Tag Archives: Prayer

Chapter-a-Day

Best of: Dwell

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Today’s post, published back in November, resonated with my friend Matt. He wrote, “It was a reminder that God dwells in my heart. He takes up residence there. And my “property” is not for sale. He’s never moving out!”

If you have your own favorite chapter-a-day post that has stuck with you over time, please feel free to let me know. You can reply to this post or email me at tomvanderwell@gmail.com.

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.
Ephesians 3:16b-17a (NIV)

When I was young, I was always on the go. I remember in high school getting up at 5:00 a.m. for swim practice before school. I then had practice again after school before going to play rehearsal that would sometimes last until 10:00 at night. My mom complained that I was never home. To her chagrin, that never really changed. Once I had my drivers license, it only allowed me more freedom and opportunity to spread my wings and fly wherever I wanted. And I loved being on the go.

It’s funny how life changes. I find myself these days feeling entirely the opposite. I love to be at home. I love our bed, my office, our kitchen, and our living area and pub on the lower floor. I love working from home and being where Wendy is always. I confess that sometimes feel pangs of grief that I have to run an errand. I don’t just love our house. I love to dwell in our home.

In today’s chapter, Paul states that he’s praying for the Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” In Monday’s post, I mentioned the difference between growing up in the church and entering into a relationship with Jesus. But entering into a relationship with Jesus changes things entirely, because Jesus wants to dwell within me. I am His dwelling place the same way Wendy’s and my home is our dwelling place. The implications are life changing…

I don’t have to pray for God’s presence because He is always present in me.

Prayer can be an on-going inner conversation that I have with God at all times because He’s always present within me.

At any given moment I can be prompted, inspired, taught, convicted, challenged, soothed, encouraged, and/or motivated by the Spirit of Christ in me.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by meditating on the fact that Christ loves to dwell in me the way that I like to dwell with Wendy in our home. Just last week I wrote about the shalom that God desires for all of us. This morning it strikes me that dwelling in my home is where I feel shalom even as Jesus’ shalom dwells within the home He has made in my heart.

Monday’s Chapter: Romans 15

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!
Chapter-a-Day

“Just Believe”

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Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
Mark 5:36 (NIV)

In our daily prayer together, Wendy and I try to regularly be grateful and recount all of the ways God has blessed us. I don’t do it because “giving thanks” is a command. I do it because when I stop for a moment to consider how blessed we really are, I am both grateful and humbled. And, I need a daily dose of gratitude and humility as much, if not more, than the small bowl of vitamins and supplements Wendy puts in front of me each morning.

As I get close the back-end of my sixth decade on this earthly journey, I have a lot of life and life experiences upon which to reflect. There are numerous waypoints on life’s road where my family and/or I have faced failures, tragedies, challenges, loss, struggles, and needs. In fact, I’m quite sure I have quite enough stories to take up a good part of your day and bore you to tears. After all, Jesus Himself told His followers, “In this world you will have troubles.” We all have them, don’t we?

In today’s chapter, Jesus confronts a trio of individuals in their very different but very real troubles. The first is a demon-possessed man, the second is a woman with a medical condition in which she had been bleeding for twelve-years which made her ritually unclean perpetually and a social outcast. Then there is a leader of the local synagogue who had a young daughter near death. Struggle and suffering come in many forms in this life, don’t they?

As Jesus is walking with the anxious father, word arrives from his household that his daughter had passed away. It was too late. Jesus happened to still be speaking with the woman healed from her bleeding. He was telling her that her faith had been the agent of her healing as He overhears the bad news the father just received. Jesus turns to the grieving father and immediately says, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

What a learning moment. The woman’s faith had precipitated her miraculous healing. The father had seen it. He was standing right there. Now Jesus calls on him to have the same kind of faith that the woman had. Not just the faith for healing from a medical condition, but faith to bring his daughter back from death.

One of the things that I’ve discovered along my life journey is that faith grows with every waypoint on life’s road in which one is required to trust and God is faithful in providing, healing, and delivering. By regularly recounting those waypoints and expressing gratitude for God’s faithfulness I am strengthening my faith for the unknown troubles, tragedies, and challenges that may be awaiting me just ahead. With them continually fresh in my memory it’s much more likely that I will react to the next challenge by hearing Jesus words, “Don’t be afraid; just believe” in my heart with faith and reacting with faith rather than fear.

