Swords or marshmallows?

It’s June … thunderstorms and showers and the temperature is ramping up. So much is happening it can be a bit overwhelming: help here, do this, write that, serve them, watch those…. What do we choose when there are so many voices? So many needs? How do we listen to the one voice we need to hear? What is it that we are called to ‘do’?

Living our lives as God-worshipping people in Arlington is sometimes very easy – we are unlikely to be martyred for our faith, nobody is going to burn our house down or stone us.  But somehow where there is no conflict or challenge our inclination towards comfort can make us a bit more like a marshmallow rather less like a sword, where we live quietly and without fuss in our cultural setting. How do we remember what we believe when we don’t talk about it?

It can feel really awkward talking about what you believe – dropping Jesus’ name into the conversation doesn’t always come easily; but the aphorism ‘Preach the gospel at all times, if all else fails use words’ can be a bit of a cop-out. Certainly our actions are important and can speak loudly of who we are and what we care about – like parking at W-L on a Sunday or cleaning up Oak Grove Park this afternoon (June 2^nd, 2.30pm -5pm) but what about those words? Where have you seen Jesus this last week – and who can you tell all about it?
As we head into the weekend (God save the Queen!) how about using some words, as well as your actions as you reflect the image of Christ in our neighborhood.