Tag Archives: Daily

Today

November 12, 2025 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Hebrews 3:13 (NIV)

Wendy made a quick run to Des Moines yesterday for a couple of medical treatments to help her with some stiffening and body aches. Meanwhile, I have been continuing to work out multiple times a week to keep my own body moving and avoid some of the natural effects of age.

“This whole getting older thing is for the birds!” Wendy exclaimed yesterday as we commiserated.

Indeed, it is. Our physical well-being requires more daily attention than ever.

In today’s chapter, the author of Hebrews continues his message to the weary, persecuted believers of the first century. His message has been laser focused on Jesus. In the first chapter Jesus was the celestial Creator exalted above the angels and all heavenly beings. In the second chapter, Jesus was the humble servant – God made human – who understands our suffering.

Today’s chapter begins with the author making the point that Jesus was greater than Moses. For the Jewish believers, this was a crucial truth. In Jewish tradition, no one was greater than Moses. The end of Torah states:

“Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.”
Deuteronomy 34:10-12 (NIV)

Moses was “faithful in God’s house,” the author says, but Jesus “made the house.” And now? “We are the house.” God’s house is no longer bricks-and-mortar, it’s flesh-and-blood. He then warns the weary and persecuted believers against the very thing that their ancestors experienced in their wilderness wanderings with Moses: allowing their hearts to get hard and giving up on faith.

The Greek word the author uses for the “hardening” of hearts is sklērynē and it’s the root of our English word “sclerosis.” Literally, a stiffening. The antidote for this spiritual stiffening that leads to loss of faith is daily encouragement. He even quotes Psalm 95 to add emphasis on “Today.”

“Today” you need to encourage one another.
“Today” you need spiritual exercise to keep from getting stiff.
“Today” you need to “fix your thoughts on Jesus.”

Spiritual well-being requires daily attention to avoid hardening of the heart, the same way that daily attention is necessary to avoid sclerosis of the joints and muscles in my physical body.

Today’s chapter whispers a simple but fierce truth to me in the quiet this morning: Faithfulness is a daily choice. Every “today” is an invitation to trust again, to soften again, to listen again. My spirit calcifies easily—through disappointment, cynicism, habit—but Christ keeps calling to me: “Come, enter my rest.”

Encouragement is holy work. Each word of grace I speak may soften another’s heart just enough to keep faith alive another day. We build God’s house one tender faithful act of kindness at a time.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Promotional graphic for Tom Vander Well's Wayfarer blog and podcast, featuring icons of various podcast platforms with a photo of Tom Vander Well. — These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Chapter-a-Day

Rhythms

September 5, 2025 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

The Lord said to Moses, “Give this command to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Make sure that you present to me at the appointed time my food offerings, as an aroma pleasing to me.’”
Numbers 28:1-2 (NIV)

Here in Iowa I continue to feel the natural change in seasons. Yesterday morning as I set out on a walk it was almost chilly. Later in the day when I went out to check the mail, my body was still expecting the blast furnace heat of the summer sun. Instead, I almost shuddered with the crisp coolness of the air.

This change is part of the natural rhythm of creation and every year this change brings back a flood of memories. The return to school and coming home to mom’s chocolate chip cookies and afternoons playing football in the back yard with the neighborhood kids. The excitement of Friday nights at the high school football game. The smell of burning leaves and countless pillars of smoke rising into the sky for blocks and blocks.

Just this past week as Wendy and I took some vacation we took time to talk about and review our rhythms. Labor Day weekend itself has become a ritual for us and four of our friends who have spent the weekend together for every year for years. It’s become part of the annual rhythm of our lives. But we have daily rhythms and weekly rhythms, as well, whether or not we are even conscious of it.

As Wendy and I examined our daily rhythms we came to the conclusion that things needed some tweaking. Rhythms can be healthy and productive, but sometimes what started as a good thing slowly leads towards the shadow side. Less productive, less healthy, and less life-giving. Sometimes it happens so slowly and subtly that you hardly notice.

In today’s chapter, as the Hebrews sit encamped across from the Promised Land and prepare to enter in, God tells Moses to remind the people of the sacrifices, offerings, and festivals that He had prescribed 40 years before at Mount Sinai. Daily rituals. Weekly rituals. Monthly rituals. Annual rituals.

