Shade

The Lord is your shade on your right hand (Psalm 121:5)


During August in Southern Oklahoma a light breeze is an epiphany, evidence that there is a God in heaven and that this God is good. Add some shade from a decent sized tree, and you’ve got something akin to the parting of the Red Sea and water from the rock.

On more than one occasion I’ve mentioned the congregation I served in Oklahoma during my seminary days. In this church a “building program” meant more than raising money. It meant that we actually built the building, as in hammering things together. We started our “building program” in August, a time of year in Oklahoma in which the sun can work on your flesh like a convection oven.

Thankfully, the front part of our property was graced by the presence of a rather large tree. That may not sound like such a big deal, but trees of respectable size in southern Oklahoma are a treasure. A small rise in the ground served as a kind of pedestal for the tree, and this is where we would sit when it was time to stop work and enjoy the sandwiches and fried chicken that had been brought to us for lunch. And occasionally, just every now and then, that rise in the ground would catch a breeze, a gift of grace. Whenever I think of the way God guards us and the grace that sustains us I remember that tree. Never in my life have I been so thankful for shade.

However, the presence of that tree and the shade it gave us did not change the reality in which we lived and worked. The tree gave us shade but it did not drive away the heat or diminish the intensity of the sun. The shade gave us a refuge in the middle of the day, but it did not exempt us from the conditions of late summer in Oklahoma.

Psalm 121 says that “the Lord is your shade at your right hand.” Connected to this image is the promise that the sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. But these dangers and the threats they represent are still very real. In his commentary on Psalm 121, John Calvin takes pains to explain that the Psalmist does not “promise the faithful a condition of such felicity and comfort as implies an exemption from all trouble.” We are not exempt, but we are covered.

On those blistering days of work in the flat wide-open spaces of Oklahoma, all it took was one tree. That one tree gave us refuge. Whatever conditions you’re living in today, remember that there is always shade to be found. There is a place to rest and regroup. “The Lord is your shade at your right hand.”

Prayer:
We give you thanks, O God, for the shade you provide when conditions are too much for us. You do not always spare us the pain of what they bring – but you cover us with grace to endure. You are indeed a refuge for us, and we find our strength in the shadow of your wings. Cover us with your grace in all that this day may bring, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Your Next Move

He will not let your foot slip . . . (Psalm 121:3).


Some people are always looking for the next thing. You may be one of those people. You may be pondering the next trip, the next deal, the next semester, the next date. You may see exactly where you’re headed and you’ve got a pretty good idea of how to get there. Or maybe not.

You may have no idea what’s next. A lack of clarity may have you stuck. Maybe even a lack of courage. Maybe your next move is confronting you with some equally attractive or equally dreadful options. Which one to take?

The movie Searching for Bobby Fischer is the story of a young chess prodigy, Josh Waitzkin. The film follows Josh’s rise to national prominence, culminating in the match for the national title – a match played against another young genius who, in a previous match, had caused Josh to doubt himself and his abilities.

At one point in this national title match Josh loses a key piece, the queen, to his opponent. Josh is clearly rattled. He turns his gaze intently to the board, imagining in his mind a blank playing surface. Everything around him seems to vanish as he calculates his next move and the likely responses from the player seated opposite him.

With each move captured on a TV monitor, Josh’s coach and parents watch nervously from another room. At this critical moment in the match, the coach sees the path to victory. He whispers to monitor: “It’s there Josh. It’s only twelve moves away. Don’t move until you see it.” Josh gazes at the board until those twelve moves unfold in his mind, and then he sees it. You can probably guess how the story ends.

At times, I’ve tried to look at my life the way Josh Waitzkin looked at that chess board. I’ve wanted to see the next twelve moves unfold, a clear path to the win or at least the best outcome. God does grant to some a visionary gift, but most of us cannot see the next twelve moves. Typically life is lived one move at a time. The chess coach urged Josh not to move until he could see the win. By contrast, God asks us not to stand still. We make the next move and trust God for the one after that.

Psalm 121 gives us words to pray when we’re pondering the next move. We are reminded over and over that God will “keep” us. The Psalm makes no promises as to what will come our way as we move ahead. Threats and risks are real. We don’t get twelve moves to the win in Psalm 121.

Take time to look carefully at the blank board. See as deeply as you can into what lies in front of you. But do not expect to see every move. At some point simply make the next move. Step into this day trusting God to do what he has promised to do. He will not let your foot slip.

What next move are you pondering and praying about today?

Prayer:
Guide us, O God, to whatever comes next. Give us grace for the next move, knowing that you make our steps firm. We ask you to confirm the right direction and correct what is misguided. We trust you to do this work in us as we seek to follow you and serve you with our lives. Let our next move – and every move – bring us more in line with your will, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

He neither Slumbers nor Sleeps

He who keeps you will not slumber . . . (Psalm 121:3).


The things that matter most to you matter to Jesus.

Let that sink in for a moment as you begin this day. Remind yourself of this as the day unfolds. What you care about, Jesus cares about. Every concern is noted, every restless thought registered. There is not a detail of your life today that escapes the notice of the living Christ.

And yet, while Jesus stands with us in our storms, but he doesn’t share our fear. Whatever it is that keeps us up at night doesn’t have God pacing the heavens, wringing hands that formed the earth and sky and sea.

Psalm 121 tells us that “the God who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4). The same can be said of your life. In this Psalm of eight verses, God is spoken of eight times as a guardian or one who guards. God watches over your life with a constant vigilance. This confident Psalm will be the focus of our attention this week.

God may never slumber or sleep, but sometimes we wonder. There is a story in Mark 4 where Jesus – the word-made-flesh – took a nap. He dozed off just as the threat of a storm was approaching. The disciples couldn’t understand this. How can he be sleeping? Doesn’t he care?

