Daily Meditation: "Easy"

SCRIPTURE

For the love of God is this, that we obey God’s commandments. And God’s commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. - 1 John 5:3-4

REFLECT

Faith - it conquers the world according to this passage from 1 John. That faith, he says, stems from the love of God which we discover through living God’s commandments. Simple, right?

Perhaps the most important part of this passage is the beginning of the second sentence: “...God’s commandments are not burdensome….” They truly aren’t. Why, then, do we seem to make them so?

If we simply take the Greatest Commandment that we read in church two weeks ago, to love God with everything we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves, the world would literally change. Nations and the laws by which they govern would change. The ways in which we engage with one another at work and at school would change. The ways in which we honor and care for our youngest and most elderly would change. The ways in which we love others we deem somehow different from ourselves would change. All of it.

This isn’t burdensome, either; at least, it isn’t supposed to be. We just need to let go of our fears and insecurities that are the bricks of the walls we build so well that keep us apart. Not only is this not a burden, but it is born of God and, as 1 John reminds us, that which is born of God conquers the world.

On this election day, may we pray that those who we elect embody this spirit so that we might tear down the walls we build so well and bring us closer together and closer to the world our Creator intends for us all.

PRAYER

God of Faith, may we never find following your Way a burden; remembering that your Way overcomes all of our failings and brings us to who we are meant to be.

Amen.

Peace,

Shawn