time to simplify
Hey, readers.
Thank you for reading and following.
Most people who read these are doing so through subscribing for free on the church website and then getting the same content emailed to them automatically. I’m thinking I’m just going to close this outlet and direct you to that same source. Just another step towards simplifying things in a new season of my life.
Writing these daily devotions continues to be a work of my heart and soul – as does tending to souls, pursuing conversations, and reading books (and reading books has really been lagging behind of late!). Formatting and posting those daily devotions hasn’t been tremendously time-consuming, but it’s another hour during the week that could be given to other these other pursuits.
So, time to simplify.
Go to our website.
Get on the subscription list.
You’ll have access there to the videos we make each week to accompany these written devotions, too.
Yes, time to simplify.
And perhaps that can be my final question on this blog, offered for your reflection: in what areas of your own life is it time (or past time!) to simplify – to eliminate redundancies and duplications and streamline your life just bit?
What’s stopping you from doing it?
he endured by seeing him who is invisible
FRIDAY
Life of Abraham – Week 1
REFLECT
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11.23-27 | ESV
RECEIVE
I know.
We’re in the story of Abraham and Sarah, so what are we doing looking at Moses?
Simple.
Moses knew how to leave Egypt – and how to go back.
The catch phrase: “he endured as seeing him who is invisible.”
Your turn.
Take some moments to ponder the “invisible God” in your own journey.
How have you seen him this week?
How do you need to see him today?
How has “seeing him who is invisible” empowered you with endurance through your own famine-infested seasons?
Remember.
Write.
Listen.
RELATE
How have you “seen him who is invisible” this week? How do you need to see him today?
RESPOND
Unseen God, thank you for seeing me! Open my eyes so I can return the favor today and see you everywhere – and in everyone. Through Christ.
in hard famine and half-truths | Genesis 12.10-20
THURSDAY
Life of Abraham – Week 1
REFLECT
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. And when the princes of Pharaoh saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.
But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had.
Genesis 12:10-20 | ESV
RECEIVE
Famine in the land.
Famine in the promised land.
What’s wrong with this picture?
Whatever it is, it’s quite clearly catching, because it consistently shows up on the screen of our lives as well. How could there be famine – a big old pot of nothing at the end of the rainbow? Now even Abram no doubt begins to believe the taunt of those watching his story: “Look at this old man! Traveling through the country, looking like a madman!”
Yes, this is absurd! This is mad! What am I doing here? What was I thinking?
This is another crossroads every journey of faith encounters – except for those who lie about it. And Abram was good at that too. Lying, that is. “God can’t even provide grass for my flocks or food for my table, so how can I trust him to protect me as we go down to Egypt to find food?”
Egypt.
It only made sense to go there. And it only made sense to have his wife lie about her marital status. They’re godless people anyway and they don’t deserve the full truth. Wise as a snake, harmless as a dove, yes?
Oh yes, it only made sense.
It didn’t help matters that it worked – Abram became even wealthier as Pharaoh lined his pockets for the beautiful new addition to the royal harem – and Sarai was returned, no worse for the wear, right? (Curiously, Sarai has no lines in this part of the story. Just what was that reunion like as Abram tallied the profits?) Yes, Abram would have to remember this little move. (And he would. And so would his yet-to-be-born son.)
Yes, it is a mixture, this whole faith and sight business. We are a mixed bag, all of us. Which is perhaps the greatest miracle of all, for it would appear that it is in just such a profoundly human, mixed bag of faith and sight, truth and falsehood, good and evil, that the invisible God becomes the most visible after all.
RELATE
Where has “Egypt” been in your life? In what ways has it made sense at the time? What have been your takeaways from your time there?
RESPOND
Unseen God, thank you for showing yourself even when I run for the presumed safety of the seen and the known. Thank you for meeting me in plenty and in famine, in your truth and in my half-truth. And, by your mercies, let me learn to aim higher. Through Christ.
absurdity at each step | Genesis 12.4-9
WEDNESDAY
Life of Abraham – Week 1
REFLECT
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.
Genesis 12:4-9 | ESV
RECEIVE
“Is there a man who travels without knowing to what destination he travels? A journey without apparent destination: absurdity at each step. The midrash gives us mocking voices that weave through Abram’s consciousness as he travels: ‘Look at this old man! Traveling through the country, looking like a madman!’” ~ Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Absurdity at each step.
Yes, that pretty well captures this journey of faith. It just makes no sense. Abram’s setting out in obedience to God’s “Lekh lekha” (translation: GET GOING!) marks the first time in the Genesis story a journey is taken not as a punishment or exile (Adam and Eve setting out from the garden, Cain setting out for the land of Nod, Babel’s builders scattering to the ends of the earth) but as a response to “a divine imperative that articulates and emphasizes displacement as its crucial experience” (Zornberg, again).
There is a radical displacement at the heart of all real faith.
Far from hunkering down into a bunker, faith flings us out into the world. And as we are flung, we will encounter absurdity at each step. Abram and Sarah boarded a plane with no clear destination – it will land somewhere! Absurd divine travel agent. But at least they got to pack – Jesus didn’t even let the twelve disciples do that.
You get a sense of Abram and Sarah setting out, heading this way, and then that, wondering, “So is this the place? Or how about this?” “God made me wander from my father’s house,” Abraham says, years later (Genesis 20:13). And so he wandered from place to place, “not knowing where he was going.” Until the invisible God appeared, revealing not only himself but this place as the destination, and for the first time he builds an altar, sacramentally marking the spot.
The rest of his life will be spent wandering about this land building altars and digging wells (though there would be at least one significant detour), an exalted father with no children passing through the property of others as a homeless man claiming his non-existent kids would one day own it all. Yes, absurdity at each step.
Perhaps it should give us pause if we are commended at each turn for our wise and considered steps, if no one ever yells at us, “Look at that old man! Traveling through the country, looking like a madman!”
For faith is spelled “r-i-s-k” and its surname is “absurdity.”
RELATE
When is the last time someone called you “mad” because of your faith? What is the difference between the “absurdity” of faith and true folly and madness? How do you personally and practically balance this all out in your own walk of faith?
