I am sitting in a Paradise Bakery slightly miffed that the one in my neighborhood closed when they opened a Panera Bread three miles away. Our PB was very successful and in a great restaurant location. Panera Bread does not have the same welcoming feel and room to sit and drink coffee or use the wifi, which I am doing.
Here to meet with some friends who were acquired apart from my church affilication which is very good because our friendship is not based on me as a pastor. You need friends like this. We do share our faith and our search for authentic life together.
As I am working my way through 2Cor. I am struck how Paul spends most of the last part of the book dealing with a very practical problem, financial neediness among parts of the body of Christ, and he uses it to teach his final lesson of the letter, which is a deep generosity for the plight of others. Someone has to help, and it is generally those who have been blessed.
This is the two pronged approach I am seeinng on our borders. The need to restore law and order, and the need to treat those who have crossed with a degree of compassion. Different groups are focusing on this tension. "You can't stay here, we can't support you while you figure out what to do here, but we will not let you starve and we will not punish you for the journey you took however foolhardy and dangerous it was. If it is true that gang members and thugs are among them to find richer harvests of evil doing in the USA, then bring down the full force of the law against them. It's a balance we all are seeking to walk.
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