Your Operating System

 

The last few Sundays, we have opened our hearts to the parable of the Prodigal Family (Luke 15:11-32).  We have let this story of Jesus connect to our story.  On June 26^th, we connected to the younger son finding himself in the messy muck of life, which at times has been a place I have resided/called “home” ~ if not physically ~ certainly emotionally and spiritually.  There have been times, when like the younger son, my plotting and planning led me to a place I never intended to go.  I think about times when I have said something that wounded someone or moments I have been so laser focused on crafting/creating a career that I did not take my vacation time.  I have been there with the younger son bumping elbows with pigs, situations when I wondered, “How did I get here?!?”.  Then, there are moments I have been like the older son, adamant in my own corrected and righteousness and stubbornness.  The elder son, like the younger son who wandered away, hurt those closest to him.  I can too, when I am so concerned about getting my point across or scoring points on some does-not-exist scoreboard of life that I stomp on other’s toes.  Then, there is the lavish love of the father who goes out to BOTH the younger and older sons.  He meets both where they are.  When I let God’s grace feed and fuel my life (rather than anger or fear or pain), there is a wonderful wastefulness that is more than just being “nice” or “polite”.  I decide to let God’s love be my compass, the “why” we talked in the meditations last week, pointing me toward offering hope and healing. 

 

To me, it wasn’t only the younger son who acted prodigal-ly (although I don’t think that is a word).  Rather each person in the story was in some way reckless with resources; wastefully extravagant; and beautifully broken.  There have been countless books written and sermons preached on this parable.  Here is one quote from Rev. Timothy Keller’s book, “The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith,” “Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode.”  Deliberately reset your heart to gospel mode ~ not just once, but every single day.  There is an invitation for you and me today.

 

There is a bit of both sons and the father that live in each of us – each of their stories are downloaded to our mind’s operating system, but we need to reset and reaffirm the gospel operating system each day.  As you go about your day today ~ notice moments you are reading from each of these character’s scripts.  Like the younger son, I do this when I think I have it all figured out and wander away from God to do it MY way.  Like the older son, I have times when I stomp my foot demanding to be heard and cling to my certainty.  Like the father, I have moments I meet the person before me with God’s grace and love.  May that gospel mode operating system of God’s presence guide you today, help you write the script of your life each hour, and be what run in your heart each minute.  May you know peace, grace, and love today. Amen.

Friday Prayer

 

Prodigal God, You meet us in the messiness of life and in our certainty.  You meet us like a Mothering God clothing us with robe, ring, and sandals.  You remind us, like the Older Son, that we are “always with You.” Help us own our lostness.  Help us realize that repenting isn’t about blame or shame, but about a turning toward You.  Jolt us from ways of death ~ whether that is addiction or racing through life or holding resentment that causes our blood to boil ~ granting us strength to go toward life.  Help me like the younger son to come to my senses.  Help me put aside and away the joyless pouting of the older son.  Help me live in the Prodigal Father’s lavish love that You give each of us every day when we open our eyes to this day You have made.  In the name of the One whose Parables help us understand and live the good news of Your story, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Pause

 

Breathe with me today.

 

Breathe in the grace that meets you right where you are…breathe out the ways you try to “prove” or “deserve” God’s love.

Breathe in the holy presence that empowers a searching inventory of your soul…breathe out trying to hide from the Divine.

Breathe in the why, your fuel that feeds your life…breathe out all the others who want you to subscribe to their scripts of living.

Breathe in God’s presence…breathe out what is restless.

 

Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God.  May this truth be encountered and experienced this day and this week.  Amen.

Welp, that didn't go well

 

Yesterday, we spent time with the way the younger son’s script was our script.  We named and claimed our addictions and moments we get stuck in the mud.  But, as we heard on Sunday, both sons lost their way ~ even as the older son never left home.  The younger son’s regret is action, the older son’s regret is inaction.  I love the tension in this truth.  Sometimes we do something and think, “Welp, that didn’t go well.”  We make a move and fall flat, splat, on our face.  Because of that, the next time, we, like the older son, stay on the sidelines.  Only there we realize, or regret, that we didn’t risk getting in the game.

 

So, which is it?  Should we take a leap of faith like the younger son, jump at the chance to live in the moment?  Should we be a bit more calculating and careful, stay closer to home like the older son?

 

Like most dualistic ~ either/or choices ~ the response is in the messy middle.  Sometimes we need to leap and other times we need to wait.  Sometimes we need to move forward, other times we need to look both ways before stepping into traffic.  It is not a one-size-fits-all/in all circumstances formula because life is too dynamic to be contained or confined.  Sometimes it can help to pause and ask, “why”?  Why do I want to go there or do that or say something?  Do I want to prove something to myself or others?  Do I want to be seen in a certain way?  Or does my soul cry out that this is the way of life? 

 

To check in daily ~ or even hourly ~ with your soul and your why.  Your “why” in life is your compass.  Your “why” is your north star. 

 

Today, take a moment to name your “why”.  One note, I believe your “why” changes throughout life, shifting sometimes subtly and other times changing directions completely.  On these early days of July to check in with your “why” might help guide you in the coming days and for the rest of this year.  Amen.