We don’t understand it either. Their questions are our questions. Jesus may be present, but that doesn’t mean much if he isn’t paying attention to what’s happening.

If every good story has some element of tension, Mark creates this by highlighting the contrast between the fearful disciples and the sleeping Jesus. Waves are slapping the boat, pounding with a spray that stings; curling up high and spilling into the craft.

So many details are left out. What did they do to help themselves? No doubt, they did what they could to manage the situation. Maybe they bailed water or pulled at the riggings. We do this kind of thing in our storms. “Why bother Jesus with this?” But as our anxieties escalate the sleeping figure of the Christ eventually begins to bother us, even anger us. We reach a point of exasperation where we cry out, “do you not care that we are perishing?” Ever prayed a prayer like that?

But here’s the gospel – good news! Jesus does now what he did then. Just as he spoke peace to the elements of nature, he can speak peace today to broken hearts and fractured homes and war-torn nations. We are sometimes tempted to despair because it seems that Jesus is sleeping, out of touch. He isn’t. We see and feel a threat. Jesus does not. We see catastrophe. Jesus speaks command. We’re eaten up with anxieties. Jesus exudes peace. And he brings that peace to bear on the storm itself.

Our reflections this week will be aimed at putting some steel in your faith. Our God is ever vigilant. He will not let your foot slip. So what is it that robs you of peace today? Whatever it is, Jesus has it firmly in hand. Despite all evidence to the contrary, he who watches over you “neither slumbers nor sleeps.”

Prayer:
Merciful God, at times the storms overwhelm me. The storms seem powerful and active, while you seem distant and sleepy. Remind me today that you command the elements of every storm. Give me a fresh vision of your power, and with it grant peace through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Summer Book Club: John Ortberg's "Who is this Man?"

WHEN: Thursdays at 12:00 noon (ending by 1:00)  beginning this week, June 6th.

WHERE: At "The Lodge" - directly across from the sanctuary of Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Come upstairs to the Appalachian Room. the address of the building is 3417 Roswell Road NW, ATL 30305.

WHAT: We will be reading through John Ortberg's book Who is the Man: The Unpredictable Impact of the Inescapable Jesus.

The Work of our Hands

Establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands (Psalm 90:17).


The work of their hands is usually done with plastic shovels and buckets.

Just beyond the encroaching line of water that creeps over the sand after the wave’s crescendo, they labor. The work of their hands may be nothing more than a large mound of grainy mud. Sometimes their work has made something elaborate, an architectural wonder. The sand has been sculpted to make a mansion or a true castle. Quite often the work of their hands includes a moat that circles the structure.

The following morning vacationers will be up early to walk or jog on the beach. They will walk past the work sites from the day before and see how the tide came in overnight and eroded the work of those hands, those bucket-built worlds. The moats will be full of water. The mounds may still be noticeable but nearly worn away by the beating of waves. The mansions will be in utter disrepair, if left standing at all.

But the builders will return. Their moms and dads will stretch out on chairs and watch as young imaginations strike back at the tides and go to work again. The beach will be a canvas for their visions, an exhibit hall for the work of their hands.

We see this every summer. Sometimes what we see is a picture of what we live all year long.

The work of our hands may be done joyfully and well. But to what end? What becomes of the work we do? What kind of impact does it have? Psalm 90 ends with a peculiar prayer: “Establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.”

In his grace, God gives us work to do. All of us – whether or not we know it and believe it – have a vocation, a calling. God’s gift of work is his invitation to join what he is doing in this world, and no field of endeavor is omitted. God calls us to do the work – but Psalm 90 reminds us that it God who establishes it. To ignore this or to deny it is to live every day building sand castles, laboring to create things that are easily eroded and eventually undone.

As you go through this day, pray Psalm 90:17. Ask God to establish the work of your hands. The work, of course, is still yours to do. This prayer will not relieve you of the responsibility of giving your best effort to your work.

But the impact of what you do – the way you touch other lives and the way God uses the work that you do to bring about his own purposes – this is God’s alone to do. He will establish the work of your hands. He will make it matter in ways that you may never see and cannot begin to imagine.

The work you do today, you do with God. So take up your bucket and shovel knowing that he will establish what he has called you to do.

Prayer:
We give you thanks, O God, for the gift of work and for your call to live this day as co-laborers with you. Help us to do our work well. We give it to you, asking you to “establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.” Amen.

Numbering . . . not Counting

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90: 12).


I’ve been numbering my days lately. Maybe you have too.

I’m not talking about something morbid or morose. The kind of numbering I’ve been doing, the kind that Psalm 90 speaks of, isn’t done with a calendar. It has little to do with counting or measuring time and more to do with entering into it, sensing how it moves and pondering what it means. That’s what I’ve been doing.

The school year ended last week. When it begins again both of my kids will be in high school. I can’t help but utter that familiar and clichéd question: “When did that happen?” I know very well when it happened. It happened while Marnie and I were just holding on through the demands of their infancy. It happened while we were being so intentional about getting them ready for their future.

With our gaze firmly fixed in one direction we easily miss all the things that are accumulating behind us. By the time we really notice them, they’re gone. We wonder how it happened and sense the inexorable movement of the years.

The Psalmist speaks of numbering our days within the context of prayer, a petition spoken to God. The request asks God to “teach us” to number our days. We don’t do this naturally. We need help. Day numbering is a learned behavior.

Usually the help we get comes to us as some kind of reminder that our days have a limit. The reminder may be as simple as a graduation or New Year’s Eve. Sometimes a tragedy forces us to number our days. Regardless of how or why, we need to be faced with the truth that our days do not stretch out before us in infinite supply. It doesn’t matter how well you eat and how often you work out. There’s a limit to our days. The hard part is facing the limit with courage and gratitude. This is how we number our days. It has little to do with counting.

