Priorities - February 21, 2025

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32; Isa. 65:17-25; 1 Tim. 5:17-22(23-25); Mark 12:28-34

My third grader is doing a vocabulary study project. The word he chose is “unbalence” (he wrote it this way on his planning sheet). He defines the word as “something that is not equal”. For the costume to embody this word, he needs “something heavy and light”. That nine-year-old boy has me thinking about spaces in life that are unbalanced.

It doesn’t take long to see examples of imbalance in my own life: Working hours. Spending money. Food choices. Social media. Worry. We each have our own categories that bubble up…and maybe we examine what is most important in life. To find a healthy blend or balance, what people, actions, and perspectives are considered first?

We are not alone in testing our need for realignment. Jesus and a scribe exchange words in the gospel according to Mark appointed for today. The scribe asks, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answers, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength…The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (12:29-31) Period.

Last night, Nadia Bolz Weber spoke at Birmingham’s Highlands United Methodist Church in Five Points, the second stop on her Red State Revival tour. She shared music, words of inspiration, and offered her own testimony grounded in song and prayer. Nadia spoke of her times wandering far from God, and those moments when the Holy Spirit gave her the gift of words and reassurance to trust in the bold forgiveness and reconciling love of Jesus. It is that love which we are to extend to our neighbors, our enemies, and those who are hard to love. That is the love that we truly want – for it is strong enough to forgive those who have hurt us and ignored us and belittled us. It is big enough to forgive us, too, liberating us in ways we never could imagine.

Friends, when life within us and outside of us is unbalanced, let us choose the priority of great and abiding love. Love for God. Love for ourselves. Love for our neighbors. Then, act accordingly. It is a radical way to live. It is the command God sent to the Israelites of yore. And we have the model of Jesus and the courage of the Holy Spirit to help us along the way.

In God’s love,

Katherine+

Reflection and Challenge

What are your priorities of time, money, and mindset this week? Sit with the gospel for today and reflect on how God is calling you to realign or adjust.

Try a small experiment for this next week: make one incremental change to lead with God's love with intention each day.