Tag Archives: Devotion

Lenten Devotion for March 15, 2023

In the summer before I started my under-grad degree, I worked in the equipment yard for an engineering and construction company. The shop foreman assigned me a lot of jobs that involved paint. Spray paint the company colours on all those tools. Re-paint the lines on the parking lot at the corporate office. (An after-hours job, when the shirts and ties had gone home.) Paint the sheet metal fencing that hemmed in the equipment yard. (Including re-tracing the three-foot high letters of the company name, that had originally been done by an actual sign-painter.)

What those tasks had in common, besides paint, was at the end of the day, I could actually see the proof of my labours. (And not just from the spills and smears on my work clothes.)

The Good Courage writer for today, the Rev. Nora Vedress described taking a Covid enforced rest from her regular full and fast paced life.

Often, my first reaction when I hear or read a clergy colleague sharing on the topic of their busyness, is to feel like I am not doing enough.

It’s not as if I can look to a pile of freshly painted mallets and power tools, and exclaim, ” look what I did! “

The exercise suggested for today, to list the top five things that take my energy had a similiar effect- to make me wonder what I actually do in a day.

As I read further in the devotion, I could see the writer was working towards getting her readers to think about taking Sabbath, necessary and restorative rest time.

I wonder if I was the only reader for whom the devotion had the opposite effect, to leave me wondering if I do enough to “deserve” a rest.

I had to take a few breaths, and remind myself that there are acually things I do, that make a difference.

Lenten Devotion for March 14, 2023

The Good Courage writer for today, Amy Panton, has once again offered a frank, confessional description of an aspect of her personal journey. The heart of her reflection, it seems to me, is her coming to terms with thinking of herself as a person who requires yet another psychiatric medication.

I have several people in my life who have been greatly helped by the medications Amy Panton writes about. I am grateful they are available, and often wonder how things might have been different, if there’d been medical intervention and counselling earlier.

Amy Panton prays, at the end of her devotion, asking God to help her “survive another day with all of this anxiety”.

It’s a heart-wrenching prayer, especially when I recall the title of her devotion for today: “I am so ashamed”.

This suggests that not only does she struggle daily with anxieties, but also has shame as part of the burden. Shame about having anxieties, and shame about requiring medication. Perhaps even shame that her prayers for relief, or help, may not always seem to be answered.

I pray that as a society we can let go of the stigma that has been attached to what we often call “mental illness”, and the prejudice and shame that has too often been directed at those brave enough to seek help, or have dared to write or speak openly about their struggles.

I’ve been trying with my responses to reach back in my memory bank for songs that seem to speak, at least to me, to the concerns raised in the devotion. Here is a link to a Paul Simon song from 1983 that I always thought was about something more than he seemed to be saying.

Lenten Devotion for March 13, 2023

In the practice section of today’s devotion from Good Courage, the writer suggests doing an “Examen” of the past week, to reflect on the times in the past week you felt, or did not feel the presence of God with you. That’s something I’ve often recommended, in my spiritual direction work.

The Examen was developed by Ignatius, a former soldier who became a priest in the 16th Century. He founded the order of monks and priests called the Jesuits- they’re the ones with S.J. at the end of their names, for Society of Jesus.

There are many places online to learn about the Examen. Here’s a link I found on the Baylor University Spirituality page:

https://www.baylor.edu/spirituallife/index.php?id=971624#:~:text=The%20Ignatian%20Examen%2C%20or%20the,of%20recognizing%20God’s%20Divine%20Presence.

Lenten Devotion for March 7, 2023

We like to watch some competitive reality shows. Our current favourites include The Great Canadian Baking Show, and The Great Pottery Throwdown.

On the pottery show, amateurs are challenged to push their creativity and pottery skills to new heights. We grow attached to them, and it’s always a bit sad to see one of these kind souls eliminated at the end of an episode. We know they have a full existence beyond tv, but still.

There is another moment on the show that has some of the life, death, and new life vibe of the scripture that was part of today’s devotional reading from Good Courage. The quote was from 1 Corinthians, and it’s a fairly well known one about “treasure in clay pots”.

On the pottery show, competitors are often asked to complete a technical challenge- to throw as many pots of a certain style in a brief allotment of time. They are judged on how well they match the example they were given, the consistency in size and shape and stylistic features, and the sheer number of successful pots.

As they approach each competitor’s work area, one of the judges carries a metal bucket. When he sees a below standard pot, he mashes it with a quick slap of his palm and scoops the flattened clay into the bucket. Presumably the clay will be used again, fashioned into something wonderful.

