All Good Things….

Alas. The time has come for the Almost Daily Devotional to say good-bye. After almost 4 years of almost daily offerings, my attention is turned toward new vistas. Thank you for your faithful readership and your many words of thanks and encouragement.

For those looking for a daily devotional, I would recommend The Mockingbird Devotional, easily accessed by this app:

Or check out Mockingbird Ministries’ website for great posts, podcasts, and sermons at mbird.org.

In other news, I’m working with Mockingbird to publish an old school Daily Devotional in book form! We hope to cull the best of the Almost Daily Devotionals and deliver them to your bedside table. So, stay tuned!

Gratefully yours,

Paul

Mockingbird App for IOS

Looking for a specific devotional? Try using the search feature!

Cali Yee 8/2/22 Cali Yee 8/2/22

Aug 2, 2022

The Almost Daily will be on Summer Vacation until August 8th. But fear not! You will receive a devotional each Monday through Friday from the excellent Mockingbird Devotional entitled Daily Grace. Enjoy! - Paul Walker

He has filled me with bitterness…my soul is bereft of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is (Lamentations 3:15, 17 RSV)

Sometimes I hear it said that God doesn’t promise us happiness, just the “ability” to face unhappiness with equanimity. In other words, keep your expectations low when praying for relief and change in your situation, and concentrate, rather, on peace within and acceptance without.

I think that can be a counsel of despair. It is what famous Stoics like Marcus Aurelius and Seneca used to recommend. The former persecuted Christians, and the latter committed suicide. As a form of wisdom, it lacks hope, and mainly it lacks faith in God.

Jeremiah, who wrote the Book of Lamentations, was a brilliant, unhappy prophet. But he didn’t like being unhappy. In my study at the churches where Mary and I served, I always had hanging on the wall Rembrandt’s painting of Jeremiah contemplating the fall of Jerusalem that resulted in the Exile. The painting is as deep as The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Rattigan, 1952), and I don’t regret its forever presence with me during decades of parish ministry.

But I hope he is happy now. Jeremiah, I mean!

Happiness is a gift from God, and yes, it is both inward and outward. But God wants us to have it. He wants us in position to love another person and be loved by that person. He wants us to hear good music—like Katrina and the Waves. He wants us to not be alone.

Please don’t lower your expectations of God in relation to your personal happiness. Lift them. He is perfectly capable.

[Paul Zahl, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 8/1/22 Cali Yee 8/1/22

Aug 1, 2022

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)

When we were kids, there was this one year my little brother decided he simply could not wait to find out what my parents had gotten him for his birthday. After careful reconnaissance, he discovered where his gift was hidden away. He crept into that closet one night after everyone had gone to bed and unwrapped a box that held a gleaming Dallas Cowboys helmet. My parents eventually found out, after discovering my brother’s terrible job of rewrapping the present.

It doesn’t really matter what age you are: It is hard to wait for the gift, especially when you’re not exactly sure what the gift is. In this passage from Acts, the gift that Peter and the apostles longed for was the best kind of kingdom they could envision at that point: a kind of Jewish Camelot, with Jesus as King Arthur, and the eleven of them sitting around as Knights of the Round Table.

What the apostles could not have imagined, at least at that point, was that when they finally opened the gift, it would be nothing less than the gracious presence of Christ, not beside them but inside them, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This gift would bring a new power that would be employed not in kicking the Romans out of Israel but in announcing throughout the Roman Empire and beyond the new reign of God’s grace. Whether Peter and his friends could have realized it or not (and whether we realize it or not), this is a gift worth waiting for.

[Larry Parsley, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/29/22 Cali Yee 7/29/22

July 29, 2022

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you...” So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. (Genesis 12:1-4)

Perhaps you remember the classic Saturday Night Live skit, “Bad Idea Jeans.” In a parody of a now-forgotten Dockers commercial, several men casually stretch their legs as the camera zooms in on their pants. We overhear their conversation, a series of laughably terrible ideas.

“We’re gutting our apartment. Ripped up the floors, pipes, wiring—having everything completely redone!”

“You’re renting right?”

“Yeah.”

BAD IDEA flashes on the screen.

Second only to the eating of a certain apple, the Calling of Abram ranks as the original Bad Idea of the Bible. Uprooting at the age of 75—a time of life when most people are moving closer to their kin, not farther away—would have been daunting enough. But to do so in the hopes of conceiving a child, even without the infertility that had long afflicted Abram’s wife Sarah... Well, “foolish” would be a nice way to put it.

