Monday - November 21, 2022
Thomas Riggs
SCRIPTURE
I Samuel 16:6-7
When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’
WORDS OF HOPE
You know that feeling when a song comes on the radio or on a long-forgotten playlist that you haven’t heard in a while? How sometimes memories flood back, connected to the music and lyrics? It was just a few days ago when a gentle acoustic guitar and a haunting voice came over my car speakers.
Her shaved head and her pierced nose Big rottweilers and her tie-dyed clothes Dr. Martins with her biker tights Long black leggings on a hot summer night And nobody calls her baby Nobody says "I love you so," Nobody calls her baby I guess she'll never know
The song is called “Baby” and it’s from the album Down by an eclectic duo called Lost and Found. The song beautifully describes people who, by an outward appearance, are hard to love. People who dress to off-put, who bury their sympathies, who hide their pain, and frequently lose their control.
In the sixteenth chapter of the first book of the prophet Samuel, God sends the prophet to the home of Jesse the Bethlehemite to find the next king of Israel, because Saul had been rejected by God. One by one, Jesse produces his sons for Samuel like pageant contestants and immediately the prophet thinks the eldest, Eliab, is the winner. Tall and strong, surely Eliab would the one.
Then God says this: the Lord does not see as morals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Seven handsome sons pass before Samuel before the youngest, a boy named David, is brought in from the fields and is chosen and anointed.
How often do we judge a book by it’s cover? How often do we then make the mistake of assigning someone to a category because they’re hard, or off-putting, or unsympathetic, or going through some sort of trauma? Even worse, how often do we then hold them responsible for the qualities that we associate with the category?
The theologian Henri Nouwen wrote this: To die to our neighbors means to stop judging them, to stop evaluating them, and thus to become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgment because judgment creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.
I encourage you to find the song on your streaming service or on YouTube and listen to the descriptions of the souls that are hard to love. And then listen carefully to the final chorus…
But somebody loves those babies Somebody loves what we can't see And if somebody told them maybe Those babies would be free
The band Lost and Found gets it. Henri Nouwen gets it. The prophet Samuel had to learn it. We need to learn it too. God loves what we can’t see. And if someone calls them Baby, these babies could be freed.
PRAYER
Loving God, help me pray for this hard to love friend, so our hearts will turn to you in faith and love, through Christ and in His name, I pray, Amen.
DEVOTION AUTHOR
Thomas Riggs
Need More Inspiration? Read our Daily Devotions
SCRIPTURE Romans 8.26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans. WORDS OF HOPE When We Have No Words There are times when we simply have no words to describe what we feel, and times when we have no words to give the person who is grieving. Sometimes we simply admit our lack and offer hugs or share tears. God knows, and God cares. The scripture in Romans gives us an idea of how we can cope in the midst of our “no words” crisis. This scripture says, even when we do not know what to pray for, the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans! It is somewhat of a novel idea in our culture, but common in some others. My Aunt Esther used to regularly spend time in prayer for others. She often relied on “groaning in the spirit” when she was confused about how to pray. Now I too have learned to groan. I have experienced this in praise and worship, when the singers switch from words to pure vocal harmonies. It is powerful and calls to the depths of my soul as I commune with God beyond words. Let us give ourselves up to the many ways of being intimate with God. PRAYER Loving God, may your Holy Spirit speak for me everything that I cannot. Hear my groanings and know even the things I cannot know. I trust you to love me and care for me and those whom I love. DEVOTION AUTHOR Carole Anne Sarah
SCRIPTURE Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. WORDS OF HOPE God’s GPS What God has planned for you nothing, no person, no force on Earth or in heaven, no demon, absolutely nothing can stop it from coming to pass. You may be doubting whether or not you are going to get the money you need, that college degree, the house that you have always wanted, or the baby that you keep seeing in your dreams, but if God wants you to have it, then it is already yours. You can relax. Stop doubting. God has something special for you that isn’t for anyone else. Just because you do not see it, does not mean that it is not on its way. This is the GPS. No, not the navigation system in your car. This is God’s Postal Service and it is fast, reliable, and always on time. If your dream has not arrived yet, then that does not mean that you should give up on your dream. It could mean that something is not ready yet. When God wants to bless you, God wants to make sure that you are ready for the blessing. The bigger the blessing the bigger the preparation. When we stop trying, stop believing, and stop seeking we sometimes stop what God is trying to do in our lives. Time will pass and another opportunity will present itself for you to achieve your dream. This is not a coincidence but God trying once again to bless you. However, if we keep turning away, ignoring the signs, then eventually we will become deaf to God’s voice urging us to keep trying. God does not do all the work. God opens doors but it is we who must walk through them. Take a chance on