RESPOND
Unseen God, let me not fear being thought a fool and absurd for stepping out in faith when you call; teach me the difference between the “folly” of faith that risks it all, and my own foolish presumptions. Give me the boldness to take some really absurd steps with you today. Through Christ.
lekh lekha (get going) | Genesis 11.27-12.3
TUESDAY
Life of Abraham – Week 1
REFLECT
Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 11:27 – 12:3 | ESV
RECEIVE
With the words, “This is the account of Terah” we now embark on the main story. The prelude of Genesis 1-11 is over, the preliminaries finished, the opening overture complete. The curtain has been raised, and now the play commences. The next “book” of Genesis launches the first act of Salvation’s Play, taking us through the story of Abraham (right up through Genesis 22).
For us, the introductory title can be misleading. “This is the account of Terah.” So Terah is the hero! He’s the one who will do it! After all the mess and sin and confusion, he is the one through whom God will bring redemption. He even has three sons just like Adam. Just like Noah. Yes, we recognize this pattern. We have seen this. We then watch Terah move his family, including his son Abram, the one with the barren wife (loser!), and he heads towards what we know is the Promised Land – center stage, yes!
We watch as Terah approaches center stage, poised for what we are sure will be a decisive moment in salvation history…and he dies.
Right before he gets there.
Dies.
Death resurgent.
Has the play been stopped?
No, wait. It wasn’t Terah at all. Well, it was, but it wasn’t. It was his son. Which one? The one with the barren wife. The one with no kids. The one with the name filled with bitter irony and pain: Abram. “Exalted Father.” The father with no children. Yes, God says. That’s the one through whom I will do this.
Lekh lekha – Go, Abram, Go.
Journey on to the land I will show you. Nimrod the Rebel thought his name was great; humanity in building their pathetic tower thought they could make their name great, those builders who shall remain unnamed. But I will make your name great. Those who curse you I will curse; those who bless you I will bless. And everyone – every family, every tribe, every clan, every nation, every generation – everyone will be blessed through you.
Lekh lekha – Go, Abram, Go.
Leave the cities of man. Go to the land I will show you. And you will see it all go into motion through each step of faith you take.
Go on, Abram, Go.
And the exalted father with no kids steps onto center stage.
And the journey begins…
RELATE
What lekh lekha “get going” moment have you faced in your life most recently when you were radically challenged to pick up and go when it really didn’t make much sense? What did you do?
RESPOND
Unseen God, loosen my grip on supposed on safe, secure and oh-so-visible supports and give me the courage to set my foot out the door into the wide world as you summon me to discover my own unseen land over this horizon of faith. Through Christ.
#G-O-D-I-S-N-O-W-H-E-R-E
MONDAY
Life of Abraham – Week 1
REFLECT
The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.
By an act of faith, Abraham said yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise. Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God. Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-10 | MSG
For we walk by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7 | ESV
RECEIVE
G-O-D-I-S-N-O-W-H-E-R-E
Is it “God is nowhere” or “God is now here”?
How do you read it? What do you see?
Perhaps the answer depends on how hard life is – or how easy. It can be much easier to see the unseen God at a mountaintop retreat than it is in a concentration camp – though, ironically, prisoners in a death camp often end up with the most powerful epiphanies of the divine rather than wealthy vacationers sitting on their exalted balconies.
Hebrews 11 asserts that faith is the lens through which the unseeable is seen. And acted upon. Which is a problem in a pragmatic, “show-me-the-money” age that exalts doubt as the greatest virtue and sees faith as childish or, worse, dangerous; a culture that values “a bird in the hand” over “two in the bush.”
It was to a couple in just such a culture that the invisible God showed up with the life-changing charge to “get up, leave all that you see, all that you know, all that you trust, all that you lean upon, and go to the place I will show you.” This is not just the starting point in the journey of Abraham and Sarah, or even of the grand narrative of redemption and reconciliation that ultimately issues in Christ – it’s the starting point for each of us.
There are two primary ways through which we approach life under the sun: faith or sight. We generally live with a mixture of the two, but one will finally predominate and shape us. We either rest in the security of the seen or we find the handle on what we can’t see. To journey with the great patriarchs and matriarchs in the Genesis story is to see them grapple with the same fundamental quandary we face in our own journey: faith or sight? “God is now here” or “God is nowhere.”
They found the handle on the unseen.
The question is, have we?
RELATE
G-O-D-I-S-N-O-W-H-E-R-E. Is it “God is nowhere” or “God is now here”? How do you read it?
What do you see in your own life and in the wide world? Just how visible is the invisible God to you?
RESPOND
Unseen God, let me find the handle on the unseen today so that I may truly see – and be utterly changed in the seeing. Through Christ.
wherever you send us, we’ll go
FRIDAY
Reflection 10 of 10
REFLECT
They answered Joshua:
“Everything you commanded us, we’ll do.
Wherever you send us, we’ll go.
We obeyed Moses to the letter; we’ll also obey you—
we just pray that God, your God, will be with you as he was with Moses.
Anyone who questions what you say and refuses to obey whatever you command him will be put to death.
Strength!
Courage!”
Joshua 1.16-18 | MSG
Then he said, “Go into the world. Go everywhere and announce the Message of God’s good news to one and all. Whoever believes and is baptized is saved; whoever refuses to believe is damned.
These are some of the signs that will accompany believers:
They will throw out demons in my name,
they will speak in new tongues,
they will take snakes in their hands,
they will drink poison and not be hurt,
they will lay hands on the sick and make them well.”
Then the Master Jesus, after briefing them, was taken up to heaven, and he sat down beside God in the place of honor. And the disciples went everywhere preaching, the Master working right with them, validating the Message with indisputable evidence. Mark 16.16-20 | MSG
RECEIVE
It’s one of my all time favorite scenes from what many consider a so-so film – Unbreakable. David Dunn realizes he is, after all, not just an ordinary man. Calling his “mentor” Elijah, he asks what he should do. Elijah’s instruction:
“Go to a place where people are… you won’t have to wait very long.”
