Thursday, October 22, 2020              (today’s lectionary)
Pour out your heart
Jesus: Do you think I’ve come to establish peace on the earth? I have come to set the earth on fire! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished.
If this is true of Jesus, isn’t it true of me as well? God is both transcendent and intimate; the Creator of all that Is takes the “time” to count the hairs on my sweet little head. So why am I constantly going to God like an embattled victim, demanding that he fix my life and make things the way I want them to be? I am not a victim. I need, as Paul said in Romans 6, to be baptized into both Christ’s life AND death. Anguish at times is part of the deal.
As I am discovering even at this moment, there is a vast difference between expressing my grief and pain, and expecting God to remove it. The first prayer might be called a prayer between friends, and the second might be called the desperate prayer of a victim. But am I a victim? Not usually.
On nearly every page of the Bible God asks me to express my gratitude and thanksgiving. My Aunt Mary, who died after living a wonderful generous life in difficult environments across the Midwest, moved into an assisted living facility and passed out copies of the book Prison to Praise to all her neighbors. The autobiographical book essentially consists of example after example of praising God in the midst of pain and “prison.”
“Hi, I’m Mary Brummer from the 4th floor, and I just moved in. I’d like to introduce myself by giving you this book.” That seems like a pretty good way to pass on a biblical truth and at the same time find out who is interested in getting to know you. It must also have helped Aunt Mary find ways to pray for those around her.
I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may give to you from the riches of his glory.
In Ephesians Paul’s poetry requires that we read every word.
I pray that God will give you strength to comprehend (with all the holy ones) what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ and the fullness of our Father.
Yes, this surpasses knowledge. Yes, God’s ways are higher than mine. Yes, I will not see the finished quilt until God turns it around for me. There is no hurry here. God’s thousand years are like a day.
God is able to accomplish far more than all we ask or imagine.
God asks, “Won’t you just let me take the lead? I can lead you through the flood and shield you from the fire.”
But it’s hard to trust you, Lord. I hear someone say, “Trust me,” when they might mean the opposite. But not you. You NEVER mean the opposite. I can choose to trust you and you will never disappoint.
And David, when you choose to trust like that, you receive a double portion: you get to express yourself and empty out your sorrow, and in so doing get to know me better every day.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. The plan of the Lord, the design of his heart, stands forever.
(Ephesians 3, Psalm 33, Philippians 3, Luke 12)
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