Reconciling in God

The concern for reconciliation finds expression in the simple human desire to understand others and to be understood by others. These are the building blocks of the society of man, the precious ingredients without which man’s life is a nightmare and the future of his life on the planet doomed. Every man wants to be cared for, to be sustained by the assurance that he shares in the watchful and thoughtful attention of others -- not merely or necessarily others in general, but others in particular. He wants to know that -- however vast and impersonal all life about him may seem, however hard may be the stretch of road on which he is journeying -- he is not alone, but the object of another’s concern and caring; wants to know this in an awareness sufficient to hold him against ultimate fear and panic. It is precisely at this point of awareness that life becomes personal and the individual a person. Through it, he gets some intimation of what, after all, he finally amounts to, and the way is cleared for him to experience his own spirit.

Howard Thurman
Disciplines of the Spirit, by Howard Thurman, Friends United Press, 2003, p. 105. 

I used this passage from Howard Thurman’s book, Disciplines of the Spirit for a recent devotion at a Church Council meeting and declared it necessary to share with the whole congregation. This is truly an important meditation on what it means to be Reconciling in Christ, and reconciling in God, especially during Pride month. I encourage you to take time this weekend to meditate on what this passage means, and how it makes you feel.

How will you use this to inform your own ideas of reconciliation? Having read this, have your thoughts changed at all on what it means to be a Reconciling in Christ congregation?