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- Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
With the overwhelming pace of life, many of us struggle to stop long enough to be present. Our long to-do lists and full calendars leave little breathing room to hear from God. We know we need to slow down but we don't even know how to begin. Alan Fadling has spent years coaching leaders and communities on how to live an unhurried life, teaching that productivity and success are not our chief end, but rather living at the pace that our true self longs to live. Designed to help you center your day around God's loving presence, A Year of Slowing Down offers six devotionals for each week of the year. Each day begins with a Scripture passage followed by a short reading and a reflection question. This book is an invitation to slow down and be present to the movement of God in your everyday life. Will you accept God's call to welcome a year of slowing down?
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TO RICHARD E. FADLINGMy father, who always modeleda love of reading good books and imparted that love to me.I dedicate this book to him in his eighty-fourth year.
AND TO WAYNE ANDERSON (1940–2008)With gratitude for his mentoring influence in my life,showing me the way to live, serve, lead, and breathe deep inthe atmosphere of God’s measureless grace.
Contents
Introduction
THESE DEVOTIONALS HAD THEIR beginnings in my personal journal. I began to practice the regular discipline of spiritual journaling in my twenties. Since then, I’ve journaled thousands of pages and millions of words. My journal is a place where I wrestle, meditate, reflect, create, and, in it all, pray. It’s a place where I acknowledge the presence of God with me. I trust that the Spirit of God with me along the way will be with you as you read.
I envision these daily readings as five-minute daily retreats. They are not an escape from reality but a sinking more deeply into Reality. It is my hope that, over this year, you’ll experience a renewal and refreshing of your ideas, your assumptions, your expectations, and your vision of God and the spiritual life. I hope you’ll sense a holy slowing of your soul in the presence of God as you take part. Each daily reading ends with a reflection question that you can engage in at the moment and take with you into your day.
I invite you to allow these readings to be full of grace and truth, just as Jesus is. Grace without truth is simply unchallenging inspiration. Truth without grace is unbending advice that we’re left to figure out on our own. Grace and truth overflowing together enable us to slow and discern the path before us and find strength to walk that path in God’s presence.
These readings are arranged in three seasons. The first season is rooted in the Old Testament, especially the Psalms (Days 1-91). In these I reflect on the unhurried way of God with Israel and their spacious response to him in worship. The second season journeys mostly through the Gospels and John’s letters (Days 92-273). In these readings you’ll gain an appreciation for the ways of our unhurried Savior. Finally, the third season walks through the New Testament letters (Days 274-365). A primary theme in these readings is the church as an unhurried community.
This year of slowing down is not mainly about how fast you drive, or walk, or think, or talk, or work. It is about a pace of life more in keeping with the pace of Jesus. It is a pace of grace over drivenness, of peace over anxiety, of gentleness over harshness, of patience over anger. It is the pace of love because it is the pace of the kingdom of God who is love. It is the pace at which our true self longs to live.
I hope you’ll come to believe that God has given us enough time for everything he’s given us to do. I pray that you’ll find growing freedom and courage to make time for that which matters most—to God and to you. I trust that you’ll come to discover that most things shouldn’t be hurried and some things simply can’t be.
A core calling that my wife, Gem, and I have sensed over our lifetime has been to share our lives with others. God invites us to share not just truths, or insights, or ideas, but life. I pray that you’ll sense that the one who is Life will refresh in you an eternal quality of life as you read.
Part One
The Unhurried Way of God
Day 1
REST IS HOLY
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. (Genesis 2:2-3)
THIS IS THE LAST WORD in the first creation story of Genesis. God’s blessing of the seventh day as space to rest is a holy moment. Sabbath is the culmination of the creation story. We live in a culture that sometimes sees rest as a necessary evil to be minimized as much as possible. Or it sees rest as the moment we run out of gas for any more work. But rest isn’t an absence of goodness. It is space to stop our working, enjoy God’s goodness, and rest in his presence.
Resting is hard work. It requires strong personal leadership to say no once a week to measuring our lives by what we produce. It takes intentionality to slow down and cease our striving to achieve, acquire, and impress others and simply enjoy what God has given us. But God calls this Sabbath gift a holy thing.
I’ve sensed a daily invitation alongside this weekly Sabbath call. The creation story that starts our Scriptures describes the days of creation in a way that feels different. As each day of creation ends, we hear that “there was evening, and there was morning.” This way of envisioning a day places rest first.
I’ve been experimenting with seeing my workdays as beginning with rest rather than ending in a collapse after a long day. My various practices of numbing, escaping, or avoiding don’t bear good fruit. I’m finding it more fruitful when my work grows out of places of soul rest.
How do you find yourself escaping, self-distracting, or numbing in the evening? How might God invite you to enjoy rest in his presence in the hours before you go to bed?
Day 2
WHY DOES GOD BLESS YOU?
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. (Genesis 12:2 NRSV)
THE WORDS ABOVE ARE God’s blessing to Abraham when he called this wealthy son of an idol worshiper to leave his father’s house, abandon all that was familiar, and obediently go to . . . well, God didn’t tell him where. God’s command to leave came with a promise but not with an itinerary. Abraham was obedient despite the vague instructions, and God was faithful and kept this promise.