Go where people are. See what happens.
It’s a hard word, this word “Go.” Perhaps that’s why the apostles – who were supposed to be experts in “going” as the ultimate “go-ers” (after all, “apostle” essentially means “one who goes”!) – perhaps that’s why they were so reluctant to go anywhere. It was over a decade since Jesus told them to “go where the people are,” and they were still huddled in Jerusalem. Saul began his purge, sending local believers scattering over the horizon, impacting people as they went. But the 12 original “Go-ers” stayed behind in Jerusalem. They weren’t ready to go anywhere. At least not until a new Herod showed up on the scene and cut off the head of one of them. Then the go-ers got going.
Finally.
That’s the time gap to insert, at least mentally, in Mark’s summary of the aftermath of Jesus’ ascension. Yes they went! But it took some doing for God to pry them out of Jerusalem at last.
Maybe this is one of those “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” moments. We can heap up preparations and stockpile promises, but when all is said and done when the starting gun fires it’s time to leap out of the blocks and go.
Or he may just have to pry us out.
The starting gun just fired.
It’s time to get going.
Go where the people are…you won’t have to wait very long.
RELATE
What does it look like for you to “go where the people are”? Just where is it you need to get going, and what do you think he calling on you to do when you get there?
RESPOND
Living God, give me the grace today to go. Give me eyes to see You where I go, to see the people as I go, and the courage to be and do as you lead me there on that spot, at that moment. And as I go, come. Through Christ.
you, tough soldiers all, must cross the river
THURSDAY
Reflection 9 of 10
REFLECT
Then Joshua addressed the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
He said,
“Remember what Moses the servant of God commanded you: God, your God, gives you rest and he gives you this land. Your wives, your children, and your livestock can stay here east of the Jordan, the country Moses gave you; but you, tough soldiers all, must cross the River in battle formation, leading your brothers, helping them until God, your God, gives your brothers a place of rest just as he has done for you. They also will take possession of the land that God, your God, is giving them. Then you will be free to return to your possession, given to you by Moses the servant of God, across the Jordan to the east.”
Joshua 1.12-15 | MSG
RECEIVE
Okay, today it’s your turn.
Time for you to sit quietly, listen, and write what you see and hear. At this moment you have your own river to cross.
Maybe it’s just a small one.
Maybe it’s huge.
What is the river you are being challenged to cross over right now in your life? What is the promised land on the other side? How long have you been preparing for this moment? What are your first steps in crossing this river? Who are you taking along with you?
Listen.
Write.
Get going…
RELATE
What is the river you are being challenged to cross over right now in your life?
What are your first steps?
RESPOND
Living God, give me wisdom to move beyond merely gathering at the river which you have called me to cross to actually getting my feet wet as I cross it. Give me the grace to launch, and to launch well. Through your mercies.
the future isn’t for wimps | Joshua 1.5-9
TUESDAY
Reflection 7 of 10
REFLECT
I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul.
Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed.
Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged.
God, your God, is with you every step you take.
Joshua 1.5-9 | MSG
RECEIVE
They had stood on the brink of this future before – and they flinched. An entire generation flinched and then walked away. “The walls are too thick and the people are too small.” They weren’t the first ones to balk at the future opening up before them rather than walking into it. Nor were they the first ones to choose the security of the known quantities of the past (even if those known quantities involved oppression and forced labor) rather than risk the unknown quantities of future promises. No, the future isn’t for wimps.
The flinching of the prior generation poignantly echoed Boromir’s caution in Fellowship of the Ring:
One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep, and the Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland, riddled with fire and ash and dust, the very air you breathe is a poisonous fume. Not with ten thousand men could you do this. It is folly.
Yes, it is folly – and much safer to go back, or at the very least to settle for this side of the river. Which is why we often say “faith” is spelled R-I-S-K. It’s also why Joshua hears the repeated encouragement to be “strong and courageous.”
“Don’t be discouraged.”
“Don’t be timid.”
And it’s also why he was urged, not to make a careful study of The Art of War, but to maintain a solid, listening posture towards God’s written counsel. You have not been this way before, and you’re going to need more than your wits about you; you need Holy Writ inside you.
No. The future is not for wimps.
RELATE
What are your deepest fears as you face the future? What is the key to surmounting these fears?
RESPOND
Living God, the future may not be for wimps, but you say ‘the meek shall inherit the earth.’ Remind me of this truth when fears of the unfolding future threaten to shut me down. Breathe fresh courge into the sails of my life. Through Jesus.
take the best and go | Joshua 1.1-5
MONDAY
Reflection 6 of 10
REFLECT
After the death of Moses the servant of God, God spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:
“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours.
All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you.
In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you.”
Joshua 1.1-5 | MSG
RECEIVE
More than Moses was left behind as they crossed the Jordan.
Manna was left behind.
And their mobile rock drinking fountain.
And the pillar of cloud by day, the pillar of fire by night.
And the quail.
And a whole lot of bodies from a generation missing the courage to cross.
We all have a heritage – not many of us dig into to it. Perhaps we’re afraid of what faces we’ll find lurking back there. The reality is, whether it’s a heritage from which to recover or on which to build – or whatever mixture of the two – our past propels us into our future.
John Wimber was fond of saying, “Take the best and go.”
This is why we lean into the past.
We need its signposts and lessons, its failures and successes, its wins and losses, its strengths and weaknesses. And whether we like it or not, it’s with us regardless. To lean into it is to intentionally be nourished by its health, instructed by its wisdom, and to become healers through its wounds. To lean into it is to choose the higher trajectory as it slingshots us forward.
And that’s where we focus this week. Having intentionally leaned back into the massive slingshot of the past, we now launch out into our future. This week we stand with Joshua, leaning into the slingshot not merely of the past forty years, but the past 430 years since God first made his promise to Abram “I will multiply you; I will make of you a great nation; I will give you the land in which you now sojourn.”
The key word in describing the land that lay before this generation emerging from the desert: promise.
There’s a lesson there for us.
