Today’s scripture: Matthew 5:7-12 (ESV-text and audio) (KJV) (The Message) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Julie Walsh):
When I worked in a juvenile correctional facility, one particular student was ready to make a serious change in his life. He took the first step by reaching out to me in the form of a letter, which is excerpted below:
Dear Julie,
I haven’t been the best student. I have fought, trafficked, manipulated, been dirty, slick, sold myself and treatment team short, lied, withheld information, punked people, and gambled. Yet, I have talked with you about a number of things. The reason why I’m telling you is because you are an excellent listener and can offer tangible realistic/spiritual answers that I am willing to hear.
Communication continued between us for a series of months, with nearly a hundred letters written in total. Most of the letters focused on resolving emotional, social, and family issues from a spiritual standpoint. As time progressed, however, we both realized a deep sense of love and compassion for one another that is not typical in this environment. We discovered that a unique family bond like mother-son had developed:
Why couldn’t I have you for a mother? Why not before now, when I was out there roaming from place to place? Why can’t I have YOU as my foster mother, or my sponsor, or my mentor, my after-care specialist? You have raised my strength, faith, and hope. Moving the way I am is new; talking the way I am is new; feeling the way I am is new. You have experienced my joy, my anger, turmoil, laughter, pain, anguish, yearning, but you have never witnessed my real [intentional space here]. I’ve never wanted to give it more badly. Even the trust thing was new but as correspondence and time progressed it grew in me and I grew with it. The same with this emotion. I’ve never been loved like a son so I couldn’t tell you, but I have considered, “Is this what it would be to love a mother?” So much is to consider. Moral boundaries, professional boundaries… Our relationship is built on trust, respect, spirituality, and love. True, raw emotion.
In my only written response on this subject, I wrote:
This is love. It is not the love defined by want, need, crave, or lust. This is its own unique brand of love. Love that desires you to be who you were created to be. Love that finds trust, openness, honesty, truth, hope, laughter, and light.
As fate would have it, the day he received this letter all correspondence was confiscated and I was terminated from my job.
I relate to today’s scripture because Jesus turned social and political attitudes on end when He preached the Sermon on the Mount. Maybe in a similar way, I had challenged the standard methods of practice when reaching out to students. The facility I worked in was designed to change young men’s lives and so I got on board to fulfill their mission. But in the process I got too close and too real, my integrity was challenged, and I was fired. Jesus came to Earth to change people’s lives, but during His mission He got too close and too real, had His integrity challenged, and was crucified.
The doubt and the gossip and the persecution directed toward me was painful and upsetting, so I can barely imagine how intense Jesus’ pain and sorrow must have been. But I am drawn back into this very first sermon and find assurance that not only was Jesus radical in turning the current thought upside down, but He then offers me the promise of great reward for having endured persecution — if not in this life, then in the next.
Thought for the day: Have I ever done anything radical in the way Jesus did?
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.