Notice the heart of that promise. Like Abraham, I am blessed not just so that I’ll be blessed; I am blessed so that God’s blessing will flow to others through me. My bishop, Todd Hunter, often reminds us that we are blessed for the sake of others.
Of course I want to be blessed. We all do. But I also truly want to bless others. I want others to receive the good things from me and through me that I’ve received from a generous Father.
Most recently, though, I’ve realized I need to let myself be blessed. I’ve been resisting God’s blessing because I’m focused on whether I deserve it. That’s the wrong question. God isn’t assessing whether I deserve his generosity. He is simply generous. This is how God treats us. Blessing is rooted in him, not us. God would love nothing more than for you and me to open ourselves fully to all the ways he desires to be generous. Doesn’t that sound inviting?
Reflect on someone you have seen blessing others with the blessings God has given them. If you’ve been on the receiving end of their blessing, share with them how God is honored in their actions.
Day 3
THE GIFT OF THE LONG PATH
When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” (Exodus 13:17)
GOD KNOWS WHAT BARRIERS will be too much for us. In kindness, he sometimes leads us on what feels like the long way so we’re not overwhelmed by obstacles that would overcome us. We may complain about the long way because we don’t understand that God is sparing us something.
We think the best path from here to there is straight. Sometimes the best path is quite crooked. God’s goal may not be our arrival at a destination but our formation along the way. We can be goal-focused when God is process-focused. He is forming us. And the long way is sometimes the best path for God to help us grow.
Perhaps God has invited us to join him in the work of the kingdom. We think the main thing, then, is to get to work. God gives us the gift of working with him, but he also gives us the gift of making us ready and able to do that work well. God calls us not only to collaboration but also to friendship in the work.
We can learn to discern how God is inviting us to join him in his work. We can also learn to cooperate with the process by which we are made ready to do that work. And the process sometimes involves a longer path than we anticipated.
How has your path felt more indirect than you would have wanted? How might this be a gift rather than a burden?
Day 4
BETTER BACK THERE
Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert! (Exodus 14:12)
IN THIS MOMENT OF CRISIS the people of Israel believe they were better off under Egyptian oppression than they are now, being threatened with Egyptian attack. They have forgotten their complaints of mistreatment and their cries for deliverance. They have forgotten their bondage in Egypt and instead imagine the abuse that is about to land on them at the hands of their enemy. Don’t we sometimes have second thoughts about whether we really want to be rescued?
Isn’t it like us to begin to have second thoughts when we face obstacles on our journey toward freedom? We think, “It was a lot better back there where we came from. There were a lot of good things back there.” We forget two things: how bad it really was back there and how good it really is where God is bringing us! We become myopic and lose our sense of context.
Moses speaks to the fears of the people, saying, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:13-14).
Fear and insecurity are enemies of faith. We can be so overwhelmed in the looming presence of our enemy that we fail to realize God is more real than any enemy before us. The power of God’s promise is stronger than the threat of our enemies.
In what ways are you tempted to look back at some stuck place in your past and experience selective amnesia? How might God’s presence with you now be far better than that situation?
Day 5
LED IN UNFAILING LOVE
In your unfailing love you will lead
the people you have redeemed. (Exodus 15:13)
GOD LEADS US AS his rescued people in love that will never fail. We are on a journey of renewal and restoration. Love restores what it treasures, and God treasures us. God has sought us out in his limitless delight over us. This has always been God’s intention for us. I haven’t the wisdom nor the strength to rescue myself. I couldn’t buy my way out of the slavery in which God has found me. Mine is a hopeless slavery except that my loving, powerful God chooses to rescue me.
It helps to remember that this is the reality in which I walk with God. God’s love and strength are reliably and always present with me. God leads and guides me with persistent care and wisdom. I am always being treated by God with affection, encouragement, and empowerment.
It is remarkable that the destination of this journey is the very place where God dwells. God is leading me closer to his home (and mine). God invites me to walk on paths that draw me closer to his heart and mind. God is leading me away from the false gods of Egypt and toward himself—the only true God!
God deals with every enemy we encounter on this journey. We are not abandoned or alone. God knows what will oppose or attack me before I do. God will put fear into the heart of those enemies who seek my harm. What good news!
When you think of hard places you’ve traveled, how might it help to have a greater awareness that God is lovingly present with you in these very places?
Day 6/7
TRAINING OR TELLING?
Teach [God’s people] his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. (Exodus 18:20)
JETHRO SPEAKS THESE WORDS to help Moses serve the people of God better. Exodus says that Moses sat alone morning to night hearing and deciding cases in light of God’s law. His strategy was to “inform them” (Exodus 18:16) of God’s laws and decrees. Jethro’s counsel was to “teach them” and “show them the way.” God wants to train us in righteousness rather than just inform us of righteous. I think of how I parented our sons when they were very young.
One morning my oldest son, Sean, was doing something to frustrate his brother Bryan and make him cry. Brothers do this to one another sometimes. My angry impulse was to lay down the law and tell Sean what he was doing wrong. But I had this passage in mind and wondered to myself if I could somehow teach him and show him instead of just informing him.
So I brought him over to me. Instead of my usual (and not very helpful) lecture, I told him I wanted to teach him and show him how to treat his brother kindly. I gave Sean a hug and said, “This is something kind you could do for Bryan.” He wasn’t too excited about my wonderful counsel.