investing in yourself. There are always going to be risks, but you are not taking the risk alone. God will be there guiding you. If you are not meant to have something, then you will know because the distance between you and what you are seeking will keep getting further and further apart. It will feel like something is pulling you in another direction. That could be God leading you towards another path. Do not be discouraged by this because it is always the case that God’s plans are better than our own. Keep fighting for your dreams; it may take years, but the rewards are greater than you can even imagine. PRAYER Spirit of Wisdom, Give us discernment for the journey, patience for the waiting, and gratitude when we finally receive the promise. You have loved us before we loved You and have plotted our course. We praise You, not because You give us gifts, but because You give us the assurance of Your love. Help us to be as steadfast in our faith inasmuch as You are steadfast in loving us. We pray by Your holy name, Jesus. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Jonathon McClellan Order of St. Francis and St. Clare
SCRIPTURE Genesis 1:28-31 God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. ’God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. ’And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. WORDS OF HOPE The population of the Earth is well over 8 Billion. That is a lot of people and it is fair to say that if people have failed to follow God’s instructions in most things, we’ve done a good job with ‘fill the earth’. There are some interesting things to note. God uses almost the same language about blessing, being fruitful and multiplying a few passages earlier; before the creation of humans. Similar words are spoken to Noah as he departs the ark. God again says things of this nature when talking to Abraham about Isaac and Ishmael. But just as we have gone overboard with multiply, humans have taken subdue and dominion a bit far. We often treat this place with distain. The heat we are living under is a result of that distain. Our resources, plants, animals, air, water are all in peril. We conduct wars which not only destroy people but also animals, plants, habitation, the earth itself. We tear up the earth to mine the materials for our lives. I do not know what the original Hebrew word in the Bible was that was translated as dominion. But I do know that the root of the word dominion is domus, Latin for home. So, as we contemplate the world and the huge number of people in it, keep in mind and your prayers all the people of the earth. This place is our home and is meant for everyone. There are a lot of us and many, perhaps most of us have great needs in basic survival. Pray for our home, where we all live. PRAYER Creator, you made this place and all the universe to be home for your creation. May we come to love and cherish Your creation as the gift you mean it to be. May we remember that this is our home. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare
READING “In indigenous ways of thinking, we don’t call these natural resources. We call them relatives. They are beings, people, which share their gifts with each other and us. When someone shares their gifts with you, your first response is gratitude, and that gratitude cements a response of love.” Robin Wall Kimmerer WORDS OF HOPE I slide my fingers slowly over the inside of her outstretched arm, smooth and brown, learning, as with a lover’s hands, each part of her. A low curved ridge curls over a shallow trough —the sinew and ligament of her limb-- and border the long muscular shape. The word “limb” arcs the synapses of the brain to suggest that we are both limbed beings, kindred, Sisters. Sister crepe myrtle has been rooted in my back yard for years. First planted as a small scrub, she has grown wildly, her crown shaped eastward—as some of the sunlight has been absorbed by a much larger hackberry tree which overshadowed her. Still, her rangy arms stretch in their own design over my yard. She is not “aesthetically pruned”, as some like to do, and tiny scratch marks from 1000s of squirrel journeys cover her trunk, but to me she is beautiful in all seasons with her fushia blossoms in summer, orange-red tinged leaves in fall, and polished bare branches in winter. Though I have always been of Nature’s tribe, stopping to behold the tiniest purple flower in the grass and listening raptly to the joy-song of the wren, I have realized that even this deep appreciation is objectifying in some sense—I the observer, they the other, I the witness, they the witnessed. At this time of my life, I am seeking to learn, pray into, and practice an even deeper spirituality of relationship with the natural world. One of my teachers in this school of relationality is Robin Wall Kimmerer-- plant ecologist, scientist, author of Braiding Sweetgrass , and wisdom-carrier of the Patowatomi people. Kimmerer notes that nowhere in our conservation dogma does the word love appear. And yet for her love based in gratitude is at the heart of things. The task is to invite people to love the world, as we will sacrifice to save what we love. She references an ecopsychologist who asserts that we have a “species loneliness”—separate as most of us are from the living world. And, from the stories that people have shared with her, many are feeling an almost desperate longing for renewed connection. Kimmerer believes that the earth too is lonely for us and yearns to be in loving relationship. Now, in this time she calls the Great Remembering, we are recalling what it was like to hold the earth in love and be held by her. May we learn our lessons well and become not just stewards of the land, but her lovers. PRAYER Oh God, who loved and blessed all creation, animate in us the devotion and love necessary to sacrifice for the preservation and flourishing of the living world. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr. Pat Saxon
