Wounded

I love reading up on what the Fleshies are doing back in Calcutta. And as I read, I'm often struck by the lessons they're learning there - lessons we in North America need also to learn. Some of Sarah's remarks from Monday just struck a chord. Here are some excerpts: Violence of any kind is an assault on our identity and the human response to assaults on our identity is anger and retribution. But that was not Christ's example. The identity of the western world was assaulted on 9/11 - our power and wealth was assaulted. We have a model for how to live..for it is comendable if a man bears up under suffering because he is conscious of God. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats, instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. By his wounds we are healed (the whole world can have this healing but who will model what it is supposed to look like??) I am reminded that my identity even when under assault, can not be diminshed or stolen because it is secure not established by how I look, what I own, or how important a job I have. I remember the words of Jesus: You can take nothing from me because I give it to you freely.