A bit later I noticed Sean doing something that made Bryan laugh. I told him what a kind brother he was being. He lit up! Then he helped Bryan with a puzzle he was working on. Again I affirmed Sean’s kindness. Sean was beaming! And without my urging, he gave Bryan a hug.
Can you envision your heavenly Father looking for opportunities to train you in love and grace rather than informing and then reproving you? What happens to your desire to live well?
Day 8
PROMPTED BY GENEROSITY
The LORD said to Moses, “Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from everyone whose heart prompts them to give.” (Exodus 25:1-2)
I’M IMPRESSED BY THE LITTLE PHRASE at the end of today’s line of Scripture. God welcomes offerings from everyone whose heart prompts them to give. Too much giving these days seems prompted by external guilt, manipulation, or peer pressure. Here the prompt is rooted not in a perceived need but a person’s heart. Yes, we can rightly give to meet a need, but sometimes the needs we perceive may not be the direction God has for us.
God is not desperate for us to give. God does not need something from us that he lacks. An offering is perhaps something we need to give. We may need to be freer from the possessions that possess us (rather than the other way round). We need an opportunity to recognize that we are stewards more than we are owners.
This passage nudges me to pray: Father, may I be more aware and attentive to your promptings in my heart today. May I remain open to your invitation to be generous. What I think I own is yours. Grow in me a vision of stewardship to replace the burden of thinking I own things. I long to grow in this freedom. I welcome your sovereign leadership in my life in this way. Amen.
Think of the most recent offering you made, whether it was in a church service, in response to an online opportunity, or whatever. What was the primary prompting of that offering? What might it look like to let God’s Spirit grow an increasing character of heartfelt generosity in you?
Day 9
A COSTLY SACRIFICE
Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.” (1 Samuel 1:22)
THE LORD WAS GRACIOUS to Samuel as he grew up at the temple in the presence of the Lord and under the guidance of Eli the priest. The Lord was also gracious to Hannah, giving her five more children after she—true to her word—gave up her firstborn to the Lord’s service.
I cannot imagine what it would be like to give up a child. What if after you had prayed so long for a child you had to give him up to be raised at a distant monastery? How would you feel if you saw your firstborn only once a year? You’d be proud of his service to God, but you’d miss him terribly.
And yet this is much like what God himself did with his Son. In love God gave us the gift of his Son. Jesus grew up in a world that didn’t understand him or recognize him for who he was. He grew up away from the immediate presence of his Father for our sake. What a remarkable gift. What a wonderful invitation.
There may be a moment when God invites us to make an unexpected sacrifice for the sake of love. It may be hard, but good fruit will be borne from such loving abandonment.
What difficult feelings have you experienced in response to sacrifices you’ve made on your journey? How have you experienced God’s grace and generosity in moments of necessary surrender or invited obedience?
Day 10
LEARNING CONTENTMENT
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts. (1 Samuel 2:7)
AS I REFLECT ON Hannah’s humble prayer, I see that God brings me some things I like and some I don’t. I want God to bring poverty only into the lives of the “bad guys,” but sometimes faithful people have lived with little as well.
Paul shared with the Philippians that he had learned deep contentment right in the middle of unfulfilled needs, hungers, and wants (Philippians 4:10-12). Of course, I find contentment easier when I like my circumstances. God allows a variety of welcome and unwelcome circumstances to cross my spiritual journey. Perhaps in this way I learn that God alone is my portion and treasure.
God humbles one and lifts up another. I long to be honored and recognized in this world. But honor that lasts is found in union with God. I can be lifted up in friendship with God and largely invisible in this world.
I long to live in a community of God’s people where our ongoing need of grace is the assumption rather than the exception. In such a culture the pressure to keep up appearances would diminish. We would not be embarrassed to admit our need for grace because this would be an acknowledged and shared reality for all of us. We would each recognize that honor doesn’t come from appearances but from real, received grace. We can trust in the kindness and goodness of God amid whatever happens to cross our path in the moment.
In what ways have you felt humbled lately? Are there ways you have felt lifted up? How might you talk with God about all of this?
Day 11
GROWING UPIN GOD’S PRESENCE
Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD. (1 Samuel 2:21)
I LOVE THAT SAMUEL “grew up in the presence of the LORD.” I find myself wishing I had grown up in the presence of the Lord rather than with little awareness of God and the knowledge that he was with me. I can only imagine how different my childhood and youth might have been had I known my Good Shepherd.
That said, I am grateful that I have grown up in the presence of the Lord over the years of my adult life. I’m grateful for this journey. And I’m still growing up in the presence of God today.
As we grow up in the presence of the Lord, we may find ourselves being approved of less and less by the world and without a lot of company. The same was true in Samuel’s day. Eli’s sons, who are described as “scoundrels” (1 Samuel 2:12), treated the offering of the Lord “with contempt” (1 Samuel 2:17). Yet as Eli’s own sons were walking away from God, young Samuel was growing up in the Lord’s presence.
Whether you have been aware of God’s presence from childhood or have become a friend of God later in life, you are growing up, even now, in the presence of God. What a fertile place to mature and develop.
What has God done along your journey to help you grow into a Christlike individual? Whom did God use in your life?
