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Kingdom Living Devotionals

by Nancy Woodford
 

Week of 3/28 • Lesson 6, Live in Harmony With One Another

When I was a child growing up in the early 1960s, my family watched a weekly television program called Sing Along with Mitch. In it, Mitch Miller, a peppy, goateed gent, led The Sing Along Gang, a men's chorale that sang toe-tapping versions of I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover and Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey. At a certain point in the show, Mitch would turn to face the camera, smile broadly, and say to the audience at home, “Don't just sit there! Start singing!”

The Sing Along Gang's television heyday was short-lived, and it wasn't just because they lacked a contemporary, pop-flavored edge. Most of the time, on one old-fashioned tune after another, the Gang sang in unison. Occasionally they broke into two-part harmony, but just a few measures later, they'd all return to singing the same note. And that was the problem. The music was pleasant, but without harmony, it lacked color, depth, complexity, or surprise. In the end, the thing that made the songs easy to sing along with also made them predictable and boring.

Songs sung in harmony call for the blending of many voices singing a variety of notes all at the same time, creating one graceful sound in which the splendor of the individual tone can still be heard. Lives lived in harmony call for the same variety. The beauty of the whole, the Body of Christ, depends upon the rich diversity of the individuals who make up that Body.

And how our God loves diversity. All creation blazes with the glory of the singular, the unique, the unrepeatable. No two trees are identical, no two stones ever match, and no two snowflakes ever look alike. The beak of every crow is different, the stripes on every zebra distinctive. The shape of my face matches no other.

And yet the very diversity that most delights God frequently defeats our attempts to live together in community. The stunning variety of our personalities, interests, opinions, skills, and talents proves overwhelming, and as we struggle to form the Body of Christ, we discover that it's not difference we want, but uniformity: a safe, manageable community where everyone thinks the same, feels the same, and acts the same. Gifted with voices that can sing every note, tone, and pitch under heaven, we choose instead to sing the same note. But mistaking uniformity for unity and unison for peace has its costs. Living in unison, without the riches of diversity, our life together soon becomes dull, narrow, empty, and false.

Live in harmony with one another. To live in harmony with one another means to undertake the hard work of creating a community that prizes diversity. In such a community, we recognize everything that is different about each other, and we find a way to make all those precious differences work together. As we blend and integrate, accommodate and adjust, welcome and cherish, each unique quality in every individual gradually falls into place and is given voice. Then unison gives way to harmony, to the beauty of true unity, to the Body of Christ made whole by our joyful response to the invitation to just start singing.

During the Week - I will ask God for eyes to recognize the diversity in our community, for a heart to treasure all that is unique in each individual, and for the wisdom to know how I can help both myself and others use our varied gifts to create the beauty, truth, and peace of a life lived in harmony with one another.

Week of 3/21 • Lesson 5, Be Devoted to and Honor One Another

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
—Romans 12:10

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
—Matthew 12:46–50

Family wears on us after a while. It's just not easy being with these people, even the ones who love us most of the time. They don't behave properly. They're boring. They don't know us well enough. They know us too well. We think longingly of leaving, of finding a terrific new family, one that will really understand and appreciate us.

But Jesus doesn't tell us to keep searching until we find the perfect family. He tells us to take a look around at one another right now, right where we find ourselves in this time and in this place. This is it, He tells us. Here are my mother and my father and my sister and my brother. Not there. Here.

And that's exactly what Jesus did. He looked at the people around Him, and then He devoted himself to his newly-defined family. He lived with them, traveled with them, taught them, and He never stopped loving them, not when they were dull and thick-headed and misunderstood His teachings, not when they were quarrelsome and doubtful, not even when they betrayed Him, denied Him, and finally abandoned Him. Faithful to the end of His life, Jesus never wavered in His devotion to the imperfect people who surrounded Him, the ones He called family.

The call to be devoted to one another is a call to recognize each other as family. It's a call to commit ourselves to our community, to remain faithful to the brothers and sisters who walk this path with us as we struggle to understand and do the Father's will. It's a call to set aside our individual desire for fulfillment and to choose instead to learn and grow together: in love, patience, and gratitude; in kindness, humility, and peace.

Here are my mother and my brothers. Jesus' words echo across the ages and come to rest within our hearts. He named us members of His family. Now we look at one another and say: mother, father, sister, brother. Not there. Here.

During the Week - I will thank God for the many lessons I have learned from my family members in this community and for the growth I have experienced living among them. I will pray for insights that will help me to better understand and appreciate each one. Then, I will ask for the wisdom to know how to show my devotion to them in ways that will help them grow in faith and love.

Week of 3/14 • Lesson 4, Be Kind and Compassionate to One Another

Be kind and compassionate to one another.
—Ephesians 4:32

A leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing. Be cleansed." As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.
—Mark 1:40–42

If you are willing: Imagine the leper speaking those words. Diseased, ashamed, outcast, knowing that the healing he longs for hinges on this stranger's willingness to feel compassion for him.

If you are willing: Imagine Jesus hearing those words. Knowing he abandoned his own will long ago, surrendered it to God so that he could become an instrument in God's hands, doing God's will, not his own. And while he was at it, he gave up his heart to God, too, so that what he feels now as he gazes at the kneeling leper is God's own tender heart overflowing with compassion, God's own irrepressible desire to touch and heal. But he doesn't tell the leper any of this. He only says I am willing, and reaches out his hand. And then, because his words are God's words and his touch is God's touch, the leper is instantly healed and restored to wholeness.