By the way, Angel Studios’ production The Chosen did a masterful job of portraying the events in today’s chapter of the woman’s healing and the little girl’s rising. If you have a few minutes, it’s worth a watch. (There’s a link to it in the description of today’s podcast episode).

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

Chapter-a-Day

A Plethora of Prayer

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And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Ephesians 6:18 (NIV)

There was a fantasy movie that came out when I was a teenager called Ladyhawke. It starred a very young Matthew Broderick who played the part of a young and mischievous monk. Throughout the movie, the young monk has a running conversation with God, often humorously explaining why it was necessary for him to behave in less than monk-like ways.

As silly as it seems, that movie taught me something about prayer. As a young believer, I had always been taught the formal mode of prayer. I assumed the prayer position by closing my eyes, bowed my head, and folding my hands together. I prayed formally, addressing God with voice and words that I would never use in conversation with anyone else. After watching Ladyhawke I asked myself the question, “If I am indwelt by the Holy Spirit as I’ve been taught, then why can’t I just have a running conversation with God? “

It was my first step into understanding that prayer is a spiritual discipline that takes many forms. There’s a veritable plethora of ways one can pray. One of my blog posts that continues to be among the most popular is about “popcorn prayers.” Through the years, I have found writing God my prayers like a letter to be one of my favorite and most powerful forms of prayer. I’ve spent seasons of life praying the Divine Hours in which prayers are recited at fixed times throughout the day and night. I sometimes repeat classic prayers that have been handed down through the ages like the prayers of St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St. Francis. I sometimes pray silent prayers. Sometimes I pray breathing prayers. And sometimes, especially when I’m alone in the car, I will simply have a casual conversation with God, outloud, as if He is sitting in the passenger seat – just like Matthew Broderick’s character did in Ladyhawke.

I have always had a creative spirit, and I get bored easily. Finding creative ways to communicate with God and commune with His Spirit has been a worthwhile endeavor throughout my spiritual journey. In the quiet this morning, as I’ve been writing these words, I’ve been reminded of some of the forms of prayer I haven’t tapped into for a while and convicted to weave them into my day.

I think it fitting to end today’s post/podcast with a prayer.

God, I pray for any and all who read/hear these words, that you will bless them wherever they are with whatever it is they need in the moment, and I pray that they will in turn bless you by having a conversation with you. In Jesus name I pray this. So be it. Amen.

I’m taking Thanksgiving weekend off. See you on Monday when we’ll begin a trek through Mark.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Dwell

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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.
Ephesians 3:16b-17a (NIV)

When I was young, I was always on the go. I remember in high school getting up at 5:00 a.m. for swim practice before school. I then had practice again after school before going to play rehearsal that would sometimes last until 10:00 at night. My mom complained that I was never home. To her chagrin, that never really changed. Once I had my drivers license, it only allowed me more freedom and opportunity to spread my wings and fly wherever I wanted. And I loved being on the go.

It’s funny how life changes. I find myself these days feeling entirely the opposite. I love to be at home. I love our bed, my office, our kitchen, and our living area and pub on the lower floor. I love working from home and being where Wendy is always. I confess that sometimes feel pangs of grief that I have to run an errand. I don’t just love our house. I love to dwell in our home.

In today’s chapter, Paul states that he’s praying for the Ephesians that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” In Monday’s post, I mentioned the difference between growing up in the church and entering into a relationship with Jesus. But entering into a relationship with Jesus changes things entirely, because Jesus wants to dwell within me. I am His dwelling place the same way Wendy’s and my home is our dwelling place. The implications are life changing…

I don’t have to pray for God’s presence because He is always present in me.

Prayer can be an on-going inner conversation that I have with God at all times because He’s always present within me.

At any given moment I can be prompted, inspired, taught, convicted, challenged, soothed, encouraged, and/or motivated by the Spirit of Christ in me.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself encouraged by meditating on the fact that Christ loves to dwell in me the way that I like to dwell with Wendy in our home. Just last week I wrote about the shalom that God desires for all of us. This morning it strikes me that dwelling in my home is where I feel shalom even as Jesus’ shalom dwells within the home He has made in my heart.

