Christians are very focused on the future. To be precise, we are eagerly anticipating a specific, yet unknown, point in the future when Jesus returns and ushers in His new and redeemed world where those who accepted His gift of salvation will spend eternity basking in His beauty and goodness.
But until then, there is the present to contend with. And it’s a lot.
The world is filled with all manner of evil: pain, death, fear, uncertainty, sickness, poverty, inequality of all kinds, hatred, oppression… It’s a very long list.
So it’s easy to despair. When I look around at the present and see so much seemingly unassailable evil, I read today’s verse and totally relate to the first half.
Thankfully the Psalmist didn’t stop there. They didn’t stop at the depression and desperation, the turmoil and trouble.
Fortunately the Psalmist returns my focus to the future. The promised future where all evil is vanquished and only goodness, beauty, light, and joy remain.
I can’t wait.
Dear God,
I am so grateful for the promise you have given to me and all of your children. A hope for a future filled with the joy of your presence and an utter lack of evil. Thank you for the reminder of this promise in the midst of my despair. Teach me to live confidently and obediently in the present, holding fast to that bright future.
When I was a child, our church organized a summer program for the kids called Vacation Bible School. The name wasn’t great (who wants “school” in the summertime?!), but it was a lot of fun. Over the course of a week or so, our days were filled with games, crafts, singing, a few lessons, and of course snacks. The snacks of Kool-Aid and cookies (no one was too health-conscious back then) were simple, but after a sweaty game of kick-ball, they were eagerly anticipated.
In the interest of efficiency, all the kids were seated in groups at snack time. One child would be handed the entire allotment of cookies for that group. They were supposed to pass the container of cookies around so that everyone got one.
One day a new kid appeared at Vacation Bible School. She didn’t know the drill. When snack time rolled around, she was overjoyed to be handed so many cookies. She dove right in. Of course, this caused a riot with the other kids in our group until someone explained to her how the process was supposed to work.
She was given more than enough cookies so that she could divvy them out to the other kids who were also hot and hungry.
Like with the Cookie Incident, today’s Bible verse explains that God gives me comfort when I need it. More than enough. And He expects me to spread that comfort around. If I keep it all to myself, I’ll be bloated and no one will be happy. The hope of salvation, and the comfort that brings, is meant to be shared, not hoarded.
All God’s blessings work that way. Do I have food? Then I must help ensure others do too. Do I have a safe place to live? I must work toward ensuring that same security for others. Do I have medical care that I can afford? I need to do everything I can to see that other people do too.
God’s comfort is given because He loves me, but also so I can comfort others.
Dear God,
Thank you for all the ways you comfort me. Forgive me for being selfish and holding so tightly to your comfort. I know you comfort me because you love me. And I recognize your goal of comforting others through me. Show me what that means today. Show me specifically whoyou want me to comfort and how.
I used to feel special and unique. Then along came the Internet. For better or worse, we all learned that none of us are unique. Not exactly.
Any quality I have is shared by at least one other person out there. Any skill or talent I have — there’s someone who can do it better. Probably hundreds of them. It’s just a matter of finding them.
That’s one way the Internet changed the world. Any quirk I have probably has a support group or a fan club of some sort. And that quirk becomes normalized. (Like I said, for better or worse.)
For example, my right foot is bizarrely larger than my left. It’s nearly an inch longer and requires a shoe at least half a size larger. I occasionally used to show off my weird feet like a party trick, and the people I know always seemed surprised. What a weird and unique trait! Or so I thought. A quick internet search brings up hundreds of images, blog posts, and articles about differently sized feet and how common it is. No, I’m one among many.
The only way that I am unique is in the particular combination of all my special features and proclivities and talents. Someone else may have feet exactly the same size as mine, but they don’t also play the trumpet like me, and have a December birthday like me, and like jam on grilled cheese sandwiches like me, and on and on.
But God is actually unique. In every way. Not just as a conglomeration. He is the one and only Being like Himself, and all His characteristics are unique, too. Today’s Bible verse lists a couple. There is no one else that catch match Him in holiness. And no one comes close to Him in reliability. He is always right where He is needed (everywhere), and He is always available.
