When we begin to live our lives filled with rage, malice, greed and impurity, do you know what it does? It drains the life and the energy out of you. You can’t get ahead because you are too busy putting people down, or letting them put you down. You need a new power from which to love and relate to others. That’s why Paul says, “Begin to put these different things on – mercy, kindness, patience, gentleness.” What do these powers look like? Mercy means compassion. It’s the power to let the needs of another person move you. Jesus was always responding with mercy and compassion. He offers that power to you. Another power is kindness. This is an attitude that we take towards other people. We don’t see a lot of kindness in our world. We see cruelty and indifference. Those are defaults. But god’s power makes you kind. Humility. This is the power that does not think less of itself, but thinks of itself less. It’s the power to be free of your ego (which is always competing with others). You can see that others are important without feeling less important yourself. Last is patience, which literally mean big-souled. The idea is that there is so much of you, there is plenty of room for others nonsense. You have fewer and fewer buttons to push. You have been chosen to be the holy people God loves, so put on your new power.

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