Note: I’m taking the next two days off.
Back next Monday!
If you need a fix, here’s the link to Haggai. Only 2 chapters!
https://tomvanderwell.com/2019/10/21/haggai-oct-2019/

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

Chapter-a-Day

Chaos and Order

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Chaos and Order (CaD Ezk 40) – Wayfarer

The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for that is why you have been brought here. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”
Ezekiel 40:4 (NIV)

For the past quarter of a century, our family has had a place on Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. My parents bought the property around the time of retirement. The girls grew up there along with their cousins visiting Grandpa Dean and Grandma Jeanne. Wendy and I purchased the property from them and built a new house on it. It’s been a special place for us, our family, and friends.

In fact, our family long ago realized that our place at the lake was sacred space. It has been a place of rest away from the chaos of our everyday lives. It has been a place of healing and restoration. It’s where my sister retreated to recover from chemo in her battle with cancer. It has been a place full of life as children have grown up, families have vacationed, and relationships have been strengthened through countless conversations that would never have happened in the hectic worlds of our lives back home.

Over the next several chapters, the prophet Ezekiel describes a vision he was given of a sacred space, a temple. When this vision arrives, it has been fourteen years since the city of Jerusalem and the temple that Solomon built had been destroyed. Ezekiel and his fellow Hebrews are living in exile in Babylon. They are feeling lost and hopeless in the chaos of life in a foreign land where nothing is familiar. The rituals and routines by which they lived and measured life are gone. They are longing for hope and a future.

For casual readers, today’s chapter and the next several chapters are the kinds of passages that leave you scratching your head. Wait. What?! What can this ridiculously detailed description of an ancient temple possibly have any significance for my life in the twenty-first century? One of the things that I’ve come to learn about these kinds of passages is that I have to back up and look at the bigger picture of what God has done, is doing, and will do.

For the Hebrew people, this sacred space of a temple was not only a huge part of their story a people, but it was also a metaphor for the Great Story itself. Way back in Exodus when God is first introducing Himself to the Hebrews, He instructs them to create a mobile sacred space that could travel with them and be set up wherever they camped. The language that was used in the creation of this sacred space mirrored the creation poem in the first two chapters of Genesis. The creation poem begins with chaos and God creates order out of the chaos and then places humanity in this ordered place that is very good.

When God gave the Hebrews instructions for this sacred space they understood that it was like a new creation. An entire nation of people leaves the chaos and chains of slavery, they wander into the wilderness, and God is creating something new in them. What does God do in creation? He creates distinctions and order.

I have to believe that Ezekiel and his compatriots were recognizing that they had returned to chaos and slavery. They are longing for the hope that God will begin a new creation in them just as He had done in Genesis and in Exodus when He brought order and sacred space.

Everywhere I turn, people talk about lives being busy, crazy, frazzled, and hectic. There’s so much to do, so many distractions, and so much stress. Life happens and we feel worry and anxiety. How often do I feel the chaos of everyday life? And yet, Jesus said He came that we might know peace. What did Jesus do? He regularly went up a mountain by Himself where he would spend hours and sometimes spend the night praying. He sought out sacred space and spent time with God where He reordered His heart, mind, and soul.

Do you think that this ancient, recurring message about creating order out of chaos and having sacred space to order my life and world might have something to teach me about my chaotic twenty-first-century life today?

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

Chapter-a-Day

(Never) Abandoned

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(Never) Abandoned (CaD Ezk 10) – Wayfarer

Then the glory of the Lord departed from over the threshold of the temple and stopped above the cherubim. While I watched, the cherubim spread their wings and rose from the ground, and as they went, the wheels went with them. They stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
Ezekiel 10:18-19 (NIV)

When I was a young child, I went through an intense period of time when I never wanted to be separated from my mother. I have very specific memories of freaking out, especially in situations that were strange to me. In one instance, my mom was attending some kind of meeting at place I’d never been before. She dropped me off in the room for child care. Once again, the room was unfamiliar, the people were unfamiliar, and my mother was no where to be seen. I felt abandoned. I had such an intense emotional meltdown that they found my mother to take me home. I’m glad to say that this period eventually ended. I grew into an independent and self-assured child.

