Light On My Path

Monday, February 6, 2023

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.  I’ve promised it once, and I’ll promise it again: I will obey your righteous regulations.  Psalm 119:105-106

Habits, either good or bad ones, are formed in memory.  This morning’s text is one of the first I learned as a child.  In those days memory verses were part of Sunday School; we memorized and discussed a different verse each month.  Now, many years later, that verse still calls to me.  That calling is not because of what I must do in parish work as a pastor, (prepare sermons, counsel, help form the life, ministry, and worship of a congregation), but rather God’s Word calls me to Him in the ordering and worship of my own life, one breath at a time.

This devotional blog was born out of a dissatisfaction with my response to the calling.  A decade ago I felt a lack of discipline, a void of orderliness in reading and reflecting on God’s Word.  I felt unrest, blindness, and dissatisfaction.  So, I did what Scripture offered – (re)committed my mornings to the light that guides my pathway.  This was a two-fold commitment:

Private Commitment – I wanted solitary time.  I’m an introvert by nature, and, with all those thoughts bumping around in my brain, its difficult enough to concentrate; I need solitude.  So the choice was to get up an hour (or three) earlier than anyone else.  As I put these words on paper this morning (or the computer screen), the only sounds are an occasional wind whipping by my window, and the gentle snoring of my dog on the floor mat, next to my desk chair.

Public Commitment – knowing my track record of beginnings, and fizzled attempts at routines, I needed some accountability.  Early-on I started publishing these early morning thoughts/reflections on God’s Word for the congregations I served.  In this way I (somewhat ruthlessly) tapped-into my introvert-born dread of public humiliation.  A private promise to self can be rationalized-away; a public promise to others before God, is much more problematic…especially if a preacher wants to keep his job.

Well…that’s enough therapeutic confession for today.  What’s the point?

The point is Psalm 119…God’s Word as a guide…a light that opens up the truth of what’s on the path ahead.  And who wouldn’t rather have insight when the darkness of uncertainty is all around us?

For You Today  

Dark times of economic uncertainty, pandemics, changing morality, and questioning our existence, planetary extinction possibilities, war, aging, and what is in all those classified documents we all thought were so well guarded – isn’t it joy to your soul that God’s Word is unchanging, unparalleled truth you can depend upon, and the best love letter ever written to you, and me, and everyone?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,000 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  To dig deeper on today’s topic, explore some of these: 

Finding a Straight Path  and  John Wesley - Homo Unius Libri  and   The Secret to King David’s Greatness – Part 4

This is an updated version of “So Much Anger” published on Rocky Road Devotions January 16, 2014

Images:  Title Pixabay.com   Images without citation are either personal property of the author, or in public domain.

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translatio 

Lenten Walk - Part 3

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Monday, February 19, 2018

When the Red Sea saw you, O God, its waters looked and trembled!  The sea quaked to its very depths.  The clouds poured down rain; the thunder rumbled in the sky.  Your arrows of lightning flashed.  Your thunder roared from the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world!  The earth trembled and shook.  Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!  You led your people along that road like a flock of sheep, with Moses and Aaron as their shepherds.  Psalm 77:16-20^(NLT)

We’ve been looking at the Lent pathway via some thoughts my friend shared with me about his family’s recent hiking excursion at Hanging Rock.  You’ve got to trust the path to take you to the high places, and you need a steadying stick to help navigate the soft, shifty places. 

Today Lent is five days-in; five of forty.  Mathematically that’s only 12½^% of the journey, but let’s go to the top of the rock this morning.  My friend, Richard, shared an insight he gleaned from being at the top that is particularly helpful in pastoral ministry. 

When you climb all the way to the top at Hanging Rock, you must have courage to get the best views!  Hmmm…I thought it was courageous just to get to the top; whatever did my friend have in mind?  Well, he said:  You have to get right out to the edge of the rock if you want to look down…straight-down at the best, most breath-taking views! 

I was afraid he was going there.  I love mountains and the grand, panoramic displays of God’s handiwork…from a safe distance.  Although vertigo is not my idea of a good high, Richard’s explanation made sense; not fun, but sense

Incidentally, speaking of sense, of the common variety, a disclaimer here:  I do NOT recommend you go near the edge of Hanging Rock without someone to hold you back after you’ve visited the psychiatrist following your decision to look a mile or two straight down!  Some people’s courage is other people’s craziness!

