Saturday, March 21

Today’s Readings: Psalm 56; Jeremiah 26:1-16; Luke 12:57-13:5; Ephesians 1:16-2:3; Psalm 28

Featured Reading: Jeremiah 26:1-16

Some of us human beings (myself included!) have a knack for hearing only portions of things. Let me give you a couple examples. A parent can tell a child, “If you eat everything on your plate, you can have some ice cream.” And what does the child hear? “You can have some ice cream.” Or an employer can tell an employee, “After you complete your report and turn it in, you can leave early.” And what does the employee hear? “You can leave early.” In both instances, the second party can get cranky when the first party reminds them of the terms of the arrangement. The child will cry, for instance, when ice cream is withheld because the child didn’t finish the vegetables on his/her plate. Similarly, the employee might grouse when he has to stay later than expected until the requested report is turned in. This same dynamic is evidenced in today’s reading from the Jeremiah. In that passage, the prophet tells the people: “If you refuse to listen to me and live by my teaching that I’ve revealed so plainly to you… I’ll make this Temple a pile of ruins.” And what do the people hear? “I’ll make this Temple a pile of ruins.” As a result of their selective hearing process, they completely freaked out and missed the point. All of this reminds me of our tendency to do the same thing in our own spiritual lives: listen selectively and miss the point. Perhaps there is an area in your life with which you are struggling to discern God’s will, or perhaps struggling with the portions you have discerned to date. If so, I would encourage you to spend a little more time in prayer/meditation to see if you have truly opened yourself to experiencing the fullness of God’s spirit – and not just part of it. Til next time…

Friday, March 20

Today’s Readings: Psalm 18:1-19; Jeremiah 25:30-38; Luke 12:32-40; 1 Peter 2:11-17; Psalm 18:20-50

Featured Reading: 1 Peter 2:11-17

Ten years ago this September, I made the most dramatic move I’d made in my entire life. I moved 1,100 miles - from Spokane, WA to Denver, CO - in order to attend seminary. For the first couple of years I lived in Denver, I made a point of holding on to my identity as a native Washingtonian. I would frequently comment on aspects of life in Colorado as if I were a removed social commentator. I would note, for instance, that where I came from driver’s actually slowed down and stopped for yellow lights. In Colorado, however, it seemed extremely rare to find drivers that either slowed down or stopped for yellow lights. Or I would note that in Washington, residents expected their municipal governments to provide free weekly curbside recycling. In most of Colorado, residents did not expect such service. For those first few years of my life in Denver, I found that having a sense of distance between myself and the community in which I lived allowed me to maintain behaviors that were important to me. As the years passed, however, I began to let my guard down. And what do you know? Little by little my behaviors began to change. After nearly getting rear ended several times when I attempted to stop for a yellow light, I found that gradually I too began to hit the gas when the light turned yellow in order to race through the intersection like many of my fellow Coloradans. My behavior around recycling changed as well. Since there was no free weekly curbside recycling program in the area in which I lived, I too stopped recycling. In other words, instead of holding on to the values and practices that I thought were important, I allowed myself to let go of those values so that I could simply fit in. The author of today’s passage from 1 Peter warns us about the dangers of dropping our guard and allowing ourselves to simply fit in when he wrote: “Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy” (1 Peter 2:11 from The Message). As you sit with those opening words from 1 Peter, I would encourage you to spend some time contemplating in what position your faith places you. Does your faith and its accompanying values seem at odds with the world around you, or does your faith simply reflect the world around you – thereby making the world a cozy place for you to live? Til next time…

Thursday, March 19

Today’s Readings: Psalm 124; Jeremiah 25:8-17; Luke 12:22-31; 1 Peter 2:4-10; Psalm 8

Featured Reading: Luke 12:22-31

When I was young, I was an extremely anxious child. It seemed as if I worried about everything. I worried about how others perceived me; I worried about living up to other people’s expectations; and I worried about what lay ahead of me in the future. You name it, and I worried about it. Because of my childhood angst, it wasn’t unusual for me to take an hour or two from the time I went to bed until the time I could finally fall asleep. In fact, that two hour time block at bedtime was pretty much the norm. Given my propensity to worry about any and everything, it was no wonder that I found myself on high blood pressure medicine by the time I was just 23! It was about that time that I started examining my life and asking myself, “How’s that worry thing working out for you?” The answer was, “Not so well.” It took me another couple of years, but eventually I was finally able to start worrying less. The key to my decision to let go of my worrying had to do with an emerging sense of perspective I gained on life. I began to ask myself questions like the one Jesus raised in today’s passage from Luke – “Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch?” (Luke 12:25 from The Message). The obvious answer was no. Once I realized that, it became easier and easier for me to quit worrying (or - to be honest - cut significantly back on it). Perhaps you've been in a place like I was - regularly consumed with worry about things totally beyond your control. If so, I would invite you to revisit Jesus' words from today's Gospel reading so that you too can "relax, and [not] be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God's giving" (Luke 12 :29 from The Message). Til next time...

Wednesday, March 18

Today’s Readings: Psalm 1: Jeremiah 24:1-10; Luke 12:11-21; Colossians 3:1-17; Psalm 37

Featured Reading: Colossians 3:1-17

If you were to talk to someone visiting our country for the first time, it wouldn’t take long for the individual to notice that we are a country in which people relate to one another primarily based upon what labels we attach to ourselves and others. When it comes to politics, for instance, most folks are quick to call themselves either a Democrat or a Republican – and they often surround themselves with folks who wear the same label. Or if an individual identifies as a Christian – that’s not good enough. They feel compelled to follow that up by noting whether they are Methodist, Lutheran, or Baptist. And when it comes to the amount of resources an individual possesses, people tend to get labeled using one of three labels: (1) rich; (2) poor; or (3) middle class. In each of these areas, labels play a huge role in how we understand ourselves and other human beings. Of course, we modern folks aren’t the only ones who were fond of labels. Folks who lived around Jesus’ times loved them as well. How do I know? I know because of the way the author of today’s passage from Colossians talked. In Colossians 3:10, for instance, the author challenged his peers’ affinity for lables by writing: ‘Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing.” And why are such descriptors useless? Because “from now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone included in Christ” (Colossians 3:11 from The Message). So where are you at with the issues of labels? Do you depend on labels to learn all you need to know about other people; or are labels simply annoying diversions that cause us to lose sight of our areas of commonality? Til next time…