Feelings of loneliness, isolation, and abandonment are very real sources of human fear and anxiety.

In today’s chapter, Ezekiel’s vision in Solomon’s Temple continues. First he saw all of the idolatry that was taking place inside the Temple. Next he saw a man placing a mark on the forehead of those faithful to God, while six others destroyed anyone who didn’t have the mark. Now, Zeke watches as the “glory” (e.g. radiance, presence) of God rises and leaves the temple.

It’s important to note that in the ancient Near East, there this was a common theme across pagan religions, as well. There is a genre of lamentation literature around gods who abandon their temples, which then explains why enemies were able to conquer, plunder, and destroy the structures. Ezekiel’s audience would have heard/read today’s vision of God’s glory leaving the temple and they knew exactly what it meant. Without God’s presence, the temple will be plundered and destroyed.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think of a message I gave earlier this summer. One of the things that I’ve observed along my spiritual journey is how often I hear people praying for God to be present and asking for God to come and show up. I have come to believe that these prayers channel the same human fear of abandonment and I felt as a child and that Ezekiel’s vision is tapping into. When bad things happen, we feel that God must have abandoned us. When we feel anxiety or loneliness was assume it’s because God isn’t present.

If I really believe what I say I believe, then this is the most illogical and unreasonable assumption to make and prayer to pray. In my message I talked about three types of God’s presence.

In Colossians 1:17 Jesus is described as both the agent of creation but also that “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” If Jesus is the force holding all things together (i.e. I’m thinking of what Physics refers to as Dark Matter), then David is correct in the lyrics of Psalm 139 when he declares there isn’t a place in the universe where you can flee from His presence.

Second, Jesus told His followers on the night of His arrest that He would be leaving, but would never abandon His followers. His Holy Spirit would indwell us and make us part of the circle dance of oneness between Father, Son, and Spirit. As a disciple of Jesus, the Spirit of God lives in me. My body is a temple. He said He’ll never leave me or forsake me. Praying for God to be present makes no sense in this context.

I have come to believe that what many people mean when they ask God to come and be present is that they want to experience and outpouring or a filling of God’s Spirit. There are many examples of this in both the Great Story and even in current events. It happened just a year ago on a college campus in Kentucky. I have personally found it an important distinction to remember that an outpouring of God’s Spirit doesn’t mean He wasn’t there before and suddenly arrived. I refer back to the previous two points. There are, however, times when His omnipresence is infused with momentary power and intensity.

In a time when anxiety and fear are wreaking havoc on the mental health of people in our culture, I find Jesus’ assurances of living in me, never leaving me, and being present wherever I find myself in the universe to be a source of comfort, confidence, and peace. I simply have to have the faith to believe it and the discipline to acknowledge it in each and every moment.

For anyone interested in the extended version, here it is:

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

Chapter-a-Day

God’s Will: Three Lessons

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God's Will: Three Lessons (CaD 1 Thes 5) – Wayfarer

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)

When I was a young man, my friends and I spent a lot of time wondering about God’s will for our lives. There are so many big decisions that happen in your late teens and twenties. Where do I go to college? What do I major in? What do I pursue as a career? Will I marry, and if so, who?

Looking back at those years, there were some lessons I learned about God’s will and my will.

Life is like a jet ski. God can’t direct me if I’m not moving. Anyone who has been on a jet ski knows that you can sit there with the motor idling and move the handlebars all you want but it won’t respond. It’s only when you are moving forward (or backward) that it can be directed where you want it to go. It took God about seven years to steer me to the career to which I know that I was led, but I got there. I remember hearing a speaker say, “There’s a bunch of doors in front of you. Don’t sit there forever trying to discern the one door God has for you. Pick one! If that’s not the right door, God will close it.” It was sage advice.

