Wednesday 1 Oct - It’s Not About Just Being Nice

DAILY BYTE
When I was a little girl, I remember clearly my mother, father, and other elders navigating arguments between my brother and I. They usually went something like: “It was his fault!” “No, it was her fault!” And then, my mother mediating with a “Just say you’re sorry…No, say it like you mean it!” We are often taught from a young age that forgiveness must be immediately given and immediately accepted because that is the nice and fair way to operate. We’re also taught that it is socially acceptable to put on a happy face and pretend that nothing’s overtly wrong, even when underneath, we are navigating challenging and broken personal relationships and community dynamics that constantly need for us to be engaging in a journey toward forgiveness.

But, being a Christian is not about rushing to conclusions. Being a Christian is not about pretending to be something or someone that we are not. Being a Christian is about journeying a long path together. And that path miraculously and graciously draws us nearer and nearer to the heart of God’s forgiveness and nearer and nearer to one another.

It’s easy for us to think that we can temporarily ignore reflecting on the need for forgiveness, if we are not particularly angry with anyone at this point in time. But, perhaps, this is a poignant time in your life for you to be thinking about the need for us to forgive and be forgiven. Maybe someone was unfaithful to you in a relationship, hurt you physically, or just didn’t live up to expectations. Perhaps someone has wronged you in a way that you find simply unforgiveable. Or maybe, you are finding it impossible to forgive yourself. I know no one who is free from these kinds of struggles.

A few months ago, I was sitting in a course on teaching Bible studies during my final semester of seminary. I was minding my own business and tuning in and out of the discussion led by my classmates on loving your enemies. The final exercise, as their forty-five minutes of Bible study fame wound down was for us all to write letters to the people we considered our enemies – the people we were unable to forgive. I thought to myself, well, I don’t have any big grudges – I generally get along with people. And then, I put the pencil to the paper, and out of the deepest corner of my heart popped a man who had wronged me indirectly through hurting my father. I sat paralyzed, unable even to write his name. My heart was numb, hard, guarded. I wondered, if I forgive him, does it mean that I’m condoning his behavior? Does it even matter, if I forgive him? I’ll probably never see him again…he may never find out. What’s the point of opening myself up to this pain again?

I wonder who is in the long hard process of forgiving you. I wonder whom you are trying to forgive. I wonder if you are blowing through life so quickly that you find it hard to take a moment and think about the status of your relationships and your community’s life.

And so, take a moment to be still today, even putting a pen to paper, if you need to. Pray over your relationships without avoidance and fear but with patience for the process of forgiveness and knowledge that God has already forgiven us all from the deepest part of God’s heart. If you wonder if there is a point to our forgiveness, take a few more moments to consider the overwhelming love that is all of ours through this heart of God. Choose today to receive it.


PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
As you are still and thinking about those whom you need to forgive and those forgiving you, pray this prayer in conversation with God, knowing that all has already been forgiven.

Father, forgive them.
Father, forgive us.
Father, forgive.

SCRIPTURE READING
1 John 1:8 – 1 John 2:2

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Tuesday 30 Sept - The Heart of the Body

DAILY BYTE
The human body can seem like organized chaos. If you have ever been really ill or had an operation or known someone who was ill, you know that the body can be a churning mass of unpredictability. And sometimes when someone is unmercifully ill or overtaken by an addiction, we even say that they are imprisoned by their body.

I am known as a bit of a typhoid Mary. In fact, my best friend jokes that if any sort of strange disease is within a fifty kilometer radius, I will be happy to give it a home in my body. In fact, just about two months ago, I was visiting the doctor for a routine check-up. I was listening to my heart on the pulse-ox monitor, and it was bouncing all over the place. I started avoiding the eyes of the nurse, trying to get myself to breathe deeply and evenly. But, I will never forget the moment when that heartbeat seemed to hesitate. It paused for just a hair too long and seemed to stop. Now, I’m usually a pretty tough cookie, but when the heart, the core that supplies life to our thinking and feeling and being – when that seemed to stop working the way the heart was made to work, my whole world was thrown into chaos. It was as though I was imprisoned by the thought that if something were wrong with my heart, I could actually be prevented from living the way that I believed God was calling me to live. Knowing that my grandfather died from a congenital heart defect, I was afraid that my source of life, could actually fail me.

It was, perhaps, a bit dramatic, given that I had yet even to go to the heart specialist, so all these scenarios of death and chaos might really have been just a little too much sun, a stressful day, and not enough breakfast – which they turned out to be, thankfully. But, we all know that often, it is a different story, and it was a crisis of faith for a young person who is all too aware that life is strangely short and that the heart is strangely necessary for the body to continue to live.

But this devotional is not really about anatomy. It is about what it means to be part of the body of Christ. We must ask: what is at the heart of this body? Where is the heart of God? Well, let me suggest today that the heart of God is found at the heart of a covenant – a promise – made with God’s people – you and me – thousands of years ago. It is a covenant founded on none other than forgiveness.

I wonder what we need to do to learn more about this covenant promise that God has with us in the body of Christ. I wonder what it means for your individual life and the life of the community in which you live that through God’s love, all of your sins have already been forgiven.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed – by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent. For the sake of your son Jesus Christ have mercy on us and forgive us that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways for the glory of your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING
Colossians 3:13-15
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Monday 29 Sept - A deep challenge at the heart of God

DAILY BYTE
The argument

My best friend and I have only argued – really truly gotten so feisty that we told each other we should never speak about the topic again – once in the whole of our friendship. And I have known her for over ten years… Oh, it was a heck of an argument, and I remember it well…

We were sharing a flat over a summer during varsity, working at internships. And since we were students doing virtually unpaid jobs, this was, as you can imagine, a very small flat. Such close quarters seem either to make for extremely close friendships or worst enemies. But, she and I were like sisters, so while we had our tiffs, we usually managed graciously enough to forgive each other for the ways we daily stepped (sometimes literally) on each others’ toes. One day, however, we were getting ready to go out for dinner, doing the close quarters dance, weaving in and out of the bathroom, barely missing singeing one another with the curling iron, and for some unknown reason, she said, “You know, there are just some things that are unforgiveable.” To which I replied, perhaps a bit too hastily, “No, no I don’t think there are. All sins are equal, and it’s not for us to decide what is forgivable and what is not.”

Ayayay. It was as though I had just pushed all of her buttons at once. You would’ve thought I had said, let’s go bungee jump off the Eiffel Tower while shooting off firecrackers from our hips, throwing peanuts to the crowd, and singing God Bless the USA. Her response was, “You’ve got to be kidding me… How can you possibly say that all sins are equal? Do you honestly think that we’re supposed to forgive people like Hitler for slaughtering thousands of people the same way that I forgave you for smudging toothpaste on my shirt?” Good question. At the time, I insisted that it may be hard, but of course we must forgive both sins the same way.

Unsurprisingly, she persisted: “So, you’re telling me that if people brutally killed my father, I should just forgive them? You’ve got to be joking – I would rather die.” To which I replied, as our debate heated up to scorching levels, “Well, that makes sense – because you would die. Your insides would fester from all of that built up animosity.” Once again, perhaps it wasn’t the most sensitive remark… Because finally, she said, “You know, I think we just should never talk about things like this, including politics and religion, ever again.”

Can you imagine best friends who could never talk about politics, religion, and the deeply troubling but all too real fact that in life we are on a constant journey of learning how to forgive? Who among us has never grappled with whether or not to forgive someone? Who has never needed the forgiveness of others?