Still, Abram takes God at his word.

Essayist Andrew Sullivan once defined faith as “a long sacrifice of pride.” In reference to the thief on the cross, psychologist Frank Lake called faith “a desperate gaze in a counterintuitive direction.” In the Calling of Abram we see another aspect of what it means to live by faith: to doubt what seems obviously true about you. What the world considers a bad idea may, when seen through the eyes of faith, turn out to be anything but.

And yet, before we make Abram into an exemplar, his faith proves as short-lived as his patience. Before the end of the chapter, he’s spinning lies about his wife, and soon he’ll give up waiting on God and, with Hagar, take matters into his own hands.

Time and again, Abram doubts God’s promise of provision. And yet, time and again, just as He does with us, God takes Abram by the hand and reminds him of the promises that will never waver, however frail Abram’s faith in them may be. His blessing was poured out on the weak-willed then, just as it is today. Thank God for bad ideas!

[David Zahl, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/28/22 Cali Yee 7/28/22

July 28, 2022

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

For as long as I can remember, I have absolutely hated wearing necklaces—especially ones that touch my skin directly. It is really an unfortunate sensory quirk of mine. After a particularly difficult few months of life, I began to search for something that I could wear daily to remind me of the hope that I have in Christ, and a cross necklace was just not going to work for me. After a lot of looking around, I bought a very thin gold bracelet. Instead of being smooth, this particular bangle has been dented and hammered by the jeweler. There is no part of the bracelet that has not been changed by the blows that were inflicted upon it.

Like my bracelet, there is no part of my being that has not been shaped by the Fall. I often forget that all of my emotional, psychological, and behavioral limitations are tethered together by the Garden of Eden. Here, in 1 John, the call to confession is not only a clear call to confess my wrong behavior and hurtful actions, but it is also a call to acknowledge again that sin is indeed a condition that I was born with, not simply a set of behaviors that I engage in. When we confess our sins, we concede that sin is a pervasive malady of unrighteousness and that our only hope is a radical treatment that does not just relieve symptoms, but provides a complete cure of the disease.

This is why we need a God who is both faithful and just. God’s faithfulness will always ring hollow when we consider it apart from the violence of the cross. There, justice was satisfied once and for all, while God remained faithful to his promises. Unrighteousness was an immovable obstruction between us and any possibility of existence with the tenderness and attentiveness of our perfect heavenly Father. By the merits of his blood, Jesus imputes to us righteousness that scours the sin from our lives and the life to come.

[Ginger Mayfield, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/27/22 Cali Yee 7/27/22

July 27, 2022

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved. (Psalm 127:1-2)

I functionally do not believe the basic notion of this passage. In the abstract, I may think I like it. God puts emphasis on rest rather than activity or productivity. But in practice?

I saw the extent of my delusion on a recent vacation. I love vacation. I love the idea of leisure, of pleasurably doing nothing. In reality, though, I don’t know how to relax. I’m constantly trying to find ways to do nothing well, to do nothing productively. I want to read a bunch of books, listen to the right podcasts, have meaningful conversations with long-estranged friends. And of course I want to fit in some long-overdue—but pleasurable—exercise. Who doesn’t?

Two days in, I was on course for a perfect, pleasurable—and yes, productive!—getaway. I had three books open and a sandy pair of running shoes drying on the lanai from my first two morning jogs on the beach. Little did I know that a third run would never happen. I hadn’t run two consecutive days in ten years, and so I woke up on Morning 3 with a strained Achilles and an ankle the size of a dinosaur egg. For all intents and purposes, my vacation was grounded. I was literally beached, forced to just sit there.

I’m realizing that while I say I believe in grace, there’s always the caveat that I must earn it. This makes me a functional Pelagian, someone who believes that, while God may grant grace to his beloved, that grace is merited only after 16 hours of “working hard for the money.” What is your caveat?

Thankfully, running yourself into the ground leads you to...the ground. That’s inertia. And when you’re grounded—forced to rest your swollen body and your bruised ego—God’s blessed time extends out like the horizon in a Corona commercial, and your eyes start to see things differently. What once was a prize to be earned becomes a gift already given.

