Archives for August 22, 2016

Devotion

The wisdom of this proverb begins to prepare us for the radical reversals of Jesus. Jesus lives not by power over, but by power beneath. Jesus lives by the power of trusting and serving. This reading helped me know this morning that it may be important—even revelatory—to stop and pull the weeds sprouting in the chapel landscaping before I scurried to all the "higher" things that needed doing. It wasn't that I expected the president to come by and say, "Oh, Paul, come to my office for iced tea!" It was rather that this word for this week reminds us to look for God—and beauty and life—beneath us instead of over us. Powerful people in our world clamor for position and pull one another down like kids playing "king of the mountain." The Bible instead focuses our view of power downward. Today the wisdom of proverbs prepares us for all Jesus will teach about places beneath: seeds and children, sweeping corners for lost things and washing feet.