Advent Devotions
All are invited as we Make Room this Advent season.
Hope and Trust
Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Carol Swanson
After my dad retired, he took up cross stitching as a hobby. While on a visit with Dad, he was flipping through a cross-stitch catalogue. He showed me this quote from Thomas Merton and asked me what I thought of it. I feel like that sometimes, I said. Well, I forgot about it, but when I visited him for Christmas months later, I unwrapped his gift, the cross-stitched psalm expressing the hope and trust in God’s loving presence. I share it with you.
The Road Ahead
My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think that I am following your will
does not mean that I actually am doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this,
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore, will I trust you always
though I may seem lost
and in the shadow of death I will not fear,
for you are forever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my troubles alone.
––Thomas Merton
Previously…
Promise & Possibility
Over the course of the last few weeks, a small trickle has grown into a gushing current. It has acted much like the rising waters of a flood. Fortunately, also like the behavior of a flood, it seems to have crested in the last few days. Thankfully, unlike a flood, this deluge is filled with considerably more delight. I’m talking of course of the near complete takeover of our social media news feeds with first-day-of-the-new-school-year photographs.
More than Enough
Do you like Jeopardy? Trivial Pursuit? Knowledge Bowl? If so, here’s a question especially for you: Which one of the following miracles of Jesus appears in all four Gospels?
A Clear Mandate
In preparation for writing the trio of devotions this week, I have read Matthew’s account of the feeding of the five thousand several times. And as I’ve reflected on this text (Matt. 14:13-21), the words that keep coming to mind are these: “You give them something to eat.” Jesus doesn’t say, “I’ll give them something to eat,” or even “We’ll give them something to eat.” No. He says, “You give them something to eat.”
Moved to Compassion
Our gospel reading this past Sunday was the familiar story of the feeding of the five thousand. We’ll get to the meal tomorrow, but today I want to focus on the very beginning of this text because I think we have a tendency to overlook it.