devotiONEighty – Page 2 – Where the Wind…

Wings Like Eagles (May 17, 2013)

Published on May 17, 2013May 13, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

Words written fifty years ago, a hundred years ago, a thousand years ago, can have as much…power today as ever they had it then to come alive for us and in us and to make us more alive within ourselves. (Frederick Buechner)

…Listening In…

But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31; context)

…Filling Up…

Verse four on the guitar case comes from the end of the 40^th chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah and it is in the running for most beautiful verse of scripture in the entire Bible. I can’t remember what made me put on the guitar case, but it’s influence since I have has been profound. Ever since I began walking with families through their grief at the death of a loved one, I have suggested the reading that includes this verse for one of the readings at the funeral.

This verse is full of hope, but at the same time, it acknowledges just how severely life can run you down. It does not gloss over the reality that the daily grind coupled with the occasional catastrophe can erode away a person to nothingness. It speaks about renewing strength, implying that strength has been lost; about flying like an eagle, implying that there has been a low point; about becoming weary; about fainting.

But rather than speaking directly about losing strength and fainting, Isaiah speaks as if those things have already or will soon pass. He doesn’t say that those who wait for the Lord might renew their strength. He says that they will renew their strength. He speaks as if they are foregone conclusions. And you know what, when we are speaking of God’s promises, they are.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you will always bear me up when I fall. Help me to believe the promises you make to your people through the words of your prophets, so that I may continue to fly upon the wings of your faith. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, with your words on my lips and your joy in my heart, ready to share both with all I meet.

I Will Praise (May 16, 2013)

Published on May 16, 2013May 13, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

I will praise the Name of God in song; I will proclaim his greatness with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:32; context)

…Filling Up…

The third verse down the neck of my guitar case comes from a special type of psalm called a “psalm of lament.” In this category of psalm, the writer bewails a tragedy (or two or three or four) that has befallen. The writer goes on to wonder if God is anywhere nearby or if God is going to help out because it sure seems that God has cut and run.

Now, you think: “Gee, that verse above does sound very much like a lamentation. Are you sure you got the citation right, Adam?” Good observation. Yes, the citation is correct. And yes, this verse doesn’t sound much like the thirty plus verses that come before it. Indeed, the first four verses of the psalm read, “Save me, O God, for the waters have risen up to my neck. I am sinking in deep mire, and there is no firm ground for my feet. I have come into deep waters, and the torrent washes over me. I have grown weary with my crying; my throat is inflamed; my eyes have failed from looking for my God.”

This is one grief-stricken psalmist. How could the writer get from looking for God to praising God in song? Good question. Right here is where the future tense comes in. Notice that the psalmist says, “I will praise… I will proclaim…” The psalmist is mired in grief, blinded by sorrow. This writer feels abandoned and on the verge of despair. At the moment of penning this psalm, the writer cannot praise God or proclaim God’s greatness.

But even in this deepest lamentation, there is a glimmer of hope, and that glimmer is captured in the future tense. Someday – maybe not tomorrow or next week or next year – but someday, the psalmist will once again praise the name of God again. Psalms of lamentation give us an example to follow when we are in the midst of grief. They give us permission to feel the feelings of loss and sorrow and abandonment. But they also give us the hope that praising and singing and thanksgiving will come again in time.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you never abandon me, even when I cannot feel your presence. Help me when I am on the verge of despair to hold on to the sliver of hope that is a future full of your presence. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, with your words on my lips and your joy in my heart, ready to share both with all I meet.

Teach Me Discernment (May 15, 2013)

Published on May 15, 2013May 13, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

O Lord, you have dealt graciously with your servant, according to your word. Teach me discernment and knowledge, for I have believed in your commandments. (Psalm 119:65-66; context)

…Filling Up…

The second verse from the top of the guitar case comes from the longest psalm in the book. In fact, the verses quoted above are at the beginning of the second third of the psalm. There are over 100 verses after that! Anyway, I remember pasting these two verses to my guitar after I started the formal process of discernment for ordained ministry. This is probably why I was struck by the phrase “teach me discernment.”

