Today Daily Devotional

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

— Psalm 19:1

Once a week I meet with a friend early in the morning to run along the Chicago lakefront. When we begin, it is usually dark, and the city is quiet. Along the way we have seen a red fox that sleeps under bushes around Buckingham fountain, and we once came upon a handful of coyotes pacing the bike path, looking for rabbits.

By the time we head back, the sun is just beginning to peek over Lake Michigan. Before long, the sun’s rays reflect off Chicago’s silvery, mirrored downtown skyline. The sky begins to take on pink and orange hues, and the water can be so blue. It’s breathtaking every single time. The sheer beauty is something to behold. It is one of the few moments that weekly puts me in a state of awe.

Maybe you have a favorite walk that you take, a favorite spot to watch the sun set, or a telescope to look at stars, planets, or the moon—something that creates in you a sense of awe. Whatever does this for you, can you set aside a few moments today and take in the beauty and awe of God’s creation?

Lord, there is so much beauty in your world. Open our senses to be aware of your beauty and power in your vast creation. Amen!

If the Lord had not been on our side . . . if the Lord had not been on our side. . . .

— Psalm 124:1-2

“You remember me, Pastor?”

He stood outside the door of the church, a smile across his face. Squinting at him for a few seconds, I finally recognized him. Five years earlier, Terrell had been 50 pounds lighter and in the grip of an unforgiving substance addiction. He stood smiling, confident, with his arm outstretched and a 50-dollar bill in his hand.

“I know it’s not much, but if it had not been for God placing me in this ministry at that moment in my life, I don’t want to imagine where I would be. This place kept me going—meals, clothes, and a home for me. I thank God for you! Please use this to help somebody.”

Dr. Margaret Douroux wrote a song based on Psalm 124 that I often find myself humming: “If it had not been for the Lord on my side, tell me, where would I be? Where would I be?”

I thank God for Terrell. I thank God for the gifts he came with that day—his spirit, his encouragement, and his monetary contribution. Trusting and allowing others to walk with and encourage him took great humility on his part. I struggle to have that level of humility. And yet that sort of vulnerability opens a way for Christ to draw us closer as his community. If the Lord had not been on your side, where would you be?

Lord, give us the humility to look back and ask, “If you had not been on our side, where would we be?” Give us gratitude for your faithfulness. Amen.

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. . . .”

— Matthew 18:10

Both Annette and her son, Lloyd, were born with disabilities and were often ignored by others. They worshiped at Roseland Christian Ministries and worked in the food pantry, drop-in center, and thrift store for 30 years. When Annette moved into a nursing home, Lloyd tried to manage without his mother. In an act of innocent hospitality, Lloyd allowed some shady men to move into their family home for shelter. Soon the men took over the house, and when Lloyd confronted them, they beat him to death.

In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches about having the trusting, dependent faith of little children, and of welcoming them into God’s kingdom. He also warns against doing any harm to “these little ones.” The Greek word for this term, mikron, means “small in significance or size”—and while it could refer to children, it can also describe other people that we might consider little or insignificant. In the kingdom of God, however, everyone is significant.

A group of RCM members, including the former pastor and his wife and other friends, gathered around Annette. Unable to leave the nursing home, Annette was rolled in her medical bed into a community room where we celebrated Lloyd’s life and the promises of God. A church member, Steve, sang, “Jesus loves me! This I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong; they are weak, but he is strong.”

Father, thank you for your love and strength over all of us, for we are all mikron. Amen.

“When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?”

— Matthew 25:38-39

Driving to Roseland Christian Ministries on a busy morning, I sometimes feel discouraged with the never-ending line of people at the doors needing groceries, a meal, a bus pass, a utility bill paid, a friend, or a letter to a judge on behalf of a young person in legal trouble.

As I wait for the traffic light to turn green, I stare ahead, pretending to be on my phone while a man stands outside my car window asking for money. Sometimes I roll the car window down, make eye contact, and talk with the person outside. When I do, I’m reminded of my weaknesses, and I’m grateful for this community that embraces all people.

