You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Let's review the conversation.
Jesus to Nicodemus: You must be born anew to see the Kingdom of God.
Nicodemus to Jesus: How do I do that?
Jesus to Nicodemus: No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born by water and Spirit.
If I were Nicodemus, my next word would be “Huh?” Jesus’ explanation only confuses me more: “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”
“No, I don’t!” I would cry. But here’s an idea that might help. Jesus is talking about operating systems, as with computers. We run on OS/Human (“flesh”). God-Life, or Kingdom life, runs on OS/God (“Spirit”). If we want to apprehend God-Life, our hardware needs to run OS/God. Human programs can run on OS/God; God programs don’t run so well on OS/Human.
If technology metaphors don’t work for you, this explanation may be worse than Jesus’. He is saying that flesh and spirit offer different ways of perceiving reality – “If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” We will need to operate from our spiritual senses if we want to dwell in God’s light and grow in our knowledge and love of God.
We are hardwired for OS/Human – our natural tendency is to trust only what we can see and touch. We need new programming to run OS/God – and the Good News is that it’s easy to download! Just accept the User Agreement (aka, baptism, or any time we say, “Yes, Lord, I believe…”) and let it install. God’s operating system doesn’t replace ours; we can run both – though that can be quite a drain on our batteries. And it can be hard to transition to OS/God – we know how to do things with our old operating system; living by faith in the spiritual realm comes with a bit of a learning curve. Just think of a time you’ve adopted new technology or new computer programs, or gone from Microsoft to Apple or vice versa - you get the analogy…
Jesus was able to run human programs through OS/God. As we download his life into ours, we become better able to run the Spirit system. And as we make the transition to using OS/God more and more, we’ll find it gradually becoming our default setting, and we’ll run more and more of our programs on it. And here’s a really nice benefit – OS/God doesn’t deplete us. It ships with a built-in power supply that recharges even as we use it. Nifty, huh?
Now that I’ve run that metaphor into the ground, how do we pray this today? Here's a question to explore: What areas of your life do you think about entirely in human terms, and in which ones do the Spirit and faith call the shots? Is there a way to bring a more spiritual perspective to the areas that feel “just human?” Can we invite the Holy Spirit to rewire us so that we perceive with spirit more and more?
I recommend transitioning our programs for perceiving, receiving and giving to OS/God. We become so much more peaceful and effective. And upgrades are free for our lifetime – and to infinity!
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
This Lent, our Sunday passages come from the Gospel of John, richly drawn encounters with Jesus. The passages are lengthy and told elliptically in John’s sometimes tortured style, and can be hard to follow. They’re worth the work.
This week’s story concerns a meeting between Jesus and an important Jewish leader: Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”
Maybe Nicodemus came by night because he wasn’t ready to be seen publicly talking with this controversial miracle-worker, or maybe he wanted to see him when he wasn't surrounded by a crowd. What is clear is that Jesus’ miracles have gotten his attention: “For no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.”
This is one reason miracles are referred to as “signs” in John’s Gospel. They are demonstrations of how things work in the Life of God, signs pointing beyond themselves to the power that animates them. Water into wine, sight to the blind – these transformations have a purpose beyond the immediate needs they address.
So does the church, meant to be the Body of Christ made visible in the world. We are called to more than meeting needs. We are to be making known, showing forth the Life of God that is around us and in us. Our mission is to reveal the spiritual reality of God as we go about God’s mission of restoration and wholeness. What we do as church always has a mystical purpose beyond the short-term good.
In what ways do you make known the spiritual reality of God-Life in your life and ministry? When have you last experienced that spiritual reality, even in ways that appear miraculous - maybe in timing that seems suspiciously God-driven, or with unexpected answers to prayer, or urges to reach out to another person in a way that bears fruit?
If you have answers to those questions, note them, give thanks, and explore why you may have been open to manifesting or discerning that God-Life. What are the optimal conditions for you?
If you find yourself unable to answer, there in itself is a question to explore – how might you be more open to the mysterious, the movement of spirit? Might “religion” be getting in the way of “relationship” with the Holy?
Jesus answers Nicodemus’ opening statement with a comment that puzzles: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Whatever else “born from above” means, at the very least it means being able to discern a reality not immediately apparent to our physical sight. That might be a good prayer for today, “Open our eyes, Lord, to see your hand at work in the world around us.” Let me know what you see.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Here we are, at the Jordan River. Jesus of Nazareth goes strolling by. John the Baptist points and says, “Look! There goes the Lamb of God.” A couple of John’s followers go, “Where? Hmmm. Maybe we should find out what that guy’s up to.” They follow Jesus. Jesus turns around and says to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.”
