This litany draws from this week's Lectionary. Here is the one from 2018 if you care to use it.
A major lesson for me over the last few years has been around themes of minding my own business, managing my mind, and refraining from trying to "fix" or change other people. I am the only person whose mind I can change. My job is to do my own spiritual work and the work that the Spirit puts before me to do. My job is to love unconditionally and to forgive everything. By healing myself I heal the world.
This is both liberating AND a hard habit to break. Especially if, like me, you were raised to engage in Christian culture wars, to "win" (arguments, victories, souls, etc.), to be right and righteous, to "defend the faith." But the more I look at the life of Jesus, and listen to the promptings of the Spirit within me, the more deeply I understand the non-defensive, non-judgmental posture of the Christ. I think of him referring to the Pharisees as "white-washed tombs," so focused on the behaviors of other people and disregarding the state of their own hearts. He went to a whole death non-defensively, and got up preaching peace and forgiveness. Imagine it.
God, everything you give,
You give freely.
You make room for everyone who wants into your community,
Everyone who wants to abide in love …