From Now Until Easter - Number Our Days

From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I will post from Lent and Easter devotionals offered online. Today's post features excerpts written by Richard Huls. He is a graduate of Hope College, Western Seminary, and Chapman University. He served as a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, then with Kaiser Hospice, the Escondido Police Department, and various retirement homes. He continues to provide services to each as needed. He currently is an RCA chaplain for retirees in the area of San Diego, California.
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1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. …
12 So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.

Psalm 90:1, 2, 12

The writer of this psalm [Moses] makes us aware of the brevity of life, something we are reminded of every time we pass a mortuary or cemetery. And yet, with our consumptive behavior, we often live as if there is no end to our days. Lent is a perfect time to reconsider our lifestyle and belief systems. It is a call for not only penitence (abstaining), but also repentance (changing). 

Christ makes us aware of our pursuits and what is essential with these words: “What will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?” (Matthew 16:26). The psalmist reminds us that our very life is from God (v. 1), and later in the Psalms, we are reminded of the reality of life’s brevity: “As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more” (Psalm 103:15).

As a chaplain who has served in many capacities, first in the military, then in law enforcement, in hospice, and presently in the retirement community, I am more aware than ever how fragile and transitory life is—impairment, sickness, frailty, and death are the realities of life. We might make it to age 70 or, if by reason of strength, 80, then it is over, says the author. The psalmist then gives us a word for our Lenten thought in this transitory life in verse 12, “So teach us to count our days that we might gain a wise heart.” In order to reach this place in our lives with conviction and success, it will take time in reflection, prayer, and perhaps even fasting, which is what the Lenten experience is all about...

Prayer: 

God of strength and grace, 

                       Teach us to number our days that we might present to You a heart of wisdom. In Christ, we pray. Amen.

From Now Until Easter - A Lone Lilac

From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I will post from Lent and Easter devotionals offered online. Today's post features excerpts written by Mara Joy Norden - a board-certified chaplain who currently serving in Ada, Michigan.

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8 I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children…
20 Insults have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Psalm 69:8, 20-21

In my yard during Lent, the snow melts, and I take stock of my outdoor plants. It isn’t pretty. The voracious mint patch has choked out the salvia my mom planted two falls ago. The lilacs close to the house bow low with buds, but the lone one at the edge of the yard shows no signs of life after a late frost.

The season of Lent invites us to take stock of our spiritual lives as we wake up from the dormancy that sets in after the Christmas season. What bad habits have crept up, choking out life-giving intentions? What has died and needs to be cleared away? Where have forces outside our control caused hurt?

The author of Psalm 69 takes stock of his life and speaks the misery he finds - rejection, hatred, and harm by people who are supposed to love him. Why? Not because David has forgotten God, but precisely because he is trying to live a faithful, authentic life (vv. 9-12). The hurt runs so high and so deep that he feels like he’s drowning (v. 2). I’ve been there. Have you?

If David were standing in my Lenten garden, I imagine he would identify most with the lone lilac, isolated and barren. We might be tempted to keep quiet, but David does the most faithful thing: he speaks it before God, raw and honest. While speaking his pain, he finds the energy to pray for himself: “Rescue me from sinking in the mire” (vv. 13-14). While praying for himself, he finds the energy to remember the goodness of God: “I will praise the name of God with a song” (vv. 30-33). While remembering the goodness of God, David begins to come to life again.

Prayer: 

Oh God, 

             Remind us that Your shoulders are big enough to handle our hurt, anger, and pain. Give us the courage to speak these things to You and others. Thank You for bringing new life out of death. Amen.

From Now Until Easter - Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

From Ash Wednesday until Easter, I will post from Lent and Easter devotionals offered online. Today's post features excerpts written by Jim Daniels, a chaplain for Hospice of Holland in Holland, Michigan.
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10 For all can see that the wise die, that the foolish and the senseless also perish, leaving their wealth to others. …
20 People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.
Psalm 49:10, 20 NIV

As a hospice chaplain, I have the honor of walking with people as they live out their final months. If we are fortunate, we get to talk about what is most important to them. All patients have wanted to talk about their families—whether still living or deceased. And though I have met some very wealthy people, I have never once heard them talking about the wealth they had accumulated as what was important to them at the end of their lives.

Psalm 49 discusses how wealth cannot purchase a person’s life or buy an escape from decay, but that it is God alone who can—and will—redeem a life from the grave... Lenten season is one of walking toward the cross with Christ, and I, for one, use it as a time to contemplate the end of my life. I attempt to reorient my thoughts and actions in a way that allows me to die as a person with understanding—a person who relies upon God for redemption.

The first day of Lent... I am marked by the reminder [the ashes] that I follow the path of all flesh. I am reminded that I am dust and to dust I shall return. It begins a time of remembering what is important and what is passing. I am reminded to trust in God for redemption, and not for some act or accumulation of wealth or status.

This does not bring me sorrow now as it used to. I now count each day as part of my riches, and my understanding expands with each day of gratitude. As we walk this Lenten path toward the cross, let us pray for understanding.

Prayer:

God,
        Grant us the ability to rightfully prescribe import to the people and things that bring us joy and treasures that do not rust. Grant us, too, understanding and gratitude. Amen.