I will make poor choices with good intentions. God will use that, too. I thought I had a good handle on what God wanted me to do vocationally, but I was wrong. That’s cool, though. In those seven years of leading me where I was supposed to be, I learned a lifetime of valuable lessons. I honed skills that would be invaluable to me. I met individuals who would become life-long companions on the journey. It’s easy to think of God’s will in binary terms. You’re either in it, or you’re not. I see it differently now. Sometimes the journey from where I am to where God wants me to be is His will, too. When I live daily life asking, seeking, and knocking, I experience ongoing receiving, finding, and having opportunities open for me. It’s easy to think of God’s will as a destination, but it’s also the journey.

Focus on those things that are always God’s will. And that’s what Paul reminds his friends in Thessalonica in today’s chapter:

Rejoice always.
Pray continually.
Give thanks in all circumstances.

Last month, when our basement flooded for the second time in a matter of weeks, Wendy and I prayed. We praised God and thanked Him. How blessed we are despite the momentary problems. We learned that we had a carpet pad that protects against spills, but it also traps water that gets underneath it. It’s impossible to suck it up through the spill-proof liner. We thought our basement was dry after the first flood, but the pad was still wet and eventually, we would have had a huge mold issue. If the second flood hadn’t happened, we never would have known that.

Some lessons in life are hard. I don’t always know where God is leading us. Things happen that don’t make sense to me. I can get overwhelmed, anxious, and angry, or I can simply keep doing what I know to be God’s will: perpetually rejoice, pray, and be grateful. When I do that, I find myself trusting God more and worrying about my circumstances less.

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

Chapter-a-Day

The Prayer of Jabez

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Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (NIV)

Wendy and I are at the lake this week in preparation for our annual Memorial Day weekend with friends and the kick-off to summer. I just started one of the books on my summer reading list. The Way of a Pilgrim is a mystic work written anonymously in the nineteenth century. It comes out of the Eastern Orthodox tradition. It is the story of an unnamed pilgrim who embarks on a journey to discover how one prays constantly.

Along my own spiritual journey, I’ve found the spiritual discipline of prayer takes many forms. I’ve touched on this many times over the years. In fact, a post I wrote about Popcorn Prayers back in 2019 continues to get a lot of regular reads, which I find kind of fascinating.

Most of the time, my prayers take the form of conversations with God. At the same time, I have found that there are a number of traditional prayers that have been handed down through history which I offer repeatedly; Prayers like the Lord’s Prayer, the Jesus Prayer, the Prayer of St. Francis, and the Prayer of St. Patrick.

Around the turn of the 21st century, the prayer of Jabez from today’s chapter became the subject of a popular book. Like most people, I’d never really notice it before because it’s buried in the fourth of the Chronicler’s nine chapters of genealogy. I probably had skipped or skimmed my way right over it for years. The book, however, became a best seller and the prayer has also made it into regular rotation of my repeated prayers over the years.

What’s fascinating about the prayer of Jabez, and the book about the prayer which has sold over 10 million copies, is that it can easily become a spiritualized version of a good luck charm. Even the book and its publishers push the idea that it’s a “breakthrough to blessing.” Indeed, Jabez’s prayer fits hand-in-glove with the message of name-it-and-claim-it televangelists and those hawking a prosperity gospel. I know those who say they pray it daily and pray it often so God will shower them with blessing.

As I’ve repeated and internalized the prayer of Jabez over the years, I’ve found it not to be about receiving material blessings, but about being a blessing. I’m already blessed. I’m blessed indeed. I’m blessed abundantly. If anything, I don’t spend enough time in contented gratitude for all of the blessings I take for granted every day. Jabez asks for “expanded borders” for God’s blessings. For me, this is a prayer for increased and proliferated opportunities to channel the blessings God has graciously given me.

In the quiet this morning, I am grateful for my return to the prayer of Jabez amidst the genealogical slog on this chapter-a-day journey. It’s a good reminder as I gaze out over the lake of the ways God has blessed me beyond what I could have even imagined when I was a young man. I’m equally reminded that the blessings I have been given are not to be hoarded but to be shared, and so my heart echoes the request of Jabez for expanded borders to extend the blessings I have never deserved but have been generously given to share.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Praise in Chains

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About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
Acts 16:25 (NIV)

When life interrupts our lives with any kind of unexpected difficulty or tragedy, Wendy and I announce it to one another by saying, “Honey? We have a Chain Reaction of Praise moment.”

