And the Comfort Came

Jackie, Carol, Holly, Cynthia

All is well in the Mowdy house. Spirits were lifted by bulldogs, puppycat and more importantly attending a beautiful celebration for four amazing women last night. Not to take away from the four that graduated from The Emmanuel House Transitional Living Program, but it was also humbling to see the community support the showed up and knowing the supportive individuals that hoped to be there for the one year anniversary, but couldn't be with us for the celebration. The hard work put into the rebuilding and restructuring of The Emmanuel House over the past two years by so many people, the board, the recovery community, all the civic groups, and interested individuals caused me to be overcome with gratitude. It has been a blessing to know the people that really care about women that are so often set aside. The grief of yesterday, set aside by a focus on those that really want the best for all people, maybe even more than their own well-being, people that don't look down upon those trying to level up.

Humility is an odd character trait in today's society. The definition of humility is "freedom from pride or arrogance, ranker yourself better than others" (Websters Dictionary). I don't know too many people that would rank themselves lower than others on purpose. That would mean that you would care more for the needs of others than for the needs of yourself...always and all the time. The culture of America is a fight for our own personal rights, and often desires to be championed and to reign supreme. Last night, there were people that took time from their evening, to sit in the warm weather, to cheer women (and an organization) on, all the while knowing that they were also responsible for helping all of it to be possible. 

As I study this morning, I am brought to the third of God's blessings, taught by Christ and recorded by the disciple, Matthew. The third beatitude says, " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherent the earth." Some versions say, "God blesses those who are humble for they will inherit the whole earth." For someone that sees daily displays of the message that teaches pride and power will give you riches it is hard to reconcile this passage in light of today.

In the MUT Bible, (Monica's Understandable Translation) this passage is, "God will bless those that rank themselves along with those that are in a position of lowliness, treating them gently, because those will be their people and they will all be God's people.  God wants those that don't rank themselves above others. He wants those that consider themselves no better than anyone else. It requires an understanding that if we have - we have because of God's great benevolence. If we don't have - then we rely on God as much as we can. If we are in a bad position because of our choices in life, God still loves us, wants us and wants us to see our need for him(see June 24th blog Beatitude #1), but just because we aren't in a bad position, doesn't mean we have not made bad choices. In fact the one bad choice we could be making is to consider ourselves better than others. This type of thought rules us into the belief we don't really need God. God His Kingdom inherited by the poor in spirit that recognize their need for Him, as opposed to those that think they have life by the tail. Allowing those that live by their own power to be uncharge could possibly be the undoing of His Kingdom at the hands of those that aren't submitting to His perfect will. 

What does Kingdom inheritance look like? Looking at the culture of the time when this was spoken by Jesus, inheritance meant you would receive, due to family connection and status, the property and responsibilities of the father. Think on that, the property AND responsibilities of the Father. God will give the assets of His Kingdom to those that are willing to rank themselves with the low, but it comes with the responsibility to be gentle, caring, and meek, not arrogant or prideful because you will also carry the responsibility for those assets and people. God's Kingdom is not geographical, it is built with his created...us...them...All of of us who seek to be with all the rest of us.

Today:

Seek to be humble, gentle with others

Seek first the God's Kingdom

Ponder on you role and status in the world