Tuesday Refocus: July 4

“Oh Lord our God… steer the ship of our life to yourself, the quiet harbor of all storm-stressed souls. Show us the course which we are to take. Renew in us the spirit of docility. Let your Spirit curb our fickleness; guide and strengthen us to perform what is for our own good, to keep your commandments and ever to rejoice in your glorious and vivifying presence. Yours is the glory and the praise for all eternity.” - Basil the Great

We think we know the way, and we plot the course, but it is the Lord who directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). We attempt to blaze a trail, but ‘All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies (Psalm 25:10).’ It is only through the glorious and vivifying presence of God that we can say ‘my steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped (Psalm 17:5).”

He goes before us, follows after us, and is walking beside us. He makes known to us the path of life, in His presence there is fullness of joy; and at His right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Father, may we walk in your paths today. Would you illuminate the way we should go? Would we be aware of your presence, in us and around us, in Christ’s name, amen.

Walking,

AB

October 4: Tuesday Refocus

“…suffering can never be solved. It can only be shared in compassion, shared in community, and every effort to put ourselves in charge of the relief effort weakens the very sharing in which our hope resides.” - Parker Palmer

Sorrow, suffering, pain, and death are normal and common living in a world after the Fall of Genesis 3. But we know this is not the world God intended for humanity. Perhaps this is why we resist the reality of brokenness with such force - because we know it is not supposed to be this way. As followers of Jesus, we can rest in the truth that, ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death.’ Because Jesus died a death to sin ‘…once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God.’ (1 Corinthians 15:26, Romans 6:10).

Knowing that death has died frees us from the need to fix its sway over this already and not yet world. The death of death enables us to suffer with and to weep with those who weep, rather than attempt to fix something Christ will make new (Romans 12:15, Revelation 21:5).

Jesus, as you wept over the grave of your friend Lazarus, knowing full well that you would raise him to life, may we weep with those who weep, knowing that you will one day make all things new once more. Amen.

With,

AB

August 11: Tuesday Refocus

‘When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.’ - Isaiah 43:2

Maybe these months have felt like being thrown into a fire, or plunged into a flood.  Right here is where the Savior says, ‘I will be with you.’  The One who saves is the One who is with us (Matt 1:21-23).

As Elisabeth Elliot reminds us, ‘Out of the deepest waters and the hottest fires have come the deepest things that I know about God.’  Even hindsight may not provide the kind of clarity and validation of excruciating circumstance, but I believe that even in the middle of the pain we can know the withness of God.

We are never abandoned, forsaken or left as orphans (Ps 16:10, Ps 138:8, Jn 14:18).  Hear the words of the Savior and believe: ‘And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’  Matt 28:20

Lord, ‘I call to You from the ends of the earth when my heart is without strength.  Lead me to the rock that is high above me…’ (Ps 61:2, HCSB), in the name of the One who is always with me, amen.

Learning, 

AB