God is the One and Only God.
Dear God,
You are unique and spectacular! Every time I contemplate all that you are, I am amazed. And I don’t even know the half of it. Actually I’m sure I hardly know anything about you, relative to all there is to know about you. I know what I read about you in your word and what I see about you from your creation. You are truly one of a kind.
I returned recently from a trip where I flew across many time zones. Heading west, I took off around 3pm, and after 12 hours, I arrived at around 7pm of the same day. It’s a bit mind boggling to have so much time pass while so little “time” passes.
This time travel is possible because we followed the sun. During that entire flight, the sky appeared as if it were late afternoon — always light out, even though my body was telling me it was time to go to bed.
In today’s verse, I can see that like following the sun, if I follow Jesus, I can always have light. Light is a good thing. Without it, my eyes are useless gooey balls. Without spiritual light from Jesus, I can’t see anything important either. All I can do is stumble around in my life hoping I’m making good decisions and heading in a helpful direction. With Jesus’s light, I don’t have to guess. I can move forward with purpose and confidence.
But I have to stay close. If I wander off, the darkness quickly closes in, and it’s happy to have me.
Dear God,
Thank you for your bright light that never dims or goes out. Remind me to stay close so I can always see what I’m doing and where your path leads. I’m sorry for the times I wandered away and then whined about the darkness. Forgive me also for the times when I rely on other lights that seem bright at first but flicker and go out when I need them most. I know only you are reliable.
Now that I am “old” (at least compared with my young nieces and nephews), there are a lot of things I no longer have the energy, or opportunity, to do. Some of those things don’t interest me so I am fine leaving them behind. But other things make me wistfully recall my younger, more undefined days.
For example, my nephew just began his college career. I have no interest in reliving the anxious awkwardness of finding my place in campus life or figuring out how to get along with a roommate or staying up all night to fret about a final exam. However, I would be excited to have the thrilling and seemingly boundless learning opportunities spread before me once again, unfettered by the cares of the adult world, with everything feeling fresh and new and possible.
So, I live vicariously through my nephew. He talks to me excitedly about college life, his classes, his successes and failures, his joys and concerns. In a very, very small (and painless) way I can live as a college student again, through him.
In a sort of similar way, today’s verse says I can live vicariously through God’s son, Jesus.
My nephew is at college, doing all the hard stuff — missing home, taking exams, reading texts, studying hard, pushing boundaries — which I do not have to experience. But he is also doing all the fun stuff — learning, making friends, dreaming about his future, enjoying his freedom — which I can enjoy vicariously, as he allows.
Jesus was sent to earth like my nephew was sent to college. While on earth, Jesus did all the hard stuff — suffering and dying for my sins — so I didn’t have to. After He was resurrected, He returned to Heaven where He’s doing all the fun stuff — living in peace with God, surrounded by wisdom, beauty, and love — which I can enjoy vicariously. And actually, through the miracle of God’s love I can do better than vicarious enjoyment. I can live the good stuff for real. Just the good parts!
Dear God,
Thank you for the beautiful and undeserved gift of eternal life with you, where I am invited to enjoy just the good parts. I’m so grateful that Jesus took all the bad parts with Him when He died on the cross. I’m so happy to live through you, and not just vicariously.
The Trinity is a mysterious thing. I don’t understand what it is or how it works. I know it is a description of God, encompassing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are somehow both three Beings and also one Being. So, is it a multiple personality situation or a family or something else I have no way of relating to or comprehending?
It’s most definitely the latter. God is way beyond my ability to comprehend.
If I could fully understand God, He really wouldn’t be much of a God. In fact, even limiting Him to the pronouns available to me seems like a failure. God is beyond He, She, It, and even They. He is none of those things. God is just God, or as He likes to say, He is I AM.
So when today’s Bible verse talks about the Holy Spirit “coming on me” as a follower of Jesus, I’m flummoxed. Is it God, or part of God? Is it Jesus, or part of Jesus? What is the Holy Spirit?
Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit quite a bit at the end of His ministry. He wanted to assure His disciples that His departure wouldn’t mean He was gone from their lives. His Spirit would come and live with them, inside them. This Spirit would remind them of everything Jesus had taught them and give them the power and wisdom to fulfill His commands, namely the great commission — to go and make disciples of all nations.
And when I read the Bible I can see the change in Jesus’s disciples very starkly. During Jesus’s life, they seem so thick-skulled. They witnessed miracle after miracle, but were still confused and doubtful. (I’m sure I would have been just as slow, but it’s a little frustrating to read.) Then Jesus dies, is resurrected, and leaves, promising to send the Holy Spirit. And after the Holy Spirit comes, those same men are suddenly bold, confident, and authoritative. They preach and teach and lead the world to Jesus. And it’s clearly not the men who changed, but the Holy Spirit who arrived with power, as today’s verse says.
That same Spirit and same power is in me. And available for anyone who accepts Jesus’s gift of salvation.
I’m just some dummy muddling about in the world, but because of the Holy Spirit living in me, giving me power and wisdom, maybe I have something worthwhile to say about God. If anyone learns anything from my writing, it’s surely not coming from me but from that Spirit.
Dear God,
Thank you for sending your Holy Spirit into the world to comfort, teach, encourage, and empower me and the rest of your children. Thank you for sending Him to the disciples originally so they could write the Gospel that I can read today. Remind me to trust your Spirit and to speak boldly about you — to be your witness to the end of the earth where I live.
In a town I used to live in, a group of men would mill about near a hardware store every morning. They were hoping to be hired to do some manual labor job for the day, or longer. They were there instead of a temp agency or another job-finding resource because they most likely did not have appropriate work visas. The people hiring them understood the pay could be low and off the books. The workers understood this too and risked getting arrested and deported or worse.
Many people grumbled about the situation. And there are some valid things to grumble about, for sure. It was illegal, dangerous in many ways, and ripe for abuse among other things.
But today’s verse reminds me of one wonderful thing about that situation. People come from all over the world to try to find a better life in the United States. Some do it legally; others, usually the more desperate ones, do not. As a follower of Jesus, I should be overjoyed that so many people from so many nations arrive here, regardless of how they got here, regardless of their situation or circumstances.
After His resurrection but before He returned to God, Jesus gave all His followers one command. We call it the great commission. “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
If all the nations are coming to me, my job is so much easier. The poorer and more desperate the immigrants are, the more I am able to help them, and the more willing to seek help and answers they will be. What a wonderful opportunity.
To obey Jesus, I don’t need to go very far. I should be overjoyed that the nations are coming to me. Welcome immigrants! Thank you for making the great commission so simple.
Dear God,
Thank you for all the wonderful opportunities I have just by having been born in the United States. Forgive me for taking these blessings for granted so much of the time and for acting like I had anything to do with my birthplace. I know I did nothing to deserve it, nor am I entitled to anything in particular. Show me how best to share your story and your blessings with all the nations that are represented around me. I trust you to provide for all of us if I focus on being obedient to you and your great commission.
This verse reminds me of “The Warm Fuzzy Tale” by Claude M. Steiner. If you’ve never read it or heard it, everyone in the tale is born with a bag of things called Warm Fuzzies. When they give a warm fuzzy to another person, that person feels warm and fuzzy. But one day a witch convinces them that their bags will one day be empty. So the people stop giving them away. Needless to say, society takes a dark turn — people feel awful, even get sick, and die.
There is something inside each of us, an instinct perhaps, that makes us afraid of running out. We buy six extra cases of toilet paper during a pandemic or hide our stash of Halloween candy so our siblings can’t find it. It makes us stingy and reluctant to share or help others. In extreme cases, a scarcity mindset can lead to some serious problems like anxiety, hoarding, and impulse buying.
In God’s upside-down kingdom, I am called to have a generosity mindset — to be generous, trusting God to meet my needs. The more generous I am with others, the more generous God promises to be with me.
In the Warm Fuzzy story, the witch was lying. The bags of warm fuzzies were bottomless. Just like God’s resources are infinite. And yet it’s so easy to listen to the devil, and my own instincts, whispering that maybe I’d better save more for me.