Spiritual rhythms.

For modern readers, this can easily feel repetitive and silly. Don’t they have a PDF of all this on the hard drive? Why all the repetition?

But that’s just it. They didn’t have a PDF or a hard drive. The written word was rare and the ability to even read or write was just as rare. People needed to be told things, and important things needed to be repeated. Repetition is the key to memory, like crisp fall mornings conjuring dreams that I have to return to high school because there was a class I failed to take.

God is drawing His people near at this momentous inflection point in their journey. Remember who I am. Remember who you are. Things are about to change. I was with you on the road out of Egypt. I’ve been with you on the road through the wilderness. I will be with you on the road in to the Promised Land. These rhythms of offering, sacrifice, ritual, and communion will provide you with the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual connection points you’ll need.

Spiritually, I need my rhythms, too. I need to be mindful of my rhythms. I need rhythms that help connect me with God and others. I need rhythms that foster Life and shalom in increasing measure. This means that sometimes I have to stop. I have to examine my rhythms. I might even have to make some changes. Which is exactly what Wendy and I have implemented this week.

But one rhythm that won’t change is early mornings in the quiet with God, reading a chapter-a-day, meditating on what the Great Story has for me, and sharing it here.

Thanks for being a part of my rhythm, friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

The Choice and the Outcome

May 14, 2025 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Matthew 28:18 (NIV)

Today’s brief and final chapter marks the end of Jesus’ physical ministry on Earth. Matthew shares that Jesus rose from the dead. He and the disciples then returned to Galilee “to the mountain” where He “told them to go.” There, on top of the mountain, He told them that “all authority in heaven and on earth” had been “given” to Him.

Just this past Sunday I gave the message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers and talked about when Jesus was tempted by the enemy in the wilderness. It was just before the beginning of Jesus’ physical ministry on earth. Luke writes:

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

What a fascinating contrast on which to meditate in the quiet this morning. The beginning and end take place on mountains and the issue at hand is kingdom authority. Right before the beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus was offered all the authority of the kingdoms of the world on earth. All He had to do was bow down to the enemy.

Jesus, however, chose to love His Father and love others rather than bowing and taking a shortcut to worldly power and riches. Jesus’ love for His Father and others led Him to choose to surrender His will to the will of His Father, take up a cross, and sacrifice Himself for sins of others. Having done so, He now stands on a different mountain and proclaims that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him.

Satan offered Jesus a shortcut to the limited authority he’s been granted over just the kingdoms of the earth. Jesus chose the path of sacrificial love and was given all authority of both heaven and earth (which includes authority over Satan). Jesus chose the path of eternal authority, and got both. It was the living embodiment of what He taught: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

I know the choice Jesus made. I know the outcome.

I can’t help but to consider that Jesus told me that I have the same choice that He was given. I can focus on the earthly or the eternal. I can bow to the temporary authority of the kingdoms of this world and chase after their power, riches, fame, and splendor. Or, I can follow Jesus in choosing an eternal path having faith that in the end I will not only find something much greater, but “all these things” will be included (though I have a sneaking suspicion that they will pale in comparison).

Do I bow to the temporary authority of the kingdoms of the world, or to the eternal authority of heaven and earth?

I believe it is a choice that I make a thousand times every day.

Tomorrow this chapter-a-day trek moves to 2 Corinthians

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

These chapter-a-day blog posts are also available via podcast on all major podcast platforms including Apple, Google, and Spotify! Simply go to your podcast platform and search for “Wayfarer Tom Vander Well.” If it’s not on your platform, please let me know!

Book Summary List

John (Feb-Mar 2024)

February 24, 2024 Tom Vander Well 5 Comments

Each photo below corresponds to the chapter-a-day post/podcast for the book of John published by Tom Vander Well in January and February 2024. Click on the photo linked to each chapter to read the post.

John 6: Filet-o’-Fish or Flesh-and-Blood?

Book Summary List, Chapter-a-Day

Joel (June 2023)

June 30, 2023 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Below you’ll find a list of chapter-a-day posts on the book of Joel written and published by Tom Vander Well in June 2023. Click on the image to be directed to that post.

