Day of Praise

We, 11/20/13, "Day of Praise"

2 Peter 3:9 - "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."

So what do a haircut and Christmas shopping have in common? Well, depending on who cuts your hair and when you're shopping, they both can require a huge amount of patience.

My daughters will often go to one of our local cosmetology schools to get their hair cut. Such willingness to be a practice dummy for the hair-cutting students means that their haircut can literally take hours. But my daughters, and all others who get their hair cut at the school, know that the students are learning. So my daughters are patient.

In the same way, as we start to do our Christmas shopping this time of year, it would be good for all of us to remember that the mass of humanity that could frustrate us, for various reasons, is a bunch of people who are learning.

Ultimately, we're all students. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, God says that none of us will fully know until Jesus comes again. That's why, in Matthew 28, Jesus sends disciples to make disciples. In other words, Jesus is sending students of God's good life to make students of God's good life because, until Jesus comes again, we're all learning. And when we remember that we're all learning, like a bunch of hair-cutting students, then it's much easier to be patient with one another.

Best of all, God tells us, in today's Bible verse, that God is very patient with all of us, mostly because God wants none of us to perish, as God always remembers that, until Jesus comes again, we're learning.

So, as Black Friday and Christmas shopping are upon us, let's all add to the kindness and peace out there by meeting the unkindness and conflict with patience. In so doing, God's own patience for all of us will be seen, and all of us will know more of God's blessings.

Dear God, please help and teach us all.

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson