Every Kindness Is Saving a Life
At the start of Mark 3, we find Jesus speaking to his distractors, and this time he brings up Sabbath. Here he's back in the synagogue on the Sabbath and in the congregation there's a man with a "shriveled hand", and Jesus asked his detractors this time, which is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save a life or to kill. But they remained silent. Now, the reason they remain silent is they know what Jesus is going to do, right, but also because Jesus is referring here to a particular teaching of the Pharisees.
New Wine and Old Wineskins: When It's Time to Begin Again
When people try to pit Jesus against the Pharisees, his basic first response is, "well, that's their thing, this is mine." And sure, of course, later Jesus will go after. He will critique particularly those people who he sees wielding power over and against the common people, but generally, as a mission statement for his life, he is not all that enamored with tearing things down, at least not in the way that he's committed to building something new.
Returning to Ourselves
When you are spiralling and making bad choices, more negative self-talk is rarely the answer. Often, it’s slowing down, stopping even, reflecting on the narratives you tell yourself about yourself so that you can find a better place to move forward from. What we name as sins are the symptoms of not knowing yourself the way God knows you.
You Are Loved: The Cycle of Grace
We all know we're saved by grace but the truth is we are also changed by grace. Knowing ourselves as God knows us, as loved and welcomed and forgiven is the only thing that can actually transform us. And not understanding that is the root of all sin.