Lent - Day 33

       Paul the politician.  You have to give credit to Paul, he tries to be everything to everybody. But it isn't the ballot box that he's trying to influence, it is our vote on how we will decide to act and spend our own lives.  I am not sure what was the extent of awareness that Jesus had as he was growing up. Did Jesus know at age 7 that he had Godly abilities? Did young Jesus know he'd die at age 33?  Paul on the other hand had incredible awareness after he had his conversion moment. Once Paul realized that the answer was Jesus, there was no stopping the zeal and extent to whom the Jesus message was sent.  Paul grasped almost immediately it seems that the message of salvation is for everyone. Paul may be the second most influential person in human history after Jesus. 

       Our response to the Good News is a very personal one. I speak of Lent being a time of preparation and conversion of our heats. I challenge each of us to become the fully alive human that God created just as Jesus was a fully engaged human. We want to acknowledge and be all that God created us to be so that on Easter morning we too will emerge from our metaphoric cocoon as the magnificent 'butterfly' creation that God created us to be.  It is all very personal.

       But today Paul is reminding is reminding us that it is indeed not 'all about us'. God did not create a world of one, God created a world of wonder. That is, other magnificent creations too, butterflies and buffalo, rainbows and other natural wonders.  God speaks to all us and to all of us in a unique way.  Paul was trying to get everyone to see that by being everything to all people. Paul appreciated diversity and knew God was calling everyone. That is uh-mazing!

        If we spend the time to witness the magnificence of our own creation we really owe it to God to look out and see the magnificence in others as well. That too is a Lenten task, a life long task. For the beauty of creation in everyone and everything, we give thanks, praise and prayers.

1 Corinthians 9:19-27

 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.