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 4/11/22 – One Moment in History

DayBreaks for the Week of 4/11/22 – One Moment in History

Pretend for a moment that you were in possession of a time machine.  If you could pick one moment out of all recorded history to go back and see, what would you choose?  In a newspaper recently, journalists had voted on the greatest story of the 20th century.  According to one paper I saw, they chose the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima as the biggest story of the century.  It certainly is worthy of strong consideration.  I remember the stunned silence (even outdoors!!) on the day that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon and the first moonwalk took place.  It was as if nothing, not even the wind, dared to move that afternoon.

Still, all things considered, I think that I’d probably pick the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the event I’d most like to observe.  You see, no human eyes were witness to it, so no one knows what it looked like.  There was no one to watch as God came back to life, except God Himself. 

I don’t think that I would want to see the crucifixion.  It would be too painful to watch knowing that it was my fault that it was happening.  We want to get past the ugliness, horror and bloodiness of Calvary in our rush to get to the Resurrection Morning, don’t we?  But we can’t afford to do that.  If we do, we will miss the most amazing lesson in all of human history: that the God of heaven, who hates sin with all His heart, loves His creation even more than He hates sin and proved it on the cross.  That, if anything, is the lesson of Calvary.  It is a lesson we need to be reminded of every time we get the chance. 

Don’t rush past Calvary on your way to sunrise services.  Stop and look long and hard at the price that was paid for your sin and for mine.  It wasn’t cheap – God’s grace is anything but cheap.  The price wasn’t paid on Resurrection morning, but on the Friday before.  That is where the atoning was done, that is where the blood of the Lamb was spilled and when it was sprinkled on the altar.  The Resurrection was merely the joyous cosmic shout of God proclaiming the victory that was won on the Friday before! 

The cross – good Friday – is where we need to stop and ponder our lives – and the God who could possibly love us so much. 

PRAYER: Let us ponder and weep for our sin and what it cost our God to make it right. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple.

DayBreaks for 2/11/22 – The Real Life

Luke 6:17-19 (NLT) – When they came down from the mountain, the disciples stood with Jesus on a large, level area, surrounded by many of his followers and by the crowds. There were people from all over Judea and from Jerusalem and from as far north as the seacoasts of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and Jesus also cast out many evil spirits. Everyone tried to touch him, because healing power went out from him, and he healed everyone.

I don’t know about you, but interruptions can really bug me at times.  If I’m doing something that I am really into, that I dearly love, or if I’m concentrating really hard in thought, I don’t like interruptions.  Perhaps that’s because I’m getting old enough now that I can easily forget what I was doing or thinking when the interruption came barreling down on me! 

Some time ago and over a period of years, I spent my quiet time in what I can “The Jesus Exploration”.  I worked my way through all four gospels, a tiny bit at a time, expressly for the purpose of trying to get to know Jesus and his heartbeat better.  You know one thing that has consistently jumped out at me over and over again?  Here it is: it’s the way he always had time for people – for interruptions.  It might have been little children gamboling around his feet; a rich young man who came to learn what he needed to do to inherit eternal life; a Pharisee named Nicodemus who was full of questions; a large crowd of sick and broken people; a Roman centurion who had a sick servant; a funeral procession along the road out of Nain; or even religious leaders who Jesus knew were plotting his demise.  It didn’t matter who they were – or even what they wanted – He spent time with them.

I think about how often I give short-shrift to the clamoring of those round about me.  I pretend not to hear sometimes.  I pretend not to see.  I don’t want the interruption. 

But is that really the problem?  Is it really that I don’t want the interruption or that I don’t want to have to get involved with other people – especially if they seem to have a problem and I won’t want to get sucked into it?  I fear that it is far more often that I don’t want to get involved.  I want to live my own life in my own way – choosing the interruptions I want to honor and those I want to ignore. 

Jesus didn’t give himself that luxury, apparently.  Should we give it to ourselves?  What we often think of as interruptions may in fact be the very reason for us being in a given place at a given time.  Consider this bit of wisdom from C. S. Lewis: “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own’, or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.” – C.S. Lewis, from a letter to Arthur Greeves, 20 December 1943 

Perhaps we have been mis-lead about what constitutes our “real life”.

PRAYER: Lord, help us to see interruptions as possible Divine interventions to shake us out of our self-life into the life You intend us to live!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2022 by Galen C. Dalrymple. ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 7/19/21 – Like the Leaves of Autumn

Every year since 2004 Time magazine has each year recognized 100 people as the most influential in the world. As heady a thing as it would be to find your name on such a list, the recognition also highlights the fragility of life and power in this world.

In May 2008 Time recognized journalist Tim Russert as one of the 100 most influential people for the power he wielded over politics on the program Meet the Press. In June of 2008 the respected and beloved Russert suffered a heart attack at age 58 and died.  How long has it been now since you’re heard about him?  Can you even remember?