I am hugely thankful that even though that dialogue with my best friend over five years ago led us to a conversational dead end, we are now in the process of learning to discuss these things together and listen to one another more carefully. We still disagree about many things, but I think we may be starting to realize that forgiveness on all levels is at the heart of what makes such relationships tick. And as all of us in every relationship belong to God, forgiveness seems to be what makes the heart of God tick, as well. This week we will be exploring the challenging, long journey of forgiveness. We acknowledge that it is difficult – perhaps even seeming impossible. And yet, we also acknowledge the life-giving power of this journey with one another and with God.

PRAY-AS-YOU-GO
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.


SCRIPTURE READING
Matthew 18:21-22
Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.

Friday 26 September - What Jesus Really Cares About

DAILY BYTE

Almost every healing story in the Bible, and there are a lot of them, makes it clear that Jesus is not as interested in healing bodies as he is in healing souls.

For what really hampers and holds us back is a soul paralysed with pain. I know of people who don’t enjoy full use of their limbs but are far freer than many of us – they soar because their souls are free to do so.

Moltmann once wrote: “Our society arbitrarily defines health as the capacity for work and the capacity for enjoyment, but true health is something quite different. True health is the strength to live, the strength to suffer and the strength to die. Health is not a condition of my body, it is the power of the soul to cope with the varying condition of that body.”

This is why Jesus is most interested in healing the pain within – the place from where our tears and potential paralysis comes from.

The encounter between this man and Jesus in John 5 tells us a lot about ourselves that we may not like to hear. It reminds us that to ignore the reality of our pain or to use it as a crutch can be devastating to the point of robbing us of life and love and feeling.

It warns us against going to all the wrong places for our healing because it is a long and difficult journey that can only be undertaken one step at a time, and that we desperately need others – professionals and friends – to help bring us through to the other side.

As much as we learn uncomfortable lessons about ourselves from this story, it also teaches us something about God and ultimately that is its most important message. We learn that Jesus heals this man not because of who the man was, but because of who Jesus is.

This story is like a parable of God’s grace – the undeserved and unmerited love of God reaching out to an old man grown bitter and paralysed within his soul.

Tony Campolo tells the story of being on a flight with a little 3 year old girl, who was going to visit her father and was tremendously excited. She kept jumping up and down and exclaiming: “I’m going to see Daddy! I’m going to see Daddy!”

Unfortunately, on the flight she overindulged on coke and cookies. As a result she threw up everywhere just as the plane landed, all over her dress and in her hair. Coke and cookies smells fine before it goes into a person but not so great when it comes out in a rush like that, so Campolo tells how everyone was giving her a wide berth.

Except for Campolo himself, he decided to walk closely behind her as she was escorted off the plane because he wanted to see how her father reacted to her. The little girl’s dad was waiting eagerly for her, and when he saw her all covered in puke and tears, there was not a moment’s hesitation. He swept her up into his arms and hugged and kissed her.

We see something of that in this story. God loves and heals us certainly not because of who we are – we who so often sit paralysed by our tears, and we who can indulge in selfishness and misery until we throw it up everywhere.

No, God gathers us in his arms because of who he is. All I can say in response is: Thank God for that.

PRAY AS YOU GO

God of Grace, we thank you for holding us in your arms and covering us in your love. We thank you that our healing is not dependant on us but rather on your loving nature. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

Thursday 25th September - I have no-one

DAILY BYTE

There’s a part in this story that I find saddest of all. It’s when the man says to Jesus: “I have no one to help me get into the pool on time.”

We don’t know why he was so alone. Family networks were incredibly close in those days and very protective – so why was he so alone?

Perhaps it was because his real pain was not physical but within. If you take the time to read his reaction to his healing, and also his interaction with the Pharisees in the verses following his healing, you might begin to think so too.

Could it be, that his unattended inner pain ostracised him from significant others? Gradually, but maybe over the process of 38 years he unwittingly managed to drive away anyone who had ever cared for him.

Pain that is unattended does that to us. It distorts love. We begin to view every relationship through the lens of our pain, we can so easily become totally self-absorbed to the point that we even stop feeling!

Listen to these words from that remarkable nun and author Joan CHittister: “Hurt drives out joy, stampedes trust, consumes our hearts and saps our every thought. Then, because we have not attended to the wounds in ourselves, we have no capacity for the pain of others. Because we ourselves have too often refused to heal, we cannot heal others. Our hurt begins to jade and block and make us paranoid. It cools us and distances us and leaves us hard of heart. Those who swallow a stone become a stone, we learn.

Robbie Williams sings a song called ‘Feel’ which is about precisely this. Someone who has swallowed a stone and become so hard of heart that they are struggling to feel real feelings anymore, because of unattended pain they are unable to enter into meaningful relationships, they struggle to understand God, and cannot live to the full. Read the following lyrics carefully:

Come on hold my hand,
I wanna contact the living.
Not sure I understand,
This role I’ve been given.

I sit and talk to God
And he just laughs at my plans,
My head speaks a language, I don’t understand.

I just wanna feel real love,
Feel the home that I live in.
’cause I got too much life,
Running through my veins, going to waste.

I don’t wanna die,
But I ain’t keen on living either.
Before I fall in love,
I’m preparing to leave her.
I scare myself to death,
That’s why I keep on running.
Before I’ve arrived, I can see myself coming.

I just wanna feel real love,
Feel the home that I live in.
’cause I got too much life,
Running through my veins, going to waste.

And I need to feel, real love
And a life ever after.
I cannot get enough.

I just wanna feel real love,
Feel the home that I live in,
I got too much love,
Running through my veins, going to waste.

I just wanna feel real love,
In a life ever after
There’s a hole in my soul,
You can see it in my face, it’s a real big place.

Come and hold my hand,
I wanna contact the living,
Not sure I understand,
This role I’ve been given

Not sure I understand.
Not sure I understand.
Not sure I understand.
Not sure I understand.

Talk about lying paralysed next to a pool of tears! Similarl, if we do not attend to our inner pain we may well find that our abilities to emote and relate become stifled.

If we swallow a stone we become a stone it seems. Is this true for you in anyway?

PRAY AS YOU GO

O’ God, as you heal our inner pain, may you open us up once again to real love and live and feeling and meaning. Amen.

Wednesday 24th September - All the Wrong Places

DAILY BYTE

This story never makes it clear, perhaps purposely, that this man actually was physically paralysed. We just tend to assume that as we read it. We aren’t told whether he was physically paralysed, or whether it was his inner turmoil that slowly wasted the life out of his limbs and soul over the course of 38 years.

As we stop and look at this story more carefully however, it really does seem to be his pool of tears that was defining him, and holding him back from entering into life fully. It was his pool of tears that was paralysing him both body and soul.

For that’s what pain does to us when we ignore it – when we don’t properly attend to it.

Are you really ready to say goodbye to your pain? Do you really want to take responsibility for it, face it head on and make the changes you need to make? Do you want to be made well?

Perhaps that question is not as obvious as we first think.

People of the day used to believe that an angel used to stir the water of this pool every now and again, and that the first person to get into it would be healed. We know now that the actual stirring was caused by underground springs, but what really fascinates me is how this man was in the totally wrong place for his healing.

There are no magic pools, no magic pills and no quick fixes to pain. There is only the long, hard road of healing.

