Womanist theologian Karen Baker-Fletcher describes forgiveness as a source of healing that can help break repetitive cycles of hatred and violence.   

Forgiveness is grounded in love that demands justice. Forgiveness is a God-given grace that frees the sinned against to pray for the salvation of sinners to free the world from further hatred, violence, and desecration. Forgiveness is … the act of desiring divine overcoming of evil while also desiring the salvation of those who have been seduced by it. Forgiveness is grounded in a tough divine love that prays for the power of righteousness to persuasively, powerfully move sinners into righteousness against all visible odds so that evil is overcome.   

In contrast, hatred desires the permanent annihilation of the other. Hatred has a negative capacity to infect the souls of well-meaning people of faith and the faithless alike when they are on the receiving end of sin. Hatred tempts the hated to hate. Forgiveness frees the sinned against, liberating them from continuing the cycle of hatred they have experienced. The pain of woundedness in forgiveness does not simply evaporate. That would be a denial of creaturely and divine humanity. To the contrary, the pain remains but is transformed into the healing force of compassion for a deeply wounded world and to joy wherever a witness to healing appears. [1] 

Through their work in social justice movements, embodiment teacher Prentis Hemphill names the inherent strength of a conscious act of forgiveness.   

Forgiveness and grace have much more to offer any culture than we give them credit for. They are rare sightings these days, yet where I have seen them, when I’ve been offered them, I realize that they are not the weak, pitiful emotions of people who don’t value themselves. They are the generous gift of people who know their worth cannot be diminished or compromised. When we offer grace or forgiveness, we refuse the false correlation between our worth and actions. But I’m not speaking about the kind of grace or forgiveness that coddles or panders. We don’t forgive out of our own desperation for another person; we forgive to invite one another back into our highest selves, back into our commitments. There is an acknowledgement that someone has been wronged or hurt, and forgiveness extends the possibility of trying again. I have struggled my way through forgiveness and grace, just as most of us struggle with them because of how often our hearts have been broken and how often we’ve been betrayed. I think it’s important for us to heed the warnings. Maybe eventually we can all learn to forgive far and wide, the way religions have taught. But for me to think of it that way is too tall an order. Maybe now we only need to forgive close in, nearby: the people in our families and our communities, the people we struggle alongside. Rather than denounce mercy, we try it in small doses. From there maybe forgiveness and grace spread and cover us, become more of the air we breathe. [2]

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Psalm 116: Filling One Another With Courage

Click Here for Audio I’m increasingly hearing Christians question the value of their churches’ Sunday gatherings, and churches embracing online streaming services has only accelerated the discontent. I wonder if earlier generations were equally frustrated with the church, but carried a greater sense of duty to persevere. Or perhaps there was simply greater social pressure to attend church which in many communities has now disappeared. Regardless of the cause, if we are serious about our faith but struggling with attending a church gathering, then at some point we must wrestle with what Scripture says about it.The writer of Hebrews clearly instructs believers to “not give up meeting together” (Hebrews 10:25), but we often overlook why we’re supposed to meet. The writer of the letter could have listed many reasons for gathering—to offer our worship to God, to learn sound doctrine from our teachers, and to be equipped for our mission as Christ’s disciples. But instead, the author of Hebrews offers a more basic, human, and pastoral reason. We are to meet regularly to “encourage one another.”I wonder if the growing dissatisfaction with church gatherings—both physical and virtual—is rooted in their failure to accomplish this most basic function. They may be informative with profound preaching. They may be entertaining with riveting music. But those are qualities easily achieved from a stage or screen. The kind of “one another” encouragement commanded in Hebrews, however, is personal, relational, and reciprocal. It’s not accomplished by passively sitting in a theater seat watching a performance. This kind of encouragement requires us to be fully present and engaged. It’s the arm-around-a-shoulder, praying-together-with-tears, let-me-help-you-carry-that-burden kind of gathering. It’s the kind where no one is invisible and everyone is known. And it’s the kind where personal stories of God’s goodness and power are shared.To fill each other with strength—the literal meaning of encouragement—requires two things. First, we must carry one another’s burdens. Paul says to bear each other’s burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ (see Galatians 6:2). And, second, we must help those tempted by despair to see God’s power and goodness when their circumstances are blocking their vision. This is why God’s people have always shared the stories of his faithfulness as part of their worship. Psalm 116 is part of this ancient tradition.The psalm is composed as a testimony. The writer is sharing in the assembly of God’s people how YHWH’s compassion saved him from anguish and death. Psalm 116 is meant to give others hope and courage so they will continue trusting in the covenant faithfulness of YHWH even when it appears that “the cords of death entangled me.” This is also why we should continue to meet together and share our stories of God’s faithfulness. We have sisters and brothers who are “overcome by distress and sorrow” and who “have been brought low” by the world. They desperately need to be reminded of God’s goodness. And we should keep meeting because sooner or later our roles will reverse. We will be the ones brought low, and we will be the ones needing to be filled with courage of others. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 116:1-19 WEEKLY PRAYER From Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) O God, Early in the morning I cry unto you. Help me to pray And to think only of you. I cannot pray alone. In me there is darkness But with you there is light. I am lonely but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart but you do not leave me. I am restless but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. Your ways are past understanding, but You know the way for me. Amen.

 

Three Goodnesses

Father Richard Rohr writes of Jesus’ teachings and lived example of forgiveness: 

Among the most powerful of human experiences is to give or to receive forgiveness. I am told that two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is directly or indirectly about this mystery of forgiveness: God’s breaking of God’s own rules. That’s not surprising, because forgiveness is probably the only human action that reveals three goodnesses simultaneously! When we forgive, we choose the goodness of others over their faults, we experience God’s goodness flowing through ourselves, and we also experience our own goodness in a way that surprises us. That is an awesome coming together of power, both human and divine.   

