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| Image by Ed Rosack. |
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A GREETING
Protect me, God, because I take refuge in you.
(Psalm 16:1)
A READING
I’m grateful to God, whom I serve with a good conscience as my ancestors did. I constantly remember you in my prayers day and night. When I remember your tears, I long to see you so that I can be filled with happiness. I’m reminded of your authentic faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I’m sure that this faith is also inside you. Because of this, I’m reminding you to revive God’s gift that is in you through the laying on of my hands. God didn’t give us a spirit that is timid but one that is powerful, loving, and self-controlled.
(2 Timothy 1:3-7)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
I was thrown on you from birth;
you’ve been my God
since I was in my mother’s womb.
(Psalm 22:10)
A POEM
Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I’m not where I started!
And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.
Halleluiah, I’m sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.
- "Hallelujah," by Mary Oliver
found in Little Alleluias: Collected Poetry and Prose by Mary Oliver
VERSE OF THE DAY
But I have calmed and quieted myself
like a weaned child on its mother;
I’m like the weaned child that is with me.
(Psalm 131:2)
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| "Mother and child," by Louise Bourgeois (2002) Bourgeois made a series of sculptures that focused on the relationship between the body of a child and the body of its mother. This work was created when she was 91. |
Yesterday, we reflected on how God delights in what God dwells within, and God dwells within each of us. In today's reading, the writer of the letter to Timothy uses this kind of language to describe how faith dwells within Timothy, just as it previously did in his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois. The reading says that faith first "lived" with Lois and Eunice and now "lives" with Timothy. The Greek word used here means "to dwell in."
Towards the end of the reading, the writer refers to the "spirit that is timid" in contrast to the spirit of power, love and self-discipline. These words are not about strength and weakness but about the boldness that can lead to a desire for transformation. The writer is telling us that it takes practice and patient self-discipline in prayer to learn to hear the Spirit within.
Timothy is being encouraged to find a deeper capacity for listening and for serving God in the world. With prayer, we too can feel the Holy Spirit encouraging us in our deepest self. With the help of the Spirit, we can experience the fruits of the Spirit that lead us in our life with others.
As we age, our bodies become differently abled. When once we might have helped to build a community housing project, now we can raise money for it and bring food to those doing the heavy lifting. The wisdom and lived experience of elders can help to change lives.
We all play a role in nurturing the faith of others, sometimes directly and sometimes without even knowing. When we live an open life of faith, in relationship with the larger community around us, we start to nourish the spiritual gifts of others. Whose gifts in your community are waiting to be recognized and encouraged? How can you reach out to them today?
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| Image by Jake Guild |
Scripture passages are taken from The Common English Bible.
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LC† From Dust, Still Holy is a devotional series of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook. Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help support the ongoing work.
Thank you and peace be with you!