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The Blessing

A 40-Day Meditation on the Priestly Blessing

White’s Chapel Media 185 S. White Chapel Boulevard Southlake, TX 76092 www.whiteschapel.org info@whiteschapel.org ©2024 by Dr. John McKellar and Dr. Todd Renner Published in the United States of America by White’s Chapel Media. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from White’s Chapel Media. White’s Chapel Media is a publishing and communication division of White’s Chapel Methodist Church. Cover Graphics: Sarah Hamilton Layout & Design: Susanna Cunningham Printed in the United States of America.

Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................... Day One ............................................................... Day Two ............................................................... Day Three ............................................................... Day Four ............................................................... Day Five ............................................................... Day Six ............................................................... Day Seven ............................................................... Day Eight ............................................................... Day Nine ............................................................... Day Ten ............................................................... Day Eleven ............................................................... Day Twelve ............................................................... Day Thirteen ............................................................... Day Fourteen ............................................................... Day Fifteen ............................................................... Day Sixteen ............................................................... Day Seventeen ............................................................... Day Eighteen ............................................................... Day Nineteen ............................................................... Day Twenty ............................................................... Day Twenty-One ............................................................. Day Twenty-Two ............................................................ Day Twenty-Three ........................................................... Day Twenty-Four ........................................................... Day Twenty-Five ........................................................... Day Twenty-Six .............................................................. Day Twenty-Seven .......................................................... Day Twenty-Eight ............................................................ Day Twenty-Nine ............................................................

6 11 14 17 20 23 26 28 31 33 36 39 42 45 48 50 52 57 61 64 67 70 73 77 80 83 86 89 93 97

Day Thirty ............................................................... Day Thirty-One ............................................................... Day Thirty-Two ............................................................... Day Thirty-Three ........................................................... Day Thirty-Four ............................................................... Day Thirty-Five ............................................................... Day Thirty-Six ............................................................... Day Thirty-Seven ......................................................... Day Thirty-Eight ............................................................... Day Thirty-Nine ............................................................... Day Forty ...............................................................

102 106 110 114 117 121 124 128 132 135 138

Introduction to Lent

LENT

rom the earliest days of the Church, Christians have held with great reverence the 40 days of Lent. An annual invitation to a time of reflection, Lent is a season for self-examination and for penitence. It is a season of honest evaluation as we confess who we are…and who we are yet to be. These 40 days ask us to go on a journey; they invite us to travel through the darkness of Calvary’s pain that we might celebrate the joy and love of Easter morning in new light and in new life. To do this, though, we must prepare ourselves. Lent, then, is a time for prayer and fasting. It is a time for silence and for the studying of God’s Holy Word. It is a time when we are asked to take seriously the call of the spiritual disciplines. More, though, it is a time for us to be mindful, a time for us to be soulful…a time for us to be honest about what keeps us from following the way of Jesus Christ.

THIS YEAR

INTRODUCTION TO THIS YEAR’S SERIES... Early in the history of Israel, the nation was instructed through Moses how to worship the Lord. As part of these instructions, Aaron and his sons (the priests) were given a blessing they were to speak over the people…in doing so, God would “put his name on” the Israelites – He would claim them and hold them and bless them. Because of the powerful sentiments and simple elegance expressed in this blessing, it has been used throughout the centuries – even long after the sacrifices of the Aaronic priesthood ended. Even today, this Priestly Blessing is used with the “raising of hands” in synagogues around the world. At its heart, the blessing is about the nature of God…and about our relationship with God. It is God who moves. It is God who shines. It is God who blesses the faithful – doing for them what they cannot do for themselves. But what does it mean to be blessed? During this holy season, we will explore what it means to experience the Lord’s presence and to savor in His grace. We will go deeper than a mere transaction to seek real transformation – to be a people who truly and rightly bear the name of Christ.

THE BLESSING

As always during Lent, our purpose is simple: it is to elicit a response. It is for us to be inspired, to be challenged, and to be changed. Our purpose, hope, and prayer is that all our hearts will be “strangely warmed” as we reflect upon the Bible’s truth and respond to the Savior’s blessed call.

Dr. John McKellar | Dr. Todd Renner 2024

The Priestly Blessing “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” – Numbers 6:24-26 –

Week One:

Blessing & Blessed

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” – James 1:17 –

Day One | February 14

ONE

Love in the Flesh (Ash Wednesday)

“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin –

few years ago, we were leading a Bible study with our high school seniors when one of them asked me a question. It was a question that I’d never considered before: How did I know that my wife was “the one”? It was a perfectly appropriate thing to ask since we were talking about the nature of love. What caught me off guard, though, was the earnestness of the one asking. I’d watched her grow up. I’d seen her struggle with and overcome multiple hardships, and we’d celebrated together when she got accepted to her first-choice school. She was, in the world’s esteem, a success. But there was

THE BLESSING

something beautiful and plaintive in her voice – a sincerity that made me want to dig. Her question wasn’t just for a love story. It was for the truth. So I told her. I knew my wife was “the one” the day I noticed that I’d stopped looking for anyone else. That had been my practice before: even as I was in relationships, there was a deep reluctance in me to really commit because I was sure that there was something – or someone – better out there just waiting to be discovered. There was a moment, though, when all that changed. There was a moment when it all stopped – a crystalline moment in time when I looked in the mirror and recognized that the one who needed to be “better” was staring back at me from the other side. That was the moment I knew: it was when I stopped looking for an exterior “better” because I knew I had already found her: she completed me in ways that I didn’t understand or even know to want. And I wasn’t just content; I was overwhelmed. The “better” I started looking for then wasn’t on the outside. It was on the inside: she made me want to be a better man, a better version of the “me” God created me to be. She deserved that… even if I didn’t. That was the thing: she knew all my faults and foolishness, all my shames – all those things I never wanted to think about, much less talk about. And she kept loving me still – not in spite of them but, in fact, because of them. It’d all shaped me,

she’d said through tears. It was love in the flesh. And so is Jesus…but to the millionth degree. He came as the ultimate of all blessings: the embodiment of the gift of love. He was Love in the flesh. He was born in the flesh. He died in the flesh. And He was raised in the flesh. And it was all an act of supreme, unflinching love. In fact, it can’t go without being said that, as we begin this Lenten journey, we do so on Valentine’s Day. Every so often, the calendar just works out this way…and it’s wonderous: to begin this trek towards Calvary on the one day of the year where even the headlines speak of love. But this love – Christ’s love – is a fierce love. It is tenacious and purifying. And it calls us inward, once more. This holy season invites us to peel back those layers, to delve deep into those longforgotten memories, to rediscover that long-hidden person that God created to love and for love. It is Love in the flesh. That is the blessed call of Lent: to experience the height and width and depth of God’s love toward us – a love that knows all our faults and loves us still, a love that compels us to change: not just because we have to, but because we want to… because Jesus deserves it. It is a time for falling in love all over again – surrendering our everything to the One without whom we are nothing.

Day Two | February 15

TWO

A Covenant of Grace

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” – Denis Waitley –

bout 25 years ago, my wife and I bought a little cabin down on Cedar Creek Lake. It was a great family meeting place for our mothers who were nervous about driving in the metroplex. We enjoyed remodeling and keeping up with the yard. However, during our first summer of ownership, we had been out of town on vacation, and I realized that I hadn’t been down to cut the grass. I was very busy, so the only time I had to sneak away was an August afternoon after church. I was driving down…and to be honest,

mowing was the last thing in the world I wanted to do. It was 105 degrees. I was tired after preaching. I was thinking, “This is going to be miserable.” We arrived, and I discovered a shocking, unexpected surprise: our neighbors had mowed our yard for us. I expected to sweat and suffer; instead, I got to watch golf under air conditioning and take a nap. The word for that is grace: when we get what we don’t deserve! Grace is the beginning place of understanding our blessedness. It is an awareness and acceptance of God’s unfathomable love. It is the heart of our faith as found in Romans 3:23-24: “Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Our word for salvation, “justified,” comes from the legal system. It is us standing before a judge, waiting for sentencing. We know we are guilty. The judge knows we are guilty. The lawyers and the crowd know that we are guilty. The judge passes sentence on us and says, “I find you not guilty.” That is grace. Unmerited favor. We get what we don’t deserve through what Christ did for us. Grace is Jesus hanging on the cross, bearing our sins. Grace is Jesus looking down from the cross at people betraying, mocking, and torturing Him and saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

THE BLESSING

We are blessed because our salvation is not something we earn or deserve. It is a gift that we accept, a gift we’re supposed to cherish. God’s standard for us is perfection. We can’t get there on our own. But when we believe in Christ and accept His grace, He fills the gap for us and stands in our place. That is always the ultimate blessing on which a life of faith is built. Years ago, Larnelle Harris wrote a gospel song called “Were It Not for Grace.” The second verse the heart of our blessing: “Were it not for grace I can tell you where I’d be Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere With my salvation up to me I know how that would go The battles I would face Forever running but losing this race Were it not for grace” Grace is the beginning place of our blessedness…but it’s not the ending place. Grace must continually flow through us to bless God’s world all around us.

Day Three | February 16

THREE

Necessary Brokenness

“Shallow are the souls that have forgotten how to shudder.” – Jonathan Haidt –

hen we teach Confirmation, we remind the students of the first question of the ancient liturgy when making a profession of faith. The question reads: “Do you truly and earnestly repent of your sins?” And, then, we make the point that it is only when we know that we are sinners, that we can realize how much we need a Savior. The old hymnwriters had a way of making that point, too. They knew how to get at the heart of the human condition – our sinfulness and need for salvation: “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!” “Would He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I?”

THE BLESSING

Modern ears hear those words and think maybe they are a little excessive. We know we are imperfect, maybe even a little below average in living according to Jesus’ standards. But, “wretch” and “worm” seems a little much. The hymnwriters got what we must: that only when we realize the depth of our sinfulness and need for a Savior, can we experience the joy and blessedness that comes from receiving Christ. Too often our faith is shallow because we haven’t owned the depth of our sin. This, too, is the invitation of Lent: to examine our hearts and minds and souls, to confess our brokenness, and to commit ourselves once more to the way of the cross. John Newton, who wrote “Amazing Grace,” had been a slave trader earlier in his life. After his conversion to Christ, he was haunted by his memory of causing human beings to be captured, shackled, whipped, starved, and sold at auction. There was no way for him to undo the damage he had done or to make restitution for the hurt he had caused. But he could at least publicly acknowledge the truth about his past. Thus, he chose the word “wretch.” To receive God’s blessedness in its fullness, we must be honest about our own emptiness, our wantonness and sin. All of us have things in our past that can’t be unsaid or undone. We cannot always make amends for the pain we have caused.

We have been wretches and worms. When we really get that, we know that the beginning place of faith is honesty with God. We must seek forgiveness. And, then, we should be brutally frank in telling our stories to help others. So often our broken places can lead to healing in the life of someone else. We can be a living witness to the old adage, “Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.”

Day Four | February 17

FOUR

The Two-Way Street

“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer –

t was my very first month in a brand new city. I was a college man, and the was world laid out before me. It was a crisp season of new experiences and new horizons. Nothing could stop me. But for all my new-found freedom, I still couldn’t figure out why they were flashing their lights at me. I was out with my roommates. I was going the speed limit, and I was in between the lines. That’s when I realized it: I was driving the wrong way down a oneway street. I’m sure that I’m not the only one who has had that experience in Waco, Texas. It is – for as much as it pains me to admit it – an awkward city to drive in. Set to the course of the Brazos River, there’s no true north or south. There’s no real east or west. There is only “-ish” – a generalized feeling of going in the right direction.

