A WORD FOR TODAY, June 24, 2024
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion. If you received it from a friend, you can see other devotions and studies by visiting our website at www.awordfortoday.org.
Blessings. Peg
I am on vacation this week, so instead of my usual pattern of regular devotions on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Midweek Oasis lectionary devotion on Wednesday, I’m going to post devotions on the lectionary scriptures, one each day of the week.
Scriptures for Sunday, June 30, 2024: Lamentations 3:22-33 or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13-15, 2:23-24; Psalm 30; 2 Corinthians 8:7-15; Mark 5:21-43
A WORD FOR TODAY, June 24, 2024
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust - there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” Lamentations 3:22-33, WEB
One of the hardest things a parent has to do is to ensure that their children receive a fair and equal amount of the parent’s resources. It is hard because we can’t compare the needs of each child. One child’s hobby is time consuming, while another is more independent. A girl may need more expensive clothes than a boy, but the boy’s toys might be more expensive. How do you tell a child that the one package under the Christmas tree containing the Wii is equal to the packages of dolls and doll clothes and play kitchen accessories his sister found. We hope they won’t notice and try teaching them the value of their things, but this is a lesson that takes a long time to learn. To them, a dollar is the same as a hundred dollars. They base equity on what they can see, not on the reality.
I’m not sure we ever completely grow out of this idea of equality. It seems like fairness in our world today means everyone having exactly the same thing. I can’t tell you how many times the kids stood in the kitchen staring at chocolate sundaes trying to decide which one they would take. They want the one with the most ice cream, or the most chocolate syrup or the most whipped cream. If it even appeared as though one had more than the other, the child with the lesser bowl cried foul. “It’s not fair.” There’s no way to know, in the end, whether anyone has received their fair share of anything.
So, as we are thinking about this question of “fair share” we have to wonder what it is we want our fair share of. Do we want our fair share of wealth? What does that mean? Do we want our fair share of time with those we love? How do we define time spent? By minutes, hours, or quality? Do we want our fair share of love? It is impossible to measure love, but I can safely guess that at least a few of my readers feel like a sibling was given more love (or time or stuff) than his or her brothers and sisters. How do we assess whether or not we’ve received our fair share and what do we do if we learn that we’ve gotten too little or too much?
This is a ridiculous argument because there will always be people who have less and people who have more than us. We can’t go to the rich man and demand that he give us a portion. We can share with those who have less, but we all know that our resources only go so far. We can’t spend money we don’t have. We can’t share when our resources have been depleted.
The same is not true of God our Father. He is able to give as we need, whatever we need, because His resources cannot be depleted. Despite the tough times the people of Judah were facing, particularly with the destruction of Jerusalem, they were still able to sing about the faithfulness of God. The singer, an individual singing for the entire nation, said that the Lord is his portion. The Lord is his fair share. Nothing else matters. Yes, there was great loss, but God’s love is steadfast. In the midst of our troubles, we can wait for Him and He will come. We might have to suffer as we wait, bearing the yoke, sitting in silence, burying our face in the dust, offering our cheek to those who would strike and filled with disgrace. It might seem as though we have not received our fair share, unless we remember that God is our portion. We aren’t empty. We aren’t alone. We don’t need to have the same amount of stuff as our neighbor. He is enough.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276. Like the page to receive the devotion through Facebook. For information and to access our archives, visit http://www.awordfortoday.org