I’m a list-maker. I have lists of things to do, lists of things to get at the grocery store, lists of notes to send, lists of deadlines for various activities. You get the idea. Sometimes I have so many lists that I make a list of my lists. And while some of you will just shake your heads, I know there are a few of you who will understand and celebrate with me this next statement: There is tremendous, enormous, overwhelming joy when I can cross something off my list. (In a true confession I must tell you that I’ve been known to write something on my list that I’ve already done, just so I can enjoy crossing it off.)
One of the dangers of living this way (and there are several) is that I can reduce my faith down to a checklist. Read my Bible—check. Pray—check. Give money to the church—check. Support the needs of the underprivileged—check. But God does not want my faith to be about a checklist. He wants my heart. He wants an ongoing, living, vibrant relationship with me and not just behaviors that I can check off on a list.
There is a danger in reducing this passage to a checklist, too. We can read it and think, “Oh good! There are only three things I have to do.” But if we look carefully at what the prophet Micah says is required, we do not find things to check off on any list. We find things that we should do continuously, unceasingly. “To love justice” means that each day I intentionally build my life around the priorities of bringing Kingdom-focused justice in my life and in my world. “To love mercy” means that I live each day with an attitude of seeking the good in others, caring for their hurts, and celebrating in their victories. It means accepting my own forgiveness through Christ and extending forgiveness to others. And “to walk humbly with God” is a daily endeavor, a lifestyle, a way of viewing and seeing all that happens through the lens of my relationship with God. I can’t check that off of any list. Instead I seek to grow and mature in my relationship with God, asking Him to help me to walk humbly with Him, receiving the wisdom and direction and grace that He wants to pour in to my life.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to set the checklists aside sometimes and embrace living each day as God leads. It is not easy for someone like me. But oh what joy when I can let go of those checklists, turn to God, and simply say, “With Your help, I’d like to walk with You today.”