Are you in the process of learning to live healthier? Maybe your New Year’s resolution was to eat better, exercise, or in some other way improve your physical health? Join us for the next few days as we offer scripture, insight, and encouragement to help on that journey.

Today’s scripture: Ecclesiastes 9:7-10 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

Get on with it! Eat joyfully. And drink with a merry heart. For God has long ago approved what you do. Always dress up, and never forget to shower. Enjoy life with the one you love all the fleeting days of your life on this earth. This life is your reward, and this work is all you have on earth. Whatever you find to do, do it well. For there is no doing, planning, or thinking in the land of the dead where you are going. (Ecc 9:7-10, author’s translation)

Some of us need to make resolutions to party less, eat less, drink less. Others of us — and I’m one of these — need to make resolutions to live more. We get so caught up in the things we think we ought to do that we never do the things we want to do.

Maybe you never enjoy the food on your plate, because it’s only a fueling stop before you run off to your next obligation. Maybe you’ve vowed never to dress up for a party until you can finally fit into that cocktail dress that’s three sizes too small for you. Maybe you rarely enjoy your family and loved ones, because you’re too busy with the “big important things” of life — as if the people you love aren’t important. Or maybe you slack off at your job, because it’s not the high-powered position you aspire to.

Whatever your reasons for not living, the author of Ecclesiastes challenges you to get on with it. Stop making excuses, and start living. Not tomorrow, today. One of my favorite fictional characters put it another way. Auntie Mame said, “Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death.”

Thought for the day: Are you waiting to die before you start living? Why not do some living now?

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

Jesus said the works he did testified to the fact he was sent by the Father. In the face of great opposition from the religious leaders of his day, he was able to stand up straight and say, “There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that God’s testimony to me is true.” The proof of Jesus’ sonship was the work God was doing in his life and in the lives of those around him.

When I read this passage, I think of what Jesus said in John 14:12: “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these.”

Today, we also experience persecution from religious leaders. As far as we know, no one is plotting to crucify the leaders of LifeJourney Church, but modern-day Pharisees certainly stand against us for breaking their rules, just as they persecuted Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Can we, like Jesus, point to the work God is doing in our lives and say God testifies on our behalf? I think so.

In the last chapter of our book, The Children Are Free, Pastor Jeff and I put forth an important argument for the full inclusion of lgbt people in God’s kingdom, which is essentially the same as what Jesus says in John 5. In the section titled You will know them by their fruits, we spend several pages chronicling the way God is working in the lives of lgbt Christians around the world — from lives transformed to miracles of healing. Then we say, “Everywhere you look, the gift of the Holy Spirit (God’s seal of approval) is evident in the lives of gay and lesbian Christians and our worship communities.”

Thought for the day: Maybe the opposition of religious conservatives still scares you. If so, think about how God is working in your life. You are a child of God, and like Jesus, you can say, “I know God’s testimony to me is true.”

Today, let’s join together in prayer for: those we know who have a hard time believing they are God’s children — and that can include ourselves, as well. May we listen to God’s testimony, and really believe what God says to us.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

This is the second week of Advent, the Christian season of preparation for Christmas. We’re looking at some of the traditional themes of the season. This week: Patience, Preparation, and Accepting.

Today’s scripture: Psalms 37 and 13 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for God;
do not fret over those who prosper in their way;
over those who carry out evil devices. (Psalm 37:7)

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long must I bear pain in my soul,
and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? (Psalm 13:1-2)

I love the book of Psalms for its ability to hold so many human emotions simultaneously in one place. Psalm 37 is a beautiful reminder to be patient, and trust God. The author of Psalm 37 lets us know “the wicked will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb.” Don’t fret over evil people, because they’ll soon be dead and gone. God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.

On the other hand, Psalm 13 screams out in anguish: How long, O Lord?! How long will bad people win?! It’s been thousands of years, and the have gots just keep getting more, while we have nots keep getting less. Have you gone to sleep, God? Do you not see what’s happening here?! God! I need some help! Not tomorrow! Today!

Advent is a season of waiting. During the darkest time of the year, we wait for the coming of the Light into the world in the birth of Jesus. And, during Advent, we’re often reminded to be patient. But patience is harder for some than for others. Some of us are able to trust, like the author of Psalm 37, that all is well, all is well, and all manner of things will be well. Others of us are crying out in anguish, like the author of Psalm 13.

In fact, these two attitudes toward waiting for God’s goodness have probably been present in each of us at different times in our lives. They are certainly present in every faith community, every church, every family, just as they are present in the choir of voices that make up the book of Psalms. They are present because they are needed. We need those gifted with great faith and hope to help us remember that it gets better, and we need those who are electrified with a sense of urgency at the pain in the world to keep us from getting complacent with how things are.

Thought for the day: In this season of waiting, you may be feeling hopeful at the glimmers of light to come, or you may be feeling urgency at the depth of the darkness still present. Either way, share your gifts with those around you. We need your perspective.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

When people try to use Genesis 2 as a reason for denying the validity of my same-sex marriage, I often wonder, “When was the last time you read Genesis?” Because, when I read that story, I find it says just the opposite of what they think it says.

In Genesis 2, God has created the first human (Hebrew adam). The adam is called “he” because Hebrew doesn’t have a pronoun “it” — all Hebrew nouns are either male or female, like in Spanish or French. However, the earliest Rabbis who interpreted this text told us the adam was neither male nor female, because God had not created the sexes yet. One image of the adam that I really like is of a creature with four arms, four legs, and two heads, similar to the image of the first humans in the Greek myth told by Plato.