SCRIPTURE John 11.32-35 When Mary [of Bethany] reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” she replied. Jesus wept. Centering Prayer : Lord God, quiet my thoughts and open my spirit to receive your words into my soul. May they find rich opportunity to grow and nourish my spiritual journey with you. Amen. WORDS OF HOPE We live in a harsh society in which compassion sometimes seems out sync with our daily lives, but hear these words: "God is full of compassion and mercy, come let us adore God." This phrase forms an introductory statement to a Franciscan morning prayer which has been prayed for centuries, and its message represents an essential aspect of the Christian journey. Let’s look at the word compassion . From its Latin origin, it is a compound word: com meaning with and passio meaning sympathy; to be in sympathy with, suffer with, experience the distress or sorrow of others. Referring back to that introductory phrase ("God is full of compassion"), it means that God experiences our suffering alongside us. This is a startling pronouncement about the character of the Absolute Sovereign God of this universe. Earlier humanity viewed God as very distant, up in the heavens and away or out of reach for human beings. However, Jesus revealed to us a God which is close, nearby, whose Spirit can live with and in our daily experiences; a God which also senses our sorrow, pain, loss and even our joy; a God which wants to be a true participant in our full life. God wants to live our daily life, step-by-step, in intimate relationship with us! Jesus is the great revelation of this divine nature as expressed in human form. The Gospel of John (Chapter 11) gives the account of Jesus’ response to the emotional pain experienced by the sisters and friends of Lazarus who had died. When he arrived, Jesus found them in deep sorrow and crying over the loss of this friend who was such a good man. "When Jesus saw them weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved." As he approached the tomb, we read the shortest verse in all the Bible: "Jesus wept". Jesus felt their pain and sorrow. As a human, Jesus genuinely expressed sorrow for the loss of Lazarus' friendship and cried as we might do in that experience. Jesus demonstrated to us in human form the depth of God's compassion at Lazarus' death and the family's grief. As the Franciscan prayer phrase reads: "Our God is full of compassion", let us adore the compassionate God who knows us and who loves us so much and wishes to experience that love in an intimate relationship with our full life. PRAYER God of all, today, may we strive to practice the same compassion for others as you have forever felt for us. Devotion Author Donald (Luke) Day Order of St. Francis and St. Clare
SCRIPTURE Proverbs 8:1-4 Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice? At the highest point along the way, where the paths meet, she takes her stand; beside the gate leading into the city, at the entrance, she cries aloud: “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind. WORDS OF HOPE During a recent time of morning prayer and meditation I found myself struggling with how to face the day. On my mind was a laundry list of questions—Why are things in the world the way they are? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to feel? What information is true? What is real? And the list went on until finally that still small voiced pierced through my chaotic thoughts and whispered, “what one thing do you need right now/?” This one question erased all the others. I sat with it for what seemed like an eternity thinking about an answer…wisdom. The word wisdom rang out clearly in my head and heart. Though my answer was definitive, upon further reflection it came with more questions…what is wisdom and how do I find it? Wisdom is not knowledge. Wisdom is not truth. Wisdom is what leads us to knowledge and truth. Wisdom is a lens though which we experience life. In one of his daily meditations, Franciscan priest Richard Rohr writes: “One of the keys to wisdom is that we must recognize our own biases, our own addictive preoccupations, and those things to which, for some reason, we refused to pay attention. Until we see these patterns (which is early-stage contemplation), we will never be able to see what we do not see. Without such critical awareness of the small self, there is little chance that any individual will produce truly great knowing or enduring wisdom.” “To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind” writes Solomon about wisdom in the above passage in Proverbs. It struck me when reading this and then thinking about the words of Richard Rohr that it is not wisdom itself that we seek; she is there before us at all times. But rather, we must seek to find a space for wisdom to dwell within. Those biases that we carry, the judgement that we harbor, the meaningless distractions that we allow to punctuate our days, the false sense of comfort we seek in worldly things all take away from the place where wisdom desires to live and grow. In Chapter 3 of Proverbs, Solomon writes, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge God, and God will make straighter your paths.” This is where I find myself right now, learning to trust in a bigger way. Amidst all that is going on around us, we must maintain our trust in God remembering that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts and God’s thoughts are not ours. PRAYER Loving God, help me to navigate my days not relying solely on my own limited understanding, but trusting in your infinite wisdom. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Kris Baker Order of St. Francis and St. Clare