Again, I'm drawn more toward the connections between being a follower of Jesus and these words by Gandhi on satyagraha (soul-force).
The art of dying for a satyagrahi consists in facing death cheerfully in the performance of one's duty.
When we press for the truth the truth may be that which we cannot bear. It may be the death of us. At least the death of that which we have been trying to keep alive over against the truth. This dying is the life of the one who presses for truth. Sounds odd...but it is much like the dying and rising that we talk about in baptism. Again and again, we are face to face with the truth of God's Reign among us and that means that our way we have worked so hard to create and defend must be put to death. This is important in this life because it is here as we are willing to die that we begin to see more than one way. When all we can see is one way, it usually spells the death of all of us. We die to self...to that turned-in-on-self. We then are able to seriously face the truth of life as it needs to be so that the welfare of all becomes part of our breath - our life - our vision. What is important for us as we go along this way is that all sides must accept the art of dying. In the creation of something new, there is the miracle of dialogue that takes some not all of each side - even when we think our side is closer to the truth than the other. We press for the truth...that is our duty. We press on within the peaceable Reign of our God.
Connection: Pressing on is not the easiest part of life....and yet...it is our life.
Come, Holy Peace Maker, and lift us up out of our ways that can be so stuck on ourselves that we are unable to see how we limit the truth and thus fall for something less than the good news of your Reign. Make you peace our way and in that way let truth reside with us. Amen.
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