[Ethan Richardson, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/22/22 Cali Yee 7/22/22

July 22, 2022

Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ... [T]hus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe your- selves, but no one is warm; and you that earn wages earn wages to put them into a bag with holes. (Haggai 1:4-6)

Maybe you remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He imagined a layered pyramid where the needs for a good life were ranked, bottom to top, from most to least essential. At the bottom were physiological needs: water, food, and warmth. In the middle were safety, security, and meaningful relationships. At the top was “self-actualization” and the freedom to be creative.

When Haggai arrives on the scene, the people of Israel are a long way from self-actualization. The bedraggled community had returned to their homeland after seventy years of captivity in Babylon. Water, food, warmth, wages: The community was working hard to acquire these basic needs and was not making progress. God intervened through Haggai, telling the people their priorities were all wrong. They were building nice, paneled houses while the temple lay in ruins from its destruction seventy years prior. The people had forgotten to make God a priority.

God does something bold with Maslow’s hierarchy: He reveals himself as the essential need, the primary necessity required for life. As Jesus will later teach, “But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Mt 6:33). Our food, our safety, our clothing, our work... As important as these are, the foundational level of our spiritual pyramid is God himself. Everything else comes second.

What do you need right now? Ask God for it. Thank him for the other ways he’s provided already. After acknowledging his providence and asking for help, wait and see how everything plays out. Perhaps you’ll find, like the Israelites of Haggai’s day, that God is true to his word. That he is ready to provide, and is worthy of the priority he claims.

[Bryan Jarrell, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/21/22 Cali Yee 7/21/22

July 21, 2022

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

I have been to Baton Rouge, and if you asked me if I flew there, I would say yes. But technically, that is not true. I did not, with my best efforts, fly to Baton Rouge. I could try. I could flap my arms as hard as I could. I could get out on the runway at the Charlottesville airport, sprint my fastest, beat my arms in the air, and leap off the ground for all I’m worth. And for all that effort, I would still be at the Charlottesville airport, out of breath, and a yard or two from where I took off, unless, that is, the authorities had already escorted me off the premises.

Of course, I did not fly to Baton Rouge. The airplane on which I sat, while doing absolutely nothing, flew to Baton Rouge. In terms of the kingdom of God, flapping your arms with your best effort gets you nowhere. Jesus is the plane who flies you there. All you do is sit back and do nothing, and simply believe that He will do it.

Jesus tells us the kingdom of God is seen not through the law, or our best efforts, but simply by belief. Believing in Him. That’s all. If the law had been our ticket, we would have punched it long ago. If moral elbow grease was what was required, then we would have gotten ’er done by now. Ironically, the one thing required—belief—can be the hardest thing for us to accept.

Give us faith and trust in you, Heavenly Father. Make our striving to cease and our joy in what you have done for us in your Son increase. Amen.

[Paul Walker, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/20/22 Cali Yee 7/20/22

July 20, 2022

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob, and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him. They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD...Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow. (Jeremiah 31:11-13)

When Dr. Brené Brown asked research participants what experiences left them feeling the most vulnerable, she was surprised to find that it wasn’t shame or fear, but joy. When we feel joy, it is often accompanied by a feeling of impending doom, a fear that there will be a price to pay. After all, “there is no such thing as a free lunch,” right? We try to minimize our vulnerability by awfulizing or catastrophizing in order to prepare ourselves for the proverbial dropping shoe.

But there is no way to prepare for life on life’s terms. Vulnerability is a position of faith, admitting we have limitations and liabilities. Come what may—joy or sorrow—our lives are in God’s hands, not ours.

In this passage, the prophet Jeremiah is trying to encourage the captives in exile. He reminds them of God’s promise to redeem them from the “strong hands” of oppression by sending them a Messiah. They will be restored to peace, honor, joy, and plenty. “I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.” Hanging onto the promises of God, we can experience the grace of joy without penalty. Christ died to pay your debt, to catch the other shoe for you, and to turn your mourning into joy.

[Marilu Thomas, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/19/22 Cali Yee 7/19/22

July 19, 2022

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?” (Matthew 6:25-27)

I feel personally attacked by Jesus in these verses. I always have. From my earliest memory I can recall thinking, “Boy, wouldn’t it be nice to not worry!” Of course, I could never make it happen. Like trying not to think of a pink elephant when someone says “don’t think of a pink elephant,” trying not to worry by telling yourself not to worry is nearly impossible. It is even worse when someone else tells you not to worry. If you have ever struggled with anxiety or panic attacks, you know what it feels like when a well-meaning person tells you, simply, not to worry.

