Reading: Romans 8:6-11

To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law—indeed, it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

Reflection

As I sit here bumped and bruised from a fall over the weekend, I’m nursing a sore back and some scraped knees along with some other minor cuts. Add to that the reality that I’m not so young anymore and don’t bounce back from such things quite as quickly as I used to, and I’m more than aware of the limitations of my mortal body.

Our bodies are fragile. They have time limits. From the moment of our birth, the clock starts ticking down. The Spirit, however, is limitless, timeless, eternal. And to live in the Spirit is to acknowledge that though our physical existence is finite, the assurance of God in Christ Jesus and through the Holy Spirit is everlasting. Though we shall all die, we shall also be raised to the hope of new life.

This doesn’t negate our physical existence, though. When we live with the promise of the Divine, we use our mortal bodies in service to God and one another. We live like we believe in the Resurrected Christ. Feeble as our mortal bodies might be, they still glorify the One who creates, saves, and sends us out in the world.

 —Lisa Raylene Barnes

Prayer

God of the flesh and the Spirit, use us as you will.

Amen.