“Eternal Life” – A United Church of Christ StillSpeaking Daily Devotional by The Rev. Kaji Douŝa

“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” – Luke 18:18 (NRSV)

(Content warning for violence.)

I made myself breakfast this morning. While I poured my baby’s cereal and got out of my beloved’s path to coffee, I did something rare for me: I made myself breakfast.

One of the most sacred acts of loving is to prepare someone a meal. And that someone can—and often must—be yourself.

And I thought about preparing someone a meal because I had my mind on a grocery store in Buffalo called Tops, where in May a white boy filled with hatred hunted Black people engaged in one of the most sacred acts there is: preparing to prepare a meal for someone they loved. Caring for your body is a sacred act and this killer desecrated a holy space.

And they are now—as always—in the hands of the Lord who formed them in the person who bore them’s womb, who gave them life at their first breath, who gave them life eternal after their last. They are safe in God’s arms—even as they can never again be in the warm embrace of their loved ones. And we mourn.

And mourning is not enough.

Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Every crisis we can think of starts here: We fail to love God, neighbor and self, and that failure is death. Needless, senseless death.

Make yourself breakfast, beloved. Pour yourself a cup of coffee, or maybe tea. Prepare for your day with love. Be fortified with food, love and hydration because we must change … everything.

Prayer

Help us to love completely, God. The life of this world depends on it.

The “StillSpeaking Daily Devotional” series is produced by The United Church of Christ.