They do not deny suffering, and in fact seek it out. Are they finding meaning in their quest? I believe they do, whether they know it or not. Maybe an important step in our trek toward God and meaning is a belief in ourselves.
At the end of the day, ours is a daily struggle that goes deep. The struggle between good and evil, life and death, despair and hope, fear and courage are critical to our faith growth. To take on these struggles, which are truly challenging, we need a faith in God and a belief in ourselves and our fellow beings. To do this, we need to be fed solid food; The Word of God, which promises not safety, but salvation; not comfort, but to be comforted; not victory in every battle, but blessing in every engagement.
I am glad you took time today to savor ‘solid food’ from our sacred text. May it give you courage, faith, and belief in yourself to take on life’s challenges in the most hopeful way.
Prayer
God of growth, God of transformation, we give you thanks for the stages of our lives. We thank you for the struggles which made us who we are. We thank you for your love for us, which is both comforting and challenging. Give me opportunity today to take on one ‘demon’, one challenge, one doubt about myself or others, seeing these opportunities through your eyes; as an opportunity for a better self and a better world. Amen.