Some refuse to number their days because it makes them fearful and anxious. Others refuse to number their days because they regard that kind of thing as depressing or sad. According to the Psalm, both of those reactions are mistaken. In the Psalm, numbering our days makes us neither anxious nor depressed. It makes us wise.

Those who “gain a heart of wisdom” are those who have also gained clarity about what life is for. To number our days is to recognize that every single day comes to us as a gift, and what we do with every day is determined by the giver. To number our days doesn’t diminish life, it enhances it.

What life events have taught you how to number your days? How will you live this one?

Prayer:
Teach us to number our days, O Lord, and make us wise in the learning. Guard us from the fear and sadness that grasps at time but fails to live. Make us bold and glad in our living, trusting you for every day, honoring you in the way we live. Grant us a heart of wisdom we pray, Amen.

A Way to Wake Up

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love . . . (Psalm 90:14).

A question: How did you wake up this morning?


The question can be answered in a couple of different ways. You may describe how you felt when you woke up. You may have been well rested or sluggish. You could have woken up sore from a previous day’s exercise. You could have woken up dreading the day or eager for what you have planned.

You could also answer the question by describing the means by which you woke up. You could have been brought to consciousness by someone gently shaking your shoulder or by the cry of a baby. You might have heard a neighbor’s dog barking. The sound of your phone or a text message might have abruptly ended your slumber. There are many different ways to wake up in the morning.

Perhaps the most common is the use of an alarm clock. They may be old fashioned clangers with big hand and little hand that tell the time; they may display bright digital numbers and wake you to traffic and weather reports or your favorite music. Upon reflection, what is most striking about alarm clocks is the very name of the device.

Webster’s New World Dictionary provides six definitions of the word “alarm.” Of the six, only one refers in a neutral way to the mechanical function of a clock, using words like “bell” or “buzzer.” The remaining five definitions are all variations of the word “fear.” To be alarmed is to be threatened. Alarm is the “fear caused by the sudden realization of danger.”

So many of us wake up alarmed . . . and we live that way through the entire day.

Even though not threatened by imminent trouble or harm, we often feel the weight of the day from our first conscious moments. Our minds race with uncertainties that have not been resolved. We anticipate interactions with difficult people. We feel ordinary and relentless pressures about money and parenting and not exercising enough. We wake up alarmed – or just as likely our inner alarm kept us from sleeping in the first place.

There is a line in Psalm 90 that is worth memorizing. It is a short prayer, a simple petition to be uttered at the beginning of the day, just as you wake up. “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).

This brief prayer reflects God’s will for you today. Wake up satisfied with his love. Even when the days holds difficult things for you, know that his love is steadfast and not fickle. God’s love is sufficient and will sustain you through whatever this day brings to you. Knowing this, you can live the day with joy and gladness.

As you go to bed tonight, go ahead and set your clock. But before you fall asleep pray Psalm 90:14. And when the clock goes off, do not be alarmed. Be satisfied with his steadfast love.

So back to the question: How did you wake up this morning?

Prayer:
“Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.” Grant it even now, in this day, through Christ our Lord we pray. Amen.

Hands in the Dirt

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you (1 Peter 4:12).


Eustace Conway lives on 1000 acres of Appalachian wilderness in western North Carolina. He grows or hunts for his food and wears animal skin clothes. This isn’t the lore of history. This is all present tense. I discovered his story in Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Last American Man. One passage in particular caught my attention. Gilbert writes this about Conway:

It is his belief that we Americans, through our constant striving for convenience, are eradicating the raucous and edifying beauty of our true environment and replacing it with a safe but completely “faux” environment. . . We Americans have, in two short centuries, created a world of push-button, round-the-clock comfort for ourselves . . . but in replacing every challenge with a shortcut, we seem to have lost something, and Eustace isn’t the only person feeling that loss. We are an increasingly depressed and anxious people (The Last American Man, 14).

Conway is identifying what shapes the standard response of western Christians to suffering. In a world where comfort is the norm and goal of life, suffering means that something has gone terribly wrong. Suffering is to be avoided at all costs.

Unlike Eustace Conway, most of us do not live off the land. We do not hunt. We do not support our families with what we can grow and harvest. We do not get our hands in the dirt. Instead, we go to Costco or Kroger.

In the same way that we are removed from the land, our convenient push-button world also distances us from much of the world’s suffering population. The subtext of these daily reflections has been our mission in the world. We labor to plant the seeds of God’s kingdom, trusting God for growth, joining him in the harvest. But how are we to do this if we never get our hands dirty?

Here’s the great irony: in our pursuit of comfort, we actually lose what we most desperately need. We need to know the presence and power and trustworthiness of the God who created us. What we get instead is a world where we can manage for ourselves with enough technology, a well-balanced diet and regular exercise.

How can we begin to get inside the experience of those who know suffering, those for whom suffering is a daily reality? Maybe a step in the right direction would be to begin praying the Psalms of lament. These are well-established prayers of God’s suffering people. Find a Bible and spend some time this week reading Psalm 10, 12, 13, 20, 22, 27, 31.

As you do this, you will hear words that might not describe what you’re experiencing today. But you can be assured that there are others around the world speaking words like this every day. The prayers of lament allow us to be with them. Today you can step out of the safe reality you’re immersed in and enter the reality of those who suffer. Consider it a way to get your hands in the dirt.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, I find it easy to pray for other Christians who suffer. I struggle to know how to pray with them. My world is so different from theirs in many ways. Teach me to pray with my suffering brothers and sisters, and lead me into a reality that transcends the comforts with which I am surrounded. Amen.

