Redeemer Devotions for February 22, 2013

God as character



To run into this God as character - God who has a shape of life that takes our humanity

along new ways - can be a God from whom we may want to retreat. This is especially

the case if the life into which God is pulling us is not the life we want for ourselves.

More and more I find that God as character is showing me the fullness of life that

comes when I consider the welfare of the other and then begin to contemplate how

I am to live with the other and how that focus and life will change me for the

good.



It is one thing to 'keep in mind' the welfare of others. It is quite another thing

to have our character be changed so that our lives begin to seek out the welfare

of others. As I look out at the political atmosphere of the day, I am too often

shocked at the extremism in the air: the extreme self-centeredness - the extreme

amount of scapegoating - the extreme verbal and physical violence - the extreme

inability to work together - the extreme intolerance - the extreme hatred. And then,

in addition to these 'regular' folks. there are the people we all labeled the extremists.

Our God as character is always offering us the hand of the other - so that we will

hold and not bite it - so that we will stay a bit closer rather than run away -

so that we will have a moment in which we may come to a new vision of who the other

really is and who we can be with them at our side. Character.



O God of love and new life, round us up, O God, and teach us again the ways of your

Reign of peace that brings the healing presence of your love into the may ways of

brokenness that we so often call home. Amen.