Category Archives: Devotional

Crocheted Cactus

crocheted cactus

I have a crocheted cactus in my office since I am not the best at keeping plants alive. I am so bad, apparently, that I require a fake version of one of the easiest plants to care for! I point this out because we often try to make the care of our “potted plant” of faith as easy as possible.

Is there some way that we can “put it on a shelf” and forget it? That may be our wish. But the reality is that our calling as Christians is to be always involved in the care and nurture of our faith that it might grow and flourish. Faith is never stagnant or immovable or fake. It does not stop growing when we are confirmed or become an adult or a parent or retire. Faith is always something for us to be engaged in and be attentive to. St. Paul tells us why growing in our faith is so important:

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4

A growing faith helps us to grow closer to one another in love, allows us to boldly witness to the world around us about the power of Christ in our lives even in hard times and causes us to draw closer to our Savior in the process—all good things to make us thrive as plantings of the Lord. Grow on, my faithful friends.

Be Open

outstretched hand

[Jesus] went on from there and entered their synagogue. And a man was there with a withered hand. … Then Jesus said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. Matthew 12:9-10, 13

I like the idea that Jesus asked the man with the withered hand to stretch out his hand. It is like Jesus is saying, “Show me everything that is wrong with your hand.” The man completely revealed his problem. He was not afraid to open and share his ailment with Jesus. And in that moment, the hand was healed.

How many times do we try to hide our problems from Jesus? How often are we not completely honest with him (or ourselves) with the trouble we are having? We don’t like to be vulnerable and weak in front of others, let alone Jesus. But that is exactly what Jesus asked this man to be. And that open hand (and open heart) served as the platform for Jesus’ healing.

This man’s willingness to be open and to “lay it all out there,” stretched out for all to see, reminds me that I need to be open and honest with Jesus when I come to him with my problems, difficulties and woes. There’s no need to back away from hard things. We need to face them head on and let Jesus know exactly what we are dealing with, and then we just need to let him do the work to help us.

Cleaning Out

heart

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Psalm 51:10

I used the week between Christmas and New Year’s to clean out my basement of things I did not need anymore. It seemed like a daunting task at first, but then it got easier as I divided things out into categories of what to recycle, what to trash and what to keep.

What I came to realize was that I was hanging on to far too many things I no longer needed. I was emotionally attached to a great number of items that I needed to disconnect from. Then I discovered I had not even opened some of the boxes that I had moved to my current home 14 years ago, so those boxes could go.

The same “cleaning out” can take place in our hearts as well, through Jesus. We can get rid of lingering thoughts of guilt and shame by going to Jesus for release from them. We can remember the good things of the past and still move on from them. And we can completely discard anything that does not matter to our current situation anymore.

God will help us to see what should remain. The Bible puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 13:13: “These three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Icy Walks

icy walk

When I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Micah 7:8

We have been dealing with very icy sidewalks, steps and streets in the last few weeks here in St. Louis, and recently the inevitable happened: I fell on my back stairs carrying my groceries inside. Fortunately, I was not hurt in any way, maybe just a little shaken up. I laid there for a while before I made the move to get up and carefully walk back inside my house.

The experience reminded me that in this “fallen” world we will fall literally and figuratively at some point. Don’t ever be surprised by that or too shaken up by that. But remember that in Jesus, we will rise, as he did on Easter. We will, by his grace and power and strength, get back up and return to life, led and guided by him and his protection.

Blue Mind

person and water

There is a phenomenon that scientists call “blue mind.” It is the state of having a clear mind, improved health, and better sense of overall well-being when being on or near a body of water. This is the reason many like the beach, boating and lake houses.

The idea of the blue mind comes to mind for me when I think about milestone moments in the ministry of Christ. For instance, he recruited fishermen to be his disciples as they were in the midst of doing their work on the Sea of Galilee. With clear and determined minds, those men dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

Then I think of how Jesus used a boat as a pulpit and spoke as “the whole crowd stood on the beach” (Matthew 13:2). Perhaps Jesus’ words resonated more to the people there because of their proximity to the water.

Of course, Jesus came to the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist. And it was there in a instance of clarity, John declared as Jesus came near, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

Then there is the time when the resurrected Jesus met the disciples on the shore and served them breakfast. It was there where Jesus and Peter had a heart-to-heart conversation and Peter’s mission to spread the Gospel was made clear when Jesus said to him: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).

You may not be anywhere near a body of water at this time, but if you are, consider spending some time there in prayer. And if you aren’t, imagine yourself on a shore somewhere with the sound of waves hitting the sand, and let the Word of the Lord wash over you and bring you peace.

I Am the Gate

sheep pen

I just learned that shepherds in ancient Israel piled rocks to make sheep pens. They left an opening in the rock walls for the sheep to go in and out. At night, shepherds slept in the openings, becoming the actual gate themselves. 