“Come and see” is a recurring refrain in the Gospels. The angelic host say it to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. Jesus says it to these seekers. One of these men will soon say it to his brother. Philip says it to Nathaniel. A Samaritan woman who met Jesus at a well says it to her town, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did…” And, perhaps most important, Jesus’ followers who find his tomb empty after his burial, and then encounter his resurrected self, say it: “Come and see!”
That’s all Jesus says here. Not, “Come and hear me explain the meaning of life.” Not, “Come and join my growing band of followers." Not, "Read my book." He simply invites them to explore and experience; they can respond as they feel led.
“Come and see” is an invitation to explore, a launch pad for expanding our knowledge. It is the least we can do when someone wants to introduce us to a new person, place, practice or product. We cannot truly know until we have “come and seen.” And sometimes, when we have come and seen, we find out how much more there is to learn.
John offers few details about what Andrew and the other disciple experienced with Jesus. “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon.” Why does he tells us the time of day? Perhaps to indicate that they spent most of the day with Jesus… it was clearly a life-changing time.
Who in your life has invited you to come and see, to learn more about what Jesus is up to in their lives? Did you go? Did you experience? Give thanks for those people today.
And who might you invite to come and see this living Lord you honor? To come and hang out in his presence, see what he’s all about? This isn't necessarily inviting someone to church - it might be an invitation to spiritual conversation. Can you think of someone who might appreciate that invitation? Those are the only people we need to invite, the ones we feel will be glad we did.
The invitation to “come and see” is offered every single day. We have never seen enough, experienced enough of Jesus’ power, peace, presence, purpose. Often, when we take up his invitation to “come and see” we find ourselves compelled to “go and tell.” And so the circle grows.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
The label “Lamb of God” may not have much meaning for us, but John’s followers knew exactly what he meant when he said, “Here is the Lamb of God!” To an oppressed people yearning for God to send a savior, those were loaded words meaning, “That’s the one! The Messiah, the Savior.”
Two of John's disciples hear him refer to Jesus that way, two days in a row, and they have to find out who this guy can be. Can the Savior of the world really be just a guy walking by?
It doesn’t surprise me that they start tailing Jesus – I’d be curious too. I am amused, though, by Jesus’ response : Who are these guys, following me? (“You lookin’ at me?”) I would expect him to say “What do you want?,” but he asks a more profound question: “What are you looking for?” It could be a subtle interview question.
“What are you looking for?” is a searching question.
It’s a good question for us today: “What are you looking for?”
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re involved in the Christian enterprise in some way, as a Christ-follower, seeker, or observer from a distance. What’s in it for you? What do you desire from God? From Jesus? Peace? Challenge? Comfort? Purpose? Healing? Forgiveness? Company?
Imagine Jesus asking you the question as you walk curiously behind him. “What are you looking for?”
Think about it for a few minutes. Write it down if you keep a prayer journal. And then meditate on that – is it what you want to be looking for? Can you imagine finding it?
When we know what we’re looking for, we’re often halfway to finding it. Even if we think the answer is obvious, it’s valuable to articulate it. The answer might have changed since the last time you thought about it. The way you put it into words might surprise you.
I don’t expect we’ll ever be quite done looking for things until we’re face to face with the Holy One. Then we won’t need to look anymore; only gaze in utmost love and joy, complete at last.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. The Gospel appointed for Epiphany is here.
Until you’re there, you’re not. This is a truth of journeying we rediscover any time we’re racing to a destination, a reunion, or enduring travel delays. We can only be where we are at any given moment. Until you’re there, you’re not.
The sages who had come so many miles searching for the new king, whose star they’d seen rising in their night skies, were anxious to get there, even if they weren’t quite sure what “there” would turn out to be. They had invested a great deal in making this trip, trusting the stellar guidance as they read it. Maybe folks at home had called theirs a fool’s errand; maybe they’d read the stars wrong. This Herod fellow certainly hadn’t heard anything about a new king; he just sent them off toward Bethlehem. Until they were “there,” they weren’t.
But they had that star as a beacon: ...they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
Hard to imagine what these star-followers felt when the guidance held true. Whether real men or mythic figures – or both – these sages were overwhelmed with joy when they were led to a simple house. If they were surprised to find there an ordinary young family, we see no indication in their actions: On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
What a way to greet a king, even one who looked nothing like a king: in a house, not a palace; attended only by his mother. Our wise travelers were unfazed. They knew they had arrived where they needed to be. They had come with three goals – they wanted to see, they wanted to honor, they wanted to gift. And when they had done what they came to do, they went home, guided by the wisdom that had brought them to Bethlehem, to be ready for the next adventure.
