Closer Than a Friend

Meditation:
If a close friend is one who encourages us to do our best, then is Jesus not our best friend? Should we not look at the Lord's Supper as one of His primary requests for us to be our best? The Eucharist does not look back into our past with a critical eye, but Christ looks to our future with hope and Divine calling. The Master draws us from what we have been into what we might be. He bids us come, not because He sees as somehow better than we once were, but because He wants us to be. To stay distant from Him because our heart has grown cold, is to refuse to go to the fire so we can be warmed; and the fire is always there, its flames fanned by those who came before us to receive its warmth.

©2013 Richard Lewis Jones

Cultivating a Habit of Pleasing God

Meditation:
There is a quality about all we do, when we do it to please the Father, that redeems the lowliest and most mundane task from insignificance, it puts hope in the most monotonous of duties, and it dignifies the smallest of efforts. If we think of life as our opportunity in which to form the habit of doing all things to please God and bring Him glory, then nothing is trivial. Whether we give or receive a cold cup of water on a hot summer day, visit a sick neighbor, smile at a passerby, or pray for a complete stranger, whatever we do, we can cultivate a habit of pleasing God. This habit is well worth establishing, for it will surely outlive our very life in this world, and keep pace with eternity in heaven to come.

©2013 Richard Lewis Jones