And, yes, my college town is infamous for its curvy, unintelligible, one-way streets: roads that were once two-way, seemingly for no reason, become one-way with little warning. And in that season, nothing could stop me… except me. That is the frank reality of the blessings of the Lord. They aren’t what we always expect them to be. They are not always material, and true wealth can’t always be measured on a balance sheet. In fact, many times, they come hidden in adversity, for God has not promised us earthly success but to be with us in every circumstance in life – in the valleys as well as on the mountaintops. And there is always a cost. For as much as it’s true that grace and salvation and God’s unmerited love are free, they cost us everything. They’re free. But they’re never cheap. They come, as all blessings do, with a responsibility, with an expectation: that we will use them as God intends. Harry Emerson Fosdick put it well: “God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things.” The way of blessing is a two-way street. “I will be your God,” the Lord says, “and you will be my people” (Exodus 6:7, Jeremiah 30:22). “You will prosper if you keep my commands” (Deuteronomy 30:16-20). It’s only two letters, but “if” is a mighty and formidable word. It implies that there is a responsibility incumbent upon us: to ask, to seek, to knock; to discern the way and will of the Lord.

Week Two:

The Lord Bless You…

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8 –

Day Five | February 19

FIVE

Blessed Are the Poor

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.” – Reinhold Niebuhr –

o often we define blessedness with the agenda of this world. “Give us more power, money, and success,” we say…”then we will be truly blessed and start to live God’s way.” But Jesus says to us: If you want real blessings, go and practice the Beatitudes. These are the tools you will use: • Be poor in spirit • Be people who mourn • Be meek • Be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness • Be merciful

THE BLESSING

• Be pure in heart • Be peacemakers • Be willing to be persecuted and not fight back Jesus begins these Beatitudes with a harsh reality: God comforts those who mourn. The Greek word used relates to the bitterest sorrow that life can bring. It is in that place that we realize our inadequacy and helplessness; for it is only then that we can reach out for help. There is a sense in which, when we think we are in charge and can handle life on our own, we can never really comprehend the grace of God. God begins our journey with the reality that we are incomplete and need help. In the mid-1920s, there was a successful, young, stockbroker who made it big on Wall Street. He had it all, materially speaking: money, country club memberships, and wealthy friends. He also drank excessively. When the crash hit in 1929, he lost everything except his bottle of gin. His wife had to go to work only to come home day after day exhausted to find her husband passed out on the couch again. He tried many times to stop drinking but couldn’t until, with the help of a friend who had himself overcome the bottle with strong spiritual guidance, this young stockbroker, Bill, began a process now known as the twelve-step approach. Today, millions have found sobriety through

this organization co-founded by Bill known as Alcoholics Anonymous. This great program is rooted in the spirit of the Beatitudes. Step one begins the process by admitting that one is powerless over alcohol and that God is our only strength. This first step is critical, and it is one of the most difficult. What a person is admitting is that alcohol has taken control of their life, and they cannot fix the problem by themself. It is admitting their powerlessness and need. This principle applies to all of life. The selfcontent and self-satisfied will never experience God’s comfort. The journey of faith begins with an admission: “I can’t.” “We can.” “We” is us and God and the greater community of faith. “I” can’t grow in my faith without the self-awareness to grasp this truth. On this foundation, our spiritual house will be built.

Day Six | February 20

SIX

Blessed Are the Meek

“To identify with the death of Jesus Christ means that we must die to everything that was never a part of Him.” – Oswald Chambers –

e must be reminded of this truth every year: there can be no resurrection without crucifixion. There can be no light without dark. There can be no life without death. To live is to suffer. It is to hope and to despair, to dream and to be disappointed. To live is to suffer – not in full, but in part. It is an enigmatic form of blessedness, to be sure: to suffer for a cause worthy of suffering for… and the apostles knew the enigma well. In the shadow of the empty tomb, they couldn’t not share the gospel’s news of salvation. They couldn’t not share the miracles they’d seen nor the power they felt. They told everyone. But the religious authorities tried to stop them. They arrested them

and interrogated them, and they had them flogged. But upon leaving the council’s chambers – backs bloodied from the whip – they rejoiced, for they had been “counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the name of Jesus” (Acts 5:41). Worthiness…and meekness. In Jesus’ economy, they are two sides of the same coin. Like certainty and fear, suffering and joy – they are the coinage of the Realm. Ours is the task, then, to make certain that we are suffering for the right thing, for the right cause. Not for jealousy. Not for fame. Not for selfishness or greed or pride. Suffering for such insignificant purposes – for such sinful reasons – brings only misery and pain; but to suffer in service to some good and noble thing brings life and humility and empathy and, yes, even joy. To suffer for love. To suffer for peace. To suffer for hope or justice or righteousness. To suffer for the sake of the Kingdom. These are the wounds of heroes, the scars of saints. And, in faith, we are all called to be meek and joy-filled martyrs – rarely giving our lives in one felled swoop, but offering them one day, one moment, one choice at a time. We are all called to surrender and to sacrifice our lives to the One who sacrificed His for us; and in so doing, to find the blessing: that inexpressible joy, that transcendent purpose, that peace that passes understanding… for it may be that, only in dying to ourselves, do we ever truly live.

Day Seven | February 21

SEVEN

Blessed Are the Hungry & Thirsty

Wanting something is not enough. You must hunger for it. Your motivation must be absolutely compelling in order to overcome the obstacles that will invariably come your way. – Les Brown –

y wife doesn’t let me go grocery shopping with her. She says that the bill is always doubled when I tag along. And there’s a good reason: I’m impulsive when pushing a shopping cart. I walk down the food-lined aisles, and my stomach can’t make up its mind. Do I want salty or sweet? Turkey or ham? Why not just get both? So I do. And the problem only gets worse if I shop when I’m hungry. But having seen the face of real hunger in meal lines and on mission trips, I have to wonder if I’ve ever actually been hungry. What about you? Have you ever really, truly been hungry? Now, the question isn’t, ”Have you ever wanted

something to nibble on?” It’s not, “Does your stomach ever growl?” The question is, “Have you ever been so desperate, so empty, so starved that you would eat anything?” In fact, it may be an unfair question to most people like us. In most of our contexts, food is kind of a given (if anything is). It’s everywhere. And maybe that’s our problem. We have so many opportunities. We have so many options. Whole food. Fast food. Junk food. There are so many ways for our appetites to be sated, thus few of us truly really know what it means to be hungry. And the same can be said of our spiritual diets, as well: we’re missing the blessing of hunger. We’re missing the consecration of thirst. In a world of lonely, tired, desperate people, our souls are all craving something. We yearn for meaning. We yearn for connection. We yearn for intimacy and affection and love. And our problems occur when we try to fill those spiritual voids with the things of earth, with existential junk food that will never fill us for long. Like trying to grasp sand: the tighter and tighter we squeeze, the quicker it escapes from our hands. We were never intended to be filled by this world. We were never programmed to be stuffed on its diet of stuff – with all its empty words and shallow relationships. Instead, God’s design was (and still is) that our deepest longings would be totally consumed in Him.

THE BLESSING

So how do we nurture this healthy soul feast? How do we train our hunger for God? Strangely, part of the answer is fasting. One of the lesserliked disciplines of Lent, fasting is more than just a season of sacred dieting. It is the intentional choice to forgo something meaningful; it is a spiritual sacrifice that is meant to remind us of our neediness and wantonness. Maybe all that is necessary for us to cultivate that deep longing and blessed hunger for God is for us to stop filling up on other things. Maybe all that’s necessary is for us to recognize that all our snacking on the world’s “appetizers” kills our appetite for what we really need: the main course of God’s holiness and righteousness and divine, sacred love.

Day Eight | February 22

EIGHT

Blessed Are the Merciful & Pure

“Purity of heart is to will one thing.” – Søren Kierkegaard –

ears ago, in a high school philosophy class, I had to give a 10-minute speech on a single word: Why. As a clean-shaven 18-year-old, I took to the podium and expounded on the virtues of “why.” I unpacked its ontological significance and applied it to the meaning of life. I grappled with what the great minds of the ages had said, and I proudly offered my own opinions, as well. It amuses me to think of how little I knew back then... and how often I proved it. Perhaps more important than any other word in our language, “why” still stands at the crossroads of our every decision. Why do we do what we do? Why do we say what we say? Why do we believe? Why do we follow? Faith is not an easy path, so why take it?

THE BLESSING

Those three little letters, W-H-Y, speak volumes. Our intentions, our “why’s,” divulge who we are. They say more about what is important – and Who is important – than any other measure in existence. Sure, we can play the game. Like the Pharisees, we can approach faith as something to be leveraged rather than something to be lived. We can live on the surface of religion without ever truly going deeper into the heart of Christ. Many do. But that is not the faith to which the Spirit summons us; it is just a mere shadow, a faint echo of the real thing. What we must remember is that, more than our “what’s” and “how’s,” God will judge our “why’s.” Far beyond the lip-service that so easily passes as true faith these days, God requires His children to examine themselves, to purify themselves: mind, body, and soul. The Almighty demands that our hearts align with His, for only in that way will our actions ever align. For it is there, where the purposes of heaven collide with the readiness of earth, that God’s will is actually, finally fulfilled…and we are truly blessed.

Day Nine | February 23

NINE

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

“Anyone can love peace, but Jesus didn’t say, ‘Blessed are the peacelovers.’ He says ‘peacemakers.’ He is referring to a life vocation, not a hobby on the sidelines of life.” – Jim Wallis –

e live in a world of polarization and division. Study after study documents the fraying of our social fabric in real time. Trust in major institutions, like the federal government and the Supreme Court, has plummeted to historic lows. So has trust in churches and our neighbors. People increasingly view those they disagree with not just as misguided but as “immoral” and “dishonest.” We must reclaim the teaching of Jesus that blessings will flow from the peacemakers. And all of us must find our role in this essential endeavor. I had a seventh grade science teacher who was not a naturally-gifted educator. She could not maintain

THE BLESSING

order in the classroom or hold the attention of the students for long. She would get so frustrated that she would yell and scream. There were times she’d even jumped on her desk to get our attention. The assistant principal continually had to be summoned to restore order. As a rule-follower, I was embarrassed about the discomfort my classmates caused this teacher, and I felt genuine sympathy for her. Her real problem was that she was a peace lover. She wanted peace and order so that she could impart the lesson. Her problem was that she did not know the “things that made for peace.” She had not learned how to be a peacemaker. There is a fine art to being a peacemaker in a seventh grade classroom. It requires equal measures of discipline and compassion. It requires a spirit that is not easily shocked and an awareness that “every hill is not Calvary.” A strong sense of humor is a plus, too. But there is one essential ingredient for being a peacemaker in the classroom: you have to love seventh graders! That is a lesson not just for schoolteachers; it’s a lesson for all of us. Our calling in life is to be peacemakers wherever we go. That is not the job only for diplomats. It is our vocation as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Every day, we have a choice. We can build up, or we can tear down. We can promote healing, or we can fan the flames of division. A wise scholar once pointed out: “There are people who are always storm-centers of trouble and

bitterness and strife. Wherever they are, they are either involved in quarrels themselves or the cause of quarrels between others. They are troublemakers. There are people like that in almost every society... and such people are doing the devil’s own work. On the other hand, thank God, there are people in whose presence bitterness cannot live, people who bridge the gulfs, and heal the breaches, and sweeten the bitternesses. Such people are doing a God-like work, for it is the great purpose of God to bring peace between people and Himself and persons to person. The one who divides people is doing the work of evil; the one who unites people is doing God’s work.” Every day, the choice is ours. It’s not enough to long for peace and dream of peace. Will we answer the call to be about Jesus’ blessed work of making peace? Will we be peacemakers or merely just peace-lovers?

Day Ten | February 24

TEN

Blessed Are the Persecuted

“The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.” – Jonas Salk –

ne day, Jesus told a parable: “‘Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink’? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!’” (Luke 17:7-10) Such is the life of the disciple. There are no parades, no statues. People will not cheer or applaud for us as we go about our daily lives of ordinary holiness. Nor should we want them to, for our obedience in solely for an audience of

One. We do not pursue this life for the acclaim of others; we choose it for the glory of God alone. We do what we’re supposed to do, not for merit or praise or recognition; we, humble servants, do what we’re supposed to do because we’ve been ordered to do it. And our reward? The opportunity to serve more. The opportunity to give more. The opportunity to suffer more. It’s that faithful, selfless, unflagging, unwavering obedience to which the true life of faith calls us. That is the price of discipleship: laying down whatever is in our hands and picking up a cross. Every moment of everyday, we must choose the harder path; we must choose the more rugged road. And the world will not understand. It’s incapable of understanding. And it will mock us and heckle us; it will try its best to distract us – to lure us away from climbing Golgotha’s hill. It’s a tempting offer, to be sure. Avoid the pain. Avoid the ugliness. Take the easy way: forgiveness without repentance, conversion without confession, discipleship without discipline. It’s seductive, yes; but it’s all a lie. There is no shortcut to this all-consuming, all-fulfilling life with God. It is only forged in the fiercest refining fires of self-examination and confession: us confessing, both, our sinfulness and God’s faithfulness. That’s how disciples are made. For inasmuch as grace is free, it costs us everything. For it is in that place that true blessing is born.

