My Japanese grandmother here in Kanazawa, Yoko, sadly passed away last August. I'm also friends with her sister, Izumi, in Tokyo, and last year Izumi gifted me with a subscription to The Upper Room, a wonderful devotional series that arrives every two months.
With the isolation/state of emergency going on, I've been walking by myself or just with my family, and sometimes silently praying for the Holy Spirit to hover over Kanazawa and comfort and change hearts. It's been feeling...not enough. I know that's a lie, but that's just how it feels.
Then today's devotion in The Upper Room was focused on Micah 6:8:
"God has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"
The lady who wrote the devotion, Virginia Jelinek, has recently turned 73 and is feeling the effects of aging--she was grieving some things she can't do anymore, but this verse in Micah struck a chord within her. She writes, "I discovered answers in Micah 6:8---words that teach me how to accept aging with humility and grace. They restore to me mission and purpose, telling me that I don't have to do great deeds to make a difference. So, these days my mission and its impact are clear. Every time I pray for justice to reign, every act of mercy I show, and each time I choose to put another ahead of myself, the world shifts a tiny bit for the good---and God is pleased."
Ahhhhh! I could breathe slowly and purposefully again. I am praying for justice, and it is meaningful and it is enough. I am enough because of Jesus, my all in all.
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