Today’s Readings: Psalm 120; Genesis 39:1-23; Luke 4:1-13; Acts 17:11-15; Psalm 91
This has been a pretty exhausting week on several levels. I’ve walked individuals who have been hospitalized in life-threatening situations, finalized plans for a memorial service tomorrow, and gotten news of another impending memorial service in the near future. Some of my friends asked me what it’s like for those of us who regularly walk in places of such pain and suffering. While the intensity of the experiences can certainly take an emotional toll, there is another aspect to these experiences that is totally faith affirming. You see it is at these difficult moments when you have the blessing of being in a place where you can actually watch an individual’s faith moves from the abstract into the concrete. These experiences reminds me what our faith is all about. It’s for that very reason that I can honestly say I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. It was with this week’s experiences in mind that I read today’s second Psalm. “Fear nothing,” the psalmist cried out, “not wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon” (Psalm 91:5-6 – The Message). My experiences this week showed me that those words are not simply letters printed on a page; they are seeds of encouragement that tangibly sustain and nurture people through the most challenging of times. I would encourage you to carry those words with you in the one place they can do the most good: your heart. Til next time…
This has been a pretty exhausting week on several levels. I’ve walked individuals who have been hospitalized in life-threatening situations, finalized plans for a memorial service tomorrow, and gotten news of another impending memorial service in the near future. Some of my friends asked me what it’s like for those of us who regularly walk in places of such pain and suffering. While the intensity of the experiences can certainly take an emotional toll, there is another aspect to these experiences that is totally faith affirming. You see it is at these difficult moments when you have the blessing of being in a place where you can actually watch an individual’s faith moves from the abstract into the concrete. These experiences reminds me what our faith is all about. It’s for that very reason that I can honestly say I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. It was with this week’s experiences in mind that I read today’s second Psalm. “Fear nothing,” the psalmist cried out, “not wolves in the night, not flying arrows in the day, not disease that prowls through the darkness, not disaster that erupts at high noon” (Psalm 91:5-6 – The Message). My experiences this week showed me that those words are not simply letters printed on a page; they are seeds of encouragement that tangibly sustain and nurture people through the most challenging of times. I would encourage you to carry those words with you in the one place they can do the most good: your heart. Til next time…
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