Sunday- Ps. 133 is a brief prayer. Think of the oil as a sign of celebration of a gathering. What are signs of a good celebration? I notice women wear tiaras for birthday parties lately. When should worship feel celebratory?
Monday-In the tumultuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where when we enter their harbors we reclaim our dignity. Abraham Heschel
Tuesday-Biola Devotions-Meditate means to reflect, mull over, ponder, ruminate or chew over (i.e., like a cow chewing its cud). Meditate is from the Latin meditatus, past participle of meditari, which means “to think” or “reflect upon”. Meditate is also related to mederi which means, “to heal,” “to cure,” or “to remedy.” In other words, meditating on God’s Word and finding JESU, heals, cures, and remedies our lost state, bringing life to our souls.
Wednesday-“Why do I smell burnt coffee?” I ponder aloud. “AA is setting up,” the teen tells me. “AA?!” What are they doing he. . . oh . . . it’s Sunday night.” And it hits me. Soon 27 children will arrive to get ready for the bathrobe drama and 250 people will start streaming into the sanctuary. AA? Tonight?... Not possible. I walk over to the people setting up chairs and setting out pamphlets. “I’m so sorry, You can’t meet here tonight. It’s Christmas Eve. I mean, there will be children down here running around and lots of people upstairs and the parking lots full and” . . . and I see their faces, strained and stunned. And I stop. And I start again. “And it will all be fine. You’ll be down here and we’ll be upstairs and it will be fine.” And it was. Angels and shepherds and donkeys and drunks. All thrown together one Christmas Eve. In a place of God.
Thursday--Jer. 15 In his affliction, Jeremiah finds solace in the God who, in contrast to the faithless and forgetful people, understands, cares, and remembers: “Lord, you understand; remember me and care for me.” We, too, who are called by God, who know the delight of his word, and who, perhaps, even know the pain of holding fast to it when it may incite derision, even hatred, are invited to pray the prayer of Jeremiah. From Biola
Friday-I still doubt that anger makes a reliable engine of motivation for justice. Anger clouds our minds and in extremity does result in a kind of madness. Even (maybe especially) righteous anger tends to narrow our vision, thwart our moral imaginations, and divide humanity into simplistic categories beyond just right and wrong: Good person/Evil person. Victim/Victimizer. Godly/Ungodly.Anger allows us to praise some and damn others with impunity and without remorse. Anger tends to calcify into hatred. And however much anger may motivate us to get up and march, hatred will inevitably lead us to march in the wrong directions; and to march, sometimes, with a single-minded compulsion and obsession, disregarding and treading underfoot anyone who gets in our way. Michael Jinkins
Saturday-"My soul desires are not motivated by scarcity. The soul holds expectations loosely and is not attached to the outcome. The soul takes her time, embraces the slow ripening of things, and savors what is to be learned from the process. I can take a deep breath and feel a sense of spaciousness around my soul desires."-- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD
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