Gospel Mindfulness

Episode 46: Loving others can be scary, and not without cause. Community can overwhelm, disappoint, and destroy, not least because the community can become too important. God calls us to love him first, and in so loving him, to find freedom in loving others.

Image credit: Rembrandt van Rijn

Who serves who in the church? Despite the tremendous importance of personal growth in holiness, the Apostle Paul invites us to consider that we were primarily redeemed for one another.

Image credit: IDuke on English Wikipedia

True love is hard to believe. Most of our relationships are subtly based on transactions, even with those we love, and ultimately rooted in fear. God's love takes us by surprise and, at times, offends us. But it is only in the love of God that we find the freedom to love likewise.

Real love can be annoying, real love can be difficult, real love can hurt. Real love comes from God, in humble submission to the work of his Spirit—and despite our natural inclinations, is well worth the struggle.

Image by Gustave Doré

Most of us aspire to greatness in one sense or another. We discipline our bodies, our minds, our schedules. We go without sleep, we go without comfort, all for the sake of some worthy goal. But how many of us aspire to grow in love?

The greatest feelings of dependence and humility often come through times of great suffering. Though we are brought low, God's ultimate goal is to make us whole. It is only by truly seeing the magnitude of our need and the depth of our own sin that we find true rest in God's forgiveness. As Luther wrote, "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for he is victorious over sin, death, and the world" (LW 48:281-282).

Thank you for listening to season 2! Gospel Mindfulness will return in the Fall with a new series on seven big questions people have about God, the Bible, and Christianity.

*Modified image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay

All of us follow someone or something, and that something, if it isn't God, is probably a tyrant.

*Modified image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

The freedom the choose. It is one of those natural rights that needs no argument in the modern day, perhaps especially in the domain of religion. But when given the choice of who or what to worship, what do we choose? In all likelihood, we pick a bigger, better version of what appears uncannily like ourselves.

*Modified photo by succo from Pixabay

Idolatry is more than bowing down before statues. It is the making of a god in our own image and on our own terms. An idol can be physical or, more often than not, a creation of the heart.

*Modified photo by Sam Valadi

God is a God of beauty, order, and light. The evidence for this is all around us, just there is also evidence of something dark in the world and in ourselves. But God is at work in and for his people—a holy people, called to be a light in this world.