I have written about the Chain Reaction of Praise before. It’s a simple, formulaic way that reminds us that as disciples of Jesus, we are to give thanks in all circumstances. It was first introduced in our local gathering of Jesus followers and it has now been expanded into a book called Strike the Match, Light the Fire. The Chain Reaction of Praise goes like this:

Praise God in difficult times which
Activates our faith to
Pray powerful prayers and
Overcome evil that we might learn to
Live and reign with Christ.

And it all begins when we praise God in the darkest moments.

In today’s chapter, Paul and Silas find themselves in a literally dark moment. In the Roman colony of Philippi, they are unjustly beaten with rods and thrown into a jail, their feet placed in stocks. The jail was completely dark. Paul and Silas sat in the darkness unable to move, their feet in stocks. What did they do? They sang praise songs and prayed (praise activates faith to pray powerful prayers). An earthquake suddenly shook the area so violently that their stocks were broken and the prison doors all opened.

Rather than flee, Paul and Silas remained, knowing that their escape would be a death sentence for the jailer. It was a very Christ-like thing to do (e.g. learning to live and reign with Christ). As a result, the jailer and his entire household become believers in Jesus.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself thinking back to all of the “We have a chain reaction of praise” moments over the last several years. We haven’t experienced anything quite as dramatic as the Philippian earthquake, but we have learned to immediately, in that moment, stop to praise God and pray together. That alone has allowed us to see each dark moment as an opportunity for us to grow and for God to use each circumstance to shine His light in unexpected ways and/or to grow in us a deeper faith, trust, and hope in Him.

That has made a huge difference for us.

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

Chapter-a-Day

Where His Footsteps Lead

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Where His Footsteps Lead (CaD Jhn 17) – Wayfarer

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
John 17:15 (NIV)

When our girls were teenagers, we did an exercise as a family in which we took the Myers-Briggs personality tests and then sat down with a therapist to unpack the results. I’ll never forget the point at which we got to the introvert-extrovert conversation. The therapist asked our daughters what they thought I was and our youngest immediately said I was an introvert. This shocked me because I am a pretty gregarious person and very comfortable in crowds. Madison explained that she assumed I was an introvert because “every morning when I wake up, Dad is by himself in the quiet reading his Bible.”

She’s not wrong, but even extroverts need regular doses of quiet.

I confess that there is something about monastic life that has always appealed to me. The simple, small, and quiet life of solitude seems so nice in a world of seemingly endless noise.

As a disciple of Jesus, however, I believe that a sequestered and cloistered life hidden from the world wasn’t what Jesus asks of me. A simple life? Yes. A quiet life? Yes. A small life? Sure. But the point is to be in the world. Just as Paul wrote to the believers in Thessalonica: “make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” The point, Paul writes, is to be where others in a complicated, noisy, crazy, and messed-up world can see the contrast. A little ray of light in a dark and chaotic world.

Today’s chapter is the final of four chapters in which John records Jesus’ final words to His disciples before he is arrested. It ends with Jesus praying. In it, Jesus not only prays for His disciples but for all who would eventually believe in Him. He then specifically prays for us to be in the world but protected from the evil one (who, for now, has dominion in the world). That’s the point. That’s the mission. I’m to provide those in my circles of influence with a contrast that they can actually see. I can’t be the light of the world if I’m hiding the light under a box. I can’t be the salt of the earth if I’m still inside the salt shaker in the cupboard. I don’t need protection from the evil one if I’m never a threat to him or his dominion.

So, in the quiet this morning I am thankful for the quiet. The discipline of taking time for quiet and meditation in the mornings helps fuel the light, adds flavor to the salt, and fills my spirit in preparation for whatever it is I might face out there today. And, believe me, I am going out there into the world. That’s where Jesus’ footsteps lead.

I’m back on Facebook for those who liked to read my chapter-a-day posts there! Facebook refuses to give me access to my old, hacked account, but I have started a new account. Please feel free to search for me on Facebook and friend me. If Facebook won’t let you friend me, please go to my Facebook profile and “Message” me on Facebook Messenger, which should then allow me to friend you. Cheers! -Tom

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