May 4th, 2020 Daily Devotional:
In between this morning’s Zoom meetings, my office has been an outdoor
one this morning. Dante, one of our dogs, has been doing his best to catch
flying bugs, there’s a lovely breeze, the birds are singing, and the warmth
of the sun is delightful.
During a recent session meeting, someone commented on how talking
daily walks and seeing the flowers budding can feel like a juxtaposition with
all the grief and difficulty the world is facing. It’s true...and yet it’s all true.
The new life is real and the grief is real.
As I have been sitting out here this morning I have been thinking about
Rachel Held Evans and I’ve been craving her words in this time. If you
haven’t read any of Rachel’s work, I encourage you to look her up -
“Searching for Sunday” is a favourite of mine. On this day one year ago,
Rachel passed away in a Nashville hospital room, surrounded by friends and family. Rachel was 37.
In her life and writing, Rachel called
the church to be a more authentic
expression of Christ’s body. She
called us to listen to one another
and to widen the circle. In this time
I am drawn to these words from
Searching for Sunday...
“...if the world is watching, we might
as well tell the truth. And the truth
is, the church doesn’t offer a cure.
It doesn’t offer a quick fix. The
church offers death and
resurrection. The church offers the
messy, inconvenient, gutwrenching, never-ending work of
healing and reconciliation. The
church offers grace. Anything else
we try to peddle is snake oil. It’s not
the real thing.”
Friends, may that amazing grace
sink into your heart, mind, and soul
today. Peace.