Basically, the psalmist wants to learn how to learn. “Teach me discernment” could also read, “show me how to open my eyes so I can begin to see properly.” Or “show me how to work these legs of mine so I can start following your path.” When the psalmist asks God to teach discernment, the psalmist shows that he has discovered that he is at the very beginning of his journey, no matter that a third of the psalm is already through.

Even though I am now a priest (that is, I navigated the six year process from initial inquiry to ordination), I still need to ask God to teach me how to discern. Discernment happens when you cultivate an atmosphere of prayerful reflection. Within this atmosphere, the discerner asks God to be present in the act of noticing all the choices in front of him or her. In the end, discernment is all about seeing the whole field when you make a decision (sorry for that football metaphor; it sort of snuck in). Every quarterback (even Tom Brady and Peyton Manning) has a coach to help him see the field. And we do too. So my prayer is that we each ask God to teach us discernment.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you continue to teach me things every day of my life. Help me to be receptive to those lessons so that I can invite you into every decision I make and find a fuller life in you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, with your words on my lips and your joy in my heart, ready to share both with all I meet.

Called to Freedom (May 14, 2013)

Published on May 14, 2013May 13, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. (Galatians 5:13; context)

…Filling Up…

The old guitar case has fourteen verses of scripture taped to it. The one at the top of the case is Galatians 5:13. The words that grabbed me at the time I pasted it to the case were, “You were called to freedom.” And these words still grab me today.

What does this mean, to be “called to freedom?” Well, if we are called to freedom, it means there are points in our lives when we are not free. Things that are not God, but which we mistake for God, can enthrall and enslave us. We sacrifice our freedom when we mistake a created thing for the Creator, when we devote ourselves to something unworthy of devotion. This might be wealth or the need for dominance or the seductive power of a video game or alcohol or drugs.

When we choose these things over God, we put ourselves into voluntary confinement. But God calls to us in this prison. God speaks the words of freedom to us, and reminds us that when we serve God, we are truly free. That is why this verse seems paradoxical. We are called to freedom and called to serve others. True freedom, therefore, happens when we choose to serve each other out of love. When we make this choice, we access a portion of the love of God that is given freely to all, and thus we find freedom.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you grant me free will so that I can choose freely to follow you. Help me make that choice each day of my life, that I may discover how you are calling me to serve others. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, with your words on my lips and your joy in my heart, ready to share both with all I meet.

My Old Guitar Case (May 13, 2013)

Published on May 13, 2013May 12, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts. (Psalm 33:6; context)

…Filling Up…

I got my first guitar around Christmas of my senior year of high school. For the life of me, I can’t remember if it was a Christmas present or if I bought it with Christmas money. Either way, it was pretty cheap, and because it was pretty cheap, I felt comfortable storing it in a “gig bag.” Gig bags provide enough cushion against the odd bump or jostle, but they won’t protect an instrument from being squashed or simply dropped.

So when I got my second guitar a little over a year later, I splurged on a hard case. I knew I was in this guitar playing thing for the long haul, so a hard case seemed like a good investment. Also, the second guitar was much nicer than the first. (That, of course, didn’t make it great because the first one was really cheap.)

Just like when you start seeing the make of your new car all over the road, I began seeing hard guitar cases all over my college campus. Most of them were plastered with decals from bands and bumper stickers with clever puns on them. Each case said something about the owner: the constellations of stickers were collages of personal expression. I began thinking about the decals I wanted to stick to my new case, but I just couldn’t come up with any.

Then I got an idea. I bought some black construction paper, duct tape, and a silver Sharpie. And over the course of the next few years, I taped to my guitar case all of the verses from the Bible that grabbed hold of me and wouldn’t let me go. I rarely use that guitar anymore, having been given a beautiful Taylor for my ordination to the priesthood (what a gift!!). But the old case still sits in my office, and everyone once in a while I go back and read those verses that meant something to me all those years ago.

