Monday Whatevers
February 27, 2022
Hello, Friend!
It’s Monday, so… inspired by on one of my favorite bits of the Bible, let’s start every week off with a little bit of whatever’s good and noble in the world. Here are a few excellent and noteworthy things I’m seeing in the world right now. Some are beautiful, promising, and reassuring. Some are poignant, thought-provoking, and necessary. All of them add to a greater knowing of God’s presence in this world, within our humanity, and out in the great beyond. And, they all prove there’s an abundance of spectacular, breathtaking tangible and intangible cosmic matter between us.
Please feel free to share in the comments whatever is good that you’re seeing in the world as well.
Blessings,
Marcie
With the world in turmoil over the war in Ukraine and Russia, I want to use this week’s Monday Whatever to point to some bible verses.
Please know that I don’t like to toss around bible verses willy-nilly like a rain of bullets against our fears and concerns. I never want to to seem like I’m using bible verses to cover the truth of our current circumstances – or as a reason to ignore our faults and failures as human beings. Most of all, I never want to use bible verses to keep others from embracing the Divine Reflection of God within them.
I don’t believe that the Bible alone is a cure-all to treat deep, painful and complicated things. I don’t believe that quoting the “right” bible verses solves problems. That’s like putting a bandaid on a major head injury. Some things just need more than a verse or a quippy mantra. My goal here is to offer something good in the face of war. And honestly, I don’t know what else to offer to such suffering.
So these are not “God-will-fix-it-all” verses or “Jesus-is-coming-soon-so-don’t-worry-be-happy” verses. These are just universal truths that we can all hold onto in the darkness. Things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent and worthy of praise.
Much Peace to All of You
WHATEVER IS TRUE…
There will always be trouble in the world, but there will always be peace as well.
I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace. In the world you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but be courageous [be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy]; I have overcome the world.” [My conquest is accomplished, My victory abiding.]
John 16:33, Amplified Bible
WHATEVER IS HONEST…
It’s okay to grieve, weep and be distressed about war and oppression. So Jesus was also bothered by these things.
When he came closer and saw the city, he began to cry. He said, “If you had only known today what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden, so you cannot see it. The time will come when enemy armies will build a wall to surround you and close you in on every side. They will level you to the ground and kill your people. One stone will not be left on top of another, because you didn’t recognize the time when God came to help you.”
Luke 19:41-44, God’s Word Translation
There will also be times when your soul will be consumed with grief and sorrow. Jesus says, “Me too.” There will be times that even your closest friends will let you down. Jesus says, “Me too.”
He took Peter, Jacob, and John with him. However, an intense feeling of great sorrow punched his soul into agony. And he said to them, “My heart is overwhelmed and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Matthew 26: 37-38, The Passion Translation
WHATEVER IS JUST…
We are all made to be loved and not judged, sheltered and not purged, rescued and not destroyed.
“Then God surveyed everything [that was] made, savoring its beauty and appreciating its goodness. Evening gave way to morning. That was day six.”
Genesis 1:31, The Voice
“And whoever hears my words and does not keep them, I am not judging him, for I have come, not to judge the world, but to give life to the world.”John 12: 47, The Aramaic Bible in Plain English
WHATEVER IS PURE…
Our work helping those who are widowed, orphaned, marginalized and left without a home or a country, will always be worthy of our attention, prayers, aid and love.
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of [Abba] God means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
James 1:27, New Living Translation
WHATEVER IS LOVELY…
The only way to love others’ differentness is to first love a strange, mysterious God who is different and to see ourselves within that God who is love. This kind of love has the power to end wars and abolish hate.
And you will love the Lord your God from out of your whole heart, and from out of your whole soul, and from out of your whole mind (dianoias, disposition, thorough-mind, critically thought out mind), and from out of your whole strength (ischyos, ability, might, force to overcome resistance).The second [is] this: You will love your neighbor (nearby) like as yourself.
Mark 12:30-31, Literal Emphasis Translation
And when we wield love unabashedly there is no place for fear or shame – and we can love even our enemies who are those who cannot love us because they cannot love every part of themselves.
“You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor—but hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are children of God. For God makes the sun rise on bad and good alike; God’s rain falls on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Don’t tax collectors do as much? And if you greet only your sisters and brothers, what is so praiseworthy about that? Don’t Gentiles do as much?
Matthew 5:43-45, The Inclusive Bible
WHATEVER IS GRACIOUS…
We are created to imagine a God who will not leave us abandoned – not even in death.
Though I pass through cities of pain, through death’s living shadow, I’m not afraid to touch [and] to know what I am. Your shepherd’s staff is always there to keep me calm in my body.
From Psalm 23, A Literal Bible: An Original Translation by David Rosenberg
We can imagine a God gracious enough to prepare a table to host our souls and the souls of our enemies.
You set a table before me in the presence of my enemies and give me grace to speak to quiet them, to be full with humanness, to be warm in my soul’s lightness, to feel contact every day in my hand and in my belly – love coming down to me in the air of your name, Lord, in your house, in my life.
From Psalm 23, A Literal Bible: An Original Translation by David Rosenberg
WHATEVER IS EXCELLENT…
The whole earth is filled with goodness—because God said, “it is very good.” And the light that God first spoke into being is still here. No matter how grim things seem, there is always light.
The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light.
John 1:5, New Life Version
WHATEVER IS WORTHY OF APPLAUSE…
God is still speaking light, “Let there be light,” all over this earth. Jesus reminded us that we are the reflection of that light – not as a nation or as a country, but as the lovingly created reflection of God.
And you, beloved, are the light of the world. A city built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. Similarly it would be silly to light a lamp and then hide it under a bowl. When someone lights a lamp, she puts it on a table or a desk or a chair, and the light illumines the entire house. You are like that illuminating light. Let your light shine everywhere you go, that you may illumine creation, so men and women everywhere may see your good actions, may see creation at its fullest, may see your devotion to Me, and may turn and praise your [Divine God of Light] in heaven because of it.
Matthew 5:14-16, The Voice
May your week be filled with whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, gracious, excellent, and worthy of praise.
Much Peace,
Marcie, BCWWF
This is a feast of wisdom, love, and light. I could come back to this all week and be full each day. I’ll be sharing this with many. Thank you. 🙏🏼✨
This is exactly what I needed just now. Thank you. 💛 (Also, hot damn..some days I read what you’ve written and I think “I want to be like her when I grow up—wise and gracious and strong in the midst of her humanity.” And then I remember that, at 46, I should probably be grown up soon. 😂🙃)