Blog
Reminders
“When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between [me] and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” – Genesis 9:16 (NRSV)
The world needs more reminders.
Guns need not just one safety lock but five safety reminders, plus a mandatory essay about violence, before each firing of a single bullet. Bombs need civilian ballot measures that pass by majority vote before being detonated against an enemy. Our emails should come with a tone-check, in addition to a spell-check, that we must review and approve before sending. Our picket fences should be engraved with “borders are a social construct” on every post, lest we forget that no one really “owns” the property on which they live.
We need more reminders that we are interrelated, fewer indicators that we are islands. We need more prompts to slow us down before we cause harm, and fewer restraints that limit us from love.
Make it a bow around the finger or a bow in the sky, but make it something that effectively deters us from destruction. Even God needed such a reminder. How much more humanity?
God set a reminder in the clouds to never again allow flood waters to separate living creatures from God’s presence. Paul expanded the list: It’s not only flood waters that cannot separate us from God; neither can angels or empires, histories or futures, perils or threats, nor anything else imaginable separate us from God.
With this assurance, we must remind ourselves constantly not to be separated from one another either.
Prayer: You remember, O Eternal God, what I too easily forget: that I am not my own, that I am inherently caught up in and bound to all others. Remind me.
cross-posted with the Daily Devotional (ucc.org)
The Breaks
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, so far from the words of my groaning? Yet you are holy … and sovereignty belongs to you, the ruler over all the earth. All families and all nations worship before you; all who sleep in the earth and all who go down to the dust bow before you. – Psalm 22:1-3a and 27-29 (adapted, abridged)
Life can break you.
I don’t know whether I believe that God will never give you more than you can handle, but I know from experience that life shows no such restraints. And when life piles on, as it tends to do, sometimes we collapse; sometimes we eke through; sometimes we triumph; sometimes we bruise and bleed; sometimes we persevere; sometimes we break.
Most often, we do all of the above, in varying degrees, depending on the day. But we don’t survive this life in the grand scheme of things. Always, death comes.
Those are the breaks.
So to the One Who Brings Into Existence All That Is, we bow down.
For as long as we keep breathing through life’s breakage, we bend in prayer and humility to the One Who Holds Our Brokenness.
And when this life sends us back to the dust, when survival is no longer within our grasp, we bend in worship and witness to the One Who Continues The Story.
Life can break us. Thank God, there is One Who Remains Undeterred.
Prayer: Be with me in every dawn and dusk of this life, O God, and do not abandon me when I break.
cross-posted on the Daily Devotional (ucc.org)
In Pursuit
Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. - Psalm 34:14 (NRSV) The interstate highway signs as you enter Pennsylvania read, “Pursue your happiness.” I laugh and roll my eyes every time I see them. In part because happiness is a state of being, not a...
Psalm 130
To you, O God, we hold out our hearts. Deal gently with them, we pray. Increase their love with your forgiveness; soften their bitterness with your peace. Until peace comes, we will wait and watch. To you, O God, we hold out our hungers. Have mercy on them, we pray....
It’s Not about the Bread
Jesus said to the disciples, “Watch out, and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” They said to one another, “It is because we have brought no bread.” Jesus said, “How could you fail to perceive that I was not speaking about bread?” - Matthew 16:6-7...
Cedar Logs
Another sign, O Spirit, please -- another sign. You have poured the oil for a healing sign, and it is good. You have struck up music for a joyous sign, and it is good. You have gathered warriors for an encouraging sign, and it is good. I have felt the soft oil, my...
How the Mighty Have Fallen
Your glory, O God, stands triumphant in high places and low, in mountains and valleys, across rivers and oceans that once bled. How the mighty have fallen from their thrones! How the satisfied have been reduced to hunger! How the fortresses have crumbled to pieces...
Escape Plans
Michal let David down through the window; he fled away and escaped. Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed; she put a net of goats’ hair on its head, and covered it with the clothes. When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.” - 1 Samuel...
Giants & Storms & Fears, Oh My!
There is Goliath, o my God, and there and there! Do not let my heart fail before these giants in trust that even giants are limited. The wind is rising, o my God, and the waves are crashing! Do not let my peace be broken or my faith swept away, secure in knowing I too...
Mustard Seeds
the lily's bloom the grazing doe the secret smile For each seed of tenderness we are grateful; for each planting of joy we give you thanks. the hazy dawn the rolling thunder the friendly silence For each seed of wonder we sing gratitude; for each planting of patience...
Chasing Donkeys
Now the day before Saul came [to the town], the Lord had revealed to Samuel: “Tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be ruler over my people Israel.” - 1 Samuel 9:15-16 (NRSV) Saul comes to Samuel’s...
