A New Heart I Will Give You!

From today’s reading in The Lectionary:

You’d think that people who work for non-profits would be particularly good people, particularly, well . . charitable. You’d think that, but my experience – I have a lot of experience working in non-profits – is that working in charitable organizations can have the effect of hardening your heart. You have so many people coming to you lying, you meet so many cons. When I work with the homeless, or the hungry, I have to pray daily for a clean heart, a new heart, a soft heart, a heart that will not harden. I have to pray to face each new client with a will to listen to their story and to believe.

I love this verse from Ezekiel, and I always envision that heart to be strengthened and armored by the Lord, so that a tender heart can continue to live within.

Ezekiel 36:22-27

22 Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. 24I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. 25I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances.

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