When we fail to show one another kindness and compassion, we are like the leper before he met Jesus, broken in body and spirit, unable to heal ourselves. But when we are kind and compassionate to one another, the miraculous happens. We cleanse and heal one another, and we forgive one another. As individuals and as a community, we grow in gentleness, patience, gratitude, and humility. We see an increase in peace and goodness in our lives. We are restored to health and wholeness.

This much is clear: The call to be kind and compassionate is so much more than a call to be nice. It's a call to be Christ.

And in order to answer that call, we have to be willing to die to ourselves and surrender our will to God. We have to be willing to empty ourselves, to become a channel for God's grace, allowing God's compassion to pour through us and out to one another, cleansing, forgiving, healing, renewing.

If we are willing to become instruments of God's compassion, then our words will be God's words, and our touch will be God's touch. We have the power to heal, replenish hope, restore faith, and resurrect lives…If we are willing.

During the Week - I will give thanks to God for the times I have been treated with compassion, when I have been forgiven, and when I have been healed, and I will ask his blessing on those who have been kind to me. I know my own kindness and compassion, poured out on others, can lead to healing and new life, and I will ask God for the grace to share his great compassion with all those whose lives I touch.

Week of 3/7 • Lesson 3, Have Equal Concern for One Another

There should be no division in the body, but its parts should have equal concern for one another.
—1 Corinthians 12:24

We all do it: rank, sort, classify, decide which is good, better, best. We do it to eggs, beef, and wine. We do it to one another. We have to do this, don't we? Because if we didn't, how would we know who deserves our attention? Whose needs should be met and whose should not? Whose voice should be heard and whose silenced? So we continually perform a sort of moral triage on one another, deciding this one is worthy of respect and that one can be ignored, this one can be included and that one can be rejected. Engrossed in our measuring and evaluating, we don't even notice how far we've drifted from one another or that our unity has disappeared into the immense gulf between us.

Jesus faced the same gulf in His own society, and He bridged it in the only way that leads to unity: by showing equal concern for all. He cared for each individual, from the rich young man to the woman at the well to the disciple Peter to the madman of Gadarenes…on and on and on, no matter the individual's rank, no matter his/her status within society. For each His embrace grew wider and His heart more open, until His vast love embraced them all, held them all in unity, cradled them all as One. And He did this until the day He died—classified as a criminal, deemed worthless, ignored, rejected, and ultimately silenced.

Every time we fail to show equal concern for one another, we risk crucifying the holy. Every time we decide one individual is more important than another, we contribute to division within our community. We miss the opportunity to become more like Jesus, who lived in such complete unity with God that He could declare, "The Father and I are one." It was from that unity with God that Jesus drew the power to teach, to heal, and to love with deep abandon. That same unity, and the power that accompanies it, is available to us when we obey the command to have equal concern for one another.

We open our heart to some and close it to others, but when we finally choose to leave the heart's door open to everyone, we discover a wondrous thing: our heart is Christ's heart, and there's room enough for all.

During the Week - I will consider the ways I rank people, their gifts, and their contribution to our community, and I will surrender to God my need to judge their worth. I will show equal concern for each person who crosses my path during the coming week—even when it means feeling his/her sorrow as well as joy. And I will rejoice in our unity in the Body of Christ.

Week of 2/28 • Lesson 2, Accept One Another

Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
—Romans 15:7

Do you remember the last time you were rejected? Maybe it was because of your politics or your religion. Maybe it was because you were a woman or a man, young or old, rich or poor. Someone looked at you, totaled up your differences, and made the decision not to welcome you into their life or their heart. Their message to you was clear: You are different. You are not worthy. I do not accept you.

Jesus delivered a different message. Every time he visited a tax collector, dined with a rich man, healed a prostitute, or embraced a child, his message was clear: I accept you. Jesus looked beyond the differences that set people apart to the single significant similarity that brought them together: each one was a beloved child of God, created in His image.

In the same way, Jesus looks at each one of us and says, I accept you. He casts aside questions of worthiness to say, I welcome you. Every time Jesus accepts one of us, he shows us how we can learn to accept one another: not by focusing on our differences, but by humbly recognizing our unity in Christ himself. This is how we offer praise to God—by offering one another a home inside our heart.

During the Week - I will explore the ways God accepts me in spite of my failings, weaknesses, and personality flaws. I will pray for the ability to accept others as Jesus accepts me. If I usually avoid a specific individual who is different from me, I will ask Jesus for the courage to get to know this person better and to allow his or her differences to spiritually enrich me.

Week of 2/21 • Lesson 1, Love One Another

Love. It's a verb, an action word, and Jesus spent his entire ministry acting it out: trudging mile after mile, from town to town, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, washing feet, listening, touching, teaching. Forever telling the crowds, Love one another, and then showing them how.

The night before he died, Jesus implored his disciples one more time: A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34, 35)

Today is the day to take Jesus' words to heart and understand what He spent his life trying to teach us. Love is the foundation of our life together. Our unity is based on love. The Body of Christ rests on love. All the other One Another Commands flow from love. Nothing comes before love, but everything comes after it. When we love one another, we do more than show the world we are Jesus' disciples. We show the world Jesus Himself.

During the Week - I will ask God to help me examine my life and discover where I am holding on to grudges or nursing old wounds. When I am tempted to mistrust, fear, or judge another, or when I resist loving another, I will ask God to help my heart. Then I will ask Jesus to show me how to act out my love in community with one another.