A Matter of Timing

“He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.” (Ecc. 11:4)


Our problem is not that we are not willing to do the work of sowing. Nor are we unwilling to put our hand to the harvest. What often keeps us from both is our desire for optimal conditions. It is, as we like to say, a matter of timing.

We wait for the right time to speak. We wait for the right time to apply and enroll. We wait for the right time to sell or buy. We wait for the right time to propose. We wait for the right time to start a family.

The writer of Ecclesiastes rightly observed that for everything there is a time and season. Timing cannot be ignored and we need to exercise discernment in the rhythms of life. But sometimes our concern with timing keeps us from doing anything at all.

We look at the wind and watch the clouds. You may be doing that today.

There are times when even our most confident actions are taken without the benefit of iron-clad certainty. If we’re waiting on perfect conditions, waiting until we have flawless knowledge of God’s will, we’ll never act. That’s what the writer of Ecclesiastes is telling us. If you watch the wind too closely you’ll never throw seed because you’re not sure where it might get blown. If you watch the clouds too closely you’ll never reap a harvest. Waiting on perfect conditions means you’ll be waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting.

When Jesus gave us words to pray he taught us to pray “thy will be done.” He did not teach us to pray “thy will be known.” Still, whenever we find ourselves seeking the will of God, we go about it as if the aim is knowledge. We focus more on our knowing than upon God’s doing.

We’re better off to simply pray as Jesus taught us to pray. Yes, we exercise careful discernment, we seek godly counsel, we patiently wrestle with the matter in prayer – but then we act; we take a step, choose a direction, all the while praying “thy will be done.”

If you’ve sensed a desire to do good in this world, perhaps it’s time to go ahead and do it. “In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not which will prosper, this or that or whether both alike will be good” (Ecc. 11:6).

Prayer:
Father, grant me wisdom of good discernment and the willingness to go ahead and act. Do in my life today what you will to do, and use my life as a means of blessing where you’ve placed me. I offer my plans and decisions to you, trusting you to accomplish your purposes in me and through me. Amen.

The Closet Door

Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows though he does not know how” (Mark 4:27).


We probably should have painted the wooden frame around my son’s closet door.

Our house was on the market and the best wisdom about ‘staging’ said that personal items needed to be out of sight so that potential buyers could envision the home as their own. That was all well and good when it came to pictures on the refrigerator. But there was no way I was painting the door frame of John’s closet.

We had moved into the house in 2002. My son had just turned four and my daughter was few months shy of her third birthday. Not long after moving in we had started marking their height on the inside of the closet door. Over the years the right side of the door frame had become a kind of journal, recording the passing of time and the growth of my two children.

Each time we made a new entry on our door frame journal we would celebrate the growth, making comparisons to the last entry. We treated every inch like a personal achievement, shamelessly bragging on the kids for something over which they had no control. And while I celebrated and bragged on the outside I was often surprised and even a little sobered by what I saw. We would make a new mark on the door and I would silently wonder, “When did that happen?”

Growth is peculiar in that way. Even when expect it and know it’s happening, we don’t actually see it. We marvel as if it happened overnight. We know better. It was and is happening all the time, but it eludes our gaze. We live day to day unaware.

We eventually sold the house. I’m assuming the new owner painted the frame around that closet door. My son is now 15 and my daughter turns 14 this week. Marking their height inside the frame of a closet door stopped being fun a long time ago. But the growth hasn’t stopped, although now we see it in different ways. Growth these days can’t always be marked with a pencil.

In Jesus’ short parable about the growing seed, the earth produces growth, night and day, whether the farmer is wide awake or sound asleep. The seed sprouts and grows, the farmer “knows not how.” The growth of God’s kingdom, like the growth of a child or the emergence of a crop, is imperceptible. We know it’s happening, but knowledge is not awareness. We don’t see it. We can’t pull up a chair and watch it. God does this work in our sleeping and waking. We know not how.

Nevertheless, from time to time it’s good to put a mark on the door frame and see what God has done. In the image of the parable, we need to celebrate “the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.” The sprout reminds us that growth may be imperceptible but it is not invisible.

How do you mark the work of the Spirit in your own life?

Prayer:
We give you thanks, O God, for the unseen ways you are at work around us and within us. Help us to be patient as you do your work in this world. Make us confident in the promise of a coming harvest. And as you will, grant us grace that we might see a sign of your faithfulness, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Planting Season

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed” (Mark 4:3).


Two weekends ago was ‘planting season’ around our house.

We made our way to our local do-it-yourself mega store where everything we needed was arranged under a large greenhouse type attachment at one end of the building. It’s all right there: gloves and garden tools alongside bags of mulch, fertilizer, and even soil. Yes, sometimes urbanites who yearn to get their hands in the dirt have to go to a store and purchase the dirt.

And then, of course, there are plants. Rows and rows of cinderblock and ply-wood tables full of plants. My job was to navigate the flatbed cart while my wife selected what would go in the ground. Our planting season seems a little bit like cheating. What we ‘plant’ is already visible and growing. We brought home various flowers housed in small plastic cubes as well a few other large plants in plastic buckets. I would dig a hole and Marnie would pull the plant from its plastic home, roots and all. After a short while the yard looked different.

There is something immediately gratifying about placing a small plant in the ground. Of course, there is no guarantee that the plant itself will thrive, but for a short while the labor of planting is rewarded. You can see difference your work makes.

Not so with seed. A seed is buried in the earth. Something is anticipated but not seen. With seeds, those who plant must labor and wait. After the work and the waiting there emerges the slightest sign of life, a sprig of something green. A sprout.

