God Before Us

 

Show me the path of life, Psalm 16:11 preaches and teaches.  Reveal the way toward light and love and life, the Psalmist prays.  For we, like Robert Frost, often find ourselves on a path in a wood/forest that diverges.  How do we decide which ways to go?  The well-worn pathways of life are often to go with the flow, to go along to get along, to not make waves and stay under the radar.  It takes courage to talk about fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control/managing our energy with wisdom ~ Galatians 5:22-23).  The Psalmist says, “I keep the Lord always before me”. (16:8) Wait.  Hold that.  Go back and pray that verse again…and again…and again throughout the day.  “I keep the Lord always before me.” It takes courage to live this way, to let God’s wisdom (not the internet or politics or social commentary of the day) be our guide on the roads of life. 

There is a thread and theme that connects Psalm 13 through 16 ~ we began the week with being open to God’s spark, then asked God to deliver us from the midnight of our souls, then we prayed we would abide/rest in God, and today for God to guide our feet while we run this race of life.  This isn’t either or, rather, it is all the above!  We need that spark of God’s energy.  We need to be released from the heartbreak and soul ache defining our lives.  We feel drawn to make our home in God ~ and a home for God in us.  So that God can be our GPS in life.  If you turn to Psalm 17:6 (which is okay to look ahead!), the Psalmist sings out with gusto, “I call upon You, for You will answer me, O God” (note the change in language from Monday, note that in scripture there is space for you to pray, “Where are you God?!?” as well as to pray, “God, you are right here, thank you!”  Both are true). 

Continuing to 17:8, “Guard me as the apple of thine eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings.”  I love here the metaphor of flying, soaring, kissing the sky, and feeling the wind in our hair with God!  Reminds me of that great spiritual, Some Glad Morning, “Some glad morning, when this life is o’er— I’ll fly away.  To a Home of God’s celestial shore. I’ll fly away. I’ll fly away, O Glory, I’ll fly away— When I die, Hallelujah, by-and-by, I’ll fly away.”  And the promise of God is that we fly away, not only when we breathe our last, but when we set aside the ego or needing to prove we are the smartest person in the room or the desire to earn/deserve approval ~ when we die to the false self ~ we are reborn with God in a new way.  For me, this happens slowly, day-by-day.  It is my prayer that you will soar with the sacred this day in ways that you feel the cool rush of angel’s wings on your face.  Amen.

Abide

 

One of my favorite words in scripture is, “Abide” ~ I also like its linguistic cousin, “Abode” meaning “home”.  Where do you abide, where is your home?  Psalm 15 talks about residing in God’s tent or presence or dwelling.  Our Jewish siblings talk about four levels of interpretation.  

The first level is the literal.  In Psalm 15, that would mean your home.  The roof over your head, the carpet under your feet, the walls that keep the rain outside and shade from the sun.  Your home is where God dwells ~ hold this interpretation ~ where do you encounter God in your home?

The second level is the hint or suggestion, go a bit deeper than the initial surface interpretation.  The word “Abide” or “Dwelling” here might mean wherever I go, God is there.  When I go to the store, God dwells there, probably in the ice cream aisle.  When I go to a friend’s house, that too is God’s house.  When I step in the doctor’s office God is there too. 

The third level is that of insight and the fourth level is that of mystery.  In the case of Psalm 15, to dwell with God can also mean to dwell in God and God to dwell in me.  There is a wonderful dance that I feel sometimes with the Divine where I am not sure where I end, and God begins.  We are intimately interwoven and interconnected.  Dwelling is a dance between you and God, God and others; others and you ~ which is the mystery of the Trinity. 

May you experience and encounter God’s abiding dance that puts a spark of life in your eyes and gives you deliverance/strength for today, bright hope for tomorrow.  Amen. 

A New Day

 

This week we are playing whilst praying the Psalms.  I am inviting you to find places in each Psalm where there is a light and life, and your soul feels a spark of light.  Yesterday, I said, this may not always be easy.  And if you read Psalm 14, you might think, “Good Lord, who wrote this Psalm?  Grumpy Dwarf from Snow White?  This is about has happy as a Steven King novel.”  This is a psalm of lament and a prayer full of raw emotions.  These are the words of a person who is looking at the scoreboard of life and it reads, “Enemies ~ 110 points…Home Team negative 10 points.”  Not sure how you scored negative 10 points, but the point is that things have gone from bad to worse to oh my word, make it stop dear Lord!  I do find it fascinating that apparently humans in all times and places have sometimes concluded that they are living in the worst time ever.  That something in our brain wiring causes synapses to fire and I sound like my parents, “You think you had it bad!  Let me tell you about pain and struggle.”  Perhaps part of this is the human condition to compare and compete?  Part of this is that life has moments of hurt and there is no cure for being human (thanks to Kate Bowler for that phrase). 

Yesterday I said that sometimes we need to process the pain, release it, to make space for God to enter in and redeem the ache with a spark of light.  To be sure, this doesn’t happen instantaneously or automatically.  Like fruit slowly ripening on the vine, the Spirit moves at a different pace.  Perhaps you need to pray the first 6 verses of Psalm 14 several days in a row. 