Also named among the most powerful in the world were the three candidates still in the race for president: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. One month later, Hillary Clinton ended her campaign, and before the year was out McCain lost in the national election. 

Follow the others on the top 100 list and you can depend on it: their influence will pass, some in fading glory like the leaves of autumn, others overnight like a towering tree felled by a lumberjack.

Even for the most tenacious, life and power are brief.  As we sang in worship this past Sunday, “Who are we compared to you?”  The answer was well documented by the Psalmist long ago: Psalm 39:4-5 (NLT) – “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.”

Our time is limited, my friends.  We will soon vanish.  Will they way you have spent your time here truly reflect what you say you believe to be important?  Will it resonate with the deepest longing of your heart and soul?  If you think the answer may be “No”, even in just some areas of your life, now is the time to make adjustments.

PRAYER: Lord, we invite you to search our hearts, to show us where we need to change our lives to live in harmony with what you tell us is important and not to waste away our years chasing fleeting shadow figures that would cause us to pursue frivolous diversions!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright 2021, Galen C. Dalrymple, all rights reserved.

DayBreaks for 8/20/20 – A Lot Can Change in One Day

Time is an interesting thing. First, it’s an earthly construct because there is no such thing in eternity. It is said that God lives in the eternal present, perhaps that’s why he gives his name to Moses as “I Am”.

But for us mortals, time is important. Each tick of the clock marks the passage of our life from its beginning to its mortal end. Time matters to us as people – and it should.

We sometimes grow weary of time, or more accurately, of how long things take. It can lead to discouragement and despair, a loss of faith and hope that things will change.

I think the Bible has a lot to say to us about time if we just read a bit between the lines. Consider the events of the crucifixion week. One day Jesus enters as a triumphant hero. A few days later he’s despised and rejected. One day he is acclaimed and lauded and the next he’s spit upon and mocked. If that was all there was to the story it would be utterly depressing leading us to think that only bad things happen with the passing of time, but that would be wrong.

On Saturday of that week the talk of the town must have been the Nazarene’s crucifixion and the way the sky grew dark, the earth shook, the temple curtain tore from top to bottom and how those previously buried popped up out of the ground and walked around. For those who’d hoped in him it was a day of dark despair. But it was about to change.

On Sunday the stories changed. In the span of just one day things went from utter dejection to incredulous wonder and joy as stories of his appearing and the empty tomb wound their way through the streets.

What’s the point? Maybe you are despairing, thinking it is useless to even try anymore to hold on to hope. You may be thinking of cashing in all your chips and saying goodbye to this world. Please don’t! A lot can change in a day – from death to life, from unemployed to employed, from weeping to joyful laughter. A lot can change in a day and you have the promise from the Almighty Father that his plans for you are good ones so that you might prosper if you just hang in there.

Today may be a mess for you, but don’t give up hope. A new day is coming and it just MIGHT be the day it all turns around for you! Wouldn’t it be a shame to miss it?

PRAYER: Father, for those despairing today I pray you will give them hope again. Remind them of your love and your good plan even when it is too dark for them to see it. Let us never forget that one single day can make an eternity’s worth of difference! In Jesus’ name, Amen.Copyright by 2020 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 6/29/20 – The Old Made New

DayBreaks for 6/29/20: The Old Made New

Today I celebrate by birthday. Do you remember how much you looked forward to birthdays when you were a wee kid? Somehow, as I’ve passed through decades of life a lot of that excitement has worn off and I wonder how many birthdays I have left in this old body of mine.

While walking the dog yesterday morning, I was listening to Zach Williams song, Face to Face, and these words struck me: There’s a day, coming soon Where the old will be made new And Heaven’s glory shines like the morning Before our eyes. I’ve often contemplated the promise that all things will be made new, but more often than not I think about a new heaven and new earth: new mountains without erosion, new galaxies without supernovas, new oceans filled with undying life, new skies without pollution…in short, I tend to think of “things” that are old (for the mountains and canyons of this earth are far older than I) being made new in their pristine wonder and majesty. And I look forward to seeing all those things when they are made new again.  

But as I walked, it struck me that part of what is old is me… and part of the old that will be made new is me. I have known that intellectually for a long, long time, but it really hit me this time as I’m celebrating my 68^th trip around the sun.

I recall when I could run like the wind and never get winded. I could leap like a frog and touch the rim of a basketball hoop even though I’ve never exceeded 5’8.5” in height. I had boundless energy and strength. Those days are gone. My bones, muscles and sinews are old and creaky. As I watch my grandchildren run and laugh and leap, I’d love to be able to run and play with them in those ways without fear of my heart seizing up on me or a brittle old bone snapping in two! Alas, it will not happen again in this world and for the most part I can only watch and enjoy watching them delight in their youthful bodies.

