How Much Longer?

If you have enough time, read Psalm 6

How long, O Lord, how long? Psalm 6:3

Ten days – normally not considered a “long time” – can seem to never end, depending on the situation. Looking for a missing child. Waiting for a diagnosis. Suffering under the symptoms of the swine flu (alright, I don’t know if the swine flu is that bad or not).

There were ten days between Jesus ascending up into heaven, having just told his disciples to wait for the “gift”, and the actual giving of the “gift” on the day of Pentecost. (Did you know that Pentecost, the day on which the Holy Spirit was given to ALL believers, will be celebrated this Sunday, May 31?)

I wonder how long those days seemed to them. Maybe they went by like a breeze. Maybe they seemed like an eternity.

I don’t know about you, but “waiting on the Lord” is not something I normally look forward to. And yet it sometimes seems as though so much of life involves just this.

How long, O Lord, how long? (Are you still here? Have you forgotten me? Are you EVER going to do anything about this?)

And yet as trying and painful as the waiting can be, to put the wait aside and try to “fix” things myself – well, even in my short life thus far I have become disappointingly aware of how well my fixing fixes things.

How many years, generations, centuries, millennia did the Israelites (not to mention the world) wait for the Messiah?

And yet, at just the right time, in just the right way – He came.

How long, O Lord? I ask.

Until the time is right - of course! He answers (with a SMILE!). And then to add insult to injury, He adds, Would you really want it any other way?

Prayer: O Lord, if we have to wait, at least use our waiting to draw us closer to, to give us a greater yearning and desire for, to turn our trust and our hope ever more so to YOU. In your name, Jesus. Amen.

Blameless Love

If you have enough time, read 1 John 4:7-21.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10

I didn’t tell anyone at the time, but for Lent this year I gave up “blaming others” – both blaming others in front of someone else as well as even in my own thoughts (this latter part obviously being the more difficult of the two).

I don’t know how well I did overall, but when I was able to catch myself it really made an impact on me. On the one hand, this was no easy task as I have always enjoyed and been good at coming up with excuses for things gone wrong – and quite often the fault would lie with someone else. And yet, as much as others may have been involved in the problems around me, without letting myself blame them, I became that much more aware of my own role – and the blame that I rightly deserve. (Sometimes so much that I thought: boy, what a stupid thing this was to give up for Lent!)

Love can be this way.

When I have trouble loving someone, how easy it is to place the blame on them?

The argument is that they are just not “lovable” (or at least not to me).

Rather than recognizing my own problem with being “able to love”.

Our Lord Jesus could come up with endless reasons why we don’t deserve His love. (And He would be right!) And yet He has shown us that love is never “deserved” – rather it is merely “given”.

I don’t love them because they hurt me…
I don’t love them because they bug me…
I don’t love them because they are so different from me…
I don’t love them because they….

Or maybe it is because of me.

And if it is because of me (it is), then I need the change, rather than them.

Prayer: O Lord Jesus, thank you for not using me as an excuse to keep your love from me. May your undeserved love have its way in my relationships with others as well. In your name, Jesus. Amen.

Daily Bread

If you have enough time, read Matthew 6:5-15.

Give us this day our daily bread. Matthew 6:11

If you are one who prays the Lord’s Prayer regularly, you’ve been praying this line from this prayer for years. If not, be careful before you start, without first knowing what you’ll be asking for.

While we’ve always understood the “bread” to mean all the basic necessities of life (everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, Luther), and this part of the prayer as not only asking for these provisions but also as a reminder to us that these things (which at times seem SOOOO important to us) are in fact ALSO important to the Lord (otherwise, why would Jesus have us pray about them?) … WELL, it was the “daily” that put me into a bit of a shock not too long ago.

Had the good Lord been tricking me into praying this prayer this way?

Since when have I wanted merely my daily bread? What about planning for tomorrow, next month, year, - heck, is it too soon to start counting down toward retirement?? If all I’m getting is my daily bread, how can I ever trust that I’ll have enough in the future???

Unless of course, His point is that our trust rests not on the bread, but on the One who gives it. (Ouch! That sounds something like “faith”.)

When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. Hosea 13:6

Could it actually be better at times to only receive my daily bread – and no more??? I’ll keep praying the prayer the way the Lord gave it to us even if I’m not sure if I agree with it – just in case He knows best.

Prayer: Truth is Lord, you do give us well beyond our daily bread. Let what you give us, though, never take us away from the One who gives it – the same One who gave Himself – YOU, Lord Jesus. In your name. Amen.