When Jesus wanted to explain to people how God’s active presence in the world works, he often used the image of seed. “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.” This was a word picture that everyone could understand. While most of us don’t farm, we can understand it too. Seeds do now just what they did back then – and they provided Jesus a favorite image for describing the Kingdom of God, or the work of God in the world.

For the next couple of weeks we’ll be thinking about seed. Our daily reflections will aimed at training us to see God’s work in the world around us. More than that, we’ll be looking for ways to sow the seeds of God’s presence in the very places where we live and work.

What is true of God’s work in the world is true of your own life. Like seed pressed into the hiddenness of the earth, God is at work in ways that you cannot see right now. The Spirit’s work is unseen, but steady. Growth is not usually something you can feel. You won’t find evidence of life by constantly checking on the seed. Instead you engage in the repeated daily labors of tending to what has been planted. Soon the sprout of life appears.

These daily reflections are simply a tool for the work of cultivating what God wants to do in and around you. It’s planting season. Be diligent and patient – and look for the sprout.

Prayer:
Gracious God, we sometimes live through seasons in which our souls seem dormant and lifeless. Help us in the coming days to cultivate the soil of our heart so that we might be your people in the world, sowing seeds of your grace wherever we might be. Remind us that you are at work in unseen but steady ways, even as we go through this day, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A Doubting Heart

A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped (Mark 4:37).


“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

This question is perhaps the most common expression of doubt among people of faith. The question was directed at Jesus. There is within it a thinly veiled rebuke. One translator rendered the words in such a way that they imply accusation: “Are we to drown for all you care?” This is the question that will hold our attention for a few days.

The story that provides context to the question is from Mark 4. For many of you the story is familiar. Since it is brief, take a moment to re-read it.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let us go over to the other side." 36 Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. 37 A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" 39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. 40 He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?" 41 They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!" (Mark 4:35-41).

In her memoir, Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me, Karen Swallow Prior recalls her own struggles with doubt. She acknowledges that her struggles had nothing to do with God’s existence. “I wonder more that an airplane can fly than that the God of the universe exists,” she writes. Nevertheless, “I struggled against God . . . I didn’t doubt his being. I doubted his ways” (Booked, 190).

Her doubts are widely shared. Of course, there are plenty of doubts that are expressed as intellectual objections to the truth claims of the Christian faith. But just as often, doubt comes to us from a deeper place. We don’t question God’s existence. We do, however, question whether God cares. We are anxious disciples, doing the best we can to keep our heads above water. Jesus, it seems, is not dialed in to what’s happening.

Maybe you’ve been through a “furious squall” that caused you to question God’s ways. You didn’t abandon your faith, but your grip on God was severely tested. You may be in the middle of such an experience right now. This week we’ll ask the hard question about God’s ways with us and his care for us - and we’ll let God’s word remind us of how Jesus brings peace to our doubting hearts.

Prayer:
Gracious God, we need to hear your word of peace in the midst of our troubled lives and this chaotic world. Speak your peace to us in these coming days, reminding us of your faithful care in the midst of things we cannot control. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mindful of You

When I look at your heavens . . . what is man that you are mindful of him (Psalm 8:3-4).


God is mindful of you. After the events of this week, you may have your doubts about that.

In the language of Psalm 8 the reality of God’s awareness of us is stated as a question rather than a declaration. The Psalmist looks at the vastness of the heavens, the myriad heavenly bodies, and wonders how it is possible. How is it possible that the God who made all of this takes notice of us? Can we truly believe that in the expanse and complexity of this universe God takes note of every sparrow that falls to the ground and numbers every hair on your head (Matt. 10:29-30)?

The Psalmist writes from a worldview that is increasingly challenged. Plenty of people have abandoned it all together. When the Psalmist asked how it was possible for God to be mindful of us, the question was actually a conviction. The question was grounded in the certainty that God knows and cares for us as beings made in God’s image.

But when we raise the same question, our question sometimes masks an accusation. To ask how God could be mindful of us is to say that God isn’t mindful of us at all.

And then there’s Boston. Thick plumes of smoke from Boston darken the skies above us rendering the heavens irrelevant and making it nearly impossible to contemplate the majesty of God’s name. We have questions. Hard questions. How is it possible that God is mindful of us? Moreover, how is it possible for any of us here on the ground to actually believe that God is mindful of us?

At this point we’ll need to look further than Psalm 8. We need more than an awe-struck gazing into starry skies. Psalm 8 belongs to a collection of 150 other prayers, some of which give voice to joy and gladness, some of which express deep gratitude – but not all. Not by a long shot. In fact the most common type of Psalm is a prayer of lament. The Psalms show us how to pray in the midst of suffering and loss and disillusionment. People who pray are not naïve.

We have been urged this week to “pray for Boston.” We should do so, and fervently. But how can we move beyond generic prayers for God to bless or help? How can we pray in such a way that our prayers are more than a technique for managing our own anxieties? We can do this by opening our Bibles and reading and praying the Psalms of lament. The Psalms will allow us to speak hard questions while keeping those questions grounded in conviction.

Whether your questions come from the mysteries of science or the miseries of the world, bring them to your prayers. Give honest expression to the questions without abandoning the convictions that make prayer possible to begin with.

To pray – especially when the prayers voice questions and pain – is to be mindful of God. And every prayer can be offered in confidence knowing that God is indeed mindful of us.

Prayer:
Teach us to pray, O God – often and honestly. Make us willing to voice lament as well as joy. Help us with what we cannot understand. Grant us grace that keeps our questions grounded in conviction, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Explanations and Songs

Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account . . . (Luke 1:3)


“No explanations in the Basilica.”

These words were posted near the entrance to the Church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem. Our group was walking the city and had been taken to what is believed to be the “pool of Bethesda,” the site of a healing miracle recorded in John 5. Not far from the pool sits St. Anne’s church.

