In the Valley of Shadows by Jill Carattini

Take about 5 minutes to read this snippets version of Friday's, 'A Slice of Infinity'. Follow up by reading TODAY'S SLICE and forward any comments on your faith journey.

A Slice of Infinity Snippets:
While still in the hands of their enemies, a train carrying Gordon and several others came alongside another boxcar at a stop in Burma. The entire car was filled with gravely wounded Japanese soldiers. They were left alone, without medical attention or company, as if abandoned refuse of war. "They were in a shocking state," Gordon recalls. "The wounded looked at us forlornly as they sat with their heads resting against the carriages waiting fatalistically for death....These were our enemy."

Without a word, many of the officers unbuckled their packs, took out part of their rations and a few rags, and with their canteens went over to the Japanese train. The guards tried to prevent them, but they pressed through, kneeling by the side of the injured men with food and water, cleaning their wounds. Eighteen months earlier the same men of the river Kwai prison camp would have celebrated the humiliation and destruction of anyone on the side of their violent captors. Yet Gordon explains, "We had experienced a moment of grace, there in the bloodstained railway cars. God had broken through the barriers of our prejudice and had given us the will to obey his command, 'Thou shalt love.'"

Chad's Comments:
May God be so evident in our lives as to love our enemies.

One of the members of the Life-Devotions blog commented yesterday and I felt the comment poignant to our discussions:

Jean Noon says, "When I do not judge I am engaged in mercy. The root of the word “mercy” has the same root as the words “commerce” and “merchant” which allude to exchange. When Jesus says to stop judging, it is not just good advice. To not judge means I have an open posture toward not only my neighbor but toward God who provides clarity in revealing that not judging is essential to sharing in the life of God. When I have an open posture, a willingness to not turn away, shun, shut down, or close myself off, I participate in the divine exchange and share in the life of God. Jesus gave me a tool to help me, psychologically, to be open to the outsider, the stranger, the prisoner, the enemy, the hurting, the sinner – all of these the poorest of the poor -- by reminding me that which I do for the least of my brethren I do for Jesus (Matt 25:31-46). He also gave me His words, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34) I sometimes bristle at this notion but it allows me a more open posture towards my neighbor in responding with love. That doesn’t mean I ignore a problem but it gives me a spaciousness to come up with more loving solutions in my response rather than my knee-jerk egoic reaction of condemnation. My prayer ultimately becomes, “Bless Them; Change Me” because as I measure out it will be measured out to me. (Matt 7:2)


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