Week Three:

…and Keep You…

…and Keep You… “Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” – Genesis 28:15 –

Day Eleven | February 26

ELEVEN

Hard-hearted-ness (Stubbornness)

“That heart alone is hard which does not shudder at itself for not feeling its hardness.” – Saint Bernard –

hat is it to be “kept” by the Lord? My first imagination was to think of the long line of babysitters I had to endure growing up – and, yes, those who had to endure me, too. There were the neighborhood moms who had to put up with my grumbling; there were the dayschool ladies who had to put up with my griping; then there was the teenaged girl who had to watch me for the whole summer. To placate me one afternoon, she let me play with her clarinet. Long story, short: after I knocked out my front tooth on the reed, I never saw her again. To be kept is to be watched. It is to be tended. Like a shepherd keeping his sheep, it is to be cared for…but with God, it is so much more.

THE BLESSING

In my office at church, I have a wall covered with memories: with photographs and mementos and pictures drawn by kids in church. They are a testament to moments that I want to remember, of moments that I want to keep. To others, they may seem like scribbles and trash; but to me, they are treasures. That’s how it is with God, too: what others may disregard and throw away, God keeps. He redeems. To be kept by God is to be kept safe, to be kept close, to be kept tight. But this blessed “kept-ness” begs an altogether different question, too: What “keeps” us from God? Beyond all our worry and doubts and fears, in each of us there is a hardness: an obstinate corner of our souls into which light struggles to shine. There, we stubbornly tend our own little vineyard of bitter grapes: wrath, anger, apathy, jealousy, hate. There, we feed all those desires and emotions that we’ve been taught to keep at bay, all those thoughts we dare not speak. But in its own, subtle way, that venomous stubbornness leeches out to poison relationships and dreams. It poisons marriages and perspectives. It changes us from the inside out – slowly killing us one unspoken word, one silent thought at a time. Like, the old proverb says, “The person who pursues hate should dig two graves.” The angst. The apathy. The hatred. The doubt. They all harden us – keeping us from the blessing of Love.

It is to this reality that Jesus speaks: “Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you.” Do good to those who hurt you. Do good to those who cheated you. Do good to those who got your promotion. Do good to those who snickered and gossiped and lied about you. It seems, then, that the prescription for a hard heart is a broken heart – a heart that breaks for what breaks God’s. Cling to what is good. Hate evil. Hate oppression. Hate hate. Oh, yes, the Christian is allowed to hate. Like anger, our disgust is a powerful, God-given emotion that can change the world. Hate injustice. Hate corruption. But do not hate the unjust. And do not hate the corrupt – for they are sinners for whom Jesus died, too. They are our brothers; they are our sisters – with common hopes and common needs. They need to be kept, too.

Day Twelve | February 27

TWELVE

Half-Hearted-ness (Apathy)

“A sleepy soul is already an ensnared soul. That soul that will not watch against temptations will certainly fall before the power of temptations. Satan works most strongly on the imagination when the soul is drowsy.” – Thomas Brooks –

ne of the traits that most keeps us from God’s blessedness is apathy. The dictionary defines it as a “lack of interest or the attitude of not caring resulting from it. It is behavior that shows no interest or energy and shows that someone is unwilling to take action, especially over something important.” More than the technical definition we know in our heads, though, we know how apathy feels in our hearts. In fact, one of our beloved retired pastors, Rev. Hiram Johnson, had a poem he shared with us that pictures the lurking danger of spiritual apathy:

“Indifference” by Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged Him on a tree, They drove great nails through hands and feet, and made a Calvary; They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by, They would not hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die; For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain, They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain. Still Jesus cried, ‘Forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ And still it rained the winter rain that drenched Him through and through; The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see, And Jesus crouched against a wall, and cried for Calvary. Are we tuned into the work of Jesus that is always before us? Are we waiting with anticipation for the sound of our Savior’s voice? Or do we go through life shrugging our shoulders with indifference to His call that is all around us?

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We need to be crystal clear of the way that apathy works in our lives: Ignorance means I don’t know. Complacency means I am satisfied with my current status. Laziness means I don’t want to do anything. Apathy means I don’t care. The Scriptures are clear: spiritual apathy is deadly for the soul. Speaking through the prophet Hosea, God rebuked the Israelites for indifference towards God: “But when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me” (Hosea 13:6). Therein lies the rub. The life that forgets God will never really receive the blessings God desires for us. We need to care about the things God cares about. We need to stay alert for the ways we can be about God’s business. The antidote for apathy is to stay tuned in for the presence of God and the call of God that continually calls us to live as disciples. We get our marching orders in the Book of Romans: “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality” (Romans 12:9-13, The Message).

Day Thirteen | February 28

THIRTEEN

Hard-headed-ness (Greed)

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” – Socrates –

here is an ancient story about mysterious sea creatures known as Sirens. Appearing to sailors in the distance, these mythological creatures looked ravishingly beautiful…and the mariners would fixate on them. The sound of their voices was hypnotic, a seductive lure that couldn’t be resisted. Sailors would jump overboard and swim toward the object of their dreams; but upon arrival, what they would discover was a hideous monster – a beast that would drag them into the deep where they would drown and be eaten. Greed is like those ancient sirens. Possessions, accumulation of wealth, and lavish lifestyles can beckon us. They look good; and at first glance, they

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seem like something lovely – something we want, need, and deserve. But, when we answer their call and swim toward them, we can find ourselves face to face with a nightmare. And what we think we want, can actually keep us from God’s blessings. Greed is a state of mind – a kind of hardheadedness – that can rub off on us when we are not aware. It starts with a sense of entitlement – with a hard head and a closed mind. We think, “If I want something, I am owed it. It’s my right.” We get focused on our efforts and on our wants…and we forget about God’s blessings along the way. Several years ago, Andy Stanley listed some traits we need to be aware of. He noticed that greedy people tend to do these things: • • • • • • • • • • •

Talk a lot and worry a lot about money Not cheerful givers Reluctant to share Poor losers Quibble over insignificant sums of money Talk as if they have just enough to get by Often create a climate of secrecy around them Won’t let you forget what they’ve done for you Reluctant to express gratitude Aren’t content with what they have Attempt to control people with their money

How do we battle this mindset that keeps us from living Jesus’ way?

1.) Generosity. We need to be disciplined in giving our time, talents, and wealth to be about Jesus’ work. 2.) Gratitude. Every day, we need to live with an awareness of our blessings and a continual spirit of thankfulness. 3.) Perspective. One hundred years from now, no one will remember our financial gain. We need to stay focused on the legacy that we are leaving behind. Robert Fulghum is a pastor that became a bestselling author who did very well financially. In an interview several years ago, he shared that since his success, people are always saying, “Well, you must have a big house and a big car.” And he responded, “No, I have the same house, same car, same friends, same life.” Fulghum admitted to being on guard against all kinds of greed. He made a commitment to not lose his perspective. He shared that he liked to visit his grave site to be reminded to not forget about the goal of laying up for himself treasures in heaven. And when Fulghum sees the grave, he says to himself, “Don’t get lost here. Know where you’re going.”

Day Fourteen | February 29

FOURTEEN

Sharp-tongued-ness (Meanness)

“I have great hope for a wicked man, slender hope for a mean one. A wicked man may be converted and become a prominent saint. A mean man ought to be converted six or seven times, one right after the other, to give him a fair start and put him on an equality with a bold, wicked man.” – Henry Ward Beecher –

t’s almost unavoidable these days: the meanness spewing from the world. Merciless and petty, appealing to the lowest common denominator of our basest natures, we turn on the television or go online, and the poison of vicious and unfeeling attacks bombard us. And, like a frog stewing in its own pot, we begin to change – slowly, unnoticed, unchecked. We begin to accept the gall and the vitriol. It’s just the way the world is now. But must it be? Slowly we begin to change as we find ourselves tempted to stoop to the levels of the world: fighting fire with fire – never realizing that, in that scorching warfare, everyone gets burned.

Grown from the seeds of mistrust and antagony, do we not know that the meanness we see in our news, in our schools, and in our homes threatens the very fabric of who we are? It threatens us as a nation and, more, as a Church. Lost in a hell of our own making, we duck and hide. We try to cover our ears. We try to cover our eyes. We try to shield our souls. Keep it at a distance! Keep it at bay! Don’t let the darkness in! But perhaps the answer isn’t found in keeping the dark from getting in; perhaps the answer – indeed, the blessing – is found in letting the Light get out, for that is the only way to fight darkness. In a world such as ours, it is only truth that can overcome deceit. It is only love that can overcome spite. It is only courageous generosity that can overcome the fear that feeds the malice all around. It is only Jesus, the gracious and everlasting Lord, who can - who has - won this battle. For even there, on Calvary’s rugged hill, Jesus absorbed the hate and anger and cruelty of the masses, and He transformed them. He turned the ugliness of their searing animosity into something beautiful: hope and goodness and love. From death, He brought forth life. It remains, though, for us, His followers, to do the same: to love mercy, to act justly, and to walk humbly with our God who came to end – once and for all – the warring madness of our meanness.

Day Fifteen | March 1

FIFTEEN

Proud-tongued-ness (Arrogance)

“The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.” – Samuel Butler –

“N

o one likes a know-it-all,” my father used to (have to) remind me. Braggarts and boasters, the arrogant of lip and suave of tongue – all these, alike, suffer the same dreaded condition: pride. At least, on the surface, it seems like pride, like arrogance run amok. Dig just beneath the surface, though. Scratch the shiny, golden polish; and many times, what we’ll find is a scared, anxious soul trying to make do in a world that’s daunting. It’s bravado masquerading as bravery and ego compensating for insecurity. And among the greatest tools for that over-compensating

work are our words. “How great a forest is set ablaze by the tongue,” the Book of James says; “how large a ship turned by such a small rudder.” But how often do our words – and the soul beneath them – keep us from the Almighty? How often do our curses keep us from being blessed? (James would offer that question, too.) We must remember that our words hold power. Like God in those first dazzling moments of creation, we can speak and create wondrous beauty, or we can speak to create misery and pain. With our words, we can create hope or despair; we can create violence or peace. The power of heaven and the abyss of hell are both contained in the same small place. And rather than get lost in a flurry of arrogant words, we would do well to tame the tongue, to offer it in humble surrender to the Divine that God might speak through us.

Day Sixteen | March 2

SIXTEEN

Forked-tongued-ness (Dishonesty)

“You’ll never get mixed up if you simply tell the truth. Then you don’t have to remember what you have said, and you never forget what you have said.” – Sam Rayburn –

or a society to be blessed, there seems to be one measuring stick that stands out from the pages of history. We can measure the goodness and morality of that society by that measure: Were the people honest? Did they keep their promises? Were they honest and trustworthy… • In their marriages/families/business dealings? • In their relationships with other nations? • In their relationship with God?