Coming to Our Senses

 

Over the last few weeks, we have held the Parable of the Prodigal Family close to our hearts.  One of the commentaries on this Parable focused attention on the pods the younger son was feeding to the pigs.  These pod, which might have been a carob pod native to the Middle East, was a tactile and tangible symbol.  The fact that the younger son was staring at a food intended to feed a pig, an animal that any faithful Jewish person avoided, was a wake-up call.  Picture the younger son holding that pod standing in the pigsty, muddy muck of life.  See his mouth start to salivate as he, instead of tossing and throwing it to the pig, starts to bring the pod to his mouth.  See the younger son look around to make sure no one is watching as he nibbles a corner off the pod.  Watch as the younger son’s face in shock or surprise, as scripture says, “comes to his senses.”  To use the language of AA, the younger son realizes that he has hit rock bottom.  You may be familiar with the 12 steps of the AA program.  The first step is to admit the powerlessness over alcohol.  In a world where all of us have some addictions, you might find your powerless over gambling, money, success, trending on social media, work, fear, anger.  What is it that consumes you but does not fill you?  What do you keep returning to maybe to numb the pain/ache or because the dopamine surge in your brain gives you a jolt? 

 

I wonder if part of what the younger son did in the muddy muck of that pigsty was Step 4 ~ make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.  What a powerful invitation for each of us individually and collectively!!  What a holy, heartfelt prayer practice in these days to look at, hold, examine what is on the shelves of our souls.  

 

Especially important in this step is the word, “fearless”.  We all stumble and bumble ~ that is part of the human condition.  Yet, we have been taught and caught to deny and distance ourselves from this truth.  We push our brokenness into the shadows like a child sweeping a broken lamp under the rug praying mom won’t find out. 

 

How might you today survey your life noticing and naming the good, the bad, and the ugly?  Can you invite God to sit with you in life where you are living your beloved-ness and where brokenness causes you to do what you don’t want to do?  May there be a moment of “coming to your senses” in the sacredness of a love that will never let you go.  May each of us this day and week sense God’s grace in healing, hope filled ways.  Amen.

Prayer for 4th of July

 

Please pray with me the words of the hymn: “This is my song”:

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts, in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams

as true and high as mine.

 

A few reasons why I find this song particularly powerful and poignant today, July 4^th.  First, we worship God who is the Creator of all places and people.  While we call the United States, “Our homeland,” we recognize that our citizenship is in God’s realm that does not have human borders or boundaries.  We worship God who crafts and creates all people, all places in God’s image.  We can honor our place and at the same time notice that God does not rate or rank countries.  On this 4^th of July, we are invited to hold the beautiful, creative tension. 

Second, we pray for peace.  We live in a divided country, state, and community.  We are more and more aware of how hostile we are and how hatred festers.  We pray for peace ~ a healing and wellness ~ for all human hearts.  We pray for peace with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, in Oslo, in Akron, OH, in Uvalde, and Buffalo, in rain forests being destroyed and earth’s resources depleted.  Peace ~ wellness and wholeness ~ is what we seek and what will restore right relationship with God, each other, and the earth.  Peace is coming to our senses and turning/returning to God who is working to restore ruptured relationships that exist.

Even as we are connected to the holiness and wholeness of life, we live in a particular place and time.  Given the reality, we have hopes and dreams and seek God’s guidance for where we call “home”.  We recognize our solidarity with others.  We pray for those whose hopes and aims and dreams go in the opposite direction.  We pray for those who we fear or frustrate us. 

O, hear, our song and heartfelt, honest prayer, God of all people and places, on this day.  Let this song guide our lives and living every day this week. 

Amen.

Prayers for July

 

God of new days and new months, we arrive at the doorway to the half-way point of 2022.  We can look in the rearview mirror of life recalling our New Year’s resolutions from January of this year when 2022 was a blank canvass ready for us to paint new ways.  Remember, recall, what resolutions or prayers or ideas swirled inside YOU on January 1, 2022?  Name them this morning.  Are your prayers from six months ago still swirling and stirring in your life?  Have you forgotten them?  Is today an opportunity to name prayers for the second half of this year?  As you look back at the first half of this year, recall moments of laughing with friends.  If you close our eyes, can you still smell the lilies of Easter or hear the music that warmed your hearts?  Here we are, O God, on this first day of July.  Here You are, O God, meeting us in this moment reminding us that today is brand-new, and tomorrow is too.  This is a moment full of possibility and promise to live fully in the image of God that you are being fashioned and formed and loved into living.  Today, open your hearts to God’s grace which makes a difference and makes you different.  Open your imaginations to not be confined or defined only by the headline news, rather create space for the Good News of God who is always calling you home.  As you set sail for the second part of this year, clear out the cobwebs and clutter in our minds for Your good news that nothing separates you from God.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Not even that objection right now the lawyer in your mind is trying to voice from the back of your brain.  Not even that regret that resides unresolved on the shelf of your soul.  Not even the bumbles and stumbles.  Open your life this day to leap into July ready to explore and experience the Eternal now of this moment.  May July be blessed with renewal, replenishment, and a recommitment to follow the One who is the light of the World, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.