The story is told of a busy Californian church in the 70’s which had a wonderful preacher. Several people in this church were torn between wanting to be at church to hear their preacher, and wanting to get out and about for the day – surfing or playing golf or whatever it is that Californians like to do. So they started to pay someone to sit in their place for them with a tape recorder and tape the sermon, meaning that they could then listen to it at their leisure.

More and more people started to do this until the preacher cottoned on. He thought the whole situation was little unfair so he decided to install a tape recorder in the pulpit which would then play back the sermon. This meant that he could also get out and about on a Sunday. Apparently, this marked the very first instance of a procedure now termed ‘Artificial Insermonation.’

In terms of dealing with pain, and finding hope and healing in our relationship with God, there are just no quick fixes, no artificial and easy ways to get it done. The way to move through it is not around it, nor to push it away, and certainly not to pretend that it isn’t there. Rather it is one step at a time, one day at a time.

If we truly want healing and to be made well, then we will find the words that Hans Kung once penned to read so true:
“God’s love does not protect us from suffering, God’s love protects us in the midst of suffering.”

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, may you help me to have the strength to undertake the long and sometimes hard road of healing – give me the patience and persistence I need to take it one step and one day at a time. Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 5:7 NRSV

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”

Tuesday 23rd September - Jesus Knows

DAILY BYTE

In John’s Gospel, Jesus seems to know things. It is clear that whenever he engages people in conversation, he sees something of their very souls. In John 1 Jesus looks into Nathanael’s heart and finds no deceit there. In John 4 Jesus understands the Samaritan Women’s promiscuity before she even confesses it to him, and here in John 5, Jesus begins this conversation with a question that is so piercing and challenging that it plainly ‘knows’ what is in the human soul.

“Do you WANT to be made well?”

This is a question that anyone who has ever cried a pool of tears needs to grapple with.

I wish that I had understood this at the beginning of my ministry, because it would have saved me so much wasted time and effort if I had earlier understood that not everyone actually does want to be well.

I remember an occasion when I worked as a Youth Pastor, where I spent close on three years counselling this teenage girl who was struggling with anorexia. Three years of praying and sharing, of constant breakdowns and failed efforts to help, before one day we both came to a quite serious realisation.

She didn’t actually want to be well.

Her anorexia – it was her crutch, it had somehow become part of her identity. It gathered others around her and brought her the attention she desired. She just didn’t want to do what she needed to do to be well, she didn’t want to take responsibility for her illness. She thought she did for a number of years, but she actually didn’t.

There may be parts of our lives that have become beat up, that aren’t really functional anymore. They’re broken and are ultimately both disruptive and damaging. But here’s the key issue – like an old, worn and comfy t-shirt we just can’t bear to part with them.

Those habits we’ve formed, desires we have, character traits we’ve allowed to develop over the years – we have grown used to them, so comfortable with them that they even define us to the point they are just plain part of us.

We are aware that they may not be the prettiest part of us, that they are even destructive, so we hide them behind lies and excuses, pretensions and stories. As the old preacher’s saying goes: “Denial is not a river in Egypt.”

PRAY AS YOU GO

Loving Lord, open my eyes to see what I may be hiding, and open my heart so that I may confess it, own it, and entrust you with it. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

John 5:6 MSG

When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, "Do you want to get well?"

Monday 22nd September - A Pool of Tears

DAILY BYTE

A young minister once asked Gordon Cosby, a renowned pastor of a quite remarkable church in inner city Washington, what he felt the most important thing to remember about the sharing the Gospel with others was. Cosby replied:
“Always remember that each person you see in your congregation sits next to his or her own pool of tears.”

This week’s focus reading is about a man who had been sitting next to his pool of tears for 38 years. For 38 years he had been wasting away and suffering, perhaps slowly growing angry and disillusioned.

Until the day he was drawn into a conversation with a man named Jesus. Now there is something important you have to understand about John’s Gospel (wherein this incident takes place) in that of all the Gospel’s it is by far the most wordy. Jesus gets into all sorts of long and meaningful conversations with all sorts of different people.

These conversations are written so skilfully, provactively even, that it is obviously the writer’s intent to draw us into these conversations, and by so doing to draw us into the Gospel itself.

It’s story becomes our story, it’s challenge our challenge, and it’s hope our hope. So I would like to reiterate that invitation to you – to over this week enter into the conversation that Jesus has with this man as if it is your own. Let its meaning absorb into you so that you become part of this story – the Gospel story.

Because we all have our own pool of tears caused by many different issues such as grief, hurt, pain, fear, doubt, abuse or addiction. Some of you may well have been languishing, paralysed by your pain, next to that pool for what seems a very long time indeed – it may even seem as long as 38 years worth of waiting.

If that is so ... then this story is for you.

As you go through today’s reading, I would encourage you to personalise it to help you enter this story. Read it out aloud to yourself and wherever you read ‘the man’ replace it with your own name (see below).

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, you have taught us through Jesus how you were never too busy to stop and relate to the very least in society. Help us to trust that you are willing and able to bring healing to whatever may be causing our own particular ‘pool of tears’ . Amen.

FOCUS READING

John 5:1-5 MSG

Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem.
Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years.

Friday 19 September - Prodigal Praise

DAILY BYTE

As we conclude this week’s devotions, I’d like to share a recent personal experience where slowing down and becoming more attuned to God’s presence brought an experience of deep gratitude and joy.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in the Botanical Gardens in the midst of a massive wind storm that swept through Durban. It was exhilarating. This incredibly powerful wind suddenly gusting with full voice, then fading momentarily to a mere murmur, before bellowing forth unashamedly once more. As I sat there listening attentively to all this, conscious of God’s majestic presence, I suddenly realized that the very trees around and above me were singing.

I could hear unmistakable percussive sounds marking out a rhythmic beat. There were lilting harmonies, great guttural expulsions of noise, sudden startling crashes (which were branches falling around me), and gentle whisperings. As the tree above me caught the wind it would swell into a deep resonant baritone, and then wait while other trees nearby answered back. It was a great chorus of voices, more than I could count, making magnificent music together.

At times it sounded like the ebb and flow of the ocean. At times it was like the gurgling of a mountain stream. At times I could hear what sounded like thunder, or maybe the galloping of wild horses, and hidden almost imperceptibly in this great cacophony, in the rustling of the trees was the sound of birds singing.

One biblical scholar has suggested that God sang creation into being, declaring that it was very good. If that is true, then what I heard that day sounded like a little piece of creation singing back joyously, ‘Yes. It is very good indeed.’

Of course, it’s not just the trees in the Durban Botanical Gardens on a windy day that sing out in beauty and love. Everything with the breath of life within it seems peculiarly shaped to be an instrument of praise.

The biologist Lewis Thomas tells us that termites make percussive sounds that play a significant part in their social cohesion. The trumpeting of elephants is certainly not just a figure of speech. Right now, massive humpback whales are singing long and complex and beautiful songs under the ocean that can be heard for hundreds of kilometers all around. And even in the most distant reaches of the universe, the scientists tell us, stars are bursting into existence, releasing radio waves and other forms of multi-frequency energy that if we could hear, would fill our ears with every conceivable note and tone. When the scriptures speak of the morning stars singing together, maybe it’s not just beautiful poetry. Maybe it’s expressing what God actually hears.

The point of all this is that we live in a world where the praises of God are already being offered in glorious and exuberant profusion. We live in a world of prodigal praise. Indeed, the prodigal praise of all creation points us to our life’s deepest purpose, that we too have been created to praise. All around us there is a cadence of grace, enfolding us and holding us. Which means that the reorienting of our lives towards God is never any further away than a single breath, if we allow that breath to join in the worship of God that constantly rises all around us.

