Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“And I heard him swear by the one who lives for ever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end, all these things would be accomplished.”
NL Daily Devotion for Thursday, September 5, 2024
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
For some reason this makes me think of giving directions. I’m incredibly concrete where that’s concerned. I want street names and ordinal directions. I don’t even use the GPS on my phone. I look at a map ahead of time, know exactly where I’m going (I’ll even memorize street names on the fly) and off I go. I know someone who absolutely does not, can not, will not function this way. He navigates exclusively by landmarks and it drives me nuts. He can’t tell me how to get anywhere that doesn’t involve turning right past some church and being aware of a winding road and—oh! There’s the rock he was talking about! Turn left!) This is what it feels like when this person tells Daniel the time of the end. It actually makes me laugh, honestly.
Suffice it to say that maybe it’s just best that we don’t know when “the end” will be. Not the end of all time, not our own individual ends. When we don’t know for sure, we don’t have to stress about it. We can just go about our lives in the moment and trust that God’s got the rest of it. For some people, not knowing is stressful (certainly this person’s directions are!) and I totally get that, because I’m one of those people who wants to know everything. What helps me is the intentional, deliberate turning over of things I cannot control to God each and every day. It’s a spiritual practices that has given me a great deal of peace. And whatever the writer of Daniel meant to convey by this oblique statement of time, we can trust it’s just not up to us to know.
Do I find myself worried about things I can’t control? How do I release them?
