With God…
Joe Albright

With God…

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When my daughter Noelle was just a baby, I was running with a good friend and he was telling me that he and his wife had a miscarriage right before Christmas. It was traumatic. It was so hard for them to enjoy the holiday. I hadn’t seen him for a while and he said, it was even hard to be around me – because I had this new baby, and it just drug up all these emotions. But as we were running, he said, “But I think I got a glimpse of something more in all this. On the one hand, this has been the hardest thing we have ever gone through. But because my wife and I are going through this together, we have experienced a level of closeness and intimacy that I didn’t know was possible. And I think we realized more than ever how tenuous life is and how much we really need each other.”

His comments made me reflect on the way that in life there is both brokenness and beauty, often side by side.  And how sometimes we get this glimpse of the way God can bring something new and even good and beautiful out of something heartbreaking.

Psalm 130:7 makes the promise, “With God is great power to redeem.” 

I don’t know what you might be going through right now in your own life, but I pray that you would remember that promise: With God is great power to redeem.

Let us pray: Gracious God, we don’t always see it, but we have to trust that you are at work even in the messy, confusing, heart-wrenching moments of life. We pray today for healing, for guidance, and ultimately for redemption. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How Much Did You Get?
Joe Albright

How Much Did You Get?

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Ernie was an atheist, and easily Eugene Peterson’s favorite uncle. He was full of jokes and fun. Well, one Christmas when Eugene was five or six years old, Uncle Ernie went to church with them. When it got to the time of the offering, and the plates were passed, little Eugene put in his nickel. But after the plate passed by, Uncle Ernie leaned over and whispered. How much did you get? And then he showed him, half hidden in his hand, a $20 bill. 

Eugene said, “At six years old, it just ruined my Christmas. I was ashamed to tell my parents or anyone else. Not only did my uncle, not believe in God, he stole from the God he did not believe in.”

It wasn’t until he was older that he realized it was actually just a joke. But then, as the years passed, it didn’t seem so much as a joke as a parable. How much did you get? It’s a Christmas question. Even a gospel question. 

How much did you get? 

Even late in this Christmas season, we remember that we stand in the presence of the gift that was already given.  And when think about the cross and the love poured out, we are reminded of all that has been handed to us, if only our hearts are open.

Let us pray: Thank you, Gracious God, for coming to us in Jesus. Thank you for showing us how to live through his life, for dying for us, for rising for us, and for redeeming us. Open our hearts to let your love fill us and renew us. Amen. 

A Wise Heart for a New Year
Joe Albright

A Wise Heart for a New Year

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Psalm 90 offers this prayer: “Teach me to count my days that I may gain a wise heart.”

What is it about counting our days that gives us a wise heart? Well, let’s think about the other side of that for a moment. What if we went through life, living as though we have forever?

We’d put stuff off. We’d hold grudges. We’d get caught up in the trivial and lose sight of what truly gives meaning.  In our younger years, often we are too “busy” to spend time with the ones we care about.  We’re often too “busy” to spend time with friends. We miss precious moments with our children. Sometimes it’s only years later we look back and wish we could get it back. 

The writer Brian Koppelman makes the point that: “If you look at the great expanse of time, we’re not even a dot.… And if you walk through life with the knowledge that one day, everything we love will be here no more, for me, it makes me love harder… more fiercely. And it makes me want to be more expansive, more giving, and more connected. It makes me aware of how fortunate I am to be present in this moment…” 

I think this psalmist had a pastor’s heart. Teach us to count our days, that we may gain a wise heart…

Let us pray: Eternal God, before whom generations rise and fall, as we sit on the edge of this new year, I pray with the psalmist that you would teach me to count my days… Teach me to count my days that my perspective might be restored… Teach me to count my days, that I might be reminded again of those things that bring deeper richer meaning to life. Teach me to count my days that I might remember who I am – and whose I am – in the grand scope of eternity. Teach me to count my days that I might be more truly grateful for the gift of the time I have left.  Teach me – teach us – to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. We ask in Christ’s name. Amen.