But I will run again. I will leap again. I will never age, for part of the old that will be made new is “me”. God has already been working on making my heart, the inner me, new again-but the day will come when the outer me will be made new again. That’s something to look forward to. I long to run and not grow weary or fear brokenness.

In his mercy, when I see Jesus face to face, God will make all that is old, frail, fleeting, flawed, degraded and broken down full of life, vigor, strength and power – and better than it has ever been. What a glorious day that will be!

PRAYER: I praise you, God, that you have the power to make the old new and perfect. Help us not fear that doorway that leads to such healing, but to look forward to the change you will bring to fruition in us! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2020 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 5/22/20 – Lessons from a Time Capsule

At least once that I can recall, I was part of the burying of a time capsule.  In my 8^th grade year, my fellow students and I were part of the first class at Antioch Junior High school – a new school in town.  I vaguely remember a ceremony where a time capsule was buried.  I don’t for the life of me recall what was in it, nor if we each wrote something that was included.  I don’t even know when it is to be opened – or if it has already been opened.  Nonetheless, as a person who finds history intriguing, I think time capsules are fascinating.  They present us with eyes into a time gone by that helps us better understand those times and those who lived in them. 

Kevin Kelly, from Wired magazine, has had the privilege of being around numerous time capsule openings, and he’s shared one very valuable lesson that we would do well to incorporate into our mindset: “Stuff we think is important will not be in the future, and stuff we don’t think is important now, will be.” 

Why is it that we can’t seem to learn what is really valuable until it is taken from us?  Why is it we think we are doing something good when we sacrifice our precious time with our spouses and children and grandchildren for the sake of having more to buy “stuff” or go out with some buddies often? 

If I should live another 25 years, I wonder what things I’ll be able to look back on and say, “That really wasn’t as important as I thought it was.  I didn’t need it and it didn’t even work for very long before it broke.” 

I am a sentimentalist.  I have papers my kids (the youngest of which is now 37!) colored in school, Father’s Day cards that they gave me, a cup that they gave me as a gift when they were all little (and I refuse to use it because I don’t want it to break!)  And you know what, I think those kind of things will be even far more valuable to me in another 25 years than they are today – and today I consider them priceless. 

Let us not get distracted by stuff that won’t be meaningful, that won’t even be important, in the future.  Let us focus on the things Jesus focused on and rejoice that we can follow in His footsteps. 

PRAYER: Jesus, I have to say that I often have pursued frivolous things that seemed not only important, but urgent, to me at the time, and that I’ve wasted much of my life and resources in the pursuit of such things.  Teach me what is really good, what is truly valuable and truly important, and enable me to live for such things.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2020 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 5/18/20 – Time and the Lord’s Plan

As earth-bound creatures we are also bound by time. We have watches and phones and computers and sirens and even the sun and moon mark the passing of time for us. We can’t get away from it. We often feel there isn’t either enough, or there’s too much of it. But have we really considered how it is the servant of the Most High?

We are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of the day of this writing, in our county alone in Illinois 5,904 persons have tested positive and 298 have taken their last breath. We are all anxious for time to pass and this to be over. We hope for a vaccine to put it behind us.

What does all this have to do with time and God’s plan? Consider this: imagine taking a 3 year old to the doctor and the doctor says it’s time for the child to have a vaccination. And just before the needle is inserted into the child’s arm, there is great weeping, fighting against the invasion of the needle into the tiny, flailing arm. The screaming is heartbreaking. Does the child than the doctor for that shot? No! Even the mother or father are heartbroken for what the child is going through.

But imagine, years or decades later, an outbreak of the disease sweeps across the face of the earth. People are sick and dying. But the one who was that young child does not get the dread disease because of those few moments of pain as a child. You see, the vaccine protected the child and it was only through the passing of the time that the child can appreciate what the parent and doctor did years before.

There are many things that happen to us that are painful. Like that young child we wonder why our Father put us through them, why he led us bear the pain in our lives. But know this: He never causes pain except to prevent greater pain for us. Only in hindsight can we see how these things may have saved us even greater pain and loss. Time has been the servant of the Lord in such cases.

The present pandemic, well, it is painful. But we are being taught lessons, lessons we may not even be aware of at the present. Yet there is a purpose – a far greater purpose that we cannot envision – and we have God’s promise that ALL His plans for us are for our good. Find comfort in that promise!

