It's Not Enough

LECTIO (READ)

Psalm 34  ⁽⁰⁾ By David, when he pretended to be insane before Avimelekh, who then drove him away; so he left:

^15 (14) turn from evil, and do good; seek peace, go after it!

Isaiah 49:1-6

⁶ he has said, “It is not enough that you are merely my servant........

I will also make you a light to the nations, so my salvation can spread to the ends of the earth.”

1 Corinthians 4:1-16

² Now the one thing that is asked of a trustee is that he be found trustworthy. ³ And it matters very little to me how I am evaluated by you or by any human court; in fact, I don’t even evaluate myself. ⁴ I am not aware of anything against me, but this does not make me innocent.

MEDITATIO (REFLECT) 

It is not enough for me to merely seek peace, I have to go after it.

It is not enough that I am merely a servant, I have to be a light.

It’s not enough to be respectable, and I’d be crazy to pretend to be innocent. In fact, it’s a waste of time to evaluate myself at all. Instead, I have to do my best to be trustworthy.

ORATORIO (RESPOND)

David wasn’t innocent — he lied; was disloyal to his king; cheated on his wife; played politics for all he was worth; used his friends mercilessly and got them killed for helping him, but he never stopped trusting God.

Isaiah wasn’t hopeful — he’d lost hope in everything except God; he was cynical about politics, sarcastic to the rich, and disparaging to kings, but he never stopped trusting God.

Paul wasn’t patient — he was always getting infuriated with people who insisted on missing the point, but he never let them get him mixed up about what is really essential; what really matters, and he never stopped trusting God, either.

It’s only when we’ve dissolved our categories, renovated our routines, evaporated our preconceptions, and devalued our own notions that we will be able to see a different world; an altered reality. It’s only then that we will find that we’ve wandered into a strange-but-familiar territory —God’s hinterland, the place where God alone is sufficient; where nothing is enough and everything is enough.

CONTEMPLATIO (REST)

I’ve said this before: It’s trust that makes us trust-worthy.