Thursday, February 24, 2011

Love - forms, imparts, grants, complicates

I am a fan of words. I cheer when they are used on purpose to bring about a point and I love when they are so good that the reader must re-read to "take it all in". My favorite part of Ryan's article this week has been enlarged because I want everyone to re-read this part.

Notes from the Pastor…
I am constantly grateful to serve as the Pastor of First Christian Church, Ruidoso.  Not only do I live in paradise, and serve a wonderful, caring, welcoming community of faith, but I also get to work with a fellow minister whose background is varied from my own and our perspectives complement. This is why I asked Frankie to preach; through listening to a sermon you hear a minister’s heart, and I selfishly wanted to hear her
heart.  As a result, we all were blessed and challenged. Matthew 5:38-48 is an explanation on Jesus’ command: “Love thy neighbor.”  As Frankie described it, “Jesus imparts a new way of living and loving… seeing others with empathy.” Emily Dickenson wrote:
Love is anterior to life,
Posterior to death,
Initial of creation, and
The exponent of breath.
May we therefore, live in love, which forms life, imparts peace, grants forgiveness, and complicates hate.  May our love mirror the love of Christ  – unbounded, unrestrained, and unrestricted.

Grace,
Pastor Ryan

No comments: