Devotional Pts-week of April 26

Sunday-Ps.23 is perhaps the most-loved psalm. I would suggest working with it as a template for one’s own prayers. consider being specific:which enemies-what does the shadow look like?-where does your cup runneth over?

Monday- from a hymn-: "Death's flood has lost its chill since Jesus crossed the river." I hope to be thinking about something like that when my last moments of life occur: Christ has altered the nature of our move from death to eternal life. This reminds me of something Luther mused about, that our physical death is really a "little" death. The bigger one happened at the font. Resurrected Christ, ease the chill of our daily death, and bring us to life. Amen.James Aalgaard

Tuesday-Loving God means rejoicing in him. It means trusting him when you can think of a hundred reasons not to trust anything.It means praying to him even when you don't feel like it. It means watching for him in the beauty and sadness and gladness and mystery of your own life and of life around you. Loving each other doesn't mean loving each other in some sentimental, unrealistic, greeting-card kind of way but the way families love each other even though they may fight tooth and nail and get fed up to the teeth with each other and drive each other crazy, yet all the time know deep down in their hearts that they belong to each other and need each other and can't imagine what life would be without each other--even the ones they often wish had never been born.- from Secrets in the Dark

Wednesday-Theologian Karl Barth reportedly said when he died the first thing he expected in heaven was to hear Mozart's music! For me, it might be John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" of the Beatles' classic "Let It Be." For some, whose life has been riddled with tragedy, it might be Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" from his Ninth Symphony. What music renews you? How can music be prayer? Ira Kent Groff

Thursday-Moments are holy doorways where we are lifted out of time and we encounter the sacred in the most ordinary of acts. Moments invite us to pause and linger because there is a different sense of time experienced. Moments are those openings we experience, where time suddenly loses its linear march and seems to wrap us in an experience of the eternal.

Friday-The Gift by Steve Harper Something happens when life changes suddenly. Life looks different than it used to. Values change; conversations change; perspectives shift. We use our time differently. People become much more precious to us than possessions. Ordinary moments become charged with significance and with the energy of eternity. Prayer weaves its way into this tapestry, creating moments of reflection and gratitude. What seems to be loss on one level gets transformed into gain on another level. Saturday- God's power seems neither obvious nor disruptive. Our eyes do not easily see God at work in the world. We are disciples—God's work, our hands. How is  short-sightedness preventing you from seeing God at work in the world? What might you see if you learned to see with different eyes? What might you lose? What might you gain? God, you are beside us, shepherding life and health for all. Teach us to see you, in each other and in ourselves. Amen. Catherine Malotky