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It's Time


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.


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