The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage were born. Malala Yousafzai

Meditation: The Pakistani teenage girl Malala was shot by the Taliban terrorists when she spoke out for girls’ and women’s rights to get an education and to be treated with respect. They wanted her to die. Instead she survived. She now lives in the US and her voice is being heard all over the world. It is amazing to witness how God works through individuals, even through young teenagers. A terrorist group of men was so afraid of a young girl’s voice that they had to silence her. Instead, God allowed her to survive and be brought to safety. Her voice is now ringing louder than ever before. We witness all around the world, including right here in the US, how hatred and oppression try to overcome voices like Malala’s daily. And yet the Spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind is being resurrected, every day.

Prayer: God, we need voices that speak out against oppression and injustice. Once again You used a child to represent You and speak Truth against power. We pray for courage for individuals to speak out against oppression and corruption. We thank You for each individual voice that stands up and speaks out. Help us not to remain silent. Help us gain courage from Malala. Let us ask for Your Spirit that will resurrect Your values, Your truth and will restore love, justice and a sound mind here in the US and around the world. And we are grateful. Amen

For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and a sound mind. 2. Timothy 2:7

Concepts, like individuals, have their histories and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals. But in and through all this they retain a kind of homesickness for the scenes of their childhood. Soren Kierkegaard

Meditation: As a pastor I am noticing that certain concepts like “sin” and “grace” that at certain times in history made much sense to people, have lost their meaning for most postmodern people today. What do we do? Do we try to describe the childhood of those concepts? Try to bring people back into history where those of us like to dwell who were still raised with a more traditional Christian vocabulary? There are moments where that might be helpful. However, I might need to acknowledge my homesickness for the words that I grew up with, and then courageously decide to live in the present. I want to listen to how people talk today: People who have not been raised in the church, and people who discover the concept of God for the first time. I want to find new words for my favorite childhood terms. “Sin” today might possibly be best described with “narcissism”. “Grace” might mean that God “has not given up on a mentally ill world that is unaware of its illness”.

Prayer: God of history, we wish we could just return to our childhood words and concepts. However, their meanings have vanished, just as our images and memories of growing up no longer match with the experience of life in those childhood places today. Help us trust that Your words are not gone. Your history with us is always deeply relevant. Help us let go of attachments to certain past words, so we can embrace living in the present. Help us fill old concepts and words with new meaning for today. This is what it means that “Jesus is alive”. And we are grateful. Amen

Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. Romans 6:9

 

 

A great marriage is not when the “perfect couple” comes together. It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences.” Dave Meurer, “Daze of Our Wives”

Meditation: I remember growing up that my parents were very different from each other, and yet they managed to accept and respect each others’ differences. When my father had to keep certain rituals to manage life, my Mom enjoyed a generous approach to life with the ability to let “five be even”. Their model of marriage gave me the courage to marry cross-culturally and cross-racially. I had witnessed that differences of a couple can be enjoyed and that imperfect parents who enjoy and love each other can be a rich foundation for children to grow up and find their place in life. My West African husband and I sometimes look at each other and say: “What a miracle, this African and this German, twenty years of being married!” We are an imperfect couple who has learned to accept and often enjoy each others’ differences.

Prayer: God of love, You are the One who can hold opposites. Your love is so broad that You delight in humanity in all its diversity. You even delight in our imperfections as they are often just variations of particular ways of being in the world. Thank You for Jesus who expanded the cultural limitations of the Old Testament covenant and who modeled inclusive and cross-cultural acceptance and love. And we are grateful. Amen

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love. 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. Ephesians 4:2-3

“Being a mother is an attitude, not (necessarily) a biological relation.” Robert A. Heinlein

Meditation: Today, on Mother’s day, I want to remember and honor all mothers who are dedicated to loving and raising children. I also want to remember and honor all who embrace the attitude of mothering. There are many women who have never carried a child in their body, yet who carry many children in their hearts and souls and care for them. I also want to remember and honor all men who find within them the ability to nurture, accept children unconditionally and who are tender and expressive of their care and love. I want to remember and honor all gay and lesbian persons and couples who decide to either give birth to, adopt or foster children. I want to remember and honor all grandparents who love, embrace and sometimes even raise their grandchildren as their own children. And I want to remember Jesus whose attitude was deeply motherly, and who called God “Abba”, “Daddy”. This tender nickname captures God as the deeply caring, comforting, motherly and trustworthy “Source of Love”.

Prayer: Mother God, without Your Spirit of mothering our world would have perished by now. We thank You for everybody who allows Your Spirit to embody itself in them. We thank you how through Your Spirit that lives within dedicated care providers, we raise the next generation to become themselves loving, caring and motherly. We pray that You teach all of us the mystery of Your motherly love. Amen

I will comfort you …as a mother comforts her child.” Isaiah 66:13

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. Winston Churchill

Meditation: Trump (not Truth) means to try to avoid criminal actions yet allow for any unethical or immoral behavior. Trump (not Truth) means secrecy and maneuvering at any cost not to get caught. Trump (not Truth) means to make up stories and work on having people believe what you say. “Trump and his False truth” can be sold too easily to those who can be bought. The cost: a perversion of reality and a lowering of all values. The sell-out of democracy is at stake. America wake up!