Day 12
TROUBLES AS AMPLIFIER
In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD. (2 Chronicles 28:22)
KING AHAZ IS NOT REMEMBERED as a hero of Israelite history. He reigned over a particularly ugly period in the life of God’s people. The Chronicler describes Ahaz as one who “did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 28:1). Ahaz’s unfaithfulness to God grew in a time of trouble. Trouble has a way of exposing the dynamics of our inner life.
The good news is that trouble doesn’t automatically cause unfaithfulness. Trouble tends to amplify what’s going on in us already. What may have been quiet or hidden in times of relative ease gets louder or is uncovered in times of trouble.
If we are orienting ourselves toward God, seeking to trust him and entrust ourselves to him, trouble has a way of refining and strengthening that trust. If we are hiding a tendency to wander from God, trouble has a way of intensifying that reality. The chronic trauma that many of us have experienced during the pandemic has amplified inner dynamics that had perhaps been largely hidden before.
If we are leaning in toward God, trouble will tend to draw us closer. If we aren’t, trouble can strengthen our resistance and waywardness. It’s a good idea to seek God in times of trouble, but it’s even better to cultivate that habit when times are easier. God is our Rescuer in times of trouble, but even more, God is always our very life.
How has your life felt full of trouble lately? What does that trouble amplify in you? How might you offer yourself to God to strengthen your trust in him?
Day 13/14
THUNDERING HEARTS
At this my heart pounds
and leaps from its place. . . .
God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding. (Job 37: 1, 5)
THESE ARE THE WORDS of Elihu, the young friend who has listened to all the back-and-forth between Job and his three “comforters.” Elihu speaks out of frustration with Job’s complaining and his friends’ inability to answer those complaints. Elihu’s words of praise ring true, but he uses them like a weapon against Job. Truth here is not in service of love.
There are moments when my own heart pounds and leaps from its place. There is emotional energy and resolve that rises within me at times. I have moments when I genuinely feel interaction with God like that. Something stirs in me that feels alive, vital, and even heart-pounding. Can I believe there is something of the divine voice in such conversations that is causing my heart to leap within me?
But sometimes my heart seems disengaged. There is another part of me that resists, perhaps out of fear. I find myself afraid of such passion, energy, and drive. That fearful part of me is childish, even adolescent. That part of me isn’t growing whole and holy in Christ.
The following prayer may help you in your own transforming journey in the way of Christ: May your voice thunder in marvelous ways today, Lord. May I hear the thunder. May I not resist your voice in fear. Let me hear your voice saying what you’ve said to many others before me: “Do not be afraid. I am with you.” I’m grateful for this good news. Amen.
Day 15
BATTLING INTERNAL ENEMIES
Many are saying to me,
“There is no help for you in God.” (Psalm 3:2 NRSV)
ONE OF MY CONTINUAL BATTLES is the one that happens in my own heart and mind. I continue to discover and fight negative patterns of thought and emotion that are shaped less by Jesus and more by the world around me. The words of David’s psalm ring true for me.
The enemies David mentions are human, probably military. Like his enemies, my negative thoughts and emotions insinuate that I’ll be finding no help from God. Such thoughts and emotions pester me and hound me. They rise against me. They whisper that I am abandoned and alone. They oppose everything good that God intends for me.
So I’m grateful when I am awake enough to respond as David does with a hearty “But you, O LORD, are . . . ” (Psalm 3:3). What is God? He is my shield. He surrounds me with protection. He is my glory. He makes my life shine so that it has impact. He is the one who lifts my head. He encourages my soul in the face of discouragement or accusation.
When I feel surrounded by trouble, like David I can cry out to the Lord. He answers my cry with holy help. He is my strong friend when the thoughts in my heart and head feel like enemies.
In what ways do your thoughts or feelings feel like enemies? Take a moment to write about some of those internal adversaries. Name them. Now take a moment to cry out to the God who is with you. How might he desire to help you against these enemies?
Day 16
WELCOMEDINTO GOD’S PRESENCE
I, through the abundance of your steadfast love,
will enter your house;
I will bow down toward your holy temple
in awe of you. (Psalm 5:7 NRSV)
DRAWING NEAR TO GOD and entering his house used to be reserved for the privileged few. Only the priests were allowed, and they went through elaborate cleansing rites beforehand. I wonder if we in the twenty-first century might be helped by a little more of that kind of reverence and awe when we approach God in corporate worship and personal prayer.
This psalm gives us a starting point for recovering that reverence and awe. It might be good to consider how—on what basis—we enter the Lord’s house. Do we enter because of our worthiness? Do we stay away because of our unworthiness? If we are thinking about worthiness, we may be focusing on the wrong thing. Let’s shift our attention to God.
“I will enter your house through the abundance of your steadfast love.” What an encouraging phrase! As if God’s love for us weren’t amazing enough, David adds the modifier “steadfast” and multiplies that by “abundance.” May we be overwhelmed by God’s love for us and grateful that he welcomes us, just as we are, into his presence. May we learn to bow before our God in awe of him and his abundant, steadfast love for us.
Are there ever times you feel you might be too casual or too formal when you approach God? How might you enter God’s presence—both in corporate worship and in personal prayer and meditation—with a heart full of both comforting grace and reverent awe?
Day 17
WORDS THAT BLESS
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
WATCHING TELEVISION NEWS IS often painful. I’m thinking specifically about the words that are used and the way they are spoken. So much conflict, so many harsh words, so many accusations and insults in the headlines. Too many people speak to others with disrespect and contempt. A gracious and honoring word seems hard to come by.
