My thoughts (Brenda Corbello):

I have often felt called to teach. That does not mean that I want to be a “teacher” in the traditional sense of the word. There is no way I am patient enough for that. But I hear loud and clear the calling to “instruct them in the practice of all that I have commanded you.” Because I have such a loving and supportive spiritual relationship with God, I often feel compelled to share just how I got it, and how I try to keep it. I believe we are all called to do this in some respect.

But as we all know, when it comes to actually doing it, people can be so complicated. When I meet someone, they arrive with all the baggage that comes with the things that have happened to them, lots of which I never dreamed existed. I am constantly surprised at the things that people have been through. These experiences mold how they perceive things and how they feel about them. I believe that we cannot be too cautious in this respect when we begin to share something as powerful as how to develop a spiritual life. I have not found the “you should do this; you should not do that” approach very successful in teaching about spiritual matters.

Ironically, although many people have experienced so much more, they can actually be less spiritually mature than they think. However, that does not discredit the fact that they still bring a unique perspective to the situation, and that I can learn a lot from them as well. I need to remember this when I am sharing. I need to communicate to them that I acknowledge their perspective, and that I appreciate what they can teach me. I have found that people tend to open up quicker when they feel that what they have to give is acknowledged and appreciated.

My attitude is also of critical importance. I have discovered that many people are not nearly as concerned with the what I am actually saying as they are with how I am saying it. They are more concerned with my attitude than any answers I might give them. I heard a saying once that really hit home with me. “People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” Taking that to heart has made all the difference in the world for me.

I may have a certain amount of knowledge from studying books and I may have had many experiences that have helped me grow, but, when it comes to how people receive the information, I am totally at their mercy. Regardless of how good or important the subject matter is, if no one is listening, then no one is learning.

Thought for the day: God, help me remember that, although I am called to teach, I am first called to love. Let me share my message with kindness, humility, and sincerity.

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

My thoughts (Tyler Connoley):

“I’m a twenty-first century person,” she said. “I’m scientifically minded, and I don’t know what I think about the Resurrection. What do you have to say to someone like me?” As an ordained minister and an out Christian, I get questions like this all the time. I’m sure you do too. The Resurrection is a stumbling block to many people, and we have a tendency to want to give them easy (or at least concrete) answers. But I don’t think we need to.

Fact is, I don’t know exactly what happened after Jesus died. I don’t know if God resurrected his body, if he was an ethereal ghost, or how he interacted with his disciples. I do know that something amazing happened, which transformed the lives of the disciples.

After the public and horrific execution of their teacher, the disciples were understandably terrified. They scattered. They huddled in rooms together, afraid that they would suffer the same fate as Jesus. During that time, the young religious movement we call Christianity was dead. The Christian Church had foundered before it could even get started.

Then, something miraculous happened! Women began telling stories of having seen Jesus. Other disciples reported having lunch with him. Others saw him. Then others.

Soon, the disciples were boldly preaching a new Gospel (meaning good news) of radical trust in God. They were absolutely certain that even when the world did something as terrible as kill someone by crucifixion, God could make good out of it. God could be trusted. Despite bitter persecution — and accusations that they were liars — the disciples continued to spread the news that Jesus was alive. None of them ever recanted this story, and many of them were in fact executed, just like Jesus, for refusing to back down from their story of God’s miraculous power and trustworthiness.

Since then, billions of people have had their lives resurrected by the same God who preformed a miracle after Jesus’ death. The power of the Resurrection is alive today in the lives of people throughout the world, and I have witnessed it first hand. I have seen drug addicts lost to the world, who have been brought back by the power of trusting in the God Jesus called Father. I have seen relationships, once thought hopeless, resurrected by the power of God’s grace. I have seen churches stand up against tyranny, and win by the power of their faith.

Thought for the day: Ask me if I believe in the Resurrection, and I will tell you the truth. Whatever the facts of what happened after the Crucifixion, the Resurrection was real.

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

My thoughts (Ben Lamb):

Have you ever been faced with a monumental decision and didn’t know what to do? How about “What should be done with the lifeless body of the Son of God?”

This is one of the more gut-wrenching passages of the Bible for me to read; I’m gradually drawn into it in a 1st-person sense while reading it. Among other points in this passage, we have Joseph — a disciple who risked his life and fortune to request to take possession of Jesus’ lifeless body. That act, alone, had to have outed him and possibly ruined his reputation forever. But, he didn’t let it prevent him from honoring his Lord in a final act of caring and compassion.

I can’t begin to imagine what it must have been like to lean a ladder against the cross and climb up there. Then to tug and pull out the nails from Jesus’ hands and feet, ripping the dead man’s flesh even more, and seeing additional blood come spilling out onto Joseph’s own hands. I wonder if Joseph was ever able to keep from crying whenever he butchered an animal or carved dinner meat after that day.

When I think of the two women — each named Mary — who were sitting across from the tomb which Joseph willingly forfeited for Jesus, I picture them too shaken to do anything except gaze in shock as Joseph carries the rag doll-limp body of Jesus which he’d just finished wrapping in burial cloths. As Joseph, I’d feel so odd while winding the final strips of material over my friend’s face; kind of like I were suffocating him, even though I knew he was already dead. But still, it had been such a short time ago that I’d seen him alive; was it all a horrible nightmare from which I’ll soon wake up? And then as I go to lay him on his final resting spot, and turn around to leave the sepulcher and ultimately desert him, I slam a door of rock across the only means of escape for him. . .

