In church I often talk about the fact that we are always surrounded by God’s grace. Not only that, but also God’s love and mercy. But there are certainly times when we don’t feel any of those things, times when we don’t even feel God’s presence.

I have noticed, too, that a common reaction can be to assert that if we don’t “feel” God, then we are the ones who have moved away from God. But what if there is no separation at all? What if there is no fault? It seems to me that life itself can bog us down a bit, the very life God has called us to. And if we live out the love of neighbor God commands us to live out, we can get caught up in all sorts of things. We will have concern for others, seek to do our best for them. It may be that we put a lot of effort into our work of every day, seeking excellence in what we do. And when we focus like this, on just the sort of things God calls us to, we can feel the seriousness of those burdens.

Times like these are good times to stop and take a deep breath. In that brief moment we may not feel God’s grace, but we can remind ourselves of God’s promises.

Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night’,

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

These verses from Psalm 139 (verses 7-12) are not just a promise from God but a description of God. God is the God who is everywhere, already, before we get there. God is already in our bedrooms when we wake up, already in our kitchen when we start to cook, already in our office when we start to work, already with our kids when they are with friends or at school, already in the hospital with loved ones, already with us when we take a walk. God is already there when we or others are in deep suffering, suffering with them: for in Philippians 2 and elsewhere we are reminded that equality with God was not something Jesus took for granted, but in that equality Jesus emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant, even to death on a cross.

This reality of who God is can be a reminder that God is with us right now, wherever and whenever we look for that reminder. It may not change how we feel at the moment, but this knowledge can rest in our minds, and eventually, by our prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit, that knowledge will drop into our hearts. And sometime we will feel that grace, mercy and love, and know in our very bones that we are alive in God.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

I find it easy to get caught up in all the “shoulds” of life. The way I should be, the way I should act, the things I should value or like, the way I should live. I can get caught up in how I’m doing something, instead of that I’m doing it.

This makes it hard to start every morning with the gift of a new day: “This is the day the Lord has made: let us rejoice and be glad in it!”

If I am caught up in the fact that I should make dinner, I don’t enjoy the pleasures of cooking or of eating quite so much. If I’m doing laundry, my mind can get caught up in getting it done as soon as possible, and I might be already thinking about the next task. But this means I am not paying attention to the clean smell of folded shirts, nor am I allowing myself to be filled with gratitude that I have a washer and dryer and clothes and sheets. If I’m preparing for a meeting I can get caught up in how it should go instead of looking forward to the chance to work with other people, learn something new, or solve some problem together.

The author of Ecclesiastes gives us a very earthy perspective. Instead of “shoulds,” that is, things we’re not doing right now that we think we should be doing, we read here that we have freedom to enjoy our everyday life, right here and right now.

“What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. I know that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-15)

We human beings have a limited capacity for understanding time. We cannot see the future, and the past is already behind us. All we have is the present, the here and now. This does not mean we allow ourselves to be irresponsible “for tomorrow we may die.” It means we attend to God here and now, to this day that God has given, to these people, these tasks, this rest. “I know there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.” There is no other day we have than this day that the Lord has made. Everything exists with God, including the past, present and future. We cannot know it all, but we can attend to what is in front of us on this day, do our work, take our rest, enjoy our friends or loves ones, love the Lord, and love our neighbors. The day we face may bring unpleasant news or surprises, yet these too do not come to us apart from the presence of God who loves us.

My prayer for you this week is that you will be able to take pleasure in your work, enjoy meals with your households and with other people, and wake up each morning realizing that this new day is a gift from God, just the way it is.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

Here I am, sitting in my sunshine-filled living room, working away. There’s a lot to catch up on after a week’s vacation and a lot to do for the coming week. I have a tall glass of cold water with me, and Tuck lying asleep on the floor next to me. There’s a repairman downstairs fixing our water heater. Our air conditioning is working well, which is nice since we have another heat emergency these next few days. I have plans for the supper I’ll cook tonight, I’ll go for a walk or two, and do some laundry in our little room just off the kitchen. We have some fruit pops left in the freezer from when my nieces and nephews were visiting, and I might enjoy one of those today.

And I look out the window at the climbing rose in our side yard, I sit on my comfortable couch preparing a sermon, and I think of all the aid workers who were killed in Afghanistan this past week.

