Every person I meet has to do with God.

I just started reading Zephaniah in my morning reads through THE MESSAGE translation by Eugene Peterson and as in most of his book introductions, he has a powerful message or book summary. Read this exert from his brilliant introduction to Zephaniah that I know I need to be reminded of daily: 

 Because the root of the solid spiritual life is embedded in a relationship between people and God, it is easy to develop the misunderstanding that my spiritual life is something personal between God and me – a private thing to be nurtured by prayers and singing, spiritual readings that comfort and inspire, and worship with like-minded friends. If we think this way for very long, we will assume that the way we treat people we don’t like or who don’t like us has nothing to do with God.

That’s when the prophets step in and interrupt us, insisting, “Everything you do or think or feel has to do with God. Every person you meet has to do with God.” We live in a vast world of interconnectedness, and the consequences have consequences, either in things or in people – and all the consequences come together in God. The biblical phrase for the coming together of the consequences is Judgment Day.

We can’t be reminded too often or too forcefully of this reckoning. Zephaniah’s voice in the choir of prophets sustains the intensity, the urgency.

After loving God, Jesus says the most important thing we do is love people. God help me to see you in everyone I meet today, even people who are not kind to me or whom I don't like.