Perfect Feb 24, 24

"Today’s Gospel contains three commands from Jesus: Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. Be perfect Loving and praying for such people seems challenging at best. But it’s the third command - “Be perfect” - that might provide the most hope and empower us to love more wholly. The original Greek for perfect can also be translated as whole or complete. Using this translation, the command no longer seems impossible. Be whole." Marissa Flores Madden in today's Refresh lenten prayer regarding Mathew 5:43-48. interesting to use the Greek definition of percect, which is whole.. Jow can i learn to be whole this season? Whole like the fullness of the Moon. which will be full tonight. But, Spokane has been mostly cloudy snd grey, which is matching with my own feelings these days. My lung disease, macrobacteriun avium intracellulare complex, MAC, has returned. So, I am learning a new normal; negotiating doctor appointments, IV treatments, generally learning how to live with this disease. And a other reflection from Richard Rohr Daily Meditations: " Public theologian Kate Bowler shares a prayer for times when we aren’t sure of our next move. She writes: I had a very tender podcast conversation with theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas. We have worked together for almost two decades now, and I rely on him to be incredibly certain about what makes a life good and virtuous…. After describing how many twists and turns that life had taken, he had come to a conclusion: “The ability to live well is the ability to live without so many certainties.” We will have to develop a high tolerance for having so little control and so few bedrock assumptions. So let’s ask our God to “unplan” our days a little and help us live that way. God, I come to you as I am. It is all I have, really. And the next one I’m conscious of will be the same. I can feel the way I move, moment to moment, without the comfort of “solutions.” It seems wild to me now how I imagined any once-and-for-all cure for this, or a master plan to ensure things will work out. But, truth be told, that’s always been my secret hope. So, Lord, let’s try again. I’m begging for a new plan. I want a plan that is an “unplan.” I must keep moving and planning, trying and changing, knitting my days together even as they unravel. So can we do this together? Remind me to pray: come Lord and quiet the worry. I step, and you steady me. I give, and you keep my hands open. I act, and you fortify me with courage to try and try and try again. This life is uncertain, Lord, but your love is not. You tell the story of my life regardless of how little I know about how it ends, except to say, you were there since the beginning and you appear on every page." learning to live with loss of control, and embracing the NOW! Jeeze Louise!