February 21, 2023 – “Solitude as a Spiritual Discipline”

“Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and he divided the two fish among them all. And all ate and were filled,and they took up twelve baskets full of broken pieces and of the fish. Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men. Immediately he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he dismissed the crowd. After saying farewell to them, he went up on the mountain to pray.” Mark 6:41-46

Solitude would best be defined as refraining from interacting with other people in order to be alone – especially to be alone with G-d. One must assume that Solitude is completed by silence – but I do not believe that this always has to be the case. The obvious way to find solitude would be to find a remote place where one can commune with nature and with G-d. I  was listening to a story on the radio the other day, and they were talking to people about the places they go to find solitude. Aaron Rodgers has just gone “silent” and “dark” to help him make his next decision for his football career. Some go hiking in remote areas or go for walks in the woods. Others go to more extreme conditions like trying to row a boat across the Atlantic Ocean, or walk on skis to the North Pole and back.

How do you find solitude in your life?

I can find solitude by simply going to a local coffee shop and taking time to write. This to me is solitude – I do not have to answer my phone if I choose not to – I do not have to talk to anyone if I choose not to. For me, solitude does not mean remoteness or complete silence – for me solitude means time alone no matter where that might be. The point of solitude is how you use that time.

Let us pray: Dear G-d, we all need to find some solitude in our lives – and to use that time for quiet and reflection. Give me time today Lord to do what I need to for time alone with your word. Amen.

Pastor Dave

February 20, 2023 — “Finding Joy in Suffering”

“Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:7-11

“Can you remember facing a disruptive moment as a child? Perhaps you fell from your bicycle and skinned your knee. What was your first impulse? To call for help, of course. And perhaps when you did that, your mother or father called out, “Stay right where you are—I’m coming to help you!” That’s precisely what God says to us: Stay where you are. I’ll be there with you. When life wounds us and we’re in deep pain, we instinctively cry out to God. And it is then that we hear Him and feel His presence so clearly. In the midst of tragic circumstances, we can have the richest fellowship with Christ afforded to us. That’s when our faith becomes fully real, and we experience the assurance of things we’ve hoped for.” (David Jeremiah – The Purpose of the Disruptive Moment “God deals with you as sons”)

Paul spends some time talking about his “thorn in the flesh” in his second letter to the church in Corinth. He says, “to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:6-7)

Dare I say we all have some thorn in the flesh that has been a source of suffering – and perhaps a source of strength. Paul was not afraid to ask the Lord to take his thorn away, like we all would do in a similar situation. Even Jesus asks that his “cup be removed so he did not need to endure it” – but in the end he says that if it be G-d’s will to endure, then he would endure. Perhaps this is where we begin when it comes to looking at our own sufferings. In one of the readings I encountered in the book “The Tibetan Book of the Living and the Dead” the author writes that when we are suffering, we should pray that the Lord allow us to endure the sufferings of others as well, while we endure our own. It is a higher level of enduring and “pain management”, but perhaps it will help take our minds off our own suffering.

There may not always be joy in suffering, but there can be redemptive suffering, if not some satisfaction in suffering for the sake of others. Again, this is nothing we can do on our own – it takes a relationship with Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit to help us achieve such a level of endurance.

Let us pray: Dear G-d, help me to endure all things today. Your Spirit is always sufficient for me. Amen.

Pastor Dave