“Later, two women who were prostitutes came to the king (Solomon) and stood before him. The one woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then on the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together; there was no one else with us in the house, only the two of us were in the house. Then this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. She got up in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead son at my breast. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, I saw that he was dead; but when I looked at him closely in the morning, clearly it was not the son I had borne.” But the other woman said, “No, the living son is mine, and the dead son is yours.” The first said, “No, the dead son is yours, and the living son is mine.” So they argued before the king. Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son that is alive, and your son is dead’; while the other says, ‘Not so! Your son is dead, and my son is the living one.’” So the king said, “Bring me a sword,” and they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living boy in two; then give half to the one, and half to the other.” But the woman whose son was alive said to the king—because compassion for her son burned within her—“Please, my lord, give her the living boy; certainly do not kill him!” The other said, “It shall be neither mine nor yours; divide it.” Then the king responded: “Give the first woman the living boy; do not kill him. She is his mother.” All Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered; and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him, to execute justice.” 1 Kings 3:16-28

“THE SACRED JOURNEY: What I propose to do now is to try listening to my life as a whole, or at least to certain key moments of the first half of my life thus far, for whatever of meaning, of holiness, of God, there may be in it to hear. My assumption is that the story of any one of us is in some measure the story of us all.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life. HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

Chess is a difficult game though it may look easy enough. It does not require a high level of physical conditioning, but it does take years and years of mental awareness. There might be pieces that are sitting on a static board waiting for someone to move them, but without knowing it, there are moves happening in the minds of the chess players that are being planned way in advance of the pieces being selected.    

Solomon asked the Lord for wisdom when the Lord offered him anything he might want. And it appears his selection was a wise one.  This wisdom served him well throughout his reign as king, as the above story suggests. We could only hope to be blessed with a small amount of such wisdom – especially when it comes to navigating another new year. This year, just like every new year, presents itself to us as a blank canvas, or as Buechner calls it, the continuation of a sacred journey. The picture of our growth in faith and wisdom in faith is yet to be painted.

One more piece of advice that comes from Solomon’s wisdom comes from the book of Proverbs:

“Look to the ant…;consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there…? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.” Proverbs 6:6-11

Let us look to 2021 as the continuation of our sacred journey, and not as a blank slate for fear or regret.

Pastor Dave

“Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer—Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab. Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a cubit long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man. After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way those who had carried it. But on reaching the stone images near Gilgal he himself went back to Eglon and said, “Your Majesty, I have a secret message for you.” The king said to his attendants, “Leave us!” And they all left. Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his palace and said, “I have a message from God for you.” As the king rose from his seat, Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly. Even the handle sank in after the blade, and his bowels discharged. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it. Then Ehud went out to the porch; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.” Judges 3:15-23

“My doctor took one look at my gut and refused to believe that I work out. So I listed the exercises I do every day: I jump to conclusions, I climb the walls, and drag my heels. I push my luck, make mountains out of molehills, and bend over backward. I run around in circles, put my foot in my mouth, go over the edge, and beat around the bush.” (Reddit)

A Crazy, Holy Grace

“A CRAZY, HOLY GRACE I have called it. Crazy because whoever could have predicted it? Who can ever foresee the crazy how and when and where of a grace that wells up out of the lostness and pain of the world and of our own inner worlds? And holy because these moments of grace come ultimately from farther away than Oz and deeper down than doom, holy because they heal and hallow. “For all thy blessings, known and unknown, remembered and forgotten, we give thee thanks,” runs an old prayer, and it is for the all but unknown ones and the more than half-forgotten ones that we do well to look back over the journeys of our lives because it is their presence that makes the life of each of us a sacred journey. Faith is like the dream in which the clouds open to show such riches ready to drop upon us that when we wake into the reality of nothing more than common sense, we cry to dream again because the dreaming seems truer than the waking does to the fullness of reality not as we have seen it, to be sure, but as by faith we trust it to be without seeing. Faith is both the dreaming and the crying. Faith is the assurance that the best and holiest dream is true after all. Faith in something—if only in the proposition that life is better than death—is what makes our journeys through time bearable.” (Buechner, Frederick. Listening to Your Life . HarperOne. Kindle Edition.)

The New Year will bring new challenges of all kinds. We know this. We know intuitively that there will be all kinds of people making all kinds of promises to do things differently in 2021. Just recently, as I am writing this devotion, we have now learned that instead of 20 million vaccinations for Covid 19 being rolled out by the end of December, they are hoping to get just a tenth of that number rolled out. As human beings we like to make promises, and the advent of a new year will bring out that behavior like no other time of the year. And I believe we need the turning of a new year if for no other reason that it gives us an excuse to spark new beginnings, new directions, new habits.

In 2021 let’s resolve to exercise our minds, our bodies and our faith. Rather than jumping to conclusions, let’s jump into the bible to learn more about the Word of G-d. Rather than pushing our luck, let’s renew our faith and trust in Jesus. And rather than putting our feet in our mouths, let’s share our faith.

Pastor Dave