All this has made me think that, as a culture, it would be helpful to rediscover the language of blessing. I’m not talking about saying a prayer before you eat. Not that kind of blessing. I’m not talking about greeting card wishes. Blessing is not empty, cotton-candy language.
The blessing I’m referring to here involves speaking words of substantial goodness to one another, words that bring about goodness in another’s life. That’s worth restating: I’m talking about speaking words that bring real goodness and blessing to another.
I’ve learned a lot over the years about the power of blessing—especially spoken blessing. Hearing words of blessing spoken over us gives those words greater power. You are invited to hear words of blessing from your Good Shepherd. You are invited to share those good words with those who cross your path. What a difference you could make in your world!
As you look around you, where is blessing needed? Who is one person you could meet with, call, or write to offer heartfelt words of blessing? When can you do that?
Day 18
DISCERNING YOUR HEART’S DESIRE
May he give you the desire of your heart
and make all your plans succeed. (Psalm 20:4)
YEARS AGO, I SPENT eight days in silent retreat. The retreat center was about five miles south of Walden Pond where Henry David Thoreau conducted his experiment in simple living in a natural setting. I was hoping that my days in silent attention to God might bear similar fruit in my own life.
On the first morning of my retreat, the senior retreat guide suggested I spend the next twenty-four hours asking myself, “What do you want?” He gave me a few passages to reflect on but invited me to focus on this question. At first it seemed an easy one to answer. But the longer I lived with the question, the deeper my answers went.
At first, surface desires like catching up on a favorite TV series or enjoying pizza and beer came to mind. These weren’t available to me at the retreat center. Eventually, I wrote down forty things I wanted (or didn’t want). The longer I wrote, the more compelling my desires became. They felt focusing. They felt energizing. I realized what a gift my retreat mentor had given me.
Do you know what you want in life? I believe that the plans that succeed most fruitfully are rooted in desires that resonate with the heart of God. God wants good for us. Jesus wants us to share in his overwhelming joy. The Spirit longs for us to know the peace of God’s presence. May God fulfill desires like these in our lives.
Experiment with the question I was given on my silent retreat: “What do you want?” Start writing. Keep writing. Revisit your list. What surfaces in the beginning? How does your list develop over time?
Day 19
GUIDED BY MY SHEPHERD
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me. (Psalm 23:4)
PSALM 23 IS A GOOD WORD for every stage of our lives. In it, David reminds us that “he guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:3). My Good Shepherd has it in his heart to guide me along the best paths because his good care for me reflects well on him. Just as I want my own sons to live well because it says something about how I’ve served them as a father, so the Lord shepherds me away from rutted, empty, wayward paths and toward nourishing, refreshing, fulfilling ones.
Even those best paths, however, will take me through dark seasons. Darkness can come with losses such as a prodigal child, a chronic illness, divorce, job loss, aging parents, or the death of someone close to us.
I’m guessing you’re like me: I would rather never walk through dark valleys. But since I must at times journey through such places, I am grateful I’m not walking alone. My Good Shepherd guides me, protects me from evil, and brings me comfort when I’m tempted to give in to anxiety, fear, doubt, or insecurity.
Finally, consider the image in the next verse of this psalm: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies” (Psalm 23:5). Of course, I’d prefer sharing a sumptuous feast with my friends, but when my enemies threaten my joy, my gracious Host provides a place of hospitality for me. I enjoy the Shepherd’s goodness in the presence of evil. I can then share that goodness in ways that might even overcome evil. Trust this reality today.
Spend some time thanking your Good Shepherd for ways he’s been shepherding you.
Day 20/21
I’M BEING FOLLOWED
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever. (Psalm 23:6)
THE LAST LINES OF PSALM 23 answer to a general sense of dread that something bad is about to happen. I have often felt I live in a world that feels unsafe and threatening. These feelings are like an echo of something old; they are not feelings rooted in adult realities. I didn’t know Jesus as my Shepherd for the first seventeen years of my life. Instead I experienced a world where worry and abandonment seemed to follow me all the time.
But now I know that I live in a world where Jesus personally shepherds me. There is nothing I truly need that he does not provide. All I desire I find in him and receive from him. And if I’m being followed, it’s by his goodness and love, and this will be true for eternity. I will always have a home in God’s presence, and this reality is quite a contrast to beliefs formed in my childhood and experienced in emotions I still carry around as an adult.
I want to keep growing in this wholesome reality. I want to work together with my Good Shepherd as he replaces my childhood leftovers of angst, insecurity, fear, anxiety, and self-doubt. I want to trust Jesus more deeply and rely on God’s goodness and love following me, surrounding me always.
What does it mean to you—despite the challenges you face now—that God’s goodness and love are with you and will follow you all the days of your life?
Day 22
I LIFT UP MY SOUL
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul. (Psalm 25:1 NRSV)
WHEN I’VE READ THIS LINE previously, I’ve sometimes assumed that the main way I would lift up my soul was in personal prayer or corporate worship. I would measure whether I had lifted up my soul to God if I felt good feelings or experienced some sense of God with me. But what is my soul and how might I lift it up?