Eventually, I believe, we will all forgive one another because we have been forgiven, but let’s do it now and not wait until later. Let’s ask for the grace to let go of those grudges and hurts to which we cling. How else will we ever be free?   

If we don’t “get” forgiveness, we’re missing the whole mystery. We are still living in a world of meritocracy, of quid-pro-quo thinking, of performance and behavior that earns an award. Forgiveness is the great thawing of all logic, reason, and worthiness. It is a melting into the mystery of God as unearned love, unmerited grace, the humility and powerlessness of a Divine Lover.  

Without radical and rule-breaking forgiveness—received and given—there will be no reconstruction of anything. It alone breaks down our worldview of trying to buy and sell grace. Grace is certainly the one gift that must always be free, perfectly free, in order for it to work. Without forgiveness, there will be no future. We have hurt one another in too many historically documented and remembered ways. The only way out of the present justified hatreds of the world is grace. [1]  

An eagerness and readiness to love is the ultimate freedom and future. When we’ve been included in the spaciousness of divine love, there is just no room for human punishment, vengeance, rash judgment, or calls for retribution. We certainly see none of this small-mindedness in the Risen Christ after his own rejection, betrayal, and cruel death; we don’t see it even from his inner circle, or in the whole New Testament. I really cannot imagine a larger and more spacious way to live. Jesus’ death and resurrection event was a game changer for history.  

The Crucified and Risen Christ uses the mistakes of the past to create a positive future, a future of redemption instead of retribution. He does not eliminate or punish mistakes. He uses them for transformative purposes.  

People formed by such love are indestructible. Forgiveness might just be the very best description of what God’s goodness engenders in humanity. [

Forgiveness and Freedom

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. —Matthew 5:7 

Father Richard names how forgiveness creates opportunities for growth: 

The Spirit within us creates an unrelenting desire toward forgiveness and reconciliation. The entire gospel reveals the unfolding mystery of forgiveness; it is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the gospel’s transformative message. The energy of being forgiven—in our unworthiness of it—first breaks us out of our merit-badge mentality. The ongoing experience of being forgiven is necessary to renew our flagging spirit and keep us in the infinite ocean of grace. Toward the end of life, a universal forgiveness of everything for being what it is becomes the only way we can see and understand reality and finally live at peace. 

Zechariah said that God would “give God’s people knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of sin” (Luke 1:77). Forgiveness given and forgiveness received are always the pure work of uncreated grace. Such unearned and undeserved forgiveness is necessary to break down the quid pro quo world that I call meritocracy. Only when we experience undeserved love does this inward and outward flow begin to happen. Before that, we are dry, dead cisterns. Before that, we are into “religion” perhaps, but we don’t really have any dynamic notion of God or even our self. 

Grace re-creates all things; nothing new happens without forgiveness. We just keep repeating the same old patterns, illusions, and half-truths. Sometimes grace does not come immediately, but like Job we “sit in the ashes scraping our sores” (Job 2:8). Sometimes neither the desire nor the decision to forgive is present. Then we must grieve and wait. We must sit in our poverty, perhaps admitting our inability to forgive the offender. That is when we learn how to pray and how to “long and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6).  

True Spirit-led forgiveness always frees and heals at least one of the parties involved, and hopefully both. If it only preserves my moral high ground—as a magnanimous “Christian” person—I doubt if it is true forgiveness at all. In forgiveness, we live up to our true and deepest dignity. We then operate by a power and a logic not our own.  

At the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati, I had “70 x 7” painted over the main doorway [see Matthew 18:21–22]. New mail carriers thought it was the address! It was our address, in a way. It’s the distinctive hallmark of a people liberated by Christ. Community is not where forgiveness is unnecessary or unneeded. It is where forgiveness is very free to happen. And if it doesn’t happen on a daily basis, at least imperfectly, there will be no community. Without forgiveness the logic of victimhood and perpetrator rules instead of the illogic of love. 

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Psalm 115: We Become What We Behold

Click Here for Audio. Idolatry is a frequent topic in the Bible, and it is repeatedly condemned as a terrible sin for two reasons. First, and most obviously, we are commanded to worship God and no one else. The definition of idolatry is to worship a created thing rather than the Creator. Therefore, to engage in idolatry is to give our devotion to something that is underserving of it, and to withhold it from the One to whom it rightfully belongs. Simply put, idolatry hurts God.But there is another reason idolatry is condemned by Scripture that we often overlook. Idolatry hurts us. Jeremiah uses a helpful metaphor that captures both problems. When God’s people turned away from him to worship idols, the Lord said, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jeremiah 2:13). Idolatry is both a rejection of our faithful God and placing our trust in an unfaithful and unreliable alternative.Psalm 115 captures this terrible error with an even more direct warning. The writer contrasts the God worshipped by Israel with the idols worshipped by other nations. The idols have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, and feet, but they cannot speak, see, hear, smell, feel, or walk. Unlike YHWH, the living God, they are lifeless objects, and “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (verse 8).Ouch.The psalm highlights a profound but often overlooked truth—worship shapes the worshiper. Of course, by “worship” I do not merely mean music, prayers, and liturgies. Worship means “to ascribe worth.” What we worship is what we devote ourselves to, what we derive meaning and identity from, and what we prioritize above all else. Psalm 115 says that if we devote ourselves to lifeless things, we will also become lifeless.Father John Culkin, a professor of communication at Fordham University, once said, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” Although Culkin was talking about forms of media, his words fit uncomfortably close to those of Psalm 115. The people created lifeless gods from silver and gold, and then their creations remade the idol-worshipping people in their own lifeless image.However, the psalm also contains a positive message for those who put their trust in YHWH. His endless life will become our endless life. As many biblical scholars have noted, the Old Testament doesn’t have a well-developed theology of eternal life. Any sense of a life after death in God’s presence is vague at best. But Psalm 115 offers a compelling glimpse:“It is not the dead who praise YHWH, those who go down to the place of silence, it is we who extol YWHW, both now and forevermore. Praise YHWH” (verses 17-18).Is Psalm 115 saying those who put their trust in YHWH will never die but praise him forever? That appears to be what’s implied, and the message fits with the theme that we all become like what we behold. Just as dead idols lead those who trust in them to death, the eternally alive God leads those who trust in him to eternal life. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 115:1-18 WEEKLY PRAYERFrom Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945) O God, Early in the morning I cry unto you. Help me to pray And to think only of you. I cannot pray alone. In me there is darkness But with you there is light. I am lonely but you do not leave me. I am feeble in heart but you do not leave me. I am restless but with you there is peace. In me there is bitterness, but with you there is patience. Your ways are past understanding, but You know the way for me. Amen.