We can find in their goals a guide to our devotion:- To want to see Jesus. Make that a prayer; ask the Spirit to expand your faith vision to see Jesus wherever he might be in your life this week, in prayer, in other people, in the poor, at communion…
- To want to honour Jesus. Offer him praises, adoration in your heart, with your voice, in your actions, in song…
- To give him precious gifts. What that is precious to you do you want to offer Jesus? Your time? Energy? Relationships? Love? Maybe ask what he would like you to give… you might be surprised at the answer.
This journey of seeing, honouring, giving is one we make over and over again, arriving “there” only to leave again. Each time we arrive we are strengthened for the next trip, which might be in five minutes, or five weeks. And on each journey we see the sights somewhat differently.
And always our destination is the same – Home. Until we’re there, we’re not.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him…”
Joseph was a paragon of virtue, it would appear, a man who did what God commanded even when it exposed him to shame and ridicule – and ultimately danger, once the implications of being step-father to God’s son became apparent. Yet Joseph excelled at obeying.
I’m not fond of the word “obey.” There is a hymn I've never liked, for I believe it captures all the legalistic religiosity I spend much energy countering:
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way /
to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
“Yes, there is!” I want to shout. “There is the way of grace and acceptance and doing good on the power of the Spirit, not on our own!” As one whose faith came alive under a steady stream of preaching about the grace of God, and who is keenly aware of the limits of willpower, I prefer to stress the unconditional love of God that we receive despite our frequent failure to obey. Obedience is so closely linked in my mind to legalism, I react negatively, despite my general compliance.
And yet, here is Joseph, reminding me of the power that can be unleashed when we simply obey. Joseph’s obedience may have been a product of a self-disciplined nature. Or maybe it resulted from the very clear and powerful, supernatural encounter he had in his dream with an angel of the Lord – reinforced, no doubt, by Mary’s tale of her own angelic encounter. We might find ourselves more inclined toward obeying and following God's guidance as we get more in touch with our own divine encounters. They may not be as dramatic as Joseph’s and Mary's, but they are real.
So... when did you last sense the Spirit of God nudging you or instructing you in some way? When did you last sense the presence of God around you or see evidence of God’s handiwork in your life or in the world?
If you can’t think of anything… there might be a prayer in that, asking God to help you become more aware, or to open your own heart a little wider to what is happening in the unseen realm of spirit.
It is hard to trust, let alone obey, a total stranger. If we keep God at arm’s length or at a polite distance, we are less able to discern the leaps of faith we are invited to take. God may never ask us to take a leap like Joseph did… Then again, God does invite us, like Joseph, to nurture the Christ-life in ourselves and in others, every day of the year.
We don’t have to escort a pregnant woman to Bethlehem… we just have to get ourselves there, and trust God to walk with us no matter what comes.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
One of my favorite “faith movies” of all time is Field of Dreams. I saw it 11 times in a year – in theatres. It tells the story of an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella who hears a whispered voice telling him to plow under a fruitful field of corn and build a ballpark. This is economic and agricultural madness, and yet he becomes convinced of the voice’s reality. Equally nutty instructions follow, leading to the impossible reality that Babe Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson and other now-dead baseball greats of yore start coming through the corn to play on the field and interact with Ray and his family.
Ray’s wife supports him following these instructions – but it’s hard. Is he losing his mind? At a crucial point, when she’s ready to give up, they both have the same dream one night, giving them the confirmation they need to stay on this seemingly insane course and follow where it leads.
Joseph of Nazareth had a LOT of dreams. Like his namesake, the Joseph of the woven cloak and jealous brothers, the New Testament Joseph received regular angelic communications through his dreams. Unlike the Joseph of Torah, however, whose dreams were symbolic and required interpretation, Joseph of Nazareth gets clear instructions, “Do this,” “Go there,” “Don’t go there,” “Okay, it’s safe now…”
In Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, the angels just show up directly to people like Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds, unmediated by REM sleep and human processes. They’re just there – “Look out! Be not afraid!” The writer of Matthew either heard different stories, or maybe thought Luke was embellishing things, for in his telling the angels speak only through dreams. And in Matthew, it is Joseph who receives the divine message that in Luke is delivered to Mary.
After Joseph learns of Mary’s premature pregnancy, and resolves to divorce her quietly, “…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
God gave Joseph the information he needed to walk in faith. Have you ever had a “God dream?” What message did you discern? Did you act on it?
In what ways do you sense the Holy Spirit communicates with you? In prayer directly? Through events and coincidences? By a strong sense or urge to do or say something that bears good fruit? Through meditating on the Word of God? I have a friend who gets pop song lyrics in her head – always with a message that suggests answers or guidance.
