Jesus is coming back to find faith on the earth? What will this faith look like? Well, one reminder of the kind of faith Jesus calls us to comes from a quote in Thomas Merton's "Seeds Of Contemplation." His words challenges and humbles me:
"Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is a savage because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage? Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels you are afraid of him? And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy? Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God's love and God's kindness and God's patience and mercy and understanding of the weakness of men. Do not be too quick to condemn the man who longer believes in God. For it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that has killed his faith."
"Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is a savage because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage? Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels you are afraid of him? And perhaps if he believed you were capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy? Do not be too quick to assume that your enemy is an enemy of God just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he fears you because he can find nothing in you of God's love and God's kindness and God's patience and mercy and understanding of the weakness of men. Do not be too quick to condemn the man who longer believes in God. For it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and sensuality and selfishness that has killed his faith."
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