February 1, 2020

Thought   for  Today

“Faith in God yields a double self-understanding. 

We experience ourselves as both gift and task. 

At some times we receive ourselves as funded from beyond; at other times we receive ourselves as enticed from beyond. 

E. B. White once reflected that people are torn by two powerful drives: the desire to enjoy the world and the urge to set it straight. 

These two drives cannot be successfully reconciled but greatness lies in the struggle to respond to both of them. 

To live out of God is to live in the alternating-rhythms of enjoyment and transformation. 

It is to relish the gift of ourselves as it abundantly arrives and to engage in the task of ourselves as it imperatively calls. 

Faith makes us a people of both Sabbath delight and Kingdom passion.”  

John Shea