Author Archives: karbly

Someone Is Always Watching
Dianna Vanderkarr of Flushing, MI, USA

 “Those who desire life
    and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
    and their lips from speaking deceit;
let them turn away from evil and do good;
    let them seek peace and pursue it.
For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
    and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” -1 Peter 3:10-12

When Craig and I moved in 2014 to our new place, we made an effort to meet our new neighbors. We have elderly couples in our neighborhood and some who are single. We have made sure that certain driveways are taken care of during the winter. Our neighbor next to us (Marty) is a single lady, so we make sure her driveway is always cleared. She notices and always thanks us with a Christmas gift. Linda, who lives across the street, lost her husband this past December. She has no close family in the area, so make sure to connect with her every couple of days. She calls to see if we can take her to doctor appointments, the drug store, or other things, which we are happy to do.

Kelly is another single lady we have come to know. We have been given the opportunity to share our faith with her. Once she was in need spiritually and asked for the laying on of hands. Another evangelist and I offered that sacrament to her. A few years ago, she lost a pet that was, in essence, her child. Now Kelly has a new puppy named Maverick. In this last year Kelly and Maverick have spent a lot of time with us. We sat out on the back porch during the summer and listened to Kelly share her concerns. She now calls us the therapy house for her and Maverick, and she knows she can blow off steam and we will listen. She has had many struggles this last year with her job, not to mention the struggle with a puppy who wants to play in our yard but needs training.

One day as we were chatting, she mentioned the candle she sees every morning through the window of my office. I mentioned that is my meditation time, and I always use a candle. She said she feels connected with me in spirit and that we are in meditation together every morning. I was taken back a bit, not having given any thought to someone seeing my candle burning. So, we never know who is watching, but someone is always watching. I rejoice knowing that I can share the love of Jesus Christ through the window with a candle.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Snowflakes
Shirley Remmenga of Ft. Collins, CO, USA

Praise the Lord, all you nations!
    Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love toward us,
    and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord! -Psalm 117

The big, lacy snowflakes fell from the sky like feathers from a giant bird, landing gently on tree branches; fence posts; dead lawn grass; and dirty, oil-spotted streets. They covered every surface with a pure, white, fluffy blanket.

I stood at my window and watched them. I was full of awe and wonder and overwhelmed with the knowledge that every flake carried the DNA of God.

If God is in everything, as I believe, then everything has deep meaning and purpose regardless of whether it seems to enrich or disgust, has beauty or is ugly, is valuable or is trash.

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God-in everything” (Matthew 5:8).

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

God Within
Becky Savage of Lee’s Summit, MO, USA

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. -John 14:16-17

My mom was active. She was working at Outreach International, serving as pastor, writing, and singing. She was an awesome grandma, mother, sister, aunt, and wife. Dad was ready for retirement, and they were looking forward to traveling together. Then mom started tripping and falling. Items dropped from her grasp unexpectantly. Doctors were perplexed. The symptoms were difficult to diagnosis. Obviously, something was wrong, but what? It was difficult to not question, “Why, God? Why now?”

Despite family members’ questions and spiritual distress mom remained steadfast. She received a terminal diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s disease. Still she remained assured of God’s continued loving presence. Her body lost muscle and nerve function gradually over five years. She needed canes, then a walker, then a wheelchair, and finally was bedbound. Still she remained confident that God blessed her. Even when her only movement was from her neck upward, her spirit remained strong.

We knew Mom was dying. Mom convinced us that God remained with her. Because she stayed faithful, we stayed strong as we journeyed with her through her final stage of life. Her faith sustained us. We now know no matter our circumstances, God is within.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

The Spirit
Julie Conway Sword of Gainesville, FL, USA

“Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him[(David] in the midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David…then David took a harp, and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well . . .” -1 Samuel 16:13

It was a rinky-dink upright grand piano at the campgrounds. It had been in the lodge for years through all kinds of weather, temperatures, and camper pounding. Every year it was tuned, and, surprisingly, the tone was not too bad.

Prior to the sharing service I began playing a mixture of classical music and hymns. My thoughts and hands glided over the keys, not of my own power. There had been other times when I felt the Spirit playing through me: before the Graceland College student assembly; on the Temple organ for Prayer for Peace. The music flowed effortlessly; the assembly was stilled and singing, praying, and scripture reading ensued. With a grateful heart, I praised the Lord for blessing me.

It reminded me of the “rag-tag army” in The Way of the Wolf-the Lord picked them up, dusted them off and set them on their way again, empowered by the spirit of the Lord. “Is anything too hard for the Lord? No!”

