new church life: jan uary/february 2016
mirror that love in our lives helps to make a difference.
When he was leading the fight against discrimination and oppression, the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., chose not to use violence but love. “Darkness
cannot drive out darkness,” he said. “Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive
out hate; only love can do that.”
We are all created to reflect the Lord’s love in our lives, not always on the
grandest stage but in the quiet, private moments of our lives – with kindness,
with service, with love. Our tiny spheres of influence join with others to create
a force for change. Mother Teresa was a model. She lived her life among the
world’s outcasts in Calcutta and was a heroine just because she lived what she
believed. “We can do no great things,” she said. “All we can do is small things
with great love.”
As caring, concerned individuals we have no direct power against
terrorists, but put our trust in the Lord. Helen Keller understood: “No matter
from what angle Jesus started, He came back to this fact, that He entrusted the
reconstruction of the world, not to wealth or caste or power or learning, but
to the better instincts of the human race: to the nobler ideals and sentiments
of people; to love, which is the mover of the will and the dynamic force of
action. He turned His words every conceivable way and did every possible
work to convince doubters that love – good or evil – is the life of their life,
the fuel of their thoughts, the breath of their nostrils, their heaven or their
destruction. There was no exception or modification whatever in His holy,
awesome, supreme Gospel of Love.”
(BMH)
let us pray
The day after the carnage in San Bernardino, the tabloid New York Daily News
shrieked on its front page, in four-inch letters: “GOD IS NOT FIXING THIS.”
The story mocked the call of some to pray for victims and their families,
and sided with those who were beating the drum for gun control to combat
terrorism.
These are really separate issues and are not mutually exclusive. We certainly
need the prayers – turning to God in the face of evil – as well as solutions.
The lead sentence in the Daily News story – which sparked immediate
controversy – was: “Prayers aren’t working.” An accompanying column was
headlined: “Prayers don’t stop bullets.”
Still the instinct of those dealing with the terror was to call on God. One
woman trapped and hiding in a closet as the horror played out around her
pleaded simply on her cell phone: “Pray for me.”
We are blessed to know how God’s love, mercy and providence work; to
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