“You are a Mist” with the Rev. Dr. Kristofer Lindh-Payne

St. Francis Spiritual Sustenance : September 13, 2022 ========================================

In today’s video, Kristofer reflects on a powerful passage from the Apostle James’ letter that is given to us for spiritual reflection on this day. James likens our lives to the “mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”. In this death denying culture that we live in, this can be an unnerving thought that prompts anxiety and that we would rather ignore. But if we can resist the temptation to turn away, the Holy Spirit has something for us to learn. As you ponder these words from James’ letter written two millennia ago to the “twelve tribes in the Dispersion”, what relevance do you find in your life today? What is the invitation and challenge that calls you to growth and transformation, as we strive together at St. Francis to follow Jesus?

James 4:11–17

Do not speak evil against one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another, speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.” Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.