Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What.

Happy Palm Sunday, Friends!

I am bringing back the blog.  "The Spirit Steward" started in 2010 with the following mission:

I wish this blog were just a mirror... literally.  I wish it were just a looking glass where everyone who came here saw only the perfect and pure reflection of themselves as God does... the beauty and power possible inside of everyone.  When I look at people every day, that is what I see - it's all I see - their Spirit, just as it was intended.

God built in each of you a light and a power to be you, from the moment you were born.  You didn't have to earn this, you can't buy it, and nothing you do - good or bad - can take that away.  It's your free gift just for showing up. It's called God's grace, and it works like this:

Imagine that it's the first day of summer vacation from school.  Thatt's not hard to do these days when we're all kind of in that zone anyway. Your mom or dad says, before they go off to work (in the next room 😏) "Enjoy your day, my beloved child.. I'd like you to clean your room and take the dog for a walk today".  You grunt at them, roll over, and go back to sleep until noon.  You eat a bit of breakfast and spend most of the afternoon binge watching your favorite TV show, totally planning on walking the dog and at least organizing your room into some out of the way piles.. maybe even making your bed.  At 4:00 pm, your parent finds you on the couch in the living room.  Your room is untouched, and the dog has taken matters into his own hands and relieved himself on the carpet in the dining room.  Obviously, they are dissappointed.  Depending on the parent, you prepare yourself for the lecture, the guilt trip, or the yelling... maybe all three.

You actually feel pretty bad that you forgot to do your chores.  Some part of you truly believes, in that moment, that you are probably a terrible person. You wonder what your punishment will be. Maybe you start punshing yourself inside. You go get the leash, take the dog for a walk and start cleaning your room.

As you are cleanring your room, your parent returns and gives you a hug and says that they love you.  You may think that the only reason they did that is because you finally did your chores.  You might think that the hug.. the love.. it's really basically conditional on your performance.

But here's a little secret.  God's love doesn't work like that.  There are parts of it that aren't conditional one you getting perfect grades in "Good Kid Class".  There is a huge, sustaining, part of God that loves the kid on the couch putting off their chores and watching YouTube videos all day.  Why?  Because God believes in you, and knows that being human is having days like this where we are less than the perfect version of ourselves.  God actually has a lot of faith in you, because God knows you and what you are capable of. God believes in that, loves and cherishes that, and celebrates that.  Even when you don't, or when you don't believe you are possibly worthy of that love. That love was there before you were born, and will endure forever.

From Psalm 118:28-29

Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter.  I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.