During Quaker meeting, a gentleman spoke about an booked called, The Martyr’s Mirror. As he explained, it was written to document the sacrifices of Christians, and especial Anabapists, a religious sect that preceded Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish. You can find a great entry on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_Mirror
The book features a number of woodcut illustrations, including one that is probably its most compelling, a depiction of an Anabaptist fleeing for his life as a sheriff chases him across a frozen lake. The ice is thin.
Suddenly, the sheriff falls through the ice into the freezing water. The Anabaptist runs back to the sheriff and pulls him out of what would otherwise have been his icy grave.
The sheriff forthwith arrests the Anabapist who is soon tried, convicted, and burned at the stake.
Integrity guarantees neither our success or comfort. in the ordinary sense of those words. But it does guarantee that our internal dialogue, our story, our "take" on the events that shape our lives, is true and faithful to the original.
The struggle act in fidelity to our own eternal God-given values, the ones found in our heart of hearts has occurred since the beginning of creation. Every single decision we make–even the most insignificant–leaves an indelible mark on the trail we follow. Gertrude Stein, in her book, The Making of Americans, goes even further when she maintains that the expression of a single man or woman’s story is a complete rendering of the larger story of men or women as a whole.
Accordingly, our decisions are holistically Everyman’s or Everywoman’s.
That’s big!
Your life is never an outtake, cut from the final version of the film that captures the essence of your life. Neither are your decisions to act in true fidelity with your God-consciousness, the still, small voice within, inconsequential.
Knowing this, what would you choose today? What would you do on the ice? I’ll bet you’d beautifully be the best expression of God’s kingdom on earth.
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