Devotion for March 7

The wind blows where it chooses… So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

The prairie wind blew in gusts, bending the short pine tree outside my window and, bowing it, pointed its needles east. The wind crested and fell like waves haphazardly beating against the dock. Although they had predicted its coming, I was still startled at the strength of the blowing. I found myself captivated by the raw strength of it.

The Spirit of God moves across the landscape of the human heart. We cannot know when it comes or to where it will lead. But it blows in raw strength encouraging the faint-hearted, comforting the broken-hearted and enlivening the empty-hearted. And the human soul bows before it pointing to the overwhelming love of God.

Jesus knew the overpowering Spirit of God. This is the One that rested on him at his baptism; led him into his wilderness confrontation with Evil; and lifted him in courage to the Tree of Death that God would transform into the Tree of Life on that first Easter Sunday. He is the One born of the Spirit who then adopts children into this eternal family.

Lent is the marking of his obedience. Lent is our own meager bowing before the eternal Spirit of God’s sacrificial love in Jesus Christ. We remember his self-giving – and reflect on our selfishness. We remember his spiritual clarity – and acknowledge our spiritual confusion. Most of all, we remember his persistent and insistent love – and recall our limited reflection of it. And, as we do so, that heavenly Spirit blows – and we move just a bit closer to Him.

Spirit of God, blow across my life that I may bow humbly before the Living God of Love. Amen

Devotion for August 25

If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? John 3:12

I call it my weather tree. This tree is the first to bud and then full leaf out in the spring. It is also the first tree to burst into color proclaiming the end of summer and the coming of fall. My weather tree signals the changing seasons with more accuracy than arbitrary dates on the calendar. The truth is that sometimes spring seems to last a very long time: its cool temperatures and rain extending into the summer months. One year, not long ago, summer seemed to stretch into fall to such an extent that I wondered if we’d have a fall or just jump from summer into winter!

The seasons of our lives are like that. The signs that we have entered into a new season of life are not connected to arbitrary dates on our personal calendar. Instead, the leaves of our lives turn: the vibrant green of our early years can give way to the yellowing of summer or the brilliant colors of fall. Gray hair is less an indicator of a seasonal change in our lives, than our internal landscape.

Jesus invites us to tend to the internal landscape of our souls in the words he spoke to Nicodemus. A challenge given from one first century rabbi to another becomes the invitation for us to heed the internal weather tree each of us has been given. And when we do that we discover two wonderful truths. The first is that the seasons of nature and our lives change. The second is that the Creator of the seasons doesn’t change in his love for us.

Each season of our lives brings a new opportunity for us to discover the unchanging love of God.

I hope you’re weathering whatever season of life you are in. I hope that, like my weather tree, you are in sync with where you are and not hanging onto spring through the summer or fall. And I pray that you discover the richness of God that orchestrates all seasonal changes and makes of them a symphony.

Devotion for May 5

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” John 19:26-27

The last act of Jesus on the Cross was to provide for his mother. As the eldest son, this would have been his responsibility. Of all of his family, scripture records that only his mother followed Jesus. The conversion of our Lord’s brother, James, would happen only after Jesus resurrection. Apparently, the conversion of the rest of his family would occur later.

This is a profoundly tender moment. That loving moment when Jesus looked at his mother, Mary, and then on his disciple, John, breaks up the macabre and gruesome spectacle of the crucifixion. His human suffering gives way, for just a brief moment, to his love for his mother. He will make a place for her. She will not be bereft for long, because Easter morning was just around the corner. But Jesus did not know that… he trusted the promise of God but did not know how or when God would fulfill those promises for him. So, he provides for his mother.

This weekend we celebrate Mother’s Day. We do not do so naively, as if every mother (or father for that matter) was a paragon of familial love. We do it so that our habit of taking mothers for granted might be, for just a moment, set aside for a bit of tenderness and gratitude. So, we will, in the spirit of our Savior, take time in worship to honor and give thanks for mothers. And, for many of us, we will not ask them to cook or clean or carry whatever responsibilities they usually shoulder. I think this is good and right.

This brings the gift of thanks to mothers and a good dose of humility to the rest of us… and the world is a better place for it.  Amen

Devotion for October 14

The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8

Tuesday afternoon at 4:47 the windows of my office grew dark. The north view of the trees and shrubs simultaneously came alive: the wind rocked the tree tops, the needs and leaves were sent scattering in swirls and, in the distance, there was a thunder clap. The once still afternoon graced with sunlight and calm erupted in motion; and I knew it was the wind. Not because I could feel it or even hear it, but because of the dance of those needles and leaves.

Jesus says that those of the Spirit are like that. Unlike our usual picture of the church: ordered, serene and predictable, the Christian born of God is like the wind: disruptive, dancing and mysterious.

It made me think. When was the last time I saw the church dancing, disruptive and mysterious? It dawned on me that I have seen it happen: a child dances down the aisle on Saturday night because the songs of praise overwhelmed her and she couldn’t sit still; members/disciples disruptive in joy as we celebrate the new Discipleship Center being more than we had dared hope; the mystery of a young couple worshiping with us who said to me, “We were impressed. This is a church we’d like to be a part of.” And we know it is all the touch of the Holy Spirit – the wind of God.

I hope you can see some of God’s wind in your life, your worship, and your faith. I think one of the great sins of the Christian Church in the western world has been that we have been too staid, too predictable, too boring. So, please join me in praying for the disruption of joy that is God’s Spirit – and wouldn’t the world notice us then?!

Lord, forgive me when faith and church seem so boring… and help me experience and share the wonder of your Holy Spirit. Amen