Hebrews 13:1-8
Dear RTB’ers,
Today’s reading offers a bunch of one-sentence instructions, encouragements, and admonishments: hospitality to strangers; remembering prisoners; undefiled marriage beds; love of money; overcoming fear; spiritual ancestors; and Jesus Christ eternally! I pondered each of those items that the author mentioned, looking for instances in my own life where those topics were relevant. I found that thinking of my spiritual ancestors was a delightful task, Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. (v. 7) Carol and I have been blessed with a number of powerful spiritual leaders – not only pastors and teachers, but also lay leaders and friends who have impacted our lives. I can name more than a dozen, right off the top of my head. But then I asked myself further if there are people out there for whom I (or Carol and I together) have had a spiritual impact on their lives. Sadly, my first thought was that that number is much lower. Then I recalled one of my favorite sayings, “You never know the impact that you are having on other people.” And we don’t know those impacts from years gone by, but we know that they are there. Maybe we need to adjust our behavior going forward so that strangers will say, “I met the nicest person today.” Come to our RTB gathering on Sunday after coffee hour and I’ll share a little incident from our overseas trip this past fall. “You never know…”!!
Blessings!