Respond in Love

~~~ Hosea 14:2-10 ~~~ Psalm 51 ~~~ Matthew 10:16-23 ~~~

...do not worry about how you are to speak

or what you are to say.

You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

For it will not be you who speak

but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Today is a sad day in our country.

A day following so many consecutive days of violence 

that words do not seem sufficient.

Violence shuts down all possibility of peace.

The words God gives to us are words of caring,

 understanding, and today sympathy.

Words of sympathy for each person

 who lost their life...for their loved ones.

We must allow the words that Jesus would speak

 be the words that also come from our lips.

Jesus speaks words of love and peace.

I will love them freely...

When God responded to the sins

 of Israel he responds with great love.

The recent circumstances in our country

 can only be healed through freely loving others.

If we learn to freely love others then 

senseless violence will not be an available option.

If we learn to freely love others violence

cannot be an alternative response.

If we learn to freely love

we will also come to know others.

If we know one another then we create a climate for love.

We are called to reach out to one another.

We are called to love one another.

To love one another as God has loved us.

Are we as a society capable of loving

 one another as God has loved us?

I am concerned that we still have far to go 

before reaching that level of love.

Our country must not be simplified into them and us.

It is only love that can simplify our society.

I invite you to reach out

 to those around you with love.

It is through God's love that the healing

 of these last few days can begin.

We must be part of the solution...

The solution must be saturated with love and peace.

God Bless our country

 during this time of tension.

~~~Peace~~~