Attitude

Here's this week's Bible reflection:

I love the upside-down, sideways, backward-ness of Jesus. 

Take everything you know and look at it while standing on your head. If that doesn’t work, look at it in a mirror. If that doesn’t work, look at it sideways. If that doesn’t work . . .

In the sermon on the mount, specifically this week in Matthew 5:38-48, Jesus took the common knowledge of the day and asked people to look at it differently. He took the accepted practices and the unbreakable rules and asked folks to consider that causing harm while following those practices and rules went contrary to why any of the practices and rules existed in the first place.

As often as we quote verses from this passage, however, I don’t think that the passage is about the specific instructions. It is about the attitude Jesus wanted and wants all to have.

Notice people. They matter. Treat them as if they matter. Be generous and kind, even when you don’t feel like it. 

If you can’t find a way to do that, first try standing on your head.