We know it’s just clay. We know that each potter on the show has likely done the same to their failed pots, in their own workshop, many times.

Still, to see anyone’s creative efforts summarily reduced to be recycled is a little heart-breaking. (I feel that way about some of the sentences I cut from pieces that I write- it’s called “killing your darlings”.)

There is comfort in the assurance that beyond affliction and despair we have the promise of a life beyond this one. But I still flinch when I see some one, or something I care about being flattened.

Lenten Devotion for Day 13 March 7, 2023

When do you notice God working through you? That question is central to today’s Good Courage devotion.

When I thought of the kind of moments when I have the sense that God is at work, through my actions, I realized they are closely tied to what I also recognize as things I feel “called” to do.

As a person in ordained minstry, there are three particular things to which I am “called”: Word (preaching, teaching, writing, speaking); Sacrament (presiding at Communion and Baptism, and other informal but also holy moments); Pastoral Care (being present with people and talking, and trying to listen deeply).

I feel very lucky that these are all things that I:

1) really like doing.

2) seem to have gifts to apply to the tasks.

This led me to thinking about a definition for “call” or vocation that I used recently in a learning time, and which has long been a touchstone for me. It’s by Frederick Buechner, who was an American Presbtyerian pastor and celebrated author of fiction and theology. I have room here to expand the quote to include some preamble from his book “Wishful Thinking”:

“IT COMES FROM the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a (person) is called to by God.  

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Super-ego, or Self-Interest.  

By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your patients much either. 

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

A few folks have mentioned they like it when I tie a song to the day’s theme. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, this is the song that touched that part of me that was trying to discern that to which I was “called”. I identified with the sense of being called or drawn somewhere that comes through, if not the particular destination:

Lenten Devotions Day 5 Feb 26, 2023

These posts are in response to daily devotional times I have with my spouse. We are reading, and praying each morning, using the book “Good Courage” as our guide. Harrow United Church will have a weekly discussion group starting this Wednesday, 7 pm, via ZOOM. Today is Sunday, and the last day for folks at the church to let me know in person if they want to join the ZOOM group.

If you are reading these devotions, and want to get the book “Good Courage”, it is available as a digital download via Amazon, or UCRD, United Church Resource Distribution.

If you’d like to join the ZOOM group on Wednesdays at 7 pm, send me a note at revdww@gmail.com and I will send you the link.

Email, and ZOOM, and digital downloads, oh my. What a privileged life I lead. This morning’s devotion asked the reader to consider the nature of faith.

I once read that people either trust they live in a benevolent universe where good can happen, or they don’t. I am shy and careful around such huge generalizations, but it also seems to me that my “faith” is something like that trust. On the whole, even though hard and terrible things happen, I and the folks I most care about, are mostly going to be okay. Is that really faith, or just the good fortune to be born and live where I do?

Beyond that general “okay-ness”, I feel a responsibility to do what I can, to be of help, and make life more “okay” for others.

Lenten Devotion Day 1 Wed Feb 22, 2023

The reading from “Good Courage” on this first day asks a challenging question. What am I devoted to?

“Devotion is a practice, not only a feeling. Devotion is how you spend your time and what you give your attention to.”

What do we spend our time on? Spend is an apt word, because our time is a valuable, irreplaceable resource. Ever watch a terrible movie, and at the end think, “That’s 2 hours I will never get back”?

The writer of today’s reading suggests this spiritual practice:

“Make a list of things that you practise daily- the things you care for and love. Write them down and offer them to God in a prayer.”

This suggestion sparked the memory of this old song. I remember the version by the Steve Miller Band. The clip below is Seal, from the soundtrack for Space Jam.

Time keeps on slipping
Into the future
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle, to the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly (oh, yeah)

Fly right into the future

I want to feed the babies
Who can’t get enough to eat
I want to shoe the children
New shoes on their feet
I want to house the people
Living in the street
Oh, there
There’s a solution

I want to fly like an eagle, to the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly (oh, yeah)
Fly right into the future

Time keeps on slipping
Into the future
Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping
Into the future

I want to fly like an eagle, to the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly (oh, yeah)
Fly into the future
Fly like an eagle
to the sea
Fly like an eagle
Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly
Like an eagle
Fly into the future
In a sky full of people only some want to fly, isn’t that crazy
Fly
Ah ah ah
Fly like an eagle
Fly
Fly like an eagle, fly
Fly like an eagle, fly
Fly like an eagle, fly