devotions Week of August 5

Sunday Aug 5 Ps 51 is one of the great psalms of penitence, of contrition. Few prayers look into the depths of the human predicament as it does. We are told in a superscription that it is composed in view of Nathan exposing David’s terrible acts after the Bathsheba episode. Where do you need the plea to ‘create in me a clean heart” most fully? Has it changed over the years? Recall that heart has more of a sense of inward being, of the self, than only emotions. (Think of the heart of the matter). Monday-John Hiatt Have a Little Faith “When the road gets dark/ And you can no longer see/ Just let my love throw a spark/ An' have a little faith in me.” This is obviously a plea to someone the singer loves, but could it not be a prayer? Could it not be a word from God to us as we go through life? Tuesday Kent Ira Groff gives the good reminder that we get a little comfortable with the admonition to pray as we can, not as we cannot. He fears that we can get into a rut on the basis of what we say feels comfortable and secure. So, he suggests trying some different things. Perhaps one could try a different prayer posture. Instead of speaking a prayer, we could write one out. We could sing hymns. We could write our own hymn or write new words to a familiar tune. We could sculpt something or meditate on a painting. Wednesday- I love watching the Olympics. I care about sports I never consider, although I do not understand how team handball has not become a gym class staple. It is the dedication, the focus, the exuberance that inspires me. I sense some symbolic action going on when I thrill to someone coming form behind to win. My caring about an event every four years is a testament to our capacity to identify with another and their cause. It shows that we are not only isolated individuals, but social to our core. Thursday-Beauty was the topic of our local Reformed Roundtable. Varieties of the word abound in the Old Testament. Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian saw beauty as creating delight and creating a yearning for it. He spoke of God’s beauty easily. When we are entranced by the beauties of nature, Edwards says that we see the “emanations of the sweet benevolence of Jesus Christ, shadows of infinite beauty and loveliness.” Friday-Charity is such a problematic practice for me. Part of me is concerned for justice, creating fair structures. Still when someone needs a glass of water, they need immediate aid, they need charity. I also realize that asking for charity is often demeaning. So, I suppose I will see them as two hands of Christ, justice and charity and try to find when one is more appropriate than the other and when they should be joined in common tasks. Saturday-Some days, it is easier to pray than others. Sometimes, it is mood, or circumstance, or a thousand other factors. Pray anyway, and pray as you are able. In lament psalms, the very act of prayer serves as a catharsis that changes a mood form downbeat to hopeful. It may be a signal to change the way we approach God this day. It may be reflective merely of a bad mood or spiritual lethargy. One mark of a mature faith is praying when we don’t feel much like praying.