selah, part 2

Some mornings I wake up and spend some time in prayer. When I do this, my day begins calmly. I feel an all-pervasive sense of peace through my spirit.

Monks and other devout followers of Christ are used to employing a daily set of readings to pause on the hour or throughout the day in set, reflective prayer over the scriptures. A helpful guide for me has been a book of daily prayers called The Divine Hours. This morning, I read this.

What caught my heart was the gospel reading:

Jesus taught us, saying: ‘And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings. Anyone who is trustworthy in little things is trustworthy in great; anyone who is dishonest in little things is dishonest in great. If then you are not trustworthy with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches? And if you are not trustworthy with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own? No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave of both God and of money.’
Luke 16:9–13

It gave me pause to think of how I spend my last days here at the Zoo. Will I be productive and good to these people, leaving them in good stead, or will I abandon the privilege to serve them? I make that decision several times a day and lately, I most often choose to abandon service for laziness. If God trusts me with the smallest details and compels me to handle them with duty and mercy, then I must do so. I was humbled.

Following this moment of reflection I turned on the TV to hear a commentator interviewed by Meredith Viera about Sarah Palin’s inconsistencies on her foreign policy record. When asked if he had a problem with her campaign asserting that she’s been to Iraq and Ireland (she’s been to Kuwait, and her plane LANDED in Ireland, so that was close enough for them), he said these were “small” details we shouldn't be concerned with.

My friends – are we really that sort of people? People who will not directly answer a question or will out and out deceive each other to win? I do not aspire to be that sort of person. I will not elect those sort of people to assist with our governance.

As I reflect upon yesterday’s post and the comments section, this is what I meant to convey.

Every day we make little choices about how to live with honor. The first way we demonstrate that is in our smallest behaviors. We further show our devotion to God by not being afraid of the truth, and speaking it.

I am not perfect. Barack Obama is not perfect. Sarah Palin is not perfect. But we must tell the truth. We must esteem and elect leaders who do the same.