Those moments where honesty and truthfulness are greatly valued will be the bright shining moments that the people will remember and cherish. Truth is the foundation for a fair and just society. In court, we require witnesses to swear to tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” because only that way can justice be delivered. And what’s true of society at large is true of our lives, as well. Most world religions place a high value on the principle of truthfulness. In fact, when we analyze the Ten Commandments, five of them deal with honesty. If we get this one trait right, we will be well on our way to living a good, holy, and moral life that will bring blessing to our lives and to the world around us. But if we fail, surely misery will follow, too. And it is a choice we have to make every day: will we be good and faithful stewards of our thoughts and of our words? Will we keep to the straight way of righteousness and holiness, speaking the truth in love…or will we stray down the path of deception and evil – speaking the native tongue of the devil (John 8:44)? In the years following his presidency, Thomas Jefferson had two great passions: democracy and public education. He had a great dream to bring those two things together in the creation of a new public college where the students would practice self-governance. In this university, there would be

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no rules or regulations; the good will and judgment of the students would run the college. After years of careful planning, the school finally opened. President Jefferson was overjoyed. But as the months went by, the students proved time and time again that they were not the models of virtue and discipline and good judgment that the president had envisioned. On October 3, 1825, in what he later described as a “most painful event,” Thomas Jefferson appeared before a gathering of students, professors, and trustees inside the now-famed Rotunda at the University of Virginia. Recent unruly student behavior had culminated in an attack on two professors with bricks and canes that was quickly followed by threats by faculty to resign. Open less than a year, the university Jefferson had conceived, designed, and championed through Virginia’s legislature was suddenly in jeopardy. The president, then 82 years old and very frail, tried to remind the students of the lofty principles upon which the college had been founded. He shared that he had expected much, much more from the students. As he was speaking, suddenly he stopped. Tears welled up in his eyes; he was so overcome with grief, that he sat down, unable to go on. The audience was so touched that, at the conclusion of the meeting, 14 offenders stepped forward to admit their guilt. But they could not undo what had been done. A strict code of conduct was

put in place and many regulations established. The former president reflected on what had gone wrong; and he realized that he had taken for granted the one essential ingredient necessary for any democracy to succeed: the virtue, goodness, and honesty of its people.

Week Four:

…Make His Face Shine Upon You…

“Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; Save me in Your lovingkindness.” – Psalm 31:16 –

Day Seventeen | March 4

SEVENTEEN

Worship

“In general rejoice in Him and make a fool of yourself for Him the way lovers have always made fools of themselves for the one they love.” – Frederick Buechner –

here is a beautiful and powerful detail that sometimes gets lost in our English translations of the Old Testament: it has to do with the way we understand being in God’s presence. Literally, the Hebrew says that we stand “in the face” of the Lord. Think about that for a moment. We are invited into the very presence of the King – to see His face: the brightness of His eyes, the furrow of His brow…to see and be seen by the Almighty! That is what it means to have the Lord turn His face toward us. It means that He sees

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us, that He pursues us, that He cares enough to pay attention to us. But will we do the same? In the 1970s, a crew of British Petroleum pipeline workers ran across something curious about 12 miles off the coast of Scotland: it was an old German U-Boat. In fact, it was one of the last U-Boats ever sunk in WWII. Unlike so many of its fellow subs, though, this one’s demise came about – not because of a torpedo or depth charge; this one came about because someone flushed the toilet incorrectly – it’s the only known at-sea disaster caused by a commode. The U-Boat (U1206) was a new design of submarine – a design German engineers were proud of: one that exited wastewater directly into the sea rather than storing it onboard. The thing about this new venting system, though, was that in order for it to work, the air pressure inside the sub had to be greater than the water pressure on the outside…and I bet you can see where this is going. According to the records, on April 14, 1945, just weeks before Germany would surrender, while on a deep-water mission, the captain of U-1206 had to “excuse himself;” and rather than waiting for the sub to come to an appropriate depth where the air pressure was adequate to flush, he just went ahead and flushed the toilet. With the pressure outside the boat being much greater than that on the inside, ocean water immediately came rushing into the sub – flooding the battery room directly

underneath the toilets. Powerless (literally) to do anything, the captain gave the order to abandon ship just moments before the U-Boat sank. We need to realize that we live in an eerily similar environment – with pressure all around us. We’re pressured to fit in, pressured to succeed, pressured to win and to achieve and to excel. We’re surrounded by the pressure to look just right: to say and to have all the right things. We’re pressured to fudge just a little here and there, to skimp on what we know to be right and good and true…and that pressure can ruin our witness. It can sink us. That’s the way of this world…but God invites us to a more excellent way. A way of blessing and favor and sanctified obedience. And one of the most powerful, practical things that we can do to bear up to the pressures we “face” all around is to turn our face toward God – to turn our face to the One who’s turned His face toward us. It is to thrust ourselves onto that holy ground where we experience Him, where we reflect upon and respond to all His goodness. And it is a daily call. If the pressures we face are constant; then so, too, should be our worship – remembering our brokenness and woundedness and sin…and remembering Christ’s great salvation. Worship reminds us that we are not who we claim, fake, or pretend to be. In fact, it reminds us that we are so much more: that we are sons and daughters of the King, that we are co-heirs

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with Christ. Worship should remind us of our value: that we are worth the price of the Son of God. For our times in God’s presence, refuse to leave us hopeless; they refuse to leave us feeling abandoned or guilty or ashamed. Our times with the Almighty should, instead, inspire us. They should fill us with such hope and such energy that we engage life with a new passion and vigor. Our spirits should sing and stomp and shout. We should scurry forth wanting to change the world…or at least wanting to change ourselves.

Day Eighteen | March 5

EIGHTEEN

Silence

“To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever present, all seeing within you.” – Theophan the Recluse –

am a person who likes being around other people. I like to talk, visit on the phone, and generally keep up with what’s going on around me. I naturally resist being alone and have fought restlessly against times of silence. That did not change until life brought seasons of pain and great loss. When I found myself in places where life was overwhelming and I didn’t think I could breathe, I discovered that my only solace was found in silence. Literally, I had to let my mind “descend into my heart” so that I could stand before the face of God.

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In a world filled with distractions, we need to let God’s face shine upon us through silence. That is why Thomas Merton’s quote, decades old, still feels as relevant as ever: “The world of men has forgotten the joys of silence, the peace of solitude which is necessary, to some extent, for the fullness of human living… When that inner voice is not heard…life is always miserable and exhausting…If man is constantly exiled from his own home, locked out of his own spiritual solitude, he ceases to be a true person.” Without silence, we struggle to know ourselves and who God created us to be. When our minds are constantly filled with outside stimuli, it becomes impossible to make space for the lessons that silence can teach us about God, about ourselves, and about His work in the world each day. The way to grow silence is not to start with a week-long silent retreat at a monastery somewhere in the desert. We start with baby steps, working with our own distinct personalities. When we start, these powerful moments with God will become increasingly important to us. We can start with these simple steps: 1.) Take a breather. Sometimes, even just a few seconds of quiet can be enough to lift our minds and hearts. Start by taking just a few deep breaths to invite calm into the moment. Take a little time to appreciate something that God has done for us, pray for somebody, or reflect on something

we read recently. It doesn’t need to be long or complicated, just the fact that we are doing it makes a big difference. 2.) Carve out 10 minutes in the morning or evening. Life is hectic…but the more hectic it is, the more important setting aside time is for silence. Set a timer and commit that time for prayer, meditation, and contemplation. As we continue the practice, we’ll find that not only does it get easier, but that we won’t want to go without it. And soon, this resetting of our soul and conversation with God will start to affect our entire day. 3.) Incorporate silence into events and activities. Silence doesn’t have to be separate from whatever we’re doing; we can make intentional time for it. We can add 5-10 minutes of silent prayer and reflection to our small group or family time. Go on a walk and turn off the music or podcast. Find a quiet spot to eat lunch during the workday. Once we start looking, we’ll find that opportunities abound. Our world is busy and distracted. Silence grounds us in our current reality and makes the external matter less. It allows us to listen for God amidst the chaos of daily life. By quieting the world around us, and quieting our minds, we can let go of our worries and sit with God in this moment and every moment.

Day Nineteen | March 6

NINETEEN

Prayer

“In prayer, it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” – John Bunyan –

ne of the most powerful ways to experience the blessing of God’s presence and the certainty of His face shining upon us is through prayer. At its basic level, prayer is communication with God. We can have the assurance that God knows our hearts and hears our prayers. When we pray, it is not so that we can get what we want from God. Rather, prayer is a way to connect with Him and realign our hearts with His. What a powerful image for prayer: connecting with God and realigning our hearts with His. Think about what happens to our car when the tires are out of alignment:

• They tend to drag the car to the side, forcing the driver to keep a hard grip on the steering wheel. • They adversely affect how the vehicle brakes and handles, compromising safety on the road. • They force the vehicle to consume more fuel. The same things happen to us when we do not have an active prayer life. We tend to get off course, and it takes a hard grip to not get in trouble. We can also miss the warning signs and compromise our safety. Additionally, we start to rely upon ourselves, and it requires a lot more energy to face life’s challenges. Just as a car’s bad alignment can’t correct itself without professional help, so we too can’t find our spiritual path without the constant help and guidance of the Master. A friend and I share a common prayer discipline. We call it “Quiet Time & Meeting with the Boss.” And what we’ve found together is that amazing things have started to happen as we’ve aligned our wills with He who created the universe – peace and hope and joy and purpose. God’s greatest desire is to have an intimate connection with us. Hebrews 4:16 shows us how: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” When we pray boldly, we will know God’s desire to make His face shine upon us. Would you join me

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in this prayer: “Lord, we offer ourselves this day for the work you want accomplished, for the people you want us to meet, for the word you want to be uttered, for the silence you want us to enter, for the new ways you want pioneered. Go with us along the way, Lord, and enable us to realize your presence, at all times and in all places. Amen.”

Day Twenty | March 7

TWENTY

Fasting

“You could say that prayer without fasting is like boxing with one hand tied behind your back, and that fasting without prayer is, well, dieting.” – Matt Fradd –

o, here we are: 20 days into our 40-day journey. We’re exactly halfway through, and the cross begins to loom eerily before us out on the horizon. The shouts of Jerusalem grow near, and the 30 pieces of silver are being collected. And, by now, some of us are probably beginning to wonder why we’re on this road to begin with. What’s the point of it all? Why are we studying? Why are we fasting? And let’s be honest: for most of us, fasting is something we only do 12 hours before we go to have blood work done at the doctor’s office. And

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even then, we grumble and stew as if 12 hours of not eating will be the end of us. We fuss about the hassle; we fret about pain, and we grumble about the inconvenience of it all. And maybe that’s it: maybe it is the inconvenience that annoys us most. We live in worlds that we’ve manufactured to meet our every need, to cover our every want, and to sate our every desire. We’ve become gluttons to ease and convenience and comfort. Our bellies, our lives, our souls are already full with the delicacies of this life. And we’re full, not because we’ve sat at the feast of devils – we know better than that. It’s not that we’ve over-indulged in one or two major indiscretions. We’re full because we have nibbled all too readily and all too frequently on the common, ordinary stuff of this life – a little here and a little there…and we’ve done so at the expense of the extraordinary, at the expense of the sacred. Lent, though, invites us to go beyond all of that. It calls us to verge into new spiritual territory, to dare to do life differently – in the face of God. These days challenge us to find and to focus on what is holy, on what is noble and pure and good. That is why the Church, for centuries, has called the faithful to fast during these holy days that lead us into Easter. It is a challenge to embrace emptiness as a meaningful experience of sacrifice and to embrace pain as a reminder of God’s suffering for us. It is for us to deny our hunger for food and to stoke our hunger for God.

Fasting is the blessing of less. Fasting is the blessing of simplicity. Fasting is the blessing of letting go. For it is from that spirit of willful self-denial that true penitence springs – when we will voluntarily give up that which makes life easy in the hope of finding something (and Someone) that makes life worthwhile.