Brian McLaren connects our love of nature with our grief and anger when it’s treated without respect and care:  

Through the years, I’ve been involved in a lot of different areas of activism and so often what sustains us and motivates us in our activism work is anger. That’s legitimate because wherever we see injustice, we ought to be angry. But anger … can toxify our motivations if anger is all that’s driving us. That’s why I think it helps often for us to trace our anger back to grief, as Father Richard often says, and then to trace our grief to love. It’s because we love something that we feel grief when it’s threatened. In fact, one of my favorite definitions of grief is that grief is love persisting when what we love is passing away. What you love, you try to save, and that’s why so many of us see the natural world around us with such tenderness, with such grief, sometimes with such anger, because what we love is passing away. [1]  

Author Lydia Wylie-Kellermann describes her approach to helping her children fall in love with a place: 

When I think about parenting in this moment, I often think about the words from the Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum, who said, and I paraphrase, “You can’t save a place you don’t love. You can’t love a place you don’t know. And you can’t know a place you haven’t learned.” [2] 

I think that is some of the most important and radical work we can do as parents of young kids: help them learn the land that holds them. By doing so we are nurturing them to fall in love with this place—and ultimately that love may lead to imagination and action for climate justice….  

So we lie down on our bellies and watch the milkweed disappear as the caterpillar grows fat. We wander the neighborhood in search of snacks in the form of wild grape vines, tiger lilies, and the roots of Queen Anne’s lace. We throw lavish funerals for the fallen sparrow and delight when the opossum comes to visit…. We let mud get between our toes and we climb the apple trees. With each moment, we are learning this place. We are all falling in love….  

Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit peace activist now a beloved ancestor, once said “Don’t just do something. Stand there.” Standing in one place and not moving is a part of the work. And a beautiful piece that leads to knowledge and intimacy and relationship. Resistance to climate destruction can be slow work of being present to a place in the face of a transient, fast-paced world.  

Fall in love.  

None of us are going to save this planet alone. But we can shift patterns of destruction in our own ecosystem. If we learn the place and fall madly in love, how could we not interfere in the destruction and make change? [3] 

________________________________________________________

Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently–apart from Me–springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from Me, you can do nothing; that is, nothing of eternal value. My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in every situation. I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training. Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power. However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image-bearer. Use your freedom wisely, by relying on Me constantly. Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Additional insight regarding John 15:5: “Fruit” is not limited to soul winning. In this chapter, answer prayer, joy, and love are mentioned as fruit (John 15:7, 11, 12). Galatians 5:22-24 and 2nd Peter 1:5-8 describe additional fruit: qualities of Christian character. Remaining in Christ means (1) believing that he is God’s Son, (2) receiving him as Savior and Lord, (3) doing what God says, (4) continuing to believe in the Good News, and (5) relating in love to the community of believers, Christ’s body.

Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Additional insight regarding Ephesians 6:10: In the Christian life we battle against rulers and authorities (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by the devil, who is a vicious fighter, see 1st Peter 5:8). To withstand their attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of his armor. Paul is not only giving his counsel to the church, the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church. The whole body needs to be armed. As you do battle against “mighty powers in this dark world,” fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT)
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Additional insight regarding Genesis 1:27: God made both man and woman in his image. Neither man nor woman is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning, the Bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of God’s creation. Neither sex is exalted, and neither is depreciated.

We were lovers who … decided to make the world a better place by slowing down long enough to pay for its improvement—by paying attention, the reverent, even holy attention of love. —Brian McLaren, The Galápagos Islands 

Brian McLaren considers how paying attention to tortoises is a form of love:   

At each place, [my companions and I] experienced sustained moments of shared, focused attention, so shared and so focused that we forgot ourselves. For significant periods of time, we were drawn out of ourselves into the observation of another, as in another species.  

We were thoroughly engrossed by tortoises….   

There they were—there we were. Intrigued. Drawn in. Enchanted. For minutes, even hours at a time. Whether in the wild or in a breeding center, we surrendered ourselves to them, to their habits, their pace, their well-being, to seeing the world in light of their needs and interests.  

We had given our hearts to these unique creatures that are unique features of this unique world.   

The great novelist Marilynne Robinson was once asked by an interviewer, “What single thing would make the world in general a better place?”  

She replied, “Loving it more.” [1] 

And then the revelation comes: in loving these unique creatures that are unique features of this unique world, we were making the world better. 

I do not doubt this in even one neural synapse of my brain….

Our attentive experience of self-forgetfulness and whole-hearted tortoise observation was, in a real way, ecstatic. We were taken out of ourselves in the contemplation of a creature so different from us in many ways, yet like us in others. We had fallen out of our normal concerns and into love, you might say. Or risen into love. Or embarked upon it. Or leapt into it.   

Perhaps the old phrase (thanks, Kierkegaard!) “leap of faith” … would be better rendered a leap of love.   