Chapter-a-Day

The Inflection Point

May 5, 2021 Tom Vander Well 1 Comment

[Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Mark 8:31-33 (NIV)

Inflection point has become a buzzword in business during my career. And, it’s often misunderstood. The inflection point is the point on a line where the line changes its sign. It’s when the curve of that line reveals a shift of direction. When it ultimately shifts direction, that’s called the “turning point.” The turning point happens later. The inflection point is the subtle shift that precedes the turning point. If you see the inflection point, you can predict the turning point.

When the moving line turns red, that’s the inflection point.

In today’s chapter, the narrative of Mark’s version of Jesus’ story hits an inflection point. The majority of the first eight chapters is an endless stream of miracles, wonders, and exorcisms seasoned with Jesus parables and teachings. It has been all about Jesus interacting with people’s lives in this world. He’s feeding hungry people, healing sick people, delivering possessed people, and teaching people spiritual principles of God’s kingdom in contrast to the human religious system controlling most of their lives.

Out of the blue, Jesus tells his followers quite plainly that He will be rejected by the religious power-brokers in Jerusalem, He will be killed, and then in three days He will rise from the dead. We’re just half-way through Mark’s biography of Jesus and Jesus let’s fly with the greatest spoiler of all time without once issuing his listeners a Spoiler Alert.

This event is a narrative inflection point. From this point forward, Mark’s version of events will drive towards the very events Jesus predicts.

What really resonated in my heart and mind this morning was Peter’s reaction. Upon hearing Jesus explain the end game of His mission on earth, Peter pulls the master aside and “rebukes” Him. In the quiet, I imagined what Peter’s rebuke might have been…

“You can’t die! We’re just getting started!”

“The twelve of us have left everything to follow you assuming this was a long-term gig! How are we going to retire if you leave us in the lurch?”

“Jesus, dude, you’ve got what it takes to ride this wave all the way to the throne. With your powers and the people behind you, there’s nothing that can stop you from ruling the world!”

“Look! Your parables and stories are confusing, but they’re great. People love them. The miracles and the free fish sandwiches, that’s what the people want. If you go off-message and start tweeting about your death like some crazy-man, it’s over. You’ll lose your momentum. These people will stop following you. Then where will we be?”

He’ll be right where the powerful men atop the human religious racket can arrest Him, usher Him through their kangaroo court, and leverage their local power to convince Rome to execute this threat to all that they care about.

He’ll be right where He just predicted He’d end up.

It struck me this morning that this is more than just an inflection point in the storyline. This is also a spiritual inflection point in Jesus’ teaching.

I am so focused on this life. I am so concerned with my immediate circumstances. Virtually every moment of my day is concentrated on my place in this world. My time, energy, and resources are spent trying to make this earthly life last as long as possible (even if it ends up being no Life at all). I do all that I can not to think about death, talk about death, or consider the undeniable truth that my body is going to die.

“You’re right, Tom,” Jesus says through the text of today’s chapter. “Thanks for being honest. Because that is what needs to change. That is the inflection point…“

“Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?”
Mark 8:34-37 (MSG)

If I follow Jesus at this inflection point, then down the road a whole bunch of turning points in my words, decisions, actions, and relationships will reveal themselves. Consider Peter. It’s at Cornelius’ house in Acts 10 that the turning point is revealed.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself contemplating this spiritual inflection point at which Jesus asks me to consider God’s eternal Kingdom more real than this physical life, more important than the things of this world, more valuable than anything this life could afford.

This is also a point of tension. It doesn’t mean that I ignore this life, coast through this journey, live as if nothing on earth matters. It does! It matters enough for Jesus to come and do exactly as He predicted. The spiritual inflection point gets down to the motives at the core of my being.

What is it I want?

What is it I’m living for?

What does my head answer? What does my heart answer?

If there is ultimately no evidence of a turning point on my calendar, on my credit card statement, and on my task list, then the truth is that I missed the inflection point.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Gift, not Reward

March 8, 2021 Tom Vander Well 2 Comments

Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Psalm 127:1 (NIV)

Family is messy. It just is.

When I was a young man, I embarked on a fact-finding mission to better understand my families of origin. What I discovered was that underneath the veneer of stories that I’d been told (the good, polite, and acceptable ones) there was a whole lot of mess.

