Loyalty

During the college football season there is evidence everywhere of loyalty. Holding on to ...cherishing links we have made over the years.
We become loyal to companies or brands. The advertising folk know this well and depend onour recognizing the Golden Arches or the Nike Check-mark. Some of the shoe brands have figured out that putting that symbol on the sole of a shoe will leave that impresion if you are walking on sand or soft earth. At Arches National Park in southern Utah on one trip there my daughter and I noticed these impressions in the sand. We could recognize several different brands of shoes. Free advertising to be sure.
What brand however do we in our lives leave on the earth? Where we are...with those we know...with those we meet... ?
What image do they have of us, or perhaps even more importantly what image or impression do we leave with them? That is to say what gift we can give another person we meet is an image of themselves that shows something they didn't ever know before. What if we made it part of our life journey to bring out in others the strengthes they didn't even know they had...but that we see...honestly and authentically. Have you had someone do that for you? I have been blessed with others who have done that with me.
So, loyalty, loyalty to being the most genuine people we can be without deception is what calls us this day. Loyalty to bringing hope where people are in dispair. Loyalty to being people of charity and kindness. Loyalty to opening others to their deepest potential is to be loyal to our call as people of God.

So, loyalty, for team or for brand stands pale before loyalty to others who need us and claim us and by whom we are claimed.

God abides
Bobbie Giltz McGarey
@2006

"Faith is not being sure of where you are going but going still"
Beuchner

Rev. Dr. Barbara Giltz McGarey