And a challenge:
Aim higher.
RELATE
As you contemplate the future, what is the primary emotion you experience? Fear? Anticipation? Indifference? or __________________? Why?
RESPOND
Living God, take the best and worst of my past, and breathe them into flaming embers that will fill the world with light and life and love in all the unique ways you have intended before the world began. Fill me with great expectations as I cross the river into the new day breaking before me. Through Jesus.
marching orders
WEDNESDAY
Reflection 8 of 10
REFLECT
Then Joshua gave orders to the people’s leaders:
“Go through the camp and give this order to the people: ‘Pack your bags. In three days you will cross this Jordan River to enter and take the land God, your God, is giving you to possess.’”
Joshua 1.10-11 | MSG
Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions:
“Don’t think you need a lot of extra equipment for this.
You are the equipment.
No special appeals for funds.
Keep it simple.
And no luxury inns.
Get a modest place and be content there until you leave.
If you’re not welcomed, not listened to, quietly withdraw.
Don’t make a scene.
Shrug your shoulders and be on your way.”
Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits. Mark 6.7-13 | MSG
RECEIVE
Union general George McClellan is credited by most historians with organizing what became known as the Army of the Potomac – the army that ultimately carried the war for the Union in the American Civil War. A massive, monumental achievement.
But much to President Lincoln’s deepening chagrin, he seemed reluctant to do anything with it. At one point he sent a note to 
McClellan asking if he could borrow his army if McClellan wasn’t doing anything with it – or, as pictured here, one month after the momentous battle of Antietam, after being informed that McClellan had still not begun pursuing Lee’s beaten army because of “tongued and fatigued horses” he sent this wonderfully pointed note:
“I have just read your dispacth about some tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything? A. Lincoln.”
There is a time to gather stones, and there is a time to cast them away.
Prepare, equip, train, ready, organize, systematize, theorize, plan, strategize.
But finally comes the time when we must launch.
McClellan was a great administrator about whom Lincoln observed, “He helps others to fight, but he does not himself fight.” It was Ulysses S. Grant that ultimately got the job done. When others petitioned for Grant’s dismissal over rumors of his drinking, Lincoln simply responded,
“I can’t spare this man. He fights.”
As we face off with the future, as Joshua did with his generation, or as Jesus did with the twelve disciples, perhaps we can hear the nudge to lean more into Grant than McClellan.
You don’t need a lot of extra equipment.
You are the equipment.
You are ready.
And it’s time to launch.
RELATE
Are you a careful planner or a more spontaneous improviser? What would you say is the key to preparing enough to move ahead without becoming paralyzed when it’s time to launch?
RESPOND
Living God, lead me into healthier, functioning rhythms of gathering stones and casting them away. Give me the wisdom to plan well, and the courage to launch when it’s time. By your grace.
remember THAT | Deuteronomy 4.14-20
WEDNESDAY
Reflection 3 of 10
REFLECT
And God commanded me at that time to teach you the rules and regulations that you are to live by in the land which you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.
You saw no form on the day God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire. Remember that. Carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t turn corrupt and make a form, carving a figure that looks male or female, or looks like a prowling animal or a flying bird or a slithering snake or a fish in a stream. And also carefully guard yourselves so that you don’t look up into the skies and see the sun and moon and stars, all the constellations of the skies, and be seduced into worshiping and serving them. God set them out for everybody’s benefit, everywhere. But you—God took you right out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to become the people of his inheritance—and that’s what you are this very day.
Deuteronomy 4.14-20 | MSG
RECEIVE
Dry, blighted, blasted, barren, wasted, desert.
Welcome to Horeb.
The word “Horeb” actually embodies all those descriptors. No one names their retreat center “Horeb.” And yet that is precisely where God continues to show up.
Desert God.
We are much more keen for dessert. Yes, Dessert God – sign us up for that one! Most of what passes for religion does. Sweet desserts. Lots of whipped, airy, cream.
Sometimes people ridicule the God of Scripture as the “Sky God.” But he’s not. He’s the Desert God. And here’s the beautiful thing. He turns that desert into a fertile field. Our earliest memories are often our earliest, most traumatic moments. We all have Horebs in our past. Our task is not to sugarcoat them, nor to level them.
The key is allowing those dry, blighted, barren, wasted desert spaces to be transformed into beauty in the present, and to launch us into ever unfolding future wonders.
Oh yes. Remember that.
RELATE
What has been your dry barren Horeb, your fiery Egyptian furnace? How can you see beauty and possibilities unfolding from it today? Or are you still looking? (Or are you still at Horeb?)
RESPOND
Living God, meet me in my Horeb. Meet me in all my Horebs. Give me eyes to see “the fourth One” walking through the furnace with me; let me see him carrying me out and with gentle push, launching me into wonders. Through Christ.
you stood in the shadow of the mountain
TUESDAY
Reflection 2 of 10
REFLECT
Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren.
That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.” You gathered. You stood in the shadow of the mountain. The mountain was ablaze with fire, blazing high into the very heart of Heaven. You stood in deep darkness and thick clouds. God spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but you saw nothing—no form, only a voice. He announced his covenant, the Ten Words, by which he commanded you to live. Then he wrote them down on two slabs of stone.
Deuteronomy 4.9-13 | MSG
RECEIVE
Blazing fire, deep darkness, thick clouds.
No wonder we avoid the past.
Yet this was the context of their ultimate divine encounter with a formless, invisible God who speaks out of the whirlwind. How marvelous that we know the One who not only stills storms, but also speaks right out of the heart of them to our hearts.
Very good, that.
And worthy of inscribing on a slab of stone or two. But paper will do for us right now.
God gave them Ten Words. As you contemplate your journey, just pause and listen for one.
It might be a single word, it might be a sentence or even a paragraph.
Or it might just be the voice of a thin silence.
Or even a picture.
Remember. Listen.
And then inscribe it on your own slab of stone.
RELATE
The past. What do you see? Blazing fire, deep darkness, thick clouds – or high peaks, grace vistas, unfolding wonders? Remember. Listen. Inscribe.