I know that both Jesus and Saint Paul said that our faith would save us. And I get that. But I wonder if it is equally true to say that if we are to be saved, it will not be by faith alone but by love as well. After all, didn’t Jesus say that love is the one greatest command, and didn’t Paul say that without love, nothing else we have (including faith that moves mountains) amounts to a hill of beans?… Maybe love includes as a given the kind of faith that really matters. That would certainly be the case if another voice in the New Testament was correct when he said, without qualification, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16).   

Could that be why … [many people] join one another, and perhaps even join their Creator, in loving these creations, these tortoises…?   

I gaze with human benevolence and with a deeper human awareness … of our profound, inescapable kinship.  

I gaze with love.  

And somehow, the world is made a little better.   

____________________________________________________________

Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Do everything in dependence on Me. The desire to act independently–apart from Me–springs from the root of pride. Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it. But apart from Me, you can do nothing; that is, nothing of eternal value. My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in every situation. I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training. Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power. However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image-bearer. Use your freedom wisely, by relying on Me constantly. Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

John 15:5 (NLT)
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

Additional insight regarding John 15:5: “Fruit” is not limited to soul winning. In this chapter, answer prayer, joy, and love are mentioned as fruit (John 15:7, 11, 12). Galatians 5:22-24 and 2nd Peter 1:5-8 describe additional fruit: qualities of Christian character. Remaining in Christ means (1) believing that he is God’s Son, (2) receiving him as Savior and Lord, (3) doing what God says, (4) continuing to believe in the Good News, and (5) relating in love to the community of believers, Christ’s body.

Ephesians 6:10 (NLT)
10 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Additional insight regarding Ephesians 6:10: In the Christian life we battle against rulers and authorities (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by the devil, who is a vicious fighter, see 1st Peter 5:8). To withstand their attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of his armor. Paul is not only giving his counsel to the church, the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church. The whole body needs to be armed. As you do battle against “mighty powers in this dark world,” fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:26-27 (NLT)
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”
27 So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

Additional insight regarding Genesis 1:27: God made both man and woman in his image. Neither man nor woman is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning, the Bible places man and woman at the pinnacle of God’s creation. Neither sex is exalted, and neither is depreciated.

Author bell hooks (1952–2021) describes how her childhood in the Kentucky hills instructed her in the spiritual lesson of interbeing: 

Growing up in a world where my grandparents did not hold regular jobs but made their living digging and selling fishing worms, growing food, raising chickens, I was ever mindful of an alternative to the capitalist system that destroyed nature’s abundance. In that world I learned experientially the concept of interbeing, which Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh talks about as that recognition of the connectedness of all human life.   

That sense of interbeing was once intimately understood by black folks in the agrarian South. Nowadays it is only those who maintain our bonds to the land, to nature, who keep our vows of living in harmony with the environment, who draw spiritual strength from nature…. It is nature that reminds time and time again that “this too will pass.” To look upon a tree, or a hilly waterfall, that has stood the test of time can renew the spirit. To watch plants rise from the earth with no special tending reawakens our sense of awe and wonder. [1]  

Writer Felicia Murrell describes her connection with the earth, which began in childhood: 

I grew up in the south, in rural North Carolina, in a place that had red dirt…. My mom used to tell stories of me eating the red clay…. I feel the ground very deeply and intimately…. When I get burdened with the cares of the world, I often share those with the earth. One of my practices is to go find green space and kneel on the ground. I think that connection to the earth made me care about it in a very deep way. I care about the water sources. I care about the land. So often we can just think about ourselves as humans and how things serve us, but I think there’s a beautiful invitation in the circle of life to see how we’re all joined together…. When we see, just like with people, the sacred dignity, inherent worth, and beauty of something, we hold it with a lot more care, tenderness, and compassion. [2] 

hooks names how the practice of noticing brings her hope and peace:  

When I leave my small flat in an urban world where nature has been so relentlessly assaulted that it is easy to forget to look at a tree, a sky, a flower emerging in a sea of trash, and go to the country, I seek renewal. To live in communion with the earth fully acknowledging nature’s power with humility and grace is a practice of spiritual mindfulness that heals and restores. Making peace with the earth we make the world a place where we can be one with nature. We create and sustain environments where we can come back to ourselves, where we can return home, stand on solid ground, and be a true witness. [3]  

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This is from Andrew Lang…….

Today’s focus is on a concept used in family systems therapy known as the “transitional character.”

This is someone who becomes a change-maker in their family lineage by refusing to pass down intergenerational trauma that was handed to them. Their presence and actions mark a transition as formerly operating cycles of violence or abuse come to an end.

A transitional character is someone who is handed a script, but through their own process of healing and ways of moving in the world, creates the conditions for themselves and future generations to move beyond it.

Prentis Hemphill writes:

We become who we are in part because of the family system that shaped us, but we can become even more of who we are when we resist, when we take a look at where we’re from, where we want to go, and then begin to transform our future.

In their beautiful book What It Takes to Heal, Hemphill shares we can all be transitional characters in our communities.

A few months back, I shared a framework known as sites of shaping/sites of change that emphasizes six areas of our life: 

• individual, 
• family/intimate network,
• community,
• institution,
• social norms/historical forces, and
• spirit/landscape.

In each of these areas, not just in our families, we have the opportunity to become transitional characters. Through our own commitment to healing and justice and our active participation with those around us, we are invited to take a long, honest look at the status quo and declare:

What has been does not have to continue to be.

In our workplaces, this might look like challenging “norms” that have harmed employees and former employees over time. In our faith communities, this might mean questioning how power has been used and working to co-create a new way forward. In our broader context, this might take the form of working alongside others to change how our cities and states are approaching the threat of climate change.

But it always begins with our own processing, noticing, and reflecting.

So this week, I invite you to think about the different areas of your life and how you might become, or continue to be, a transitional character within the spaces and communities you move.