I believe the Holy One is often messaging us. As we tune our receivers, we begin to discern those messages more often. And when we do, we check that our interpretation is not contrary to what we read in Scripture. We can also seek confirmation from others in our community of faith. If the Spirit suggests you do something radical, the Spirit will give someone else confirmation for you.
In Field of Dreams, as in our nativity story, the instructions in dreams lead, ultimately, to love, to reunion and reconciliation and restoration. Which is where all God dreams ultimately lead… Joseph’s, and mine, and yours.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
We are invited to live by faith, and not by sight. To live by faith means to believe in God’s goodness even though we can’t see around the next corner. Faith is what Jesus is getting at in this talk to his followers. He is preparing them for hard times to come, when the structures of their faith are torn away and they face persecution from both Jewish leaders and Roman occupiers for their belief in Christ.
"But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.”
He says they will be betrayed by family and friends and handed over, and, “some of you will die.” But there’s an upside: this will give them a chance to testify. Then he says something strange: don’t prepare.
“So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”
Defending our faith is something few of us will have to face. I have heard testimony from African clergy who have known bitter persecution and bombed churches and death threats. But most Christians I know are more likely to be mocked than persecuted for their faith. “Why do you bother with that?”
And what would you answer? What do you say when people ask why you believe in Christ? As the old saw goes, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Name some of that evidence.
We may not have to stand up for our faith very often, but there are occasions when we are called to testify in other ways – to stand for justice, to speak truth to those who have the power to change things. Every person of faith is called upon to bear witness to the power of love in the face of division and hate-driven policies, perhaps violence and autocracy. I don’t know what those confrontations may look like, but I know we can pray for the filling of the Holy Spirit to be ready to stand for love and justice, humility and peace. We may not know what to say, but Jesus, who has promised to be with us through His Spirit, will be right there – and he can be pretty persuasive.
After all, it’s not our job to represent God, or even to make other people believe in God. It is only up to us to make the introductions, to speak of the love and truth we experience. The Spirit can do the rest.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Talk about burns – how’s this for a closing: “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?" That’s what Jesus says at the end of his story.
Faith. That again. Isn’t it nicer when the focus is on God’s action – or delayed action? With this parting shot, Jesus swerves the lens neatly back to us. That persistent widow in his story, annoying as she may have been, was also an examplar of faith. She had faith in a system that thus far had yielded no justice. But she kept at it.
How about us? I know many people who turn away from God because their suffering, or the suffering of others, has not been alleviated, as though that were the only criteria for belief. I acknowledge the reality of that pain – AND I want to invite people with that viewpoint to widen their field of vision. On any given day, most of us can see many blessings and answers to prayer and signs of God-life, as well as the persistence of injustice and challenges. We are invited to take it all in, to give praise in all circumstances, to allow the blessings to strengthen our faith for the challenges.
As I wrote this, John Hiatt’s song, Have a Little Faith in Me started up in my head. Though it is a love song from a man to a woman, I can imagine our loving God singing it to us:
When the road gets dark and you can no longer see
Just let my love throw a spark, and have a little faith in me.
Today in prayer, instead of making lists and thinking of all the areas where we want to see God’s justice, let’s recall God’s faithfulness and our own faith. If you want to try a new prayer experience, play the song and imagine God singing it to you (okay, if John Hiatt as God is a little too much, you could just read the words…)
God has chosen to work through our faith, weak or strong as it may be at any given moment. It is a key ingredient in bringing forth justice. So remember. Remember the times when you’ve known God’s faithfulness, and dare to have a little faith, one more time, for Jesus to find.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
One reason people can be reluctant to pray about concerns is that it can feel like nothing happens when we pray. We’d like some sign that God is intervening on our behalf, or even an indication that God is responding to our prayers. We don’t mind waiting if we know we’re eventually going to receive. But what if we can’t see anything? What if nothing’s going to happen? What if God didn’t hear… or doesn’t exist?
Faith is stepping off into the dark, not quite knowing where we’ll land. Once we see, no longer need faith. And so faith includes waiting, which can be excruciating. One reading this Sunday is from the prophet Habakkuk, who expresses his anguish that “…the law becomes slack and justice never prevails." He resolves to keep watch to see how God will answer his complaint. And the Lord does answer: “Write the vision; make it plain,” so that it can be seen from afar. “For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie.“ He adds “...the righteous live by their faith.”