I am not mentioning this for the shock value. But the contrast is striking. I am a Christian, doing my best to serve Christ, and the circumstances in which I do this are comfortable. These aid workers, most of them Christians, were doing their best to serve Christ in circumstances that were life-threatening and without many of the aids for medical care that we take for granted.

Our circumstances are very different indeed, and the workers in Afghanistan knew they were taking risks. Because we are their brothers and sisters in Christ, their service can instruct us. So I wonder: how much am I willing to give? As much as they did? How much are we all willing to give as we love the Lord our God and our neighbors as ourselves in our current context? They deliberately oriented themselves as servants of Christ. When we can take the safety of our daily lives for granted, when we get complacent because there is no threat from our government or our communities because we’re Christian, do we deliberately orient ourselves as servants of Christ? Are we willing to give?

I suspect posing the question can alarm us a bit. Instead of acting out of the grace of God that covers us, we might act out of a feeling of inferiority, that we can’t compare to these aid workers. But the point is not to do exactly what they did. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out that our vocation, or calling, is not something far off, but is right where we are, right now, in the middle of these particular relationships and responsibilities.

As we pray for the families of the aid workers and give thanks to God for their lives of Christian service, we can also pray for ourselves. We can thank God that right where we are is where we can serve Christ to our utmost. It is right now and right here, even in the midst of more comfortable lives, that we can give of ourselves in joyful service. I guess the question is this: will we? Are we ready to give our utmost?

I don’t know what that looks like for all of you. The joyful service of the aid workers is the key, though. Where in our lives is God inviting us to serve joyfully? Where in our lives is God calling us to continue giving?

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

There is no doubt that throughout scripture we are reminded of the righteousness and holiness of the Triune God. The good news of Jesus Christ is good news indeed, full of mercy and forgiveness and joy and grace. But it is not, therefore, comfy news. God is not cuddly. God is loving, sure enough. God desires us and loves us, supports us and cares for us, but God is no stuffed animal, and much more than a good hug.

We read in scripture that the God we worship is justifiably angry. For as much as we have been given – even Jesus Christ – we remain people set in our own ways, following things other than Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us to clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit those who are sick and in prison. The two greatest commandments are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves, and yet we mostly love partially, or conditionally. We do not love with our wholes selves. Why wouldn’t God be angry? For God sees us treating each other in so many ways that have nothing to do with love. We say certain people are not our responsibility, or they are not deserving, or we are hateful, mean, negligent, complacent, rude, disrespectful, or self-centered.

We can see reasons that God would and perhaps should be angry. But listen to what the scripture says about God:

Hosea 11:1-11

1When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. 3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. 4I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.

5They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. 6The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. 7My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.

8How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. 9I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

10They shall go after the LORD, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. 11They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will return them to their homes, says the LORD.

“I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.” God is full of love, then in the following verses is frustrated and leaving God’s beloved people to their own devices. But then we hear this: “How can I give you up? How can I hand you over? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger.”

God chooses to love us with God’s whole self. God’s judgment is true and righteous but it is not the last word. Our non-cuddly God loves us intensely and tenderly and chooses to transform righteous anger into compassionate warmth. Scripture bears witness to God’s word to us: “For I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”

God does not stand on rights. We are often tempted to do this, to withhold or measure our love to God and others based on our sense of rights. Sometimes we feel we have the right not to love our neighbors as ourselves, and sometimes we will not accept some human beings as the neighbors God gives us. Sometimes we feel we deserve no love and so we close ourselves off to it.

But God does not stand on rights, God does not play the cards of righteousness and holiness in order to win. God chooses not to execute fierce anger. God chooses to love us. It would be interesting for us this week to receive that love, that warm and tender compassion. If we receive it, perhaps it will flow through us, and we will return love to God and neighbor.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation
Tags: love

I think this idea has been lodged in my brain since last Thursday. That’s the day I went to the fair so I could see all the hard work our youth had been doing. I was proud as a peacock. Everything from zucchini pickles to a photo essay about farm life, cereal bars and biscuits to hogs, chickens, and goats. 4-H is a marvelous endeavor, helping all sorts of youth learn to love and tend creation. These youth can feed themselves and others, and they can work hard with gardens and livestock.

