Making a Way

Good morning, dear reader, from the fifth or sixth week of isolation, in the first week of Eastertide. I keep coming back to this phrase from the prayer book: Lord God…You have brought us in safety to this new day. No matter what, that’s true. I’m writing this, you’re reading this, we’re preparing and eating meals; we’re working, walking, trying to stay healthy and stay in touch, and especially we’re seeking out others who need help more than we do. Taking it not even day by day but moment by moment, because each moment is complete. 

Thanks again to my Wednesday night teacher who reminds us about the integrity of each moment. And I’m inspired by the generosity of this studio that is donating weeks of free yoga to local medical professionals! For me yoga, meditation, and prayer all share an aim to connect with the divine. I never knew that the word yoga means “yoke” or “union.” If we’re yoking ourselves to God—creator, redeemer, and sustainer—we can breath easy. Then we know what to do, moment to moment. If we put ourselves in God’s hands with trust and faith, he will make a way for us. Do you know this song by Travis Greene? It’s worth a listen for some inspiration today. 

Now let’s turn to Romans 12 (NIV).

This chapter is helpful for me because it tells us how to behave in easy to understand—if not easy to carry out—terms. I’ve always loved Paul’s metaphor of the body, and it strikes me afresh today with the profound and crucial truth that God himself was made incarnate. We have bodies for a reason, as imperfect and at the same time wondrous as they are. But to think of every member of God’s creation as knit together in one functioning body is radical, and radically accepting. The idea that we must rely on the least person in society for the Body of Christ to function properly is not at all what our culture says, and not at all how we’ve behaved, increasingly, as we’ve relegated the old, infirm, disabled, and poor to places beyond our sight both literally and figuratively. As we think of ourselves we are also to think of others—no one esteemed too much or too little, including ourselves. 

How apt for our covid moment, when we are faced in new ways with this old truth. We need each other: leaders, scientists, healthcare workers, parents, teachers, delivery people, grocery workers, internet providers, those who talk to the lonely on the phone, everyone is needed in some way, some in ways we seemed to be forgetting. We are walking this way with people we don’t even know. But we are walking this way together. 

I love verse 2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”

This passage asks us to assess our own gifts and how they might serve the Body. This is what gives life meaning and purpose, to discern what God wants us to do based on what he has equipped us for. That’s the Christian journey. 

And then Paul talks about Love in Action. This is the heart of it. To love actively, not just in word but in deed. Here’s the Life Application Bible’s note: “Most of us have learned how to pretend to love others—how to speak kindly, avoid hurting their feelings, and appear to take an interest in them. We may even be skilled in pretending to feel moved with compassion when we hear of others’ needs, or to become indignant when we learn of injustice. But God calls us to real and sincere love that goes beyond pretense or politeness. Sincere love requires concentration and effort. It means helping others become better people. It demands our time, money, and personal involvement…look for people who need your love, and look for ways you and your fellow believers can love your community in Christ.” 

We often make sympathy noises when we hear a sad story because we feel powerless to do anything about it. But Paul is asking us to look for what we can do more often, to make that our practice, to be fully engaged in all the human stories life brings our way, to really examine and then act (Christ’s love flowing through us) to shift that situation to God’s glory. To feel our hearts moving from the avoidance of things that feel like “too much trouble” to stepping in to the pain and distress of others. To really attend to suffering, and though we may feel powerless, we may feel God’s power there.