Prejudiced to Trouble
Sunday, October 6
Job 1:1; 2:1-10
A few years ago I lost one of my closest friends to complications from Covid. When friends reached out to me during that time, I would tell them that I had only a few minutes to talk about what happened before I needed to get off the phone since I didn’t want to lose it emotionally. In other words, I didn’t want to accept or experientially hold the trouble in my body. Within a couple weeks, however, I found myself unable to hold myself together and had a panic attack at the grocery store.
In Job 2:1-10, we see a man who has integrity before God. He is man who is able to accept and hold the good from God, as well as the trouble in his body. Job’s desires were not fixed on the good things in his life nor the trouble in his life—they were fixed on God.
Dear God, help me to not be prejudiced against my troubles in life, but rather to cultivate a holy curiosity that leads me into a deeper life with you. AMEN.
Complete with No Cavities
Monday, October 7
Psalm 26
I don’t like going to the dentist office. I have a resistance to the dentist’s disposition toward my teeth, which has led me to fewer examinations and some cavities. I think many people today might find themselves with a similar resistance against God. Rather than open ourselves to God, we open ourselves to people, places, and things that produce unnecessary cavities in our lives. Cavities are empty spaces in solid objects. I have come to learn that God and dentists have one thing in common—they both like filling empty spaces. Both want the empty spaces in us to be filled, complete, and whole.
In Psalm 26 we see David being completely open to God poking around in all areas of his life because he knows God’s unfailing love will
fill him to be complete and whole.
Dear God, forgive me for going to places, people, and things that only cause more emptiness in my life. Help me to rely solely on your unfailing love. Amen.
God Asked Us Questions
Tuesday, October 8
Mark 9:38-50
I was twelve years old when my mom handed me the phone. My stepdad was on the other end of the line, saying, “I won’t be coming home anymore.” I responded with question after question hoping to understand, but that didn’t happen that day. I asked him questions because I desperately wanted to stay connected to him and to understand why he left. I’m still trying to connect the pieces to this day.
The Pharisees asked Jesus if divorce was lawful, and Jesus responded with a question. In Scripture we see people ask Jesus 187 questions. He asks 307 questions, and he answered only three questions directly. Think about it: He had three years to change the world and he still allowed people to come up with their own conclusions about who he was and his purpose for marriage. Why? Because Jesus came not to correct us but to connect with us. And he knows it is important for us
to connect the pieces to life’s biggest questions on our own.
Dear God, help me to ask you and others about the big moments in my life. AMEN.
Relationship Over Partisanship
Wednesday, October 9
Mark 10:1-16
For the past few years, I have chosen to use a prehistoric flip phone to connect with others. I firmly believe my perception of the world had become more shaped by algorithms than by authentic in-person relationships with human beings.
But what I thought was a righteous stance against “big tech” and social media became a place of frustration and contempt for many of my friends. When I chose to connect with a different device and format, it looked to them like I was against connection—which was completely the opposite of my intent! The disciples in Mark found themselves perceiving another disciple of Jesus wrongly because that disciple went about things differently. Somehow using the same language, same group, and same experiences trumped having a personal connection with the person and power of Jesus. At the same time Jesus makes clear to his disciples that tripping over partisanship issues will have eternal consequences.
Dear God, help me to choose relationship over partisanship. Amen.
Image Of Christ
Thursday, October 10
Mark 12:13-17
Marketing firms are highly paid companies because of the value we place on the image we project to the world. But placing value on a person’s image can create chasmic gap between that image and who we truly are.
In the first century, the people of Israel were under the oppression of the Roman empire and the rulership of Caesar Augustus, who imposed taxes on all his conquered nations. One day the religious leaders ask Jesus if they are to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus sees a coin with the image of Caesar on it. It is inscribed with the words divi filius, which mean “son of God.” Jesus responds by saying, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17, NIV).
Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, holding a coin that reads “Caesar is the son of God.” Jesus was not swayed by human ability to project an image into the world. Let us follow his example.
Dear God, may the image of Christ eclipse any other image. AMEN.
iCarnate
Friday, October 11
Hebrews 4:12-16
“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin” (vv. 14-15, NIV).
The author of Hebrews tells us that before Facebook, YouTube, and Google had all the world laid bare before them in Silicon Valley, God had the world laid bare before him. Social media offers us a sort of paradise of connection, power, and god-like knowledge of good and evil. We act as if our smartphones give us divine access to the world, crouching over them with heads bowed as if in prayer at least 50 times a day. Yet the more connected we have become through our digital devices the more disconnected we have become toward each other.
But with our lives laid bare before God, he did not become less compassionate—he became one of us.
Dear God, may I approach you more than I approach my smartphone. Amen.
Unforgotten Work
Saturday, October 12
Hebrews 6:10-12
Every time God has blessed my wife and me with a child, we take a moment of joyful excitement to pray and acknowledge that it is God who gives us our baby. We pray, “God, we know that you already have the plan and purposes of this child, and we get to have a front row seat to this miracle in motion.” Our hope is that our children will have the ability to become the true selves that God has fearfully and wonderfully made them to be. We believe our greatest calling besides ministry and ministering to the Lord is our calling to our children.
In today’s text, the author of Hebrews encourages the Christian sojourner that God will not forget the work we do for his people. That work is done on the mission field, the church, the neighborhood, and even at home.
Dear God, give me the faith and patience to continue the work you have given me. AMEN.
