More Than Today

For those of us who struggle with "marketing" the church in order to reach more people for Jesus, these words may prove helpful...or at least food for thought. They come from a book I am reading that is made up of prayers and then after the prayers the author reflects on the topic of the prayer. One of the most helpful parts of this for me is not just about marketing, but about what the kingdom of God was meant to be even before Jesus came and what it had become. Makes me wonder what the kingdom has become in our hands today. "No one has ever provided a better example of marketing than Jesus did. He inherited a situation in which his movement, the kingdom of God on earth, had been taken over by small-minded legalists who had reduced its majestic principles to a rigid set of codified behaviors. Its inspiring orientation toward the future had become a stultifying preoccupation with history and tradition. Its singular focus on right relationships with people and with God...

Wondering today, just wondering not worrying. I will still be able to buy food, gas, clothes, pay the mortgage payment, give money to the church and others. I may still face health or job issues along the way as does happen in life. Friends will laugh at my jokes, or wish I would get a sense of humor. Strangers will pass me by and not even see me, as I them too many times. Others will not have the same opportunities as I do because of their own choices or many of them because of no fault of their own but where they were born and the family they were born into. Sharing love with others will be just as difficult as ever but still necessary regardless of someone's life experiences, passions, or personality.  The world has not ended. My failures are still the ones to be confessed instead of looking to blame someone else. My selfishness still keeps someone else from eating today or having a place to live. My smile can still light upon an unsuspecting person and brighten t...