Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 – Mark 9:2-50
My favorite genre of fiction is dystopia: Hunger Games, The Giver, Divergent, etc. One of these books that I read quite a while ago told of a world with intense surveillance; a topic covered quite often in this genre. This particular story referred to the surveillance as transparency. Part of the expressed value of this system was that people's behavior is better when they know they are being watched. Therefore, this transparency is beneficial to the community, as it deters criminal activity as well as small things like gossip. It was an interesting read. By no means would I support this level of surveillance, but it was interesting to consider what can motivate us to make good decisions.
Verses 33 and 34 of today's reading highlight this in the lives of the disciples. Jesus asks what they were arguing about, and they respond with silence. The silly part of this is that they should know that Jesus is already fully aware of what they were arguing about. In any case, they choose to not admit to Jesus that they were arguing about who among them was the greatest. This leads us to ask, how might our actions change when we consider that Jesus will ask us what we were doing. If you wouldn't want to tell Jesus… perhaps you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.
Questions for reflection:
- How often do you think about your small decisions throughout the day? Are they helpful, hurtful, self-benefiting, or rewarding for all?
- What motivates these decisions? Do you need to be more intentional about these decisions and what is motivating them?