When Father Dale asks you to do something it is hard to say no. His assignment for me was to write one of the weekly reflection letters.
Reflection. Am I supposed to reflect back on this year? Much of this year I don’t even want to think about, let alone dwell or reflect on it. We have been deprived of much of our social interaction, especially our church community, a community that has a great deal of influence on us and provides a great deal of support for us.
In thinking about reflections, I would rather like to think about our reflection in a mirror. We can imagine in our mind that we look a certain way, aren’t too wrinkled, not that gray, not that overweight. However, the mirror does provide us with a harsh unarguable reality of what we really look like.
What if we had a mirror for our souls? Would we really want to know the harsh unarguable reality of our souls? I confess I have spent as much time running from God and avoiding Him as I have spent trying to follow Him and love Him more. And when I try to do a soul inventory, I find that like the reflection in the mirror, I don’t like all that I see. It’s easy to say I should have done more; I should have been better.
If, however, we could get an honest view of our souls we would see it is like the words of the Rich Mullins song “the reckless raging fury that they call the love of God”. A love that never diminishes no matter where I am or what I do or don’t do. A love that never diminishes if I’m moving toward Him or away from Him. A love that never diminishes even with all the crises of this year.
I am not a Christian because I love God, but because He loves me. We sing the song in church that says I am a friend of God. As good as that feels, the next line says “He calls me friend.” This same God who has this reckless raging fury that they call the love of God is alive in us right down to the depths of our souls.
In 2 Corinthians 6:10 Paul says that as servants of God we should be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. This year has given us plenty to be sorrowful about. Next year will also present us with catastrophes, loses, health issues, worries and stresses. Yet that fire in our soul, that reckless raging fury, that love from God, should bring us rejoicing that is always, always, with us and in us.
So, just maybe, each one of us should write our own reflection letter. A letter to examine and accept who we are on the outside, and know and stand fast in knowing that God loves us so completely that He sent his Son, so that His love will always be in us.