Oct. 16 devotions

Sunday Oct 16-Ps. 90 is one of the great psalms of the church. Few look so directly at the transience of life. It stands in humility at a human life span in the face of the Eternal One for whom a day is like a thousand years for us.yet, the Eternal One hears our complaints and cares for us even across the distance of dimension and eternity. No matter our age, life is fragile and precious. let’s live like we recognize that signal fact.

Monday-School starts again, or the job grind starts again. My cousin just wrote me saying that she has had a difficult time knowing how to manage time during her retirement and has gone in for more of a schedule than she thought she would. Otherwise, free time was starting to fell like a burden. I often refer to monks who will pray for hours, often by meditating on a small passage of Scripture. We rush through so much of life. I can think of few things to give time dimension and meaning more than prayer and spending quality and quantity of time with the bible.

Tuesday-Should the church market itself? One the one hand, did not Jesus say follow me? On the on the other hand, as Jesus said, come and see. If advertising helps people to come and see our particular outpost of the faith, then is that an issue? Still, the church is about the truth, and does advertising seek to obscure the truth to make a product more attractive? Is faith to be equated with just another product? Does the fiath need ot be communicated in ways appropriate to this new century?

Wednesday-we worked with Romans 7 last week, one of the deep forays into the human psyche in Scripture. Instead of seeing sin as a mistake or a deliberate choice, it sees us as in constant battle in being in its thrall, so that our moral attitudes and actions are hopelessly mired in confusion. Paul calls that being mired in the path of spiritual death. As the baptized we are constantly called to the clarity of the spirit of life to extricate us from our predicament.

Thursday-I was reminded that Israel had immense self-confidence in their faith, so that they were able to take prayers from other religions and adapt them as their own. We can learn from that. Instead of walling ourselves off from other faith traditions, we too could look at prayers, often beautiful ones, and adapt them for Christian worship, toward beauty and truth.

Friday-I was reminded today that some things that we do that seem designed to annoy others are personality traits. Extroverts tend to think out loud, and that drives some people crazy. Introverts take a lot of time to process and mull over a decision within, and that drives the quicker extroverts nuts. Together we make a healthy relationship, often by burnishing the rough edges or excesses from each personality type. Maturation may well be finding balance in our own personality and learning tolerance for the imbalances in those of others.

Saturday-we have such conflicting notions toward change. Part of me thinks change is usually for the worst, as it always has unforeseen negative consequences, or change has to be embraced, otherwise we make no forward progress. Change makes me feel defensive, if it is not my idea. If my idea, then my feelings get hurt if it is not embraced. We live in constant tension between tradition and change. Where do you prize both?