Micah 6:8
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
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The teenagers in my confirmation group know the difference between talking about the right thing and doing the right thing. You don't have to have tons of life experience to begin to see the disconnect in how we talk and what we do.  Justice, love, humility are noble words that when dropped into a sentence, the audience applauds and then goes back to sitting and watching.  The twitter-version of the confirmation lesson for the evening was on justice:  Being a Christian means going out of your own way to help a stranger.  That is justice. That is loving kindness.  That is walking with our God.  
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Move us, Lord, from talking to action. Amen.

Psalm 15
Lord, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill?
Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;
who do not slander with their tongue, and do no evil to their friends, nor take up a reproach against their neighbors
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I have written a number of recommendation letters for people seeking scholarships or jobs.  I met a corporate headhunter once and ask him if there were words or phrases in those letters that tended to help or hurt potential candidates.  He told me that the kiss of death on performance review or recommendation form was the phrase "lacks common sense."  It strikes me that the life to which God is urging us to live is one that just seems to be filled with common sense.  Take responsibility. Do what is right. Tell the truth. Don't lie about or hurt other people, especially your friends and neighbors.  Makes sense but we don't heed it with the vigor and intentionality it requires.  What if we wore labels like "lacks common sense" or "Warning: does not play well with others."  It wouldn't solve anything and leave us all lonely.  The alternative is choosing to live with others in the presence of the Lord - imperfect, yes - but willing to accept the common sense of the house rules. 
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Forgive me, Lord, and grant me your grace so that I might try again.  Amen.

I Corinthians 1:20
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 
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Once a year, colleagues in ministry from throughout Texas & Louisiana are invited to attend a theological conference. The planners always bring in a "talking head" - some wise person in some random field of thought.  Hundreds of people gather in a ballroom and listen to a presentation that may have a good point or two but not one that usually survives passed the lobby.  A colleague asked me an intriguing question: "If I were the planner of theological conference what would I do?"  I learn more in an hour sharing thoughts across a table with a person than I have ever learned from a "talking head" in a crowded ballroom.  I would set up card tables like timed chess matches, throw out topics, giving each person a designated time to speak and then change table partners for another round.  I know enough about myself and my colleagues to know that there are many fools among us and it is from the heart and minds of those fools that God tends to speak. 
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Holy God, forgive our pompous wisdom and bless our moments of clarity. Amen.

Matthew 5:1-3
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
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I have not witnessed a more pervasive and debilitating disease as depression. It is a wormhole that sucks the life forces out of a human being rendering them breathless and limp.  When Jesus spoke these famous words of the Beatitudes, it is to those in the pit of hopelessness that Jesus speaks the first blessing.  The kingdom of all that is good and right and true surrounds them, lifts them up, sets them down on solid feet.  The blessing of Jesus is a hand extended to a sunken chin gently cupping a face and turning it up.  Up is good. 
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Holy God, bless us with the healing we most need.  Amen.

Isaiah 9:4
For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian.
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I have been reading Donald Miller's storylineblog.com alot lately.  More often than not, it makes me think.  Today Miller quoted John Watson from the 1890's: “Be kind. Everyone you meet is carrying a heavy burden.” There is a world of hurt out there and I don't need to take out a map to find it.  This week alone I have been aware of the burden of more than one family grieving the loss of a father, of a young man's broken bone, of women awaiting frightening health diagnoses, of families torn apart by misunderstanding, of people angry and disappointed. Everyone is bearing a burden.  What the grace of God in Jesus Christ gives us the freedom to do is lay down our burden if only for a moment to ease someone else's. 
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Jesus, take my burden and I will look for someone who needs my free hand.  Amen. 

Psalm 27:4
One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
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We build spaces from the time of our youth.  The box the refrigerator was delivered in became my fortress for months.  Or perhaps it was a tent built of quilts or sheets, or a treehouse or a lean-to crafted in the woods.  Our homes are our castles so we say.  We want our safe and comfortable spaces. It is no wonder why when we imagine our lives in the presence of the Lord we build altars and grand sanctuaries and temples.  Sometimes those spaces do more to divide us than to accomplish God's purposes.  The vision that God gives us of a new heaven and a new earth is one in which there are no churches, no temples, no holy spaces set apart. When God builds a treehouse, it is really, really big. 
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Holy God, shelter us within the infinite walls of your grace. Amen.

I Corinthians 1:18
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
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Just now I had a hair stuck in the hinge of my glasses.  I pulled it out and it dropped on my desk.  For a nanosecond, I was surprised it wasn't brown.  I have a headful of gray hair that I see in the mirror every day and yet,  I forget from time to time I forget that time does indeed march through the cells of my body sucking the color out of it.  The fact is that we are all perishing.  The message of the cross is that death happens and that there's something bigger than death. The color of the hair on my head surprised me because death happens and I have Easter on my mind. 
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Holy God, you rock. Amen. 

Matthew 4:21-22
As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
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There is a bittersweetness about this scene.  Zebedee watching his sons leave the family trade to follow an itinerant teacher.  Was Zebedee proud? Was he angry?  Was he smart enough to know that he could not tell his adult sons what to do?  Was he jealous?  Did he busy himself with the nets in his hands looking down and looking up and looking down again, wrestling with the knot in his throat?  There are ways for all to be disciples of Jesus Christ.  Some drop what they are doing and follow.  Some keep doing what they are doing and give and believe in ways that reckoned as righteousness. 
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For all who serve and sacrifice in their own way, we give thanks. Amen.

Isaiah 49:5-6
And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— he says, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
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The purposes of God throughout scriptures have been dynamic and not static.  I was intrigued by a question posed by a speaker who asked "Is your church a destination or a vehicle?"  I am convinced that God's light travels at the speed of love. 
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Godspeed.  Amen.

Psalm 40:17
As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.
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Poor,  no, I would be ashamed to claim ever to be poor.  Needy, yep I am all about needy the last 24 hours.  Dental surgery that didn't go quite right and will have to be redone some months from now left me bruised and needy.  I would add put myself to the pitiful column today today too but I have too much to do to hang out there.  What helps is knowing that there is a thought rolling around in God's heart and mind with my name on it.  What helps is a piece of blue construction paper with children's thumbprints hoping I will "Get Well Soon."  God's heart and God's hands in my life.  I may be needy but not for long.  
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Holy God, for your constant care and the thumbprints of children, we give you thanks. Amen.