By slowing down, listening, looking, we come to experience things of God that we otherwise would simply miss. It’s the simple invitation of grace that lies open and accessible to us all – in every moment of every day in every place.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, I was made to be an instrument of worship that would resound with prodigal praise to the glory of your name. Help me to rest more in you, and so allow your hands to hold me and play me, that my very life would add to the magnificent music of creation that echoes all around. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Psalm 146:1-2

Praise the Lord, O my soul.
I will praise the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Thursday 18 September - Paths & Roads

DAILY BYTE

Today, in continuing the thought begun yesterday, I’ll be leaning on the reflections of two other writers I’ve already made reference to this week.

First, a short anecdote from Tom Smith. He writes:
“At least once a year I take a group of men into the wilderness spaces of South Africa - mostly the Drakensberg. It is always a fascinating experience. When we leave Johannesburg, we leave the city by way of the highway called the N3. As we travel on it the highway makes way for country roads. Country roads make way for dirt roads. When we start our hike, these dirt roads that vehicles can use make way for roads that are only fit for off-road vehicles. These then make way for roads that can only be accessed by foot and then when we get into the deep alpine wilderness, the path disappears all together.

When we leave the city it always strikes me how the conversations and attention level of the group is affected by the medium we use to travel. In the vehicle on the highway the chatter is usually incessant. As we transition onto the smaller roads and open the windows, it is as if we emerge out of a city hibernation and start to notice again. Once we’re in the wilderness our verbosity comes to a screeching halt, for it is mostly inadequate to describe the grandeur and magnificence of what is around us.”

Secondly, I’d like to share this insightful piece by Wendell Berry, as he reflects on the difference between a path and a road.

“The difference between a path and a road is not only the obvious one. A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. It is a sort of ritual familiarity. As a form, it is a form of contact with a known landscape. It is not destructive. It is the perfect adaptation, through experience and familiarity, of movement to place; it obeys the natural contours; such obstacles as it meets it goes around.

A road, on the other hand, even the most primitive road, embodies a resistance against the landscape. Its reason is not simply the necessity for movement, but haste. Its wish is to avoid contact with the landscape; it seeks so far as possible to go over the country, rather than through it; its aspiration, as we see clearly in the example of our modern freeways, is to be a bridge; its tendency is to translate place into space in order to traverse it with the least effort. It is destructive, seeking to remove or destroy all obstacles in its way. The primitive road advanced by the destruction of the forest; modern roads advance by the destruction of topography….

I only want to observe that [the road] bears no relation whatever to the country it passes through. It was built, not according to the lay of the land, but according to a blueprint. Such homes and farmlands and woodlands as happened to be in its way are now buried under it…. Its form is the form of speed, dissatisfaction, and anxiety. It represents the ultimate in engineering sophistication, but the crudest possible valuation of life in this world.”

In the light of these reflections we could say that the way of Jesus is much more like a path than a road. Which means that it’s a journey that isn’t focused on speed, comfort and convenience – as if its only objective were to get us to some destination (heaven perhaps?) as quickly as possible. Rather, the journey that Jesus calls us to is long and winding and sometimes tough going. It’s a journey that recognizes the varying contours of this life, with all its ups and downs, and is resolutely committed to going wherever life’s path may take us, confident that this is where God can be found.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Thank you Lord that while the way of Jesus is not always easy, comfortable or convenient, it is always good. Thank you that I do not have to follow this path alone, but that in Jesus I have a friend, a traveling companion and a guide. Amen

SCRIPTURE READING

John 14:6

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Wednesday 17 September - Footpath Faith

DAILY BYTE

I must acknowledge that the core idea for today’s devotion arose from a reflection written by Tom Smith. In his reflection, Tom suggests that the medium with which we travel will determine to a large extent our experience and appreciation of our surroundings, and that this has tremendous implications for the way in which we undertake the journey of faith.

Let me try to illustrate the point. Imagine you’re driving along a road through the Kruger National Park like a real Park Mamparra, speeding along at 100 km/h. What are you going to see? Or more importantly, what will you fail to see - not because it isn’t there, but because the way in which you’re traveling makes it virtually impossible to notice? A magnificent elephant would be little more than a blur of colour, and even if you caught a glimpse of it, what chance would there be to experience and appreciate what an elephant is really like?

Now imagine you’re walking through the same Park along a bush path (hopefully with an authorized guide). And suddenly, up ahead in a clearing you spotted an elephant. How would your experience of the elephant be different? To what extent does the medium with which you are traveling – a footpath – influence the nature of your encounter?

Many people are eager to encounter an elephant, but only from the relative safety of a car, with an open road behind and in front of them to speed away, if things get a little too close for comfort. The medium with which they are traveling gives them a greater measure of control in the manner in which the encounter will unfold.

In a similar way, the medium we use to undertake the journey of faith will determine to a large extent the nature of our encounter with the holy. What do I mean by this? Well, many people make sporadic forays into the territory of the Spirit – perhaps by going to church on a Sunday, or attending a small group meeting, or maybe by reading these Barking Dog-Collar devotions. These sorts of activities are good, and the extent to which they enable us to slow down and take the time to become aware of God’s awesome presence all around us, make them an important part of the life of faith. But all too often ‘spiritual’ activities like these are little more than a momentary slowing down to see what there is to see of God, before putting the foot on the accelerator again and returning to the breakneck pace of life in which the beauty of God’s presence all around becomes nothing more than an indistinct blur.

In contrast to this, Jesus calls us to follow him, as he makes his own wandering way through the world. It’s really a call to a footpath kind of faith, in which the totality of our lives becomes the territory in which God can be encountered. There is something unpredictable, engaging and risky about traveling in this way. It brings a greater openness to being surprised by breathtaking beauty, or indeed terrified by the immensity of holy mysteries that we stumble upon so unexpectedly. As we follow a footpath faith we gradually become aware that everything around us is filled with the presence of God, and every moment in our often full and demanding lives is a precious opportunity for God to be known. Maybe then we’ll be less anxious to rush on to the next thing, and can become more present to God’s Presence in our midst.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, forgive me for the times when I rush on by without noticing you in the midst of my life. Forgive me for thinking that I can encounter you on my own terms, and for trying to limit you to what I can manage or control. Help me to step out on a footpath kind of faith that is willing to follow Jesus wherever he might wander, and lead me along the contours of grace that traverse every part of my life. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING

Matthew 4:21-22

Going on from there he saw two other brothers, James & John, in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Tuesday 16 September - Speed Kills

DAILY BYTE

Speed is the slang word for a chemical drug that consists of amphetamine or methamphetamine. It’s a powerful stimulant that’s often used in the clubbing scene to keep people alert and awake, but its temporary pick-me-up type effect on the nervous system means that it is used in a variety of other settings too. For instance, I once spoke to a recovering speed addict who said that she was tempted to start using again during one of my slightly-longer-than-usual sermons!

As a drug, Speed is aptly named, because of the rush that it literally delivers. It does so by increasing the levels of dopamine and serotonin in the brain, accelerating the action of these key neurotransmitters. This leads to an increase in perceived energy levels, heightened awareness and feelings of euphoria.

All of which sounds pretty terrific. But when you follow the road that Speed takes you on – the initial rush, the increased tolerance, the dependence, the addiction – when you follow that road you discover that it leads, quite literally, to a dead end. It destroys life. It’s true – speed kills.

