DayBreaks for 3/26/24 – Take the Time

I know that I’ve only been doing one devotion a week for the past few years due to the increased responsibility and workload I’ve taken on. But this week – often referred to as Holy Week – was always my favorite week of the year to preach when I was still a full-time pastor. As a result, I’m going to do a few more devotions this week.

Have you ever wondered why God left Jesus on the cross for hours before relieving his suffering? Clearly, God could have had Jesus crucified, shed blood, and ended it within a minute. But he didn’t. God is that way. He seems to never be in a rush about anything – not even when it comes to the crucifixion. I’m sure He has great reasons that maybe someday I’ll understand, but for now, I don’t understand it. All I know is that when God is doing something great, it takes time, and He doesn’t rush it.

Perhaps I don’t understand because we live in a break-neck speed world. News travels around the world in less than a second. We rush around like chickens with their heads cut off (and yes, chickens with their heads cut off can do that!) just trying to get to the next thing we have to do and then we repeat that cycle again.

If there was ever a time to slow down and take things in, it is this week. Not only was time changed by what happened this week 2000 years ago, but eternity itself changed.

Still, we rush through the familiar routines from Lent, through Palm Sunday, through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, silent Saturday, and we barge right into Easter Sunday at full speed. What a waste of the precious time God has given us if we fail to think deeply about the events of Holy Week.

Ann Voskamp recently wrote the following: “A person who is looking for something doesn’t travel very fast.  

“And I pause here. And my soul stills.  

“Those who aren’t looking for anything worthwhile, think it’s only worthwhile to travel fast.

“And that wide way beckons to the fast and the furious, to the hustlers and fear-mongers, to the big and loud, to the angry and soul-hungry and joy-malnourished. 

“But there is another way.

“Those looking for something sacred travel slow.

“Those looking for the holy linger.

“The way of genuine spiritual formation is slow. Taking the Way of Jesus takes time.” 

I beg of you to please take the time to look for something worthwhile in the historical events of this week. Look for the sacred. Look for the holy. Let it transform your heart and free your soul from the prison bars that hold you. Be free – free to take time to ponder the events of this amazing, wonderful week.

God is present in the events of this week. What a shame if we miss him because we don’t take the time to see His most majestic work on display.

PRAYER: Let us look for, and find, the Holy One this week. Keep us from hurry that we may linger at the foot of the cross and then at the empty tomb, awestruck. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2024 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 5/19/15 – Examine Your Day

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DayBreaks for 5/19/15: Examine Your Day

Not being from a Catholic background, I know very little about Ignatian spirituality. I know that it is based on the life and thoughts of Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits in the 16^th Century. I know that Pope Francis is a Jesuit, which made me interested in finding out a little of the philosophy on which he bases his life.

One very important part of Ignatian (Jesuit) spirituality is the idea of finding God in everything.  In the evening, Jesuits are to carefully examine their day to discover where God has revealed Himself.  It is almost always very easy to find God in the beauty of nature, in your loved ones faces, and in especially meaningful interactions and events. But if we truly believe that God is everywhere and works in everything, no matter how mundane or even painful, then we need to look for Him in all the events of our day and life.

One of my daughter-in-law’s very recently lost her father.  She and her mother both wonder if her father had to become weak (he was a very strong man – physically, mentally, and emotionally) so that he could see his need for God. He came to God before he died, but only after suffering and being humbled.

Isn’t that the way we all are sometimes? We think we have it all together and can handle what life throws at us – until we find we can’t and that we have no control over factors and events that overwhelm us.

Are you consciously seeing God in your daily life? Can you see him in the little things and the big things? Can you see him in your weakness and suffering – and in your joy? I think the idea of seeing Him in all of our day might be a very good discipline for us – not just as an exercise to do at the end of each day, but also a very good practice to keep in our minds as we go throughout the day. Perhaps it would help our prayer to be “unceasing” as we come to a greater awareness of our great need for Him and of His constant Presence and involvement.

Tonight, pause…and reflect on how you saw God in your life.  See if it changes your heart and attitude about what happened during the day. 

PRAYER: It is so easy, Lord, to become preoccupied to the point that we fail to recognize your hand at work in all the details of our lives.  Help us to reflect on how you journeyed this day with us! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

© 2015, Galen C. Dalrymple.

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DayBreaks for 08/14/12 – An Immense Sense of Mystery

DayBreaks for 08/14/12 – An Immense Sense of Mystery

1 Corinthians 15:51-54 – “51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.  53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“My father had been moved to another ward.  In later years I would come to know so well this quietly programmed progression of receding mortality as I stood with other families in faraway hospitals.  Now each stage was mystifying, its details vivid and arresting like a play never before seen.  My father was on his side in the bed, his body curled as if in deep sleep, his breathing labored, the sound harsh and loud in the silent room.  The hours slipped by, measuring the gradual occupation of the room by a terrible intruder.  A sudden spasm of obvious distress and struggle brought an oxygen unit.  The quiet hiss became the background to the whispered attempts at conversation between my mother and myself.

“The door opened and the canon came in.  In physical stature he was a small man.  He came to us as a giant of assurance, care, dependability.  We knew he could not vanquish this greatest of enemies in our family life.  All we knew was that his presence brought something totally beyond definition but of infinite value.  He was still with us when there was a sudden change in the rhythm of my father’s breathing, a succession of quiet gasps, each one weaker than the last, then silence.  Only the sound of the oxygen tank broke the silence, its sibilant consistency mocking the poor lurchings of our human breath giving itself to tears.

“For a moment I was conscious of an immense sense of mystery.  With part of my mind I knew that my father had died.  Yet in those first moments disbelief challenged the knowledge.  I was aware of a new quality of stillness.  I had never seen sleep like that.  I became aware of the canon saying the prayers of commendation as he stood beside us.  I was conscious of a sudden image of a vast vaulted universe, splendid with planetary systems and wheeling galaxies, into which my father had stepped and among which he began to journey.  As we stood together in the timeless way of families experiencing this dark visitation, we were released from immobility by the canon’s gentle invitation to come home and rest.  There was a last silent kiss to my father’s still face and then we went, the small figure of the canon shepherding us forward, quietly playing the priestly role of father.”  – A Doorway in Time, Herbert O’Driscoll

Isaiah 60:19-20 – “19 The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.  20 Your sun will never set again, and your moon will wane no more; the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of sorrow will end.”

PRAYER: Father, we are both wary, yet intrigued, by death and what the experience will be like.  Help us, in the presence of the final enemy, to sleep peacefully in Your embrace and awaken to see Your glory!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2012 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

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