The 19th Sunday After Pentecost:
Scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5; Luke 18:1-8
Key Verse: “Pray always and not to lose heart.” (Luke 18:1b)
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Hello, This is Jade.
Welcome to Yi.kigai
A space for all to explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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Do you pray believing that your prayer will certainly be heard and answered for the best? And what comes to mind when the outcome wasn’t what you wanted? Before becoming a Christian, praying to a deity was the way of life, especially when facing challenges or during a life transition. I could even pick and choose a deity among the many in Taoism or choose Buddha to pray to base on my needs and situation. It sounds silly to me now, but I did pray to be a smart kid when I was taking exams, to win all the competitions that I was part of, to be safe from all unpredictable dangers and to wish all bad people and harmful stuff would disappear.
Growing up in a polytheistic culture in Taiwan, I was fascinated by all the relationships among religions and the association of deities to each of them. I wondered how all the deities in charge of human lives had been managing our ongoing miseries. Not to mention the complexity of deity reincarnation, the ultimate life-giving hope seems unreachable. In some religions, deities were formerly human. If they couldn’t do anything while alive, how could they protect the living after they died? So, is being dead better and more powerful than being alive?
Life matters! Goodness matters! That’s why we all pray for good things to happen and terrible things to vanish. In our lifetime, we have seen the power of evil that keeps leeching off goodness even faster than what we can keep up. Moreover, we tend to forget countless blessings in our lives when one terrible thing happens, and that is all we can think of. How about the resentment toward one nation, one tribe, one community, or one family passing down through generations, and revenge becomes the mission of the following generations? That might be the reason this saying speaks to many: you can do ninety-nine favors for someone, but they will remember well one thing you didn’t do.
As I recalled my prayers through life, I could see the progression of my belief from holding up the hope of either illusion or delusion, to the hope of either self-benefit or self-interest, and finally to the hope that God has promised for believers through Jesus Christ. How I wish my progress could have been faster! But it was slow from being myopic to believing in God who is the One holding our future and having the best interest in all our lives together. I appreciate the word ‘amen’ said to conclude each prayer. It acknowledges our faith in God who hears our prayers and will take care of the rest. And the rest literally means the rest of our lives and of others who might be affected by our actions and prayers, now and then.
God knows each of us by name and remembers what we have been through. Whenever we are not sure what works best for a situation, a person or ourselves, we say what comes to our mind and leave the rest to God. God will find ways to transform our lives into Good News that touches the lives of others.
There is a saying that evolved over many decades and credited to many. You might have heard this. It says, “Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become actions. Watch your actions. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Character is everything.” My question for our own reflection is, “Does your character set you free, free to love and forgive, and bring joy and give hope to others?
By applying our prayer and faith into the pattern of this saying, it may go like this. Watch your prayers, they become words. Watch your words, they become ministries. Watch your ministries, they become traditions. Watch your traditions, they become your faith. Faith is everything. May the faith of ours set us free, free to love and forgive as Christ does, and may the same faith bring joy and give hope to all that God redeems.
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May your coming week be blessed by God’s grace
As together we explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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Should be October 16th.