Thursday, April 30, 2026
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
A long night
Jesus Christ, you are the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead. You have loved us from our sins by your Body and Blood.
The Meal. Come to me, my children and eat my body and drink my blood. Don’t just take my yoke, my children, which is easy and light, but take and swallow the Meal of Me, which is satisfying in every way and will sustain you forever. Far better than peanut butter or salmon ever would.
Watching a video of my upcoming surgery, watching the clever surgeons at Cleveland Clinic who created the Commando procedure that saved Margaret’s life, seeing “my” heart beating and beating and beating right there on the screen, I want the Meal more than ever. The idea of eating Christ doesn’t seem so weird when I’m watching my insides do their thing.
Feel free to skip the video, but please don’t skip the Meal.
After years of having the app on my phone without using it, I paid a few dollars for “3D Complete Anatomy,” which shows not just “my” heart but “my” coccyx and the bones, joints, and muscles in my lower back which are gradually, very gradually, moving back into place. The x-ray Dr Owen showed us in his chiropractic office shows my actual bones and joints, which are not now nearly as straight and perfectly in place as those beautiful sharp images on my iPhone. I can be patient, because I trust Jesus.
It was after all David he was talking to when he said, “My hand will always be with you, and my arm will make you strong.” And was I not named David (the beloved) by Roland and Angie (our parents) for that very purpose, to claim the rights of David the shepherd, giant killer and king? (Please don’t mention the fact that he was an adulterer as well.)
My friend Shannon, on his way with his wife Susan to see George Strait at Clemson near her home town in South Carolina, reminded me of the power of theophostic prayer in his life. Theophostic simply means “God-light.” Begin to tell God the truth, a story, a grief, a regret, a despair, give up even a little of the hiding and denial that might seem normal in your closet but is impossible in the Throne Room, and God will reward you with truth. Truth about yourself of course, about both your giant-killing AND the adultery (or another equally grievous sin to God, like gossiping and judging). The miracle that this accomplishes is often evident in no time. God light never goes out, never dims.
This is taking too long to say, so I’ll get to what I noticed before the stories of surgery, anatomy and Shannon’s reminder. I’ve never not noticed the contrast between the end of Psalm 88 and Psalm 89.  I must put myself in the psalmist’s place (as must you).
Your wrath sweeps over me. Your terrors are destroying me, Lord.
All day long I’m engulfed! The flood surrounds me.
(I don’t say it exactly, but I’m thinking, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?)
You are taking from me my friends, my neighbors, my health …
Do you show your wonders to the dead?
O Lord! The darkness is my closest friend.
And … when God looks at me and loves me even when I’m moving toward bitter … God must say something because the NEXT thing, the first line of psalm 89, is rich with praise.
I WILL SING OF THE LORD’S GREAT LOVE FOREVER!
What does God say, how does God touch my soul, my face, my hands, my heart? Something like that is happening, don’t you think? To me, to you, to the guy who wrote the psalm and then to David in King Saul’s court, who sang it?
Open your mouth and let the voice God gave you be inhabited by Him. (I think that’s in Psalm 51, David’s confession of adultery and secrecy.)
Speak … and then listen, because. … well, I’m getting the idea over seventy-six years that when I’m in the greatest pain I’m going to hear Him like never before.  It’s on bumper stickers and the Marines claim it for their own. No pain no gain. But knowing that in words is nothing like knowing it in every cell of your body. Suddenly the pain is not the point.
Like it never was.
As John was completing his course, he would say, “Who do you suppose that I am? I am not He.
In your sleep, in mine … in just an instant Lord, let us receive the dreams, the stuff, that heaven’s made of.
(Acts 13, Psalm 89, Revelation 1, John 13)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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