Day By Day #15
Day by Day #15
MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE
Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 55:6–9
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Devotional
When we are suffering, one of the most powerful tools we have available to us is the ability to find meaning and embrace hope in the midst of it. This was both the insight and lived experience of Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and survivor of four Nazi concentration camps. Only one in twenty-eight people who entered the camps emerged alive. Frankl witnessed that those who knew there was a task waiting for them to fulfill were most likely to survive:
The prisoner who lost hope in the future—his future—was doomed. With his loss of belief in the future, he also lost his spiritual hold; he let himself decline and became subject to mental and physical decay. . . .
Whenever there was an opportunity for it, one had to give them a why—an aim—for their lives, in order to strengthen them to bear the terrible how of their existence. Woe to him who had no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost. . . .
It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. . . . Life ultimately means . . . to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.
A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how.” . . .
They form man’s destiny, which is different and unique for each individual. . . . [Thus] man’s main concern is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain but rather to see a meaning in his life.a
When confronted by great evil and suffering, such as the Holocaust, it’s only natural to ask, Why? The answer remains shrouded in mystery. What we do know, however, is that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are his ways our ways. And we know that out of the greatest evil ever done on earth—the crucifixion of Jesus—has come the greatest good in history.
So God invites us to trust him, placing our hope in his goodness, resting assured that he is so great and sovereign he will ultimately transform all evil into good.
Question to Consider
How is God inviting you to trust him today?
Prayer
Lord, your ways are so much higher than mine, and your thoughts are so much larger than mine. While I may not always see the end from the beginning, I trust you today with my future. And I offer my life to you for the work that you have appointed me to do. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE
Silence and Stillness (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading: Psalm 130:1–2, 5–7
Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD;
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy. . . .
I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.
I wait for the Lord
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the LORD,
for with the LORD is unfailing love
and with him is full redemption.
Devotional
This psalm captures the reality that “waiting for the Lord” is a foundational principle of the spiritual life. In fact, when we are waiting, we are doing one of our most important spiritual tasks; we are allowing God to work and grow our soul. Here is how author and pastor Eugene Peterson describes the purpose and significance of waiting on God:
The long and short of it is that there is a lot more going on on the way than getting to a destination. And there is a lot more going on on the way than what we are doing. There is what God is doing. Which is why we “wait on the Lord.” We stop, whether by choice or through circumstance, so that we can be alert and attentive and receptive to what God is doing in and for us, in and for others, on the way. We wait for our souls to catch up with our bodies. Waiting for the Lord is a large part of what we do on the way because the largest part of what takes place on the way is what God is doing, what God is saying. . . . The waiting is not just an indolent “waiting around.” We wait “for the morning,” which is to say we wait in hope. We wait for God to do what we cannot do for ourselves “in the depths.” When he has done it, we are once more on the way.”b
The need for such waiting on the Lord is perhaps nowhere more necessary than when we consider our histories and our family of origin. Where was God? Why did he allow certain events to occur? Why did he allow me to be born into that particular family at that particular time? And for what purpose?
God tells us that we see and know only partially, but someday we shall know fully, just as we are fully known (see 1 Corinthians 13:12). In the meantime, he invites us to wait on him, trusting in his wisdom and love that surpasses human knowledge.
Question to Consider
Name one area in your life where you are curious of what God might be doing—especially as it relates to your family of origin history. How might he be inviting you to wait patiently for him?
Prayer
Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass away.
God is unchangeable.
Patience gains everything.
He who clings to God wants nothing.
God alone is sufficient.c
—Teresa of Avila
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
a Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959) 82, 84–85, 88, 109.
b Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Eerdmanns, 2007), 97.
c St. Teresa of Avila, Life of Prayer, 253.
From the book