What stuck in my mind particularly was the care for animals. This is something God calls us to, in ways that might surprise us. In Leviticus 25, in a parallel to the commandment to work for six days and on the seventh to remember the Sabbath, rest, and keep it holy, God says the following:

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying: Speak to the people of Israel and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather in their yield; but in the seventh year there shall be a sabbath of complete rest for the land, a sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you; for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food. (Leviticus 25:1-7)

God calls us to a balance in life, a balance of hard work and rest. This balance is important for all creation, land and animals included. Whatever the land yields – without any planting or cultivation – that’s what is to be eaten by everyone and everything, even wild animals.

The Sabbath is a strange thing because it is both a command and a gift. In the New Testament Jesus tells us that Sabbath was made for human beings, not human beings for the Sabbath. In other words, the command is a gift, something tricky for us to understand. But consider this: if God came to you and knocked on your door, called you by name and said “My beloved one, it is time for you to take some rest,” how would that feel? Imagine the presence of God over every farm, every person, every city, calling out the same command and gift: “rest, my beloved ones.” Soil would rest, horses pulling carriages would rest, soldiers would rest, people struggling with burdens of all sorts in their lives and hearts would rest, oxen pulling plows would rest, children would rest.

God honors and delights in the labor of our youth and the labor of their animals. God also calls us all to a Sabbath of rest in which we are gracious enough to accept God’s provision for us.

It is my prayer for you that you will turn to God and accept the rest that God offers, knowing that it is what God desires for you. For God loves you.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

Yesterday in church we prayed for all those at General Assembly (GA). Commissioners come from all over the place, small towns and large cities, as we know, since one of our own is our presbytery’s YAAD (Young Adult Advisory Delegate). We prayed for them to have discernment of the leading of the Holy Spirit as they make decisions together as a body. That kind of endeavor with so many thousands of people together is hard work. They will have to listen to one another and be open to one another so that they might understand what is the mind of Christ in any given situation.

In reality, this is no different than our own discernment in every day life. We have to listen all the time. We listen to our bodies to know when they need rest or refreshment, we listen to our tasks and responsibilities to understand what kind of work we need to do, we listen to our relationships in order to learn what we can do to help each other and love each other better. We do all this listening while we are also listening to God’s call in our own lives. Day by day we seek to follow Jesus Christ, and we know we can do so only by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some days are harder than other days. We may not even be confident that we are following God. It is with joy, then, that we can remember that the gift of the Holy Spirit is with us always, with GA this week, and with us in our lives in the coming days. Whether we are confident or wavering, we can still seek God’s wisdom. Thomas Merton, our brother in Christ, shared his own prayer for guidance:

My Lord God,

I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me

Nor do I really know myself,

And the fact that I think I am following your will

Does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you

Does in fact please you.

And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this,

You will lead me by the right road

Though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though

I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,

And you will never leave me to face my struggles alone.

Amen.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I don’t feel creative at all. I have energy to do things – like walk the dog, cook, and so forth – but my mind isn’t full of energy. I have to be patient with myself during those times, because in the end, that spark of creative energy for my daily tasks will show up. Sometimes in an hour, sometimes several hours, sometimes a day or two or even longer.

It is a lot easier to be patient with ourselves when we remember that before we were ever in need, before we ever existed, God was – and is! – patient with us:

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.

We wake up every day with God’s graciousness around us, compassion from God pouring all over us and around us. Not only that, but the love of God for us is steadfast. It stays with us because God stays with us, steadfastly, faithfully, enduring with us through our leaps of faith and stumbles in growth.

If the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, good to all, and covering all God has made with compassion, shall we not be kind and patient with ourselves? This wonderful nugget from Psalm 145 alerts us to the fact that the love of God that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us (Romans 5:5) is the same love that is steadfast, compassionate, gracious, merciful, and good to us.

We are free, we have been reading in Galatians. Free in the grace of Christ. We can go about our days freely, remembering to be patient with ourselves and with others, since God is patient with us. Perhaps we are being critical of ourselves or the ones we love, hard on ourselves for whatever ways we think we fall short. This is not how God loves us. Once again, it’s time to take a deep breath and remember that we walk in the love of God.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

You have heard me quote Colossians 1:20 in sermons quite a bit. This is the verse in which Paul proclaims that in Jesus Christ God has reconciled all things to Godself, all things in heaven and on earth.

