2-23-24 - Holy Emptiness

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

You have to embrace paradox if you’re going to be a Christian. Our more fundamentalist brethren seem to have difficulty with paradox and nuance, and so twist themselves and the Word of God into pretzels trying to unify it in a linear, rational way. It won’t work. Just ask Nicodemus, whom Jesus told the Kingdom of God was truly knowable by spirit only, not by intellect alone. The very effort to understand circles as squares takes us further and further away from the Truth, whom we know as Jesus, the master of the paradox.

Here he is again, telling his followers about the cost of being his disciple. They must be prepared to deny themselves, take up their cross – a metaphor for complete helplessness, though in Jesus’ case, much more than a metaphor – and follow him. There’s no room in the suitcase for self-preservation: “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”

How we interpret this hinges on our definition of “life.” If it’s just about breathing, this makes little sense. What person in their right mind would want to lose their physical life before it’s time? If by “life,” however, Jesus means the rich web of interaction and consciousness we call existence, then we might see how a willingness to let go of “the whole world” could make us more receptive to the Life of God, a life beyond what we can make for ourselves.

It is a matter of emptying ourselves and allowing ourselves to filled with God’s power, God’s love, God’s purpose. I don’t know about you, but I’m not crazy about empty. I do a lot of filling… my time, my to-do list, my conscious attention, just to avoid confronting the emptiness inside. And yet that emptiness is where God can show up most powerfully, if we will allow the space to develop and not rush to fill it.

What does it mean to you to “gain the whole world?” Another way of asking that is, what are you the most afraid of losing, of getting taken away from you? That’s the place to start in prayer, asking the Spirit to show us why we’re so attached to that thing or person or status. Ask God to help us loosen our grip, to feel the feelings that come up when we think about emptying ourselves of that. Ask Jesus what it looks like to “lose your life” in this world – and to gain the life that truly is Life.

A holy body suddenly filling an empty womb. The inexplicable absence of a body filling an empty tomb. From birth to death and beyond, Jesus’ life was one of God showing up in emptiness. As Paul wrote, "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are." (I Cor 1:27-29)

Can we give up our lives – all the “stuff” that we fill our minds and bodies with, and see what God might do with our emptiness if we offer God the space?

© Kate Heichler, 2024. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

LENTEN RETREAT MORNING SATURDAY MARCH 2!



Register here by February 26!

11-7-23 - Trimming Our Lamps

You can listen to this reflection here.

Turns out there is an art to making a flame, at least when it comes to lamps. According to Wikipedia, “A poorly trimmed wick creates a flame which is dim and smoky. A properly trimmed wick should come to a rounded point, or should be wedge shaped.” The bridesmaids in our story took care of that: “...at midnight there was a shout: ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ Then all the bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.”

Yesterday I shared that the “lamps” in Jesus’ parable may have been more like oil-soaked rag torches. Perhaps so, but he does speak of trimming wicks, which suggests a more sophisticated level of lamp technology. He seems to say, “It’s not enough to have access to fire, and fuel to burn – if we want our light to be strong and unwavering, we need to keep our wicks well trimmed.”

How does that translate for us as Christ-followers engaged in God’s mission to reclaim, restore and renew all of creation? Our primary means of keeping our lamps ready to burn clear and bright are spiritual practices. These include well-known disciplines as well as rituals and patterns we develop for ourselves. The “big ones” are: 

• regular participation in worship with the Body of Christ; 
• regularly reading and chewing on Scripture; 
• regular times of prayer and contemplation in which we seek to hear God speaking to and through us; 
• regular acts of giving and mercy. 

Beyond these are disciplines such as fasting, confession, retreats, and pilgrimage that help us draw nearer to God.

Note the emphasis on the word “regular,” the root of which gives us our word “rule.” Like monastics, we are invited to take on a rule of life, a planned and articulated series of spiritual practices we find faith-strengthening and life-giving. Just as we exercise our bodies regularly, these practices make us more grounded, healthy, responsive, nimble and strong.

Some of our personal rituals and routines can also be spiritual practices for us. These might include walking, hospitality, writing, listening, drawing, music – anything that can be woven into the rhythm of your day or week that calls you to your truest self and opens your spirit to the life of God.

Do you have a “rule of life?” I developed one that included some time each day interacting with nature, regular walks and writing nature poetry as well as daily prayer, bible study and journaling, and monthly hospitality. (I hasten to note my compliance with my own rule of life wavers a bit..) What spiritual practices do you currently engage in, formally or informally? Make a list. Are there some you’ve been wanting to take on and haven’t gotten to? You could offer that desire or intention to God in prayer and then make a plan to incorporate it into your life. Be specific about the when and where, and who might support you in that practice.

