"Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs." -- Proverbs 10:12

When there is division in our families and in our communities, and when venomous words are being thrown at one another, it's time we check ourselves and examine our hearts.  When you think of others, what is the primary nature of the thoughts?   When you think of "that" person, does your mind go to negative thoughts, and do you feel anger welling up in you?  Or do you consider that person in a loving, understanding way?  Lincoln once said that the best way to get rid of an enemy is to make them your friend.  When we consider others in a way that seeks to lift up, encourage, and support, we find that our relationships dramatically improve.  However, when we use up mental, emotional, and spiritual energy contemplating negative things about them, hate stirs up in our hearts, and we bring destruction to a web of relationships around us.  Exercise your capacity to love.  It's a better way.

Readings:  Leviticus 14:1-57; Mark 6:30-56; Psalm 40:1-10; Proverbs 10:11-12

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath." -- Psalm 39:4-5

I've been reflecting lately on the progress that technology is achieving, and the speed at which it's evolving.  I've also been hearing predictions that say within the next 25 years, it's possible that we will advance bio-technically to the point that our life-spans could be lengthened considerably.  Debate is heating up because of this.  Some hear that we may be able to live 150-200 years, and say, "I wouldn't want to live that long"... and I wonder what makes a person say that.  If you could live a healthy life for that long (which is still nothing in God's time), why wouldn't you?  My suspicion is that it may be because so many of us exist, but we don't live.  That makes sense to me.  I wouldn't want to exist that long either if I didn't have a reason or purpose.  Nor would I want to live that long if I couldn't be spiritually and emotionally whole.   Some have suggested that without death, we cannot know life, and that it is our very mortality that allows us to experience life in the first place.  So here's the question... forget the age old question "if you knew you had only a day to live"...  Instead, let me ask: if you had only 100 years left to live, how would you live them?  50 years?  25 years?  10?  5?  1?  Seriously think about it.  I'd love to know what you discover.

Readings:  Leviticus 13:1-59; Mark 6:1-29; Psalm 39:1-13; Proverbs 10:10

"When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, 'If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.' Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed form her suffering." -- Mark 5:27-29

This is faith in action.   A woman has been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, and she's tired.  In her belief that Jesus has the power to make her well, she finds courage to reach out and touch him as crowds are pressing in.  Yes, she is healed, but then she is scared.  The story continues to tell us that Jesus, sensing the power having gone from him, turns and asks, "who touched me?"  The woman thinks, "uh-oh"... and then she fesses up.  Fearing punishment or retribution, she hears Jesus say to her words of compassion:  "go, for your faith has made you well."

Jesus was pushing through crowds of people.  Many people were touching him.  But only the one reached out  and "touched" him.  This one had a faith the others did not.  In her belief, she held a power that could extract the very power from Jesus that made him divine.  What would your life look like if you lived your days knowing that you too had that kind of power?  You do you know.

Readings:  Leviticus 11:1-12:8; Mark 5:21-43; Psalm 38:1-22; Proverbs 10:8-9

Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." -- Mark 4:30-32

One of the masterful things Jesus did during his ministry was to speak to people in ways they could understand.  It was an agrarian society, and farming and planting were key in describing what the kingdom of God was like.  Here, he says it's like the mustard seed-- one of the smallest seeds, but which grows to be a very large garden plant.  So we get the mustard seed, and we get the plant, but how again is that like the kingdom of God?  In Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6, he uses the mustard seed in terms of faith-- that if you have even as little as a mustard seed, you can do great and mighty things.  Here, it's not faith, but the kingdom he's talking about.  But is there a difference?  The kingdom of God on earth is built not with brick and mortar, but with faith and love.  The kingdom therefore isn't a physical presence as much as it is a spiritual one.  When you bring faith into a group of people, it can be contagious.  When you bring love to a group of people, it can transform them.  Yes, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed... and you are the seed.   My mind is boggled in thinking that as we read this Gospel, Jesus started with 12 followers.  Today, there are over 2 billion... and that's living followers.  I wonder if you were to count the generations of Christians that have passed away, how many people would be counted as being Christian in the years since Jesus called his first disciples?  If anyone knows, I'd really like to hear.  It is true, that even though each of us represents only 1/7 billionth of the world's population, one person can change the world.  Change it in the way you can.


