July 27, 2008

"I know that God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish he didn't trust me so much." --Mother Teresa

"Thy kingdom come..." We pray these words often, but do we really think about what our world would be like if the kingdom of God was our focus? During July we have heard from Matthew's gospel, Ch. 13 where Jesus speaks to us in parables about what the kingdom of God is like -- a sower of seeds where some fell on good soil, of grain that grew in spite of weeds, of a small mustard seed that grew into the largest of plants, of the little bit of yeast that makes the dough rise, like a treasure someone found in a field and sells all he has to purchase it, like a merchant who found a great pearl and sells all he has to purchase it, etc.

Parables are stories that teach us something about God, something we may have not thought of before. What would happen if God's kingdom were a priority for each of us? Even a little yeast makes the dough rise. What would we be willing to sacrifice to bring about the kingdom?

This week I have been thinking about the Olympic games (and we must pray that there is no violence.) People from every country are willing to set aside their cultural and language differences and come together with the games as their focus. On a local level, six Christian churches in our area are willing to come together and set aside their doctrinal differences in order to offer food to the people of this area through Angel Food Ministries. What might happen if countries of the world could set aside their desire for wealth and power and concentrate on eliminating hunger?

Our true treasure is our faith in a loving God who wants only the best for us and gives us many ways to show us who we are and what we are to do. As we make decisions, maybe we could try to keep the coming of God's kingdom as our focus.