If you don’t have a spiritual director or formalized “spiritual friendship” with anyone, I highly recommend a personal trainer or exercise buddy for your spiritual life. Jesus invites us to partner in ministry, and the accountability and other perspective is invaluable. (Email me if you want help with this.) For today, let the Tedeschi Trucks Band version of the song Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning call you to prayer. (Gospel choir version here.)

All the wick-trimming in the world, though, won’t let the light shine if we don’t have enough oil. The spiritual life is always a combination of our discipline and the Holy Spirit’s serendipitous presence. Tomorrow we’ll talk about what it means to have enough oil to shine for all the world to see.

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11-1-23 - Holiness and Mercy

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Today is All Saints Day, so let’s talk about holiness. Holiness is not a word we hear a lot these days. People speak of “the holy,” and of “wholeness,” but holiness is not in vogue. In an age when the disadvantaged hunger for food and thirst for water, while the well-fed hunger for things and thirst for distraction, who yearns for righteousness?

Holiness is at the heart of Jesus’ prescription for disciples:
‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Righteousness and purity of heart are overlapping categories. Righteousness, being right, true, justified (as in a printer’s margin), means being grounded in God’s love and goodness, aligned to God's will. Purity of heart is an undivided focus on God. To thirst for righteousness is to desire integration, to be authentically ourselves, to have our inner and our outer life cohere; to say what we mean and mean what we say. When we really yearn only for God, we are promised we will see God - and people will see God in us.

Between righteousness and purity of heart on his list, Jesus places mercy, perhaps in recognition that there is no such thing as personal righteousness without engaging with other people. As soon as we engage other people, we face the need to be merciful, as we hope they will be with us. Trying to be righteous without being merciful makes us self-righteous. Purity of heart requires compassion.

As we pray today, let’s locate in ourselves that thirst for holiness and “singleness of heart,” as the Prayer Book puts it. Let’s let that hunger fill us like an empty stomach does. Let’s ask ourselves where the flow of mercy in us might have hit a dam, and invite the Holy Spirit to help us remove those obstacles. The promise for us, as we orient ourselves to desire righteousness, mercy and purity of heart, is that we will be filled, we will receive mercy, and we will see God.

The multi-talented priest, composer and jazz-band leader Andy Barnett composed a lovely setting of the Latin American Bread Prayer. The words are simple and sink into the soul. Listen, and pray:
To all those with bread, give hunger for justice, And to all those hunger, give bread.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here.  Here are the bible readings for All Saints Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform. 

6-6-23 - Tainted By Association

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

Turns out I was a week ahead in yesterday’s Water Daily – we’re in an earlier passage from Matthew’s gospel this week, one with two stories. Today we’ll look at the first, which is very short as stories go: As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him.

Brevity may be a virtue in writing, but this is a little too short. Why did Jesus call this tax collector – had he had his eye on him for a while, or was it a spontaneous movement of the Spirit? Why does Matthew (called Levi in another gospel) get up without a question, a word, a goodbye, and follow Jesus? Where do they go? What’s going on?

It seems Matthew (the author of the gospel, who was probably not the subject of the story) is less interested in these questions than in the impact this invitation had on the people around Jesus. This mixing with notorious “sinners” like tax collectors was getting Jesus a bad rep: And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax-collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax-collectors and sinners?”

Why should they care who Jesus eats with? Because there was a strain of “holiness” teaching running through Jewish scripture and practice that asserted that even associating with anything or anyone unclean put your own purity at risk. This strain raises its legalistic head in ultra-conservative circles of any religion, and is usually accompanied by a conviction that the person doing the judging has no sin of which to repent. In the eyes of the Pharisees and scribes, constantly trying to discern whether he was a charlatan or the real deal, Jesus was tainted by his willingness to hang around the “sinful.”

But there is another way of thinking that we also find in the Hebrew bible, which invites “outsiders” to become insiders, encourages the faithful to welcome the stranger and alien, the “unwhole” and the impaired (who were not welcome in the temple courts). Jesus clearly saw there was more good to be done inviting the “unholy” into transforming relationship, and went so far as to suggest these were his true mission: But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Do you tend to categorize people as “good” or “bad?” Which do you feel like on most days – the righteous or a sinner? Have you been offered a friendship in which you experienced healing and a feeling of becoming more worthy of love? Have you ever invited anyone else into such a transforming relationship?

We are called to mercy, not a slavish devotion to rules and ritual. Our Good News proclaims that Jesus has passed by each one of us and said, “Follow me,” no matter whether or not we felt worthy of that invitation. We become worthy as we walk with him.