But it’s not just the chemical variety of speed that people get addicted to. We live in a world that is obsessed with getting things done faster and faster all the time. Efficiency, productivity, minimizing down-town, maximizing output – these are the standards by which we are judged in this rat-race-ish world. And without even realizing it we trade Life for something-less-than-Life.

But every now and then someone comes along who challenges the conventional wisdom of the day. Wendell Berry is one such person. He is an author and poet who is fiercely critical of the short-sighted progress of technological advancement and our society’s endless obsession with doing things faster and faster. His ideas run counter to the mainstream thinking of our contemporary culture, and he is often derided as a result. But what he says cannot be so quickly dismissed.

He’s somebody who walks the talk. For instance, although he has written over 40 books, he refuses to buy a computer. Instead, he writes his manuscripts in long-hand with a pencil, and then gets someone to type them out for him. Now before you laugh this off as hopelessly outdated and embarrassingly archaic, listen to what he says. He writes:

“I acknowledge that, as a writer, I need a lot of help. And I have received an abundance of the best of help from my wife, from other members of my family, from friends, from teachers, from editors, and sometimes from readers.... But a computer, I’m told, offers a kind of help that you can’t get from other humans; a computer will help you to write faster, easier, and more. Do I, then, want to write faster, easier, and more? No. My standards are not speed, ease, and quantity. I have already left behind too much evidence that, writing with just a pencil, I have sometimes written too fast, too easily, and too much. I would like to be a better writer, and for that I need help from other humans, not a machine.”

My purpose here is not to argue for or against the merits of using a computer. But rather for us to reflect on what is truly important. Wendell Berry suggests that speed, ease and quantity are not the best yardsticks by which to measure our work and the productive contribution we make to the world. That in fact, these values can choke the life out of us, and rob us of much of Life’s beauty and passion.

This is an arresting thought. Maybe before rushing into the rest of your day you’d like to pause for a moment and reflect a little more deeply on it. In what ways are you experiencing the truth that ‘speed kills’ – in your lifestyle, your work, your relationships, your spiritual life? How are rushing past Life and missing it in the process? What would it take for you to slow down today?

PRAY AS YOU GO

Slowly pray this meditative prayer, based on Ps 46:10, pausing between each line:

Be still and know that I am God.

Be still and know that I am.

Be still and know.

Be still.

Be.

Monday 15th September - Life in the fast lane

DAILY BYTE

Near to where I live the M13 highway heads inland from 45th Cutting just outside Durban towards Pinetown. Before it reaches Pinetown, the M13 winds through a fairly picturesque area (as far as highways go) of indigenous bush before merging with a double-lane offramp flowing from the N3.

In my experience, the traffic from the N3 offramp is usually traveling considerably faster than the traffic on the M13, and because this faster traffic merges from the left hand side, it leads to an interesting scenario. You can be taking a leisurely drive along the M13, pretty much minding your own business and enjoying the scenery, when suddenly you find yourself in the fast lane of a multi-lane highway, with cars rushing up behind you, flashing their lights and hooting at you to move over or get a move on.

Whenever it happens to me I never fail to reflect on how this is true of so much of life – how easily I find myself traveling in the fast lane, and I’m not even sure how I got there. Think for a moment how this might be true for you, with the demands of work, marriage, kids, friends, church and family requiring more and more from you. And when you manage to catch your breath for just a moment and reflect on the breakneck pace of your life, you realize that you’re living in the fast lane, that’s it’s pretty much “go go go” all the time, and you’re not even sure how this happened.

The 59th Street Bridge Song by Paul Simon & Art Garfunkle begins with the memorable words, ‘Slow down you move too fast.’ The song goes on to paint a somewhat idyllic picture of a more gentle paced life, that is the exact opposite of life in the fast lane. Consider these words in the final verse:

Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep

I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep

Let the morning time drop all its petals on me

Life, I love you, all is groovy!

At this point we say, ‘Aha! Wishful escapist fantasy.’ (And certainly, any song with the word ‘groovy’ in it would probably fall into that category.) And I guess that it is, for who of us can honestly say, ‘Got no deeds to do, no promises to keep.’ Given this reality, is there any hope for us to live a less frantic, frenetic life that doesn’t require a complete abdication of all of our roles and responsibilities?

That is the theme that will be explored in our devotions this week. For the scriptures are clear that there is more to life than rushing from one thing to the next. Indeed, the compelling witness of our faith tradition is that woven into the sacred rhythms of a balanced and abundant life are times for rest and reflection and renewal, which are not only possible but essential if we are to live healthy, productive, sustainable and faithful lives.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, sometimes my life gets completely out of control as I rush from one thing to the next, constantly dealing with all kinds of demands and juggling many different responsibilities. Remind me that there is more to life than racing along in the fast lane all the time. May this week be an opportunity to examine the busyness of my life in the light of your word, that I may live more truly the life that you call me to. Amen

SCRIPTURE READING

Hebrews 4:1, 9-10

“Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it…. So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God; for those who enter God’s rest also cease from their labours as God did from his.”

Friday 12th September - After the Amen

DAILY BYTE

So what comes after the ‘amen’ in the Lord’s Prayer? Well, we end up where we began in a sense. In the hands of a loving parent, knowing that we can trust deeply in the saving grace and redeeming power of this God. This prayer wants to end in us not with misery or fear, but with joy and trust and hope.

Which is why at the end of the prayer, we acknowledge a God who is able to lead us through the immense challenges of life today - through the quicksand’s of temptation and the rock falls of evil. As we pray, we learn that there is nothing bad enough, scary enough, or powerful enough to pluck us from the hand of God. Nothing.

Ken Bailey tells of some of his experiences journeying through the Sahara desert. He wrote that if there is one thing you need before going out into one of the harshest environments on this planet, is to select the right guide with great care. His guide, Uncle Zaki, was a confident, humble man with enormous personal dignity. He never walked but seemed to flow over sand and rock like a ship moving gently through calm seas. As Ken and his group left their village on the edge of the Nile to head out into the almost trackless Sahara, he shares that each member of the group, in turn, felt enough inner pressure to turn to their guide and say, “Uncle Zaki, please don’t get us lost.”

Now, Ken makes special note that this was not because of any lack of trust in a man they all respected so much. What they were really trying to say was, “We have chosen you as our guide because we don’t know how to get to where we must go. Without you we are sure to die. We are afraid of this journey, but know how much we trust in you to get us there.”

The whole of the Lord’s Prayer prepares us for an exodus of deliverance – a journey. This prayer is about how we can follow Jesus as guide on the hard journey of life with its many, mysterious turns, and steep, rocky uncertain inclines. It is about how we can trust Jesus, even more so than Ken’s group trusted Uncle Zaki.
In this journey, the Lord’s Prayer is therefore like Compass and Map, reminding us always what kind of God we follow, what exactly is important to that God, and how the journey itself is just as important as the final destination.
So what comes after the ‘amen’ in the Lord’s Prayer? Well, we are brought back to trusting our deepest needs, our greatest weaknesses, and our most paralysing fears into the hands of a loving Parent.

In this, we learn that any amen after a prayer is not a full-stop but a comma. It is but a brief pause before we move on. We move on and out knowing that God’s name, God’s kingdom, God’s will, God’s provision and God’s forgiveness CAN be made reality even in the very darkest corners of our hearts and this earth because God WILL be doing it within us.

That’s deliverance.

