What Does God Want?

Peter Fitch starts to answer this question with Micah 6:8, “to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.” Then he adds a charming story from the sayings of the Desert Fathers that adds to this the idea of fire, the burning of passion and love that can fill us and produce good things in the world. Next he looks at a story in Matthew’s Gospel where it becomes clear that people are missing the real point, and he follows that with a beautiful poem by Rumi called “Moses and the Shepherd” that illustrates the same thing. Finally, he quotes a couple of passages from Brian Zahnd’s brilliant book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, to show that the fire of God’s love flows to us all, bringing joy or torment, depending on our reception and response.