Dear Folks,
I will resist the temptation to share personal family news on a regular basis! Last week I mentioned that my mother’s birthday coincided with the date of my newsletter. Today is the anniversary of when Kerry and I were married, August 10, 1979. A newsletter on commitment is in order. On the theme of commitment I offer two vignettes or thoughts.
Commitment and the love that accompanies it is both an act of grace and an act of will; in that order, not the other way around. We are capable of love and commitment because God first loved us and made a commitment to us before we loved him or made a commitment to him. As 1 John 4:7-12 says:
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
The second aspect of commitment is found for me in a snippet from the play “Poor Fool” by the Northumberland Theatre Company, as quoted in the Celtic Daily Prayer Book (July 14). Whom do we seek, whom do we serve and to whom do we cast our eyes for guidance? In this piece I identify with both the poor and the fool.
I dreamt I saw a procession of saints, holy men and bishops in their fine robes and rich clothes. Behind them walked many poor people. And the poor had their eyes on the ground, searching it to be certain they could see the footprints of Jesus there and step in them. At the very back of the line was a little man, not very handsome and dressed in rags, but his head was held back, for his eyes were on heaven all the time. Poor fool. Poor, poor, fool.
From the play Poor Fool
By the Northumberland Theatre Company
I imagine the fool in this play saying repeatedly to himself the words of Psalm 121:
1 I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
Warmly,
In Christ,
Jeremy