Jeremiah 29:11 (MSG) – I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

PRAYER: Lord, we are impatient and have such limited sight into the reasons for all that happens. May we trust you so much that we can endure with patience the present pain to know that there is purpose for all that happens to us. And give us the wisdom to wait for the understanding with faith in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2020 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

DayBreaks for 3/25/19 – The Three Mile Per Hour God

We love shortcuts, don’t we? Why? Because they are faster and save us time so we can move on to the next thing on our To-Do list or calendar. But, perhaps like me, you’ve found that the shortcuts often aren’t shortcuts, but long-cuts that wind up spending you more time in the long run. There’s an old saying that was common in the high-tech company where I worked that went like this: “There’s never enough time to do it right the first time, but there’s always time to do it over.”

Something I’ve learned over the year is that anything that is of truly lasting worth takes time. It takes time so raise a family. It takes time to make a good marriage. It takes time to build a career of integrity and honor. It takes time to be sanctified and learn to live a Godly life.

So here’s what may seem a contradiction: it’s not only better to go longer but better to go slower, too. In the short film, Godspeed, there’s a pastor who at the beginning of the film says these words: I’ve been running for most of my life, running through life to get somewhere else. But the things about running is that you miss most things, and if I kept running, I was going to miss everything.

The film describes Jesus as the “three-mile-an-hour God” because he walked everywhere he went. You may drive on the freeway at 70 miles per hour, or ride a bike at 15 miles per hour, but when you walk (3 miles per hour) you really noticed things. You can stop and smell the roses (literally), appreciate the sound of the birds or a brook or the wind in the trees, take the time for a conversation with a stranger or friend. As life shows down, it gets brighter and more spectacular because you have time to appreciate the miracles you encounter.

Consider this passage from Jeremiah 6:16a: This is what the Lord says, ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls.

Can you, just for today, test out the “long and slow” theory in your pace of life? If you can’t today, how about tomorrow or on the weekend. Take an extra moment to speak with a neighbor. Instead of praying while you drive, stop for a few quite minutes. Instead of parking as close as you can and then running into the store, park at the back of the lot and take the time to look up, look around, look within. And when  you take the time to walk slowly on the long roads, I believe you’ll find Jesus walking with you. He never rushes!

PRAYER: Help us take the long road so we may walk it with  you and revel in your creation and presence! In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2019 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>

 

DayBreaks for 3/14/19 – How Jesus Waits

From the DayBreaks archive, March 2009:

Oh, boy.  As I write this, I’m waiting for a phone call that I hope won’t come.  It is Friday night and I’m finally home and this is the last thing I have to do this week before I can take some time off.  But…I got a phone call not long ago.  I may have to take someone down to the emergency room.  I hope not – I don’t want this person to be injured (they are, but the question is whether or not they need to go to the emergency room because of it), and selfishly, I must confess, this has been a hectic week and I’m tired and I’ve been looking forward to a quiet evening at home with my wife and two dogs and maybe playing with my camera a bit (one of my hobbies).  Waiting…tick, tock, tick, tock…I don’t like waiting.

This morning I waited for my wife to get ready to drive to Santa Rosa.  At the store, we had to wait in line to buy a couple books.  Then, we had to wait in line at Circuit City (they were having the final 2 days of their going out of business sale and it was a madhouse).  We went to Jack in the Box (a cheap date meal!) and had to wait there.  I wonder how much time we spend on average in waiting? 

We are an impatient lot.  If we wait for what we consider to be too long of a time, we get angry and insolent.  After all, we have places to go and things to do and people to see, right?  Waiting…tick, tock, tick, tock…I don’t like waiting.

I don’t like people to have to wait on me.  Let me be 20 minutes early rather than 10 seconds late.  I’m happy that way!  But then I often have to wait anyway because the person I was to meet with isn’t ready for me yet!!!!  Aarrrghhh!!!!

Have you ever thought about Jesus and how he must wait?  He’s waiting to hear the word, “Go!” from the Father to return to the earth and sift the wheat and tares.  He’s waiting to cast Satan and his angels into the pit.  And here’s a shocking one: in the Lord’s Prayer, he prayed “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  I think he’s still waiting for most of that to come true, too, don’t you?

How does Jesus wait?  Calmly, patiently.  Of course, he has an advantage over us: time has neither hold on him nor bearing over him.  We have finite time.  Maybe that’s why we get so impatient.  But we need to learn to emulate Jesus in our waiting as well as in our walking.  We can redeem the time we spent waiting by meditating on a passage of Scripture, on singing a song to the Lord in our head or out loud (depending on the circumstances).  We can read a Christian book (please, preferably not fiction – but something with some real meat to it).  We can talk to those around us about how much joy and peace we have – and who knows, maybe the conversation will lead to the point we can share our faith.  It’s a much better way to wait than by fuming.

Prayer:  Jesus, may we learn to redeem our waiting time and to honor you in it!!  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Copyright by 2019 by Galen C. Dalrymple.  ><}}}”>