Dear St. John's Community,
I was on a call with a clergy friend today, and she brought up the idea of holy metrics—my words, not hers. The idea is that most of the time we, being human, tend to measure things in easily quantified metrics, like dollars and cents, people in pews, clicks on YouTube or whatever. She says, what about the metric of belovedness?
We could for instance pay attention to the level to which we know God's love for us. Or, we could look at how much we share that important message with our community, our neighborhood, and our world.
It would be harder to measure, but it would set us on a higher goal—and especially now.
The powers that be can teach us to be safe, or to be physically fit, or how to bake fantastic bread at home. But we as children of God have something even more vital to share, which is the gift of belovedness, which actually transforms all else.
On a fairly personal note, I will share that I was having one of those more difficult days recently, and I decided to take a long walk (with a facemask on). I looked down, and saw just what I needed to see—a message in the sidewalk and a gift of grace: "U.R. Loved."
God's peace,
Rob+