That is our job description, to live by faith, no matter how strong or weak we feel, or how little evidence we see. Jesus says to his disciples, “So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, ‘We are worthless servants; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"
Despite the harsh language, I don’t think Jesus was calling his disciples worthless. He is speaking to his inner circle, who should know better by now. And we too should think of ourselves as servants rather than entitled consumers. Servants don’t get to call all the shots; they do their jobs. They honor the people around them, and they take a day off. And they don’t get to regulate the timing. In an “I want it and I want it now” culture, that can be hard for us.
- Is there something that you want now – or yesterday – that seems a long time coming? Healing? Reconciliation? Certainly justice. Rational discourse. An end to violence. Those are a few “big picture” desires.
- What about in your own life? What does God seem to be “tarrying” over an awfully long time? Is there something you have waited for a long time and then received? Remember...
One way to pray is to plant a “seed of faith” when we make our desires known to God. And then trust that it is growing – keep giving thanks even before we see how that answer is unfolding. Jesus says, “First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn on the stalk.” We give thanks by faith until faith gives way to sight.
God’s vision will be realized at the appointed time. "It speaks of the end, and it does not lie." God’s desires cannot be rushed, nor can they be delayed. They can only be trusted in. "If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay."
Wait for it. God may seem slow, but God will bring Life into being. Have faith.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
This week's reading speaks of faith as something you can have more of or less of. The disciples ask for increased faith because they can see what it takes to live this "God-Life." It does take faith to trust in what cannot be seen, to proclaim life in the midst of death, to bear light into darkness and truth in the face of injustice. We need faith to forgive the unforgivable, love the unlovable, heal the incurable, restore those who have been cast aside as worthless.
God seems to wait for us to participate in exercising faith. I wish it were otherwise, for our faith is often weak. But time and again in the Gospels we see Jesus respond to people’s faith, even saying to some, “Your faith has made you well.” Not “my power has made you well,” but “your faith.”
Why would God leave so much up to us, when God knows how feeble and fickle we can be? Is this a cosmic cruelty? It might be, had God not also provided what we need, asking only that we take hold of it. In addition to the “perfect faith” of Jesus, who joins us by his Spirit when we pray, God has also set us into communities of faith.
Faith is a contagious thing, and one which we can hold for one another. We can pass it down from one generation to another, and friend to friend. In Sunday’s epistle, Paul writes to Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.” Lois and Eunice and many a father and grandfather too have “held faith” for their children until such time as they took hold of it. Some are still holding it.- Who are your “grandmothers” and “fathers” in the faith, from whom you learned to trust and believe? Name a few. Give thanks for those men and women.
- Who are your friends in the faith, brothers and sisters who help you believe when your faith is weak?
- And for whom do you do that, by your prayers and your encouragement?
- Is there a “big thing” you’ve had trouble trusting God about that you might ask a community of faith to pray about with you, for you? It’s a godly risk.
Jesus didn’t set us down, wind us up and say, “Okay – go do everything I commanded you.” He said, “Yo, I am with you always, to the end of the ages.” (Okay, most translations say, “Lo…”) We have plenty of faith around us to move trees, mountains, illnesses, injustice – and even hearts.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
When my beloved cat Dandelion was diagnosed with heart disease I became a font of panicked prayers anytime I thought her breathing looked funny. One day I was praying anxiously, asking Jesus please to heal her, and I sensed him say firmly, “You heal her.” “What?” I said. “You heal her. I’ve given you authority over disease; I’ve given you my name – use it.” (I did - and she lived for several more years, as we moved to two more homes, before she succumbed to a tumor.)
When Jesus told his servants to wield their faith boldly, he illustrated his point with a parable about authority: “Who among you would say to your servant who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep, ‘Come here at once and take your place at the table’? Would you not rather say to him, ‘Make supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; you can eat and drink later’? Do you thank the servant for doing what was commanded?“
Later in the Gospel of Luke (12:37), Jesus is quoted as saying the opposite. Clearly he is making a different point here, one about authority. He has given his followers authority over nature, sin, disease, demons – even death. (Over pretty much everything except other people with free will – which is why we could tell a mulberry tree to plant itself in the sea, but all the faith in the world can’t change someone's mind or heart...)
Jesus seems ticked off at the timidity of his disciples, given the authority they have as agents of God. “You are giving your challenges and obstacles way too much power. You are in charge – act like it when you pray!”
Jesus invites us to be bold, not timid. Sometimes we let something like a common cold disable us, when we could take our God-given authority and invite the power and love of God to flow through us to bring wholeness. That’s what God does – make things whole. Sometimes we feel powerless over social systems that reinforce injustice, instead of asking how God would have us exercise our faith with the Holy Spirit in that realm.