So what are we to make of this injunction from Jesus? Unlike that well-meaning person, Jesus is speaking a deeper truth here. He is not simply telling us to get over our worry. He is reminding us of the way the world actually works. Worry and anxiety take us out of the present moment and into a world that does not exist. When we worry, we put our feet on the shaky ground of a future (or past) constructed in our own mind. Jesus reminds us, through the image of birds, that we did not make the world, and we do not sustain it. We did not cause ourselves to take our first breath, and we cannot add a single hour to our lives by worrying.

This truth is humbling. Instead of holding on tighter and trying to white-knuckle our way out of anxiety (“Jesus said not to worry, Jesus said not to worry, Jesus said not to worry”), we can open our hands and hold on loosely. Our heavenly Father feeds the birds of the air. Are we not of more value than they? Jesus speaks directly into our hearts: You are of infinite value, and my grace is enough.

[Connor Gwin, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/15/22 Cali Yee 7/15/22

July 15, 2022

What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. (Romans 7:7-10)

Once, when I was at a music festival, the host/sponsor took the stage to try to ignite the crowd. Multiple times and with crescendoing volume, she asked us if we were having fun. When the response was lackluster, she belted out, “You’re in my house here! The only rule in my house is that you’ve GOT TO HAVE FUN!”

The host was just doing her job, but she made me want to leave, despite the good music, weather, food, drink, and company. Rarely do people like to be told what to do and how to feel. Often, a command will produce the opposite result. For instance, does being told to relax actually result in relaxation? Once you notice this dynamic, it is startling to realize how much everybody likes to tell everybody else what to do!

This is also how the law of God works. God’s law is holy and righteous, but it does not produce the fruit of holiness and righteousness in us. Instead, the scripture tells us that it produces sin and death. As the Apostle Paul says in today’s passage, “the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.”

Thankfully, our Christian faith is not ultimately about what we are to do. Rather, it is about what Jesus Christ has already done for us on the cross. “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do” (8:3).

We thank you, heavenly Father, that you did for us what the law could not do, by giving us your Son. Give us grateful hearts today, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Paul Walker, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/14/22 Cali Yee 7/14/22

July 14, 2022

To you, O LORD, I cry. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field. (Joel 1:19)

Reading the prophets is like watching a dystopian thriller: The land is desolate, food is scarce, people are dead or exiled, and hope is far away. On a movie screen, all those disasters are entertaining, sometimes. In scripture, on the other hand, they’re depressing and puzzling. Why all the locusts, invasions, sackcloth, and wailing?

I have never experienced grief like what Joel describes here, in large part because my life has been comparatively stable. But another factor also contributes, I think: Contemporary Americans don’t have any way to lament, not in the full-bodied way that we hear Joel’s audience did. What’s funny, though, is that while I envy their freedom of emotional expression, the LORD tells them it’s got to be more than that: “rend your hearts and not your clothing” (2:13). Don’t just show me you’re sorry; mean it!

I want to be that sincere, especially to God, but distractions and appetites, not my conscience, are what “rend” my heart, pulling me in different directions. Acknowledging this about myself shows how unstable my actual life is, at least on the inside. But long before I’ve glimpsed myself as I am, God sees me fully. Just as Jesus yelped, “they know not what they do,” and suffered under us still (Lk 23:34), so the Spirit sees that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” and groans for us, more deeply than words (Rm 8:26).

And not only us, but the whole cosmos is in pain: In the next verse, Joel writes, “Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up.” Amid personal crises and climate crises, disasters that reek damage beyond what we can even know, none of the Bible’s most moving passages can fix it. But they do bring comfort.

The LORD will never ignore us, even our most half-hearted sighs.

[Kendall Gunter, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/13/22 Cali Yee 7/13/22

July 13, 2022

[T]hen the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2:7)

In this ancient passage, God, like a sculptor, gathers the dirt in his hands and shapes the first man from it. He breathes his own breath into Adam’s lungs, gives Adam life from God’s own life. Through these steady actions, we see how dedicated God is to each one of us; the human body is precious and hand-crafted. And no matter your shape, size, weight, or height, you are sustained by the breath of the divine.

