Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 29

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Thirty

"Be careful how you treat people on the way up, because you may meet them on the way down."

This anonymous quote looks toward a kindness that should cut through occupation and status and standing.

I recently oversaw a funeral for a man who was known for treating custodians and CEOs equally - both with respect that is due all people.

Mother Teresa treated all classes with dignity.

We have a different understanding of class than they had in Job's day.  It is more fluid today as opposed to being so fixed in Job's time that transcending class seemed absurd.  Class still exists in society today but not with the same boundaries in place that keep people from intermingling.

Job's attitude toward those making fun of him has much to be desired from a supposed righteous person.  He complains that those making fun of him are younger than he is which indicates that age was a status as well and we don't have the same respect for our elders today.

But then Job goes on to denigrate them as inferior in that he wouldn't even have given their fathers jobs as shepherds of his flock.  They are no better than dogs in his opinion.

When it comes to strict classes, God would be above Job by a magnitude much greater than Job is over his tormentors.  But Job doesn't see the irony in his attitude.  Why should God give in to his demands for a hearing?  Would Job have had the same consideration for those he's talking about?

We are very interested in justice when we aren't getting it.  It may not be so pressing when it is lacking in others.  They can either get over it or they are making mountains out of molehills.  The prose of Job is subtle but I believe this has an important lesson for us.

Are there people that I regularly encounter whom I would see as beneath me in status if I were truly honest with myself?  How do I treat them?  Are there subtle differences?  How can I make a discipline of treating the minimum wage earner with equal dignity, pomp and circumstance that I would pay to the wealthy? 

Prayer for the day:

Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our siblings throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger.  Give them, through our hands, this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love, give peace and joy.  Amen.

Prayer by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, India, 20th Century

Photo from the Series: Reagan White House Photographs, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989. Collection: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989.  Public domain.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 28

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Twenty-nine

One of the universal traits of the human condition is nostalgia for the good ol' days.

This is especially true if you were on top and had it all.

Of course, another universalism is that nothing stays the same.

Change becomes inevitable and if nothing else, the human body begins to age as it experiences wear and tear through the years.  

As we look at Job, he is longing for the past when the world was his oyster.  He doesn't list anything negative - it was all good - in contrast to his current predicament.  

Sometimes our monuments are obvious
to everyone but ourselves

When someone today speaks about their own exploits and goes on and on, I start to question their humility.  It may seem to me that they have a need to convince me that they are important.  This can often come from poor self-esteem.  It can also stem from poor self-awareness.

I once heard of a pastor in my conference who confessed to another minister that he didn't always feel the need to pray the prayer of confession in worship.  He was close to retirement and felt that he didn't sin as much as he used to.

Now this is possible and is certainly the goal of United Methodist pastors in sanctification.  But even if I felt this (someday?), I would never say it out loud!  The sin of pride can be confessed if nothing else.

It could be that Job is not quite as innocent as he claims and may be in denial.  Sometimes we have the biggest difficulty in confessing the sins to ourselves.  But true growth can only happen when we are honest about where our sticking points are.

As we continue to see Job as a stand-in for the country of Judah during the exile, it is interesting that the critiques of the prophets for why the people went into exile are the very things that Job says that he used to accomplish on a regular basis.  Sometimes the donor and the recipient see things a little differently.

How can we cultivate greater self-awareness as we move through Lent?

Prayer for the day:

Write deeply upon our minds, O Lord God, the lesson of your holy word, that the pure in heart may perceive you.  Leave us not in the bondage of any sinful inclination.  May we neither deceive ourselves with the thought that we have no sin, nor acquiesce idly in anything of which our conscience accuses us.  Strengthen us by your Holy Spirit to fight the good fight of faith, and grant that no day may pass without its victory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer by Charles John Vaughan, Church of England, 19th Century

Photo by John Eikleberry via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 27

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Twenty-eight

Job seems to give a soliloquy on wisdom in the midst of all that is happening to him.

As we think about wisdom, it seems that one couldn't put a price on it.  Verse 15 states:

"It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price."

Certainly, our institutions of higher learning might beg to differ on this adage!

When Job states that "the price of wisdom is above pearls" in verse 18, it reminds me of the parable that Jesus told in Matthew 13:45-46:

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it."

Wisdom, like the kingdom of heaven, is something that one would give up everything to possess.  

We finally get a hint of what Job considers wisdom in the last verse of the chapter where God states:

Sometimes we learn from our mistakes.

‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’

As we see what Job has endured, one could say that a part of what this book is getting at is that wisdom can be gained in suffering.  I'm certainly wiser for the difficulties I've had to endure.  Hopefully, these things give us greater empathy for one another rather than greater cynicism.  

The perspective of wisdom may be that we understand that bad times don't endure but that good times don't either.  Both are ephemeral.  We have to celebrate the good while we have them and help each other through the bad when they occur.  Maybe in this we discover the kingdom of heaven.

I like the Black Crowes song called "Wiser Time" whose chorus states:

On a good day, I know it ain't every day

We can part the sea

And on a bad day, I know it ain't every day

Glory beyond our reach

Prayer for the day:

Gracious God, like Solomon before us, we would ask you for wisdom.  But if this means that we must endure hardship to get it, we are not so sure.  And so, when the darkness descends upon us for whatever reason, help us to gain perspective in its midst.  And as we gather greater understanding, we would ask that this be tempered with greater compassion as well.  We pray these things in Jesus' name.  Amen.

