We will continue to base the devotions on “God for a Secular Culture” by Jurgen Moltmann.
If like is only known by like, why should it be known at all? Surely what is no different is, for the one who is no different, a matter of complete indifference? If I know only what is like me, or what already corresponds to me, then after all, I know only what I know already. The fascination of knowing is missing. The interest in knowing is paralyzed. When two people say the same thing, says a Russian proverb, one of them is superfluous.
The journeys of our lives that take us well beyond our domain need not be some grand journeys across the globe. Each day we have the opportunity to experience a world in which we will be shaped by that which is not us…and that journey will be within the regular movements of our “normal” day. Unfortunately, it is too tempting to ignore that which is not like me and simply walk where I have been before…talk about the stories I have heard before…greet the people I have greeted within a framework that provide nothing new…just that which is the same as me. I think that the Good News of the Reign of God stretches us beyond ourselves and that makes every day an adventure in which I will be invited outside of that which is like me…because all things are within that grand domain of God’s Reign. No one is superfluous because we do not know everything about any person and what we don’t know is an opportunity to widen our vision of life as it is and could be.
Connection: Sometimes we have to start out on a journey with those places/people that are closest to us…most known, already. We may be surprised at what is not known and what that discovery may do for us as we face our next journey.
Lord of the Journey; lead us into the fertile fields of the relationships that abound all around us. Keep us aware of the many gifts of life that come to us within the lives of those we do not know and those who are quite unlike what we would want and expect. In our journeys, Lord, remind us of your blessed gracefulness. Amen.
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