Day to day, of course, you may not feel so glorious. You may feel more like a robot that is constantly malfunctioning. I know I do. Like Kramer from Seinfeld, I seem to always hit the doorframe when I pass through it, or stub my toe on a table leg. My limbs seem out of control. My emotions are even less compliant. When I look in the mirror, I’m not always happy with what I see. Inundated with media of the beautiful and handsome, it is easy to feel ungainly by comparison, not-enough.

In the ancient world, only the strong survived. In Sparta, the physically weak were killed by their mothers, and disability was a disgrace. In ancient Greece, physical perfection and beauty indicated a heightened morality. Our world still entertains this ideology, but it’s far from Christian; Christianity values the opposite. Jesus blessed the poor, the meek, the sick, and the suffering. And body image was so unimportant that the scriptures never even mention what Jesus looked like. His skin color, muscle size, fat level, choice of clothes: Apparently no one cared enough to write this stuff down.

All that mattered was that he had a body and that it was broken for us. Through this sacrifice, Jesus crushes the serpent that whispers shame into our ears. In shame, Adam and Eve covered their naked bodies with fig leaves; gently Christ says you have nothing to hide.

My prayer for today is that you will take a deep breath, let go of whatever devilish fig leaves you cling to—even for a moment—and live.

[CJ Green, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/12/22 Cali Yee 7/12/22

July 12, 2022

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. (2 Corinthians 1:3-7 NIV)

Hand-me-downs vary widely in quality and desirability. If you are the baby in the family, you may remember hand-me-downs with a tinge of irritation, those more than ‘gently used’ garments that your older sibling wore back when they were actually in style. On the other hand, sometimes a grand- parent will present you with a different kind of hand-me-down—a vintage engagement ring perhaps, something which bears great financial value as well as incalculable sentimental value.

The “comfort” which the apostle Paul is handing down in our passage definitely falls in the latter category. It is not some cheap and shopworn advice to people negotiating affliction—“hang in there,” “keep on smiling,” etc. It is rather an elixir of priceless vintage, a kind of spiritual strength passed on from someone who has been through the wars and by God’s grace is still intact. Indeed, this comfort ultimately traces itself back to the Christ who suffered for us and whose grace is always available to us. That is the kind of hand-me-down we welcome gladly.

[Larry Parsley, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/11/22 Cali Yee 7/11/22

July 11, 2022

[Jesus] came to his hometown and began to teach the people in their synagogue, so that they were astounded and said, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these deeds of power? Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor except in their own country and in their own house.” And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:54-58)

What are we to make of the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, “did not do many deeds of power” in his hometown of Nazareth, “because of their unbelief”? Does this mean that He might be unable to do powerful deeds in or for us when we lack faith? This connection can be a slippery slope, and a dangerous one, but Jesus’ experience here must be demonstrating something about the relationship between faith and power.

It strikes me that a key fact here might be that the people of Nazareth think they already know Jesus. They have known him since childhood, and interact daily with his family. It is their arrogance, or lack of humility, that limits his power, and even prevents them from believing in him.

Is it not easy to see this in ourselves, too? When we are overconfident, when we think we know what is right and good, we can fall into playing God; but when we are humble, or even desperate, it is more natural to reach out in faith—to One who knows us better than we know ourselves.

[Mary Zahl, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/8/22 Cali Yee 7/8/22

July 8, 2022

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed... (2 Corinthians 4:8-9)

When legendary New York Times crossword puzzle guru Will Shortz was asked to account for the abiding popularity of his section, he said something interesting. So many of life’s problems defy clear-cut solutions, he noted, that it’s very satisfying to achieve momentary perfection via a collection of immaculately aligned correct answers.

People love crossword puzzles, in other words, because life is perplexing. We move from decision to decision, most of which are not between Good and Bad, or Right and Wrong, but Kind of Okay vs. Possibly Alright.

Unfortunately, being a Christian does not absent a person from this plight. We thought we knew what God was doing, then something unexpected happened, and our clarity vanished.

Maybe the job we lobbied so hard for turned out to be a bust. Or the school we thought was perfect for our child chewed them up. Or the relationship we thought was “the one” didn’t pan out. We find ourselves back at the drawing board, genuinely baffled. And yet, that bafflement can be an occasion for faith just as much as for doubt.

