Hello friends! Today is an exciting drama of Jeremiah and the angered emotions of the early exiles trying to get revenge for their situation. But what can we learn from God about vindication? What can we learn from the silence of the prophet for most of this scenario? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one today, because as you will find out below, I struggled with this one for reasons entirely unrelated to the text!
Scripture to Read
Audio Bible
Questions to Consider
What does this teach me about God?
What does this teach me about humanity?
What does this teach me about the relationship between the two?
Where would I be in this story? What struggles would I face? What sympathy does this reading invoke for mistakes?
- My Thoughts -
My thoughts for today are not directly related to the text, but are inspired from the reading of the text. Today (and tomorrows) reading was frustrating for me, not because of the content specifically, but rather the difficulty in navigating the content because of how much mental energy I had to commit trying to pronounce the names and keep track of all the characters. By the time I reached the end of the recording to process my thoughts I realized that I barely remember anything that happened from this long 20 minute study. I became acutely aware of how powerful frustration can be to our experience in communicating with people and how pwoerufl it be can be in detracting our ability to communicate. This is especially concerning because the media is designed to elicit emotional responses with their spins on the stories. We get riled up or frustrated and all we can rembmer by the end is that is frustrated us, but not why it frustrated us.
I do wonder if all this frustrating and miscommunication is partly why God takes 10 full days to respond to the peoples plea for what they should do. (This is the one part of that reading I remember) If God is the God of the universe and God is "always with you" then why does God leave my text on "read" for 10 full days? That's maddening. But maybe God knew we process best when we're not emotionally hyped up and reacting but rather able to first listen. It's practice I've had to do with my sermons lately is to write them, set them aside for a few days, and then return to them with a clearer head to find the areas where emotion took control.
I want to be immersed with God, especially in the days where my faith wavers like a sail boat in a storm, and I'm noticing how my emotions impact my ability to absorb God's word and effectively deliver it you. Do you relate to this? Or is this just me rambling? Haha.
Prayer
Our prayer today is inspired by hymn 179 in our United Methodist Hymnal - O Sing A Song of Bethlehem. Note the singing starts at 1:00 so feel free to skip ahead, but I personally found closing my eyes to the music for that first minute centered me for prayer. If you don't have time or desire to sing your prayer today, I hope you will pray the lyrics of the song found below the video
1. O sing a song of Bethlehem,
of shepherds watching there,
and of the news that came to them
from angels in the air.
The light that shone on Bethlehem
fills all the world today;
of Jesus' birth and peace on earth
the angels sing alway.
2. O sing a song of Nazareth,
of sunny days of joy;
O sing of fragrant flowers' breath,
and of the sinless Boy.
For now the flowers of Nazareth
in every heart may grow;
now spreads the fame of his dear name
on all the winds that blow.
3. O sing a song of Galilee,
of lake and woods and hill,
of him who walked upon the sea
and bade the waves be still.
For though like waves on Galilee,
dark seas of trouble roll,
when faith has heard the Master's word,
falls peace upon the soul.
4. O sing a song of Calvary, its glory and dismay, of him who hung upon the tree, and took our sins away. For he who died on Calvary is risen from the grave, and Christ, our Lord, by heaven adored, is mighty now to save.