Act, Love, Walk

Yesterday…

…Seeing Raheem Stirling attending court. He’s played football for top British clubs, he’s played for England eighty-two times, in 2021 he received an MBE for services to racial equality in sport.

In May thirty-one-year-old Sterling crashed his Lamborghini. Yesterday he was pleading guilty to dangerous driving before, possessing nitrous oxide for wrongful inhalation, and failing to provide a specimen for analysis. He’s currently not playing football.

…Meeting the old French proverb: ‘Tout comprendre c’est tout pardonner,’ – ‘to understand all is to forgive all’. Apparently, it’s quoted by Leo Tolstoy, in War and Peace, and Evelyn Waugh, in Brideshead Revisited.

I’m encouraged to listen better to people’s stories, to cultivate empathy and compassion. I’m challenged to put words and actions into perspective, create space for forgiveness. I question whether there are exceptions to this proverb…

…Reading of St Francis of Assisi. He was referred to as ‘jongleur de Dieu’ – God’s juggler, God’s clown, for his unconventional way of living and preaching…

He’d stand on his head to see the world upside down; he turned the world of power, popularity, prosperity and piety on its head as he lived his life of poverty, chastity and obedience.

This morning reading Micah:

He has shown you… what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

Remember: Looking back on lessons learned, life’s good things…

Reflect: Musing on all that’s good, how we respond…

Respond: Act justly – Raheem Stirling in court – establishing truth, taking responsibility, doing the right thing.

Respond: Love mercy – to understand all is to forgive all – prioritising empathy, compassion, forgiveness.

Respond: Walk humbly – St Francis’ clown – turning world priorities of self-first, power and popularity, upside-down.

I see justice promoted without mercy, mercy without justice, individual priorities without humility. God’s way brings justice, mercy and humility together. They create tension, but, in that tension, there is balance.