March 7/Third Wednesday of Lent For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. ~ Ps 147.13 Most of us are not very good at setting boundaries in our lives. Some find it difficult to delineate work time versus family time: we answer emails, read work-related documents, or take phone calls at night and over the weekend. Others struggle to…
March 6/Third Tuesday of Lent Remember that your compassion, O LORD, and your kindness are from of old. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord. ~ Ps 25.6-7 One of the sources of closeness within families or among friends is predictable behavior: the dad who invariably insists on leaving early for the airport, the friend who…
March 3/Second Saturday of Lent For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us. ~ Ps 103.11-12 Forgiveness is out of fashion these days. Through social media rants and less public expressions of resentment,…
March 2/Second Friday of Lent When the LORD called down a famine on the land and ruined the crop that sustained them, He sent a man before them, Joseph, sold as a slave. ~ Ps 105.16-17 The book assigned for the Bible History course I took in high school was entitled The Book of the Acts of God (or as…
March 5/Third Monday of Lent As the hind longs for the running waters, so my soul longs for you, O God. Athirst is my soul for God, the living God. When shall I go and behold the face of God? ~ Ps 42.2-3 Sometimes, when our guard is down and we’re not busy being, well, busy, we experience a deep yearning…
March 1/Second Thursday of Lent He is like a tree planted near running water, That yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. ~ Ps 1.3 Having grown up in a coastal city, I often experience the presence of God by the water. When I walk along the shoreline, the magnificence of the ocean’s span reflects back…
February 28/Second Wednesday of Lent Into your hands I commend my spirit; you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God. ~ Ps 31.6 The hungry infant wails and then waits, listening for his mother’s footfall as she answers his cry. The toddler teeters, gathers her confidence, and flings herself off the side of the swimming pool into the waiting…
February 27/Second Tuesday of Lent “Why do you recite my statutes, and profess my covenant with your mouth, Though you hate discipline and cast my words behind you? To him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” ~ Ps 50.16-17, 23 Today, God takes us to task for the sin of hypocrisy. The vehemence of…
February 26/Second Monday of Lent May your compassion quickly come to us, for we are brought very low. Let the prisoners’ sighing come before you; with your great power free those doomed to death. ~ Ps 79.8, 13 “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” begins the well-known African-American spiritual. It would be an apt title for Psalm 79, which is…
February 24/First Saturday of Lent Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart. ~ Ps 119.2 In an age where phrases like “friends with benefits” and “hooking up” describe a culture in which relationships are seen as disposable — transactions rather than genuine engagements — the notion of a whole-hearted commitment to another person…