Photo by Jake Pierrelee on Unsplash

“Wiser Time” lyrics © 1994 American Recordings LLC

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.  

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 26

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter 27

“Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.” ~ Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Job continues in his protestation of his friends' assessment of him by proclaiming his innocence.  His integrity is all that he has left and he will not let it go.

But then he appears to continue in his discourse by singing Bildad's song (or Eliphaz's or Zophar's).

In essence, the wicked will pay for their deeds and will be left childless and poor.  Of course, this is the very thing that has happened to Job who is not evil at all!

This goes to show us how difficult it is to change our way of thinking.  The idea that God rewards the good and punishes the bad is so ingrained that Job repeats all of the very arguments that his three friends have made against him.  

It is very hard to change our opinions - even if the very opposite is happening to us which refutes those very worldviews!  

Human beings are obstinate!  At first, we thought that it was just his friends that were so obtuse, but now we see that it is Job as well.  

James Fowler posited his six Stages of Faith where he lists stage five as Conjunctive Faith. In this stage we may experience a mid-life crisis.  Here, we face the paradoxes of our beliefs such as God punishes the wicked, but I who am innocent am being punished as well.    

Moving into a higher stage of faith can be difficult work and Job's resistance in this chapter highlights our own resistance to change.

The beauty of Job is that it provides a balcony view of inconsistencies regarding belief and reality.  This allows the reader to see it in Job and then to take a step back to examine our own lives.

As we move through Lent, what are areas of your life, faith or belief on which you hold fast?  Have these caused conflict in your relationships or in your own ability to synthesize them with life?

Prayer for the day:

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.  I do not see the road ahead of me.  I cannot know for certain where it will end.  Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.  But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.  And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.  I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.  And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.  Therefore, will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.  I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.  Amen.

“The Merton Prayer” from Thoughts in Solitude Copyright © 1956, 1958 by The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. 

Photo by bill lapp via Flickr.com.  Used under the Creative Commons license.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 25

Today's Reading: Job, Chapters Twenty-five and Twenty-six

Since these chapters are short, we are combining to help us finish the book within our 40-day Lenten season.  We begin with Bildad's recognition that human beings are fairly inconsequential compared to God.  From a Christian standpoint, we can hear the words of the apostle Paul saying to the Romans in 3:23, "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God".  Of course, Paul is making the argument that we are justified in Christ rather than from who we are individually.

But as we hear Job's counter argument, we may see that he's not necessarily refuting Bildad.  God is certainly beyond us.  How can we who are limited and finite, truly have any understanding of God?

But as God is limitless, as we seek to understand the rationale of "why the injustice?", Job seems to be admitting that we may not ever get a satisfactory answer.  But for his point, it means that this doesn't necessarily equate to his being deserving of all that has happened.

This allows us to ask the question, "Who does deserve it?"

If we follow along the line of Paul's thinking, then all of us deserve whatever we get.  But at the very same time, as we begin to understand Paul's position of God's love in Christ, it may be that we can step outside the transactional nature of our own works and see it all as blessing.

What does it mean to contend with the mystery?

What does it mean to find contentment in the everyday wonders and see God's hand at work rather than to only feel an absence?   

We may begin to give people the benefit of the doubt which may be all Job asks of Bildad.

Prayer for the day:

God, help us to see past ourselves, to see past our conditions and to see past our circumstances.  These things often blind us to the wider realities of life.  Give us eyes to see and ears to hear.  And as we take it all in, may we wonder anew at who you are for us.  Amen.

Gif from Unforgiven (1992) directed by Clint Eastwood.

New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Daily Devotion for Lent 2025, Day 24

Today's Reading: Job, Chapter Twenty-four

In this passage, we see a more general complaint by Job of the prosperity of the wicked.  This is a theological exploration more than a part of the narrative as we don't see anyone in Job's circumference that fits these characteristics.

Rather, his friends have tried to label Job as one of the wicked.  He seems to be saying that there are plenty of wicked people who never have any of these kinds of consequences happen to them.  It is very similar to what is expressed in Psalm 73.

In essence, we once again see a plea for justice.  When we are doing the right thing as opposed to someone doing the opposite, we like to find ourselves coming out on top.  And when we see someone actually taking advantage of people in order to get ahead, we would like to see their actions come back to haunt them.

This kind of desire is expressed by William Shakespeare in MacBeth.  In Scene 1 of Act 5, we see Lady MacBeth sleepwalking while she tries in vain to rub the blood off her hands.  Of course, her hands are clean, but she has the guilt of murder on her mind.  We hear her say the famous line, "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"

If we can't get outright punishment for the wicked, we can at least see that their conscience is bothering them and keeping them miserable.  This has to do with our sense of justice.

As we weigh this with God's mercy, we may discover that we would rather have God smite them.  

But even as Job proclaims his innocence, the question we come to ask is, "Who is totally innocent?"  All of us by living in a larger system take advantage of the resources we have available to us.  This may also mean that others don't have the same advantages.  We pretend that we've earned every advantage we have, but if you are the child of royalty, you are starting with many more resources than if you are the child of a peasant.  

How can we come to understand a mercy even for people that don't deserve it?  It is not too much of a stretch to then translate this to discovering that our own blessings may not have been as "earned" as we like to imagine.  This allows us to begin to understand grace more proficiently.

Prayer for the day:

O God, make us more thankful for what we have received, more content with what we have, and more merciful of other people in need: we ask it for his sake who lived for us in poverty, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Prayer by Simon H. Baynes, Church of England, 20th Century

Photo by Andrew Valdivia on Unsplash