Reflections on Gospeling Your Life

 

“What we venerate, we emulate.”  I recently heard that quote and wrote it down.  What we put on a pedestal; we worship.  If we venerate a judgmental God, we justify our own judging.  If we worship a God who is distant and disconnected, we embody those traits.  If we worship money, success, status, followers on social media, friendship, we will seek to pour our efforts and energies into those areas.  There are no true atheists, only many gods that all claim and clamor for our attention, affection, and affiliation. 

Reading the gospels is to let the Good News of God’s love incarnate infect your heart, soul, mind, and whole life.  Reading the gospels is the call to explore the question, who is this God who comes to us in the flesh and form of a Jewish itinerate preacher and teacher?  This question is inexhaustible, you will never solve that question once and for all, it is an unfolding mystery that propels our lives.  If we want to know what we worship, where we worship, how we worship, we can look at our calendar and credit card statements.  Where we spend our time, the people with whom we share our energy, and where we invest our money preaches a gospel.  Who we listen to on the news, podcasts, read in magazines are the voices that are really gospeling our souls today.  When you are in a room with others, look around at who is in the space and who is not.  Your life is a gospel (remember Caesar claimed to bring a gospel too).  We all preach, your life is a sermon, a song, a way of showing up and speaking up.  Listen to your life and to find the places where what you have read over the last fifty-ish day fits with God’s truth and where are the puzzle pieces mismatched?  This is hard, holy work.  Yet, pondering prayerfully which gospels am I living is a question for us day after day.  May God’s unconditional, unceasing, prodigal love guide you in this invitation today.