Week of May 4 devotions

Sunday-Ps.116 certainly has an Easter sound to it. Try to read it with both Easter eys but also for the  promise of new life here and now. Resurrection hope was a late addition to the Old testament material. V. 8 brings to mind something I rarely think about: eluded troubles. So often we narrowly miss disaster; so often we avoid being hit with a cause of tears and stumbling. Can you note such moments in your life’s graph?

Monday-An elderly gentleman walked slowly as he left the evening worship. He had listened as the congregation sang, "O God Our Help in Ages Past." He took my hand and spoke with tears in his eyes. "That hymn is all I need; it tells me all that I need to know about God." Wayne Radke

Tuesday-Grieving at the empty tomb. We do that, don’t we? Even though the resurrection of Jesus is good news, life comes from death, wildflowers and planted flowers emerge after a cold winter, there is still an awareness of that loss. In someone else’s sermon on Lazarus, the point was made that we would much rather invite Jesus into our tombs, ask him to redecorate and spruce up the place, than to accept the risky proposition of stepping into new life. Anne Lamott

Wednesday-from Abbey of the Arts- Lynn Ungar has a wonderful poem titled "Camas Lilies" in which she writes: "And you — what of your rushed and / useful life? Imagine setting it all down — / papers, plans, appointments, everything, / leaving only a note: "Gone to the fields / to be lovely. Be back when I'm through / with blooming." Spring is a time to set aside some of the plans and open ourselves to our own blooming.

Thursday-Macrina Wiederkehr-The word, SURPRISE, has many meanings and my favorite meaning is, "TAKEN FROM ABOVE."  You are so  filled with amazement and delight that something above you, outside of you, beyond your power, takes hold of you.  Something outside of yourself grasps you and invites you to be a seer. You are taken from above and given a new vision of one particular slice of life.  A presence that you can't explain pulls back the curtain and some kind of revelation takes place.-

Friday-We are all of us judged every day. We are judged by the face that looks back at us from the bathroom mirror. We are judged by the faces of the people we love and by the faces and lives of our children and by our dreams. We are judged by the faces of the people we do not love. Each day finds us at the junction of many roads, and we are judged as much by the roads we have not taken as by the roads we have.Frederick Buechner

Saturday-

I still remember vividly the night we sang the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me." As a young boy who was experiencing the many uncertainties of life, I would often wonder if there was a God who could pilot me. And then I would hear the words of hope in this hymn. They were indeed words of a God who spoke to me, and told me of a God "who stills the sea as a mother calms her child and of a God who commands the boisterous waves to be still." O God, I hear your words that breathe calm in the midst of the waves around me. In the quiet of a place of worship, help me to hear again your strong message of hope. Amen.

Wayne Radke