Day Twenty-One | March 8

TWENTY-ONE

Scripture

“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” – Martin Luther –

he notorious criminal Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks. His answer was quick…and profound. “Because that’s where the money is,” he said. Sutton knew exactly where to go to find what he sought. And the question lingers: Do we? Do we know where to go to find what we’re looking for? Or, maybe even better, do we actually know what we’re looking for? Beyond all the bling

and baubles of this life, for what are we searching? Meaning? Purpose? Hope? Are we looking for love? That transcendent thrill of joy? These days of Lent will be squandered if, at some point, we don’t confront questions like these – to strain and struggle against the darkness within us to arrive at the Light all around us: God’s face shining upon us. Sadly, too many prefer the shadows to the light, though. We think there’s safety in the shadows – anonymity, privacy, seclusion. But there’s also great fear – the dark is where things go bump in the night. The Bible is clear: there is nothing that is done in the dark that will not be exposed in the light (Luke 12:2-3). There is nothing that God doesn’t already know…and nothing that He can’t already redeem. All we have to do is approach the light. All we have to do is remove whatever is getting in its way – that’s what forms the shadows to begin with. And God gave us His Word to do that very thing. It tells us where to go, what to do, and who to be to find what we’re looking for. From its beginning to its very end, the Bible is the story of God’s unflinching, unfailing love for all of us. It tells us that there is hope. It tells us that there is grace. It tells us that this world is not our home and that God has a purpose and a place for each of us. But how will we ever know God’s will if we don’t know His Word?

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And just as important as why we read the Bible is how we read the Bible. For it seems that too often in our times of study, we focus on information. We dwell on names and places and events. We try to eke out the last little nuance of what a story might be trying to teach us. And that’s a great first step, but it is certainly not the last. It’s not enough for us to read simply with our heads; we must move deeper to read with our hearts, as well – not just for information, but for transformation…finding ourselves by losing ourselves in the light of God’s Word!

Day Twenty-Two | March 9

TWENTY-TWO

Service “Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” – Martin Luther King Jr. –

e know that, as followers of Jesus, we are called to serve. But we forget that this is not a burden laid upon us, but a joy we’re given to help us feel God’s face shining upon us. For it is in serving that we find meaning and purpose. We find connection and freedom. We find our heart and we find our voice in helping others out in big ways and little, alike. When we will have an “other” orientation rather than a “me” orientation, we will find joy and meaning that can’t be found anywhere else. Service for us should become a daily attitude. Every day, we should ask:

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• How can I help somebody today? • Where can I serve? • How can I be the hands of Jesus to someone today? Fred Craddock told a wonderful story: “We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table: ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that God sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor’s troubles instead of saying ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little.” Here is where the rubber hits the road with our faith: Are we spectators of life, content to watch and critique what others are trying to do? Or do we know that we are all called to be servants – people who hear God’s call every day and say, “Here I am Lord, send me, use me”? The late Elijah Cummings was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was deeply respected for his character and leadership. In his first house speech in 1996, he quoted a poem written by civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Mays: “‘I only have a minute. Sixty seconds in it. Forced

upon me, I did not choose it. But I know that I must use it, give account if I abuse it, suffer if I lose it. Only a tiny little minute, but eternity is in it.’” They are challenging words that lead to an even more challenging question: How will we use our minute?

Week Five:

…and Be Gracious To You…

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:8-10 –

Day Twenty-Three | TWENTY-THREE March 11 A Gracious God “Could it be that we are so worn and desperate for ways to better ourselves because we’ve missed the power, inherent in the grace of God, that eradicates self-improvement altogether? Is it possible that we keep trying to answer the wrong question – ‘Am I enough?’ – when we’re really wanting to know: ‘Is God Enough?’” – Ruth Chou Simons –

od’s grace is a free gift, often described with terms like “undeserved” or “unmerited favor.” God doesn’t count peoples’ successes and failures to determine who receives His love or life. Instead, from the kind intention of His will, God gives all goodness freely. In fact, in Scripture, God refers to Himself as gracious.

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People grow up with many images of God. For some, God is a distant source of energy out there in the universe. For others, God is an angry deity ready to zap those who get out of line. We need to remember how God describes Himself: Exodus 34:6: “The Lord passed before [Moses] and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.’” Psalm 103:8-10: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.” The biblical authors use “gracious” to capture one way God describes Himself. In our modern world, “gracious” often describes a generally kind or courteous person. Sometimes, it refers to gentle attitudes in difficult situations: “He was gracious to that rude customer.” Or it can illustrate a forgiving, compassionate person: “How gracious of her to give you a warning,” or “The judge’s lenient sentence was gracious.” These different “gracious” definitions are united by one key theme: one gives goodness to another out of love – not because the other deserves it. When Scriptures say that God is gracious toward us, the idea being conveyed is that God treasures us, delights in us, and desires good for us.

One of the many mistakes my wife and I made in parenting was that we took our daughter Chandler to see the movie “Twister” when she was only 8 years old. The theater was packed, and we had to sit on the front row. And the special effects were too realistic and terrifying for Chandler. She grew up with an enormous fear of tornadoes. Not long after the movie, there were storms building up in the area, and we got tornado warnings. Needless to say, Chandler got very upset. She said, “God is mad at me. God is going to send a tornado here to punish me because I haven’t been going to church.” I remember trying to calm her and comfort her in that moment. I said, “Honey, God isn’t mad at you. God loves you more than you can imagine. Do you know how much I love you? God loves you more than that!” We must never forget that graciousness is the essence of God’s very nature. He always shows us favor, even when we betray Him or turn our backs on Him. Throughout the Bible, we see the God of the universe consistently finding ways to reconcile with a hard-hearted, fearful, hurting humanity. He loves us; and because of that, He gives us the best He’s got, including Himself.

Day Twenty-Four | March 12

TWENTY-FOUR

A Merciful God

“Trust the past to the mercy of God, the present to His love, and the future to His providence.” – Saint Augustine –

ercy fuels compassion, providing promising glints of light in a darkened world. It is kindness, forgiveness, and empathy. Mercy chooses not to be offended, and compassionately sees a hurting heart behind hurtful words. And as this season will prove, the blessing of God’s mercy is reflected best in the cross of Christ – it is a direct reflection of His love for us, for mercy captures the very heart of God. One of our most beloved hymns is based on Lamentations 3:22-23: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an

end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” The hymn was written by a Pentecostal pastor who struggled with illness and disability for most of his life. He was moved by the promise of Lamentations and wrote a poem about it. Once finished, he sent his poem to a fellow pastor who scored the melody for the tune. Soon after, George Beverly Shea was asked to sing the newlyconfigured hymn on the Moody Bible Institute radio station. A young student at Wheaton College at the time, Billy Graham was listening to the radio when he heard the song “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” Inspired, he asked George Shea to sing it as part of his ministry of evangelism. Eventually, through the many crusades put on by Billy Graham, the song “Great is Thy Faithfulness” became internationally known. The message of the hymn is simple. It reminds us of the amazing faithfulness of our Heavenly Father. He has been, is, and always will be compassionate and unchanging. In every season, in every aspect of creation, we can bear witness to His everlasting faithfulness. Although we may sin, God is rich in mercy and continuously forgives His people of their many transgressions. With each new morning that passes by, God brings new mercies, providing everything we need when we need it. In the toughest of times, we need to lean into and

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rely on the mercy of God. Philip Yancey, the great Christian author, tells of his father‑in‑law, a Bible teacher and committed Christian. The older man’s faith troubled him in his final years. A degenerative nerve disease confined him to bed, preventing him from sharing in most of the activities he enjoyed. During the most severe crisis, he composed a Christmas letter and mailed it to family members and friends. He expressed his uneasy feelings about many things he had once taught. What could he believe with certainty? The old Bible teacher staked his faith on three realities. Here was his list: “Life is difficult. God is merciful. Heaven is sure.” Those three things, he concluded, he could count on without reservation! …and so can we.

Day Twenty-Five | March 13

TWENTY-FIVE

A Faithful God

“The same everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow, and every day. Either He will shield you from suffering, or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.” – St. Francis de Sales –

thought I was being frugal. Prudent. Wise, even. Newly married, I decided to trade my “college car” in for a family car. Okay, so it was a Suburban…but that was the family “sedan” of central Texas at the time. I was still a full-time student, working a parttime job at the Methodist church across town…so money was tight. We certainly couldn’t afford to buy anything new. That’s when I made my fatal mistake: I looked online. For just a few hundred dollars more than I had, one popular online auction site promised me that I could own a “slightly used” blue Chevy SUV…and I was sold. We cobbled together the little

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money we had, and I bought my very own lemon! When it arrived, my navy Suburban was more in the family teal, and my “slightly used” seats had holes and stains and an ungodly stench that smelled of ammonia and cigarettes. Needless to say I was disappointed…and mad. I was mad at the vendor. And I was mad at myself. And we tried to make the best of it. We had the car painted, and we had it cleaned. But it was no use. Once a lemon, always a lemon. In the end, we wound up selling it for a loss. Even now, as I look back, I am embarrassed. I’m ashamed that I’d let myself get taken in and conned. And I wonder how many of us have felt like that when it comes to faith. The wayside of the Lenten journey is littered with the remains of those who have abandoned the faith, with those who have given up. I know that wayside well because I was almost over there for a season in my life. I had bought into the Way of Christ thinking that it was supposed to be easy. I had become a Christian with the expectation that life thereafter was supposed to be smooth. Then the storms came. And the hardships. And the rejection. And the loss. It was not what I had been promised. But, even there, God worked a miracle: healing and hope, and a more expansive understanding of the road that

leads to Him – a road that leads to a cross…and beyond. We must understand – and even deeper, we have to accept – that faith is no guarantee that life is going to be easy. Remember Daniel was saved in the lions’ den, not from the lions’ den. Remember Jesus saved us on the cross; He wasn’t saved from the cross. We have to accept that faith will call us to walk through the valleys of the shadow of death, but even there, the Psalmist says that God is with us (Psalm 23) because He is faithful. It’s like Oswald Chambers said, “When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendship – when He gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.” In fiery furnaces and lions’ dens, alike. Through battles and storms, struggles and doubt, God is present. God is powerful. God is faithful. And He’s real. And because of that, seas still split and walls still crumble and giants still fall and mountains still move. God doesn’t give up. God doesn’t fall down. And He won’t let go. Even in our faithlessness, He remains faithful – true to His words and present in His love. No, the steep and winding road might not have been what we were promised…but what we find is that faith – real faith, gritty faith, tenacious faith – always leads us to something even greater!

Day Twenty-Six | March 14

TWENTY-SIX

A Longsuffering God

“But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” – Psalm 86:15 –

grew up in the church and was raised in the “lap of Christ,” so there’s never been a time that I didn’t know that Jesus died for my sins. But, looking back, I think that made it all the easier to take His sacrifice for granted. And I did. It became my regular pattern: I’d go out with my friends on a Saturday night, and we’d have “big fun.” But then I’d come home, and the guilt would set in. The things I’d said. The things I’d done. It

all washed over me like an unending deluge of shame. And I’d run back to Jesus. I’d turn on the television in my room, and I’d go to one of the 17 channels that actually came through. I would tune into the Christian network we had, and I’d wait for the preacher to offer the Sinner’s Prayer…and I’d pray it. “Lord, I confess that I’m a sinner, and that I need your grace. Save me and spare me. I confess You as my Savior and receive you as my Lord.” I can’t begin to count the number of times I prayed that prayer. I can count the number of times I truly meant it, though: zero. To have sincerely meant it would have changed me. It would’ve transformed me. I would have become something different, something new. But it never did. They were just empty words hurled self-servingly towards a deafened ceiling. There was no heart behind them. There was no soul. There was only a scared teenaged boy who didn’t understand what faith really meant. It means that we have a Savior, absolutely. But it also means that we have a Lord – that Jesus is our Master, our Boss. We are merely His servants. And there have been times when I’ve wondered what God felt when I said those feeblyworded prayers. For years, I assumed He just disregarded them – if He even heard. But I’ve grown convinced that that assumption is wrong. Instead, I think God ached for me. I think He knew

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my struggles and my heart even better than I did at the time…and He knew that, in the end, I’d finally understand. It is that long-view from God’s perspective that allows His patience. He is a longsuffering God. He bears with us. He endures with us. He knows what happens in the end. It is His fierce, tenacious love that refuses to quit, that refuses to give up on us – even when we feel like giving up on ourselves. It is that mercy that suffers long that keeps opening the doors we slam shut. It is that grace that suffers long that keeps calling us home…for a day is coming when it will be too late – the great and fearsome Day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5). But until that day comes, He won’t quit… and neither should we! For faith is an exercise in sticking. It’s an experiment in longsuffering and endurance and patience and grit. It’s about getting up when we get knocked down and about extending God’s love and longsuffering mercy to all those around us, too. It is a daily exercise in not taking God for granted – for our sakes and for the sake of all those Christ suffered long to love, as well.