​

❓ Questions

1. If you were a transitional character in this space, what changes would be possible?
2. What would need to change in you for you to be a transitional character in this space?

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way…. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion—all in one.  
—John Ruskin, Works, vol. 5 

In season six of the podcast Learning How to See, CAC Dean of Faculty Brian McLaren describes how contemplative spirituality supported his love for God in nature’s depth and beauty:  

I was taught to see the natural world as God’s creation. But largely, nature was only important because it either proved how great God was to make it, or it was a battleground in the culture war between evolutionism and creationism. It felt like heaven and hell were the only important items in the universe. Compared to heaven and hell, a red eft, or a fossil in a rock, or a crayfish were not so important.  

I remember a song I really loved to sing in church. It was called “Fairest Lord Jesus.” One of the verses said, “Fair are the meadows, fairer still the woodlands robed in the blooming garb of spring.” Those lines really rang true for me. Of course, what came next was, “Jesus shines fairer. Jesus shines purer.” I remember thinking, “Well, it’s nice that we at least acknowledged how beautiful the meadows, woodlands, and springtime can be, even though we needed then to demote them in a way by contrasting their fairness with Jesus.”  

Years later, I came upon another song called “Have You Seen Jesus My Lord?” In that song there was a verse that said, “Have you ever stood at the ocean with a white foam at your feet, felt the endless thundering motion? Then I say you’ve seen Jesus my Lord.” Instead of putting Jesus and nature in competition, saying that Jesus was fairer, or better, this song said, “The same beauty that you love and are drawn to in nature is the beauty that’s in Jesus.” 

I think in part that is what attracted me to contemplative spirituality. Instead of dismissing the natural world, contemplative spirituality invited me to see the divine in the natural world, to enjoy it for its endless depth of meaning and insight. 

McLaren invites listeners to recall looking at nature through a “child’s eyes” and what those experiences revealed:   

It might’ve been being at the beach and seeing a flock of seagulls in flight that suddenly made you aware of beauty in a way you’d never felt it before, or it may have been the first dog that you really knew, loved, and connected with. It helped you think of intelligence that was different than your own, and beautiful in its own unique way. It might’ve been some other scene where you felt sacredness, and holiness, and depth in the natural world. It’s easy for us … to forget that childlike wonder at this beautiful world. We don’t need to put God and nature in competition. Nature is God’s original self-expression.

Looking and Listening

Father Richard Rohr describes how creation-centered spirituality opens us to a deeper connection to God:   

Creation spirituality reveals our human arrogance, and maybe that’s why we are afraid of it. Maybe that’s why we’re afraid to believe that God has spoken to us primarily through what is. Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) was basically a hermit. He lived in the middle of nature. If we want nature to come to life for us, we have to live in the middle of it for a while. When we get away from the voices of human beings, then we really start hearing the voices of animals and trees. They start talking to us, as it were. And we start talking back. Foundational faith, I would call it—the grounding for personal and biblical faith.  

I have been blessed to spend several Lents living as a hermit in nature. When we get rid of our devices and all the usual reference points, it is amazing how real and compelling light and darkness become. It’s amazing how real animals become. It’s amazing how much we notice about what’s happening in a tree each day. It’s almost as if we weren’t seeing it all before, and we wonder if we have ever seen at all. I don’t think that Western civilization realizes what a high price we pay for separating ourselves from the natural world. One of the prices is certainly a lack of a sort of natural contemplation, a natural seeing. My times in the hermitage re-situated me in God’s universe, in God’s providence and plan. I had a feeling of being realigned with what is. I belonged and was thereby saved!  

So, creation spirituality is, first of all, the natural spirituality of people who have learned how to see. I am beginning to think that much of institutional religion is rather useless if it is not grounded in natural seeing and nature religion.  

We probably don’t communicate with something unless we have already experienced its communications to us. I know by the third week at my hermitage I was talking to lizards on my porch, and I have no doubt that somehow some communion was happening. I don’t know how to explain it beyond that. I was reattached, and they were reattached. 

When we are at peace, when we are not fighting it, when we are not fixing and controlling this world, when we are not filled with anger, all we can do is start loving and forgiving. Nothing else makes sense when we are alone with God. All we can do is let go. There’s nothing worth holding on to, because there is nothing else we need. It’s in that free space, I think, that realignment happens. Francis lived out of such realignment. And I think it is the realignment that he announced to the world in the form of worship and adoration of God through nature. 

Childlike Trust

Theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) shares the sacred connection to nature he first experienced as a child:  

When I was young, I found more companionship in nature than I did among people….  

Nightfall was meaningful to my childhood, for the night was more than a companion. It was a presence, an articulate climate. There was something about the night that seemed to cover my spirit like a gentle blanket. The nights in Florida, as I grew up … were not dark, they were black. When there was no moon, the stars hung like lanterns, so close I felt that one could reach up and pluck them from the heavens. The night had its own language…. This comforted me and I found myself wishing that the night would hurry and come, for under its cover, my mind would roam. I felt embraced, enveloped, held secure. In some fantastic way, the night belonged to me. All the little secrets of my life and heart and all of my most intimate and private thoughts would not be violated, I knew, if I spread them out before me in the night. When things went badly during the day, I would sort them out in the dark as I lay in my bed, cradled by the night sky….  

The ocean and the river befriended me when I was a child…. Often, when the tide was low … [there was] more than a mile of packed sand…. Here I found, alone, a special benediction. The ocean and the night together surrounded my little life with a reassurance that could not be affronted by the behavior of human beings. The ocean at night gave me a sense of timelessness, of existing beyond the reach of the ebb and flow of circumstances. Death would be a minor thing, I felt, in the sweep of that natural embrace. 

