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.

Confession: mornings are not always my best time. And Sunday mornings, when I’m trying to get myself and my children up and moving, are especially not always my best. As much as I am loathe to admit it, there are many Sunday mornings when we finally get to the car after having yelled myself and my children there.

What a way to show up to worship – smiling at the greeters as if I didn’t just lose my cool with two, tiny people and the fear of showing up late. Oh, good grief.

These Israelites in the desert, therefore, have a special spot in my heart. They’re cranky. They’re yelling. They’re taking it out on Moses. God has done so many good things, and they continue to complain, question, and even wonder if God possibly freed them from the bondage of slavery to lead them to die of thirst in the wilderness. Yet despite God’s feelings toward these fickle people, and despite Moses’ frustration at the way the Israelites were quarreling, God continued to provide. God showed up on the rock, in the midst of conflict, quarreling, and questioning.

So it is with you. God shows up in the faces of the people you know and love, in the places that hold sacredness in our hearts, in the Word, in water, bread, and wine. For this reason, worship is so important in the life of a disciple. It is a reminder that God shows up. No matter how much we believe it or not, the questions we bring, the grief we bear, the hopes we carry – God shows up.

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?

• Share this

• Forward to a friend

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