It is 6:20 a.m. and someone is listening to music very loudly. Every once in a while a firecracker jolts me to attention (as it did much of last night)! Our neighborhood is usually pretty calm, but today is the day that all Mexico celebrates the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Even in a culture that is ever more skeptical and postmodern, the influence that this entity wields over Mexico is incredible, and many times a stumbling block to many devotees who find it hard to leave her behind to trust only in Jesus for salvation.
Yet this devotion (that keeps them (and myself) up all night shooting off firecrackers) is a lesson to me. Not that I want to exchange my freedom in Jesus for empty religion and legalism, but I know I can do more for my God. I know I can share Him with more people, sacrifice my own desires more for the good of others, and love Him more who first loved me. My good works can gain me no better standing before Him who did everything in dying for me. But I hope that at the end of the day I've given the same amount of energy to glorifying Him with my life as others do in a misplaced devotion.
May Jesus be glorified in all we do and say and think.
