Presby-Musings

Today we'll continue our series on things Jesus never said by examining a phrase many people probably think comes straight from the Bible.   “God helps those who help themselves.” It sounds biblical. In fact, many people are surprised to discover that it isn't in the Bible at all. It actually comes from Ancient Greece, some four centuries before Jesus, coined by playwrights and philosophers and even found in Aesop's famous fables.  And there's another problem, which is even more important to point out. It doesn't sound much like Jesus. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus encounters people who cannot help themselves. Blind Bartimaeus sits beside the road crying out for mercy. A paralyzed man has to be carried to Jesus by his friends. Lepers approach Jesus because they cannot heal themselves. Hungry crowds have no food. A woman caught in adultery has no defense. Even the disciples find themselves in a storm they cannot control. Again and again, Jesus meets people at the lim...

Today, we are going to start a new devotional series for the week about things we say or assume came from the Bible, particularly from the Gospels, and from the mouth of Jesus himself, that he simply never said.  To be fair, there are more than five days' worth of things people assume are in the Bible but aren't, but we'll focus on just five, starting with a doozy:  "Everything happens for a reason."   Let's start by reading what is arguably the shortest verse in the Bible.   “Jesus wept.” — John 11:35 When something terrible happens, we want an explanation. Maybe that is why we reach so quickly for the phrase, “Everything happens for a reason.” We mean well. We want to reassure someone that their pain has a purpose—that somewhere behind the tragedy, God has a plan. It's easy to make that assumption when you read some of what Jesus says in John's Gospel.  Out of the four Gospels, it's the one where Jesus most often seems to have a plan.  But somet...

“Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” — Mary Oliver I couldn't help myself; I had to include the above quote from poet Mary Oliver, even though I used one of her lines this week.   There is a difference between being awake and being awake to life . We can move through an entire day barely noticing it. Wake up. Check the phone. Drink the coffee. Drive the familiar route. Complete the tasks. Answer the messages. Watch something. Go to bed. Repeat. Nothing is necessarily wrong with any of it. In fact, some routines and rituals are life-giving and comforting. But if we go through our routines without being alert and awake to the world around us, we miss out on living more fully.   Jesus repeatedly tells his disciples to pay attention. “Consider the lilies of the field” (Matthew 6:28). Look at them. Notice them. Jesus saw things other people hurried past: birds, flowers, children, widows, beggars, farmers, seeds, bread, vineyards...

Today we continue our devotional series on what it means to live fully alive by exploring what it means to fully embrace the one precious life we have been given.   Every morning, as part of my own devotional time, I read a poem from Mary Oliver's collection of poems entitled "Devotion."  Her poetry truly gives me something to ponder every single day.  Her favorite subject is nature, and she sees divine beauty in Creation and the lessons that beauty teaches us.   I'm always amazed by the depth of her poetry, and how even the simplest things she observes in nature hold the most profound truths.   Take, for instance, this line from her poem "The Summer Day."   “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Oliver's question is both beautiful and unsettling. This is your one life. Not the life you might have lived if you'd made different decisions. Not the life you'll begin someday when circumstances finally coop...

“The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.” — G. K. Chesterton One of my favorite scenes in the original Disney movie Mary Poppins is when Mary and the children she cares for accompany Bert to visit Mary's Uncle Albert.  Uncle Albert has a problem.  When he begins laughing uncontrollably, he floats to the ceiling.  Both the children and Bert give in to Uncle Albert's infectious humor and begin laughing, too.  Soon, everyone is on the ceiling except for a disapproving Mary Poppins.  That scene still makes me smile, mostly because of Dick Van Dyck's over-the-top performance.   It always reminds me of the pure joy of laughing with friends so much that nearly everything that gets said in that moment feels hilarious, and no one can seem to stop.  It reminds me of playing as a kid, running and laughing at the same time (something I cannot do at all now).   I admit, I don't play that often anymo...

“The Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars.” — Francis Schaeffer, Art and the Bible Today, we are continuing our week-long devotional series on what it means to be fully alive, and how this is what God wants for us, as shared with us by Jesus himself.  The message today is all about how creativity can be an act of worship, and a way to connect with the Divine for a fuller life.  The first thing Scripture tells us about God is not that God commands, judges, teaches, or saves. God creates. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth...” (Genesis 1:1). Light emerges from darkness. Oceans appear. Plants burst from the earth. Stars fill the sky. Creatures swim, crawl, and fly. Then God creates humanity “in his image” (Genesis 1:27). We bear the image of a Creator. Perhaps that explains our impulse to make things. We paint and cook. We write stories and plant gardens. We build furniture, compose music, decorate rooms, solve problems, t...

Jesus once described his mission with these extraordinary words: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Not merely existence. Not simply survival. Life. Abundant life. Yet somewhere along the way, many of us learned to think about Christianity primarily in terms of what happens after we die.  But Jesus spent remarkably little time describing heaven. Instead, he taught people how to live. He gathered around tables. He attended weddings. He noticed flowers and birds. He welcomed children, touched people others avoided, challenged injustice, shared meals with unlikely companions, withdrew into silence, wept with grieving friends, and celebrated when lost things were found. Jesus was fully present to life. Perhaps following him means learning to become fully alive ourselves. This week we'll explore five dimensions of the abundant life: joy, creativity, play, gratitude for the one life we've been given, and the practice of becoming fully present to ...