Day Twenty-Seven | TWENTY-SEVEN March 15 A Forgiving God

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable in others because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” – C.S. Lewis –

ust three little words. That’s all they were. But they changed the world…and they changed me. “Father, forgive them.” He’d been mocked and rejected, beaten and betrayed. But on the cross, Jesus looked down into the eyes of those who’d abandoned Him, and He prayed. In agony, He prayed…for us.

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What kind of anguished love could produce such mercy? What sort of boundless compassion could produce such grace? Only God’s. It is, perhaps, one of the best pictures that we have of the true nature of God: He is a forgiving God. Far from the fiery-eyed tyrant too many have feared Him to be – a God who waits with eager anticipation to “zap” us the moment we step out of line, God waits, yes…but only for us to return. He woos us with His mercy. He beckons us with His grace. And in His divine patience, He wants only for our good. It is a blessing that only the Prince of Peace could bestow. But how often do we miss it? How often do we let it pass us by? Either we play around with our sin – thinking God a doting, cosmic pushover approving of everything we want or do. Or we linger at the other extreme: we refuse to let go, holding on to the guilt of our broken past as if somehow we’re doing our holy duty, atoning for our own sin and shame. God is not permissive, but neither is He punitive. He may discipline us, yes…but it’s only and always for our own good. For He’s the loving Father who wishes only the best for His kids. And fathers – good fathers – know how to forgive. It is the great blessing atonement – getting right with God, not because of anything we’ve done but because of what He’s done for us. It’s the great gift of redemption – not because of who we are, but

because of who He is. Through Jesus’ sacrifice for us, we find new hope, new life, new love. We find an altogether new way to live: gentler and humbler and free. For years, Bruce Larson, the great Presbyterian pastor, worked in New York City and counseled folks who were struggling to believe. They struggled to hold on, and they struggled to let go. And often, he said, he would suggest that they walk with him from his office down to Rockefeller Center on Fifth Avenue. At the entrance of that building was a gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all his muscles straining, held the world upon his shoulders. “There he is, the most powerfully built man in the world, and he can barely stand up under this burden. Now that’s one way to live,” he would say, “trying to carry the world on your shoulders.” Then he’d invite them to cross the street. On the other side of Fifth Avenue is Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, and there behind the high altar is a little shrine of the boy Jesus, perhaps 8 or 9 years old, who, with no effort at all, holds the whole world in one hand. And he said that his point was always made. We have a choice. We always have a choice, a daily decision: we can carry the world on our shoulders…or we can say, “I give up, Lord. I surrender. Here’s my life. Here’s my world. Take it. Take me. And forgive me.” Just three little words changed the world…but

six are needed to respond: “Thank you, Jesus! I am yours.”

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Day Twenty-Eight | TWENTY-EIGHT March 16 A Restoring God

“Where do we even start on the daily walk of restoration and awakening? We start where we are.” – Anne Lamott –

he good news of God’s graciousness toward is us that we are not only forgiven, but we are restored to new life. In the New Testament, we see Jesus live a ministry of restoration. He restores sight to the blind, the ability to walk to the crippled, hearing to the deaf, and healing to the diseased. In all of these accounts, Jesus didn’t just heal a condition. He restored life, security, and hope to broken people. When we understand God’s nature, we should live with a new spirit. The best way to own what

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God has done for us is to be on the lookout to help restore other wounded, hurting people. We are used to “red letter” editions of the New Testament – editions that put all of the words spoken by Jesus into bold red type. What we aren’t used to is seeing that each and every one of us are Jesus’ red letters for our day and time. Tom Davis wrote a wonderful book called “Red Letters: Living a Faith That Bleeds.” In his book, he claims that, as Christians, we are not just called to love and live the propositions of Jesus found in the red-letters, but to become those red-letters, to “Think Red” and to “Be Red” in everything we do. If we get this – that we are truly “red letter” children of God – we need to color everything red: everyone we touch, everywhere we go. The color of sacrificial love, poured out for our sake, is the color with which we paint the world. When we give our lives to Christ, you and I become His representatives. Literally, we are His hands and feet and heart that show what His gospel is all about. When the space shuttle was orbiting planet Earth, the landscape of this beautiful planet was plainly visible. The oceans swirl blue, mountain ranges rear up brown and white, rain forests create great green swaths. But there is one human construction that is visible from an orbiting altitude. Only one. The Great Wall of China. The biggest thing we project to the universe is a barrier. A barrier created as much to keep one

group of people in as to keep another group of people out. Our most visible “achievement” from afar is a rippling scar across the landscape – a wall that screams to the stars, “There is an Us, there is a Them.” To be a red-letter Christian means we are not called to build walls, but to form circles, circles that don’t look inward but outward. We cannot build a wall around those who are “in” the church and those who are “outside” the church. We cannot build a wall around our lives with the false security of money. We cannot build a wall around our time – keeping most for “us,” giving some to “them.” To be a red-letter Christian means we tear down the walls. It means we will love those Christ loves, and will go where Jesus went. Jesus taught us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Will we love God’s way? Will we carry on Jesus’ ministry of restoration?

Week Six:

…The Lord Turn His Face Towards You….

…The Lord Turn His Face Towards You…. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:15-16 –

Day Twenty-Nine | March 18

TWENTY-NINE

Conviction

“I know that I had not faith, unless the faith of a devil, the faith of Judas – that speculative, notional, airy shadow, which lives in the head, not in the heart. But what is this to the living, justifying faith, the faith that cleanses from sin?” – John Wesley –

t would be crowded and hot – with the mooing of cattle in the background and the cooing of doves – as the priests would lift their hands to speak holy, God-given words: “May the Lord turn His face toward you.” Stop. Imagine that scene. Put yourself there. With the commotion of the Temple all around you, with the sights and sounds and smells, hear those words. Feel them. Own them.

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It is still God’s promise to us: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous” (1 Peter 3:12). God sees us. God watches us. He knows us, inside and out. And He wants to be a part of our lives – to bless us and to favor us. But there is so much that gets in the way. Our doubt. Our worry. Our fear. Our shame. Most of all, our sin. Just as surely as any wall we might build, sin separates us from God; it distances us from the heart of the Savior. “Your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear,” the Prophet Isaiah pointedly writes (Isaiah 59:2). It’s a barrier of greed and hate, of apathy and lust and pride. And it’s one that’s built one brick, one choice at a time – us going our own way, us doing our own thing regardless of what Jesus commands. But here’s what I’ve found: when I feel distanced from God, it’s never because God has run away…it’s always because I’ve run away. It’s always because I’ve turned my face from the face of the Father. It is an awesome and terrifying and grace-filled moment, though, when we reach that conclusion: when we are convinced of the reality of our brokenness and the wretchedness of our sin. And it’s only the Holy Spirit who can do that holy and supremely-necessary work in us – convicting us of

our transgressions. But it’s uncomfortable. Maybe that’s why we fight it. We want faith and the way of Christ to be easy and convenient and nice. We want to sterilize the cross. But a faith devoid of pain is a faith devoid of power. In fact, Karl Barth once said that the greatest danger to the gospel (and, therefore, to authentic Christianity) is not that it would be rejected, but that it would be comfortably accepted like everything else, that it would be owned like everything else we own. What he meant, of course, is that the greatest danger to the gospel is that it be domesticated and tamed and controlled – made to serve our own selfish desires and ends… that it would lose its cutting edge. That it would dull. But there is no dullness in conviction. It hurts. Like any operation that removes disease, it hurts… but we are always the better for the pain. It’s meant to heal us and to bring us back to God. That’s the important distinction. Conviction is not guilt. Though they may feel much the same, their effects couldn’t be more different. Guilt is the work of the devil: telling us that God couldn’t possibly love broken people like us. It wants to drive a wedge between us – furthering the distance and doubt and despair. Conviction, on the other hand, is the work of the Spirit: calling us home, wooing us home. It tells us that, yes, there are things that have gotten in the way…but that God loves us so much

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that He wants to rid our lives of all the barriers. It’s the power of God that opens our eyes and turns our faces towards our neediness and to His enough-ness. In Thailand, there’s a statue of the Buddha that sits just over nine feet tall. It weighs nearly fiveand-a-half tons…and it’s made entirely of solid, 18 carat gold. Estimates of its worth range around $250 million: a quarter of a billion dollars…but for centuries, no one knew its real value. When the Burmese invaded Thailand in the mid-1700s, it’s believed that the Thai villagers covered the Buddha with layers of clay and mud so that the invading army wouldn’t steal it. It wasn’t until 1955, when workers tried to move the statue to a new location, that the mud began to chip away – revealing the true nature of the form. Through the cracks, they began to see the glinting, glittering gold…just a glimpse, just a hint through the mud and the muck. I want us to sit. And I want us to ponder. And I want us to pray. I want us to think about all the muck that covers us: all our sin, all our pain, all our struggles. I want us to own the dryness of this season…then, to see as God sees: to spy through the cracks and see the treasure beneath, just waiting to emerge. I want conviction to do its holy, sanctifying work in us…and in me: bringing us back to the Lord – for that’s the only place we find freedom and joy and peace. For it is there where,

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as the beloved hymn tells it, we turn our eyes upon Jesus, and look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace!

Day Thirty | March 19

THIRTY

Confession

“Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God.” – Pope John Paul II –

hen I was a junior in high school, a group of us were working on our class float to be in the homecoming parade. Someone had the great idea to borrow a scaffold from a local builder to use. Of course, it was a Tuesday night and no one thought to ask the builder. We were going to borrow it for the week, and then return it after we were done. The plan went fine, until someone on Saturday night set it on fire. The next day, the builder saw it and was hopping mad. I got

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the phone call that the junior leaders were going to be called into the principal’s office the next day for our transgression. I was horrified. I am – and always have been – a total rule follower, so my mind went to the darkest of places. I thought: “We will get sent to prison. I’ll have a record and never get into college.” I was miserable about it and was pacing in the yard waiting for my parents to get home to tell them what had happened. When they pulled up, I ran to them and started sobbing. Through tears, I told them the story…and I expected them to lower the boom on me. But they were kind and sympathetic. And they lifted me up. I expected judgment, and I got mercy and grace. Later in life, when I was a parent, I talked to my mother about that moment. She said, “You were always so hard on yourself, we never had the heart to punish you.” Looking back, what was taking place was confession. I had sinned, gotten caught, and desperately wanted to share my transgression. I needed to find forgiveness and to try to make things right. What I was doing with my parents that night, was something we continually need to do with God. We sin. We blow it. We fail. But how to we respond? Do we pack all of that negativity inside of ourselves, thinking that God

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shouldn’t really love us? Or do we throw ourselves on the mercy of God, who wants to restore us? Confession is rooted in our understanding of God. As 1 John 1:9 states: “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Confession of sin is an invitation to experience the love and mercy of God. Literally, it is a way of recognizing God and pledging our lives anew to follow Him. Confession acknowledges the messy parts of our lives, but it also reminds us of how much we need a Savior. When we find forgiveness and restoration, we are freed to grasp more tightly the loving presence of Jesus. The old hymnwriter put it beautifully: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!” The truth is, we all carry a lot of burdens. We forfeit a lot of peace because we do not fully claim the amazing blessing of confession, for there’s a wonderful feeling of peace that we receive immediately after it. We may not realize the weight of guilt and shame we have been carrying around. Remember Jesus’ great promise to us: “Are you

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tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (Matthew 11: 28-30 / The Message).

