The Comfort of Being Known

Thursday, September 1, 2022

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me! 

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Our little Shih-Tzu dog, Wellie, is always under-foot; he’s not intentionally trying to have us trip on him…he just wants to be near us.  When I sit at my desk to study or write, there’s never a question where he’ll be.

The veternarian might call this little guy’s attachment “separation anxiety” but the fact is, we are mostly all he’s got.  There aren’t any other furry critters in the house, and he doesn’t get around too well because his back legs don’t work.  So Wellie talks to us (a lot)!  And he will not be quieted; he wants response (especially around dinner time)!  We’re thinking there must be some comfort for him to be near his human pets. 

You and I are not a whole lot different from Wellie.  We are really limited, physically, mentally, and relationally-speaking.  We mess up a good bit, some of it because we just can’t help ourselves, and some because we’re mean.  (Wellie is rarely mean, but if we get home after his meal time, he’s as cranky as they get!) 

Like Wellie, we too have an owner.  God is our creator and we are so dependent on Him for everything…even the next breath you take is in His hands.  The Psalmist marvels at the closeness of God, and the knowledge He has of the complexity with which we are put together; He made us, and it was with the simplest of His thoughts, but light-years ahead of our deepest comprehension.  And the comfort it brings us to know He is there, even watching over us as we sleep – being there when we awaken – and knowing our needs before we can even think of them….it is all so very above imagination!

For You Today

Let this thought govern your day, and your dreams tonight…

God introduced Himself to Moses with the name of His being:  I AM…that I AM.  And with that he described what drives our faith, and helps us understand the meaning of our very existance…along with being able to rest in His care:

The I AM loved us before, now, and for all eternity.  Try that on for comfort!

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: 

The Doily and Subway Sermon

[1] Images:   Title Image today is a portrait in oils of our Wellie, by Jennifer Brownworth Klim                                                              Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

Loved and Belonging

 

Thursday, January 14, 2021

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

It’s easy to feel insignificant in this universe.  It occurred to me that may be one reason those who feign atheism do so…overwhelmed with the immensity of the cosmos, one cannot imagine God thinking of a single creature as consequential.  It’s like whistling in the dark to ignore-away the bad things that can happen.  A professing atheist feels alone and therefore without purpose or reason for existing. 

We whistle (or scream) against the night of our fear. 

And yet, for those like the Psalmist, who choose to acknowledge God as Sovereign Creator and sustainer of life, the terror of being alone is dissipated, evaporating like a morning mist…and in its stead there is a wonderful dawning of, not just significance or purpose to this existence, but an unfolding and undeniable sense of being loved; of belonging. 

In my youth the prospect of staking it all on trust that a god I could not see would deign to love one like me, small and insignificant…well, it was more than I could bear to face.  So, I hid in the security blanket of agnosticism, a denial that anyone can know the truth about where we come from, and therefore, without definitive understanding about meaning or purpose, I could not be blamed for bumbling around about God.  In time, I realized that would not do; it was much like a stay of execution for a man on death row, or a baby sucking on a pacifier – it passed the time but did nothing for the sense that time would eventually run out on ignoring God.

And then God once again spoke through the Psalmist to my childish excuses:

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you set in place—what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?  Yet you made them only a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor.  You gave them charge of everything you made, putting all things under their authority—the flocks and the herds and all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, the fish in the sea, and everything that swims the ocean currents.  O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!  Psalm 8:3-9

God spoke significance into my heart.  He told me I was with consequence in His eternal existence, crowned with a Godly glory and honor; I bore His image, and I have purpose in His will and plans for everything created.  I, the dust speck, born to a simple, unremarkable family…was on His mind.  Frankly, the thought still leaves me breathless.  But I have discovered, in the passing of time, that, along with John Wesley’s famous last words, that the best of all God is with us, He is still with me. 

For You Today

Faith, the journey upon which we all explore our relationship to everything, is only possible when one takes the leap of moving forward…not whistling – worshipping.

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   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Calvin and Hobbes (cartoon) by Bill Watterson

For other posts on this text see Still There and The Doily      

 

DNA Dance

[1]

Friday, September 6, 2019

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!   

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.  You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.  You saw me before I was born.  Every day of my life was recorded in your book.  Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.  How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.  They cannot be numbered!  I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand!  And when I wake up, you are still with me!  Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

The intricacies and possibilities of science are immeasurable.  But, no matter how deeply immersed learned scientists go in the study of humanity’s being (that which makes us tick), we are no more than a centimeter’s progress in a journey of light years.  So complex and awesome is the construction of the essence of life; it is as David penned in this Psalm, unfathomable, too great for me to understand!  And the thoughts God implanted in this labyrinth of connection between bone, sinew, brain, and wonderful mystery are as incalculable as the number of grains of sand.  As the Psalmist also wrote, we are fearfully and wonderfully made!

