A Lenten Devotion


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Day Message 2022

Image
  I delivered the following message on Christmas Day, 2022 as a guest speaker at Rehoboth United Methodist Church: Merry Christmas! Christ is Born! Let us Rejoice! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward all humankind. It is an honor to be with you at Rehoboth on this Holy Day, a special honor with Christmas falling on Sunday. Before I begin, let us bow our heads. Father God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable, O Lord. You are our rock, and our redeemer, our light and our inspiration. Amen. Christmas traditions! The magic… the lights! I remember as a kid our family tradition of riding through neighborhoods, seeing the pretty lights on Christmas… the neighborhood streets lined with luminaria. For a number of years, we filled up our own white paper bags with sand, lit, the candles, and lined our driveway. All of Wrenn Road seemed lit up! Mama would say, “It looks like the world is on fire!” A few years ago, I st...
Read more

Peace that Passes Understanding

Image
The world can be a chaotic place, and in recent months, it has felt even more chaotic and troubling. I’ve found it hard to balance being informed and needing to tune out for my own sanity. Rabbi Irwin Keller wrote a prayer called “A prayer before reading the news.” In it, he prays “let me learn what I need to know in order to be of my greatest use, without being overwhelmed by despair.” It can be easy to feel overwhelmed, overworked, OVER IT! How can we give it OUR best, when fear, worry, and anxiety can get the best of us? Apostle Paul wrote to the early church in Philippi, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) I remember when I first heard about this “Peace that passes understanding.” When I was a child, we sang a song in Sunday School about this peace t...
Read more