Kingdom signs - friendship and tenacity

Come to worship
not out of habit
not out of duty
not because your name is on a rota
not because you will earn points in heaven.

Come to worship because you love God
because you love yourself
because you love God’s world
because you love God’s people.
We come to celebrate the living God
made present in us and among us.

© Clare McBeath, U.K.

Friday - friendship and tenacity
I give thanks for being ministered to by others. My friend Olive, whose birthday I forgot, generously suggested we visit another friend I hadn't seen in over six years for her birthday in the evening. It was fun and crazy and lovely, and spoke to me of the pure grace of giving one another time. I'm not always a very good friend - letting work overtake my personal life. I give thanks that people make time for me and teach me at last to make time for others, for myself and for God.

At our prayers of lamentation for reconciliation and justice in Zimbabwe I found myself profoundly moved by the witness of the Zimbabweans we have met this week. Their cheerfulness and tenacity in the face of returning home to possible arrest and worse was a lesson in humility to someone as angstridden about faith and life as I often am. This spirit of resistance is a kingdom sign, it is not proud but it keeps on going, believing in what is right and seeking to follow that path.