Reflection: Mathew 7:12-14

My life right now involves a lot of time driving. I'm staying at my parents' house which is a good hour and 20 minutes from where I work, so I-24 and I are pretty good buds.

I like to listen to the pray as you go podcast as I, er, go because it gets me in a good frame of mind for the rest of the day. Morning is by far my favorite time of day and I love starting it by hearing the Word and meditating on it.

Yesterday's reading was from the Gospel of Matthew, the rather famous verses about "do unto others" and the road to destruction being easy and the road to life being difficult.

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:12-14)

We've heard it before, many times in our lives. "Do unto others what you would have them do to you." The danger in that is that it becomes a cliche that we stop hearing after a while. I have to make a conscious effort to remember that, to internalize it, and act on it. Do I treat others with compassion and kindness the way I want to be treated? I meet a lot of people in my line of work, both co-workers and customers. It's not unusual to meet a sour grape every now and then. I am sometimes a sour grape myself... but what I am called to do is to show God's loving kindness, his grace, to others, sour grape or not. 

It's easy to dismiss others, to not care, to treat them as less than. It's easy to get wrapped up in my own life, my own worries. It's easy to walk down the road of destructive tendencies, the ones that do not bring life and hope and joy. As Christians we must turn from this easy road and seek out the straight and narrow path (as my mother says). We know what we are called to do--do unto others as you would have them do to you--but actually walking that path can be difficult. Lucky for us, we don't walk it alone. God is with us when we stumble. 

May we all find the straight and narrow path and walk it humbly, with compassion, doing unto others as we would have them do to us. 

Grace & Peace,

Kathleen

General Convention Countdown!

I have wanted to attend General Convention for quite a while now, and this is the first year I have been able to do so. I am REALLY excited to take part in the Young Adult Festival and to see all the happenings of the Convention. Also, I will hopefully reconnect with some of the people that visited Hong Kong during my time there.

If you're thinking, "General what?" and would like to know more about how it all works and comes together, I highly recommend this basic guide.

I will blog as much as I can during the Convention! Just under 10 days until it begins. Can't wait!

Welcome!

Hi there! Welcome to my new blog, continuation of the old blog. Since I am no longer in Hong Kong but still want to blog I figured a new site was in order. And here it is!

Some big changes have happened in my life in just the past few weeks. Instead of going to graduate school I talked to my priest about going through the discernment process with the Episcopal Church.

Lots of people have asked what exactly that means. In the Episcopal Church, if you want to become an ordained minister you and a group of people go through a process of discerning God's call in your life and how that translates into ordained ministry (as either a deacon or priest). In the Diocese of Tennessee this process takes about a year, so I will begin it next spring.

In the meantime I will be finishing up my final year of Education for Ministry, a distance education program through the University of the South's School of Theology. I'm looking forward to the next leg of this journey through life, and I hope you will come along with me. Aren't road trips more fun with dear friends? :)

Grace and Peace,
Kathleen