We typically have a certain feeling about people who like people that we don’t like.  We don’t understand them, and we don’t seek to understand what they see in them.  And if they seem to be charismatic enough to draw the people to them that we don’t like, our first inclination is to believe that “birds of a feather flock together”.  We assign to them the same character traits of the persons we don’t like and quietly grumble to ourselves criticizing them for their associations.

         And yet, the trouble with divine trouble is that the people who are criticized for associating with “outcasts” come closer to engaging in the type of divine trouble that God calls us to.  And associating with people who are not like us invites us to engage in the same divine trouble as Jesus, the divine troublemaker.  To associate with all people while engaging them with the unconditional love of God causes divine trouble for everyone.  It can cause trouble for those who practice it, coming from those who refuse to hear it.  It can also cause trouble for those who don’t want the outsiders inside.  The trouble with good trouble is that it (at times) can trouble the waters for everyone involved.  The good thing about good trouble is that it is trouble on behalf of God.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving Christ, grant that in my journey of faith with you, I may be accused of being guilty by association because I associate with those considered unworthy of Your love.

         We can all imagine the dangers and potential trouble that lies ahead when someone is undertaking a new adventure.  And there are any number of issues that a person might be unprepared for that could come up — issues that would require some major personal adjustments.  But what is it that would be so interesting or challenging that would compel a person to drop everything and follow the person making the offer?  Perhaps there is something so intriguing about God and God’s work that compels a person to ignore the potential hazards and trouble a person could encounter. And yet any trouble encountered would be good trouble.

         Fear is not so easily dismissed, especially when the person inviting the dismissal of the fear is responsible for causing it.  It’s an open invitation to trust — to trust yourself that you’re making the right decision to follow, and to trust that the person making the invitation that their words, “Do not fear” along with the new job offer to “fish for people” are not leading you into failure of cataclysmic proportions.  But isn’t that the nature of divine trouble.  In some ways refusing to do it could be worse than accepting the offer.  And is observing a miracle of the fishes really enough to engender that amount of trust.  We can only know the answer if we are willing to trust and believe, which together, can convert a person into a divine troublemaker.

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Merciful God, open my heart to trust in the opportunities of faith You place before me. Help me to get past any fears that might cause me more divine trouble than trusting You.

         We have always lived in a world where people are critical of other people.  And our criticism of each other leads down a road of division — one by which we begin the process of grouping people according to our desired list of preferences whether good or bad.  This is perhaps where God’s perspective is most valued — that value of wisdom that justifies every decision God makes and not everything the human value of judging others.  God’s trouble typically causes trouble for others because it seeks to heal, to restore, to give value to someone else, and not to take it away.  God’s trouble is caused by God’s ability to love everyone.  This maybe particularly offensive to those who’d rather play favorites that allow a person to be judged by the content of their character.  Perhaps the apostle Paul captured it best when he said:

            4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude.  It does not

    insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in

    the truth.  7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

          8 Love never ends. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NRSV)

It should be understood that this is an attitude of Godly wisdom the world may not be prepared to accept.  Good trouble — the kind of trouble God invites us to become a part of — is the kind of trouble that has a viable association with those considered unworthy of love.  And if we find ourselves in an association with those people, it’s God’s wisdom that will make the final discernment about who’s who and what’s what.  It may be God’s wisdom and only God’s wisdom that places those who know God in the company of those who don’t so that they may come to know God through us.

• Have you ever been accused and wrongly judged because of associations you may have had with other people?
• Have you ever been labeled guilty by association because of who you associated with?

Todays Prayer

Today’s Prayer —
Loving God, grant me the grace to be charged with guilt by association because I choose to love those deemed unworthy of your love in your name.