What are you being invited to take authority over in your life? It might be a personal trait, it might be something in the natural order, or an illness or injury. You might say, "Lord, help me with this one - you have the power."
We don’t have to take authority in a “large and in charge” kind of way. We don’t have to be negative about the obstacle – we can simply stand firm in the power and love of God, unequivocal in our faith that God is in charge and God is at work through our prayers, whatever their “strength.”
The only thing we can do wrong is not pray; shrug our shoulders and walk away, going, “Oh well, that’s bigger than me.” It may be bigger than you and me, but it ain’t bigger than the God who made us.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
“If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you."
I don’t know about you – I don’t feel like I have faith to command trees to be uprooted and replanted. Yet Jesus says the tiniest amount of real faith could effect such a thing. Was he exaggerating – or are we missing something?
Jesus demonstrated a sometimes disconcerting authority over the natural order. Winds and waves, water and wine, fevers and diseased cells, and, yes, trees yielded to his command. He suggests that we share this authority by virtue of our participation in the Life of God. I know of one person with strong healing gifts who took that authority at face value and began to pray that fearsome weather systems would weaken and turn, and seismic events settle. Sometimes they did, whether due to her prayers or not.
Jesus suggests we don’t need to have a LOT of faith to allow God to work miracles through us. We just need real faith. Perhaps his somewhat cranky reply to his disciples’ request to “increase our faith” says that, where faith is concerned, it’s not quantity but quality that counts. We don’t have to whip ourselves into a frenzy of faith over “big” things – we are invited to bring our faith, however strong or weak it feels, to bear on any situation that challenges us.
And then we are to trust that the power and love of God that flows through us as children of God can accomplish mighty things, far more than we can do or even imagine. When we join our faith with others in prayer, the flow of power is even greater.
What’s a BIG thing you’d like to invite the power and love of God to affect today? The effects of climate change? Civil wars and famines? Encroaching fascism? Cancer in a beloved? Your own mood?
What’s a small thing you’d like to invite the power and love of God to affect today? It’s always good to exercise our faith on the small things. As with muscles, faith gets stronger when exercised.
We don't really have to worry about how much faith we have; just step out with what you got. Jesus promised that “where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Mt 18:20) This means that when we invoke Jesus’ name in prayer, we are invoking his presence through his Spirit. This means He is praying with us – and thus one person in any group is praying with perfect faith. Whatever we add to that is sufficient, even if it’s only a tiny little mustard seed.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
We might imagine Jesus would be thrilled – his disciples say, “We need more faith, stronger faith.” They’re finally getting it – faith is what this enterprise called the Realm of God runs on. But Jesus seems to doubt they have any faith to increase. “Let me tell you about faith,” he says. The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” The Lord replied, “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
What prompted them to ask for increased faith? Let's see what's going on in the passage right before this in Luke 17: “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Ah – I would ask for more faith too! Who wants to forgive again and again? The disciples are right in thinking that, if that’s what Jesus is asking for, they need more faith. And how about us? Do we have anyone in our life who’s hard to forgive – or who gives us waaaay more “opportunities” to forgive than we’d like? (That might include officials and leaders…) Where does faith come into it?
Faith allows us to see the bigger picture – and maybe not get so hooked by the people who sin against us. Faith allows us to let God be the judge, instead of taking that role ourselves. Faith gives us the eyes to see that person with compassion, even as we hold them to the standards to which we ourselves want to be held. (Ouch…)
We can talk about mulberry trees tomorrow. Today, let’s join the disciples in their prayer, “Lord, increase our faith.”- Tell Jesus what areas of your life you feel your faith is the weakest; where you feel most challenged.
- Name the parts of your life where you feel faithful. Some of us feel faithful about finances but not about our children; or we trust God fully with health, but not work.
- Give thanks for the places where your faith is strong, and ask Jesus for more in the places you feel your faith goes out from under you, like a trick knee.
- Ask the Spirit to fill you with the power and presence and peace of Christ.
Some of us have been taught it’s not polite to ask for stuff, or to ask for “more.” Well, that’s not true in the Life of God – there are some “more” prayers that God delights to answer. I’m betting “more faith” is one of them.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Bob Dylan sang it: “You gotta serve somebody.” He was partly quoting Jesus:
"No servant can serve two masters; for a servant will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
Is this true? I know an awful lot of people who are trying like crazy to serve both – including me and the institutional churches of which I am a part. Where’s the Good News for us?
Jesus tells this story about a dishonest employee who gets caught, lands on his feet and earns commendation instead of condemnation. Jesus suggests that the “children of light” are to look for eternal returns, not play the world’s games. And then we get the wrap-up: "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?”
