Category: <span>Devotional</span>

Day 16: Arguing Over the Ringtone
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Day 16: Arguing Over the Ringtone

Colossians 3:12-14

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Sibling squabbles. If you are the parent of more than one child, or have babysat or taught siblings, or really just spent more than 10 minutes in the company of siblings, chances are you’ve had the opportunity to witness a dispute or two. Chances are, they also wanted you to weigh in on who is right, since at that moment each is almost as passionate about being right as they are about the other being wrong. They demand justice and both parties are convinced that you are going to side with them. 

My kids love each other fiercely. When one is sick or hurt, the others are crying just as hard with worry. They defend each other on the playground and whisper long past when they’re supposed to be asleep every single night. They also drive each other crazy at times and fight over dumb stuff. In other words, they’re completely normal siblings.

I was recently called upon by my oldest two to, “Tell her I’m right! No! Tell him I’m right!” first thing in the morning. They were both trying to sing the melody it plays on Skype when someone is calling you, and each was convinced that he or she had captured the proper tempo, notes, and rhythm while the other was “way off”. My un-caffeinated morning self asked them if this was really the way they wanted to start the day and if this issue was really that important to them. They insisted that it was, and I told them the truth – they were both pretty close but neither was exactly right. This made no one happy.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes and started breakfast. But I couldn’t help but wonder how this particular fight had started and why. They can both recognize Skype when it rings, and they know that almost always means a fun chat with their grandparents. They can also both reproduce it enough to be recognized and understood. I was prepared to rank this one among their dumbest squabbles yet and move on. But the Holy Spirit kept bringing it to mind.

The tone of our public discourse lately has come to resemble children bickering, and sometimes browsing through social media or news media just leaves me shaking my head and rolling my eyes. Other times I find myself silently shouting and privately taking sides. What I don’t see is a lot of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 

Don’t get me wrong, I know that these things are out there in the world, but since the pandemic has forced a lot of our interpersonal interactions to be online rather than in person, I’m wondering if our balance and perceptions might be skewed in an unhealthy direction.

When we join the family of God, it doesn’t just mean that we enjoy relationships with God as our father and Christ as a brother. There are lots of siblings in this family, and like any family, we are likely to be very different. Sibling squabbles are natural, but the danger is that both sides claim to have spoken to God who confirmed that “I’m right and you’re wrong.” It seems more likely that a lot of the time, God is the parent who points out that both sides are partly right, but neither has it perfectly worked out. Perhaps he is also asking if these details are really where we want to be investing our energy.

That is not to say that the issues rising to the forefront right now are not important. They are. But that is all the more reason to find common ground, forgive and love each other, and work for meaningful solutions. Fear keeps us from listening well because changing our minds can have consequences. Fighting to maintain the status quo feels safer and more familiar. Can we reach for the humility to realize that none of us sees the complete picture and the patience to listen with compassion?

Otherwise, from a Kingdom perspective, we risk sounding like children arguing over the notes of the ringtone, rather than simply recognizing it and answering the call.

Devotional

Day 15: Small Beginnings
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Day 15: Small Beginnings

Zechariah 4:10 NLT

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin”

Two steps forward, then one step back. 

This is the frustrating and tiring pattern of pursuing almost anything that is worth doing. The people I know who have had covid-19 (who thankfully recovered!) express their recovery this way. “Just when I was starting to feel better, I’d have a bad day and feel miserable again.” From going back to school to raising children to pursuing career advancement or change, working toward achieving goals is rarely a brisk walk in a straight line. 

When I was little, we used to play a game called, “Red Light, Green Light”. Did you play that one? One person acted as the traffic light. Everyone else tried to be the first to reach the traffic light. When the traffic light shouted, “Green light!” and turned around, everyone else could move as quickly as they wanted to toward the traffic light. The catch was that at any moment the traffic light could quickly turn around and shout, “Red light!” Then you had to freeze immediately. Anyone that the traffic light saw moving had to go back to the starting line. We quickly learned that the faster you tried to move toward the goal, the more likely you were to make a mistake that forced you to start over. Moving too slowly, however, typically meant that someone else would get there first. 

Typical to our personalities, I was most likely to lose this game because I moved too slowly, afraid to make a mistake. My brother, on the other hand, went full-speed ahead, often had to start over, and on many occasions gave up in frustration.

Red Light, Green Light is not a bad analogy for life. Fear of failure can keep us from really living the life we’re called to, while pushing for too much, too soon can leave us feeling defeated. There’s a lot that could be explored about this but for today let’s focus on getting started.

Yesterday, I challenged you to be intentional about choosing your direction as the lockdowns ease, rather than letting the “new normal” happen to you. Maybe you’ve got some ambitious goals running through your head, or a vague idea about a new direction but you’re not really sure where it should end up. Maybe the covid-19 restrictions that are still in place will make it difficult to do all the things you hope to do right away, or there are still too many questions about what the future holds. I get it. The circumstances are still very complex and confusing.

