Lenten Daily Devotionals
Tuesday, March 28, 2023
The great hope of the Hebrew scriptures is for a world where “swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.” Jesus taught, “Put away the sword.” Jesus taught, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”
So, for Christians: “More good guys with swords is not the answer. Saying “swords don’t kill people, people kill people” is not the answer.
I’m making a donation to Everytown for Gun Safety today. Because I believe that working to get swords out of our neighborhoods and off our streets is the only faithful, biblical, Christian response to one after another after another mass shooting. I invite you to join me.
Monday, March 27, 2023
A minister I know always used to begin his pastoral prayers by saying, “Let us pray, first, in the intimacy of silence.” In the intimacy of silence.
There is an intimacy to silence. To being silent, together with other people. I don’t think silence is the same as just not speaking. I think there is a positive, active, intentional quality to silence.
Today: Don’t just ignore your spouse or not talk during dinner. Is there someone you’d feel comfortable sitting with in silence for 15 minutes? Try it. Try sitting with them and thinking about them and what you love about them and what makes you so comfortable being with them in this way. And thank God for them.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Giving feels good. And it’s good for you!
When we give, we end up caught in a life-changing loop-the-loop: giving leads to contentment, contentment leads to joy, joy leads to gratitude, and then gratitude leads to giving more, and on and on to more and more contentment and more and more joy. It’s an amazing thing.
Today: Make a small donation in support of a cause or charity that you care about. Not because you should; this isn’t a day for the dreadful tyranny of the shoulds. Do it just for the pleasure of it.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
One of the desert fathers and mothers – the hermits and mystics who went out to find God amidst the natural beauty of the world, sort of how, in our time, people might go to Taos or Sedona – one of them taught that just the same way, everywhere a bee goes, it makes honey, so, too, everywhere we go and practice the love of God, we create a spiritual sweetness.
Today: When you’re out and about, shopping, running and errand, or whatever – say a silent prayer for a stranger you see. Spread the sweetness around.
Tuesday, March 21, 2023
Ask anybody what they love about our church. I’ll bet money that they say “the sense of community.” It’s a little village of families and neighbors supporting one another, raising kids together, trying to make the world a better place together.
Today: Let’s prove everybody right about us. Send a card or an email or call someone up who you think might appreciate you checking in.
Monday, March 20, 2023
Once during an interview, Dan Rather asked Mother Teresa, “What do you say to God when you pray?” And she responded: “I don’t say anything. I listen.”
Dan Rather was ready with the follow-up. “Okay. When God speaks to you, what does he say?” Mother Teresa was ready, too; she replied, “He doesn’t say anything. He listens.” And she added: “And if you don’t understand that, I can’t explain it to you.”
Today: Sit in silence. For 15 minutes if you can! Try to quiet the voice in your head and listen.
Friday, March 17, 2023
With a smart phone in your hand: You’ll never get truly lost, you’ll never be really out of reach, you’ll always be available to respond to an email or text, you’ll never need to experience boredom – just keep scrolling. There’s always someone to talk to and something to do.
My thumb hurts just thinking about it.
The great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen taught that in order to connect with others in healthy ways, we first have to connect with ourselves. To be in community, we have to be able to be alone.
So today, or maybe tomorrow, on a Saturday: Turn off your phone and keep it off. Enjoy a bit more quiet and solitude.
Thursday, March 16, 2023
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that if we forgive others, God will forgive us. But if we do not forgive others, God won’t forgive us.
Which I think just means that the more we let forgiveness be a part of our lives, the more forgiveness will be a part of our lives. The more we experience it, the more we experience it.
So today: Forgive someone.
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
You may be familiar with this scripture, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for in so doing, some have entertained angels unawares.”
I don’t think it’s just people, just people we’re not expecting, who might be sent by God to bless us in ways we didn’t know we needed to be blessed. I think it can be anything we’re not expecting – anything at all. Blessings come to us in surprising and unexpected packages.
Today: Welcome an interruption. “Show hospitality” to someone or some circumstance that comes you unexpectedly. You just never know if it’s God who’s up to something!