I remember when a friend and his family spent five months in a hospital with his daughter suffering from potentially terminal heart disease. Her courageous comportment, even up to accepting death in prayer, affected many in the hospital. She eventually recovered, thank God. As they were leaving the hospital, my friend thanked the staff for all they had done. The head physician replied, “No, I want to thank you. The presence of your family has transformed this place.”

My friend said simply, “Maybe I have finally learned to stop asking why God allows problems and difficulties and started asking what God’s plan is right in the middle of them.” Beautiful.

Perhaps another name for the God who dwells in perplexity, who uses confounding circumstances to bring us near, is the Crucified God. Perhaps the perplexity of our lives—how could this happen?—is meaningful insofar as it illuminates the perplexity of the Cross—how could that happen?

And perhaps that is why perplexity doesn’t need to drive you to despair today. It points instead to the one who was driven to despair, afflicted, forsaken, to ensure that you will never be.

That much is clear.

[David Zahl, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/7/22 Cali Yee 7/7/22

July 7, 2022

“Take care that you do not despise one of these little ones; for, I tell you, in heaven their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.” (Matthew 18:10-14)

What is always striking to me about this parable is that it is not concerned at all with why the sheep has strayed away from the herd. Because if the parable suggested why the sheep became lost in the first place, then this would be a parable about correcting your bad habits, or not losing sight of what’s important, or some other tangible thing you can do to keep the faith: Buck up! Try harder! You wandered before and you better make sure it doesn’t happen again. But if any explanation is offered for why the sheep strays, it is simply the fact that it is a sheep, and wandering away is what sheep tend to do! Humans, too, are itinerant and in need of a shepherd.

A lost sheep tends to die without the protection of a shepherd; you never find packs of wild sheep roaming the countryside. When sheep inevitably wander away, God is the good shepherd who pursues and rescues them. The restoration of the one lost sheep does not depend upon the sheep’s ability to turn or repent or even muster up some semblance of contrition. No—what matters is not the measure of our sorrow, but the measure of God’s mercy. It doesn’t depend on our own will to turn to God, but on God’s will to save. We wander all the time, and God is determined to always bring us back, even from the dead.

[Todd Brewer, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 7/1/22 Cali Yee 7/1/22

July 1, 2022

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

We’re built for desire. Setting aside the more prurient desires that would make a person blush to read aloud to their grandparents (or grandchildren), our online carts overflow with desires. We keep wishlists of books we want to read, recipes we want to try, and movies we can’t wait to watch. Advertisers seem to know this, targeting our desire for just the right pair of shoes or the perfect outdoor furniture. We’ve barely begun to vocalize a desire before our devices have already found four attractively photographed versions of it to delight our eyes. We know desires, and so does the marketing department.

The desires of our heart, though—they haven’t developed an app for that yet. We ourselves might not know those deep desires, even if we’ve spent some serious time thinking and praying about them. But we are promised that if we take delight in the Lord, he will give them to us. We may have even received our heart’s desires before, but because they didn’t arrive on our doorstep delivered by FedEx, we might not have recognized them as such.

The friendship that came into our lives when we most needed it. The out-of-season hymn that our child hums on the stairs when he had no way to know that’s just what we needed to hear. The niece that brings your sister back into your regular rotation of phone calls. The windfalls of grace and mercy that we didn’t know we needed until we received them.

Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. With a small adjustment of our perspective, we might be able to see the fruits of those desires where we hadn’t been looking.

[Carrie Willard, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 6/30/22 Cali Yee 6/30/22

June 30, 2022

“I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

“Nip it in the bud!” That was one of Don Knotts’ iconic lines from The Andy Griffith Show. Knotts played Barney Fife, Deputy Sheriff of Mayberry, a hyper-zealous “Bloodhound of the Law” whose greatest joy was to catch someone in an infraction. He would frantically spout codes and ordinances, blow his whistle, and yell, “Break it up! Break it up!” When he caught someone in the act, it was obvious that some deep need for approval was being met.

We tend to think that God finds His greatest joy in enforcing the law. What joy it must give the Almighty to intervene whenever someone is having too much fun. This was made painfully clear to me soon after I was ordained a priest. My wife and I were invited to a backyard pool party. We were new to town and excited to make new friends. When we arrived, the party was going strong. Folks were casually dressed, relaxed, swaying to the music. Lots of laughter, drinks, and good times. But when we walked into the backyard, a friend of the host stepped forward and announced, “Hey, everybody, the priest is here! Hide your beer! Ha ha ha!” We’d arrived to join the party, not to kill it! But their impression of clergy, and probably of God, was that we were there to “nip it in the bud!”