RESPOND
God of all my yesterdays, God of today, God of all tomorrows, release my spirit to dance along the traces of your steps in my life, or to pause and fill those footprints with my tears. And give me ears to hear your voice in the whirlwind of my life today. Through Christ.
stay with the plan | Hebrews 10.32-39
FRIDAY
Reflection 5 of 10
REFLECT
Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times!
Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days
your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out,
staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion.
It won’t be long now, he’s on the way;
he’ll show up most any minute.
But anyone who is right with me thrives on loyal trust;
if he cuts and runs, I won’t be very happy.
But we’re not quitters who lose out. Oh, no! We’ll stay with it and survive, trusting all the way.
Hebrews 10.32-39 | MSG
RECEIVE
So we travel from Deuteronomy to Hebrews.
Hebrews with its better shores – better promises, better covenant, a better high priest, a better and more perfect sanctuary as wide as the world.
But these people couldn’t see any of that at the moment – hence this long pulpit-ish letter. They had had a hard past, and were suffering in an even harder present (they thought).
But they forgot the glories.
They had seen the Glory in all that they had experienced, excruciating as it had been at times, and they so needed to remember so they could be vigorously propelled into the future awaiting them.
And that need is ours too.
Remember.
Celebrate and mourn.
Listen.
See.
And launch out…
RELATE
How would you quantify your greatest takeaway from your past? What most excites you about the future?
RESPOND
Living God, who was, and is, and is to come, remind me today that you dwell richly in all three of those tenses; let me not fear anywhere you walk, have walked or will walk. Teach me to lean into the past in all of it’s variegated glories, and be launched into a future that will make them seem but flickering light. Through Christ.
has as great a thing as this ever happened?
THURSDAY
Reflection 4 of 10
REFLECT
Ask questions. Find out what has been going on all these years before you were born. From the day God created man and woman on this Earth, and from the horizon in the east to the horizon in the west—as far back as you can imagine and as far away as you can imagine—has as great a thing as this ever happened? Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? Has a people ever heard, as you did, a god speaking out of the middle of the fire and lived to tell the story? Or has a god ever tried to select for himself a nation from within a nation using trials, miracles, and war, putting his strong hand in, reaching his long arm out, a spectacle awesome and staggering, the way God, your God, did it for you in Egypt while you stood right there and watched?
You were shown all this so that you would know that God is, well, God. He’s the only God there is.
He’s it. He made it possible for you to hear his voice out of Heaven to discipline you. Down on Earth,
he showed you the big fire and again you heard his words, this time out of the fire. He loved your ancestors and chose to work with their children. He personally and powerfully brought you out of Egypt in order to displace bigger and stronger and older nations with you, bringing you out and turning their land over to you as an inheritance. And now it’s happening. This very day.
Deuteronomy 4.32-38 | MSG
RECEIVE
Okay, enough of blasted Horeb.
Look further back, Moses tells us.
Fire up your imagination.
Turn on that HD.
See it wide screen.
Look at the unstoppable, unyielding, “resistance-is-futile” flow of Life through all of history, and then watch that unstoppable stream flow right into and through your own life. Watch how it would propel you forward, as you are, with all you’ve brought, all is carried towards Life, deepening as it goes.
So much Life.
Let Paul’s words help you – in the midst of so much pain from the past and so much cynicism and skepticism over the unfolding present – soak in this a bit:
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right. All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. Romans 5.18-21 | MSG
RELATE
As you consider life – in all three tenses of past, present and future, do you see yourself as optimist or pessimist or __________________? Why?
RESPOND
Living God, let me carried away today with the unstoppable flow of Life! Drown my darker pessimisms in its waters, and raise them faith and vision renewed. Give fresh lenses for the day. Through Jesus.
listen! | Deuteronomy 4.1-8
MONDAY
Reflection 1 of 10
REFLECT
Now listen, Israel, listen carefully to the rules and regulations that I am teaching you to follow so that you may live and enter and take possession of the land that God, the God-of-Your-Fathers, is giving to you. Don’t add a word to what I command you, and don’t remove a word from it. Keep the commands of God, your God, that I am commanding you.
You saw with your own eyes what God did at Baal Peor, how God destroyed from among you every man who joined in the Baal Peor orgies. But you, the ones who held tight to God, your God, are alive and well, every one of you, today. Pay attention: I’m teaching you the rules and regulations that God commanded me, so that you may live by them in the land you are entering to take up ownership. Keep them. Practice them. You’ll become wise and understanding. When people hear and see what’s going on, they’ll say, “What a great nation! So wise, so understanding! We’ve never seen anything like it.”
Yes. What other great nation has gods that are intimate with them the way God, our God, is with us, always ready to listen to us? And what other great nation has rules and regulations as good and fair as this Revelation that I’m setting before you today? Deuteronomy 4.1-8 | MSG
RECEIVE
Listening.
Probably the greatest challenge for us in this or any culture. Perhaps listening is so difficult because we’re afraid we won’t like what we’ll hear. And perhaps listening to the past is so hard because we don’t like what we’ve seen.
Our past is a mixed bag.
Blessings and curses,
highs and lows.
So many intersections of life and death, glory and shame, strength and weakness. Which is perhaps why we are so eager to take Paul up on his offer to “forget the things that are behind and press on to what is ahead.” It seems that when it comes to the past we gravitate to the extremes of either living there or denying it ever happened.
The reality is the past is a slingshot, whether we like it or not. Our past launches us into our future. Yesterday is the launching pad for today, even as today will be for tomorrow. All we can decide is what will that trajectory look like?
Straight like an arrow?
High and soaring to the skies?
Low and gutter bound?
Deuteronomy is the “second word.” It’s Moses’ last word. And this week we join his audience.
His key theme? Listen.
Remember.
Remember where you have been.
Remember what you have seen.
Remember what you have heard.
And as you do, as you trace the lines of your own story, watch for the movement and telltale rhythms of the formless, invisible God.
And then, listen!
RELATE
The past. Do you tend to live there or to avoid it all together? Why? How do you sense God challenging you to remember and to listen?
