But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:35-36
“If you hope for mercy, show mercy. If you look for kindness, show kindness. If you want to receive, give… Give to the poor, and you give to yourself.”
Peter Chrysologus (406-450).
While looking for writings of Brazilian saints, I twice found them quoting this Italian. I find it interesting to see what saints inspire the Christian movement here. Why? Brazil has the #2 population of Christians in the world behind USA.
And I love Peter Chrysologus. His thoughts today stopped me in my tracks. So profound! Ponder them with me. And the timing is providential as I just read these verses in my sermon Sunday night in Rio de Janiero.
I normally write in “we” (first person plural) language. But at times like this, when the content is so powerful, I shift to “you” language (second person singular). I do this if I want “you” the reader to internalize these ideas.
When you show the mercy, kindness, and generosity you hope to receive, and when you give to the poor, you discover that you are really showing mercy, kindness, and generosity to yourself and giving to yourself. You don’t figure it out until you live it out.
Did you catch that. Don’t miss it. The best think you can do for yourself is live, give, serve, and love generously, mercifully, and kindly. It maps the only way for you to experience life in all its fullness.
And consider more responses coming in from readers to the “Two Pencils and One Keyboard” post.
One reader wrote, “I am the warm smile with the crinkling of the eyes reflecting outward the joy within me. Rejoice in Lord, again I say rejoice.”
Another one said, “I am a kite, tethered to the earth for this moment in time, but made by God to look upward, reach higher, and be still. The higher I go with God the more awe, wonder, and joy I can spread in his name as others look up. If I look down and cling to the earth I become unstable and uninspiring, yielding the disinterest of men as I erratically change course with the shifting winds.”
Keep being the kite or the keyboard, the pencils or glasses, the guitar or the note card, and all the other great words that have been shared or that keep coming in.
Everything is connected to everything else. When you play your play our part, you bless others and the blessing returns to yourself.