Weekly Devotion
February 23, 2025
To my friends at WCC. I want to start this devotional with an update on our lives. It is with a lot of thankfulness for our community at WCC that I write this to you. Recent reminders that we are called to a life of sharing, to support and love each other through the journey of life has prompted this letter to you dear friends.
It is now 3 plus years since my initial diagnosis with Multiple Myeloma. Some of you who are new to WCC probably do not know this about me. Some of you already know as well that this disease has relapsed. I will shortly be starting treatment to suppress this disease again. We don’t know what this journey will look like. We can only live one day at a time. Again, we request your prayers on our behalf, as well as our family. Also, we invite conversation about our journey. In the following lines of this devotional, I will share some of what God, our gracious and loving Father, has been teaching me. The stories of suffering and the subsequent stories of uncertainty need to be heard. So, the rest of this “devotional” will hopefully give you a small glimpse into how the Holy Spirit has helped me and given me freedom to lament the losses and rejoice in the pleasures of life.
Today I come to you humbly, a work in progress, learning to live with uncertainty. Those of you who know me, a least a little bit, know that I like certainty! Being organized and prepared for what is to come. The journey of the last 3 years in particular, as well as the years of living behind me, are slowly teaching me to slow down, make better choices and find contentment. Today as I write is one of the better days.
Over the past years I’ve been reading a few books that have helped me along this recent journey. I’ll be referring to them in this short post. Those of you who participated in the Book Club this fall are familiar with Aimee Patterson’s book, “Suffering Well and Suffering With”. (By the way - it’s in the Library) This book was a challenge for all of us who read it. She spends two chapters digesting the book of Job. (I challenge each of you to read this book as a story, not a chapter and verse read.). As a group we did this. The book of Job leaves us with no answers as to why we suffer. In the end Job turns to God in trust. Job has honest dialogue with God, challenging God. In the end Job’s understanding and trust in God has increased. While the end of the story seems to conclude with certainty, this needs to be looked at in the context of all of scripture, including the Psalms and the life of Jesus and his suffering while living among us.
Earlier this week I listened to N. T. Wright’s podcast with Kate Bowler. I will be using material from this podcast to help me with sharing Romans 8:28 (KJV) with you. The usual reading of this verse goes like this: “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. N. T. Wright is a theologian and preacher from the Church of England. I have read a few of his books and listened to him online and find him a great Biblical scholar with a pastoral approach. He said a careful study of the original language, plus looking at the Psalms of Lament (44 and 88) together with Jesus’ life with us show us a fuller story to this portion of Romans. His version of this verse from Romans would be, “God works all things for good WITH those who love Him.” The following is a short quote from N. T. Wright.
“It's that God works all things for good with those who love him. And the phrase those who love him refers back to the previous verse where the people in question are the people who are caught up strangely against their own will perhaps in the extraordinary dialogue between the Father and the Spirit. And that then goes back to Romans 5.5, which says that God pours out his love in our hearts through the Spirit who's been given to us.
So that there is this bizarre dialogue to ask, bizarre dialogue between the Father and the Spirit. And we're caught in the middle. And the place where we are caught is the Christ shaped place, the place of saying, my God, why did you abandon me?”
From Everything Happens with Kate Bowler: Listen Again: N.T. Wright, Feb 11, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/everything-happens-with-kate-bowler/id1341076079?i=1000691044016&r=1339
This material may be protected by copyright.
I struggled with this verse in Romans 8:28. It did not leave me with comfort, rather more questions and uncertainty. So why if I love God, where is the good? Over the past three years I began to understand that I will not get answers to some questions, just like Job. God gives Job the story about who he is and who God is. Job is given a new perspective on his relationship with God. God is not a distant God. God is intimately related to creation. Job is only a small bit of God’s creation, part of a much larger world. Job responds with humility. “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” Job 42:2.
“We are called to be people who allow that agonized prayer to happen. And it happens either when something bad has happened to us, or when something bad has happened to people that we love, or people that we know about, or people that we see on the news, whatever. And we simply have to hold on to it with the lament in the presence of God.”
From Everything Happens with Kate Bowler: Listen Again: N.T. Wright, Feb 11, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/everything-happens-with-kate-bowler/id1341076079?i=1000691044016&r=1405
This material may be protected by copyright.
Seeing Romans 8:28 in this new perspective “the Christ shaped place, the place of saying my God, why did you abandon me?” gives me room to cry out to God for help.
Praying the Psalms is a new discipline for me. I find reading them slowly and letting God speak gives me hope. The Psalms of Lament are especially meaningful for me. I encourage you to read one Psalm a day. Look at your own life, family life and the world events that trouble you and hear God’s Spirit speak.
Written by an Attendee and member of Westwood Community Church