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.

2-8-23 - Lust and Love

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

Jimmy Carter caught a lot of flack back in 1976, when he confessed in an interview with Playboy magazine that, while he had remained faithful to his marriage vows, he had looked on women with lust and “committed adultery in my heart.” He was just quoting Jesus: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Here again, Jesus says that what we think and feel matters spiritually as much as what we do.

What's so bad about lust anyway? Isn't it just natural? Well, it depends on how you define it. As the church understands it, lust is not the same as a desire to be intimate with another person. It is a distorted desire that objectifies another, that – here’s that word again – dehumanizes someone so s/he becomes a source of gratification and not a full person with his or her own story, gifts and needs.

Adultery is sexual or emotional intimacy with someone other than your committed partner. It need not always be defined by lust – in some ways, non-physical emotional relationships can be the more dangerous adulterous attachments. Why? Because they require one to break trust with another, and necessitate lying to loved ones, risking damage to whole families and communities. As natural as it may be to love more than one person intimately, Jesus upholds fidelity as a higher calling, one that builds up rather than tears down.

The remedy to adultery he proposes is harsh, suggesting we’re better off dismembered than being led by our physical appetites. I believe he exaggerates to make a point: We are best able to give and receive love, to know and be known, when our focus is on the love of God. If a person or thing becomes the source of what we think we need, be it sexual, emotional, or ego gratification, we turn away from the Source of love. We worship the object.

Our culture places romantic and sexual love on a pedestal and devalues the difficult, day-in, day-out work of being real and generous in a committed relationship, letting yourself be fully known. Jesus wants his followers to love this way, to be nurtured in authentic relationships that model the love of God.

Today let’s inventory our relationships – the intimate ones, and the more distant ones. Is there anyone from whom you want something? Not necessarily lustfully – sometimes we want others to make us feel better about ourselves, or to keep us from being lonely or meet other needs. Can you see that person apart from what they can do for you? Can you see him or her as a fellow child of God? Can you offer your desire or need in prayer, asking God how God would provide for you? Can you want something for him or her instead of from? That's a good place for prayer today.

Marriage does not represent the fullness of God’s revelation – but at its best it is an icon of God’s love, a transforming power that crosses boundaries of otherness to know and be known. That alone is reason to allow the Spirit to make us faithful, in our hearts as well as in our bodies.

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8-24-22 - Perfect At Humility

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

It’s funny to think of humility as a virtue at which to excel – if we truly succeed, no one will know. “Mirror, mirror on the wall – who’s the humblest of them all?”

But that’s the upside-down-ness of the Life of God – it’s backwards from the way we naturally think. Jesus said, “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” Humility is to be a characteristic of those who follow Christ. It’s worth spending a little time on. Let’s start with what it is not:

Humility is not humiliation, which is exposure of our worst attributes or actions. Enduring humiliation can sometimes lead us into true humility, but it’s a twisty, undesirable road that can as easily lead to despair and destructiveness.

Humility is not self-abasement or self-denigration. Talking about how awful and unworthy we are is, spiritually speaking, pride; pride being that tendency to equate ourselves with God. When we run ourselves down, we are setting ourselves up as judges of God’s work. That’s pride. Yes, we can judge our actions, and repent of destructive words, thoughts, behaviors – but to judge ourselves innately less worthy than another is as prideful as it is to say we are innately more worthy than another.

We might best define humility as the art of seeing ourselves clearly, seeing God clearly, and knowing the difference. Humility includes rejoicing in our gifts and talents, in who we are as unique creatures made in God’s image. It includes enjoying being the best at what we do – and delighting in that as a gift from God, a gift enhanced by God’s life moving in us. (For a powerful reminder of this, watch the first 1.44 minutes of this clip from the movie Chariots of Fire…)

Humility helps us to love ourselves despite our shortcomings, which creates space for those shortcomings to be transformed. Humility helps us love other people better because we see them as neither more nor less important than we are. Humility helps us invite the love and grace of God into those parts of ourselves that are not as we wish, so that we become transformed from the inside.

What do you love most about yourself? What about yourself do you most wish to be transformed?

God is in the transformation business. You have put yourself in God’s hands. Start giving thanks now for the beauty that shines through you – the beauty of perfect Love mixed with the beauty of Love’s unique creation that is you. Alleluia!

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4-6-22 - Consecrated

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. 

I’m always amused that we call this Palm Sunday, when in some of the versions of the story – like Luke’s – there is no mention whatsoever of palm branches. But they all say that the people spread their cloaks on the road as they accompanied Jesus on the road into Jerusalem. 