Readings:  Leviticus 9:7-10:20; Mark 4:26-5:20; Psalm 37:30-40; Proverbs 10:6-7

"Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful." -- Mark 4:18-20

These two verses are part of a larger paragraph (Mark 4:13-20) where Jesus is telling the parable about the seed in the soil.  In this parable, the farmer sows "the word".   We might understand this as God's teachings in the form of beautiful loam that is packed with nutrients from God's own "miracle-grow" formula.  The seed that is planted in this soil has the best chance at growing in abundance.  In this parable, the seeds are people.  When the seed is broadcast for planting, some fall onto the path next to the soil.  They don't make it into the soil, so are immediately picked up and taken away by Satan's crows.  Others are impatient and don't stick around, so they have no root and fall away as soon as they're tested by the scorching heat that comes with persecution for the faith.  The weeds represent the worries of this life and spending so much energy fretting about money, wealth, and wanting what we don't have.  This chokes the life out of us.  But those sown on the good soil, "hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-- thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown."  To know the abundant life God desires for you, it's vital to create the disciplines that keep you in the word.  This is why we are disciplined readers.

Readings: Leviticus 7:28-9:6; Mark 3:31-4:25; Psalm 37:12-29; Proverbs 10:5


Happy Birthday to my son, Garrett, who is 18 today!

"Do not fret because of evil people or be envious of those who do wrong...Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." -- Psalm 37:1; 3-4

When I was about 9 or 10 years old, I remember finding a cigarette outside with my friend.  We thought it would be cool to try smoking it, and so while my parents were out for a while, we did just that in my room.    I coughed, gagged, and hated the taste it left in my mouth.  But that was nothing compared to the guilt I felt for doing something I knew my parents would disapprove of... I had to make sure they didn't find out.  So I took the butt of the cigarette and flushed it down the toilet.  Not long afterward, I sensed my parents were acting a little funny.  I became nervous.  I hadn't admitted what I'd done, but thought that maybe I was giving some sort of guilt signal.  My father said he wanted to talk to me.  I knew I was caught, but couldn't understand how they knew.  While I dreaded what was coming, I was already beginning to feel some relief because I hated carrying the secret of what I'd done.  It was a burden too much to bear.  Dad sat me down and asked outright, "Have you been smoking, Son?"  Amazing!  I hadn't said a word about it and he'd figured it out!  "Huh?"  I asked, stalling for something smart to say.  "Have you been smoking?"  I caved.  "Yes."  I told him everything.  Then I asked, "How did you know?"  He said, "We could smell it the minute we walked in the door."  Ha!  That's how they did it!  It hadn't even occurred to me...

That day I learned something.  I had expected to be grounded for life, but instead had a great lecture given to me.  I received grace.  And with that came huge relief.  I could start clean again.  I didn't even like smoking anyway.  I am sorry for those who live lives of deceit and evasion.  Life is too short to live it looking over your shoulder all the time.  If you seek life with God, you will enjoy the pastures described in this Psalm.  Live simply and enjoy God's pleasures.  It will lead to a better life.

Readings:  Leviticus 6:1-7:27; Mark 3:7-30; Psalm 37:1-11; Proverbs 10:3-4

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins." -- Mark 2:21-22

I'm not one who typically sews, and I've never tried sewing a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment.  Nor do I carry a wineskin, so have never had the need to pour new wine into it.  But what I hear is that neither approach works, because they are old solutions to new problems.  When the garment was new, the new patch would have worked, but the garment has changed, and what you used to be able to do will not work.   As the world changes, new problems emerge.  It takes creativity to come up with new solutions.  A hammer and duct tape work for most, if not all, challenges, but some things are just more sophisticated now and  require more specialized tools.   Likewise, the way people learn and communicate has changed.  Jesus was speaking to common people in ways they understood.  He was the new wine being poured into a new skin.  The Pharisees had great difficulty connecting.  Today, the generations coming up are wired so much differently than the Gen X-ers, Boomers, and back, and to connect with them requires new language skills and new means of connection.  If we want to stay relevant to the generation being born now, we must continually grow with the advances around us.  We might be getting older, but we don't have to become stale.  We can stay fresh, and continually communicate the stories of God, which are always fresh to new ears.

Readings:  Leviticus 4:1-5:19; Mark 2:13-3:6; Psalm 36:1-12; Proverbs 10:1-2