The imagery of being lifted up here seems to be about buoyancy. Water lifts up a floating object like a piece of wood or a boat. A boat doesn’t expend immense effort to float. Floating is what happens when a boat is set in the water. It is carried without a great attempt at floating. I lift up my soul when I let God’s Spirit hold me and make me buoyant. I can cooperate with this lifting up, but I cannot control it.
Sometimes my soul needs to be lifted up out of shame. In the next line David prays,
O my God, in you I trust;
do not let me be put to shame;
do not let my enemies exult over me. (Psalm 25:2 NRSV)
Where shame might make me sink, I can trust God to lift me up to places of courage and hopefulness. Shame weighs us down. But God lifts us up.
When voices around me or within me would heap shame on me, God lifts me and speaks words of value and encouragement to me, and my heart is made whole.
What has weighed down your soul lately? How might you take on David’s prayer as your own, lifting your soul to God and welcoming him to lift you up?
Day 23
BEING FAITHFUL TO GOD
Test me, O LORD, and try me;
examine my heart and my mind.
For your love is before my eyes;
I have walked faithfully with you. (Psalm 26:2-3 BCP 1979)
UNLIKE DAVID HERE, I don’t always feel the confidence to go before the Lord and state, without qualification, “I have walked faithfully with you.” Why? Because I’m painfully aware of how I stumble.
I could focus instead on placing the Lord’s love before my eyes. I could imagine the face of God smiling with favor. I could envision his pleasure over me as his child. I could trust that his love is always greater than my shortcomings.
I could ask God to “examine my heart and my mind” and talk with me about my faithfulness and how it might grow. What might he say to me? Perhaps this:
“You have let yourself become discouraged by your weakness when you could be encouraged by my gracious strength and faithfulness. You have let yourself be intimidated by empty fears when you might walk in the courage of my protective, mighty presence.
“Take time to refresh your vision of me day by day, even moment by moment. Receive and welcome my presence, my power, my vision, my mission for your life. Step into the promise I have given you. I will be with you as you do your work. Abide in me as you do this good work I have given you to do. Let’s do it together, beginning right now.”
Maybe I can just let my small faithfulness reflect God’s great faithfulness to me.
How might God’s faithful presence with you be the key to your being faithful to him?
Day 24
PRACTICING PRESENCE
One thing I ask from the LORD,
this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD. (Psalm 27:4)
DAVID OFFERS A SINGULAR PRAYER to God. It’s a prayer for presence. In my own life, I realize that presence has a few different facets.
I can be present to God. Brother Lawrence talked about practicing the presence of God. God is inviting me to cultivate growing awareness of God with me. Recently I’ve found the psalmist’s invitation helpful: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). In the morning, I can take a few moments to be still and silent, acknowledging God’s presence and leadership in my life and work. I find that my scattered thoughts are a little less overwhelming as a result.
I can be present to myself. This is a fruit of recognizing the presence of God. In another psalm the writer asks, “Why, my soul, are you downcast?” (Psalm 42:5). There is a holy awareness of impulses in me that do not echo the reality of God’s grace. When I let myself become downcast, I am not paying attention to the thoughts that provoke such a movement.
I can be present to others. When I’m with someone, I’m sometimes tempted to give thought to a task or appointment that is coming up next in my plans. I allow my attention to wander away into the future instead of being present to the one in front of me. I miss the grace God would give to the other through me. May we discover the gift of being present to God, others, and ourselves.
What does the temptation to be absent look like in your life? How is Jesus inviting you to be more present to him, to yourself, to others?
Day 25
WHAT I DON’T WANT FROM GOD
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper. (Psalm 27:9)
DAVID FEARS THAT GOD will hide his face and reject him in anger. But David also seems hopeful, asking that God never abandon him. As this psalm begins with David describing a terrifying situation in which he finds himself, perhaps he feels an absence of God and his help. Perhaps David wonders whether the bad things happening to him are caused by his own shortcomings, so he prays, “Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior” (Psalm 27:9).
I’ve experienced moments, even seasons, when I felt like God was more absent than present, more rejecting than embracing, more abandoning than ever-present. Sometimes troubles have tempted me to imagine that God was finally fed up with me. Rather than pretend he doesn’t feel this way, David prays those thoughts and feelings aloud to God. He reminds himself that God has been his helper and savior.
Unlike David, I’ve sometimes been tempted to pretend I’m trusting in God when my heart is filled with doubt. I’ve put on a hopeful façade when my heart is full of despair. I’ve pretended instead of praying. Others might be impressed, but I’m not fooling God.
How much better to follow David’s approach and simply pour out my heart and mind to God. What I say will not surprise God. God knows what’s in me and loves me right there. I won’t be shocking God with unexpected honesty. I’m safe bringing what’s in me into the presence of my Father in heaven.
When have you felt like God was more absent than present in your life? How have you spoken honestly to God as David does here, or how might you do so in the future?
Day 26
LEADERSHIP: RECEIVING AND GIVING GOOD
I will exalt you, LORD,
for you lifted me out of the depths
and did not let my enemies gloat over me. (Psalm 30:1)
DAVID EXPRESSES HIS INTENTION to exalt the Lord. Why? He tells us, “For you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.” David experiences God’s Spirit lifting him from the deep place in which he finds himself. Was it depression? Despair? Discouragement? Whatever the dark place was for David, the Lord lifted him out of it.
