The Blueprint
What burden(s) or weight(s) do you need to release so that you can respond to God’s call for liberation?
Acts 27: 20, 33-38
When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and no small tempest raged, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.
Just before daybreak, Paul urged all of them to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been in suspense and remaining without food, having eaten nothing. Therefore I urge you to take some food, for it will help you survive, for none of you will lose a hair from your heads.” After he had said this, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all, he broke it and began to eat. Then all of them were encouraged and took food for themselves. (We were in all two hundred seventy-six persons in the ship.) After they had satisfied their hunger, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
When all hope is lost and death seems certain, Paul reminds us of Jesus’ blueprint:
Give thanks to God, encourage one another, be fed together in body in spirit, and let go of the fear and material goods that are weighing you down so that you may have life—even if that extra weight is your food for tomorrow.
Why do we keep starving ourselves spiritually, bodily, and relationally, when the sustenance we need is within our reach?
This week we have reflected on systems of comfort, slavery, scarcity and greed all in contrast to God’s invitation and provision for the journey to liberation, staying woke to systems of slavery and waking up to God’s liberation and abundance for all.
Now it is time to throw the weights overboard.
May God grant you the courage and strength to let go of what is weighing you down so that you and all people may have life and freedom.
God is calling you to liberation. What burden(s) or weight(s) do you need to release so that you can respond to God’s call for your liberation? For the liberation of others?