RESPOND
Living God, help me not to fear the places I have been, no matter how dark the path. Shine your light in the darkness that I may trace your movements through it all. Give me the courage – and the attention span! – to remember, and to listen. Through Christ.
you’re going to need a bigger library…
FRIDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.15-25
REFLECT
This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. John 21.24-25 | ESV
And that disciple is me, your narrator, the one who solemnly swears to the truth of all this, the one who painstakingly recorded every word of this testimony. And yet there’s so much more that could have been added to it! All the other many, many things that Jesus did!
Where to begin?
Where to end!?
I’ve barely even scratched it! And were I to undertake the recording of it all, well, I don’t suppose there are enough trees on the planet to provide the pulp to make the paper for the pages nor the world itself a big enough library to contain all the books that would have to be written… John 21.24-25 | MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
I often encounter the supposition that we must have a correct grasp of the nature of Christ in order “to be saved” (by which we usually mean “enter our heavenly rewards later on”).
That supposition makes me smile on two levels (at least).
First, Jesus was constantly telling those he encountered “ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέν σε.” And yes, that’s foreign to us – oh so foreign! Said in this case to a woman who only knew that this was no ordinary man, and that all she had to do was touch the edge of his garment. “Your faith has saved you/ made you whole.” No understanding or grasp of Trinitarian delineations or of hypostatic union – she just grabbed the hem of his garment was healed without Jesus’ conscious engagement – power just “went out” from him, and he was left trying to figure out where.
Jesus is bigger, his reach longer than our understanding/misunderstanding and grasp of who he is. Which is a good thing, because the world can’t contain the books that would have to be written to “cover” just the three decades of his life on this planet.
We’re not even talking about his eternal nature and state!
No book can contain that, no mind can grasp it!
Which is the second reason I smile at the assumption we have to understand Jesus correctly in order for him to impact and touch us. He is the Cosmic Christ, the Eternal Word that holds all things together – including these brain cells that are trying to sort him out.
It’s more important that we allow him to sort us –
which is exactly what he has been doing on these shores of the Gospel of John.
RELATE
Which “signpost” from your journey through the Gospel of John has most impacted you? Why?
And How?
RESPOND
Lord, thank you for encountering me on these shores of John’s Gospel. Give me the courage and heart now to follow you – to take the boat of my life out into the deep and to lower my nets on the right side of the boat for a catch – and let me be caught too! Through your abundant mercies.
your business is following ME | John 21.22-23
THURSDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.15-25
REFLECT
Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?” John 21.22-23 | ESV
Jesus doesn’t stop or look back as he answers: “If I want him to hang around here until whenever I show again, how is that any of your concern? Your business is following me.”
And so the word spread, mouth to mouth, generation to generation, that this disciple would never die. But that’s not what Jesus said at all. He didn’t say, “He will never die.” What he said was, “If I want him to hang around until whenever I show again, how is that any of your business?” MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
Your turn now.
Reread the entire text for this week. Actually, do more than that. Sit with the entire Gospel of John. You don’t have to reread the whole thing. Just sit with it open before you, soaking in the memories of your journey through it these past months.
This is the point.
It all comes down to this here and now: “You follow me.”
Now sit with it in silence.
Open your imagination.
What is he asking you to do with all of this?
How is he calling you to follow him right now, on this shore, at this moment.
Listen.
And then let him lead you in your response to his voice.
RELATE
“You follow me.” What does this look like for you in this season of your life?
RESPOND
Lord, free me to be about your business, and not that of others – or even merely my own! Free me to follow you in ways I have only dreamed of heretofore. Through your unceasing mercies.
Lord, what about him? | John 21.20-21
WEDNESDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.20-21
REFLECT
Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who also had leaned back against him during the supper and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” John 21.20-21 | ESV
The Rock turns his head and sees that perennially favored disciple of Jesus following along too – you know, the one who leaned back on Jesus at that final meal together and whispered those words, “Lord, who is your betrayer?” Yes, the Rock sees him, and so he inquires – perhaps with a bit of a complaining tone (or was it concern?): “Lord, what about him?” MAV
RECEIVE
I believe this is the first time in this Jesus encounter that Peter takes his eyes off Jesus and he looks at his brother. I think it made Jesus smile, too.
“What about him?”
Ah, that consumes us through so much of our lives! So hard to let go. Comparisons, critiques, carping. What about his sin? What about her flaws? So I have to endure this, and what about him, then? Even when we don’t grow up with siblings, we never quite live without a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of sibling rivalry. It’s the human condition.
And it usually masquerades as righteous care or genuine concern.
Oh how we are compelled to be our brother’s keeper in all the worst ways! And generally it’s a search for our own significance which we hope to find in our comparisons with others – comparisons that typically lead to a diminishing of them so there can be an embellishing of ourselves.
Maybe none of this was at work in Peter, maybe it was just curiosity.
Maybe it was concern over John’s fate.
But I know me. I tend towards the other, and I at least like to imagine I’m not the only one (ha! comparison! again!).
Oh for the grace to look at each other for the right reasons, free of envy and self-centered, self-pitying comparisons; to look at one another on his cue because of shared connection through his ever expanding heart that embraces the heart and fortunes of us all.
RELATE
Is there someone whose status you’ve perhaps been a bit too obsessed with lately? What’s the key to quitting the comparison game we all so easily start playing?
RESPOND
Lord, forgive me for looking over my shoulder at my brother, my sister, for all the wrong reasons. Let me lose myself in your gaze so that I might truly find myself seeing others as they are, when your eyes lead me there. And let my gaze be as healing as yours. Through Christ.
follow me (btw, did I mention the cost?)
TUESDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.15-25
REFLECT
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” John 21.18-19 | ESV
Then Jesus adds, “You can COUNT on this: When you were young and in control, you dressed how and when you wanted and went where you wanted. But when you get old and grey, the day is coming when they will come for you, your hands will be stretched out, and you’ll wear something you’d rather not, and they’ll take you to a place you’d rather not.” (Nudge, nudge, hint, hint – Jesus painting a picture of shameful crucifixion as his ultimate path of a God-honoring death that the Rock couldn’t miss – because feeding his flock will have its cost). And then Jesus says, motioning with his head, “Follow me.” MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
“I’m ready to go to prison – I’m ready to go to my death for you!”
