LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS

This Lenten season has been an extreme blessing for me.  I have so enjoyed the needed discipline in my life. As John the Baptist said "I must decrease so he can increase".  That is the goal of the
Christian life.  To die to our selfish ways and to truly love others......especially the unlovable.

Who did Jesus hang out with?  Prostitutes, tax collectors  and 12 not so polished men.  I love how Jesus looks at St.Peter when they meet for the first time in the Jesus Of  Nazareth movie  This is one of my all time favorites......see how Jesus looks at him (here).  Jesus looks at us all that way.  We all have our issues. We may not be as hard headed at St. Peter but we are all sinners. 

 "Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."(Mark 2:17)  It's in knowing the we need a savior that we can be healed.  There was a time when our society knew what sin was but now we celebrate it.  When Adam and Eve fell from grace this was there response:" At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves." Genesis 3:7.

I'm thankful that I know I am a sinner in need of a merciful and loving father.  This lent one of the disciplines I have tried is to shut some of the outside noise out......such as politics and not listening to the radio on my 30 minute drive home from work.  This has been extremely helpful because I find myself praying more and trying to hear the Lord's voice.

Last Thursday as I was driving home I came across a man who had just run out of gasoline.  He was young, wearing a black hoodie and was smoking as he got his gas can out of his trunk.  In the past I would have been so absorbed in my own thoughts that I probably would have not picked him up.

When I asked if he wanted a ride he first looked at me like, "are you sure you want to do this?"
I found out that his name is Ray and he is a cook at a local restaurant.  I continued to ask him questions about himself.  He filled up his gas can and I took him back to his car. I was so thankful that I could do that simple act of kindness.  And I contiune to pray for Ray.
Five more weeks on Lent...............bring it on.............let me die so he can live!