The sign was aimed at tour groups like ours and the guides that lead them. Guides are constantly speaking to their groups, giving background and explanation relative to the various sites, often answering questions. Because of the remarkable acoustics in Saint Anne’s, guides are prohibited from speaking or explaining. The competing chatter would create a cacophony of sound unbefitting a place of worship. Singing, however, is permitted.

The sign was striking to me in the way it was worded. It seems that far too many people enter every place of worship as if these words have been posted at the door. And for this reason, some people have decided not to enter a place of worship at all.

Explanation is the language of reason and intellect. Explanations are arrived at by people who think critically and ask questions. Explanations require analysis and reflection. By contrast, the basilica is the place where the soul expresses love for God. The language most fitting for the basilica is singing and prayer. The basilica appears to be a place of quiet rather than questioning, a place where God is exalted and not explained.

For practical reasons the sign in front of St. Anne’s church made good sense. The intent was to safeguard the experience of all the visitors who entered the building by limiting the disruptive sound of competing voices.

However, as a general rule, “no explanations in the basilica” is the exact opposite of the message the church wants to send to the world. We do not wish to separate the life of the mind from the zeal of the heart. We do not regard the language of praise as incompatible with the language of explanation. We do not silence questions in an anxious attempt to preserve reverence.

The third book of the New Testament is attributed to Luke. Colossians 4:14 tells us that Luke was a doctor – perhaps the only biblical figure whom we may rightly regard as a ‘scientist.’ As Luke opens his account of the life of Jesus he discloses to his readers the methodological basis of his work. He investigated and researched all that had been told about Jesus. He asked good questions. He employed the energies of his mind in giving an “orderly” account of what he learned. But make no mistake about it – Luke is a believer.

Which comes most naturally to you – explanations or song? In your own life of faith strive to keep the life of the mind connected to the devotion of the heart. Let one feed and fuel the other. Let study lead to prayer. Let prayer bring honest questions before God.

Never be afraid of seeking explanations in the basilica.

Prayer:
In our questions, O God, make us willing to wait on you. In our singing, make us ready to seek more of you. Give us hearts restless for truth, yet always filled with worship and thanksgiving. Guide us in both our singing and thinking, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

For Your Consideration

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him . . . (Psalm 8:3-4)


Louis Agassiz was a Harvard professor and founder of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, serving as its Director from 1859 until his death in 1873.

A story was recorded by one of Agassiz’s students, Samuel Scudder, which has taken on a life of its own over the years, often told now as a kind of parable with wide ranging applications to life. Scudder’s story tells about his first encounter with Professor Agassiz in which the venerable scholar presented his student with a fish taken from a jar of alcohol. Placing the fish on a dissecting try, Agassiz instructed Scudder to observe the fish and report his findings.

After ten minutes Scudder was convinced he had seen everything there was to be seen about the fish. When he made his report to Agassiz, the professor ordered him to return to the fish and resume the task. This went on for three days – the student observing the fish, reporting his observations, only to be sent back in order to see yet more. Scudder recalls “Look, look, look was his repeated injunction.”

When once asked, “What was your greatest contribution, scientifically?” Agassiz answered, “I have taught men and women to observe.”

One of the most beautiful lines in the Psalms in found in Psalm 8. Here the Psalmist marvels at the created order and states “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?” The Hebrew verb for “consider” has many shades of meaning. The ESV Bible simply translates the word as “look.” The primary uses of the word are typically in the context of what we do with our eyes – seeing, looking, examining.

There is, however, something more in the act of “considering” than mere sight or observation. This same Hebrew word is used in 1 Samuel 12:24 when the prophet Samuel urges God’s people to “consider what great things he has done for you.” When we consider we do more than see. We see into. We look inquisitively. We want to know more than what something looks like, we want to know what it means.

The discipline of observing and examining carefully and repeatedly is at the heart of the scientific method. But the same disciplines are at the heart of faith. It is significant to note (read: observe) that the Psalmist considers the heavens but then moves from those considerations to ask questions of God. God is not threatened or offended by these questions. Closely connected to the act of ‘considering’ is what we call meditation. As we ponder and query, we meditate.

It is far too easy to go through our days looking but not considering. We see things without truly observing them. We talk to people without truly listening to them. We walk the same halls and travel the same roads, glazed over with familiarity, preoccupied and distracted to the point of never truly seeing what’s around us.

Take time today to consider: consider the weather, consider your children, consider your co-workers, consider your customers. Do more than see. As Agassiz taught, “look, look, look.” And having looked closely, talk to God.

Prayer:
Grant, O God, that we might live this day doing more than simply seeing or looking at what surrounds us. Help us to consider it – to see in creation and in other people evidences of your grace and glory. Open our eyes to truly see, and in the seeing lead us to worship, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

The "Omnipotent Craftsman"

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place . . . (Psalm 8:3).


This past Friday marked the anniversary of the day Galileo stood before the Roman Inquisition. His story reminds us that faith and science dwell in the same neighborhood but they have had a long squabble over property lines. At times a thick wall has been erected to keep each in a clearly marked and separate sphere of influence. At other times the wall has been dismantled in an effort to facilitate easy movement between the two.

Faith and Science remain uneasy neighbors to this very day.

On April 12, 1633, the guardians of religious authority called upon Galileo Galilei to defend the publication of his work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. The two world systems in question were the Ptolemaic and the Copernican. Galileo had run afoul of the Inquisition crowd by advocating a Copernican view of the world – the idea that the earth moved around the sun rather than being the unmovable center of the universe.

Galileo may have been sorting out the Ptolemaic and Copernican world views but the legacy of his work for most of us is framed as a contest between religion and science. We see Galileo as the voice of reason and logic, a man led to conclusions by investigation and evidence. Opposing him stands the monolithic church with its head buried in the sands of tradition, hissing at anything that threatens long held beliefs.

