Wondering
June 25, 2025
Wondering
Galatians 5:22b-23
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
Wondering
I find myself wondering a lot lately. Wondering how we came to be a world that values power and money and dominance. Wondering why it is so hard for us to choose kindness in the way we treat one another – on a macro and a micro level. Wondering where all this hatred we surround ourselves with, feed ourselves with, will lead.
Here it is, right here in this passage in Galatians. The way forward we could choose, if we could find it in us to take one step at a time into letting the Spirit live in and through us. The spiritual exercise that has borne the greatest amount of fruit in my life happened when I read that memorizing and repeating some verses every morning could make the word of God dwell in me. With a certain degree of skepticism that this would actually be a path to change, I decided to try it. So I picked a few verses, wrote them out, looked at them, eventually memorizing, and repeating them as a daily prayer. This verse from Galatians was one of them.
There was something about starting the day, saying what the fruits of the spirit were, that brought them into my consciousness differently. After a while, I noticed that the words of the verses were changing me from the inside out. That I was looking for ways to pay attention to love and joy, attempting to be more patient; all the words of the fruit in the passage called me into letting the spirit live in me, bear fruit through me. I didn’t add the part about “there is no law against such things.” Today, I think I want to add that too. To remind myself that no matter how troubled and troubling life is in this world – no one can stop us from letting the fruits of the spirit breathe in us.
Reflection Questions:
1) What fruit of the spirit do you want to breathe into your soul today?
2) What would it be like to repeat these words, or some of these words, as a mantra throughout your day?
3) Take a piece of paper and pencil or pen or crayons and try sketching whatever comes to your mind as you think of these fruits of the spirit.
Prayer: Dear God, In this broken and hurting world, we need ways to figure out how to be loving and live differently. Help us on this journey. In Jesus Name, Amen
