Monday, July 29, 2013

Week of July 28 devotional points

Sunday-I was disappointed to see that we do not have a version of Ps. 85 in our hymnal. who knows;you may be subjected to my clumsy version one day.I have long loved its closing image of righteousness (right relationships) and peace shall kiss. Take some prayer time and think of a similar image you would like to see. If you are an artist or not, how would you make an image that took that verse into material?

Monday-Our youngest turned 21, and it hit me harder than I would have expected. I often say that time takes on a different dimension as a parent. Part of me is excited for her last signal of adulthood, but then I fly back to the afternoon when she was born.I am pretty good 9at least for me) at trying to respect her privacy, but I still worry about her, sometimes more htan when she was under our wing. I wonder if God feels that way at times too?

Tuesday-I have a friend who likes the beginning of Hosea as he knows what at least 2 of the names mean.To me, it is the most striking of the biblical image of infiedlity in a marriage to get at the feeling of hurt and betrayal for God in  witnessing our sin. Idolatry, substituting something or someone for God, is that sort of affront.what sins in our time hrut the heart of God, do you think?

Wednesday-I had a doctor’s appointment in Florissant. I get a kick out of the French background and the mangled way we pronounce so many of the remaining french place names. I t is still difficult for me to pronounce Creve Coeur.I would assume it means broken heart or exhausted heart or even empty heart. what would possess someone to name a place with that name? How have you coped with creve coeur in your own life? Are some heartbreaks marked as places within your own life?

Thursday-August 1-recently the choir went to an old hotel in Brussels to have a home-style banquet.Susie says it is like going back in time to grandma’s, as the meal seems to be redolent of old-line farm cooking. I was glad that a French exchange student got to partake of classic rural american food, so she doesn't see us all as fast-food addicts. Rural cooking used local products often, but to me the key feature is that they took time to prepare: slow food as some call it.

Friday from Frederick Beuchner’s writings:Who knows what (God)  will say to me today or to you today or into the midst of what kind of unlikely moment he will choose to say it. Not knowing is what makes today a holy mystery as every day is a holy mystery. But I believe that there are some things that by and large God is always saying to each of us. Each of us, for instance, carries around inside himself, I believe, a certain emptiness—a sense that something is missing, a restlessness, the deep feeling that somehow all is not “right inside his skin.

Saturday-Summer vacations are open, before school starts later this month. I always think of Jonah going off to the promise of tarshish (probably in Spain) as his attempt to get away from it all. Where would you like ot go to get away from it all? Is heaven a christian version of Tarshish in our time? Can you go somewhere locally to get away form it all/ is there a memory, a dream to which you repair?

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