Prayer: God, we pray for guidance for our country at this pivotal juncture. We pray for the checks and balances of our democracy to function. We pray for the Truth to become revealed soon. We pray for sanity in these insane times. God, have mercy. Amen

For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Luke 8:17                               

Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. Albert Einstein    

Meditation: Our country is experiencing a new derailed “belief” and philosophy where “created and imagined reality” is being claimed to be “actual reality”. Psychologist might call this approach delusional or a loss of reality. However, experience in our society shows that if a person who “creates reality” and at the same time has power, money and legal back up, then this “fictitious reality can become reality”. The current President and his followers are doing everything to the point of ridiculousness in trying to cover up, obstruct, deny the truth and change perceptions about reality. Grown and rational adults are being witnessed as they try to describe the Presidents’ beautiful clothes that he claims to be wearing, when everybody else sees that the President is naked. How come that lies are no longer called lies? How come that what is happening is no longer called sin?

Prayer: God, You see when humans are abusing their power. You see when humans lie. You call both sin. We cannot deceive You. And we can only deceive other humans for so long. We pray that this country will uncover any and all lies. We pray that a delusion is being named such and that sin is being called sin. We pray for truth to have the last word. Amen

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 1. John 1:8    

A word of encouragement from a teacher to a child can change a life. A word of encouragement from a spouse can save a marriage. A word of encouragement from a leader can inspire a person to reach her potential. John C. Maxwell

Meditation: Encouragement can make all the difference in a person’s development. Whether we are children or adults, we need positive feedback and words that praise and build up, instead of criticize and only look for the negative. There is always something that is not as it could be or should be. However, often there are many small things full of potential or great first beginnings. If we look closely, there are wonderful small steps and courageous first attempts. If a parent, partner or leader sees those small beginnings and instead of criticizing what they are “not yet”, affirm what they  “already” are and can be, the person growing feels seen, validated and protected from their own inner voice of doubt and criticism. We need to become aware of how our words can literally stop growth and kill others’ Spirit or can foster growth and bring forth life in those around us.

Prayer: Creator God, You are the Spirit that bends towards us and whispers “grow”. You voice is encouraging, admiring and affirming. Even when we only show small inklings of growth, You are getting excited. Your Spirit is the one that knows our potential and rejoices over each step we are taking in the direction of becoming fully who You intend us to be. God, take from us the Spirit of criticism, of contempt, jealousy and harshness and fill us with Your Spirit. Help us encourage wherever we can and always look for the “already” instead of stare at the “not yet”. Help us praise and celebrate the beginnings and whisper “grow” wherever we go. Amen

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing: Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8

“As a young man, I yearned for the day when, rooted in the experience that comes only with age, I could do my work fearlessly. But today, in my mid-sixties, I realize that I will feel fear from time to time for the rest of my life. I may never get rid of my fear. But . . . I can learn to walk into it and through it whenever it rises up . . . naming the inner force that triggers . . . fear . . . Naming our fears aloud . . . is the first step toward transcending them.” Parker Palmer

Prayer: God, when we feel existential angst, when our childhood fears and the anxieties of our Youth come to hunt us, when our anxious personality makes us jittery, or the worst case scenarios of tomorrow make us lose sleep at night, come and be the One we can talk to. Let us find refuge in You. We thank You for the many times You have met us saying: “Do not be afraid”, for You know how we are. You hold us with our fears. We are relieved, and we are grateful. Amen

Be merciful to me, my God, for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 

Psalm 56: 1-3                                                                            

 

Few things can make us feel crazier than expecting something from someone who has nothing to give. Melody Beattie

Meditation: Recovery from co-dependency means to let go of expectations of others who cannot give us what we expect or want from them. As long as we try to get our needs met by another person, we fail to take responsibility for our own needs. There is no shame in having needs. And there is no shame in admitting that the person who we want to reach out to us and meet our needs is not able or willing to meet our needs. As we make peace with our own human needs, and as we accept the limitations of the other person, we let go of our expectations that certain persons should meet our needs in a certain way. And doing so, we are set free. Free from shame and free from false dependency. We can become creative in meeting our own needs in our own ways. And if the other person chooses to meet our needs, we are surprised and grateful.

Prayer: God, You know all of our needs. You joined us in our humanity so that no feeling, no need, no human experience would be in any way shameful. You delight in us. In every detail of our daily lives. No aspect is too trivial. None of our needs is being discounted by You. You fill us with Your Spirit of creativity that joyfully helps us meet our own needs. Whether it is sleeping, walking, laughing, eating or enjoying time with ourselves or with others. Our relationship with You sets us free. We no longer need to make another human being our salvation, as You are the one setting us free, holding us, directing us and delighting in us. Amen

The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. Psalm 37: 23-24

You have to maintain a culture of transformation and stay true to your values. Jeff Weiner

Meditation: How do we know what is “right and wrong”, especially when we live in cross-cultural and multicultural relationships and environments? What one thinks to be wrong, the other considers as “normal” or even “desirable”. How do we journey together when opinions clash and different perspectives seem to make a shared view impossible? Jesus modeled how to live cross-culturally. He fully appreciated the Jewish culture he came from, while also surpassing it and transforming it into something that matched more fully the values as he understood life from God’s perspective. As we live in cross-cultural relationships, we need to remember and share cultural stories and explore the values behind them. And then we want to ask ourselves if the values we experienced in our past still match the values we hold to be true today. Sometimes we decide to hold on to our former culture and sometimes we let go of certain laws or principals. If the values we experienced growing up do not match the values be believe in today, we need to strive for the transformation of our former values so that our current beliefs can be fulfilled.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You for Your role modelling. You remained true to your Jewish culture while also confronting it with the values You believed in. Help us sort through our own cultural values and assumptions. Help us let go of principals and habits that are not life giving. Open our mind to other ways of seeing the world. Help us uphold Your life giving values and translate them into our daily life. Transform us so we can stay true to Your values. Help us find ways that are fulfilling. Amen

“Do not suppose that I came to throw down the law or the prophets — I did not come to throw down, but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17