That’s what Peter said.
That’s what they all said.
Except perhaps John, content to lean on the heart of his friend. Perhaps.
I’ve done hundreds of wedding ceremonies over three decades plus of ministry. Hundreds. Hundreds of vows, of mutual “I do’s,” of exchanged rings and “repeat after me” moments. I’m increasingly struck by the fact as I perform these ceremonies that I could just as well be saying “Blah blah blah blah” not because I don’t believe them or because bride and groom aren’t sincere, but because they have no idea what they are really saying “yes” to when they say “I do.”. “In sickness and in health, for better or for worse.” No idea. How could they? Typically it’s a young couple filled with love and enough bravado to take on each other as they take on the world with an endless track of “Don’t Stop Believing” repeating in their minds.
Which is as it should be.
But those vows will be become real one day in raw depths they could not have imagined – and then they will know. Oh yes, there is a cost here, isn’t there?
The cross of Christ was also the crucible of Cephas. It suddenly became very real. He saw himself, and it broke him. Seeing himself again now through a Savior’s penetrating and healing gaze, he sees the path before him in refreshed light. This path leads not to an altar of success or an elevated platform of esteem. Prison and death did you say? Oh yes, this is coming for you. And you won’t want it, but it will come, still.
He is the Master, yes?
We could learn a thing or two from him as we make our own sales pitch for Christ, if we would. God has a plan for your life! Oh yes. You will be stretched out, and you won’t want to go.
So come on then. What are you waiting for? This way…
RELATE
In what ways has your commitment to follow Christ become “real”? What cost have you had to pay so far? What prepares us to pay the price we must in our pursuit of the God-Life?
RESPOND
Oh Lord, what quaking feet and quivering lips when I am confronted with the harsh realities of where life leads, where my calling and walk with you leads. Give me the grace to find the joy in it and in you, that even as my arms are stretched out in postures I would never assume, I will feel your pleasure, even there. Through Christ.
rooster echo in reverse | John 21.15-17
MONDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.15-25
REFLECT
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.” John 21.15-17 | ESV
While they were wiping their mouths following this wondrous breakfast, Jesus turns and says to “I’m the Rock and I’m Listening” (that would be Simon Peter): “Simon John-son, are you truly committed to me – more than all the rest?” The Rock wasted no time looking around at the others – looking at Jesus he says, but without the former bravado, “Yes, Lord, you know I’m with you heart and soul.” Leaning towards him, Jesus intones, “Then feed my wee lambs (odd words for a fisherman!).”
Before Peter can turn away, Jesus challenges him again: “Simon John-son, are you truly committed to me?” The Rock hasn’t looked away and he repeats, “Yes, Lord, you know that I’m with you heart and soul!” Jesus repeats, “Then care for my flock.”
Peter turns away only to be challenged a third time: “Simon John-son, are you truly with me heart and soul?” Rooster echoes, only in reverse. The Rock cracks right down the middle at the verbatim third challenge: “Are you truly with me heart and soul?” and he weeps back, “Lord, you know everything and you know me – you know that I’m with you heart and soul!” Jesus says to him, hands on shoulders, “Then feed my flock.” MAV (Mike’s Amplified Version)
RECEIVE
Peter hears rooster echoes on the beach after breakfast – and I hear echoes of Joseph with his brothers for some reason. Joseph put the brothers who betrayed him, sold him, abandoned him through a bit of a ringer when they met again. He was clearly trying to see what was in their hearts – and one can’t help but wonder how much he was enjoying the whole testing process.
This encounter with the Rock, the friend who had denied him three times in the darkest hour of his life, the friend he had locked eyes with as he did it, both of them then hearing that rooster crow, this encounter is something of a testing process too. And I suspect Jesus also enjoyed it – though I would guess for different reasons.
This wasn’t so much a test so Jesus could see what was there (pretty sure he already knew that), but one for Peter’s eyes. We would probably have glossed over this. That was then, this is now. No harm, no foul. We would have been nice. Or we would have never trusted such a friend again and wouldn’t be caught dead (again!) eating breakfast with him.
But Jesus didn’t leave it or him alone.
Jesus meets us on the shore of our most bitter memories and gives us not a piece of his mind, but a piece of bread, and then gently teases out of us what we most need to process and see. And his timing is impeccable.
He’s the Master, yes?
We could learn a few things, if we would.
Notice Jesus doesn’t have this conversation the first time Jesus pops into the room, or the second. It has perhaps been two weeks since the hue of everything has changed because of resurrection. But it hasn’t changed for Peter. The shadows of his soul must be drawn into the light – and this is his moment.
Confession.
Redemption.
Restoration.
Redirection.
Peter could have been grappling with his guilt through the years, trying to cope and process through counseling – which is often what we have to do – and who knows, maybe he still did! But oh the timing and the touch of the Master in resetting the broken bone, in healing the cracked Rock through persevering presence and timely word.
RELATE
How has Jesus met you on the shores of your own bitter memories? Or is he, perhaps, with broiled fish and baked bread, waiting for you to show?
RESPOND
Lord, a gentle word can break a bone – or heal it! Let me trust your words for me on the shores of my own darkened memories, and let me receive them like the warm bread you would place into my hands there. Through your mercies.
last supper, meet the first breakfast | John 21.12-14
FRIDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.1-14 REFLECT
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. John 21.12-14 | ESV
Then Jesus says to them, “Dig in boys, breakfast is served.” Awkward silence prevailed, not one of the disciples daring to come right out and ask, “So, just who are you again?” They all knew who he was, they knew it was the Lord right there with them again. So Jesus just steps right up, takes the warmed bread and gives it to them, and then does the same with the fish, a serving for each.
This was the third time his dancing presence had popped up among these disciples since he’d been raised from the dead. MAV
RECEIVE
Your turn now.
