Thursday 9 March 2017

Lenten Devotion - March 8

March 8, 2017

(excerpted from free indeed: devotions for Lent 2017, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis)



The Eighth Commandment:

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

What is this? or What does this mean?

We are to fear and love God, so that we do not tell lies about our neighbours, betray or slander them, or destroy their reputations.  Instead, we are to come to their defence, speak well of them, and interpret everything they do in the best possible light.

To ponder:

"We do not like her very much.  We do not thing she has a rich inner life, or that God likes her, or can even stand her.  (Although when I mentioned this to my priest friend Tom, he said you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns our that God hates all the same people you do.)"

      - Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Generosity of spirit:

"We call it 'generosity of spirit,'" said the corps member advisor.  Her job was to train a room full of recent college graduates to be teachers ... in five weeks.  "You're going to need it.  Basically, it means giving people the benefit of the doubt.  Have high and consistent expectations for your students, but have compassion too.  If you clash with your colleagues or your administrators, try to see it from their point of view.  Choose to receive everyone and everything that happens to you in the best possible light."

One of the corps members raise his hand.  He asked, "Will people be that generous with us?"

She laughed.  "What  do you think I'm doing right now?"  We laughed.

"Seriously, though ... yes.  Every day.  You won't believe the grace you'll get.  You won't believe the grace you're going to need.

Prayer:

Generous Spirit, compassionate God, thank you for the grace you freely give, the grace we so deeply need.  May we freely and joyful share and receive that grace.  Give us generous spirits.  Amen.

No comments:

Post a Comment