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

18 Inches
Mark Murphy of Everett, WA, USA

So above all, guard the affections of your heart, for they affect all that you are. Pay attention to the welfare of your innermost being, for from there flows the wellspring of life. -Proverbs 4:23 (The Passion Translation)

The Lakota (Sioux) Nation says, “The longest journey you will take in your lifetime is [the 18 inches] from your head to your heart.” I was unexpectedly forced to take a part of that journey in 1996 in Birmingham, Alabama, during a Human and Civil Rights Conference. Despite being a strong supporter of rights for all people, I confess that I had reached a point of fatigue, tired of all the hyphenated American identities, complaints about racism and discrimination, and tired of being too often bludgeoned by the incessant hammering on the need for more cultural diversity. Why? I asked myself. We’re Americans, not hyphenated Americans. No progress is going to truly be made until the past is put behind us and forgiveness extended. Let’s just let go and move on. And all these thoughts coming from a proud, bleeding-heart liberal.

On the last morning of the conference, a Sunday, I went to the (in)famous 16th Street Baptist Church where on the morning of September 23, 1963, in an act of domestic terrorism committed by white supremacists, “four little girls” (ages 11 and 14) were killed, along with 22 wounded. I sat in the sanctuary for worship, one of only three white people in the congregation. Truthfully, I felt very out of place. I knew that I stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb and that everyone else was looking at me, wondering what the white dude was doing in their church. Suddenly it hit me, this experience I was having was merely the tiniest glimpse of what so many African American (Black) people go through on a nearly daily basis as they live in a majority white populace, rightly believing that many of these Caucasians, many of them Christians, still look at them with subtle suspicion and superiority. They know that in far too many cases, African Americans are blamed for the continuation of racial problems that would go away if Blacks would just “get over” their anger and history with oppression.

I realized in that moment that while I spoke of and argued for the worth and equality of all persons, my heart was far away from where my head was and the words I was speaking. The thoughts I described above came from a failure to honestly empathize with the reality my black brothers and sisters face every day and from my attempt to force them to fit into my white privileged views of how they should respond to their lived experiences.

That Sunday morning in the 16th Baptist Church, the Spirit, in a moment of compassion and grace, opened my eyes and taught me that I had to be more honest with myself, and that I have some distance to go on that 18-inch journey. I wonder how many Daily Bread readers are on that journey with me.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Coming into Focus
Jan Hill of New Brighton, MN, USA

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28

When I was in the fourth grade many years ago, my parents took me to the eye doctor because they thought I was not seeing like I should. We lived in a small town in southern Iowa; and to see an eye doctor, we had to travel to the city that was big and unfamiliar and two hours away.

After I had my eyes tested, we took the script to the place that would grind the lenses and set them in the frames. It wasn’t a one-hour wait like it is at some places today. It was going to take the rest of the day, but we were assured that the new glasses would be ready by closing time that afternoon.

I remember the ride home with my new glasses on. It was getting dark, and when we got away from the bright lights of the city and rode through the dark countryside, I looked out the car window and realized for the first time that those fuzzy white blobs I had been seeing were really pinpoints of light, sparkling and dancing in the sky.

Then the song made sense to me:
Twinkle, twinkle, little star
How I wonder what you are
Up above the world so high
like a diamond in the sky

Those stars had been there all the time. I just couldn’t see them until I put on my new eyes and looked upward, and then they came clearly into focus.

I wonder how many more diamonds I would see if I took the responsibility, like the blind man in the scriptures, for washing the mud from my eyes.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Giving Generously
Merna Short of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” -Matthew 25:40

Giving generously encompasses many areas. I heard a story recently that caused me to think of various acts of generosity. Some of these include our finances and how we use them.

The church and its mission need our support. Welfare organizations need money and volunteers. Opportunity shops recycle second-hand goods with the profits going to those in need. People share time uplifting a friend or neighbor, supplying a meal for someone who is sick or housebound. Others donate time and goods for food pantries. There are many areas of giving in hospitals, care centers, and the community-manning the shops, chaplaincy, music ministry, reading, and visiting the sick or lonely.

But where do all those wigs for cancer patients come from?

Victoria liked her long hair. It was brown and straight. Her grandmother told me, “I would watch her brushing her hair until it gleamed.” I wondered why Victoria didn’t cut it, as short hair would have suited her. One day when I was visiting, I noticed her hair had been cut short. She looked lovely. Her sister was holding a parcel. In it was a plait (Victoria’s hair) ready to be sent to make a wig for a child with cancer.

Two or three years later, I noticed her hair growing longer again. When I asked her about it, Victoria said, “I think it’s about time I did something for someone else, so I’m growing my hair for another wig to donate.”

