Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“‘Agree with God, and be at peace;
in this way good will come to you.
Receive instruction from his mouth,
and lay up his words in your heart.”
NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, June 30, 2020
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
What a great question! “Can a mortal be of use to God?”
All my life I was raised to believe in a God that is infallible, omnipotent, and eternal. That meant that God knew all things and only ever acted with complete perfection.
As I grew older I started to see that understanding of God as quite binary. Either God knows all things or God does not. Either God is perfect or God is not. Honestly, this line of thinking led me to believe in a God that was, well, boring.
A perfect God has no room for learning and growing (a human characteristic I find immensely appealing! – and we were created in God’s image, were we not?). An all-knowing God is never surprised, disappointed, delighted, or engaged in the minute-by-minute unpredictable nature of humanity.
No, I’ve come to believe in a God that chooses to step into our timeline, sits on the edge of God’s seat as we make our choices, and is delighted or disappointed billions of times each day. I like to think of God as knowing all the possibilities of our choices and the outcomes, but does not know exactly what paths we choose until we choose them. I think God doesn’t know whether a person will be healed until healing occurs or does not.
We have so much to do with how this world turns out. Even God cannot heal a bullet wound without the loving, persistent care of the medical professionals that God called and equipped. God cannot heal a broken relationship unless both parties respond to God’s call to patience and understanding, and make a commitment to work hard on the relationship. God cannot end a war without the wise leaders that respond to God’s call to compromise and peace.
So – can a mortal be of use to God? God needs us. Maybe that’s why we were created. Maybe God needed to have hands and feet on the ground so that God could be anticipating, surprised, delighted, and loved.
God, make use of my hands, my mouth, my thoughts, and all of me for this day. Amen.
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