This is, of course, a caricature. There are complexities involved which won’t allow us to posit a brave and intelligent thinker against an angry and ignorant church. But the tension between science and faith was real and the impact is felt even now. In our time this tension has superficially resolved by relegating faith to the realm of subjective inner experience while ceding observable and empirical realities to science.

The Bible won’t allow such a dichotomy – and, interestingly, neither would Galileo.

In the dedication written to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Galileo argues that it is the calling of the philosopher to “turn over the grand book of nature.” He goes on to add that “whatever we read in that book is the creation of the omnipotent Craftsman.” Galileo regarded what we call a "scientific discovery" as an act of "divine revelation." To investigate or research was a form of worship.

For the next few days we will be thinking about the kinds of doubt that arise from science. We won’t be trying to offer rebuttals or arguments. Rather we will be turning over the grand book of nature in order to see the omnipotent Craftsman. We will respond to doubt with worship and we will look for help in the Psalms.

For today – how do you currently think about the relationship between faith and science?

Prayer:
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” All that we see points us to you. The creation is your gift to us, a wordless witness to your glory. Use the mysteries around us to draw us to worship, even as we go through this day, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Leaving a Question Blank

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you . . .” (2 Corinthians 12:9).


“I’m a good student but a lousy tester.” Ever heard that? I’ve not only heard it, I’m pretty sure that somewhere along the way I’ve said it.

I never liked standardized tests. My dislike, however, never exempted me from taking them. Since these tests were never my best opportunity to display my potential as a student, I did what I could to pick up helpful strategies for surviving the experience. One such strategy had to do with running out of time on a test section – a recurring issue for me. The strategy was simple. Work as long as you can and when you know you’ve only got a few minutes left, quickly fill in a bubble for every question.

To be clear: I do not recommend this to any student. The assumption was that it is important to attempt an answer with every question. Better to guess blindly than leave a question blank.

Mercifully, the days of sharpening my #2 pencil and filling in the bubble sheet are long behind me. But the formal education I pursued and the vocation to which God has led me puts me in a place where people have plenty of questions, and sometimes they verbalize those questions to me. I find myself wanting to give answers. However, when it comes to people’s souls and the life of faith, guessing blindly and answering in a hurry won’t do. Over the years I’ve gotten more comfortable with admitting that I don’t have all the answers.

As we think about exploring and embracing our doubts we would do well to be clear about exactly what we’re after. We are not after answers or explanations. We do not work through doubts in order to come to certainty. To be sure, there are answers to be offered and at times we may find ourselves firmly anchored in conviction rather than confusion. But our interest in doubt is not an effort to answer every question. Sometimes, with some questions, we leave a blank.

In exploring our doubts what we are truly seeking is grace.

This was the answer Paul received after his three-fold pleading with God to remove the thorn in the flesh. There was no simple yes or no. Rather, there was a promise. “My grace is sufficient for you.” Paul seems to have begun by searching for an answer. What he found on the other side of his struggle was grace. He found an invitation to trust God with his struggle. And God wants to be trusted more than understood or explained.

The grace that was sufficient for Paul is sufficient for you as well. There may be things you don’t understand. You may be pleading with God about a torment that will not cease or a perplexity that will not be resolved. Someday you may arrive at an answer. At time may come when you understand what now seems incomprehensible. But until then, there is God’s grace. This grace is sufficient for you.

Our time is up. So put down your pencil and don’t worry about the blanks.

Prayer:
We give you thanks, O God, for the sufficiency of your grace and for the way it sustains and guides us in what we cannot understand. Grant the grace we need for this day as we rely on your strength in our weakness. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Are We Ever Done with Doubt?

. . . I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord (2 Corinthians 12:1).


Most of us have heard that time heals all wounds. And most of us know that it isn’t true.

Some wounds, maybe, but not all. Time is an effective healer of our cuts and scrapes and bruises. Over time these may disappear. But the deeper pains, the broken hearts and lost dreams, are usually not remedied by time alone. Time by itself may help, but it cannot heal

Nor does time provide a buffer against all doubts. We might expect that those who have long walked with God would do so with firm steps. We might expect that their prayers will flow freely, their worship will be deeper, their understanding of God’s ways will be wiser. Those who manage to hold on to faith over time seem to have a grip that can’t be broken.

Seventy years ago this month, April 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested at his home in Berlin. He was taken to Tegel prison where he was held for eighteen months before being moved and eventually executed at a camp in Flossenberg on April 9, 1945.

In prison Bonhoeffer was known as a man of courageous and benevolent spirit. His guards treated him with respect. He acted as a pastor to other prisoners. He had gained recognition in both Germany and the United States as a formidable theologian. He was a writer, a teacher, a leader. But a prison poem titled “Who Am I” provides a glimpse into Bonhoeffer’s own questions about himself, the tension between the public man people could see and the man he truly was.

The poem never really answers the title’s question. The matter is left in the hands of God. But the poem will not allow us to believe that the bold and respected theologian endured his imprisonment without the slightest inward wrestling. “They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.”

Likewise, Paul was allowed to see stunning visions and revelations of the Lord. He knew God in a way that was not true of most people. Paul knew that this could have easily been a reason to boast. This same Paul pleaded for relief from his ‘thorn in the flesh’ – a torment he saw as a gift that kept him from boasting.

To know God well and to love God deeply does not mean immunity from struggles, from questions, or from doubts. A lifetime of church or advanced degrees in theology will not exempt you from these things either. Our doubts are not usually resolved or eradicated by time alone.