But the longer you delay, the more likely you are to get swept up in a current you didn’t choose that leads you in a different direction. Or the same direction as always, but not the one you were hoping for. Starting small is still a start. Sometimes starting small is the only way to start. This verse from Zechariah challenges us not to despise small beginnings, and to remember that when we are following where God leads, he rejoices to see the work begin. 

Just a few verses earlier, Zechariah 4:6 reminds us how these God-sized goals are to be accomplished:

“It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”

You can’t force it or rush it, but neither can you be afraid to even start. Learn to appreciate the small beginnings, even as you learn to listen to the Spirit who will take you there in just the right time.

Two steps forward, one step back is still progress in the right direction. This way of making it through life is less like a march and more like a dance. A march might be the most efficient way of getting where you’re going, but there’s far more beauty in a dance. Stop and listen for the music of the Spirit, trust its rhythm, and learn to tune out the snare drum cadence in your head that tells you you should be marching. The twists and turns are all a part of the choreography that is making your journey into a work of art.

Moment of Beauty

Two steps forward, one step back is like a waltz. Watch this beautifully choreographed waltz as you reflect on gracefully accepting life as a dance rather than a march.

Devotional

Day 14: Back to Normal?
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Day 14: Back to Normal?

Romans 12:2

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

As most states are now moving into new phases of reopening after quarantine, many of us are feeling a mix of excitement, anticipation, nervousness, and fear. This summer will certainly be different than any we’ve experienced before, but by now the feeling of everything being different and uncertain is becoming familiar. As much as we have been longing for things to reopen, somehow reaching a certain date on the calendar doesn’t guarantee that we feel safer than we did the day before. In some ways, being told that everything was off limits was easier because the decision was already made for us. Now we are navigating a confusing landscape of trying to keep ourselves and others safe while resuming some level of normalcy. Welcome to the new normal.

Much has been said about this “new normal” and I don’t feel the need to add many words to that conversation. We all know that things will be different in the world going forward. Too much has happened this year for everything to go back to exactly how it used to be. This will be one of those historical lines in the sand, the way we talk about pre- and post-World War II or pre- and post-9/11. What we can’t know yet is how things will be different, and the people who claim to are making educated guesses to fill air time.

What I find to often be missing from this conversation is to remember that together we are shaping what the new normal will look like. I may not have much influence as an individual on public policy decisions, and I cannot decide if the people around me will wear masks in the grocery store or follow social distancing recommendations. But if I avoid taking a hard look at myself and my personal choices, then I am missing an important opportunity.

The circumstances around the covid-19 pandemic have interrupted life for all of us in different ways. While this has been challenging and inconvenient, interruptions are also chances to pause, reflect, and choose a direction. Life can start to take on a sense of inertia, and from day to day we might not reflect on which direction all that momentum is carrying us. Now that we have been forced to stop, we can restart by intentionally choosing the way we want to go. Even if that direction is exactly the same as we were headed before, it is valuable to pause, reflect, and choose to continue. 

I’m asking myself what I have learned through this experience. My husband and I have talked at length about which priorities rose instantly to the surface when so many of our usual distractions were stripped away. It stands to reason that our priorities in a crisis are a clear indication of what our priorities should be once the crisis has passed. That kind of clarity will quickly start to disappear unless we pause to give voice to them or write them down. 

If having extracurricular activities canceled felt like a relief and the additional family time felt like a gift, then maybe you have learned that your family would benefit from reducing the number of activities on your calendar in the future. If the crisis created financial strain or worries, then maybe looking over your budget (or creating one if you don’t have one) and setting a goal to save money in an emergency fund is a priority for the future. If time apart gave you a new appreciation for the role of friends in your life, then maybe carving out time for regular get-togethers is something you should talk about together. Whatever it is that you have learned about yourself and your loved ones, let it guide you in forming your next season of life.

 

Do not be afraid to be transformed or to have your mind renewed, but rather allow God to speak to you through your circumstances to lead you into what he has for you next. Let’s not be in such a hurry to get life back to normal that we fail to question if that normal is worth returning to.

Moment of Beauty

Continuing on the theme of choosing your path with intention, enjoy the words of this familiar poem by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Devotional

Weekend Wisdom
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Weekend Wisdom

It seems that the whole idea of “love thy neighbor” has always been difficult. The concept is simple, but the practice of it is so challenging that we start to think that maybe we’ve misunderstood something. When Jesus was questioned on this point, he told the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

C.S. Lewis had some poignant words about this, too, which are timeless but also speak clearly to the specific time and circumstances we find ourselves in. In The Weight of Glory, after exploring the glory that both awaits us and transforms us in Eternal Life, Lewis writes:

“It maybe possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner – no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat – the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.”

* The Latin phrase vere latitat means “truly hidden” as Lewis translates himself in the last phrase.

 

Devotional