TELLING STORIES TO GOD [M, 5-18-20]

“DAILY” DEVOTIONS-Leaning on the Spirit

TELLING STORIES TO GOD            [M, 5-18-20]

I got up this morning, determined to use the dark and dawning hours to prepare my soul for the end of this life and for the start of the next. That is what a person my age should do.

Instead I got to thinking about a colleague named George who died suddenly, many years ago, from a heart attack. And a choir director who used to be a Catholic. And rolling down a hill in a park. And a little girl who played fast peek-a-boo. And walking to the…

In a way, I was pleased, for usually I spend any waking moment, that is not scheduled in some other way, in getting mad at greedy and selfish politicians who are ruining the world. Thinking about walking to the outhouse to empty the chamber pot in the morning is much nicer.

Still, I was not preparing my soul for ends and for beginnings. I was just telling a story to God, a story about an old man who wants to remember people and places that he loved. Or, even if he didn’t love them, that were important to him.

But wait a minute. Isn’t story-telling a form of prayer? And if it is, what stories do we need to be telling God in this pandemic time?

JRMcF

As we began to “shelter in place,” some folks spoke of the need in this pandemic time for an online “daily devotional,” some spark to light the spirit. [“It only takes a spark to get a fire going…” One of the favorite camp songs of the teens in my church in the 1990s.]

 So, in addition to writing a 500 word column two or three times a week for Christ In Winter, I started writing a short, 200 word, “devotional” on the in-between days. Nothing fancy, just words to try to help us hear the Word in these strange and frightening times.