For God’s is the kingdom, the power and the glory, both now and forever. Amen.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord our God, we ask that you would help us to live the Lords’ Prayer in every way possible. May we hallow your name, live your kingdom and will, share our bread and offer forgiveness. May you lead us in this way through even the darkest of temptations and the fieriest of evils. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 6 : 13 NRSV

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Thursday 11th September - Deliverance

DAILY BYTE

It is high time for some Good News. For just as temptation and evil feature through-out the Bible, so matching them step for step, word for word, and all the while swapping lies for truth is the promise of redemption. Rescue! Deliverance!

For every mistake made in the Garden of Eden, there is God coming to find a hiding Adam and Eve. For every lost Israelite trapped under the power of Egypt, there is a loving God hearing their cries and bringing to them a journey of Exodus - of deliverance.

There are two errors we commonly make in reaction to God’s promise of deliverance – they can be summarised as pride and paranoia.

Pride is when we refuse to accept our need for a Saviour. Pride is when we see it as weakness and not strength to face up to our helplessness. We have no problems in seeing sin or evil in others. That’s easy enough to do, but we hide our own needs behind self-deceit, bluster, masks and games of pretend.

Most of the western first world struggles with this and even some versions of Christianity are formed around it when they become nothing but teachings of self-discovery, self-help, and self-realisation. Programs of personal enrichment are developed that actually turn us away from true engagement with God, ourselves and others.

In the Bible, you only discover ‘who you really are’ when the living God, your creator, is rescuing you and giving you a new identity, a new status and a new name; all the while turning your attention firmly onto greater things – onto a life of worshipping someone beyond yourself, and onto a life of loving and giving and serving.

Paranoia is different to pride, but is just as damaging in its own way. Paranoia is when we become so paralysed by temptation or evil that we are never able to move out into the wide open spaces of God’s mercy. It is when either guilt or fear freezes us in our tracks.

We forget that the first word we are taught to say in the Lord’s Prayer is not ‘sorry,’ that comes later, but rather ‘Father’. In fact, even the Prodigal son began his little speech in the same way ... ‘Father’.

We have a tendency to allow our struggles with various temptations and sins to define us. They end up naming us, and we live in their shadow. I am a drunk. A gossiper. An adulterer. A racist. A porn addict. A road rage driver. Or when we become paralysed by evil, we become defined by a new label – victim – and so we live forever angry and bitter and fearful.

These labels neither rescue nor deliver us, but rather imprison us in another way. No! You are a child of God! That’s what should define you, that’s your deepest identity. That’s how you should see yourself, and that’s what you should live by. Grace and not shame.

For our prayers begin with the word ‘Father.’

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Gracious Deliverer, thank you for your saving and loving redemption. Thank you that you have created us to be defined by our relationship with you, and not by our mistakes, sins and fears. Thank you that we are your children – deeply and compassionately loved – help us to live by that identity and none other. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 18. 1-6 NIV

I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death entangled me;
the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.
The cords of the grave coiled around me;
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called to the LORD;
I cried to my God for help.
From his temple he heard my voice;
my cry came before him, into his ears.

Wednesday 10th September - Evil

DAILY BYTE

You cannot pray the prayer Jesus taught us to pray without acknowledging that there is raw evil in the universe.

Again, the Lord’s Prayer is very specific in acknowledging that facing evil, just like temptation, is not about trying harder as a human being, but about believing that GOD ALONE can deliver us.

Like temptation, evil is found right at the beginning of the salvation story, personified in a snake which encouraged Adam and Eve to live by half-truths and lies. Isn’t that almost always the nature of evil – vague and full of half-truths and lies?

The NRSV remains true to the most ancient versions of the Lord’s Prayer because it translates this line not as ‘deliver us from evil’ but rather ‘deliver us from the evil ONE.’ We dare not allow evil to remain vague. We need to name it to face it.

So when we pray what are we really saying ... deliver us from what?

God deliver us from a world of war! God deliver us from a world of hunger! God deliver us from a world of inept and unjust governments, a world of terrorism and bloated, self-important dictators! God deliver us from pride of race and nation, from racism and sexism, from genocide and civil wars!

God deliver us from all of that ... but even more than that. For the real purpose and triumph of evil is the hardening of our emotional, spiritual and relational arteries.

So when we pray ‘deliver us from the evil one,’ we are also praying for insight into the evil that we as good people, with good intentions, might nonetheless do. Deliver us from anything we do or say or think that contributes to racism, sexism, hatred, suspicion, bitterness, cynicism ... evil.

God deliver us from any of those things becoming true in us. So we are not just asking to be delivered from evildoers, ‘others’ out there, but also praying that God might deliver us and the world from the evil that we ourselves might do.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Gracious God, we pray specifically for situations of evil that we are aware of – for both victims and perpetrators [name some different situations]. We also pray for ourselves and ask that you save us from perpetuating any form of evil [again name any specifics you are aware of]. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 141. 3-4 NRSV

Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not turn my heart to any evil, to busy myself with wicked deeds in company with those who work iniquity; do not let me eat of their delicacies.

Tuesday 9th September - Temptation

DAILY BYTE

Perhaps you have seen the bumper sticker that reads: “Lead me not into temptation, I can certainly find it for myself.”

The story of the Bible is a story about human temptation. Remember how it all begins in the Garden of Eden - Adam and Eve are a picture of all humanity in their struggle to not choose things beneath them and somehow lose themselves in the process.

Then in the Exodus, the people of Israel struggled to stay true to God and to who God had made them to be. Their deliverance from Egypt was an illustration of a deeper deliverance, God saving them for new purposes. Story after story in the Bible this continues – judges, kings, prophets, disciples – all needing to be saved. Until the story arrives in us, and if we are honest enough with ourselves, we can confess that we too need to be saved – saved from temptations within and without.

The tendency to temptation is a universal human struggle. After all, who doesn’t know spaces of immense personal weakness? Who has never given themselves over to something which really only diminishes them as human beings and as children of God?

I remember an experience I had while driving past ‘Bread Ahead’ and seeing hot trays of delicious goodies being unloaded – doughnuts and more! I decided that it would be God’s will for me to stop and have some if there was a parking space left directly in front of ‘Bread Ahead’. And sure enough there was. On my sixth time around the block, a parking space miraculously came free!

The truth is that we all have a tendency to temptation, and many of us are deeply hurting because of it. In a way, we need to be really tender around this topic because so many may be really struggling, held in the vice-grip of something unhealthy.

Giving in to your temptations may be slowly destroying you, or those around you who love you.

In many ways, it can be like being trapped in the backwash of a powerful sea current. As hard as you may try, you just cannot summon the power you need to swim your way back to shore. You become increasingly desperate, realising that unless a rescuer arrives, you may well drown.

Well, this is the promise of the Bible, not only that God can but that God wants to rescue us: To deliver us from the grip of even the most powerful of temptations.

Philip Yancey writes that he can understand people becoming atheists, but he cannot relate to the need that some atheists today have to trumpet, or evangelise their positions as if it is somehow a good thing. He says that in the rock bottom moments of his life, when his soul is lonely and distraught, he cannot imagine having to face those experiences without a loving God.

Well, the Bible promises us that we don’t have to.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, I bring before you my strongest temptations, areas of my life that I know bring only destruction to me and those I love. Thank you that you promise to save and deliver me from these temptations, no matter how powerful and alluring they are. I ask that you will do that, and teach me what I need to do to be fully free. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Psalm 68. 19-20 NIV

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.
Our God is a God who saves;
from the Sovereign LORD comes escape from death.

