Lenten Devotions: March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014                      Psalm 146

Monday                                   Isaiah 59:9-19

                                                Acts 9:1-20

Grandeur

By Martin (1926) and Micah Marty

(from Our Hope for Years to Come)

God rules. Those two words can guide us through a day just as they guide us through all of life. The vast majority of the people around us say they believe in God. The moment they or we in our belief or half-belief speak of God, we imply that “God rules.”

And “God rules.” Whatever order we find in our often apparently chaotic universe-and there is some- we must be able to trace back to its origins in the heights, the mountainlike heights of divine justice that presides over all.

Whatever order we find in our often apparently chaotic lives-and there is some-we must also be able to trace back to similar origins in the depths, the fountainlike depths of divine goodness and love. If it is not God’s justice and love that are both highest and deepest, then whose are? Then to whom do we trace the glimpses we have of such grandeur?

Such justice does not often come as if with the clap of thunder on the peaks or the roar of currents in the depths. God seems to arrive and be present in quiet ways. Yet the silence we experience does not mean that God is inactive. Where our needs are concerned, God never rests. Nor does such silence imply divine pressure. God takes time and waits for those who hope, waits for them to recognize the signals that come with perfect love.