A reflection for the Daily Lectionary Readings for March 31. Please see the Daily page for tools to help you make daily prayer and scripture a pat of your rhythm.
I was having a conversation with a young woman this week who is starting a new career path. She’s earned an entry level certification and has been applying to gain experience but most of where she applied required she have experience for this entry level job. She said, “I feel like I have purpose now.”
How often do we look for our ‘purpose’ outside of ourselves? Do we have the right job, the right relationships, live in the right neighborhood or drive the right car so that others see us as worthy or lovable? Seeking the approval of others or thinking we have to please those around us in order to have purpose or worth in this world only and always leads to disappointment, even in the healthiest of relationships because the people we are seeking to impress or please are as human as we are.
The prophet Isaiah says, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord and my reward with my God.” God made us for the purpose of being in relationship with God, to find our worth and our purpose in God’s image within us. We are made to bear the image of God to the world, to show by the way we see and treat others that they, too, are God’s beloved, made in love and to love and for love, as God loves.
We all have to work out what this looks like for each of us asking “how do I bear the image of God in my family, profession, hobbies, community, etc.?” It is a lifelong journey. Our image bearing looks different throughout different seasons of our lives. And Jesus gives us the guiding command that is to ground all that we think, say, and do when he said to Love God with all of our being and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
In the Gospel reading for this Tuesday in Holy Week, Jesus tells us that when we follow him as the light that guides the path of our life we become children of light. God doesn’t require that we have experience to give us a place in the Kingdom. We all are in entry level positions in the Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. Our purpose is to shine the light of God’s love as we are continuously shaped by God’s Love. Our purpose, our worth, is found in our belovedness.
Know that you are loved and keep lovin’ louder than the hate, Y’all.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 