When I read those first two lines, in my heart I hear something like, “How could I help but exalt you, Lord, when you have first exalted me?” It sounds like an echo of the words of John in his first letter—“We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19)—but with “exalt” in place of “love.” I think it works just as well.
How do I respond when I find myself in a deep, dark place? Do I hang my head and stare into the darkness? Or am I looking for God and crying out for his help? When we look up, we’ll find that God continues to be a Good Shepherd. The time between cry and healing is not instantaneous, but God’s faithfulness will be at work to bring healing in his time.
Whatever we offer God or give to another is always something we’ve first been given by God. An expression of joy is an overflow of the joyful heart of the God in whom we are at home. As we learn to not be anxious for anything, we experience the fruit of God’s peaceful presence in ourselves and among one another.
Where have you recently felt trapped in “the depths”? How might you look up and cry to God for help?
Day 27/28
GUIDED BY UNDERSTANDING
Do not be like the horse or the mule,
which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle. (Psalm 32:9)
THIS LINE OF SCRIPTURE is rightly used to warn against stubbornness and resisting God’s guidance. But it also speaks to God’s desire to help us grow into people who are guided by wisdom.
You can’t give a horse or mule turn-by-turn directions to your desired destination. The animal doesn’t have the capacity to understand that sort of verbal guidance. Instead, it needs to be guided with a bit and bridle. It needs to be nudged turn by turn.
But people are different. God doesn’t want to give us turn-by-turn instructions for every step of our daily journey. God doesn’t constrain us without our cooperation. He teaches us wisdom and understanding. He shows us what the good way looks like. His Spirit gives us a vision of the goodness of the heavens, his home, where we might also be at home. In this way we can be guided rather than controlled.
Perhaps even better, the primary outcome here is not about reaching a destination, but willingly coming to God. God does not want to force our communion with him. He seeks to draw us, attract us, woo us toward him. He doesn’t tie a rope to us and pull.
God loves the heart that comes to him freely and willingly in love. We are not animals to be controlled, but beloved children to be invited. Even more than giving us guidance, God wants to give us himself as Guide.
Are you ever tempted to think God is trying to coerce you into his good way? How instead could God be inviting and attracting you to come to him as Guide?
Day 29
AN EARTH FULL OF LOVE
The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love. (Psalm 33:5)
THE EARTH IS FULL of God’s unfailing love. God loves making things right. He loves restoring attitudes, thinking, and ways of relating so they are what he intended. This is the fruit of communing with the God who does everything well. When we align ourselves more closely with God, he finds pleasure in this, and we find ourselves being made more whole and holy.
Sometimes all we can see is the bad in this world. We hear news stories or witness global events and we see the injustice. Where is God in this? Despite the apparent evidence, God is working toward righteousness and justice. God is at work transforming our individual lives so that we, together, might bring change to the world around us. But that takes time. Hasn’t it taken time for God to bring about the transformation your life has needed?
Later in this psalm, we’re told that
The LORD foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations. (Psalm 33:10-11)
Sometimes we struggle to see how this is true considering what we are witnessing at the present time.
A small group seeking to follow God’s just guidance in their lives will lead to a just community. Small communities seeking to follow God’s good counsel together with other communities lead to a more just world. Justice must have its work in me, then it can have its lasting work through me in the world around me.
How do you sense God wants to do justice in your life? How might this work bear fruit in justice in the larger world around you? Ask God to help you discern this connection.
Day 30
EMPTY ENVY
Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong;
for like the grass they will soon wither. (Psalm 37:1-2)
DO YOU EVER FRET because someone else is doing things wrong but apparently getting ahead? What if their bottom line is better than mine because of their unscrupulous practices? Don’t I have to follow suit if I am not going to be driven out of business? Let me paraphrase David’s psalm prayer here:
“They are doing wrong, no question. And the results are quite enviable. This worries you. I get it. But your perspective is too small. The day will come when their wrongdoing will be exposed, and all that profit will come to nothing. They aren’t building anything that will last. Their profits are like young grass in blistering weather that will wither almost as soon as it comes up.
“What others gain through dishonesty and unscrupulous shortcuts won’t last. Don’t follow their way. Instead, trust in the Lord and his ways. Do what you know is right. You’ll find that you’re building something substantial and lasting if you do. Dishonesty is often more profitable for a season. A thief has a better hourly wage than most . . . for a time. But it’s a wage that is on borrowed time. At any moment he can be caught, and his lucrative activity will catch up with him in the end. It’s not a way to actually live.
“And instead of delighting only in financial prosperity—which can be a great God-given source of joy and gratitude—delight in the God who is abundance personified. You’ll find that everything you really want is in God anyway.”
What did someone else have that you didn’t? Why did you think their success was doing you harm? Talk with God about that.
Day 31
CAN’T HURRY, SHOULDN’T HURRY
Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him. (Psalm 37:7)
IT HELPS ME TO REMEMBER that one of the very practical reasons I shouldn’t hurry is that there are some things in this world that simply can’t be hurried.
We cannot rush certain natural processes. Tectonic plates may move only a dozen feet in a human lifetime. A tree may take decades to transition from seed to full growth. The sun will rise when it rises. Time cannot be rushed. There are always sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, and twenty-four hours in a day. There is no accelerator pedal for time.