Reread the entire text for this week. Then sit with it in your own awkward silence.
Open your imagination.
Put yourself there on that beach.
We have a detailed accounting of what transpired with Peter here, but no doubt Jesus had some significant moments with each of them as they ate and laughed. Let yourself be the unnamed disciple with them. And now he’s serving you a communion of bread and fish.
What does he say to you as he serves you?
What words of warning, of reassuring, recommissioning grace,
of encouraging, provoking love does he speak to you?
Listen.
And then let him lead you in your response to his voice.
RELATE
Where in your life could you use another breaking in of the “dancing presence of God”?
What are the chances the dance is already underway – you just haven’t realized it yet?
RESPOND
Lord, I can be so incredibly slow to see your dancing presence right in front of my face! Let me see beyond the everyday loaves and fish before me to the communion you offer with me through them, your heart with my heart, your life with my life. Awaken my soul today, O God. Through Christ.
it’s déjà vu all over again! | John 21.9-11
THURSDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.1-14
REFLECT
When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn. John 21.9-11 | ESV
No sooner had they stepped foot on land than what do they see? A charcoal fire well under way (another déjà vu moment for the Rock from the dreaded priestly courtyard with its echoing rooster crow) with fish on the fire – and loaves of bread (déjà vu all over again – to the tune of 5,000!). Then Jesus tells them: “Now let’s add some of what you just caught to what I already have going here!” The fishermen had, of course, left their record catch flapping in the water, so Peter waded back in and hauled the net up on the beach (talk about adrenalin rush!). The net was filled with HUGE fish – all told, one-hundred-fifty-three of them! And the net hadn’t so much as snapped a single thread. MAV (Mike’s Authorized Version)
RECEIVE
Give God credit: he knows how to set a table.
Repeated déjà vu moments on the shore: A charcoal fire around which we last saw Peter warming himself in that high priestly courtyard on that dreadful night filled with fearful denials; loaves and fishes harkening back to that anchoring miracle of all miracles in the feeding of the five thousand – not to mention last supper overtones as the last supper meets the first breakfast. But he’s not content to merely tag these signal events from their recent and more distant past.
He invites them to add to it, to bring what they have just caught to the table. The wise Preacher might have said, “Whatever God does endures forever and nothing can be added to it,” but the truth is he invites us to do just that. “And greater works than these will ye do.” Yes, bring from what you have caught, and add it to what I have prepared for you.
And look at Peter go!
It took two boats and at least six other guys to get the net to shore, but, as John paints the scene, Peter hauls it the rest of the way in by himself. And then they count. Leftovers matter, and every fish counts.
All 153 of them.
And what endless speculation we engage in over that number! Back to Augustine and beyond the debate has raged. Why 153? What is the significance of 153? At least, to my knowledge, no one has died over the issue! Perhaps there is some deep significance – there are always layers, it seems. But then, sometimes a dogfight near a cheese factory is just a dogfight near a cheese factory.
Maybe it’s nothing more than the fact that this was their biggest catch – and their last catch.
And they never forgot it.
Their last catch, added to the first breakfast of a new life.
I think I would remember that number too.
RELATE
When most recently have you found yourself in your own divinely arranged, marvelous déjà vu moment? What happened?
RESPOND
Lord, thank you for managing to turn the sights, sounds and smells of my worst memories into the renewing aroma of a new day’s breakfast that redefines and reshapes all I have known and been into pure, life-giving grace. Yes, God. Do that again. And show me how to share the meal today. Through Christ.
a major case of déjà vu | John 21.7-8
WEDNESDAY
This Week’s Reading: John 21.1-14
REFLECT
That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. John 21.7-8 | ESV
Major case of déjà vu. That perennially favorite disciple of Jesus nudges the still incredulous Rock, “It’s the Lord.” Now “The Rock and I’m Listening” puts two and two together when he hears, “It’s the Lord,” and suddenly realizes he’s practically stark naked in the boat. He hurriedly throws his fisherman’s tunic on, but then promptly throws himself into the lake to swim to shore – he just couldn’t wait. Meanwhile the others brought another wee boat alongside and between the two of them they laboriously hauled the catch of fish to the shore – and fortunately they weren’t that far out; just about two hundred strokes (as Peter learned in his swimming). MAV
RECEIVE
Did I mention that I really, really like this story?
Jesus so clearly telegraphs their initial conversion point in that first “miraculous catch” of fish way back when (see Luke 5) as a way of saying several things, chief among them being, “Hello, remember me?” John catches it – but evidently has to connect the dots for Peter.
Thank you, Peter! You are at the head of the class, and every last one of us feels at home with you. What a slow business it can be for us – this whole dot-connecting business.
But then the pieces fall into place. Peter catches on too. And his next act is priceless. They just made the catch of a lifetime and it’s an “all hands on deck” moment that ultimately demands at least another boat to come alongside and help haul it all in. Peter’s response? “It’s Jesus and I’m naked!” Talk about rewind! All the way back to Genesis. On goes his fisherman’s frock. And now what? Pitch in with your fellow fishermen and help them haul this catch to shore?
Why no, silly.
I must pitch into the water and swim to Christ. Most of us strip and then dive in. But Peter’s not most of us. Oh, but wait – he is, isn’t he? If this is narrative tacked on by a later revisionist to establish the ecclesiastical authority of Peter, they could have woven together a much better story than this!
What the author has done is reveal the hard to ape authenticity of a human being who reacts in all too familiar and wonderfully awkward ways to the sudden presence of the One he has both deeply failed and loved.
Yes, we thank God for you, Peter.
Thank you for revealing to us the God who loves great big, dripping wet, awkward human beings.
RELATE
Put yourself in the boat with these fishy disciples when you suddenly realize it’s Jesus – the same Jesus you humiliated yourself before mere days prior. What do you do? Why?
RELATE
Lord, thank you for embracing my great big, dripping wet, awkward humanity.
Give me the grace today to pass it on. Through Jesus.
REFLECT | RECEIVE | RELATE | RESPOND 