Even the storms in Florida where Thurman grew up did not provoke fear: 

When the storms blew, the branches of the large oak tree in our backyard would snap and fall. But the topmost branches of the oak tree would sway, giving way just enough to save themselves from snapping loose. I needed the strength of that tree, and, like it, I wanted to hold my ground. Eventually, I discovered that the oak tree and I had a unique relationship. I could sit, my back against its trunk, and feel the same peace that would come to me in my bed at night. I could reach down in the quiet places of my spirit, take out my bruises and my joys, unfold them, and talk about them. I could talk aloud to the oak tree and know that I was understood. It, too, was a part of my reality, like the woods, the night, and the pounding surf, my earliest companions, giving me space.  

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Psalm 110: When the Bible Quotes the Bible

Click Here for AudioThe Bible is a very large book. That’s not technically accurate. The Bible is a collection of 66 books, and many of those books reference other books. It is almost like the biblical authors are in communication with each other across the centuries by reading, interpreting, applying, and sometimes reappropriating earlier biblical books. For this reason, one of the best ways to understand the Bible is to allow the Bible to interpret itself.For example, by itself, Psalm 110 is a very odd and even confusing chapter. In it, King David refers to YHWH speaking to “my Lord” (verse 1). David was God’s anointed ruler over Israel, so who is this elevated person David identifies as his King but also distinct from YHWH? And later, Psalm 110 plucks an obscure reference from Genesis and says this King who is higher than David is “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” It’s all very strange.That is, until we get to the New Testament where we discover Psalm 110 is the Old Testament passage most frequently quoted by Jesus, his Apostles, and the early church. They interpret Psalm 110 as a prophetic messianic text that anticipated Jesus. It’s a remarkable case of the Bible interpreting the Bible.First, Jesus uses Psalm 110 in a theological debate with the religious leaders. They expected the Messiah to be David’s son and royal heir but rejected the idea of the Messiah being divine. But Jesus challenged this by quoting Psalm 110:1. “If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how is he his son?” Jesus’ point is simple. In that patriarchal culture, a child cannot have a higher status than his own father. Therefore, the messianic figure David calls “Lord” cannot merely be his descendent, but something more.But it goes even further. In Psalm 110:1, YHWH invites David’s “Lord” to “Sit at my right hand.” Again, this is deeply messianic imagery that is repeated all over the New Testament. We are told that after the resurrection, Jesus ascended into the heavens and took up his authority by sitting at the Father’s right hand (see 1 Peter 3:22; Hebrews 1:3, 10:12, 12:2). And Peter quotes Psalm 110 directly in his sermon to the crowds in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (see Acts 2:34-35). In fact, every time the New Testament speaks of Jesus’ enthronement, ascension, or sitting down at the hand of God the Father, it’s a reference to Psalm 110:1.And I’m just scratching the surface. Allusions to Psalm 110 continue throughout the book of Acts, the gospel of Luke, 1 Corinthians 15, and the part about Melchizedek in Psalm 110:4 inspired an entire chapter in the book of Hebrews (see Hebrews 7).Psalm 110 is a reminder that we need to do more than just read the Bible. We also need to let the Bible read the Bible. The biblical authors are in dialogue with each other, and texts from one part of Scripture may be quoted and illuminated by another in extraordinary ways—and all of it is intended to help us see God and his Son, Jesus Christ.DAILY SCRIPTUREPSALM 110:1-7 MATTHEW 22:41-46WEEKLY PRAYERAugustine of Hippo (354 – 430)Lord Jesus, our Savior, let us now come to you: Our hearts are cold; Lord, warm them with your selfless love. Our hearts are sinful; cleanse them with your precious blood. Our hearts are weak; strengthen them with your joyous Spirit. Our hearts are empty; fill them with your divine presence. Lord Jesus, our hearts are yours; possess them always and only for yourself. Amen.

Public theologian Jennifer Bailey uses an agricultural metaphor to describe the waning landscape of religious institutions in the United States: 

At first glance, the land appears barren…. Indeed, millennials and Generation Z successors to the throne of youth are turning away from institutional religion faster than any other age group, raising a palpable sense of panic in religious communities concerned about their future.  

But I come from [Illinois,] the Prairie State….  

When I fix my eyes on the horizon, I see rows of fruit and veggies in the form of new spiritually grounded communities and ritual practices waiting to sprout. They may not be recognizable to a casual observer searching for a congregation that meets on a weekly basis. For those seeking new forms of community to share in their questions and make meaning of their lives, these new varieties and hybrids may be the source of nourishment they have been longing for.  

Bailey names the challenges of our time and how she finds inspiration for hopeful action: 

Today we, as a global community, find ourselves warring over the vision of what we will become. At stake are the very souls of our communities, with battles being fought over kitchen tables, anonymous Internet comment sections, and at political rallies…. 

You are not alone in your quest for understanding your place in the world as it is evolving. At times it may feel like the earth is literally moving under your feet as you attempt to step in one direction or the other. That’s because it is. All around us things are shifting, systems are collapsing, and institutions are failing. This should not surprise us. Around the world, elders across cultures and peoples were predicting this time would come. It is a time of great uncovering in which Mother Earth and Father Sky are pushing us into a divine reckoning about what it means to be in right relationship with one another and all sentient beings in the twenty-first century and beyond. It is clear to me that the actions we take now will have deep and irreversible consequences for the generations to come….  

The enormity of the plight we face can be solved only by harnessing the ingenuity and creativity of the communities to which we belong and are accountable. This season will require us to recover ancestral wisdom and practices that we lost or undervalued, repair the deep breaches in our interpersonal and communal relationships that replicate patterns of harm and destruction, and reimagine the possible by stretching ourselves to see beyond the realities of our current circumstances and daring to dream something different into being.  

These three words—recover, repair, and reimagine—remain at the center of my discernment process as I try to understand the evolution of my calling. My path is not linear. There are times I feel like I am chasing the shadow of something I cannot fully see. When I’m feeling particularly churchy, I wonder if that shadow is the Spirit of Divine Revelation.

