Another Jesus story in Mark. Jesus doing his thing...the Pharisees out to get him. The classic line, "They watched him...so that they might accuse him."
The companion piece from 1 Corinthians reminds the church at Corinth not to judge, to be grateful. All they have, they have "received," so don't brag...be thankful.
I had a friend once who had great difficulty "conversing." She simply listened to find something that she could talk about, that she had done, that she could use to take the conversation back. She "listened" so that she might "talk." And too often, we watch others, so we might judge. If they are the "other" political party, we watch so we might accuse. If they practice another "religion," we watch so we might accuse. If they have eyes on our best friend or our boyfriend, we watch so we might accuse. The list goes on.
What if we watched each other so we might bless, so we might be grateful for the gifts of others, so that we might learn from them? Could the Pharisees have learned something about God from Jesus? I'd like to think so. What a challenging discipline to listen to politicians and attempt to find one blessing somewhere deep in the fertilizer. That would make the challenge to do the same in all our other relationships so much easier.
We watched each other...so that we might find blessing.
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