The people who spent time with Jesus thought just the opposite. He was repeatedly accused of creating a party where none was allowed, of eating and drinking with sinners, of breaking the religious rules. He was accused of having too much fun. Those who came to know Him best found a joy they had not previously thought possible. The ultimate purpose (telos) of His coming, His ministry, His teaching, His life and death, was to bring joy. That’s hard to believe. But what wonderful news! C. S. Lewis wrote, “Joy is the serious business of Heaven.” Jesus is serious about this. His purpose was not to “nip it in the bud” but to complete our joy.

[Drew Rollins, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 6/29/22 Cali Yee 6/29/22

June 29, 2022

One night the Lord said to Paul in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you, and no one will lay a hand on you to harm you, for there are many in this city who are my people.” He stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. (Acts 18:9-11)

Modern-day Corinth is a land of windswept ruin. Standing in the places where Paul preached, you can see to one side, across the water, the snow-capped mountain of Delphi—infamous seat of the oracle of Apollo—and to the other side, the massive acropolis and crumbling temple to Aphrodite. The pagan god of light and truth to the one side, the pagan goddess of love to the other. Paul’s missionary journey took place between these great mountaintops—these giants of earthly power—in a port city that was rife with corruption and need. Corinth must have seemed an intractable place.

Paul had come to Corinth to preach the word of God, but in the above verse, the Lord speaks of a completed work—“there are many in this city who are my people.” The Lord has, in fact, already done what He has sent Paul to do: move the hearts of the people. What great and glorious news for Paul! It is no longer up to Paul, in his human efforts, to convert the citizens of Corinth. Paul is to keep on speaking—“do not be silent”—in the sure and certain knowledge that the Lord’s power and grace has already come before him, entering the hearts of the Corinthians to await the Lord’s messenger. Paul’s only work is to keep on speaking the story of Christ to the world in need. The Lord has done the rest.

The Lord is a greater prophet, a greater light-bringer, and a greater lover than any pagan god, no matter how grand their temples. This is the Lord’s promise to all Christians: “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent; for I am with you.” And not only is He with us, He has already established “many in this city who are my people.” He has claimed others around us as His own, marking each of us as His children by the blood of His son. The Lord does not need temples on mountaintops, for He builds his temples in the hearts of His believers. What wondrous love is this, indeed.

[Derrill H. McDavid, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

Cali Yee 6/27/22 Cali Yee 6/27/22

June 27, 2022

Jesus, looking at [the rich man], loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When [the rich man] heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10:21-22)

There is an ever-growing list of demands on our lives that constantly holds us back from feeling any sort of “enoughness.” Just when we think we are doing something right, the law always arrives in its shining armor to tell us that there is one more thing to do in order to be “righteous”—to feel like we’ve done enough. A spouse did the laundry, but did they wash the dishes or take out the trash? An old friend shows up to church for the first time but is bombarded with ways to serve. Our attempts to show support and solidarity for any cause are met with a list of additional things we must do; otherwise, we are not doing enough.

In the Gospels, the rich man (or rich young ruler) asks Jesus what a person must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds by giving him a list of things to do. The ruler, probably joyfully, lets Jesus know that he has done everything on that list. But then Jesus gives him one more thing to accomplish. Jesus gives him an impossibility. The man walks away “grieving.”

However, Jesus does not stop there. A couple verses later, he gives us the good news: what is impossible to us is possible to God (v. 27). We see this when we continue to read through the Gospels and encounter the death and resurrection of Jesus. We might be discouraged by our own inabilities to do good and become righteous, but we do not have to walk away sad and defeated. Our God does not arrive donning expensive shining armor with a to-do list in hand. Instead, we have a suffering servant who arrives in ordinary clothes on a donkey. It is that Jesus who heads towards the cross and makes us righteous through his death and resurrection. We are able to continue participating in whatever good work is laid before us, because we rest, not in our own, but in Jesus’ finished work.

[Bryant Trinh, Daily Grace - Mockingbird Devotional Vol. 2]

All Good Things….

The Christ Church Weekly