I have quoted that verse time and again because it testifies to so much of what we read throughout scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments. Scripture is full of images of God, stories about God, and gospel accounts and letters that point to a God who is complex, but who, from the moment Adam and Eve are sent from the garden of Eden, seems bent on reconciliation.

To “reconcile” is “to become on friendly terms with again.” We were created in fellowship with God, and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet God keeps coming after us, to reconcile with us, and to help us be reconciled with God and with each other. In fact, in this section of Colossians, because all things are in Christ, we are not only reconciled to God, but to all things in heaven and on earth. In Christ we have been reconciled with each other.

The word used for “reconcile” refers to personal relations. This is not just a reconciliation that means rights have been wronged. It means, actually, that we and God are dwelling in peace together because of the death of Jesus Christ. Spouses, friends, family members, co-workers, creation, animals, people in other countries, everything in heaven and on earth, in Christ, is on friendly terms with each other again.

And so we are encouraged to live into this reconciliation. In the books of the prophets, God calls the people to live on friendly personal terms with one another, caring for widows and orphans, the poor and the immigrants. In the gospel of Matthew we are called to not merely say “Lord, Lord” but to shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, and visit those who are sick or in prison. In Philippians we are exhorted to put the interests of others before our own.

To be reconciled, “to be on friendly terms with again,” means that we have experienced distance, difficulty, indifference, or betrayal in our relationships. Perhaps we have been wronged, or perhaps someone has wronged us. What we can trust is that we have been reconciled to God in Christ. We might not feel friendly with God sometimes, But God is on friendly terms with us, and with all others.

This gives us some hope for our week that we begin today. There may be all sorts of things we need to be on friendly terms with again: losses, the people we live with, dreams that aren’t panning out, fears. All of this has been reconciled in Jesus Christ already. What we can do is take a deep breath, know that the peace of Christ is the truth of the matter, let go of having to fix it ourselves, and live as though we are on friendly terms with what is going on. Because, in fact, we are. Through Christ.

Blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation

“Tumult” generally refers to confusion and noise, and so if we use the word, we’re usually referring to things like a crazy thunderstorm or a chaotic crowd. But waking up this morning there was a tumult in my head. All sorts of thoughts were running around, bumping into each other. Details of what is on my schedule for the day and week, relationships that need tending, work, caring for the household, and a few other odds and ends kept crowding forward fighting for my attention.

I know I’m not the only one who wakes up this way sometimes. Many of us do: we’ll have work we need to get done, or we’re sorting through problems, or we’re worried about relationships or responsibilities. It’s tumultuous in our heads sometimes. Often, this is not necessarily a bad thing, since it’s a reflection of a full life. On the other hand, it can be an experience that makes us fret, because all these details and the way they can sometimes crowd our minds of a morning makes us anxious.

The psalmist keeps us company in these times of crowded and tumultuous thoughts. The tumult, the details, the tasks, the relationships are all like the Ohio River: sometimes it flows quietly, but often with currents that cross each other, and sometimes with whitecaps. We can sit on the side of the river, though, on a bench, quietly, and remember that the river is separate from us. It is part of our life, for sure – in our area the vast majority of us have to at least cross it from time to time – but it doesn’t suck us in. Like Elijah in the cave amid the fierce winds that swirled around, we listen for the still, small voice that is the voice of God. The psalmist sings out in Psalm 62: “For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.”

Our souls wait for God in silence, exactly in the middle of the tumult. In fact, it is the way we have of stepping back from the edge of the water to watch it calmly. Because God is our refuge and our rock, we can look at all the things in our life as just that – things. Not our hope, not our salvation. These may be wonderful things. they may be things that are, in fact, gifts from God that help us to live full of hope and joy. But they are from God. Our hope is from God. Without that still and quiet place of resting in God, we cannot gain perspective on the tumult of our lives and minds.

Prayer, then, is a gift. We might call it meditation. In any case, it is the capacity God gives us to wait for God alone in quiet, to rest in the shelter of God’s arms. It does not take us away from our life, for God calls to us wherever we are. But it means we understand that our life is surrounded by God, who is greater and quieter than the demands of our days. God gives us the gift of work, for sure, but also the gift of rest. For our hope is in God.

As you find moments of quiet in your mind and in your day, blessings to you all,

Michelle

Posted in Monday Morning Meditation