And so we learn that creation has its pace. Would I like to enjoy a fine bottle of wine? I’ll need to give it plenty of time to mature and ripen. Simple table wines may be ready much more quickly. We sometimes try to hurry the process by which food is ready. We genetically modify plants and animals to accelerate their development, but naturally grown food is better for us in the end.
A conversation that is given time for unhurried interaction will be more satisfying than a quick chat while we’re on our way to something else. Getting the amount and quality of sleep our bodies need will serve us better than stealing time for work away from our rest. Using resources sustainably (more slowly) will be better for us over time.
Life operates best at the unhurried pace of God’s creation. We do well when we let ourselves slow to that pace.
What are you tempted to hurry along that simply can’t be rushed? What are you trying to rush that should be left to proceed at its own pace?
Day 32
GOD MEETS ME WHERE I AM
I waited patiently upon the LORD;
he stooped to me and heard my cry. (Psalm 40:1 BCP 1979)
I LOVE THE IMAGERY of the Lord stooping to me. I remember when our three sons were little. Sometimes they would come to me crying about something that had scared or frustrated them. When they came, I would stoop or even kneel down to get on eye level with them to love and comfort them. I love that David uses an image like this to describe God’s response to him when he cries out.
I am down here. God is “up there.” I am a little child and God is a good Father. He meets me where I am. The way of God is fatherly and gracious. Sometimes I imagine that I need to reach up to him and get his attention, as if I must somehow jump to reach him. But God reaches down to me. He leans down to meet me where I am. He hears my cries.
Unlike the image of a little boy and a father, David says that he has learned to wait patiently for the Lord to come down to him. Little ones aren’t usually good at patient waiting. So David has gained maturity in this area. This is an invitation to me. I can learn that when something in my life stresses me, I can cry out and patiently wait for God to come to me.
God comes down to my level. I simply must be patient in my watching and waiting for him. He will come. He will.
When have you been in a hard season of crying out to God? How have you experienced God stooping down to meet you there? How would you like him to meet you in it?
Day 33
GLAD RIVERS
We will not fear, though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea. . . .
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy habitation of the Most High. (Psalm 46:2, 4 NRSV)
CHANGE, ESPECIALLY UNPLEASANT CHANGE, can provoke fear in us by challenging our feelings of certainty and security. Storms instead of calm, tumult instead of peace—and for who knows how long—may cause us to tremble emotionally and even spiritually. It is into such a context that this peaceful river of Psalm 46 comes into view, its streams making God’s city (and my heart) glad.
There is a river. Have you noticed the presence of these glad rivers in your life? I think of the many days I spent as a child playing alongside the American River in Sacramento, California. There was a park right on the riverbank just a short bike ride away from my house. I spent hours there throwing rocks in the water, watching rafters float by, looking for lizards. It was a glad river full of glad memories.
I also have glad memories about the spiritual rivers in my life. God has not let me be swept away by the rapids of change. He has enabled me to test the waters with my foot, watch and learn from others who have handled the whitewater, and catch signs of his presence with me. In the places where I’m tempted to fear, I am invited to live my life next to holy streams that will refresh and delight me.
Describe a storm of change you have endured. In what ways did you experience your Good Shepherd’s presence, even his gladness, despite your fears?
Day 34/35
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT?
We ponder your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple. (Psalm 48:9 NRSV)
WHAT WORDS COME TO mind when you think about God’s love?
Maybe some of these: reliable, trustworthy, eternal, redemptive, transformative, undeserved, unearned, gracious. The list doesn’t end there. God’s love is something for us to think about long and deep. The more we do, the more we marvel.
God loves you and me in ways we can’t begin to fathom. We need only look at the cross: “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NKJV). Psalm 139:14 tells us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and Jesus even numbers the hairs on our heads (Matthew 10:30).
But do I really trust that God is love? My behavior has sometimes suggested—or perhaps even shouted—that I don’t. Can that change? Can I grow to trust that God really is love? Of course, I can if I want to! Though I may never fully comprehend the measureless height, depth, length, and breadth of God’s affection, his delight in me, or his availability to me, I can explore these realities more deeply than I have so far. So can you.
We can make pondering our Good Shepherd’s steadfast love part of a regular engagement with God day by day.
What, if anything, tempts you to not deeply trust that God is love?
Day 36
OFFERING THANKS
Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High. (Psalm 50:14)
IN THIS PSALM OF ASAPH, God has been speaking to the people of Israel about their mistaken perception of their relationship with him. They seem to think God needs their sacrifices and offerings (Psalm 50:13). They imagine that God is somehow hungry and that their offerings provide him with something he doesn’t yet have.
Instead, God reminds his people that if he were ever hungry, he wouldn’t look to them for help (Psalm 50:12). Everything in the world is already God’s. Our offerings or sacrifices do not provide something God cannot do without.
We may make a similar mistake in our own interactions with God. We can come to believe that God needs us to give money or go to religious meetings. God enjoys our presence but does not need our presents.
If that’s true, then our best offering to God is just what Asaph suggests: offerings of gratitude. Our sacrifices are a response to God’s generosity. We do not initiate grace—God does. God’s economy is not dependent on something we offer or promise. God’s own will and God’s good intention are far more than enough for him and for us. We are responders to the sacrifice of God on our behalf. Our simple yes to God’s invitation is what he wants.