That being said, Richard was right…the view from hanging over Hanging Rock is the most breathtaking possibility.  Instead of looking straight-out and seeing nothing but tree tops, you get to look down and see the contours of the land, and all the interesting little details a horizontal view misses.  You get scope and clarity when you’re hanging that close to the edge.  Of course, my friend is a pilot/preacher and he’s used to that kind of thing

I got that perspective on a trip to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe ten years ago.  Way against my better judgment I leaned out, over the edge to get this picture.  My perspective took my breath away; I was certain I was next to heaven, if not on my way TO heaven if my foot slipped.

So what does all this have to do with Lent?  I’m glad you asked.  In pastoral ministry it is important to see the pathway most people would miss.  If you are to be of help to your brother or sister in Christ you must spend time looking and listening from the point that takes courage.  You have to be close and vulnerable, like hanging over a cliff, if you’re going to see the path someone else is travelling.  It’s like dancing, you can’t look at your own feet; if you do, it’s only a mechanical movement, it’s not dancing.  You’ve got to look in your partner’s eyes and feel the music.  You’ve got to trust.

And isn’t that the whole idea of this Lenten season?  You have got to prepare your heart to lean fully out over the edge – to trust the One holding your backpack.  And as you learn to fully place all your weight on He who died for you, you become an incredible value of Christ’s presence to everyone you meet.

For You Today

What will it be…breath-taking leaps in following the Savior…or a safe distance?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

When Wisdom Calls

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Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Listen as Wisdom calls out!  Hear as understanding raises her voice!  On the hilltop along the road, she takes her stand at the crossroads.  By the gates at the entrance to the town, on the road leading in, she cries aloud, “I call to you, to all of you!  I raise my voice to all people.  You simple people, use good judgment.  You foolish people, show some understanding.  Listen to me!  For I have important things to tell you.  Everything I say is right, for I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception.  My advice is wholesome.  There is nothing devious or crooked in it.  My words are plain to anyone with understanding, clear to those with knowledge.  Choose my instruction rather than silver, and knowledge rather than pure gold.  For wisdom is far more valuable than rubies.  Nothing you desire can compare with it.  “I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment.  I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.  All who fear the Lord will hate evil.  Therefore, I hate pride and arrogance, corruption and perverse speech.  Common sense and success belong to me.  Insight and strength are mine.  

Proverbs 8:1-14^(NLT)

Wisdom is sometimes hard to define.  Among the synonyms you hear are understanding, knowledge, good judgment, insight, perception, astuteness, intelligence, acumen, prudence, sagacity, and just plain common sense.  And as hard as it may be to give an all-encompassing definition of wisdom, it is safe to say that you’ll recognize wisdom when you see it in action!

I recall a church board meeting many years ago where we discussed the thin financial condition of the church; we debated how to solve the problem long into the night.  One of the members, a successful businessman, had proposed a fund-raising idea that was, shall we say, rather shaky and shady, filled with some rather ethically-murky issues.  Another member, possessor of no college degree or even a high school diploma listened quietly, but I could see the wheels turning behind his solemn expression.

After turning the issue over multiple times, inside-out, upside-down, and making little headway, the successful businessman called for a decision, informing the board if we wanted to keep the church afloat it was now or never!  He further punctuated his firm belief that we must do something by pledging several thousand dollars of his own money to get started.  At that moment the other man, who had little financial means and limited formal education stood and spoke; he said:  Gentlemen, I’ve been coming here since I was a little boy, and I love this here church.  I would hate to see her go under…but I tell you, I’d rather see her go under than to see the church budget get fat and watch our souls sink into hell. 

My friend then sat down and was silent for the rest of the three minutes it took the board to scrap the proposal.  His “speech” was somewhat shorter than Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, and every bit as effective.  It was filled with the kind of Godly wisdom that says you must always strive for success and excellence, but the way you do things is more vitally-important than any success coming from what you do.

Incidentally, the following week we were notified by an attorney that a longtime member who had recently died left the church over $60,000 to be used in any way it was needed to keep the church doing God’s Kingdom work.

Wisdom can evade the possessor of Harvard post graduate degrees, choosing rather to reside in the most humble places.  But one thing can be said about the places you find genuine wisdom:  it never chooses to live where God’s Word is ignored.  Educated or not, you will never be wise unless you honor God.

For You Today

This would be a good moment to reflect on whether wisdom is growing in you; simply and honestly review what your relationship to truth is like.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com