Ethelbert Children's Home

Ethelbert Children's Home cares for 60 abused, abandoned and neglected children from various backgrounds and cultures. They come to us frightened and hurting, not knowing who to trust or what security is. We gather them in and start the process of healing, helping them to trust again and to feel secure and cared for. Our aim is to nurture them so that one day they may leave here able to cope with society and become worthwhile citizens, capable of contributing to the world around them.

A donation can be sent to:
Ethelbert Children's Home, PO Box 28119, Malvern, Kwa-Zulu Natal, 4055.
www.ethelbert.co.za

Thank you for caring.

Monday 8th September - Helpless

DAILY BYTE

‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

At some point in life, we all (although many find it difficult to admit to) find ourselves helpless – in need of rescue and deliverance.

One of my earliest school memories is of just such a time. I had barely learnt to write my name, and used my skills in the misbegotten pursuit of carving my name on a brand, new school desk. Boy was I in trouble! I remember standing outside the principal’s office, trying desperately to think of a way to get out of my dilemma, to blame it on someone else, to be rescued somehow. However, at the end of the day, it was my name on my school desk. Clearly, I was not the smartest little kid on the block.

Well, this is where the Lord’s Prayer ends – just before the amen comes a recognition, a plea of helplessness against the forces of temptation and evil. The Norwegian theologian, Ole Hallesby, settled on the single word ‘helplessness’ as the best summary of heart attitude that God accepts as prayer writing: “Only they who are helpless can truly pray.”

Many people struggle intensely with this notion and so decry Christianity as being nothing but a crutch for the week. My reaction to that? Well, of course it is! For the reality is that we are all weak in some way. The worst thing we can do is to live in denial of that. But Christianity is also far more than a crutch because it challenges, forms and shapes us in some wonderfully life-stretching ways.

This line of the Lord’s Prayer guides us out into the wider salvation story. Its 3 themes – temptation, evil and deliverance – are all major, Biblical themes. The ending of the Lord’s Prayer reminds us that our struggles, those issues we get angry over and live in fear of, are in fact struggles of human spiritual history.

In this way, we are connected to the Bible’s salvation story and we find ourselves participating in it because we are encouraged to recognise the struggles of Biblical characters as our own, and in the same way to take up their hope in God as well.

This part of the Lord’s Prayer is preparing us for life after we say ‘Amen’ at the end of the prayer. Because after the amen, we need to move out into the world to action the Lord’s Prayer – to hallow God’s name, to seek God’s Kingdom and Will, to share our bread and to offer forgiveness, but we will do so amidst fierce weaknesses and temptations, and against fiery challenges of the world’s greatest evils.

We acknowledge, as we pray this line, that temptation and evil are areas where we often find ourselves helpless, and that we can only live out the content of the Lord’s Prayer if God does it within us. And God will do it within us which is exactly why we can move out in our spiritual journeys with great confidence and joy in God’s loving and saving power.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Holy God, help me to be humble enough to acknowledge my helplessness against certain temptations and evils, and help me to be bold enough to trust in you to rescue and deliver me. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 6. 13 NRSV

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Friday 5th September - Finally Able to Forgive

DAILY BYTE

But even after a whole week of focussing on this issue, you may still be struggling to forgive. Let me encourage you not to give up on that struggle by saying that although you may not have reached a place of complete forgiveness, the very fact that you are striving really means something.

In his book, ‘Letters to Malcolm’, C.S. Lewis wrote these words, "Last week in prayer, I discovered, or least think I did, that suddenly I was able to forgive someone that I had been trying to forgive for over thirty years."
We all know that forgiveness can be incredibly difficult at times. We know how hard it can be to hand over something which grips our heart and seemingly won’t let go of us! So let’s just say straight up that there are no magic formulas or potions and there are no easy routes to forgiveness. Instead like everything else in life, there is only choice. And what greater gift can Christians choose to give the world than the passing on of a gift so generously given to us – the legacy of extravagant and gracious forgiveness for all.

Make no mistake – it is a costly gift – it will cost us our pride, our right to be wounded, and probably much time and effort, but it is so necessary. For Jesus made it plain that in this case it is only in the giving that we will receive.
In other words, in order to find forgiveness for ourselves, we also have to share it with others!

Jesus leaves us in no doubt that forgiveness is a law of God as fundamental to healthy life as is remembering to breathe, eat or drink. Forgiveness is a choice that begins and ends with the inspiration of God’s gift of forgiveness.
Never forget what God has done for us. Never!
For as difficult as forgiveness undoubtedly can be, the truth of the matter is that it is not only necessary for us to be free and alive but fundamental to all life itself. So perhaps the only hope for the future of our children is that we learn to break any chains of ‘ungrace’ and instead pass on to them that which has been so graciously poured down upon us by our Father in heaven – forgiveness and all the freedom, life and love that goes along with it.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord our God, we do pray that we would find inspiration to forgive in the forgiveness you have lavished upon us all. Even if we have to wake up every morning, and forgive the same person again and again, we pray that you would give us the strength, will and persistence to do so. For we know that we find forgiveness by sharing it out with others. In Jesus name. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Matthew 6. 12 NIV

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Thursday 4th September - Stories of Forgiveness III

DAILY BYTE

Today’s story is about the effects of a lack of forgiveness. As we shall learn, the thing about un-forgiveness is that it potentially not only imprisons us but also those around us.

The famous Christian author, Phillip Yancey, in a talk he gave a couple of years ago in Durban, spoke about chains or cycles of un-grace. Un-grace is a word he made up to describe situations where we refuse to show each other forgiveness.

Yancey illustrated this point by sharing a personal story about how his grandmother could never bring herself to forgive her drunken, abusive father, even after he had cleaned up, become a Christian and asked for forgiveness. She said to him ‘I never want see you again’ … and kept her promise.

Her daughter grew up watching this, and when she and one of her sons (Yancey’s brother) came into a sharp conflict, she repeated to him those words: ‘I never want to see you again’.

And so far she has also kept her promise.

Yancey tied this story up by saying that he recently was on the phone to this same brother discussing the brother’s divorce, when his brother said of his wife in an angry voice, ‘I never want to see her again’.

Yancey described the stunned silence as both of them instantly recognized their own mother’s voice speaking through his brother (indeed their own grandmother’s voice). Chains or cycles of ungrace are passed down almost like genetic code!

Forgiveness breaks these chains and sets prisoners free.

When I was ministering at a previous church, there was a woman in the congregation who many years previously endured the trauma and humiliation of her husband cheating on her, and then leaving her for this other woman. She struggled for many years to forgive him. This struggle made her and her children miserable. She eventually resolved to go to a colleague of mine for counselling and after much time, and many difficulties, she finally managed to forgive.

Then, unexpectedly one day, she received a phone call from her estranged husband. He had contracted AIDS/HIV, his medical aid had depleted, his lover had thrown him out and he had no where to go. So she took him in.

This woman cared for and nursed her cheating husband until he died. Now let’s get something straight – she wasn’t IN love with him any more, she wasn’t trying to recapture a lost marriage, she wasn’t trying to patch anything up. She had simply forgiven him and now was able to love him with a Christ-like love.

You may say what she did was crazy, or silly, or impossible. But let me ask you a question: What do you think she passed onto her children through that action? I think she passed on a God-like grace, a larger than life spirit, a generous heart and attitude, and a freedom from prisons. I think she made real men and woman of God of her children.