Now John 10:9 makes perfect sense, when Jesus says: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” His very body is the doorway to protection, peace, forgiveness and everlasting life. When we, his sheep, enter into place the Good Shepherd has prepared for us through his body and and blood shed of us on the cross, we know we will be well taken care of. No evil forces can enter in when the Shepherd is stretched across the way to where we are.

Christ serves as an example for us as we stand guard over the lives of our loved ones as parents, guardians, friends. Who are you called to keep safe? How are you protecting the lives of those you have been given charge of. By looking to our Good Shepherd, we see that he protects with his presence. So be with those put into your care. The Good Shepherd will watch over you all.

Tell (and Re-tell) the Story

Jesus saves

A couple months ago, I became familiar with the game Telestrations. In this game, players are given a word or a phrase that the next player must draw a picture of. Then the next player must write a word or a phrase based on what they think was drawn in the picture. This continues for several rounds until at the end of each player’s pad, you can see the progression of what was the original word or phrase to what the word or phrase became at the end. The difference between the two can very often be quite shocking.

This game, while funny to play, only goes to show that messages can get off-track sometimes. People often don’t hear what was initially stated because of miscommunications along the way. That is just a fact of human life.

That is also why we as Christians continue to tell the story of Jesus and his love over and over to people. We do not want the message to get confused or garbled in any way. We want the truth that Jesus died on the cross for our salvation to be perfectly clear to all if you are the first person or the one thousandth person to hear it. That is why we have church every week: to bring the message home again and again. So tell the story of Jesus and keep telling it. Then let the Word take root in the hearts and souls of all who hear it.

No Mail

no mail

When I visited my mom recently in her new senior living community, I noticed this sign next to the mailboxes: “Mail is not here” with a big red X (see picture above). The sign made me chuckle since I can only imagine how many times people must have asked the staff, “Is the mail here?” before a sign like this went up. When the mail does come, a different sign that says, “Mail is here” with a big green check mark is set out.

We are creatures of habit, and getting the mail is an important part of a person’s daily routine, to be sure. But we are also an impatient people. We want our mail sooner than later. And we are a people who like to be in control, and we are not at all in control of when the mail comes each day.

These tendencies play themselves out in our faith journeys well. How often do we develop routines of faith, praying only at certain times, for instance, or sitting in the same pew at church or attending the same service each week. Theses are not bad routines in and of themselves, but if they prevent us from growing in our faith or being open to other schedules or opportunities, then we need to say, “No!” to the over-routined life of faith.

As for being impatient, we know well how impatient we are just having to wait in the doctor’s office or having to watch for a pot to boil. It is hard, then, for us to comprehend how long God’s people waited for a Savior to be born. Yet patience is required as we look toward our Lord’s return. So we must say, “No!” to impatience.

Needless to say, we don’t have much control over anything in life, so thinking that we do can be detrimental to us. That is why it is important for us to remember what St. Paul told us, “You ought to say, ’If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that‘” (James 4:15). It is helpful for us to say, “No!” to any attempt to try to have control over our lives, turning whatever will happen over to God.

In the end, God has a plan, he has a message to bring and he will deliver it in his time. What a day that will be when Jesus returns to say, “I am here!”

A New Creation

new life

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 2 Corinthians 5:17

Though I have read this very many times, I have noticed something different this time around. There is a certainty, a sureness, a definitiveness to it. It is a given that newness comes with those who are in Christ. We can count on it. We can be confident that we are being renewed day by day through our Lord and Savior.

The turning of the calendar to a new year does not necessarily dictate or determine a fresh start. But being in Christ assures us of it. Forgiven and freed through the death and resurrection of Christ and through the cleansing waters of Baptism, we are made new each morning to live our lives in and through Christ, to become more and more like him.

So don’t give up. God always gives us another chance. So in essence, every day is like New Year’s Day in the kingdom of God.

Auld Lang Syne

auld lang syne

We sing or hear the words “Auld Lang Syne” every New Year’s Eve, but never think much about what these Scottish words mean. The words literally mean, “Old Long Since,” so the phrase sung throughout the song “For auld lang syne” loosely translates to “For the sake of old times.”

So what are you remembering this last day of 2024 “for the sake of old times”? Perhaps it is a wedding or a birth or anniversary in the past year you want to hold dear in this moment. Maybe it is a job change, a vacation, the ending of a bad habit that you want to celebrate today. As Christians, it is important for us to look back and see the hand of God at work in our lives. God has carried us through each day of this year and has safely brought us to the beginning of a new one. That is a blessing never to take for granted. So whether you sing “Auld Lang Syne” or not this New Year’s Eve, be sure to say with the psalmist today, “The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy” (Psalm 126:3).