When am I too lofty to love?  

When am I too lost to love?

 Prepare ye the way! Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 60’s, when change was about being in the streets, moving the “establishment” to get out of the way of justice.  Maybe it’s because I grew up when the Interstate Highway System was being built, running past our ball field, those two-story high earth movers “making the rough places smooth”, moving, moving, moving so much earth. 

Maybe that’s why I've always thought of this Gospel as a call to prepare the way in the world.

But this year it seems obvious to me that I am called to prepare the way in myself.

When am I up so high in my security or comfort that I cannot see the hungry and the poor and the naked and the imprisoned and the sick?  I’d better come down to where Love can move me by being present to other people, and I’d better pull the ladders down with me, so I cannot go up there so easily again.

When am I so low, in a fetal position of despair or self-doubt that I avert my eyes, let my shoulders droop, consider myself useless in the face of the pain of others, so many others or just this one so needy other?  I’d better let Love lift me by looking into the eyes of others, so hope and self-respect can rise in me, raising me up and in-spiring me, breathing life into me.

 While love never fails, love never forces.  Our God created us free, and the choice to come down from comfort or up from the despair is ours. 

Thanks to EclecticThinktank and FishingForArchitecture for images.
 FreeLemonadeStand by John J. Daniels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.