Gospel-living is becoming a theme in the day-to-day, not just in March’s blogs, and I am delighted with this. It is not so easy to be delighted with what brings the theme to mind, however: hardship. Not life-shattering hardship as is happening all around the world, but trials in the little things. For the most part it’s just life not going my way or the way I think would be best. Why, I do not even do things the way I think would be best!!

But this morning I read the account of the widow’s mite in the gospel according to Luke. It sums up gospel-living: hold nothing back. Jesus tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him; then He commends the widow for giving, not out of her surplus, but everything she had. This same principle carriers into how we treat those who hurt us, how we respond to injustice and how we approach difficulty in our day-to-day. It is a continual giving of our entire selves to obedience to Jesus. Why? Because that is what we as Christians claim matters most to us. Do our lives declare it? Only if we are all in (as my pastor likes to say).

For me, this applies when my energy is depleted but the demands increase or when friends hurt me or when I feel like my situation isn’t fully understood. I should respond with grace and gentleness towards people and within my own heart. It’s in how I respond to life not going my way that I live out the gospel for those around me; after all, if I had things my way from the beginning I would never have sworn allegiance to Christ in the first place. I am thankful He intervened.

When is it the hardest for you to live out the gospel?