Reflections from a month gone by

Here it is the end of January 2010. It has been a month of micro-ponderings (tweets) prayers that I have been focused on. I have been reading through the minor prophets and have been struck by God's justice and God's mercy. Justice for His people and mercy towards His people. At times I find it hard to understand what these writings mean for us today. After I have read through them all I will go back and begin to drill down a little deeper. My initial thoughts can be found in my daily prayer tweets.

My prayer tweets have been a fun project that I have been working on for the 3 months or so (you can follow them at @strscoa on twitter). This has been an exercise in condensing my prayer thoughts down to 140 characters. It has helped me get to the heart of what I have been reading. Most of these tweets come out of what jumps out at me from my Bible readings.

A Flock of Ducks

Ok, so here's the scoop, it January in Minnesota, we've had cold snaps of -20, there's a foot of snow on the ground, and the lakes all have ice on them, yet I have a flock of duck 10 or so that come flying by my office at home every morning. I don't know where they are going to or where they are coming from but to me they seem a little out of place in a Minnesota winter (they just circled by a couple more times). If this were summer we wouldn't even think twice about seeing them flying around. They would blend right in to the surroundings. They would be a natural fit.

As a Christ-follower, I should be like the ducks in the winter. I don't simply want to blend in with my surroundings or culture. I should instead standout. I would hope that people would see something different in me, the way I act, the way I respond. I believe that it is Paul who says we should be in the world but not of the world. This is not a case of being better than others, just different in how or why we act the way we do. My beliefs and values should compel me to do things differently than what the culture might dictate, what "religion" might dictate.

My challenge this week is to go out and be a duck in the winter, to standout and make a difference, not so that I can be honored but so that the love of God might be shared with others.