The most pressing question we can ask is not “How can I be done with my doubts,” but rather, “What will I do with my doubts?” Paul’s struggle took him to a profound grasp of the sufficiency of God’s grace.

Maybe we are never done with doubt because God is never done with us. Doubts and questions and struggles sometimes pull us away from God. But every question or struggle can also be used to lead us to grace.

Where will your own struggles and doubts take you?

Prayer:
Merciful God, hold on to us when our questions and struggles are making it hard for us to hold on to you. Use our doubts to draw us near, showing us more of your grace and power in our lives, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Waiting and Wondering

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me (2 Corinthians 12:8)


There are a couple of paths that lead us to our doubts. Sometimes we come to doubt by decision. At other times we come to doubt by degree.

The path of doubt by decision usually runs its course in the mind. It is a grappling with one of life’s mysteries, a struggle to make sense of what seems senseless. But doubt by degree is different. It is a quiet and gradual dawning of uncertainty, a growing discomfort in which sense precedes thinking.

Our weedy doubts grow in the soil of silence. For those who claim to be people of faith, the path of doubt by degree often leads to and through the silence of heaven.

Maybe you’ve been on the waiting side of a missed appointment. We usually call this being ‘stood up.’ You arrive at an agreed upon place and await the arrival of the other party. You may go ahead and secure a table, positioning yourself strategically so you can see who comes through the door. Time passes. Initially you glance at your watch and make a simple observation of fact: someone is running late. But the longer you wait the fact becomes a question. With each glance at your watch the questions multiply: Are they late or did they forget? Did you come to the right place? Did you get the wrong day or time?

The longer we wait, the more we wonder.

The apostle Paul was patient in suffering, but he was not passive. As to the nature of his suffering – his ‘thorn in the flesh’ – we are entirely ignorant. What we do know is that it was to him a source of ‘torment.’ He pleaded that God would take it away, make it right, ease the burden. His three-fold pleading most likely means three extended seasons of prayer: a persistent and prolonged wrestling with God followed by a faithful waiting. Heaven was silent. The thorn remained.

You may find yourself in a season of pleading right now. Maybe a second or even a third season. You have prayed and prayed again. You have opened your hands and surrendered your thorn to God in patient trust. And yet the thorn remains and heaven seems silent. Slowly the doubts take shape. With the passing of time and the unbroken silence the doubts grow.

To be fair, Paul never speaks of his own ‘doubts.’ Later this week we’ll see where his prayers took him. For now, what we can observe is that the letter in which he speaks of his thorn ends with his affirmation of the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 cor. 13:14).

Doubt does not inevitably lead to despair. What we experience as the silence of heaven is not the absence of God. In your waiting and wondering don’t stop praying. Acknowledge you doubt, but do not yield to despair.

Go through this day knowing that “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” is yours, even in your waiting.

Prayer:
Through this day, O God, and the waiting and wondering it may bring, sustain us by your grace. Comfort us with your love. Encourage us by the presence of your Spirit, we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Uprooting Our Doubts

Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? (Matt. 13:27).


Last week my wife asked me to mow the weeds in our front yard. That’s right. The weeds, not the grass.

Right now our grass hardly needs mowing. The brownish tint of winter doesn’t show signs of going away any time soon. If things will ever warm up around here (which as of this writing seems questionable) that will change. Before long the green will emerge and the grass will grow.

Strangely enough, winter seems to have had little impact on the weeds. While the grass is dormant and colorless, the weeds are undaunted, boasting a stubborn and healthy green that manages to migrate in splotches throughout the yard. The man who came to ‘treat’ our weeds suggested that at a certain time we mow them. As he put it, the weeds needed to be ‘agitated.’ On the day my wife asked me to mow the weeds I’m pretty sure the agitation was all mine.

I’m well aware that weeds and gardening and pruning are often used as word pictures for things spiritual. It is striking that soil and soul are so much alike. I’m reminded of Jesus’ parable about the wheat and the tares. I might paraphrase, “grass and weeds.”

In Jesus’ story an enemy sowed weeds among a healthy crop of wheat. The first response of those who tended the field was to get busy and rip out the weeds. But the Farmer and owner of the field stopped them. In Jesus’ story the wheat and the weeds grow up together. God sorts it all out at harvest time.

I return to a tried and true word picture to speak about our doubts. The weeds in my yard provide some basic convictions that will give shape to what follows in the days ahead.

First of all, there is more yard than weed. Of course, if ignored or neglected this can change. The weeds can grow to the point of taking over. Our doubts can do that as well. That’s why it’s a good thing to pay attention to doubts, to give voice to questions. The spotty presence of weeds here and there doesn’t mean the entire yard needs to be plowed up. The doubts that emerge from time to time don’t mean your faith is a sham.

Second, the weeds can be persistent. When it comes to weeds – and doubts – diligence is required. What was eradicated in one place may later crop up somewhere else. Questions may be settled only to emerge later in a different form. In the life of faith we need to be always ready to think and ever prayerful.

Finally, there is a difference between nurturing a doubt and ‘agitating’ it. The sight of someone mowing weeds looks like a superficial treatment at best. But we were told to ‘agitate’ the weeds in order to impact them on a deeper level, to get at the roots. Likewise, we ‘agitate’ our doubts when we try to get to the root of what they are and where they come from.

Don’t be alarmed at doubt. Be patient and prayerful. Get to the root of the questions. Tomorrow we’ll agitate our doubts by looking at unanswered prayer.

Prayer:
Gracious God, we give you thanks for your great patience with us. You allow room for our doubts even when we seem eager to eradicate them in pursuit of a perfect and pristine faith. Be our teacher as we look closely at our doubts. Take us to the roots of our questions and make us patient as we seek to grow in the likeness of your son, in whose name we pray. Amen.