Day Thirty-One | March 20

THIRTY-ONE

Repentance

“Repentance means you change your mind so deeply that it changes you.” – Bruce Wilkinson –

everal years ago, we were blessed to be invited to accompany our former bishop in leading a pilgrimage following the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. And it was amazing! We found ourselves standing in the places where he once stood and preaching in the places where he once preached. It was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of experience (until we did it again four years later). But it was my first time to go on a cruise. Like Paul, we sailed from port to port – reflecting upon a life like his and recommitting ourselves to a work like

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his. We ate. And we sang. And we studied. And we explored…and, then, we ate some more. I’d never experienced anything like it. But, for me, one of the most memorable moments of the trip had nothing to do with the actual itinerary. It had everything to do with the navigation. I believe we were in Rhodes – that ancient port city where Paul stopped on his third journey for Christ. It was getting late in the day, and the sun was beginning to set. Not wanting to miss a thing, I was on the top deck, looking out – watching the stony walls all around us turn amber, then pink, then wine. And as the dark of night set in, the ship’s horn belched out its warning: we were underway. That’s when it happened. We jutted out from the pier, and we turned around. In the middle of a river – with ships and ramparts all about – we turned around. And I was breathless. The ship was nearly 600 feet long. It displaced tens of thousands of tons of water. And in one felled swoop, as if on a dime, we turned around. If only life turned so quickly…and so smoothly. For turning is the call of Lent. It is, in fact, the call of faith: to turn from all our iniquity and error and pride, and to turn to Christ. It’s to turn from all our wanton self-centeredness, and to turn (or to re-turn) to the Lord, to the nascent days of Eden where we – and all of creation – were perfectly centered on God.

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And the Church has a name for that undertaking: repentance. It is to confess…and to turn: to stop doing whatever it is that hinders our faith and to turn the other way. It’s to come back home, to run to holy ground. It is our disgust of sin that compels it. It’s our love for God and our desire to please Him that empowers it – the training of our minds, bodies, and souls to surrender all that we want for all that we need. But I love what C.S. Lewis said about repentance: he said that most of the time when we think we’re asking God to forgive us, what we’re actually doing is asking God to excuse us – to let us off the hook with little to no expectation of change. But God doesn’t play around with sin like that – a holy and just and righteous God can’t…but He did give us a way back. He gave us His Son. When taken seriously, the call to turn to God and to His righteousness means that we have to turn away from all that seems natural for us. It means that we must turn from all that has become instinctive for us. It means that I must turn from my own selfinvolvement and my self-concern; it means that I must turn from all that I think is right and from all that I feel entitled to. It means that I must chose the hard path of faith – a path that leads us back to God, a path that leads us home. It’s a journey, though, that inevitably leads us through our own experiences of suffering and anguish, our own crucifixions – the grief of knowing our sin caused His pain.

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This is our daily journey and call: to deny ourselves, to pick up our cross, and to follow. To turn around. And to turn up – all for the One who triumphed over sin and prevailed over death, all for the One who turns ashes into beauty and sinners into saints!

Day Thirty-Two | March 21

THIRTY-TWO

Resolved

“Without forgiveness life is governed by…an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.” – Roberto Assagioli –

ne of the powerful, moving acts of worship we share is immersion baptism. I am always touched by the words of liturgy that Pastor Todd uses based on Romans 6:4, “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” As we make a profession of faith, we walk in newness of life.

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But, also, when we confess our sins and find forgiveness, we can literally feel God’s face turn toward us. In that moment, we find peace, hope, and the freedom that comes from newness of life. When we receive that from God, we must also forgive ourselves. We must trust that we can begin again. How many of us have a hard time forgiving ourselves? I have always struggled with this. Through the years, I’ve had teachers who noticed how hard I am on myself. I had one professor in seminary say, “If I could buy you for what you think you are worth, and sell you for what you are really worth, I would be a rich man.” Not being able to forgive ourselves increases our stress levels and takes a toll on our well-being. We trust that God forgives us…but we have to learn to forgive ourselves. If not, we can get rooted in a downward spiral of guilt and shame that keeps us from newness of life. We must be clear of the difference between these two emotions. Guilt occurs when we behave in a way that we regret, which can lead us to constructive course-correction. Shame arises when we feel our very being is under attack and makes us feel demeaned, undeserving and lacking. Guilt tells us that we’ve done something wrong. Shame tells us that we’ve become something wrong. In fact, Dr. Carole Pertofsky warns us of the danger of shame: “Shame is often secret, buried

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deep and leads us to feel very isolated and separate from others. Self-correction becomes very difficult because we feel that at our core we are unworthy, deficient, hopeless and alone in our pain.” That is the place that the devil wants us to live. Christ wants us to know that God’s face is ever turned toward us, and He desires to set us free. But to realize that, we must resolve to forgive ourselves…and to live a new, restored, and redeemed way of life. How do we do that? 1.) Practice Awareness: We need to be honest about the issues that we are struggling with and accept our discomfort without judgment. Ask ourselves, “Am I realistically assessing the impact of my mistake, or am I blowing it out of proportion?” Also, we need to be aware of our temperament. If we tend to be hard on ourselves, we need to learn to be gentle with ourselves. Give ourselves the gift of time to take care of ourselves and our needs. How can we take baby steps toward forgiving ourselves? And how can we resolve to live life anew? 2.) Remember How God Sees Us: As babies, we learn to walk by falling down and getting back up – which is how adults who are self-forgiving treat their mistakes. Instead of criticizing themselves, they understand, learn, and grow from their failures. In God’s eyes, we are all His children. Remember the mercy and grace He extends to us… and accept that blessing for ourselves.

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3.) Take Action: Think about things we can do to rectify our mistakes. Have a positive plan to act on our intentions. Resolving to make things right will help lift our burdens and move us beyond a past mistake that is still affecting our present. When God’s face is turned towards us – when He sees us - He wants to watch us walking in newness of life… may we never settle for anything less!

Day Thirty-Three | March 22

THIRTY-THREE

Renewed

“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.” – Charles H. Spurgeon –

any of us will undoubtedly remember one of the greatest commercial flops of all time. It can be summed up in two words: New Coke. In the mid-1980s, market research had indicated that consumers were looking for a sweeter soft drink; so in April of 1985, the Coca-Cola Company launched a new product. They reinvented themselves, and the response was so bad that you could have heard the thud way up on the 29th floor of the Coke headquarters building in Atlanta. Calls came

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flooding in to their customer service center: nearly 1,500 each day. The situation eventually got so bad that they even hired a psychiatrist to sit in on some of the calls…and his report was shocking. He said that callers were responding to the change the same way people respond to the death of a loved one: they were grieving the loss of something important, something dear to them. Now, Coke never reported how much money they lost in the gamble, only that they spent $4 million in research and had another $30 million worth of product on their hands when they took it off the shelves. It’s studied in business schools as one of the worst marketing ideas of the century. And it’s a cautionary tale because how often do we try to reinvent ourselves? We’re dissatisfied. We’re frustrated. We’re empty – joyless and sad and lonely…so we try to fix it. One more diet. One more pill. One more try: a new job, a new house, a new girlfriend or boyfriend or spouse. But try as we may, nothing ever works! And, like the Apostle Paul, we cry out: “Who can save me from this mess?!” Jesus. Only Jesus. It is the promise of the gospel: new life, new hope, new joy, new peace. A brand new you! And it begins as we truly, completely, unconditionally surrender to the One who showed us the inconceivable power of His cross: what looked like defeat was, in fact,

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ultimate victory. It was something entirely new. And that very same change begins in us as we, in that very same power, dare to fight back, as we push back against all that we’d honestly rather settle for. But Christianity isn’t an exercise of settling. It’s an exercise of struggling – of failing and falling…and getting back up again with a renewed determination to live free from sin. That’s what defines us – not our sin, but our Savior! Renewal is a work of the Spirit of God in us…and on us. It is redeeming and revealing and refining – making what was once ugly and broken, restored. In fact, in Japan, there’s an ancient art form called kintsugi: it’s the art of repairing broken pieces of pottery with gold – the idea being that the piece becomes more beautiful, more valuable because it’s been cracked. And the same can be said in the life of the believer. Life happens. Failure happens. But it doesn’t get to have the last word. God can use our brokenness – He wants to use our brokenness – to make something beautiful...but that will only happen if we let go and put the broken chalice of our lives into the hands of the Potter. So, let it go. Christ died to take away our sins; don’t try to take them back. Let yourself be renewed. As the Prophet Micah tells us: through confession and repentance, God takes our sins and casts them into the sea (Micah 7:19) – lost in the depths of God’s love for us…so, don’t go scuba diving!

Day Thirty-Four | March 23

THIRTY-FOUR

Rejoicing

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas –

ne of the most beloved people in the Bible is King David. People were drawn to him; they flocked to his leadership. We treasure his traits: • The courage to engage and defeat the giant Goliath when he was a boy • His loyalty and love of Jonathan • His leadership skills that rallied the nation • His poetic words that captured the essence of God

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On the outside, David was the very picture of success. But in his heart, he suffered from the weight of his guilt. He secretly knew he had seduced and slept with Bathsheba, the wife of his dear friend Uriah. He grew afraid when he found out she was pregnant, then added to his shame by sending Uriah to certain death on the battlefield. On the surface, David attended to his duties and pretended to be godly. And he almost got away with murder until he was rebuked by a prophet. Only then, did David come clean, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Only then, could he delight in God’s forgiveness. But once he felt the joy of redemption, he couldn’t stop there. He had to honestly share who he was and who God was – how great was His mercy and how deep was His love. Psalm 32 captures one of his moments of public confession: “Happy are those whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Happy are those to whom the Lord imputes no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. While I kept silent, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ and you forgave the

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guilt of my sin.” We are familiar with Waterford crystal: those delicate pieces made in a factory in Ireland. This precious glassware is beautiful to look at; but if we drop it, it shatters into a thousand pieces. And no matter how hard we try to glue the broken pieces together, it never looks as beautiful as it did before it was dropped. Many people think that human beings are like those pieces of crystal. We are lovely until we fail God – and we all do. Then life shatters into pieces, never to be put back in the way God meant our lives to be. However, that is not the message of the Bible. When we are broken and shattered, God puts us back together in a more beautiful way. When we confess, find forgiveness, and are restored to new life, we become a living witness that God turns His face toward us! And once we have lived the Good News, we must share that Good News. Our testimony may give hope to another. Our story may inspire someone to repent. Our honesty might lead someone to God. Our mission is to testify and share what God has done in our lives. As the old camp song testifies: “I’ll shout it from the mountain top, I want the world to know. The Lord of love has come to me I want to pass it on!”

Week Seven:

…and Give You Peace.

…and Give You Peace. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” – John 14:27 –

Day Thirty-Five | March 25

THIRTY-FIVE

Prince of Peace

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” – Eleanor Roosevelt ––

had a most unusual experience at last December’s Christmas Festival. I found myself at the children’s animal petting area. The little children were having so much fun petting the sheep and the goats and the precious little pig. But what caught my attention was the donkey. This donkey had the sweetest, calmest temperament. Children were brushing its hair. They were poking him and touching him, but the donkey didn’t flinch

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or look dismayed. So I made my way closer and started petting the donkey, too. I was just taken in by his demeanor. And then it hit me: this is the donkey that brings Mary to the manger in our Christmas pageant. This is the donkey that Jesus will ride in our Palm Sunday parade. And my mind drifted back to that first Palm Sunday. Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem that day to shouts of adulation. But even as He entered, the sinister voices of the Pharisees were asking, “Who is creating such turmoil?” Their minds were on the status quo and maintaining their shaky alliance with Rome. The peace they tried to cobble together was a shaky alliance with wicked tyrants. The peace on Jesus’ mind was different. In fact, Luke records Jesus weeping over the city and then remarking: “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42). If they had been paying attention, the crowd would have noticed the lesson of the donkey. The people were waiting for a military Messiah to lead them to victory. They were ready for swords and battles. But that leader would come on a white horse. They were longing for the Messiah of the second coming described in Revelation 19, who would be riding a white horse and leading the hosts of heaven to defeat the armies of evil. But that was not how Jesus came. He was riding on

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a donkey. His was not a kingship of an earthly throne, but a kingship of the heart. Whenever a king would enter a city on a donkey, it meant he came in peace. So, when Jesus claimed to be king, He claimed to be the King of Peace. He came not to destroy, but to love. Not to condemn, but to connect – to point people to the ways of grace. His power was not in the might of arms, but in the strength of love. But the fickle crowd didn’t want to hear it. And the shouts of “Hosanna” all too quickly turned to cries of “crucify.” The question of this week just lingers in the air: Do we know the things that make for peace? Will we follow the way of Christ?