The Great Story is full of wisdom that reads like simple binary formulas. A+B=C.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

The fear of the Lord adds length to life, but the years of the wicked are cut short.

I like simple formulas, and I’ve observed that most other human beings do too. That’s why name-it-and-claim-it televangelists get people to send them millions (“Give and you will receive!“). It’s how we get suckered into all sorts of things (“Just five minutes a day with the Ab Monster and you’ll have a six-pack like this dude!“). I’ve also observed and experienced that it’s how many institutional churches approach life. “Do this and you’ll experience God’s blessings; Don’t do that or you’ll suffer God’s punishment.” It’s no wonder the world is rejecting the church and screaming “It doesn’t work!”

Along my spiritual journey, I’ve come to the realization that the spiritual path, the path of wisdom, and following Jesus is not a simple math equation as it may appear on the surface and/or how it’s often presented. It’s more like actuarial science based on general rules, complex principles, earthly probabilities, percentages, and exceptions. Simple formulas are fubar’d when imperfect human beings enter the equation with our emotions, pride, passions, appetites, desires, fears, and free will.

Train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they will not depart from it.

It seems so simple that I want to name it and claim it. It appears so simple that when I witness someone’s child making poor choices it must be that his parents missed an ingredient in the good Christian, Focus-on-the-Family formula, or her behavior must reveal the proof I need that mom and dad are blowing it in the parental department. The simple train-up-a-child formula sounded so easy when my daughters were babes who were completely dependent on my absolute provision and authority. Then an adult child strikes out on her own path, making her own choices, and finding her own way. It looks nothing like the paternal expectations I anticipated as part of that simple formula when my head and heart were intoxicated with absolute authority over her life. It’s easy for me to feel cheated by what appeared to be simple math.

In my own life journey and experiences with messy family, Lady Wisdom has taught me a few things:

The path Jesus prescribed for His followers was never about moral perfection, an easy-life, and earthly abundance; It’s about selflessness, sacrifice, and love-in-action.
The only things I really control are my own thoughts, words, actions, and choices. The notion I control anything else is an illusion.
My family members are on their own spiritual journeys, just like me. If I want them to have grace and understanding with my shit, I have to have grace with theirs. If I want them to have patience and understanding as I navigate this stretch of life in my 50s, which I’ve never experienced before, then I have to let them navigate their 20s and 30s, which they’ve never experienced, with that same patience and understanding.
If I believe God is faithful and can be trusted, and I believe He is, then I can entrust others to God while I choose to let go of my personal expectations of them.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 127, is a song that the liner notes ascribe to Solomon, the son of King David. It is another one of the songs that ancient Hebrew pilgrims sang on their trek to Jerusalem. It is both a celebration of family and a reminder that all of life’s blessings and securities are gifts from God, not the In the quiet this morning, I’m making a little mental inventory of the family stories embedded in the Great Story:

Lot was incestuous with his daughters.
Abraham slept with his concubine at his wife’s insistence and the consequences are still being felt today.
Jacob (and his mother) deceived his father and stole his brother’s birthright.
Joseph was beaten and sold into slavery by his own brothers.
David committed adultery and refused to deal with the incestuous rape his own son committed against his half-sister.
David’s son, Solomon, was the offspring of his scandalous, adulterous, conspiratorial marriage to Bathsheba and murder of her husband.

And its Solomon who the wrote the lyrics of today’s Psalm. For me, reading the lyrics of today’s chapter knowing the unvarnished truth of Solomon’s family story strips away the notion of simple spiritual formulas with it comes to family.

Family is messy. It just is.

There are many spiritual principles that influence the outcomes I generally experience on this life journey, both positively and negatively. But it’s not always a simple equation. I can build a home and family, but it still won’t cure the mess. Solomon knew that as well as anyone. He reminds me this morning that life’s blessings and securities are gifts, not rewards.

Chapter-a-Day

Journey

November 18, 2020 Tom Vander Well 3 Comments

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.
Psalm 68:19-20 (NIV)

Quite obviously, my entire blog and podcast is predicated on the metaphor of the journey. This is not novel or new. All the great epic stories are journeys. The journey is everywhere in the Great Story.

Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden, and find themselves journeying out of fellowship with God into exile into the world.

When God calls Abram, He is told to leave his home and follow to a land that God would show him.

