Lenten Daily Devotional - Day 7 - 2/20/13

Devotional Scripture:  John 5:1-30

Devotional Thought:

"Do you want to get well?" - John 5:6

Time after time after time after time after time after time . . .

Sounds like a broken Cindy Lauper record.

Time after time, I've had to make a choice . . . at times a very difficult choice.

Do I ere on the side of grace and chose the needs of people around me in need of help . . . or do I ere on the side of law and chose to obey a rule or tradition?

I am going to be honest here . . . most of the time in my adult life, I chose to ere on the side of people.  Some of you know that I was a police officer in Fort Worth, TX back in the 1980's.  I have a healthy respect for law and order.  But that's not what I'm talking about here.  Let me try to explain further . . .

I remember as a teenager, our youth leader wanted to take us to minister in some of the barrio areas near my home/church in the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas. 

Did we go?

No, we didn't. 

Why?

Because some of the parents, as well as some of the church leaders, didn't want us messing with "those people." 

I always thought that was strange.  I wondered back then, in a teenage militant sort of way if we were all reading the same Bible.  I was later informed that I wasn't reading the correct Bible (not much love back then for the Living Bible among some older folk).

Yes, I am a white anglo-saxon protestant . . . however, I was raised in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas . . . where whites were a minority.  3/4's of my graduating high school class were Hispanic.  I guess I've always, if I wanted to, been able to sense the pain of being made fun of for your color and beliefs.  I wasn't brown skinned, and I wasn't Catholic.  I couldn't speak Spanish.  Years later, especially in the ministry of our church to Hispanics, I can understand when they share with me the struggles they have providing for their families in a predominantly white culture.

In our devotional text today . . . Jesus chose to ere on the side of people instead of the side of the law.   And it made someone mad. 

How would you have responded?

God's grace still amazes me . . . ><>