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
Simone Weil was a mystic and a philosopher who thought and wrote about how we should respond the suffering of others. One value among many which she lifted up was solidarity.
During World War I, she heard that the French soldiers who were dug in at the front lines didn’t have any sugar. She was six at the time, and this pained her! So she gave up eating sugar in solidarity with them.
Today: Give up sugar or alcohol or fat – whatever is more important to you – and hold in your mind and heart those in need who have no choice but to go without. Whenever you get a craving, say a little prayer.
Monday, March 13, 2023
It’s easy to take an “I’ll get to it when I get to it” approach to our spiritual lives. We’re all busy and have a lot going on. And it’s not like God or the church are going anywhere!
It’s hard to see the ways we get dusty and rusty spiritually. But we do.
Pick something to clean, to clean up or clean out, this week that you never seem to get to: the oven or a junk drawer or under the sink. Clean it out as a gentle reminder to yourself that stuff builds up and gets harder to deal with the longer you leave it. You don’t want to go too long without a little God in your life.
Friday, March 10, 2023
Part of what I love about the church is the music of the church. The hymns. It moves me to think that I’m singing hymns that people have been singing for thousands of years. I think that their hopes and their tears, centuries of their prayers and pain have seeped into the music somehow. I put together a Spotify playlist of hymns
I love and that we sing often in church. They’re folky and acoustic-y, kind of coffeeshop-y arrangements. But maybe pick one and give it a listen today. Here’s a link:
Thursday, March 9, 2023
Have you ever had anyone tell you that they’re praying for you? I’m sort of in the business of praying for people, and so I don’t really think much about it. But every now and then, someone will tell me that they’re praying for me. And it just moves me. It moves me deeply. It’s a beautiful thing. I feel more at peace. I feel more confident.
So today: Pray for someone. And reach out to let them know you’re praying them. Give them that gift.
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Honor the sabbath day and keep it holy. Instead of “Can I get an AMEN,” I should probably go with, “How about a YEAH RIGHT.”
It’s not easy for most of to dedicate a whole day to honoring the sabbath, to dedicate a whole day to doing nothing. But don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. How about honoring a sabbath half a day? Or honoring a sabbath hour? Or honoring a few sabbath minutes? A few sweet, sweet sabbath minutes?
Today: Cancel an upcoming meeting or phone call or appointment. Set a date with yourself for that time. And do some sweet sabbath nothing.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Have you ever noticed how many of our hymns are about the beauty and goodness of the earth? I Sing the Mighty Power of God. This is My Father’s World. All Creatures of Our God and King. Morning Has Broken. For the Beauty of the Earth. All Things Bright and Beautiful. I could go on!
Praising God for the gift of this world is at the heart of our faith.
So today – praise God for the world by doing the world a small kindness. Walk someplace you might ordinarily drive.
Monday, March 6, 2023
One of the most important moral issues for Jesus was our relationship to money and to material possessions. It was almost an obsession of his.
There’s nothing wrong with owning nice things. What you don’t want, though, is for those nice things own you. Is for too much of your time and too much of your life becomes about them. About stuff. About stuff that is just… stuff.
So today: Start thinking about something you can give away. Not something old or useless to you, something you won’t miss. Something that is meaningful. Give something away that it wouldn’t occur to you to give away. And show your stuff who’s boss.
Friday, March 3, 2023
Here’s a bible verse I hate. From the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians. He says: “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.”
Do everything without grumbling or arguing. I hate that. I’m such a great grumbler! A gifted grumbler, really.
But alas.
Today: Join me in making a little less space for negativity in your mind and life. No complaining today. Zero. Zilch. See if you can get through the day without any grumbling.
Thursday, March 2, 2023
I have a pretty open and generous view of what prayer is. It doesn’t have to start with “Dear Lord” or end with “…in Jesus’ name, amen.” Lots of things can be a prayer. Talking a walk can be a prayer. Making a sign and marching in support of a just cause can be a prayer. Laughter can be a prayer. Just breathing can be a prayer.