When I’m outside again, the two women and I unsuccessfully attempt to console one another throughout our relentless wailings and endless tears.

This was, indeed, a scenario for which there was no established set of etiquette rules, nor any type of precedent. How’d they know what to do?

Some might say they were following their established “bury before sundown” tradition. Some would say it was prophesy being inescapably fulfilled. Others have additional opinions. But, you know what? One thing that they all have in common is this: Jesus was being shown honor.

That’s what I want to try to do in my own life: honor Jesus in all that I do. It’s part of what I believe to be inherent in being a Christian.

Thought for the day: Jesus, whenever I’m faced with a “What’ll I do?!” moment, may my actions be sure to honor you.

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

My thoughts (Tammy Mills):

It’s 3:31 am and I’m sleeping soundly next to my love when a shriek startles me awake. I jump from my bed, stumble over shoes and head in the direction of the shriek. It seems to be coming from my baby boy’s room.

I barrel through his door, stubbing my toe on his latest farm implement. I get to his bed and look down at him. I fully expect to see him writhing in pain, the shriek was that intense. Instead I find him smiling up at me. I look at him and in astonishment, I ask him, “Dude, what’s wrong?” To which he replies, “I didn’t know where you were.”

I guess my little man felt forsaken. Today we find Jesus feeling forsaken. He cries out, wondering where God has gone. I know there have been times in my life when I felt forsaken, even by God. It brings me a measure of peace, in those times, to know that Jesus understands what that feels like.

Thought for the day: Have you ever felt like you just don’t know where God is? Know that you aren’t alone. We all go through those times. Hang on. Cry out. So far, for me at least, God has always come running — even if there were obstacles in the way!

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

My thoughts (Steve Adams):

When I was seven years old, my mother told me the young lady next door had cancer. Even though I realized she would probably die before long, I didn’t feel any empathy toward her. At that age, I didn’t seem to have the capacity to put myself in her shoes and see the magnitude of what it all meant. It seemed very foreign and distant to me.

A few months after I learned of her illness, she gave me some Rice Crispy treats she had made herself. They tasted good, of course, but didn’t make that big of an impression on me. Now, as I look back, I see her gift as a highlight of my young life. This lady bestowed a kindness on me — someone she hardly knew — in the shadow of her hopeless diagnosis. And, as I remember her now, I feel all of the compassion my childhood mind was oblivious to.

As I read of the humiliation, shame, and pain poured upon Jesus, I wonder if at times the account becomes too much like a cliché, losing its impact because we’ve heard it so many times. It also makes me think about how deeply we empathize when we hear about the massive floods in Pakistan, or the continuing plight of Haitians living in crowded tents more than six months after the earthquake. Am I numb to it all? Does it seem too distant and foreign to pierce through to the empathetic part of my heart? And what about suffering right here in my own neighborhood, city, and country? Often when I hear of someone who’s suffering, the Spirit stirs in me and says “This isn’t just ‘some person out there.’ It’s a life!”, a creation of God who’s just as real as a good friend or loved one.

At my church (Jesus MCC), we’re extremely fortunate to have the Pastoral Care Team that prays and ministers to the sick and suffering. We’re also blessed to have an active, vibrant Missions program that helps the unfortunate in far away places.

I thank God that Christ can touch each one of us, making us people of great empathy and compassion.

Thought for the day: Thank God each one of us can do something big to help the sick and suffering. We can pray! We might also be able to give financially. And some can travel to areas of need and help directly. Thank you, God that we never have to say, “There’s nothing I can do about it!”

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

My thoughts (Melody Merida):

Do you ever wish that you could take something back, something you’ve said or done? Do you ever wonder what life would be like today if you could just go back in time and change one thing? I do.

Several years ago I betrayed the trust of a very dear friend of mine and hurt her tremendously. It is without a doubt the single most regretful thing I’ve done and I think about it often. My actions had consequences and there was a heavy personal price. That experience taught me so much about who I did and did not want to be.

While that mistake was a big one for me it doesn’t seem to compare to the mistake of the crowd who are prepared to take the blood of Jesus upon their own and their children’s heads. Did they know what they were saying? Could they possibly know who they were seeking to kill? This one betrayal will forever be how they are remembered throughout history.

I wonder what their answer would be now if we could somehow reach through time and space to ask those folks if they would answer the same way all over again today. Maybe they would say, “I was just caught up in the emotion of the crowd.”  “I didn’t even know the guy but I didn’t want to stand up for him, maybe then I would have gotten hurt.” “I thought he was the enemy because that is what my church leaders told me.”  If only they had known the truth. . . if only.

Each one of us leaves a legacy of sorts, for better or for worse. While I may not literally have Jesus’ blood on my hands, I have my friend’s heartbreak on my hands. Unfortunately, that will be a part of my legacy. There are no good excuses about just following the crowd, or being afraid for our own reputation, or just following church orders. The reasons behind the decisions we make will long be forgotten and only the consequences will be remembered; let’s try to get it right the first time so there doesn’t need to be any looking back. The decisions we make today matter.

Thought for the day: Each decision you make, every word you speak will be a part of your legacy. How will history remember you?

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