And I think that through those actions she broke a potential chain of ‘ungrace’, and instead left behind her an inspiring legacy of love.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, it is our desire to leave behind us a legacy of love rather than un-forgiveness and hatred. Help us to understand that when we refuse to forgive, we potentially entrap not only ourselves but others who may look to us for spiritual and moral guidance. Help us to live our lives in a way that is true to your amazing grace. Amen.

FOCUS READING
John 20:23

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

Wednesday 3rd September - Stories of Forgiveness II

DAILY BYTE

At the end of her book ‘The Hiding Place’, Corrie Ten Boom tells of her struggle to forgive a guard from the death camp where she had been imprisoned during the Second World War:

“It was a church service in Munich that I saw him, the former SS Man who had stood guard at the shower room door in the processing centre at Ravensbruck. He was the first of our actual jailers that I had seen since that time. And suddenly it was all there – the roomful of mocking men, the heaps of clothing, Betsie’s pain-blanched face.

He came up to me as the church was emptying, beaming and bowing. “How grateful I am for your message Fraulein,” he said. “To think that, as you say, He has washed my sins away!” His hand was out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people in Bloemendaal the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side.

Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him. I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not. I felt nothing, not the slightest spark of warmth or charity. And so again I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me Your forgiveness.

As I took his hand the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me. And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on his. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.”

Dale Carnegie once said that: “When we hate our enemies we give them a power over us – a power over our sleep, appetites, and happiness. Our hate is not hurting them at all, but it is turning our days and nights into turmoil.”

Lewis Smedes put it this way: “The first and only person to be healed by forgiveness is the person who does the forgiveness…When we genuinely forgive; we set a prisoner free and then discover that the prisoner we set free was us.”

This is why the concept of forgiveness is so central to the Lord’s Prayer, because it is absolutely central to the Christian faith. It is central to the very heart of God, and therefore it is central to life itself.

The only person we truly punish through a lack of forgiveness is ourselves! Yet, there is also no doubt that when we find it difficult to forgive, we need God’s love to give us enough strength to do so.

Spend some time thinking more directly about the people you are struggling to forgive. Write their names down for use in the following prayer.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord, as difficult as it may be for us, we do desire to forgive. We understand how a lack of forgiveness imprisons us, twists us and diminishes our spirits. We pray that you would help us to forgive [NAME/S]. Help us to let go of all anger, hurt or bitterness directed towards that person for what they have done to us. In the name of the Great Forgiver - Jesus. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Mark 2:7

Who can forgive sins but God alone?

Tuesday 2nd September - Stories of Forgiveness

DAILY BYTE

The author Trevor Hudson makes the point that:
“Personal stories sometimes convey far more than abstract theories and logical discussion.”

With this in mind, and noting the extreme difficulty many people have with forgiveness (some for very good reasons), we will be spending the rest of this week looking at several different stories of forgiveness in the hope that the personal life lessons these stories provide will inspire us towards forgiveness as a way of life.

Today’s story of forgiveness comes from that same author Trevor Hudson, and is one directly related to the history of South Africa.

“In recent years we have witnessed some remarkable acts of forgiveness in South Africa. Many of these have taken place during the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a process designed to bring together the perpetrators and victims of apartheid. One of the most moving was the testimony of a sixteen-year-old teenager. Her father had been involved in the liberation struggle. In the mid-eighties he was detained, never to be seen alive again. She wanted to know who had killed him. As she put it, ‘I want to know the name of the person responsible for killing my father, so that I can learn to forgive him.’”

Hudson goes on to reflect:
“Her words have challenged me deeply. Forgiveness must surely be one of the most difficult things any human being can be asked to do. But this is what we are called to as Christ followers.”

Today’s focus reading tells of a time when Peter asked Jesus how often he had to forgive. Peter knew that most Rabbis of the day were teaching a concept of limited forgiveness – that you should forgive someone who wrongs you up to three times. However, Peter also knew that Jesus was quite unlike other teachers of the day, which is probably why he went for the bigger figure of seven. He probably thought that would really impress Jesus, but Jesus’ answer was sure to surprise not only Peter, but also anyone else listening to their conversation.

‘Not just seven times Peter, but seventy times seven.’ That works out to 490 times! No one would be able to remember a list of wrongs that long, unless you kept a logbook. Jesus’ point here is that we should never actually stop forgiving. We should never stop learning to forgive as that young woman in Hudson’s story expressed it.

Jesus revolutionised the popular teaching of the day by encouraging a concept of unlimited forgiveness! Christ encouraged us to be like God in this matter, to adopt forgiveness and mercy as a lifestyle. There is no doubt that such teaching is both difficult and threatening but we can never escape just how important it is.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Lord, at times we find your grace and love very threatening. We rejoice to hear that we are forgiven by you, but sometimes we struggle with the news that you also forgive people we find reprehensible. Fill us with your loving Spirit and move us to a place where we can deal with this and begin to learn to forgive. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Matthew 18. 21-22 NIV

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Monday 1st September - Finding Forgiveness

DAILY BYTE

There is a lovely story set in medieval times of two monks who were on a long journey through a great forest. The first monk was middle-aged, had been in the monastic order for years and was renowned for his wisdom. The second monk was a young novice. As they walked along the forest’s winding path, the hours went quickly by, sometimes they were in conversation, and other times they were silent.
At one point they came upon a wide, rapid stream. Sitting at the edge of the water was a young woman who was evidently very distressed. When she saw the two monks, a look of relief crossed her face and she stood up to address the older of the two, "Father, you would be doing me the greatest of favours if you would agree to carry me across the river. The water is swift and I do not know how to swim. If I should slip I may drown.”

"Of course, my child," the monk replied, "I would most willing to carry you across."

The novice shot his companion a surprised glance, for under the rules of their particular order, they were strictly forbidden to touch women. Nevertheless, the older monk took the woman in his arms, and carried her safely across. After she thanked them both she went on her way, and the monks continued their journey.

There was silence between them for an hour, and then two. Finally, the younger monk mustered up his courage to speak. "Father," he said, "you know that we are not allowed to touch women."
"Yes, I know that," he replied.
"Then how could you carry that woman across the stream?"
“My son," the older man said, "I put that young woman down two hours ago. But you are STILL carrying her."

This story sums up what Jesus teaches so powerfully in the Lord’s Prayer - that to not forgive is like carrying around a burden within our hearts. More than that, we are also taught that our own forgiveness is founded in our willingness to forgive others – ‘Forgive us our debts AS WE ALSO HAVE forgiven our debtors.’

Eugene Peterson says that “In the same way that bread is a basic need for the body, forgiveness is the basic need of the spirit.” Yet, forgiveness is a very difficult and painful process for many, seeming utterly impossible at times.

How do you handle forgiveness? Do you find it easy to let go of the hurts others have caused you, or do you struggle to let go? Is there something burning within your soul at the moment – some hurt you have received that you refuse to forgive? Perhaps you have been a victim of crime, or abuse and no matter what you do, you cannot let go of the anger and pain within?

Or perhaps you have caused someone else grievous pain and have refused to ask forgiveness? Whatever it is, know that it is not God’s desire for you to carry the burden of that pain for the rest of your days.

Whenever we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we are challenged to wrestle with the difficulties of forgiveness. Jesus will never let us forget how important the process of forgiving is, but we are encouraged to do so with the knowledge that God’s own love and forgiveness offers to heal us and set us free.

PRAY AS YOU GO

Lord God, thank-you for the incredible way you have always forgiven me of my sins. Help me to acknowledge where there is a lack of forgiveness within me, and bring me to a place where I can let go of the bitterness and hurt within. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Luke 6:37

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.