This weekend at church I heard a powerful sermon on 1 Peter 4:7-11. The sermon was about how not to waste your life and, of course, referenced John Piper's "Shells" message. But the key to not wasting your life is, in essence, how well you love others.
I think of all the times we create cliques in the body of Christ. We surround ourselves with only people like us and call it "community." We avoid or exclude or discard from our lives those with differences--different color, different culture, different income, different social status, different disability, different life stage. We too easily forget that "There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, since you are all one in Christ." Galatians 3:28 (CSB)
All of this flies in the face of Ephesians 4:1-6, Philippians 2:1-8, and Colossians 3:12-17. This is not the maturity we are called to in Hebrews 6:1. I'm preaching to myself here. Every time I start to think I'm doing well in accepting and including others, I'm about ten seconds away from realizing my judgments and failures.
The sermon ended with two phrases that began with "It's time..." Out of those and all these verses, this poem was born. It's a clarion call to my soul. It's time.
It's time to be self-controlled
For mindful sobriety
It's time to be ceaselessly prayerful
For unfatiguing constancy.
It's time to be selfless
For magnanimous mercy
It's time to embody Christ-likeness
For fathomless humility.
It's time to resounding compassion
For unconditional love to exceed momentary charity
It's time for whole-hearted devotion
For community without partiality.
It's time for exhorting encouragement
For harmonious solidarity
It's time to serve one another
For grace-infused maturity.
It's time.