Dear God,
Thank you for your promise to meet my needs abundantly when I rely on you and give of myself and my resources freely. I’m sorry for the times when I succumb to fear and hoard what you’ve given me or when I am just really… slow… to give. Guide me toward generosity today.
When I moved into our home, I inherited a few citrus trees. I loved the bright lemons I could see through my bathroom window. But I didn’t know anything about caring for them. The next season, the lemons didn’t return as vigorously. I was told to prune the branches. Of course I did it wrong the first time, but after some research I got it right, and the lemons returned to brighten my view.
Many of Jesus’s illustrations in the Bible use agricultural references because He knew His audience would easily relate to those topics. I, however, do not so easily relate to stories about shepherding sheep or sowing seeds or pruning vines, as in today’s verse, despite my forays into citrus tree maintenance.
But the point is still easy to access. Especially if I translate it to something I know, like photography.
As a photographer selling stock photography, I have thousands and thousands of photos in my collection. It’s been easy to accumulate such an abundance since the advent of digital photography combined with inexpensive data storage.
Having this enormous volume of photos actually creates a problem when it comes to selling the photos though. Stock photo buyers need to be able to find the high quality photos of the subjects they need quickly. None of them want to wade through vast sums of losers to find their winner.
So it’s important for me to prune my portfolio to only the best examples.
If a photo is blurry, out it goes. If the lighting is wrong or the subject is poorly composed or exposed, it is removed. The photos that remain are the ones that will sell, the ones that will bear fruit.
And even those photos will be edited, retouched, and perfected. They will be sharpened. Noise will be minimized, colors enhanced, unwanted bits cropped out until they are the best they can be.
So, what do I need to do to be one of the sharp, well-exposed, sellable photos? How can I avoid ending up blurry and dim in the rejects folder?
Jesus says to “remain in Me”(verse 4). Every branch that remains in Jesus will be saved and lovingly pruned. Every photo that remains in Jesus will be edited, retouched, and included in His portfolio.
What does it mean to remain in Jesus?
Jesus says, “To remain in me, keep my commands” (vs. 10). And then, “This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you” (vs 12).
So, simply, if I want to stay sharp and avoid being a useless blurry photo, my top priority must be to love other people.
Dear God,
Thank you for loving me! Please give me the strength to love other people in that same way — without regard to whether they deserve it or appreciate it. Teach me how to stay connected to you like a branch on a vine or a good photo in your portfolio.
If I woke up one morning to find several wrapped gifts in my living room, my first thought would not be that a fat elf in a red and white fur suit must have climbed down my chimney to deliver them.
No one believes in Santa Claus unless they are told the tales about him — usually at a very young and very gullible age.
God is no Santa Claus. And, unlike Santa, God’s story is true. But the truth about God can seem just as hard to believe. For one thing, it seems too good to be true: God is the ultimate wisdom and power in the universe, a Creator who loves me and wants to spend eternity with me? OK, sure.
Fortunately, unlike Santa’s story, there is evidence of the truth of God all around me every day. Before Paul wrote today’s verse, he wrote, “since what can be known about God is evident among [us], because God has shown it to [us]. For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20 CSB)
And the psalmist, David, wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the expanse proclaims the work of his hands.” (Psalms 19:1 CSB)
We have no excuse for not knowing about God’s power, character, and glory.
But that’s not the whole story. The gospel of Jesus adds a beautiful wrinkle to God’s truth. Like today’s verse says, it requires a preacher. Not only is God the loving, wise, and powerful Creator I see in His creation, He loves me so much, despite my selfishness and rejection, that He sent His only Son to die in my place, before I even knew enough to be ashamed of my sin or grateful for His gift. And all He asks in return is for me to welcome His gift of love and forgiveness.
Again, it sounds too good to be true. Who would believe it? No one, unless someone (who, me?) tells the story.
Dear God,
Thank you for planting the truth of your love deep in my heart when I observe your created world. Thank you also for the people you planted in my life to teach me the truth about Jesus’s sacrifice for me. Forgive me for keeping the story to myself. Give me the courage, the words, and the recognized opportunities to be the preacher you ask me to be.
CamDevo 