Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 Search Archive Print This Article The fourth step Friday, March 9, 2001 Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus says. "This is what God does: He gives his best - the sun to warm and the rain to nourish - to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the loveable, do you expect a bonus?... You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out our your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you." (from The Message) Francis was an Italian kid from Assisi. His father was rich, his family aristocratic. He was tender, sensitive, spent a lot of time in the woods with the animals. His parents didn't understand him; he sure wasn't like their other children. One day he left home, and then later he returned, walking naked through the streets. His parents were mortified. "How could you embarrass us like this?" Francis was young, idealistic, determined. In 1968 I spent an August week in Chicago. I watched people get pushed through plate glass windows of the Conrad Hilton hotel, smelled tear gas, demonstrated against the war. A few days later at home in Lincoln, Illinois I wrote a long "letter," which the local newspaper published because I had been a beat writer for them the previous summer. In the letter I insisted that the American flag was better off burned. I was young, idealistic, determined. My parents got phone calls and dirty looks from their friends. I am still grateful that they supported me, but they were embarrassed. Generosity and grace don't spring from idealism and determination; instead, they are the marks of humility. Much later in his life Francis wrote, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon... Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek... to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For if is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Lord, remind me that I am fully as sinful as those who sin against me. Refresh me as I release the burden of bitterness and selfrighteousness. Teach me the rhythms of gratitude and grace. Thank you for the sunshine, Lord. "; Add      Edit    Delete