God is happy with the adam, but realizes the adam is lonely. God says, “It is not right for the adam to be alone; I will make a helper corresponding to it” (Genesis 2:18, my translation). Then God proceeds to make all the animals of the earth, the birds of the air, and everything that swims in the sea. With each, God brings the animal to the adam who gives it a name, but the text tells us “there was not found a helper corresponding to it” (Genesis 2:20, my translation).

I imagine the story this way, God brings the cat to the adam and says, “Will this be a helper corresponding to you?”

The adam says, “That’s a cat.” It loves the way the cat purrs when it’s petted, and the way it curls up next to the adam when they sleep. The cat is a great stress-reliever and a wonderful companion when the adam is sitting under a tree thinking, but the cat is not a helper corresponding to it.

So, God brings another animal. And another. They all have nice attributes, but none are quite right.

When all the animals have been made, and a helper corresponding to the adam hasn’t been found, God puts the adam to sleep, and takes one of its sides (the King James Version translates this as “rib,” but “side” is closer to the Hebrew meaning). Out of that side, God makes another adam/human.

When the adam awakes, God brings the new human to it, and this time the adam exclaims, “This one, at last, is it! Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23, my translation). The adam has found a helper corresponding to it, and decides to call the new human woman. Anyone who has fallen in love knows the feeling expressed in that exclamation, “This one, at last, is it!”

The message of Genesis 2 is that humans need human companionship. Dogs and cats are great companions, and it’s wonderful to commune with nature, but they can never offer the kind of companionship other humans give us. Even if we’re not partnered, we are all “people who need people.”

And yet, some religious conservatives will use Genesis 2 to argue that certain classes of people are denied the companionship of marriage, because they fall in love with the wrong person. Arguing that Genesis 2 is all about the sex of the two humans, they say homosexuals must remain celibate for life. Worse yet, families and friends take this message and think it means they must disown their children, brothers, sisters, or friends. Having already denied them the companionship of marriage, they deny lgbt people the companionship of community.

Thought for the day: God said, “It is not right for the human to be alone.” It’s we who have twisted God’s words and added, “unless you’re gay, then you must be alone.”

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. Use the item above as a starting point, or consider the guidelines on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.”

To understand the importance of this statement, you need to know something about Moses’ story up to this point. He was born at a time when the Children of Israel were terribly oppressed. They were forced to work for other people as slaves living in work camps. Even worse, the government had decided to kill some of them to keep the population down — sort of a pest control project — and had ordered the execution of vast numbers of children.

In order to keep him safe, Moses’ mother had organized things so he could be adopted by an Egyptian woman, the king’s daughter. Hired as his nurse-maid, Moses’ mother told him stories of his people, and sang him the songs of his people, so he would know who he really was. However, you can imagine that he had a pretty severe case of identity crisis by the time he was a young adult. Was he Egyptian, the grandson of the King? Or was he one of the Children of Israel, as his nurse/mother told him he was?

One day, while Moses was out walking and perhaps thinking about his own questions about his identity, he saw an Egyptian man abusing one of the Children of Israel. In a fit of rage, Moses killed the Egyptian. He was trying to remember who he was, but in the process he committed an act of violence that required forgetting his own humanity — his true identity and the true identity of the other man as fellow children of God.

Moses thought no one had seen, so he hid the body. But the next day he was angry with someone else, and that man said to him, “Are you going to kill me like you did that Egyptian?” Afraid for what people knew about him, Moses ran. He ran to forget who he was, and so others would also forget. He ran as far as he could from civilization as he knew it, out into the desert. There he met a woman who was not an Egyptian or from the Children of Israel, and he married her, obliterating the final connections he had to who he was.

So, when Moses saw the burning bush in the desert, and God spoke to him, he was a man with an identity crisis. He didn’t know who he was, much less who this God was who was talking to him. Then the Voice from the bush told him to go back to his adopted grandfather the Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go.” Think about that phrase: Grandpa, let my people go. Talk about an identity crisis!

I believe it was in this context that God said to Moses the words he needed to hear: “I am who I am.” This is naturally understood as a message about God, that God is beyond any name and simply is. However, it was also a message that Moses needed to think about for himself. I am who I am. Beyond all the labels and confusion of identity, Moses was who he was. Not a son of a princess, not a child of Israel, not a murderer, and not the husband of a desert dweller, but simply a human being called by God. I am who I am.

Thought for the day: As you go through the next day, focus on this phrase: I am who I am. Rest in the knowledge that God is greater than any name you can place on God. Also remember that you are who you are, and that is enough.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

Then Jesus said to them, “Whose image is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Recently, a friend transformed this parable for me by asking a simple question: “If Caesar’s image was found on the coin, where do we find God’s image in the world?”

Think about that. Where is God’s image? Well, according to Genesis 1:27, “God created humankind in God’s image.” You and I are where God’s image is found. So if we’re supposed to give the emperor the coins that bear his face, doesn’t it follow that we should give God the those things that bear God’s likeness, namely ourselves?

But what does it mean to give ourselves to God? There’s a beautiful old hymn that I think captures the essence of giving ourselves to God. It says:

O to be like Thee! O to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

When we strive to align our lives with God’s call, when we try to be more godly in our interactions with others, when we love our neighbor as ourselves, we are asking God to stamp God’s image indelibly on us.

Prayer for the day: God, help me live the kind of life that let’s people know I belong to you. Let them see your image when they look at me. Amen.

We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.