Let Your Life Be Your Testimony

“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching” - Francis of Assisi

In the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) there were two religious folks who passed by without stopping to help.

Why they didn’t help, we don’t exactly know. Maybe they were afraid of being hurt themselves. Maybe they didn’t want to become ritually impure for religious reasons. Maybe they had somewhere to be and didn’t want to be late.

Ultimately, their religion was of no use to the man who was injured, lying helpless in the road. Not sure how much use it was to the people they were in a hurry to meet.

In the eyes of Jesus’s audience, the Samaritan had the wrong theology and the wrong rituals. But he had the right witness.

He let his life be his testimony. We should too.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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Remaining calm in the midst of chaos…

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” - Deepak Chopra

Sometimes it’s not possible for us in the moment to control our external environment. In these moments we have to focus on maintaining a calm internal environment.

How do we do this? We want to become aware of our internal thoughts and feelings. When we feel the anger or the fear or the anxiety rising up in us, we want to take a moment to pause.

When we pause, we take a deep breath and exhale slowly. As we slowly exhale we can say a really short breath prayer to help us recenter. A breath prayer is normally no longer than six, seven, maybe eight syllables. Some examples:

Grant me your peace.

Show me your light.

Let your love flow through me.

Protect me, Lord.

Release me from my fear.

Help me be a blessing in this moment.

Lord give me strength.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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“You can't make positive choices for the rest of your life without an environment that makes those choices easy, natural, and enjoyable.” - Deepak Chopra

It’s not impossible to make positive choices in a chaotic and toxic environment, but it sure is a lot harder.

Passengers traveling by airplane are coached that in the event of an emergency, they should put on their own oxygen masks first before attempting to help other people with theirs.

There are times when it is absolutely necessary for us to remove ourselves from toxic and dysfunctional situations before we can even think about the ways we can help.

Sometimes we have to distance ourselves or even cut off entirely people we love and care about when continued association with them is bad for our mental health, emotional, physical, or spiritual wellbeing.

Sometimes it is absolutely necessary for us to prioritize our wellbeing. We have to seek and place ourselves in positive and healthy environments.

I’m Horace McMillon. This is 60 Seconds of Hope. Peace be with you.

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