Then they brought [the colt] to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

Why did they spread their cloaks on the road? Probably because they so honored the holiness in Jesus that they didn’t want even the hooves of the colt carrying him to touch the bare ground. In that moment, the colt became a holy vessel, consecrated to God’s purpose, as holy as the tabernacle of old in which the presence of God was thought to dwell. In fact, we are told that this colt whom Jesus’ disciples found tied up in the next village, as Jesus said they would, was one which had never been ridden. This was an animal set apart to mediate the divine into ordinary life.

That is what we call sacramental – ordinary things which are consecrated to the Lord’s purposes, to bring the holy into the everyday. Cups and plates, even if they are made of silver and called chalices and patens, are just cups and plates until the time they are called into holy use. Water is just water until it becomes blessed as the water that gives new life. Bread and wine are things we enjoy at a restaurant, until we set them aside to carry the holy into our lives.

And you and I are just ordinary people, yet also consecrated to carry the holy presence of Christ into the world. As it did for the colt, that call can come at any time. In our lives it comes frequently, and some of the time we discern it and act on it. In those times, we remember that our truest vocation is to be bearers of Christ’s light and love and presence to the places and people who need to see him. Remembering that, we are able to look past our own reactions in the situation, lay ourselves aside and bring Christ forward.

I pray we might share the vocation of that little colt, knowing ourselves to have been found and untied, released for service as a bearer of Christ. I pray we might walk around the streets and roads of our towns aware that we are carrying a holy presence, expecting that presence to make a difference. People may not lay down cloaks before us – in fact, they may throw obstacles in our way. But if we’re carrying Jesus where he has asked to go, we need fear no obstacles. We are holy vessels, consecrated to God’s use, and that is enough.

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12-6-21 - Holy Ranting

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here. Scroll down for info about an upcoming online Advent Retreat this Saturday.

Today is St. Nicholas Day – a day of cheerful giving in the tradition of the great Bishop of Myra. Yet, though he was known for generosity, lending his name to the jolly figure we now know as Santa Claus, St. Nicholas could be fierce and combative when he felt Christian belief was being attacked. One of the many legends about him has him slapping the Egyptian theologian Arius in the face at the Council of Nicea over whether or not Jesus the Son was the equal of God the Father. (The Council eventually came down on the side of the full equality of all three persons of the Trinity, and Arius has gone down in history as a heretic…)

Old Nicholas, like anyone with a social media account today, was no stranger to the rant: an impassioned articulation of support or denunciation, fueled by indignation, righteous or otherwise, sometimes punctuated by biting wit. A good rant can leave you feeling somewhat singed, or slightly sick. John the Baptist, like many a prophet in Israel’s tradition, was a master of the good rant. He let the crowds who’d come out to see him know just what he thought of their sight-seeing curiosity and trendy repentance.

John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’

Wow. In a few short words, he’s called them a nest of poisonous snakes and warned them of wrath, fire and axes. He’s told them their history as “God’s chosen people” will not protect them from God’s righteous judgment. Is this the kind of preaching that fills churches?

It didn’t seem to hurt John’s numbers… nor did he care. Like the prophets of old, he had a message from God to deliver, and he delivered it without concern for the outcome. He was there to tell them what they needed to hear, and to offer them a ritual that made visible the internal repentance to which he called them. What people did with that message was between them and God.

The prophets we meet in the Hebrew Bible didn’t mince words either. Their prophecies veered between doom and promise, and were often terrifying. A prophet doesn’t have to be frightening, but the prophet does have to honestly say what she or he believes God wants the people to hear. That’s the tricky part – to speak for God, and not just out of your own sense of right or wrong – or grievance.

John’s essential message, if we take out the scary bits, was that people were to bear the fruit of repentance, not just say the words. If they were genuinely sorry for the way they had been living, conducting business and relationships, there should be a visible effect in changed lives and behaviors.

We are not to stop calling out injustice and untruth when we see it. We are to work for equity and access to resources and security for all people, and if necessary to speak against those who would deny those basic rights. Sometimes that speaking out will include ranting. More often it will entail a steady, relentless process of forming relationships in which communication can happen in humility and honesty.

Jesus could get up a good rant too – yet usually he brought transformation by drawing people into a relationship of love. A good prophet speaks the truth; a good leader fosters relationships to bring about outcomes that reflect that truth. That is our mission, transformation in Christ’s love.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are here. Water Daily is now a podcast! Subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

Advent Spa for the Spirit - Saturday, December 11

Taking the Advent theme of awakening, we'll explore how we can wake to the still voice in our own spirits, to the lives of others, and to the Life of God all around us.
We'll gather on Zoom at 9 and be done around noon. You can register here - more information and the link will be sent. Please invite others who may like to come.