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Sarah Young, Jesus Calling

There is no place so desolate that you cannot find Me there. When Hagar fled from her mistress, Sarah, into the wilderness, she thought she was utterly alone and forsaken. But Hagar encountered Me in that desolate place. There she addressed Me as the Living One who sees me. Through that encounter with My Presence, she gained courage to return to her mistress.
     No act of circumstances could ever isolate you from My loving Presence. Not only do I see you always; I see you as a redeemed saint, gloriously radiant in My righteousness. That is why I take great delight in you and rejoice over you with singing!

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Genesis 16:7-14 (NLT)
7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur. 8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.
9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.” 10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”
11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”
13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?” 14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.

Psalm 139:7-10 (NLT)
7 I can never escape from your Spirit!
    I can never get away from your presence!
8 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
    if I go down to the grave, you are there.
9 If I ride the wings of the morning,
    if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    and your strength will support me.

Zephaniah 3:17 (NLT)
17 For the Lord your God is living among you.
    He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
    With his love, he will calm all your fears.
    He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

Additional insight regarding Zephaniah 3:17: Zephaniah points out that gladness results when we allow God to be with us. We do that by faithfully following him and obeying his commands. Then God rejoices over us with singing. If you want to be happy, draw close to the source of happiness by obeying God.

By embracing the gifts and limitations of our growth, Father Richard believes we can face reality with greater integrity and wisdom:  

When history evolves and embraces a new idea, cultural mood, or consciousness, we need not (we dare not, actually!) completely exclude the previous idea, mood, or consciousness. We grow best by including what was good and lasting in the previous stage and avoiding the overreaction and rebellious spirit that have characterized most revolutions up to now. This demands both humility and the capacity for nondual thinking. Either/or thinking immediately creates disjunction and mistrust. Both/and thinking creates continuity and trust over time. This nonviolent compromise can most simply be stated as include and transcend. It is at the core of what we mean by wisdom and by nonviolence. 

We can trust and even need certain kinds of disorder to clarify what our original Order meant, lacked, or intended. There are always a few needed correctives to every new proposition, and those correctives only appear over time and with practice.  

If we can rightly achieve an integration of original plan plus correctives, rule plus “the exception that proves the rule,” Order plus Disorder, we have what I am calling Reorder. Reorder moves us forward in a positive way, but then sets the stage for the pattern to continue all over again. Even good Reorder, in time, becomes its own faulty Order and its own cracks will begin to show. The need for humility and creativity never stops. 

ORDER, by itself, normally wants to eliminate any disorder and diversity, creating a narrow and cognitive rigidity in both people and systems. 

DISORDER, by itself, closes us off from any primal union, meaning, and eventually even sanity in both people and systems. 

REORDER, or transformation of people and systems, happens when both are seen to work together. 

Given the prevalence of this pattern, it must now be considered culpable ignorance that most people still consider Disorder somewhat of a surprise, a scandal, a mystery, or something to be avoided or overcome by an easy jump from Order to Reorder. This is human hubris and illusion. Progress is never a straight and uninterrupted line, but we have all been formed by the Western philosophy of progress that tells us it is, leaving us despairing and cynical.  

So, what does this demand of humanity, especially those who are leaders and teachers? More than anything else—humility and creativity! These virtues offer the detachment and patience that allow history to move forward because they keep our absolutes, our certitudes, and our obstinacy out of the way. Even God submits to mercy and forgiveness toward “what used to be.” Apparently, God enjoys doing this because it never stops happening: Every original Order learns to include an initially threatening Disorder, which morphs into and creates a new Reordering, and we begin all over again. 

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Grow strong in your weakness. Some of My children I’ve gifted with abundant strength and stamina. Others, like you, have received the humble gift of frailty. Your fragility is not a punishment, nor does it indicate lack of faith. On the contrary, weak ones like you must live by faith, depending on Me to get you through the day. I am developing your ability to trust Me, to lean on Me, rather than on your understanding. Your natural preference is to plan out your day, knowing what will happen when. My preference is for you to depend on Me continually, trusting Me to guide you and strengthen you as needed. This is how you grow strong in your weakness.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

James 4:13-15 (NLT)
Warning about Self-Confidence
13 Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.” 14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. 15 What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

Additional insight regarding James 4:13-16: It is good to have goals, but goals can disappoint us if we leave God out of them. There is no point in making plans as though God does not exist because the future is in his hands. The beginning of good planning is to ask: “What would I like to be doing ten years from now? One year from now? Tomorrow? How will I react if God steps in and rearranges my plans?” We can plan ahead, but we must hold on to our plans loosely. If we put God’s desires at the center of our planning, he will never disappoint us. Additionally, life is short no matter how many years we live. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should. Live for God today! Then, no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God’s plan for you.

Proverbs 3:5 (NLT)
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.

Additional insight regarding Proverbs 3:5-6: When we have an important decision to make, we sometimes feel that we can’t trust anyone – not even God. But God knows what is best for us. He is a better judge of what we want than we are! We must trust him completely in every choice we make. We should not omit careful thinking or belittle our God-given ability to reason, but we should not trust our own ideas to the exclusion of all others. We must not be wise in our own eyes but be willing to listen to and be corrected by God’s Word and wise counselors. Bring your decisions to God in prayer; use the Bible as your guide; then follow God’s leading. He will direct your paths by both guiding and protecting you.

Isaiah 40:28-31 (NLT)
28 Have you never heard?
    Have you never understood?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
    the Creator of all the earth.
He never grows weak or weary.
    No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the weak
    and strength to the powerless.
30 Even youths will become weak and tired,
    and young men will fall in exhaustion.
31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
    They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
    They will walk and not faint.