Is he talking to the temple leaders, raking in fees from the bloody business of animal sacrifice? Is he talking to the Pharisees, focused on minutiae of the Law instead of its heart? Is he talking to religious leaders who turn a blind eye to dishonest business practices, as the prophet Amos cried: “…you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land…,” who “make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances?”
Is he talking to us? Can we enjoy our wealth without letting it run us? See it as God’s gift entrusted to us to nurture and grow, not ours to keep and horde? The tradition of the tithe suggests we enjoy 90 percent of what comes our way, and return 10 percent to support God's mission in the world and our communities. 90 percent – that’s pretty good!
In what areas do you feel you are being faithful with what God has entrusted to you? Give thanks for that freedom! Would you like God to give you more of any of that to nurture? Ask!
What things in your life are you anxious about, holding too tightly? Ask God to show you how those are God-given gifts, not yours to keep. Offer God your clenched hands, ask God to help you open them.
We might even visualize holding those things/people/assets in our open palms, or putting them in a beautiful box without a lid, and handing them to Jesus. He's not going to take them away from us. He’s going to join us in the tending and nurturing of what we hold precious, as we allow him - just as he tends and nurtures each of us, precious to him.
We worship a God who wants to fill our lives with blessings. We need open hands to receive those gifts. We need open minds to imagine the grace that commends us, even when our performance isn’t so good. We need open hearts to love even a fraction as much as we are loved. That’s the wealth that is God – we can serve that whole-heartedly.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
How long have you lived with an ailment or a limitation? A destructive habit? A job that doesn’t fit your gifts? This week we meet a woman who was bent over, crippled for 18 years. And then she met Jesus: Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.
Eighteen years. That’s a long time not to be able to look anyone in the eye, to have to strain to see the sky. That’s a long time to be the object of pity and whispers, maybe even scorn. A long time to live in pain, for scoliosis, if that’s what she had, is painful, and when your spine is so radically out of alignment, it puts pressure on other muscles in the body.
But she persevered. As this week’s gospel passage tells the story, she doesn’t even ask for healing. She just shows up for worship on the sabbath, when Jesus happens to be teaching. It may not even have occurred to her that she could be free of her disabling and incurable condition.
Perseverance is a virtue – which sometimes can get in the way of our faith. As Christ followers we are invited to believe that there is nothing in this world we need to be stuck with. Nothing is beyond the reach of God’s transforming power – except a human heart firmly turned away from him. God’s power can set us free from illness, infirmity, even injustice as we exercise our faith and invite God to release that healing stream in us. We may not always live long enough to see the full healing, especially of societal ills, but imagine how much healing we do see as we believe and pray.
As we begin this week, bring into the foreground of your awareness something you feel you are truly stuck with, from which you’d like to be freed. Just hold it in your mind’s eye, and imagine what you would look or feel or act like released from that condition. That visioning in itself is an act of prayer.
Let’s see what the Holy Spirit does with that as we continue in conversation with God about it. I believe something will break open – maybe our hearts, for a start.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
Those who follow Christ as Lord, who seek to receive and share his life with the world, are not called to settle. We are to be people on the move; the original name for Christ-followers was “People of the Way.” As a person who has never owned a home, always living in church-owned housing or rentals, I sometimes have to remind myself, “This is not yours. Some day you will have to leave this house.”
The same is true of our life in this world. As we learn to live this way, settling in for the day yet ready to move tomorrow, we’re much more open to the Life with which God wants to fill and surround us. This is a quality the writer of Hebrews ascribes to the heroes of faith he lists – people who are moving toward their promised future in God, aware that they are not yet Home: They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth, for people who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land that they had left behind, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.
When I baptize people, I remind them that they now have dual citizenship, passports in this world and in that realm we will enjoy for eternity with God. We already gain access to that land in this life. Choosing to live there intentionally can help us avoid getting too settled in the loves and joys with which we are blessed in this world. The goal of the spiritual life is to learn to hold those people and things and jobs we love, yet hold them lightly, ready to move when called.
Few of us want to consider ourselves strangers and foreigners on the earth, as the magnitude of our global refugee crisis acutely reminds us. But strangers we are to be, on the move, accepting hospitality where offered, getting by where it is not, expecting blessing in the famines as in the feasts. We do not go back to the places – or people – we think of as home; we move forward by faith into the future God has prepared for us.
Whenever I’ve had to leave one beloved house, I’ve found God has prepared an equally delightful home in the next place. But even these charming homes are as nothing compared to the city God has prepared for us. I intend to enjoy every moment of my life here, always remembering it is not mine to keep.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's epistle reading is here.
