Welcome to In This Season, our series of daily devotions written by our pastors and members of our staff.
TODAY: OCTOBER 27, 2021
Today’s Devotion Written by Trina Volbrecht
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
How many times have you heard the word “should” this week? We say it in our self-talk, “I really should …” We say it to each other, “Hey, we should …” It gets said to us, “Mom, we should …”
I have often read this Philippians text with a should attitude. I should bring everything to God in prayer, oh yeah, and I should be thankful about it! Yikes.
I once had someone challenge me to remove the word from my vocabulary. Gosh that was hard, impossible with children in the house! What that exercise taught me is I don’t want to remove the word. It brings expectation and joy. It helps with preparation and minimizing anxiety in life. However, I can only love the “shoulds” in my life when I have carved enough time of quiet with God. God doesn’t need me to be thankful all the time, God just needs me to show up in the life created all around me. Maya Angelou shares, “Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us. We need hours of aimless wandering or spaces of time sitting on park benches, observing the mysterious world of ants and the canopy of treetops.” What I know to be true today is the canopy of treetops welcomes all the “shoulds” and helps bring thankfulness at the same time! Thanks God!
OCTOBER 26, 2021
Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Brenda Legred
“Make the most of the time.” Ephesians 5:16a
In the movie The Bucket List, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman share a hospital room and a diagnosis. They have 6-12 months to live. In spite of their shared prognosis they despise each other. Gradually they become comrades and make a list of everything they want to do before they kick the bucket.
Escaping the hospital they set off on the adventure of a lifetime. They sky dive, race cars, fly over the North Pole, eat dinner at Chevre d’or, visit the Taj Mahal, ride motorcycles on the Great Wall of China, experience a lion safari in Tanzania, and visit Mount Everest. At the Great Pyramid of Giza, Morgan reveals he has long been feeling less in love with his wife and feels some regret for the life he has chosen. Jack confides that he is deeply hurt by his estrangement from his only daughter who disowned him after he drove away her abusive husband.
Upon their return home, Morgan rediscovers satisfaction with his life choices. Jack reconciles with his daughter and meets his granddaughter for the first time. After greeting the little girl with a kiss on the cheek, Jack crosses “kiss the most beautiful girl in the world” off his bucket list.
What Jack and Morgan discover is that their relationships are more important than world travels and earthly possessions. What’s on your bucket list? Is there a relationship you want to mend? A person you want to reach out to? Google says the most common bucket list item is making someone else’s life better. Cool!
OCTOBER 25, 2021
Today’s Devotion Written by Jeremy Haug
Words Matter
1 Peter 4: 8 – 11
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Words matter. How we use words matters. What you might say to one person, in one environment may not be how you speak to another person in a different environment. Given this, how do we find unity and togetherness?
I believe hymns and songs spark togetherness whether you are actively singing, or intently listening. Hymns and song have an enormous influence on our development and therefore impact our personal faith journey. Who I was when I was five years old along with the songs I sang, are very different than those that impact the nearly middle-aged child at heart I am today. I am hopeful that over the coming years I continue to develop, grow and even struggle with faith.
Words and phrases that are sung (especially those with traditions) … repeatedly and enthusiastically often impact our faith in profound ways. Similarly, unique or special moments often have words or phrases that imprint on our memory.
I have shared in previous devotions some of my favorites:
“For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth; and friends above”.
AND
“for the mystic harmony linking sense to sound and sight”. For the Beauty of the Earth ELW 879
“How oft, in making music, we have found a new dimension in the world of sound, as worship moved us to a more profound Alleluia!” When in our Music God is Glorified ELW 851 (or 850)
Now consider some “new” or lesser known phrases:
“God, replace my stony heart with a heart that’s kind and tender. All my coldness and fear to your grace I now surrender.” Spirit, Open My Heart from All Creation Sings (ACS) #1043
“And from morn to set of sun, through the church the song goes on!” Holy God We Praise your Name ELW 414
Recently Pastor Dave shared appreciation we all have for Mount Calvary; that not only do we profess: “For Everyone Born [has] a place at the table”, but that we also set the table! We are DOER’S, and CREATORS of good, justice, joy, compassion and peace! What an amazing accomplishment, and journey. May it continue through the ages …
Let us pray:
Dear Lord; give us understanding that words and phrases matter. You are listening. We, your children are listening, too. Help us be aware and mindful of our impact in our communities near and far. Give us strength when we are weary, and words of compassion when others need our support. Grant us healing, encouragement and togetherness in our path forward. Embrace and energize our singing and worship; so that all feel invited and welcome. For ours is a singing faith; bound by love; by grace we have been saved. AMEN.
OCTOBER 21, 2021
Today’s Devotion Written by Pastor Aaron David Werner
The psalm for today is not an either/or proposition. Rather, God invites us to pray in a both/and way.
Psalm 126
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy;
then it was said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
The Lord has done great things for us,
and we rejoiced.
The first part of this psalm feels like something my mom would say when I got to complaining, “Count your blessings. Remember all the good. Be thankful for what you have.” It felt like she was dismissing my feelings. My kids complain too and like my mother, I want them to quit whining and consider all the good things they have. But it’s not either/or. The good doesn’t cancel out the bad. They exist together. Look at the next stanza in the psalm:
Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like the watercourses in the Negeb desert.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
In the same psalm our ancestor remembers God’s goodness and cries out to God, weeping in hardship. God, you are and have been good AND, God, I need you to do something, because it is not good now. Your prayers asking God to restore your joy can be prayed right alongside your prayers thanking God for all the joy you’ve already had. Today’s psalm gives us both
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