Devotion - Tuesday, April 24

I have but one re-occurring conversation these days:  How many exams/projects do you have left to complete?  The replies expose something of how folks fell about the work yet to be done.

Some move immediately to what it is that they still need to learn.  For them, the exams are a commitment to master a subject or accomplish a task.

For others, it is a looming evaluation - not merely of their knowledge but of their whole person.

In Matthew 3:7-12, Jesus warns the Pharisees and Sadducees of God's judgement.  They had come out to him, to where he is baptizing, and Jesus informs them that they are to bear the fruits the befits repentance.  His words are spoken to a particular sub-set of those who came to the river Jordan; but they are to be heard by all those who still listen for his instructions.

God will judge and does judge.  God sees what we do and what we fail to do.  Through scripture and through the pastoral support of our fellow pilgrims, we discover the places where that judgement has opportunity to establish a finger hold in our lives.  

This is not some divine evaluation of our actions and our person so much as it is God's work to mold us into the persons God would have us to be.  It is God's way of guiding us into that which we still need to learn, master, and integrate into our lives.

These days can be stressful.  They are less so when we remember that end we seek is not the one immediately before us, but one which lies out there in the future.  By setting our eyes on that final destination, the steps which move us from here to there come more naturally.