Joseph is sold in slavery by his brothers and journeys to Egypt, where God establishes him in preparation to save his family.

Moses journeys out of Egypt to Midian, then back to Egypt, then through the wilderness to the Promised Land.

The Hebrew people journey from Egypt through the wilderness, to the Promised Land in Canaan.

David flees and journeys through the wilderness until God leads him back and establishes his throne in Jerusalem.

The 23rd Psalm is a journey from pastures, through the valley of the shadow of death, and to the house of the Lord.

Jesus’ ministry was essentially a journey, complete with a period of wilderness wandering, from the rural flyover country of Galilee to His climactic death and resurrection in Jerusalem.

The story of the early Jesus movement was essentially a journey out of Jerusalem and into the world.

Today’s chapter, Psalm 68, is epic in its length. Scholars believe that it was meant to be a liturgical song sung as worshippers journeyed in procession to the temple in Jerusalem. It’s basically a song of two-halves.

The first half (verses 1-18) references the journey of the Hebrews from Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Hebrew Law, to Mount Zion in Jerusalem where David established God’s temple.

The second half of the song, (verses 19-35) envisions God’s throne established on earth with the nations journeying to Jerusalem to offer gifts to God.

What really stood out to the early followers of Jesus were the first verses of the second half of the song which seems to prophetically point to the suffering and risen Christ:

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.

With that being the hinge, the early believers viewed the second half of the song as a parallel vision to that of John in the Book of Revelation Jesus’ return.

In the quiet this morning I can’t help but meditate on this metaphor of journey. Why does it resonate so deeply in me? What is it about the journey that seems to weave itself into the fabric of everything? We even envision time as a line that moves from one waypoint to another.

For me, the journey resonates with purpose. Remember, I’m an Enneagram Four. Purpose is our core motivation. If this is just a material universe in which life emerged as a cosmic accident, then there is no real purpose to anything other than those things in which we choose to find purpose. But if there is no God, no eternity, no larger purpose to my existence, then it’s all smoke and mirrors and I’m only just fooling myself.

But if I really believe what I say I believe, the 19,927 days from April 30, 1966 to November 18, 2020 has been a journey from one point in time to another. I’ve matured, developed, learned, and progressed. I am not who I was, and not yet who I will be. My past mistakes have led to growth in understanding. My life, and my journey, are part of something larger than myself in the grand scheme, in the Great Story.

I can take comfort in that. It keeps me going. It frames each day. It leads me on, hinged on a savior who daily bears my burdens, who saves, and through whom death is swallowed up in victorious life.

Chapter-a-Day

Eye Opening

October 2, 2020 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the Lord
and put their trust in him.
Psalm 40:3 (NIV)

In the Great Story, faith is described as “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

The spiritual journey is often referred to as a faith journey, and along my personal journey following Jesus I’ve found that it is the increasing understanding of spiritual realities amidst contrasting circumstances in this physical world.

There is a great story of the ancient prophet Elisha who, along with his servant, was staying in the town of Dothan. The king of Aram wanted Elisha dead because God, through Elisha, had been tipping off the King of Israel regarding the Aramian army’s location. So in the middle of the night, the Aramian army surrounded Dothan. Elisha and his servant woke up the next morning to find themselves surrounded. Elisha’s servant freaked out.

“Don’t worry,” the prophet said calmly. “There are more with us than against us.”

“Dude,” his servant said. “What have you been smoking? Don’t you see the entire Aramian army out there?!”

Elisha then prayed, “Lord, please open his eyes that he may see.”

The eyes of his servants were then opened to see the realm of the Spirit dimension, and he saw that the hills surrounding Dothan were filled with an entire army of angels sitting on chariots of fire.

David psyched me out a bit this morning as I began to read Psalm 40. After two songs (Psalm 38 and Psalm 39) in which he has been lamenting his poor health and despairing over his circumstances, he beings Psalm 40 with a declaration of being restored and delivered. He’s pulled up out of the muddy pit and firmly established on solid rock. He’s singing a “new song.”

“Yes!” I thought to myself. “After patiently waiting, David has finally experienced healing and restoration!”

But then as I continued reading David’s song lyrics it becomes clear that his circumstances really haven’t changed. He’s still poor and needy, his troubles still surround him, and his heart is still failing.

