Sunday, October 4

Broken Heart

Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.
Psalm 51:17b

Our hearts can be tough, hard, tender, and fragile. What can break hearts? Death, cruelty, shame, failure, addiction, disease. People die of broken hearts, sometimes within months, other times over decades. We may not want to bother friends, family, pastors, or God with what has broken our hearts if we think we should be strong enough to not let our hearts break in the first place. But we don’t have to sort it out; give it all to Jesus. He knows broken heart’s pain. Can you imagine Jesus saying, “Go away, kid. Don’t bother me.”?! Absolutely not. Pierce Pettis’s song “God Believes in You” includes the lyrics: “Everything matters if anything matters at all. Everything matters no matter how big, no matter how small...God believes in you. Oh, God believes in you.”

Thank you, heart-cradling God! You nurture me. Your tender, mighty hands hold my heart, even when it is broken. You comfort and strengthen me. Sometimes you put turmoil in my heart for the greater good, but you never abandon me. Bless you, Jesus! I can bring anything and everything to you. Bless the Lord, oh my soul! In Jesus’ name, Amen

Monday, October 5

Guarded Heart

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23

Good news! The U.S. National Institute of Health reported in 2007 that heart disease deaths in women have decreased steadily between 2000 and 2004. A Canadian study released in June, 2009 shows death rates and hospital admissions for cardiovascular disease declined 30% over a 10-year period there. Heart health has become a higher priority, resulting in better prevention and improved treatment. Naturally we want to protect our bodies from harm, avoiding threatening danger. But this proverb says even more important than physical health is our spiritual health, represented by the heart -- where life starts. We are to keep vigilant watch over our hearts, guarding them from sin with even more diligence than we employ guarding our bodies.

Holy source of all life! Let my heart become one with yours. Fill it and my whole being with the wonder of your presence. Cleanse my heart and soul so I may live joyously in your love. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Tuesday, October 6

Impatient Heart

I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin. I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence. But when I was silent and still, not even saying anything good, my anguish increased. My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue.
Psalm 39:1-3

So easy to do -- we vow to take the high road, keep our mouths shut -- don’t give a wicked person fodder for twisting our words. Then, suddenly, we’ve had it. We spill our guts or tell someone off. Often understandably, for sometimes people lurk around, looking for an opportunity to bring us down. Feeling evil’s pressure, we realize a great need to maintain spiritual purity, but grow impatient and lash out. How did Jesus resist impatience?

Merciful God, you lift me so much higher than I can lift myself! Forgive my impatience. When people desert me, let me take refuge in your heart. When people betray me, Holy Spirit, show me Jesus’ example. Fill me with certainty of God’s steadfastness. Give me a heart transplant: replace my impatient heart with a grace filled heart. Glory to you, God! In Jesus’ name, Amen

Wednesday, October 7

Cheerful Heart

A cheerful heart is good medicine: but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22

Laughter does a body good, refreshing instantly with no side effects. Laughter therapy reduces depression, improves sleep, lowers blood pressure and stress related hormones, boosts circulation, strengthens immune systems, diminishes pain, builds self-confidence, and enhances interpersonal relationships. Did you know a 4-year old laughs about five hundred times a day, while an adult laughs less than fifteen times a day? I feast on a child’s infectious laughter. Of course by adulthood we’ve been taught to be reserved; many things have happened to break our spirit. We have responsibilities, griefs, and sorrows that can be debilitating, like our bones are dried out.

I love corny jokes and share them generously. I am sure God has a sense of humor. Sometimes when I get too serious or off track, God throws a little zing in here and there -- a one-liner or a quick vision -- a little inside joke that He and I understand. I laugh and say to him, “You got me!” and then am joyful about the perspective He’s given me; I love that He re-centers me.

Putting the verse above together with the children’s laughter statistic, I think of Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3 about changing and becoming like little children. Humor helps people through challenges. We can be joyful even in difficulties because we know testing of faith develops perseverance, and perseverance matures and completes us. If we can find hope even when we face death (for Christ has victory over death), no worry or trouble can take away our joy.

Sweet Jesus, when you were a child, your mother heard you laugh with other children! Dear God, thank you, thank you, that I am your child. Help me to know the child’s heart that you have given me. Holy Spirit, inspire me to fully receive the gift of my cheerful heart as part of my daily bread and to share it with others. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Thursday, October 8

United Hearts

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:5, 6

Can Christians agree on everything? Ha! No way! Good thing our goal is not to think alike or avoid all disagreements, but instead to glorify God -- with one heart and one mouth. We can strive for a unity in Christ that supersedes our individual preferences and personalities. Instead of our differences dividing us, our diversity can enable us to multiply our praise and service for God. Various gifts can combine for greater glory to God.

Wow, God! I love the amazing variety in your creation! (Even though you’ve done a couple of things differently than I would have.) Teach us how that variety contributes to your love’s completeness. Bring us together in our differences, with the common thread that all we truly have, all we truly are is a gift from you. Holy Spirit, inspire us to glorify God together! In Jesus’ name, Amen

Friday, October 9

Hearts of Light

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
made his light shine in our hearts to give us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6

We crave knowledge. “The Enlightenment” refers to a time in the eighteenth century in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority. Some say signers of our Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and other similar documents throughout Europe were motivated by “Enlightenment” principles. Excellent benefits of the “Enlightenment” indeed. But how much more is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ”?!

Hmm, so we have this light in our hearts. Not just any light...his light. Moonlight is blocked by clouds, the moon waxes and wanes, rises and sets. Firelight is unsteady and fades. Electric lights dim when a battery gets weak, a circuit shorts, or a power plant has a problem. Light bulbs burn out or break. God’s light, however, has no variation -- no dimness, no shadow, no darkness -- ever. That is the shining light in our hearts. We have a choice to open up every chamber, nook and cranny of our hearts to this light.

Father of lights, thank you for your constancy, your reliability, your completeness beyond imagination! Thank you for sharing that, shining it into my heart and out again to others. Holy Spirit, help me to better know Christ through God’s illumination. Help me to shine that light so that others can know Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Saturday, October 10

Heart Where Christ Dwells

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,
Ephesians 3: 16-18

I find gardening and farming in the U.P. an absolute luxury. Even though soil is sandy, even though growing seasons are short, even though temperatures are cool, resulting crops amaze me. How about our hearts? What are our “even thoughs”? Even though I am selfish, even though I am unwise, even though I am worn out, and the list goes on. Even though we do not fully understand his word, it cleanses us and brings new life. Even though we sin over and over, he forgives us and keeps us. Even though we idolize many pursuits, he woos us and sates us with an irresistible longing for him. Even though we empty ourselves and others over and over, he fills us. How can this be? Only by God’s grace and his evergreen gift of Christ in our hearts.

Heavenly Father, you are the King of Even Though!
Even though you are God and I am not, you let me be one with Christ.
Even though I am ungrateful for and trash some gifts you give me, you not only give me more, you invite me into your very kingdom.
Even though I deliberately and unknowingly sin against you, you always stand by me and forgive.
Even though I step on your glory, you lift me up.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow, even though...
In Jesus’ name, Amen