The last line of our reading from Genesis and the first in our passage from Hebrews flow so naturally into each other, it is as though they were one text. From “And Abram believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness,” we go right into: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.
The writer of Hebrews even uses Abraham as Exhibit A of his thesis. He cites Abraham's faithfulness in leaving his homeland and family and setting out with Sarai into the land God had promised him, despite the derision of his clan (“You think there is only one God, and he talks to you?!?”), and he cites Abraham’s believing the preposterous promise of heirs more numerous than the stars in the heavens. Abraham is a pretty mixed bag when it comes to character and choices, but in his fidelity to the One God and the intimacy of that relationship as it is conveyed in Genesis, he is a shining star.
Why is it so hard for us to feel sure about things we only hope for – for, once we receive what we hope for, we no longer need to hope. Why do we waver in our conviction about things we cannot see, cannot prove? We trust in engineers we don’t know, elected officials we hope have our interests at heart, online security, relationships, a whole web of systems and networks we hope will continue to work for us… Why not extend that degree of faith to the God whose Spirit is so often clearly discernible, if never visible?
What often makes it so difficult to trust in what we cannot see is what we do see – evidence of pain and sorrow and the persistence of evil in this world. In the moments when those “realities” overwhelm us, the content of our faith can look like a fairy story told to calm anxious children. That’s why faith is a muscle that must be exercised and practiced and tested. We never know what is around the next corner; we do know that God has been faithful and good throughout our lives, even in the times that were painful.
It comes down to this: our faith in what we cannot see needs to be stronger than our doubt in what we can. Our faith in what we cannot see needs to be stronger than our doubt in what we can. We believe, until faith gives way to sight.
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind.
– U2,Walk On (All That You Can’t Leave Behind)
This song comes to mind as I reflect on Jesus’ parable of the rich man who is so focused on acquiring and storing his many assets. This fictional fellow thought he’d guaranteed his security – but think again!
“Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’”
Whose will they be? What will be left of our legacy after we’ve gone – whether it’s changing jobs, moving from a beloved community, or leaving the planet for good? What good will all the things we invest in, material and otherwise, do us when we’re dead? Perhaps a rich person's children will inherit, and sometimes carry on the good – and often they’ll turn out lazy and self-indulgent, expecting hand-outs. Can we secure our future and that of our descendants?
The invitation here, as always, is to put our trust in God, not in our financial security; and to live our lives on a daily basis, not in five-year increments. All the things we put our trust in can fail us – people, machinery, the very earth sometimes. We go through life assuming elevators will not snap their cables, or bridges collapse, or partners become unfaithful (or Supreme Court decisions be upended…). We’re pretty sure banks won’t fail – but every recession or precipitous drop in the markets reminds us that financial “security” isn’t always so secure. What will it take for us to truly put our weight on the provision and power and love of God?
Here’s a thought exercise: is there any possession or amount of money you would fail to offer if it would save the person you love the most in the whole world? If you needed to be emptied in order to receive the greatest gift, on what might you loosen your grip? That time will come when our grip is loosened for us and we will all part with our riches. What if we started to live in that kind of freedom while we’re still alive in this world? As that U2 song goes on to say,
Leave it behind
You've got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Where do you find life? I don’t mean conception and birth; I mean, what quickens your pulse day-to-day? What causes energy to rise in you, excitement to tinge your voice? What – or who – could you talk about all day long if anyone would listen? That’s one way to discern where we find life.
Have you ever thought you could get life through believing? Believing seems a fairly passive activity – and yet it may just be the most courageous action we can take in a disbelieving world. We learn at the end of this week’s gospel reading that the reason John wrote his gospel was so that we might come to believe and have life: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Jesus’ disciples came to believe he had risen from the dead because he stood in front of them; he surprised them on roads and at tables; he made breakfast for them on a beach. Though they did not really act on this knowledge until the Spirit filled them with power at Pentecost, they had the conviction of their experience, and ultimately died witnessing to that truth.
We have to believe on less tangible evidence – yet as we allow it to accumulate, as we really start to list all the “signs” of God’s power and love we have witnessed and experienced, we too can come to believe that Jesus is the Anointed One, the Son of God. And as we begin to exercise spiritual power in his name we find such abundant life, and more evidence piles up.
John says he wrote about the signs of Jesus’ presence so that his readers would come to believe. What if we started talking more often about the evidence we’ve seen of God’s movement in the world, in our lives? How many might come to believe – or at least, explore Jesus for themselves?
Think of the impact John’s Gospel has had on the world. Just one of your stories might change someone’s life, and allow them to have eternal life through believing. Which one will you tell first?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