But sometimes only the close-your-eyes-and-bow-your-head prayer will do. Sometimes I don’t just need to pray – I need to REALLY pray. And I need to REALLY feel like I’m REALLY praying.
Today: Try really feeling it. Try getting down on your knees to pray. See how kneeling down feels for you. And if that changes anything about your experience of prayer.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
The scriptures say that we are made in the image of God. We look a little like God.
When you look in the mirror, is it the amazing, beautiful, good, God parts of you that you see? My guess is – no. It’s the bags under your eyes. The crows’ feet. Whatever is going on with your hair. It’s what we’re told is the not amazing, not beautiful, not good stuff that we see.
So today: Don’t look in the mirror. How much of your morning routine can you make it through without looking at the mirror? Don’t look. Avert your eyes. Look away. It’s amazing how many times a day we are given the opportunity to judge our appearances harshly. Try to make it one less.
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
It’s amazing how just seeing things you 100% absolutely don’t need makes you suddenly need them. I think Jesus calls us to live lives of simplicity. I think, for the sake of this browning, warming earth, we have to live lives of simplicity. And yet, so often, I fall short.
So today: Join me in very consciously not looking at advertisements. Avoid looking at them. Notice how often they come up – on social media, on TV, driving around. And practice turning away. Practice not letting yourself need things you don’t need.
Monday, February 27, 2023
Twenty years ago today, Fred Rogers – Mr. Rogers – died. You may not know that he was actually a minister. He didn’t talk about it. He didn’t talk about faith overtly. But he believed that what he was doing with his TV show was getting Jesus’ message of love and kindness out there for all the world.
I saw the documentary about him, Won’t You Be My Neighbor? when it was out in theaters. The theater we went to was in this hip neighborhood, and it was filled with cool-kid types. And after the film ended, nobody moved. You could hear people just sitting there sobbing. It was holy. It was like church. They were so hungry for the message of Mr Rogers… and of Jesus.
Today: Pull a Mr. Rogers. Preach the message of Jesus without words. Do one thing that will help someone to feel the love today.
Friday, February 24, 2023
The Celtic Christians spoke of “thin places” – of places where the space between heaven and earth is thin. Of places, sacred places, where the walls separating this world from the world beyond this world have come down and we can feel God with us.
You don’t need to go far to find them. Today, you’re going to make your own special place of prayer. It can be a bench out back, a chair by the window, anyplace that, during Lent, you might return to and linger for a moment, and pray, and feel a bit of peace. Put out a candle, a bible, a cross, a rock, a pine cone – anything that will mark this for you as a place of prayer. Ask God to consecrate this place, to make it a site of sacred encounter. And then just come back to it every now and again.
Thursday, February 23, 2023
You may be familiar with the phrase “count your blessings.” Count your blessings. AKA: Think about all the things you have to be grateful for. It’s so easy to focus on what’s wrong or on what we want or on what we don’t have – that we sometimes take the blessings in our lives for granted. We don’t see them.
Today, you’re going to do something to help you see some of the blessings hiding in plain sight. You’re going to make a meal using only things from the back of the pantry or the bottom of the freezer. Using only things that have been sitting around for a while, overlooked. You’ve probably got everything you need for chili or risotto or pancakes.
So use up that old, almost expired stuff. And then take a can of something you just bought and drop that off at the food drive at church.
Ash Wednesday – February 22, 2023
Today, you’re going to do something simple. Something you’ve done a hundred, hundred times, maybe. Something many of us hate doing.
You’re going to take out the trash. Even if you could push down the garbage and go a few days more. Even if it’s mostly empty. Take out the trash.
And as you do so, say a prayer. Every time you take out the trash, say a prayer. What’s one thought you have or thing you do that you can take out with the trash? What “garbage” in your heart or mind do you want to give to God?
UCC Daily Devotional
Spend a minute or two each morning grounding yourself for the day ahead. Our denomination, the United Church of Christ, sends out a daily devotional email; often funny, and sometimes poignant or provocative, these brief reflections on a verse from scripture and short prayers will help get you going! You can sign up here.