Open my eyes. Open my heart. Here am I, Lord. Use me.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

And Life Begins Again
Bruce Lindgren of Independence, MO, USA

And how blessed are they! For they did publish peace; they did publish good tidings of good; and they did declare unto the people that the Lord reigneth. -Mosiah 11:207

Once upon a time in Japan, a shogun named Yoshimasa had broken two of his favorite teacups. He sent them to China to be repaired, and they were returned to him with repairs made in a traditional way: some very precise holes were drilled in the edges of the porcelain, and the pieces were held together with crude metal staples. Yoshimasa was displeased with their appearance and placed them aside, unused.

In time, he realized that these cups had character, even though he still did not like the way they looked. He sent them to a local craftsman and told him to repair the cups with the most noble materials possible. The craftsman took out the metal staples and put the pieces together with lacquer mixed with powdered gold. The result was beautiful; and it gave rise to the art of kintsugi, repairing broken objects with a mixture of lacquer and gold.

The repairs are obvious, but beautifully so. The imperfections, now repaired, are more beautiful than the original. We get broken, too; and so do our communities. Where we should be whole, we have been broken apart; and this often makes us despair.

But this is the Easter season, where Jesus creates his own kintsugi in us. The broken places in us, and between us and others, can be mended; and the mended parts increase the opportunity for beauty and for wonder. The despair that separates us from each other and drives us apart is obvious but overcome. That which was once over and done is once again brought back together to serve the purpose for which we were created, and love abounds.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

God Is Our Refuge
Jane M. Gardner, presiding evangelist

In you, O Lord, I seek refuge… Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily. Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me. My times are in your hand… Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love. -Psalm 31:1-2, 15-16 adapted

A Psalm for 2020

When nothing goes right
    When tragedy strikes
          When I am my own worst enemy
                    God is my refuge

When sorrow looms
     When it feels like no one cares
          When I lose my way
                    God is my refuge

When bullied and devalued
     When disruptions abound
          When I suffer pain and poor health
                    God is my refuge

When stretched too thin
     When wound too tightly
          When I forget to breathe
                    God is my refuge

When joy comes in the morning
     When hope seeps through the cracks
          When love surprises
               When I am at peace
                         God is my refuge

Steadfast Lover of My Soul,
In faith and trust I place my times in your hand.
Let your face shine upon me.
Save me.
You are my refuge.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Dancing with the Spirit
Kass Unger of North Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.  I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. -Ezekiel 37:26-27

It seems that am often told, “You’re a good follower.” Maybe a little more context is required because we were often told growing up that being a follower is not a good thing, that we should not blindly follow. “That was a great dance. You’re a good follower.” When it comes to successful partner dancing, there is a leader and a follower. The leader proposes the steps; the follower chooses to follow or not. It requires both working together.

Let’s be clear, I am not a good follower. I am a bit of a control freak, and part of the reason I took up this style of dance (salsa) was to learn to give up a little of that control. And it was unbelievably difficult for me to do. Once I understood the basic steps and the panic in the bottom of my stomach started to dissipate a little, I was ready to try my hand (or rather feet) on the social dance scene. This did not go well. People didn’t lead in the way I expected. They didn’t combine the steps in the same order I had learned They threw steps at me that I hadn’t learned at all or even worse, they were not in time with the music. There was no beautiful twirling and swirling and happy dancing; there was panic, dislocated shoulders, and arguments about where the start of the bar of music was.

That was until I let go. One day something clicked. In order to work together we needed to work together. Sounds simple. But it meant that I needed to take what the other person was offering, irrespective of what I thought of it, and make it work. Sometimes I needed to transform it a little to fit me better, other times completely surrender and trust them entirely as I couldn’t figure out what was coming next. Those times were often when I would stare back open-mouthed and amazed at what they had just managed to make my body do, with me having very little clue how. Sometimes I even dance out of time with the music (in time with my partner, but out of time with the music). It kills me inside, but I do it anyway.

Letting go and accepting whatever others offer doesn’t just apply on the dance floor. Working together has allowed for some truly beautiful and creative expressions and has changed the ways in which I view my ministry.

Prayer Phrase

In God we all belong.

Spiritual Practice

Sustaining Our Connections

Many find themselves isolated around the world to protect each other and the most vulnerable during this global pandemic. Spend time prayerfully imagining those people that you might normally come into contact with on a regular basis, known and unknown. Remember all the connections that sustain our lives each day. Even in this time of intentional separation, how are you experiencing deep, intrinsic belonging in God?

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.