I’ve been hearing about Bishop Rueben P. Job’s book Three Simple Rules: A Wesleyan Way of Living since Annual Conference. Today, I started to read it.
Do no harm. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? That’s the first rule. On page 31, Job writes:
To do no harm means that I will be on guard so that all my actions and even my silence will not add injury to another of God’s children or to any part of God’s creation. As John Wesley and those in the early Methodist movement before me, I too will determine every day that my life will always be invested in the effort to bring healing instead of hurt; wholeness instead of division; and harmony with the ways of Jesus rather than the ways of the world. When I commit myself to this way, I must see each person as a child of God – a recipient of love unearned, unlimited, and undeserved – just like myself.
That’s beautiful – and hard stuff. That paragraph has given me pause to think and pray about what
do no harm means. You can pick the book up through Cokesbury.
What are you all reading this summer?
One of the books I’m reading this summer is “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism”, written by Timothy Keller. A lot of my recent reading has been in the category of apologetics (defending the faith). It is so important to know what you believe and why so that you can “always be[ing] prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15 ESV). A shallow or erroneous understanding of our historic Christian faith can do more harm than no faith at all.
Since July I’ve read and reread that little book with its three simple rules. The only thing “simple” is in its title. It is not simple to read and certainly not easy to apply. Thank God for lots of prayer, and the patience to take small steps.