And then you arrive at verse 7, “May a new day, a day of deliverance, come”.  Sometimes it is when we are at the end of our rope and we can no longer rely on our own salvation plans, that we must let go and let God’s embrace be our strength.  We need help, not in the form of another vacation or swipe of the credit card or fancy meal or new shirt or bottle of wine, we need deliverance from ourselves and the brokenness of this world.  This is a new day.  You have never experienced this day before.  What do you need deliverance from?  Who do you need deliverance from?  What would that look like?  How might you collaborate with God today in moving toward God’s name for you, which is always, “Beloved”?  May these questions provoke, evoke, and provide you with a sense of grace and love this day and this week. Amen.

Spark to rekindle your heart

 

Last week, we let the psalms inspire and infuse our imaginations in ways that (hopefully) helped you find your voice as you translated what you read into your own words.  The Psalms lend us a religious language, we can borrow the imagery from the words ~ adopting and adapting the words to what is in our hearts/souls/minds in the moment.  The Psalms warm up our souls, give us permission to be honest ~ raw and real with God about our thoughts and emotions.  Our prayers don’t have to be polished perfectly.  In fact, God isn’t sitting around waiting for you to make sure your verb tenses agree.  God isn’t watching to make sure you don’t end your prayer with a preposition ~ I can feel my 3^rd grade teacher shutter from such a thought!  This week, as you read Psalms 13-20, I invite you to find words that are playful.  To be clear, this will be challenging in some of the psalms you will be reading.  You might even hear the Mission Impossible music playing in the background.  For example, Psalm 13 starts out, “How long, O Eternal One?  How long will you forget me?  Forever?” (The Voice translation).

I can hear you thinking, “Welp, thanks for that uplifting verse of scripture, Pastor Eeyore!”  How can we be playful when God feels distant, or our energy is drained, or we just want God to swoop in like Wonder Woman to save the day?  I am glad you asked!  Not every verse of Scripture will warm your heart this week.  What I am asking and inviting is for you to search for playful verbs in each Psalm.  Put on your Sherlock Holmes hat and search for the wildness of the sacredness right there in each psalm. 

For me, in Psalm 13 verse 3, the Psalmist say, “Put a spark of life in my eyes.”  What a wonderful prayer petition to God.  Put a spark, rekindle the fire of my soul, light a match in the midnight moments of this week, O God.  Let Your light, O God, be what draws me in like a moth to a flame.  Let Your presence be bright when all else is bleak.  Let my soul be warmed and my heart ablaze because You are God.  Where is God putting a spark in your life today?  Notice and name this.  Where is the sacred stirring and swirling?  Sometimes, we need to cry out, to release the pain to open space for God to enter in and redeem the ache with a spark that rekindles your heart.  May this truth open you this day and week as we play with and pray the words of the Psalms.  Amen.

Enough

 

We close out the week with Psalm 12.  As you have all week long, read this psalm in two or three versions of the Bible.  Play with the words like you would sand in a sandbox.  Let loose Your sacred imagination in ways that are playful and prayerful and holy. 

I might summarize Psalm 12 in one word: “Enough!”

Why I love that word it might mean, “enough” as my mother used to say, “I’ve had it up to here.”  This meant I was skating on thin ice and might find myself in deep trouble if I kept on arguing or annoying my mom.  It could also mean, “enough” as in God is enough.  I don’t need to keep my eye on some imaginary scoreboard of life, I don’t need to keep pushing myself to prove myself, I don’t need to keep stuffing my life with stuff.  God is always enough.  This doesn’t mean life is fair (another mom-ism was, “The only fair I know is the Iowa State Fair and that’s only a week in August”.  Ahhh, good times).  But God’s presence fills in the gaps, covers the hurt, and keeps whispering the word, “Beloved” even when others want to call me by other names.  Enough.  You are enough, as you are at this moment.  Enough.  This moment is enough because God is with us.  Enough.  May each of us hold this word, let it sink and sing to our lives this day.  Amen.  

Here ~ Psalm 11

 

You are encouraged to read Psalm 11.  Often, we don’t need to translate every single line word-for-word.  Sometimes we can summarize in a few simple words or a single statement.  Here is my bummer sticker theological take on Psalm 11.

No matter where I run, O God, You are already there.

Now, if I will hold this truth, trust this truth, live this truth, be open to many serendipitous ways God shows up disguised as my ordinary life this day, there is quite enough love and grace.  If I trust and stay open to God who can work through people I love to people as well as those whose voice is like nails on the chalk board, then the above eleven words are a prayer for every minute this day.  Amen. 

Help

 

You are invited to read Psalm 10, then try to see what pours forth from your heart, what is stirred up in prayer to God from this hymn to the Holy?  Here are my thoughts:

Help, God!!  I need to know that You are here because the world is in all kinds of trouble.  Help God!!  

Why can’t we have a bat signal like Gotham to call on You to swoop in and save the day when people’s words hurt and harm, when discrimination is written into legislation, when what unites us is hatred and love seems too wishy-washy or idealistic or simplistic or scoffed at as un-enlightened.  

I long to let the words of Micah, to do justice, show loving-kindness, and walk humbly with You be my mission, vision, core values statement.  But most days, the words and actions of others make me wonder if I have the energy or if love/justice/human-size-ness can really make a difference?  

God, I long for a world where those who are hurting find healing; where those who have no home find shelter; where hungry bellies are filled; where those with wealth are the first to show up with gifts and the last to leave until all are cared for.  

But instead, we still cling to scarcity and see the economy as a leaky faucet where some will trickle down to the least and lonely while we jet off to another vacation.  

Help us, O God, we have so many idols that lure us astray and away from You.  Show us, Your way, smooth out the rough places of our jagged souls, and hold us with a strength to be Your people in the face of what we encounter in this day.  Amen.