In Jesus’ parable the goats are people who ignore neighbors that are imprisoned, hungry, and suffering. The sheep are people who offer a cup of cold water, shelter, and compassion to neighbors that are hurting. The big reveal of the parable is that Christ is present with “the least of these,” and we are called to serve hurting and humiliated people in Jesus’ name.

We have the opportunity to serve Christ when we care for people who are hurting. If we think we are happy in our comfortable, safe lives, we are invited to let go of our illusions and enter community with others. This is the body of Christ. We need others, and others need us. We roll the window down and enter community, for Jesus’ sake.

God, give us the strength to love and the will to enter community and let others in. Doing so, may we sense the very presence of Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

— Luke 11:9

I received a text message late one night from the pastor of a large African American congregation in Chicago: “Sorry to bother you so late, but something hit my spirit. Do you have a family in your congregation that could use an anonymous financial blessing? They can use it however they want, but we want to bless them unexpectedly, with financial resources that have no strings.”

Tracey has lived in the Roseland community nearly all of her life. She is raising three children while working an assortment of jobs. She also volunteers at the Roseland Christian Ministries food pantry, dropping off groceries to families who are physically unable to leave their homes. Tracey was also saving money to purchase a house, and it would take a few more years before she would have enough to be able to purchase a home. The pastor and congregation anonymously gifted Tracey $15,000. When she heard about the gift, she silently mouthed, “Thank you, Lord.”

I’m so glad this pastor texted me at the midnight hour with the news of this gift. And I’m glad Tracey was willing to receive it. She had been asking God to make a way where it seemed no way was possible.

Two months later Tracey was able to purchase and rehabilitate a boarded-up home. Her family has a home now. She knocked—and a door opened.

Teach us, Lord, to knock on your door, ask, and learn how to receive. Teach us to seek after you. Amen.

The Spirit told Phillip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

— Acts 8:29

Emotions ran high as we debated on social media the shooting of a teenage boy by a Chicago police officer. I took one side, and a former classmate, a Chicago police officer, took another. We both dug in deeper, and we were both convinced that our own individual viewpoint was the only way to see things.

A week later, following a friend’s prompting, the officer and I sat across from each other in a Chicago diner. I stirred my coffee with a spoon. Then he finally said, “Can we pray?” We did. And then, for the next two hours, we listened to each other. We committed to meet again. The next month, in the middle of the night, I received a text from a young man—a musical artist just released from prison on parole.

“Pastor, I need prayer. I look over my shoulder everywhere I go because of the life I live. Can you pray for me? I have no one to turn to. I’m despairing.” The next morning, I called, and we prayed together. We have texted and prayed together regularly since then. Where is the Holy Spirit taking us, and into whose lives? A police officer? A musical artist on parole? An old friend? An enemy? We never know.

God, lead us to follow your way, no matter how far it may lead outside our own plans. Like Philip as he met with the Ethiopian official on a desert road, may we be in step with your Spirit and obedient to his call. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

We are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

— 2 Corinthians 6:16

Ms. Betty, 86, shuffles with her walker to the front of the sanctuary. She drops to her knees while singing the words of a spiritual: “Walk with me, Lord! Walk with me. While I’m on this tedious journey, I want Jesus to walk with me.”

Thirteen years ago Ms. Betty’s granddaughter Sabrina died in a car accident, leaving three young sons behind. Ms. Betty took in all three great-grandsons. After church one Sunday, one of those grandsons, Andre Taylor, was shot and killed.

Roseland Christian Ministries has been her refuge—she comes here four to five times a week. She’s at worship and Sunday school on Sunday, prayer meeting on Tuesday, hospitality committee on Wednesday, and stops in at other times too. Some days she needs prayer; some days she needs groceries.

