Sankofa
Sunday, June 29
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Anyone who has participated in a Sankofa journey understands the importance of remembering our past. Visiting sites of significance in the civil rights movement, travelers step back in time to reflect upon the struggle for racial righteousness. The African word sankofa expresses the idea of going back to retrieve something that was forgotten, an encouragement to learn from the past in order to inform the future, to reach back to move forward.
Today’s psalm teaches us that sankofa is a kind of spiritual discipline, a practice of remembrance in times of hardship. We all have known struggles that drive us to our knees in prayer, yet we still struggle to have faith that God will bring us through. As a remedy to our fears, we are encouraged to recite the deeds of God’s faithfulness in the past so that we can move forward in trust.
Lord, bring to mind stories of your provision, the times when you met my deepest need, when you did the impossible. Open my eyes to see that your faithfulness is never-ending. AMEN.
New Eyes To See
Monday, June 30
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Who are the spiritual mentors in your life? Many believers have someone who is an Elijah to their Elisha, a special individual who models a God-centered life for us. A great Elijah teaches many things, though often not through any formal process of imparting information. It’s more caught than taught, more a way of living than just words of wisdom.
Above all, the great blessing that comes to us from spiritual mothers and fathers is that they teach us how to see differently. Through them we learn to see the world no longer as a place of hopeless despair but as a place God is redeeming. We grow to see others, not as our enemies or competitors but as those made in God’s image for whom Christ gave his life. Our old vision of ourselves, shaped by personal failures and regrets, is replaced with a glorious picture of our belovedness as a child of the heavenly Father.
Lord, thank you for the Elijahs in my life who have taught me a new way to see. Amen.
New Expectations
Tuesday, July 1
Luke 9:18-25
Here Jesus speaks a lot of truth to his disciples. He affirms Peter’s declaration that he is God’s Messiah, but then predicts his suffering, rejection, and death. And his resurrection. The disciples have a hard time grasping all that he is telling them. None of this fits their concept of Messiah. They were expecting a conquering king, but he was telling them to take up a cross and surrender their lives too! I can understand their confusion.
We do know that the disciples will later look back on this and see how it all fits together. They’ll see what God was up to. But that’s hindsight, not foresight. I wonder how much of God’s purpose in our own lives we have yet to understand. One day all will make sense. We’ll see clearly what seems hazy today. But today requires faith. Jesus tells his disciples that faith means following him, even to the dark places of suffering. Are we ready to follow today?
Lord, give me the faith to follow you, even on paths that don’t make sense to me today. Amen.
Holy Hospitality
Wednesday, July 2
Luke 9:46-48
On a bookshelf at church at eye level when you come into my office, I have a small picture of Jesus. The picture is mounted on simple cardstock, a bit warped and stained, and set in a cheap plastic frame. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s precious to me for the words on the back of the picture, handwritten by my first grade Sunday school teacher in 1970: “Dear David, May you be a light unto the world.”
That warmhearted teacher from so many years ago probably had little idea what impact she would have in my life. But even then, I knew a few things about her: She loved Jesus. She loved children. And she believed in me. She welcomed me, a little child, in the name of Jesus. She made Jesus real, made him visible to me. Neither of us knew it at the time, but she was teaching me how to welcome others in the name of Jesus.
Thank you, Lord, for the saints who have taught me how to love others. Amen.
The Things We Leave Behind
Thursday, July 3
Luke 9:51-62
The path of following Jesus invites us to be open to receive and experience new things. But to do so also seems to require letting some things go. We can’t go to new places with Jesus and expect to remain the same person we were when we set out. There’s always some things we are quite attached to that Jesus asks us to leave behind.
Here Jesus demands that his disciples let go of their attachment to getting retribution on their enemies. He tells a would-be follower to count the cost first, to abandon his attachment to comfort. To others, he challenges their attachment to family as the source of their identity. Jesus doesn’t want us to lose sight of what’s really important by looking back. He invites us to look forward at him and him alone.
Lord, show me today what I’m attached to, and give me the grace to let go. Amen.
Free To Love
Friday, June 4
Galatians 5:1, 13-15
I suppose part of the attractiveness of living by law rather than by grace is that the law gives us a kind of checklist, a way to say we’ve done enough, permission to stop doing good, as it were. But when we live by grace, as Paul taught, we are driven by love, not rules. And love has no boundary lines. I can’t really check “Love my neighbor as myself” off my list, since the task of love is ongoing, never complete. Yet Paul wants us to know, to experience, the freedom that comes from learning to love. What may seem like a burden at first glance (the responsibility to care for my neighbor) will become in me that well of living water Jesus promised. Rather than it hampering my life, I will find that I have been set free from the tyranny of a selfish existence, released to know what real life is all about!
Lord, set me free from the selfishness that binds me, that I may thrive in the freedom of your love. Amen.
In Step With The Spirit
Saturday, July 5
Galatians 5:16-26
For the Apostle Paul, to live “according to the flesh” is to function with a kind of spiritual blindness, unable to see the beauty of God and the redemptive things God is doing in the world. When we live to please the flesh, we make choices that draw us farther away from God’s redemptive gift, making our blindness even worse. But to surrender to the Spirit is to be set free, to “receive our sight” and turn naturally to the good, the beautiful.
There is a test to see whether we are living by the Spirit or by the flesh: the proof is in the fruit. If our lives are displaying selfishness, borne out in enmity toward others, we are surely stuck in our blindness. But if our lives are overflowing with the good things of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, etc.), we can be sure that we’re in step with the Spirit, with 20/20 vision!
Lord, let the scales of selfishness fall from my eyes today, and bear the fruit of your Spirit in my life. Amen.
