AUTHOR: Robin Dugall DATE: 10:17:00 AM ----- BODY:

Good thoughts for today: “The bombing of the helpless and unprotected civilians is a strategy which has aroused the horror of all mankind. I recall with pride that the United States consistently has taken the lead in urging that this inhumane practice be prohibited.” [President Roosevelt] Since Roosevelt said these words, there have been bombings in Japan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but it isn’t the bombings that caused me to write this today. It isn’t the act of war that puts my fingers to work. It isn’t even the violence that has set me before this blank document. It is repentance. It is repentance that brings tears to my eyes. It is the thought of billions of people who have suffered because we have decided to ignore who God wants us to be. It is the thought of the many who continue to suffer because we…because I fail to follow Jesus. It is here that I must begin to repent and ask God to forgive me for watching it all just happen. As a child, growing up, I always thought of repentance as something you do when you, yourself, does something wrong. I would eat the candy canes off the Christmas tree and feel bad, so I would pray and ask God to forgive me. Eventually, my crimes became larger and I would ask God to forgive me for lying to my parents or failing classes. I would feel guilty about making out with boys and feel even guiltier about attending church afterwards, so I asked God for forgiveness and that was repentance. Then, I would turn around and see all that was wrong with the world, but took no responsibility for any of it. I simply focused a great deal on my guilt and my mistakes. Today, I am hit with the realization that maybe…maybe repentance has to do with more. Maybe repentance has to do with justice. We often ask, “What the Kingdom of God looks like,” or, “What would things be like in heaven?” What if the answer to both these questions has more to do with justice than a world of clouds? What if the answer to these questions has more to do with us…more to do with what our role is, then what God can do for us individually? What if, the words that David wrote in Psalm 10, “You will bring justice to the orphans and oppressed, so people can no longer terrify them,” has to do with our actions? Maybe justice comes with us. I had gotten to hear the CEO of International Justice Mission this weekend. He talked about how there are so many wrongs in the world and how all these wrongs can get so overwhelming, but then he reminded us of the little boy as Jesus fed the five thousand people. In the story, there were thousands of people and Jesus asked the disciples to feed them. They reminded Jesus that they did not have enough to feed everyone, so Jesus should send them home. Somewhere in the crowd, a little boy brought his lunch: 5 loaves of bread and two fish. Jesus took this meal and fed 5,000 people. We read that story and think, “Well, of course. That’s Jesus. He can do that,” but we forget that in the story is a little boy who could have given up and sat in a corner to eat his meal alone. Often times, that’s what I end up doing. It all gets so overwhelming that I end up sitting in the corner, with my own lunch. I forget that God requires all we can give…even the littlest bit…maybe this bit begins with repentance. It begins with repentance. Maybe this little bit begins with repentance, not just repentance for the things we do, but repentance for the hurt and pain that existed and continues to exist today. Maybe it’s about asking God to forgive us for the bombings, the killings, the torture, the hunger, the disease, the neglect… God…forgive us… Forgive me…

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: wellis68 COMMENT-DATE:12:46 PM COMMENT-BODY:Wow! amazing post... did you write this (I ask because it's titled a post "from a friend")? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR: bruced COMMENT-DATE:5:00 PM COMMENT-BODY:I come from a different school... I don't think it's about "us asking God to forgive us", I think it's about us KNOWING that God forgives us. Grace of that extreme, changes us. --------