We encourage you to sign up for the 40-40-40 Lenten Challenge, a challenge with our partner Southeastern Iowa Synod to participate in Lenten practices, including these daily devotions. Just signing up counts as participation! More info here.

The daffodils in the courtyard at the Synod Office started poking through the ground this week. Seems a little early to me, but these beautiful green shoots are just one more reminder that this world is bigger than this moment. It’s bigger than the war in Ukraine, it’s bigger than hateful legislation, hungry people struggling to get out of poverty, and my own brokenness. These signs of life coming after a long winter are signs of God’s Kairos time – of time that created salvation before the mountains existed. God’s Kairos time persists and resists in the form of beautiful spring flowers rising despite threats and evil.

As the earth turns, as the stars move in the sky, and as our days come and go we remember who holds us. If you google, “Does gratitude change my brain” you’ll get all sorts of studies and articles about how the practice of gratitude really does change your brain chemistry – let us come before God’s presence with thanksgiving – is more than an invitation to worship. It is an invitation to a posture of living as a disciple in this hard, difficult world. Taking time to thank God for things like 2-inch green shoots has the capacity to change my entire outlook of the 10-day forecast, not to mention bringing great joy and anticipation of what is to come. Imagine how we could change the world, church, if we approach not just daffodils, but people, problems, and practices with gratitude and the knowledge that the God who created heaven and earth is here for your salvation!

Prayer

Oh God, you meet me everywhere in my life. On the road, in my challenges, in my joys, and in all the places I come to worship you. Grant me the imagination to see the ways you are working in the world. Help me encounter those you place in my path, and be open to the Spirit’s leading me to share the saving love I have found in your son, Jesus Christ, who so loves the world that he gave his life to people like me, the woman at the well, and all of your beloved children. Amen.

Journal Prompt

As we reimagine worship and God’s presence in our world this week, reflect on the following:

• When have you felt closest to God?

• What story do you have of how God’s love or forgiveness has impacted your life? Have you ever shared that story with anyone?

• For what are you thankful? In your life? In your church? What do you still hope for? How can you bring all this with you to worship?

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Week Three Devotions by Rev. Erika Uthe, uthe@seiasynod.org