Not everything is a Red Sea. Every situation is not a matter life or death. Every miracle doesn’t need to be of epic proportions.
Sometimes it’s a Jordan River. Sometimes the waters are simply at flood stage, a predictable season of added challenge. Sometimes a miracle can be mid-sized.
But really, life is mostly smaller crossings. Getting from point A to point B with minor, unexpected inconveniences. Most miracles are God’s power scaled down to creek-width.
(more…)When our kids were really little, one of our favorite books to read with them was Going on a Bear Hunt. The repeated refrain goes: “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!” Whether it’s mud or tall grass or windy rain, the hunting party has to muster up the resilience to press on.
For ancient people, the ocean was a place of chaos. Depth and danger. Uncontrollable and deadly forces. Invisible threats below and unpredictable weather above. Even for the bravest sailors, it was always approached with trepidation and a healthy respect.
(more…)Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
No, it would not have been better for you to remain enslaved to the Egyptians.
No, it would not have been better for you to stay with your abusive spouse.
No, it would not have been better for you to keep working for your bully of a boss.
(more…)When God delivers you from your Egypt, he may not lead you along the straightest path towards your Promised Land. A straight line is the shortest distance between two points, but it may not be the safest.
Life is full of detours. We can either disdain them as annoyances or accept them as blessings.
(more…)You can sleep, because the Lord never sleeps.
You can take your next step, because the Lord is one step ahead of you.
You can let your guard down, because the Lord’s guard is up.
You can relax, because the Lord is watching your back.
You can give up control, because the Lord’s got this.
You can rest, because the Lord is still active.
(more…)The Bible begins not in a flower garden, but in one flourishing with fruits and vegetables and herbs.
Abraham welcomes three heavenly guests with a picnic of fresh bread, roasted meat, and cheese.
Joseph—before revealing his true identity to his brothers—invites them to sit down to what must have been the most extravagant meal of their lives.
The Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt was marked by an intentionally hasty meal.
(more…)Rituals are memory-keepers.
We blow out the candles to remember that we were born.
We clink our glasses to remember that we made vows to one another.
We stand for the anthem to remember others’ sacrifice.
We visit a grave to remember a life that shaped our life.
We break bread and drink wine to remember that “Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.”
I have this friend—we’ll call her Emily—who seems to always be upset about something. She’s constantly up in arms about some tragedy somewhere in the world. She’s in a persistent state of anxiety over someone else’s suffering. Her news apps are constantly pinging her with updates, and she’s hyperactive on several social media platforms. “If you’re not heartbroken and outraged,” Emily tells me, “then you’re just not paying attention!”
But maybe we don’t always need to pay attention. Maybe we just can’t. Not to everything. Not to everyone. Not everywhere. Our limited hearts and minds simply can’t hold it all.
(more…)We can never quite anticipate what worship will ask of us.
One aspect of worship that has been lost in a lot of our modern, western conceptions of worship is that worship involves sacrifice and service. Especially since “worship” in common parlance has become associated almost exclusively with singing songs, with an entire economic industry is built up around it (nearly $1 billion annually, depending on how you’re counting). In such a consumeristic environment, it’s only natural that “worship” would become more about “What do I get?” than “What do I give?”
(more…)How many chances do you give a stubborn heart? Two? Three? Four? How about ten? Or even more?
One way of reading the Exodus narrative is God giving Pharaoh chance and after chance after undeserved chance to soften his stubborn heart. Yes, some translations of some of the explanations say that, “the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.” (Exodus 9:12) Such language paints the picture that, all along, it was Yahweh’s desire to give Egypt a proper beat down before liberating his people from slavery.
But that’s not the whole story.
(more…) Exploring the mystery of faith in ordinary life.