But, for all the wonders of creation’s design and beauty, there is one element that stands head and shoulders above; all science and knowledge must bow before the love which brought it into being.  The Creator desired to be at one with His creation.

John Wesley declared, “For, what is religion, — I mean scriptural religion?  For all other is the vainest of all dreams.  What is the very root of this religion?  It is Immanuel, God with us!  God in man!  Heaven connected with earth!  The unspeakable union of mortal with immortal.[2]

In our attempts to get a grip on our beginnings by knowing the rudiments of our DNA, if the mere scientific calculations do not boggle the mind, how much farther are we away from comprehending the heart and purposes of God, Who designed and made us, and chose to be part of us?

Advent is the evidence of this, and as Wesley put it, Heaven in this way connected with earth…an unspeakable union of mortal with immortal, indeed!  The apostle Paul expressed this as Christ in us, the hope of glory![3] 

I can add a column of figures in my head, but DNA and most scientific pursuits are beyond my realm and fall in the category of interesting.  What really makes my head hurt is trying to figure out the why of God’s love.  Pastor and hymn-writer Isaac Watts probably shared my wonder over our Creator’s condescension:  

Alas! and did my Savior bleed And did my Sov’reign die?

Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! grace unknown!  And love beyond degree![4]

For You Today

When you go to worship this weekend, carry thoughts of how much thought God put into putting you together.  And then worship with all the wonder of the DNA that’s in you!

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     Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] From John Wesley Sermon “Human Life a Dream” (see Wesleyan Covenant Association, Keith Boyette, 12-21-18)

[3] See Colossians 1:27

[4] Alas!  And Did My Savior Bleed – Hymn written by Isaac Watts 1707 (public domain)

When Wax and Wick Meet Fire

[1]

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!  Psalm 139:1-6(NLT)

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.  That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup.  For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself.  1 Corinthians 11:27-29(NLT)

Sometimes my worship gets lost in the details.  Usually when I receive the Lord’s Supper I am also serving it.  Personal reflection gets lost in a flurry of details about the next step in the liturgy.  When attempting to provide a meaningful offering of the table for others, those who serve must come to that table having already self-examined, or they run the risk of coming away from the table empty.

A group of preachers, all of whom I call friend, meets every month for the strength one derives from accountability, fellowship, devotion, and worship.  We share the Lord’s Table together.  The times I do not serve are particularly meaningful, and this month was no exception.  During the liturgy I focus my attention on the elements of the table.  They are simple; one loaf, representing one Lord, and one cup, representing the blood shed for all.  There is a single candle, the wick and wax meeting the flame, reminders of God’s Spirit, present and alive in this sacrament. 

As the liturgy progresses in Great Thanksgiving there are remembered parts to speak, and those flow from my lips with little loss of focus on the table and the cost of that blessed meal to our Lord. 

This time my eyes could not leave the wick and flame; I was captured by the aura of light and the wax of the candle, once hard and cold, now warm and flowing, melting away, constantly changing to a new form.

Pictures captivate me, and this meeting of wax and wick with flame took on metaphorical significance for my life with Christ.  As I watched the wick yield itself to the flame, I reflected on how the heat causes the waxen host to also yield, and this allows the flame to continue, offering heat and light to everything around it.  But in the process, there is a change.  The flame does flicker, but remains; the wax and wick, however become less, and changed.

The metaphor is, of course, our bodies.  The apostle Paul told the Roman church to present their bodies as living sacrifices ^{(Romans 12:1-2)}.  Jesus said becoming His disciples would be nothing less than denying ourselves and following Him[2] (much like the wax and wick submit themselves to the flame).

Ultimately the meaning of this can be taken to extremes, and I’m not suggesting that.  However, it is a good reminder that, just like the candles get used up, these mortal bodies of ours will not last long.  What remains is the light and heat we share in relationship with others while we are here. 

A candle (wax and wick) is hard and cold by itself.  We also will not bring light or warmth to anyone if we remain an unlit candle without the flame of God’s Spirit.  But, my what a difference when we submit to the flame!  He will shine through us, warm others around us, and we will be changed in the process.

For You Today

It’s important to remember that living the surrendered life of a disciple means being on the lookout for the Adversary; like any enemy, this fireman from Hell is just waiting to turn a hose on your fire…so keep surrendering the wax and wick of your life to the Spirit; let Him keep the candle burning!

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

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[1] Title Image: Photo Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Mark 8:34