Spiritual Practice: Obedience Pt 1

The focus passage for this week is Mark 3:20-35. In vs. 35, Jesus tells the gathered crowd that "the person who obeys God's will is his brother or sister or mother." (The Message) What does it mean to obey God's will? Many will point to the ten commandments as God's will, but Jesus boiled the commandments down to two, summing up the law and the prophets: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. This is God's will for us. To love. 

Loving is more than being kind. Being kind is kindness, and that is part of loving, but it is not all of loving. Loving is be respectful and thoughtful. It is listening to another person and responding to what they need the best way you can. Sometimes loving means moving out of our comfort zone. Sometimes loving means standing up for them. It always means meeting them where they are, and walking alongside in a way that honors their truth. 

Obedience to God this week is loving God in action and in truth, and loving God is loving our neighbors, the stranger, the enemy, and the marginalized. Loving them ... not tolerating or enduring or ignoring or politely imposing your own will ... but loving them. May it be so.