10-4-21 - A Good Person

You can listen to this reflection here.

When I was in elementary school, the SRA reading mastery system was in vogue (I googled… seems to still be around). This is a set of reading materials which children can move through at their own pace. You read a selection, answer questions about it, and if you are correct, move on to the next story. It is a perfect system for over-achievers – a clear path to success and an almost unlimited number of steps to complete.

That’s what the man in this week’s gospel story reminds me of – someone doing the spiritual equivalent of SRA. This fellow who ran up to Jesus was a good and serious man. Meticulous in following God’s commandments, humble and faithful, even so he is unsure of his ultimate future. So he comes to find Jesus: 

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus asks why he calls him “good teacher,” saying that only God is truly good. He reminds him of the Commandments – living according to God’s law is the way to express your goodness. The man assures Jesus he has kept these all his life.

Wait - he has kept all the commandments his whole life? That’s amazing! What kind of person is this? A person who can say, “I’m a good person,” is both admirable and deeply saddening. Saddening, because those who locate their righteousness in their own ability to follow the rules often have more trouble acknowledging their need for God.

There are two approaches to holiness. One is the “SRA,” rung-climbing, rule-following, sometimes teeth-gritting way of “Give me the directions; I can do it myself.” The other is to be clear-eyed about our weaknesses as well as strengths, willing to be repentant and vulnerable, compassionate toward self and others. I would argue that the first approach leaves little room to grow, while the second allows infinite space for maturing in faith and love. There is nothing wrong with “good people.” It’s just that so often those who say “I’m a good person” say it defensively, explaining why they don’t have anything to do with God or religious life.

Do you know anyone in that category? I don't wish to sound judgmental – I just don’t think it works. It’s like saying, “I’ve arrived. There is nothing more I need.” Now, this man talking to Jesus wasn’t quite that way – he figured there must be something more he needed to do. And that’s the trap for the “good person,” thinking we can “do” our way into the Kingdom of heaven, when Jesus said it is a gift we need to receive. The last thing this man needed was another spiritual task to complete (though Jesus gave him a whopper...). He needed to submit himself to Love.

“I’m a good person,” is a conversation stopper. What do you say to that? “Good for you?” “No, you’re not?” The next time someone says that to me, I will smile and say, “Great. Do you know you are a loved person?” That’s what counts.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.  Water Daily is now a podcast! Subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.

9-4-20 - The Promise of Presence

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

Sometimes I wish Jesus would show up and set a few things straight in this messed up world of ours – if people would pay more attention than they did the first time around. But that idle wish misses a big ol’ point: He is here. He said he would be. It’s up to us to discern him and to make him known.

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them,” is a promise, a promise of presence. To unfold that promise, though, requires a few steps of faith.

First, we have to be able to distinguish between flesh and spirit. Jesus said fleshly reality was limited, and spiritual reality was never-ending. Jesus’ enfleshed presence was time-and-space-limited, 33 years or so, in one region of the world. His presence in a resurrection body lasted about 40 days. His spiritual presence is eternal, and still going strong, especially among those who believe in his promise.

We also need to affirm that Jesus lives in us. I take the promises of baptism at face value - that we are united with Christ, made a new creation, given a new heart and a new spirit – his spirit. So Paul wrote, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” But we are not filled with his spirit in an “invasion of the body snatchers” way. Rather, his spirit joined with ours brings forth a new person, that most true “……..” (fill in your name) that can possibly be.

If Christ dwells in us, abides in us, then he is real in us. When we gather with others in whom Christ lives, his presence can become even stronger and more real. By believing and joining together, we make Christ present in our world, not just a suggestion of presence, but fully here, spiritually speaking. (We have to supply the flesh and blood.) This is just as true for online gatherings in his name as in-person.

How might it change our lives and ministries if we were more fully conscious of this reality? If, when we gathered together, we knew Jesus was among, us and spoke and acted and prayed like we knew we were in the presence of the all-powerful God? If, when we went out in ministry, we made sure we went in teams of at least two, so that the power of Christ’s presence would fill and empower our work in his name? Don’t get me wrong – Christ is present in us when we’re alone. But he promised that when two or three of us – our more – gathered in his name, he would be in our midst.

Where would you love for Jesus to show up this weekend? In a place? A person? A situation? Do you have any idea how you might bring him there, with two or three others? Going deeper… where do you think he might want to go? You might get quiet in prayer today or Saturday morning, and ask him: “Jesus, where do you want me to take you today, to make you known?”

I can’t wait to hear how those prayers turn out. I do know the world needs a lot more Jesus, and we’re just the ones to help make that happen.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.