Kills Those Last
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Starvation Can Take 3 to 6 Months To Kill.
Luxury Kills the Spirit
In Days.
Isaiah 65:1
I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’, to a nation that did not call on my name.
Matthew 19:28-30
Jesus said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Words of Grace For Today
So often we strive and struggle and compete and sacrifice the goodness of life to be among the privileged, the wealthy, the powerful: the ones who receive everything in abundance; the ones who come in first in life.
Nothing wrong with that really …
except
Our being first in those ways always makes someone come in behind us, so that down the ladder, way behind those of us able to strive to be among the first, there are billions of people struggling to just survive. Forget about first, these billions would like to live. Our taking everything we can get and wanting yet more (which threatens our lives in ways we do not see – they are the silent killers of excess living) costs other people their very lives. Sometimes the causation trail is direct, sometimes more indirect. But with climate change we see there really is a ‘butterfly effect.’ Except it is not a butterfly that we put in motion, it is a bit of luxury (over and over again) which sets off global ocean and atmosphere changes which lead to violent storms, flooding, wildfires, droughts, melting of permafrost and roasting of forests and people alike.
God planned for all that, too.
God calls to us.
God is always ready to answer us with graceful forgiveness, renewed life, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to guide us into lives of humble service to people in need.
Trying to be first turns us in to the greatest curse on humanity. That’s not first place in history. That’s last place. It is to be the ones who brought humans and most life on earth to a catastrophic end, or at least put it on life-support, while the ‘healer’ works to cure us of our every ill.
Being the last ones, though … Being the ones most in need, well, God promised that these people are always first in God’s way for the world and all who inhabit it. Being humble servants of God puts us right there with those most in need, so that we live with them and we die with them, and God receives us just as God receives and honours them.