I’d like to share them with you over the next couple of weeks. There are fourteen verses, so we’ll be done with the case at the end of this month. I invite you over the course of the month to make a collage of verses that grab you, whether from those taped to my guitar or those you read or hear during your week.

…Praying For…

Dear God, your word continues to speak life into my being. Help me to listen to your voice speaking to me through the words of scripture. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, with your words on my lips and your joy in my heart, ready to share both with all I meet.

Mashed Potato Mountains (May 10, 2013)

Published on May 10, 2013May 6, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers…
How did it go?
How did it go? (Shel Silverstein, “Forgotten Language”)

…Listening In…

Some people brought children to Jesus so that he would place his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded them. “Allow the children to come to me,” Jesus said. “Don’t forbid them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people like these children.” Then he blessed the children and went away from there. (Matthew 19:13-15; context)

…Filling Up…

The natural physical manifestation of imagination and wonder is our final thing to access from our early childhoods. This is called Play. Play happens when we engage both our imaginations and our bodies. We dance to unheard music, we build castles with pillows and sheets, we sculpt mountain ranges with our mashed potatoes, we hum the language of mosquitoes.

For our early years, play is the most common manner in which we encounter and learn about the world. There is very little separation between play and the rest of life. There’s no such thing as “playtime” because all time is playtime. Play leads to better manual dexterity, better spatial relations, and more active imagination. But at some point during childhood, play becomes segregated from the more serious side of life. Parents tell children to “stop playing with your food.” The message is now: “Dinner is serious business.”

But this segregation between “play” and “the rest of life” can be damaging to our walks with God. The more pure the play of small children, the more they are able to access the unfettered creativity that God used when creating the Universe. In a sense, God was playing during creation: what other explanation could there possibly be for the duck-billed platypus!

So go ahead and play with your food. Make a mashed potato mountain range, and maybe you will find yourself in a deeper connection with the One who made the real mountains.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you filled your Creation with wonders for us to see and learn about. Help me to find the curiosity and the inhibition to be truly playful again, that I might let go of the bounds I have put around you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, joyful that I have been in your presence for my whole existence, whether I remember or not.

The Fireplace’s Crackle (May 9, 2013)

Published on May 9, 2013May 6, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

Your way, O God, is holy; who is so great a god as our God? You are the God who works wonders and have declared your power among the peoples. (Psalm 77:13-14; context)

…Filling Up…

Closely linked to Imagination is the expansive concept of Wonder. Wonder comes in two forms, and young children exhibit both. First, wonder happens when you are in awe of something. Wonder is the state of being of those engrossed in something bigger than themselves that they cannot explain. Neither do they desire to explain it. Rather, they stand in wonder, open to realities that exist on a larger scale than any one person, but also personally connected to the greater reality. In small children, this kind of wonder happens for all sorts of things – things that grown-ups consider mundane. The rain pattering a window, the dog’s fur, and the fireplace’s crackle each have the capacity to instill wonder in the young child who has never experienced these things before.

Second, wonder happens when the desire to explain creeps in, but the ability to explain does not exist. At this point, wonderers have a choice. They can ignore the inability to explain and begin to question anyway. These will always be unsatisfied by insufficient answers. Or they can continue wondering, they can offer imaginative suggestions that do not seek to answer, but rather seek to tunnel deeper into the object of the wonder.

Adults look for answers. Young children are happy exploring without needing such a goal at the end. Of course, each child comes to the age where the questioning begins and each question leads to the next. Accessing the time before that change can bring us closer to God, the source of all wonder.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the greatest reality in the universe. Help me to turn narrow questions into expansive statements of wonder and fill me with the expectation to be surprised. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, joyful that I have been in your presence for my whole existence, whether I remember or not.

The Feather Duster (May 8, 2013)

Published on May 8, 2013May 6, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us; glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21; context)

…Filling Up…

As we grow up, we lose access to many faculties we had in early childhood. One of these is Imagination. Now, of course, we do not lose this faculty fully; the ability to imagine can stick around for a lifetime. But the imagination of early childhood is special. There are no bounds associated with it because the child doesn’t know what a boundary is. There are no inhibitions that halt the display of such imagination. Whereas an older child or an adult might feel foolish chatting to imaginary people, the small child sees it as the most natural thing in the world.

