Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
I started writing devotions/reflections with no formal training. In fact, I’ve never had a religion, theology, or even philosophy course. I will modestly say I seem to have gotten fairly good at devotions writing, but you’d expect that after having done thousands of them. It all started with Your Daily Tripod and my friend Tony, who took a chance on me.
This past week, I read something I’d never considered before: that the more successful devotions start with finding a scripture verse, then writing the reflection, not writing the reflection and then searching for a companion verse. It made a lot of sense, really; that way, God is directing you to find the experience or analysis to go with scripture. It puts God first.
Putting God first includes all four practices associated with the Lord’s Prayer: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication. For me, the best way to do the first is to go to an adoration chapel, and just gaze and adore at the exposed Eucharist, no mental or verbal prayer beyond that. I haven’t been to adoration since March, and given I’m in a couple high-risk health categories, don’t expect to go in the near future.
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of your possession?
He does not retain his anger forever,
because he delights in showing clemency.
He will again have compassion upon us;
he will tread our iniquities under foot. (Micah 7:18-19, NRSVCE)Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts. (Psalm 85:8)And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in
heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” (Matthew 12:49-50)
But adoration is really what today’s readings are all about—that the Lord is merciful and full of love; that what matters to God is our obedience, not our family connections or lack thereof; and that no one forgives and embraces us as fully and completely.
As I read the verses, my mind went back to an American Baptist conference center a lifetime ago where I first heard “Lord I Lift Your Name on High.” Even though I was not practicing any faith at that time, even I recognized the words, the actions (“from the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky”), and the joy on the participants’ faces as pure prayer, and joined right in. So, this week, I found this video, cranked it up, sang along and dug and reached and adored–and felt a lot more loved than I have in some time.
