I find myself yearning to identify with David, the outcast plucked from obscurity into respect and admiration. However, if I am honest with myself I am likely much more similar to the other expectant sons – prideful, privileged, confidant and ultimately mistaken.
God’s work might be revealed
Our task in Lent is to pay attention. Watch for signs of God’s work in the world, and bear witness to those encounters with God. As sure as the changing of the seasons, God is at work.
Meet me at the well
As Christians, we thirst for the living water that Jesus offered the Samaritan woman. We meet at wells like churches, conventions and schools. When we meet, we often meet people who are different from us.
Love in an Orchard
Christ is the orchardist of my life by bringing peace with God to me. Christ’s love is proven to me year after year by reconciling what I was with what God knew I could be. In response I commit daily to ‘shout out’ that love to all I meet.
Our strong and dependable rock
We have great reason to sing with joy, because our God is available. Incomprehensible and vast, much like the Andes Mountains. And yet here we read that we may enter the presence of God who is available to us. We may offer our praise, should we choose to enter. God is, was and will forever be standing there, our strong and dependable rock.
Trust and faith
Trust and faith. The Israelites struggled with this a lot, and this is yet another account where we see the people of Israel failing to trust God.
I will be standing there
It becomes so easy to think about change with negativity, sadness and fear. However, I have to stop myself. Tomorrow, and the change it brings, is a day not to worry about. The past has shaped each one of us to be the beautiful beings we are.
Transfigured like Jesus
God’s words to the three disciples were not complex teachings about life and faith. It is easy to get into life’s rhythm and forget about the simplicity of faith, of listening to both God and to nature.
The righteousness of faith
Paul’s appeal to Abraham reminds me that we find God’s righteousness through worship of God, in which we recount the narratives of God’s mercy, repent of our failure to enact God’s mercy towards others, giving thanks for the forgiveness and blessings we receive and praising God for God’s goodness and the goodness of God’s creation. We go into the world inspired to honor God and Christ by enacting their righteousness through acts of mercy and offering the blessings we have received to others.
Helping hands
Though I was met with continuous misfortune throughout the day, there was always a hand. Whether it was a hand pushing a gurney down hospital corridors or umpteen hands lifting me from the ground, I always had a hand.