Additional insight regarding Isaiah 40:29-31: Even the strongest people get tired at times, but God’s power and strength never diminish. He is never too tired or too busy to help and listen. His strength is our source of strength. When you feel all of life crushing you and you cannot go another step, remember that you can call upon God to renew your strength. Trusting in the Lord is the patient expectation that God will fulfill his promises in his Word and strengthen us to rise above life’s difficulties. Through your faith may be struggling or weak, accept his provisions and care for you.

Sometimes God calls a person to unbelief in order that faith may take new forms.  
—Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss  

If the city is a metaphor for certainty and belonging, then the wilderness is for our questions and our truth.
—Sarah Bessey, Field Notes 

Author Sarah Bessey writes of an evolving faith as one that can sustain disruptions and thrive in what she calls “the wilderness.”  

I have always liked the word “evolving,” as it helps me do what Father Richard Rohr calls “transcend and include” my faith experiences both before that season and since. As my dear friend Rachel Held Evans once said, “An evolving faith is simply faith that has adapted in order to survive.”… [1]  

To me, an evolving faith … has proven to be about the questions, the curiosity, and the ongoing reckoning of a robust, honest faith. An evolving faith brings the new ideas and ancient paths together. It’s about rebuilding and reimagining a faith that works not only for ourselves but for the whole messy, wide, beautiful world. For me, this has proven to be deeply centered in the Good News of Jesus. An evolving faith is sacramental, ecumenical, embodied, generous, spirit-filled, truthful, and rooted in the unconditional, never-ending love of God…. An evolving faith is a resilient and stubborn form of faithfulness that is well acquainted with the presence of God in our loneliest places and deepest questions. And an evolving faith has room for all the paths you may navigate….  

Anyone who gets to the end of their life with the exact same beliefs and opinions they had at the beginning is doing it wrong. Because if we don’t change and evolve over our lifetime, then I have to wonder if we’re paying attention to the invitation of the Holy Spirit that is your life.  

Bessey shares encouragement she received from her father as she moved through ongoing disorder and deconstruction: 

In response to my very real and legitimate fears of where this wilderness wandering and questioning would lead me, [my dad] told me something along the lines of this: “I’m not afraid for you. If you’re honestly seeking God, I believe you will find what you’re looking for, even if it looks different than what I have found.”  

I still remember the whooshing exhale my relieved soul experienced at his words, like the lifting of a burden that wasn’t mine to carry anyway. It was permission to evolve, and it was love. And so, all these years later, I have adopted that as my own approach to those who are on a winding path of spiritual growth and formation—be not afraid.  

I’m not afraid for those who are wondering and wandering. I’m not afraid for them or of them, for you or of you…. You are deeply loved and God is not worried about you. You can rest and abide in that Love even as you throw a few things into the fire.

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Psalm 107: The Indiscriminate Kindness of God

Click Here for Audio In the gospels, we find numerous accounts of Jesus rebuking people—the religious leaders, unbelieving towns, his own disciples, and even a tree. He was very aware of the motives of those who followed and questioned him. And yet, there is not one story in the gospels of Jesus turning away someone in need. In fact, he often healed everyone who was brought to him. (For example, see Mark 1:32-34.)I’ve always found this detail somewhat strange. Did every one of those people deserve to be healed? Were they all innocent victims of whatever physical or spiritual sickness burdened them? Or were some sick because of their own foolishness or sinful choices? And there’s no indication in the gospels that everyone Jesus healed became his disciple. In fact, there are stories where we are explicitly told people did not follow Jesus after being healed.All of this raises a difficult question. How does God decide who to rescue? What criteria does he use to determine who to heal? Psalm 107 offers some insight and confirms what we see in Jesus’ ministry. The psalm describes four kinds of people facing great peril, and each time “They cried out to YHWH in their trouble” (verses 6, 13, 19, and 28). And each time he saved them from their distress. It’s a song about God’s great mercy and his commitment to redeem us from every danger. However, when we look more closely at the four cries for help in Psalm 107, we discover they belong in two different categories.Two of them describe people in dangerous circumstances they did not cause. There are people lost in the wilderness without food or water (verses 4-5), and people on the sea during a terrible storm (verses 23-27). Throughout the Bible, the wilderness and the sea are recognized as realms of chaos and scarcity. They symbolize the evil forces opposed to the God of Israel. Therefore, in Psalm 107, when the Lord saves people from the wilderness or sea he is rescuing them from evil powers. He is responding to the cries of innocent victims. These scenarios fit with what we expect from a God who frees slaves, heals the sick, and raises the dead. But the other two scenarios in Psalm 107 are very different. Verse 10 describes prisoners suffering in darkness “because they rebelled against God’s commands.” And verse 17 speaks of people with terrible physical suffering who are near death “because of their iniquities.” In these cases, the peril is the person’s own fault. They are not victims of circumstance but of their own sinful choices. To use biblical language, they are reaping what they’ve sown. And yet when they cried out to YHWH in their trouble, he rescued them as well. When we reflect on Psalm 107 and on the indiscriminate kindness of Jesus in the gospels, we discover a remarkable truth about God. He is not merciful because of who we are, but because of who he is. Once again, this psalm challenges our consumeristic tendency to center ourselves in the Bible. We assume that what matters most is our sin, our righteousness, our faithfulness, or our failures. Rather than worrying about whether we are worth or unworthy of God’s care, the psalmist wants us to turn our attention upward “and ponder the loving deed of YHWH” (verse 43). DAILY SCRIPTURE. PSALM 107:1-43 WEEKLY PRAYEROrigen (185 – 254) May the Lord Jesus place his hands on our eyes that we may begin to catch sight of the things that are not seen more than the things that are seen. May he open our eyes that they will alight on the things to come more than on the things of this age. May he unveil the vision of our heart that it may contemplate God in spirit. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ to whom belong glory and power for ever. Amen.