Tag Archives: Healing Souls

Healing Souls

Living in the Spirit

June 16, 2020

Scripture Reading: Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me,
   for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am devoted to you;
   save your servant who trusts in you.
You are my God; be gracious to me, O Lord,
   for to you do I cry all day long.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
   for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
   abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you.
Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer;
   listen to my cry of supplication.
In the day of my trouble I call on you,
   for you will answer me.
There is none like you among the gods, O Lord,
   nor are there any works like yours.
 All the nations you have made shall come
   and bow down before you, O Lord,
   and shall glorify your name.
For you are great and do wondrous things;
   you alone are God. –Psalm 86:1-10

At times when I read the scripture for the day, I think, “that says it all.” Yet, it helps me to delve into any scripture’s broader and deeper messages, and I meet that challenge best by writing about the scripture. Psalm 86 is one of those scriptures.

As I read the above section from that scripture, I was struck by how poor and needy most people are. Most people think of both poor and needy in economic terms. God certainly does care about those who lack the means to meet their basic needs, and Jesus gave all his followers the responsibility to make sure those basic needs are met. Poor and needy also describes a lack of love, self-worth, or a sense of belonging, and a lack of relationship with God.

Here the Psalmist writes asking God to gladden his soul and that by lifting up his soul to God, he is worshipping God.  In the story of Jesus’s 40 days of fasting in the wilderness, he encounters the devil, who offers him food. He answered, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’ (Matthew 4:4)

During this week, let us work to nourish our souls as we take in the wisdom of scriptures like Psalm 86 and as we attempt to be the Body of Christ in a broken and fragmented world in deep need of soul healing.

Prayer: Lord, heal our souls, bring us to wholeness for the facing of this hour. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Sent

Living in the Spirit

June 13, 2020

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: ‘Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, proclaim the good news, “The kingdom of heaven has come near.” Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment. Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food. Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave. As you enter the house, greet it. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town. –Matthew 10:5-15

I wrestle with the juxtaposition of receive without payment; give without payment and laborers deserve their food. I have a sense of panic when I realize I am halfway to the grocery store and have forgotten my phone. Yet, I remind myself that most of my life I went everywhere without a phone. It is hard for me to consider setting out on a journey among people I do not know or do not know well without even a change of clothing. Even people who look a lot like me. Jesus apparently expects me to depend on the hospitality of these strangers to feed me. Or am I reading that wrong?

Those are just the practical plans for this mission. When was the last time any of us raised someone from the dead? What does the Lord require of us*? Certainly, in this scripture he is asking for more than is humanly possible. Yet, if we believe Jesus was fully human, he did all these things and more? I do not think Jesus is saying we should not pack a bag or otherwise plan for other necessities as we step out in service to God. I think he may be saying that the only real help we need lives in our relationship with the omnipotent, omnipresent Lord. When we get in sync with the Lord our priorities settle into right places.

We like to throw a little money at problems we see and call it good. I do not think the sins of our world will be washed away without our total commitment to understanding them and using all the gifts with which God endowed us to fix them. Our own greed is probably a great place to start. Greed undergirds poverty, a broken health care system, making criminal justice a for-profit industry, and the desecration of our environment.

Jesus is still sending us out into a world in need of healing with the greatest power of all, God’s love. We are the instrument of that love.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts to the call of spreading your love across the world. Amen.

*See Micah 6:8

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Laughter is Good for the Soul

Living in the Spirit

Scripture Reading: Genesis 21:1-7
The Lord dealt with Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham gave the name Isaac to his son whom Sarah bore him. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ And she said, ‘Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’

Two friendly college students one year rented the house next door to my mother. Mom worked in the yard a lot, and she and the young men developed an over-the-fence friendship. My sister and brother both lived on farms near my mother and saw her regularly. I lived in another town about 70 miles away and would routinely go pick her up and bring her to visit me.

On one of those occasions, I got a call from my brother asking me if Mom was OK. I said, yes. He went on to explain that the neighbors had called the police and reported that they and not seen Mrs. Knott for several days, and her house had developed a horrible smell. They probably thought she had died. The policeman who got the call contacted my brother and shared the concern with him. My brother explained that Mom was visiting me, and the policeman reported the odor problem to my brother. City animal control officers had asked permission to put some skunk traps out on Mom’s property as they were dealing with a bad infestation of the odorous little animals, and she had agreed. Apparently, one was trapped and was not happy about it. My brother called me to tell me about the situation and, I think, to assure himself that Mom was still at my house. Mom giggled when I shared the story with her, even though she appreciated the young men’s concern. Occasionally that evening, she would get a little gleam in her eyes and giggle again.

I thought about this when I first read about Sarah laughing when told she was going to have a baby post-menopause.  Sarah was so caught up in the irony of her becoming pregnant; she even named the baby, Isaac, which means he will laugh*.

Laughter is an excellent medicine for the soul. Finding mutual humor can clear a room of discomfort and distrust. Sharing life stories with others helps us see how much more alike we are than different. With all the tension I have viewed on TV recently regarding discrimination, I enjoyed seeing national guard members joining marchers in dancing the macarena when someone started playing the music. When we can dance together or laugh together, we can find common ground to heal the wounds that divide us.

Prayer: Lord, help us highlight the things that unite us as we explore and work to solve the things that divide us. Amen.

*https://biblehub.com/str/hebrew/3446.htm

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.

Siblings

Living in the Spirit
August 15, 2017

Scripture Reading: Genesis 45:1-15

Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, “Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty.” And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.’ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them, and after that, his brothers talked with him. –Genesis 45:9-15

I sometimes wonder about the changes in relationships after a family member suddenly become an NBA or NFL draft pick or anyone else who was one day one of the family and the next a household word everywhere. Most superstars dealt with some popularity even in grade school, but that is not the big stage. How do you think siblings would feel if they  tossed the now superstar under the bus and had not heard from him in years when they next encounter him? On top of that, he is in the position to save them from starvation. Awkward does not begin to explain the situation.

Then again, what if you were the superstar? Brothers and sisters are the people in the world who might know us best. They witness our defeats as well as our accomplishments. I enjoy listening in on my now grown nieces, and nephews tell the tall tales of together skirting their parent’s knowledge of their questionable antics from childhood. Being siblings is a special bond. I’ve shared a few of those tales with my own siblings.

My Dad and his best-friend brother fell out late in life. They did not see each other for a while. When Dad had a massive heart attack, all three of we children independent of each other called and notified our uncle of the grave nature of the situation. Dad was at the VA hospital, and my uncle knew the hospital well as a disabled veteran himself. The hospital had some of the strictest visitation rules I ever encountered, but somehow my uncle maneuvered his way into the critical care unit and saw my Dad before he died. Both reported they picked up where they had left off before the estrangement and had a good visit. God had a hand in making that visit a reality.

God enabled Joseph to see the broader picture of the good that came from his horrible experience. God heals broken relationships if we are willing to make it so.

Prayer: Lord, it is not good when familial brothers and sisters let the world get in the way of their love for one another, neither is it good for brothers and sisters in Christ or for that matter all your children everywhere. Heal our brokenness bring us to wholeness that we may serve you better. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.