paradox

 "...like a weaned child with its mother is my soul within me." (Ps. 131:2)

you must know

your belovedness

before you can

fully embrace

your nothingness

only you

Only you, O God, can make the parched land glad and make the wilderness blossom and bloom. (Is. 35:1) Only you can make water gush forth in the desert and make streams flow in the wasteland.  Only you can turn burning sand into pools of water and transform thirsty ground into bubbling springs.  Only you can turn the wilderness into a place of life and hope.  Do that again today, we pray.  Lord, have mercy on us.

out of and into

“And the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil, and oppression.  So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders.  He brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey…” (Deut. 26:7-9)

The two movements of God in this passage are unmistakable: He leads the Israelites out of Egypt, in order to lead them into the promised land.  That’s kind of the way He works; God is always leading us out of one thing to lead us into another.  Out of darkness and into light.  Out of brokenness and into wholeness.  Out of chaos and into peace.  Out of slavery and into freedom.  Out of fear and into love.  The first thing must be left behind in order for the second thing to be fully realized.

What is God leading you out of these days and what is he leading you into?  What is he asking you to leave behind and what is he inviting you to step into?  What does he want you to let go of and what does he want you to take hold of? 

Lent 2025

 Lent begins on March 5th this year.  If you're looking for a companion for yourself, your family, your small group, your staff, your church, etc.  Here are two options:

Emptying is the next book in the Order My Steps series.

And Journey to the Cross was my first Lenten devotional.

Both are available on Amazon.

divine duality

weeping and laughing

mourning and dancing

sorrow and joy

not enemies

but friends

not opposites

but compliments

mysteriously connected

each requiring the other

a divine duality

only through, not around

“Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters, though your footprints were not seen.” (Psalm 77:19) Oh, how great it would be if your path, O God, always led around the sea.  If life with you meant that we would never experience heartache or chaos or pain or loss.  But your path does not lead around the sea, but straight through it.  It is only by going through the sea that we are forced to depend on you.  You teach us something by taking us through the sea of pain and loss, of sorrow and sadness, that we could learn no other way.  Walking through the sea is what you use to form our lives and shape our hearts.  It is how you make us more like Jesus, who “learned obedience through what he suffered.” (Hebrews 5:8) So, thank you.

Loss is inevitable in this broken and fallen world.  How we deal with that loss is something else altogether.  We can live our lives trying to avoid or deny it, or we can face our losses, grieve them, and embrace what God wants to do in us through them.  The fact is that we can never arrive at joy by going around sorrow, but only by going through it.  It all comes down to trust, really.  Do we trust his heart when we cannot see his hand (or, in this case, his footprints)? 

action and contemplation

“I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.” (Psalm 131:2)

Carlo Carretto once wrote: “When there is a crisis in the Church, it is always here: a crisis of contemplation.  The church wants to feel able to explain about her spouse even when she has lost sight of him; even when, although she has not been divorced, she no longer knows his embrace, because curiosity has gotten the better of her and she has gone searching for other people and other things.” (The God Who Comes by Carlo Carretto)

We talk about being a weaned child with its mother, we read about it, we study it, we teach it, and we even write about it.  But do we do it?  Do we actually ever become a weaned child with its mother?  That is the crisis of contemplation.

Action that is not born out of contemplation has no power or authenticity.  It is just theory and dogma without experience and encounter.  We must stop talking about it and just do it!  We must become a weaned child with its mother!  For only then will we be able to experience the stilled and quieted heart of one whose hope and love and life are rooted firmly in the experience of God's unfailing love.  And only then do we have any hope of being a non-anxious presence in this fallen, broken, chaotic, and fearful world.

O Lord, help me not just to talk about being a weaned child with its mother, but help me to actually become a weaned child with its mother.  Help me to live every minute of my life in your strong and loving embrace.