Day Thirty-Six | March 26

THIRTY-SIX

Peace of Heart

“Peace of heart – without it, no good can make us happy. With it, every trial, even the approach of death, can be born.” – Frédéric Ozanam –

very day that fateful week before the Passover, Jesus would spend time in Jerusalem. He would teach, challenge, answer questions and proclaim the Kingdom of God. But at night, He would leave the city and travel to Bethany. As He would travel back to the city the following morning, the 30-minute journey gave Him time to reflect on how the city had changed. The religious leadership had forgotten whose house the Temple was. Commercialism and greed had altered the character of that place.

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Currency, used to purchase sacrifices, was subject to extortion. He had to remember the Jerusalem of His youth. The times of discussing and dreaming of God’s reign. He remembered the faithful teachers, their probing questions, and their amazement at His insight as a 12-year-old. He was reflecting on Isaiah’s vision of the Temple as a gathering place for people to be drawn to God: “These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7). He had to wonder what went wrong? Why did those entrusted with leading people to worship lose sight of God? Why were people excluded by economics or illness or a system of elitism? What went wrong? Why had their hearts become hardened? And then in the midst of hearts that were hardened toward God, Jesus got a reminder of a heart filled with peace. A heart filled with love. A heart that tells us that faith is not passive, but must be lived boldly to bring peace to the world. Two days before the cross, Jesus arrived back in Bethany and went to dinner at Simon’s house. When he sat down at the table, a woman with an alabaster jar of expensive ointment came and did something extravagant. The custom was

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to welcome a guest by pouring a few drops of perfume on their head when they sat down for a meal. But she didn’t just do that; instead, she broke open the jar and poured it all on Jesus. Some have estimated the value of her gift as equivalent to a year’s salary for a working person. Through the years, there has been much speculation on why she did what she did: • Maybe she was recognizing who Jesus was. By breaking the whole jar, she was saying that He was the most distinguished guest. Never again must this be used for a lesser person. Jesus is the Messiah. Maybe her heart recognized His greatness. • Maybe it was foreshadowing His death that was about to happen. When a person died, they would bathe the body and, then, break the jar of ointment to anoint the body for burial. The broken shards of glass would be laid with the dead body in the tomb. We can never know what was in her heart and mind. But she recognized the uniqueness of the hour, and she was moved to act. We do know that her actions moved Jesus. When the disciples criticized her extravagance, Jesus jumped to her defense. He said, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing…What she has done will be told in memory of her” (Matthew 26). Her act was the last kindness done for Him before the cross.

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Are our hearts filled with that kind of peace? Do we look for ways to love boldly and to honor Jesus through our generosity? The journey of Lent reminds us that we are not saved by our efforts. None of us are smart enough, good enough, or deserving enough. We recognize the amazing gift we have been given in Christ. And in so doing, our hearts are filled with peace. The beginning of Psalm 40 defines our journey: “I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” When we have peace in our hearts, wherever we go and whatever we face, we will have a new song…because we have a Savior who will never leave us or forsake us!

Day Thirty-Seven | March 27

THIRTY-SEVEN

Peace of Mind

“Peace is not something you wish for, it is something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away.” – Robert Fulghum –

few years ago, a British pensioner named Trudy Rosenfield took a trip. Ms. Rosenfield left England in good spirits, looking forward to landing in sunny San Jose, California after an all-day flight. Little did Ms. Rosenfield know, though, that her travel agent had made a computer error when booking her tickets: the agent had accidentally put the 70-year-old woman on a flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Blissfully unaware, Ms.

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Rosenfield fell asleep on the plane, heedless of the fact that she was heading in the wrong direction. When she never arrived at the California airport, Ms. Rosenfield’s family alerted the airline, which quickly discovered the problem…and they sent a representative to meet Ms. Rosenfield’s plane. Imagine her surprise when she was greeted at her destination with the words, “Ma’am, you think you are in California, but you’re actually in Costa Rica.” The airline arranged to fly Ms. Rosenfield back to California to meet her cousin a few days later. It’s a mistake that’s actually happened dozens of times. Headed for California. Arriving in Costa Rica. A person could do worse…but it seems like a reflection of how life works out for many of us. Headed for happily-ever-after; but arriving in divorce court. Headed for a retirement together; but sitting beside the grave of the one we just began to enjoy again. Headed for a life of wonderful opportunities; but lying in a hospital bed with nurses searching for a vein. Headed for California…but arriving in Costa Rica. But in His last days, Jesus would make an unflinching promise: Peace. “My peace I give you,” He would say (John 14:27). It was the same promise that attended Him at His birth; now it prepared Him for His death. Peace. This One who’d calmed the storms, now offered to calm ours, too

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– our anxious fears, our trembling worries…all the storms that rage inside of us. There’s something that we need to know about those storms, though – the physical, emotional, spiritual storms that blow up in our homes and marriages and families and jobs and schools: the only way to the other side of the storm is to go through them. Loss. Anger. Doubt. Grief. Guilt. Shame. The only way to find the peace on the other side is to dare to confront them, to dare to venture into them: to risk the bellowing seas to find the freedom that awaits on the other side. But too often we try to avoid the pain. We try to circle the storm or go around the storm. More than denial, it’s avoidance. It’s escapism. But peace of mind only comes to those who are willing to go through the storm, to those who are will to pay peace’s price: courage and honesty and obedience and righteousness. “The fruit of righteousness will be peace,” Isaiah says (Isaiah 32:17). Righteousness is the seed; peace is its fruit. We must be willing to do peace’s work – trusting that things will change around us when things change inside us. For there are some lessons we can learn only in the storms. There are some lessons we can learn only from the storms. Had it not been for the crashing waves, the Disciples would’ve never known Jesus’ power to calm them. They would never have known that the God who comes with a mighty rushing wind at Pentecost

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also has the authority to silence the winds and tempests that swirl. Their eyes were opened even as the skies closed in, for Jesus was in the boat with them. And Jesus is in our boats, still.

Day Thirty-Eight | March 28

THIRTY-EIGHT

Peace on Earth (Maundy Thursday) “And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; ‘For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!’ Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: ‘God is not dead, nor doth he sleep; The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, With peace on earth, good-will to men!’” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow –

he time had finally come. After the rollercoaster of events they’d seen, they reached the destination of their journey: the Passover meal. Too much had happened too quickly. The crowds, the walks, the healings. The flipping of the tables and the braiding of the

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whips. Teachings that plumbed the depths of the Kingdom. Lazarus being raised from the dead. And now they were there. But they still had no idea they were living the most significant hours of their lives. Peace on earth was being poured out on the world. Jesus was participating in the divine drama…but they did not have a clue. All they could do was receive what Jesus was doing for them and wait for the Holy Spirit to come and make sense of things. It is fascinating to ponder da Vinci’s painting of “The Last Supper.” If you look at the disciples, you see people who are clueless. They are wondering, “Why did He wash our feet?” “What is all this talk of one of us betraying Him?” You even can imagine some saying, “Where are we eating next?” Through the next hours, Jesus is the One who acts. He washes their feet. He prays for them and breaks the bread. He kneels in anguish in the garden alone, because they cannot stay awake. He surrenders Himself willingly to the soldiers. This night gives us a picture of faith. We cannot save ourselves by our works. We cannot take communion; we receive it. We do not earn or deserve God’s favor. Jesus is the one who still acts. Jesus is the one who brings peace on earth. Matthew recorded how peace would come so eloquently: “While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this

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is my body.’ Then He took a cup; and after giving thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom’” (Matthew 26:26-29). How often are we like the disciples: clueless of the things that make for peace? We worship with no expectation that the Spirit will change our lives. The Holy Sacrament becomes routine, without an experience of the most extraordinary love. We are so consumed with the mundane, ordinary details of life, that we do not savor the precious nature of the hour before us. We sleep while Jesus prays. And still He continues to act. Still He beckons. The great “Hound of Heaven” will never stop pursuing us. He’ll never stop loving. All we have to do is say Yes; to open our lives to His call. As the old hymn reminds us: “Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” Let’s not let this night pass without opening our lives to Jesus. Watch. Listen. Pray. See again how peace on earth will come. And always remember that He loves us so much He would give His life for us. Again.

Day Thirty-Nine | March 29

THIRTY-NINE

Peace with God (Good Friday)

“What peace can they have who are not at peace with God?” – Matthew Henry –

utside the weather-beaten walls of Jerusalem, in a place near the garden where He’d prayed, “Thy will be done,” Love was put to death. There, heaven’s Blessing bore our curse…for the soldiers knew just what to do. With callous precision, they went to their lethal work. They knew how to lay cruel spikes against perfect flesh. They knew how to kill and how to taunt and how to jeer. They knew how to let wrath have its terrible way – how to inflict the most

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agonizing sorts of pain. They knew the vicious sterility of crucifixion well…and so did the Lord. What they did not know, though, was that this bloodied Man was the Lamb of God. They did not know that this tortured Soul was the Giver of all peace. They did not know that this One they killed was the great Giver of life, that He came to save the world from its madness and pain. Hanging on that cross – suspended halfway between the earth He had created and the heavens to which He’d return – Jesus bore the sins of the world. He bore all the weight of all the iniquities of all humanity for all time. And in paying that price, He purchased for us peace with God – atonement, at-one-ment, full and total pardon for our sins. Eternal life in heaven. And eternal life right now. But to experience the real power of this day – the somber blessing of Good Friday – we must personalize this story, ourselves. We have to accept it and own it as our own. We have to accept that He bore our personal failure and all our personal pain. He bore our personal loneliness and all our personal loss. He bore all our faults, all our failure, all our addictions and pride; all our brokenness, all our hopelessness, all our darkness and shame. He did it for you…and for me. He endured it for you…and for me. With wounds upon sacred brow and blood and water flowing mingled down,

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Perfection died for us. God gave Himself to us. And He chose to – not because we deserved such love, but because He who was Love couldn’t not love. For His only consolations under that thorny crown were His hopes for us – for the lives we could lead, for the peace we could find, for the freedom we could experience, for the love we could express. On this Good Friday, may we find ourselves, once more, at the foot of that ancient cross. And may we lose ourselves in the peace it proclaims: the cruel beauty of God’s redeeming love for us. May it move us. May it inspire us. And may we be forever changed by the Life that died that we might live!

Day Forty | March 30

FORTY

The Peace Before Amen. (Holy Saturday)

“We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass – grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa –

eace. There was an eerie, quiet, foreboding peace in that place. Gone were the crowds, the noise, the mobs, the hate. Gone were the soldiers and their spears. And all that remained was stillness and quiet and calm. Peace. No. It wasn’t peace. It was the strange, hollow sound of nothingness. A silence you could feel.

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It had all gone terribly wrong. This was not how it was supposed to end. …because it wasn’t the end. It was simply the space in between. Lost in their despair, the Apostles ran. Some had betrayed Him. Others had denied Him. They had all abandoned Him. And Jesus laid entombed in stone. So they waited. And they wondered – the deafening silence filling their souls. Had the Blessing really died? But there’s an interesting detail about Numbers’ “Priestly Blessing”: it has no Amen. There’s no climactic end note. It simply goes on…waiting to be fulfilled. And, too, do we. For we know what it is to endure the waiting. And we know what it is to endure the silence… but silence has things to say: inexpressible hopes and unutterable dreams. It has lessons that resist words and joys that defy speech. And sometimes, it’s the silence that speaks the loudest. We must learn, then, how to wait well…and how to listen closely, for even in the silence of death, Jesus was still at work. The Blessing hadn’t finished. It was simply the space in between. Even now, we live in between. In between life and death, in between hope and fear. We live in between Genesis’ “In the beginning” and

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Revelation’s final “Amen.” We live in between what once was and what soon will be and between who we’ve been and who we’re becoming. The Blessing hasn’t finished. It’s simply the space in between. …and our “Amen” is soon to come!