There need be no prompting or stimulus. The imagination carries the child into new worlds that seem just as real as the real world because the real world hasn’t been explored yet. Exploration of the real and imagined worlds happens simultaneously, much to the bewilderment of parents, who see their children fascinated by the most ordinary things. Of course, to the child, the feather duster isn’t a feather duster – it’s a rare bird migrating home to Antarctica.

Because the imagination of early childhood is so untamed, it is much better at communing with the source of imagination. We are made in the image and likeness of God. Because we are made in God’s image, we have the ability to imagine. Just as God imagined and then spoke creation into being, our imaginations help us see and celebrate all the amazing links between our world and our world’s Creator. By accessing the imagination of early childhood, we can unleash ourselves from the oppression of words like “impossibility.” We can imagine ourselves into God’s presence and discover that we were there all the while.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you created me in your image and likeness. Help me to create in response to your great creation, and help me to love in response to your great love. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, joyful that I have been in your presence for my whole existence, whether I remember or not.

Raised by Wolves (May 7, 2013)

Published on May 7, 2013May 6, 2013 by Adam ThomasLeave a comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8; context)

…Filling Up…

For the first several months of a human existence, our species is woefully incapable of taking care of itself. We just lie there on our backs looking up at this new world that’s full of blurry shapes and is neither as warm nor as comfortable as the womb we so recently exited. We rely on our parents, or, in the case of certain Disney characters, either wolves or fairies, for everything. We can’t cook our own food. We can’t change our own diapers. And we can’t even come up with the manual dexterity to turn on the TV.

In the animal kingdom, buffet type animals – that is, animals that, sooner or later, become prey for carnivores – tend to be born ready to take on the world. They can stand after a few hours (minutes, in some cases) and can run soon after. If they were as helpless as we, not a one would survive to adulthood.

But there is something precious and special about our utter dependence on another. We are born into this world in the state that each follower of Jesus is striving for – dependence on God. At some point in our early years, we lose this utter dependence and we spend our lives trying to find it again. The good news is that it’s much easier to recover something lost than it is to invent something new. At one point in each of our lives, we lived with the kind of dependence that a right relationship with God exhibits, the radical reliance on the Lord in all things. And we can get it back, with God’s help.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you are the source of all life and all life depends on you; help me to regain my desire to rely on you in all things. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.

…Sending Out…

I leave this moment with you, God, joyful that I have been in your presence for my whole existence, whether I remember or not.

The Dark Ages (May 6, 2013)

Published on May 6, 2013May 5, 2013 by Adam Thomas1 Comment

…Opening To…

…Listening In…

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become a man, I’ve put an end to childish things. (1 Corinthians 13:11; context)

…Filling Up…

My very first nephew was born last week, and his coming into the world has gotten me thinking about childhood, especially those early years that he has to look forward to. Sooner or later, each of us makes the switch from childhood to adulthood. For my nephew’s sake, I hope he waits a good long time. When we make the switch, we lose the easy access to so many things that for children come second nature.

Now whether or not you are still a minor, I’m sure you’ve had the experience of ceasing an activity you once did when you were younger. When I was a kid, I played with LEGO blocks twenty-four hours a day. Then I hit about age 14, and I entered what the LEGO company actually calls “the Dark Ages.” I quit playing with LEGO for some reason or another — I guess something internal told me that I was too old for that particular toy.

As in the case of ceasing our childhood activities, no matter how hard we might try, we all lose things that we once knew but forgot over time. I’m convinced that children know God in a way that adults cannot access. This week, we are going to look at accessing some of these things we might once have known.

…Praying For…

Dear God, you formed me in my mother’s womb and have guided my growth for my entire life. Help me to recover some of the things you taught me when I was young so that I can have a more complete picture of my life with you. In Jesus Christ’s name I pray. Amen.