Most of all, like the rest of us, she needs assurance that God is with her—that Jesus is still walking with her. Whether we are aware of it, feel it, acknowledge it, or not—we worship the God who, in Jesus and by his Spirit, walks with us.

God is with you. Christ is present with you on your journey today and every day.

Walk with us, Lord. While we are on this journey, please continue to walk with us, be our guide, and hold our hand. Amen.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

— 2 Corinthians 13:14

Anthony, wearing a black bomber jacket and aviator sunglasses, paces back and forth outside my office. I’m on the phone, but he gestures repeatedly that I should “hang up the phone.” Now inside my office, he continues to pace, rips off his sunglasses, and blurts out, “I need communion. Now, Pastor. Sir. Now indeed. Indulge.”

Anthony struggles with his mental health. He has no access to quality mental care, so he wanders the streets talking to voices in his head, and he self-medicates with cocaine, marijuana, and alcohol. Five years ago he tested positive for HIV. His outbursts have led to his being barred from shelters around the city. He sleeps on a mattress in his cousin’s garage.

“Pastor, I need communion, sir, and I need it now.” Mental, physical, and emotional trauma have left him incapable of building trusting relationships. He needs to know he belongs—to God and neighbor.

Felisha and Raphael, church council members at Roseland Christian Ministries, are both present. We scrounge up some bread and grape juice and gather in a circle, the four of us in my office. “Anthony, the body of Christ, broken for you; the blood of Christ, shed for you.”

Anthony breathes deeply and says, “The body of Christ for me. Indeed. Amen.”

Lord God, move us into relationship with you, community, and creation. In Jesus, Amen.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

— Matthew 13:44

Come to Chicago’s Roseland neighborhood with me. Drive down Michigan Avenue, past Root Brothers Hardware. “Checks Cashed” blinks in neon from the Currency Exchange, and “$2,300 – LIKE NEW!!” shines from the window of a red Chevy Cavalier. Snow falls on people outside Roseland Christian Ministries (RCM) as they wait for the food pantry to open.

Just inside the front door eight men and women are busy stacking cans and boxes of food. As they finish, RCM volunteer Ms. Arlene says, in a Jamaican accent, “OK, let us gather to pray. . . . Holy Spirit, fill us with the love of Jesus. May your gifts be given to your people. Amen.” For the next two hours this group of employees and volunteers serves groceries to people coming in from the local community.

The corner of East 109th and Michigan in Chicago is a part of God’s kingdom. Like a farmer who finds treasure in a field and then sells everything he has to purchase that field, I have had the privilege of seeing and working in a sliver of God’s kingdom here on Chicago’s South Side.

And as you meet some of the people here, my hope is that you may discover a deeper awareness of Christ’s presence in the communities where you live.

Lord, open our eyes to see you and our ears to hear you. May we be surprised by the treasure that is your kingdom in the communities we are a part of. Amen.

He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!”

— Revelation 21:5

Some imagery that appears in the beginning of the Bible is contrasted or expanded upon in the final chapters of God’s grand story of salvation. The unformed abyss in Genesis 1, for example, is contrasted with the stunning architecture of the heavenly city in Revelation 21. The tree of life in the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9; 3:22-24) is multiplied in Revelation 22 and described as constantly bearing fruit and providing healing for the nations. And the image of the Spirit hovering and brooding over the waters is contrasted with the One who is now seated on the throne.

Creation will be complete, fully formed and mature, and we will enjoy glorious, delightful friendship with our loving Creator, who invites us to live with him in the perfect unity of love that has always characterized God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The awe-inspiring creation that we live in today will be the foundation for the new creation, and we can look forward to rejoicing along with birds and all other creatures in the new heaven and earth.

Not only is Christ seated in the heavenly realms, but we who love and trust him are also raised up with Christ and are seated with him even now (Ephesians 2:6). This means our lives are firmly grounded and maturing in Christ as we enjoy the intimacy of living in communion with God each day while awaiting his coming again.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, may all honor and glory be yours, now and forever! Amen.