So what has changed to inspire the opening lines of the song?

Faith.

As with Elisha’s servant, the eyes of David’s heart are being opened to see the realities of Spirit amidst his physical circumstances. His spiritual confidence is growing and allowing him to actually experience that for which he is hoping for despite there being no change in his temporal earthly realities.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking about our current earthly realities that are creating so much fear and anxiety. It can feel a bit like being surrounded with no possible way out.

I’m personally praying Elisha’s prayer.

“Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see Your reality in the realm of the Spirit dimension.”

Jesus said to His followers, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day, Wayfarer Podcast

Called to the Quiet

June 19, 2020 Tom Vander Well Leave a comment

Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 24:18 (NRSVCE)

A few weeks ago I made an impromptu road trip. It was a particularly stressful time, and I told a few friends that the road trip was my way of doing what Jesus did on occasion when He went up a mountain alone to pray. I chose to sequester myself in the car.

As I read today’s chapter I found a number of elements that foreshadowed Jesus’ story. Jesus, like Moses, spent a period of forty days and nights in the wilderness. In today’s chapter, Moses is the mediator between God and the people. Moses offers the blood sacrifice, the blood covers the people, and Moses then ascends to God. Jesus was the blood sacrifice which atones for sin before He rose and ascended. When Jesus went up on a mountain with Peter, James, and John and was transfigured in glory, Moses appeared there at Jesus’ side. The events of today’s chapter are an example of how the ancient Hebrew stories are linked to Jesus. It’s all part of the Great Story.

What my mind and heart came back to in the text, however, was the time that Moses spent with God on the mountain. Forty is also a theme beyond the link to Jesus time in the wilderness:

The rain in Noah’s flood lasted forty days and nights.
Joshua and Caleb spent forty days spying out the Promised Land.
Goliath taunted Israel’s army for 40 days before David stepped up with his sling.
God told Ezekiel to lay on his side for 40 days as part of a prophetic word picture.
Jonah prophesied to Nineveh that they had 40 days to repent.
The seasons of Advent (celebrating the birth of Christ) and Lent (celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ) are both 40 days.

I am reminded in the quiet this morning that this world is moving faster, and faster, and faster as the memory and processing speed of our technology and devices continues to advance more rapidly. According to Google, their quantum computer (known as “Sycamore”) recently completed a computation in 200 seconds which would take the next fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. The speed of life and technology continues to increase and with it my expectations for results.

The irony is that God’s Kingdom runs opposite the world. Things of the Spirit require time, contemplation, meditation, experience, struggle, worship, and prayer. The 15-16 hours I spent alone in the car, along with a night alone in a hotel, were spent doing exactly those things. It was exactly what my soul needed to find some clarity, to get centered, and to experience a measure of peace amidst my acutely stressful circumstances.

Over the nearly 40 years (there’s another “40” for you, lol) I have been a follower of Jesus, I’ve experienced that my time of quiet with God each morning has an effect on the peace with which I handle the stress of each day. If I go a stretch without getting in my time of quiet with God, even Wendy notices an increase in my stress level and pessimistic attitude toward life and relationships.

And so, I try to carve out a little alone time with God each morning, and occasionally along the journey, I’ve needed more than that. I can feel the call to climb the mountain, take a road trip, or spend a week unplugged at the lake. I have a feeling that the faster this world gets, the more necessary the times of quiet will be spiritually required.

Hope you find a few minutes of quiet today, as well, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Wayfarer

Tag Archives: Daily

Today

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Rhythms

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The Choice and the Outcome

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John (Feb-Mar 2024)

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The Inflection Point

The Inflection Point (CaD Mk 8) – Wayfarer

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Gift, not Reward

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Journey

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Eye Opening

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Called to the Quiet

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Just another wayfarer on life's journey, headed for Home. I'm carrying The Message, and I'm definitely waiting for Guffman.

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The Inflection Point (CaD Mk 8) – Wayfarer

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Journey (CaD Ps 68) – Wayfarer

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Eye-Opening (CaD Ps 40) – Wayfarer

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Called to the Quiet (CaD Ex 24) – Wayfarer

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Just another wayfarer on life's journey, headed for Home. I'm carrying The Message, and I'm definitely waiting for Guffman.