Read the Psalm

With a description of resting in the embrace of God, Psalm 131 is the natural extension of what was prayed in Psalm 130. His love disarms us and humbles us. As we experience His love … as we let down our guards … we let our attempts to control fall away. It is this humility of heart that is most receptive to God and His love. It is a heart of humility which continues to nurture an openness of heart that allows God’s love and presence to become more than an idea.

The opening lines of the prayer speak directly to the Lord and proclaim the desire to abide in humility. Three phrases give voice to this desire, and they encompass heart, mind, and body. 

First, humility is nurtured by a “heart that is not lifted up.” In other words, a heart that does not demand things be a certain way. Our challenge as we walk this journey with Christ is often one of expectations. We want what we want when we want it. We were made with an ability to expect or anticipate things, but this becomes problematic when they turn into demands. The invitation for our heart in humility is to desire God above all else. This roots and grounds us. 

Second, we abide in humility as our “eyes are not raised too high.” This relates to the way we think about and perceive ourselves as well as the world around us. Our eyes represent where our thoughts are focused. Thoughts “raised too high” is the dilemma the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans 12:3, “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment.” A sober mind is a humble mind that looks to the Lord as the reference point for all things. The context of Romans 12 is relationships in the body of Christ which highlights that humble thinking also extends to the way we see others in relation to God. In the context of love, we see ourselves and others as beloved sons and daughters – all with gifts to share.

Third, we deepen in humility as we stay in our lane: “do not occupy [ourselves] with things too great and too marvelous for [us].” The word “occupy” is a Hebrew word (halak) which literally mean one’s walk or way of life. The humility here is that our way of life is consistent with who we are. On the one hand, we can have grandiose ideas of who we are and our gifts – involving ourselves in things beyond our bandwidth. Perhaps we’ve never considered it this way, but could our overworking and overachieving be going beyond our created design? A humble way of life is a boundaried, purposeful existence. In 1 Timothy 2:2, it is written that we should pray for those in authority” that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” 

Humility … we are led there by God’s grace, and nurturing humility helps us abide in that grace and love. Andrew Murray, the great writer on prayer, wrote: “Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as God to do all.” As we will see in further reflection on this psalm, humility allows a restfulness because we know we are the beloved of God. (see also Psalm 127:2)

Attributed to St. Patrick, this prayer exemplifies the humility that comes from the love of God and also opens us again and again to His love:

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

Reflection questions: in what ways can you see humility present in your life? How has God’s love humbled you? Are there areas (heart, mind, or body) in which you are being led to embrace and nurture humility?

Prayer: “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” Amen.

Read the Psalm

This stunning psalm places the invitation to hope and patiently wait under the umbrella of grace. In verse 7, our hope (a settled, confident stance of waiting on God) is rooted in the love and redemptive nature of God.

Hope is a settled sense of knowing. We see this in Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (11:1–3) And so, what is it that we are trusting? What specifically is the object of our faith? Our trust, hope is in God, and specifically: “with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is plentiful redemption.”

We can wait. We can settle in with hope because of God’s commitment to us. The words steadfast love is the Hebrew word chesed. It speaks of a pursuing, committed, loyal love. In the Hebrew, this word for love (steadfast love) has the article “the” which often does not get translated. The effect is that this prayer is saying: “with the Lord is this steadfast love.” What love? The one right here, right now … active in our lives. The emphasis is that the Lord has a specific, dynamic love for each of us, not just a generic love for all people. It is “this” love which is present and active that is the focus of hope.

The phrase “plentiful redemption” is the second part of hope’s foundation. The order of the words in Hebrew is this: “plentiful with Him is redemption.” The emphasis here is on God as plentiful or abundant in how He redeems. To redeem is set free. The cultural and historical background would have been the redemption of the people from their slavery in Egypt which led to the exodus. As we encounter various trials and sufferings, He is abundant (extravagant) in the way He leads us into new life.

As we consider both His love and redemption, we are drawn to consider that His love is present and redemption is abundant. Often, we may consider God’s love to be distant and sparse. We may ask the questions: is His love enough? Will His love sustain me, guide me, protect me? The invitation here is to trust that His love and presence is more than enough. The focus on the dynamic, specific nature of His love and the abundance of His love compels us into loving relationship. To receive this love and to love Him in return.

It is when love enters the equation that we know God as more than nice thoughts or wishful thinking. It is when love enters and captivates us that we begin to know God in the depths of who we are. Hope is born out of love and hope leads us to patient waiting. In the waiting, we deepen in our knowing of God as we walk (pilgrimage home) day by day. In this sense, everything on our journey begins and ends with love.

Author Belden Lane makes sense of this as he writes: “(When I know that) I’ve come home in a deeply visceral way. I’m reminded again that loving is the truest way of ‘knowing’ anything.” As we respond to this invitation to love and be loved, we know God. Often, knowing gets located in the mind, but love locates knowing in all of our being. This is why Jesus said the greatest command is to: “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30) We are often tempted to compartmentalize the hard things in only our mind or perhaps we hold them in our body. We do this to maintain some kind of control of how we are experiencing the world. In our own strength and wisdom, it may feel like too much to hold the hard things – to wait patiently in hope. 

Love is what transports us home. Love transcends our attempts to control. Love disarms us and leads us to release our need to hold it together. 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 describes this reality:

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

His love shapes us. It compels to look outside of ourselves … to Him. The love of God – His ever-present grace toward us and His abundant redemption – is enough. We’ve asked the question: how is God loving me? Now, the questions become: will I let God love me? Will I receive this love? Will I open my clenched fists? Will I open my mind and heart where I may have compartmentalized things?

And so, love (being loved and loving in return) involves all of who we are – not just a part. The ancient Persian poet Rumi expressed this beautifully: “An intellectual is all the time showing off. Lovers, dissolve and become bewildered. Intellectual try not to drown, while the whole purpose of love is drowning.” As we journey together on this pilgrimage with God, focus on bring a lover. Being a lover means that we immerse ourselves in Him and in so doing we progressively shed control and lose ourselves in God.

Are you ready to receive the love of God?

Reflection questions: will you let God love you? Are you ready to be loved? Don’t pass by these questions too quickly but sit with them. Let it be a conversation with God. Let it unfold.

Prayer: Lord, I confess that waiting has been so difficult at times. I trust that Your love is enough and can ground me. I open myself to Your love. Please keep calling me to You. I desire to come back over and over again. Amen.

Read the Psalm 

On the heels of the intense cries against those who brough affliction, Psalm 130 is an expression of the transformation that comes in prayer. The center of this prayer is waiting. Waiting on the Lord’s intervention … waiting on justice … waiting on mercy. Rather than take vengeance into one’s own hands, waiting is a response of grace.

The soul waits. One’s soul is the totality of who they are: body, mind, heart, emotions. The soul is one’s life. Dallas Willard even included one’s relationships as a part of the soul. The response after pouring out one’s heart in pain (Psalm 129 as well as verse 1 of Psalm 130) is to slow down and wait with hope. When suffering, our bodies, minds, and emotions often get revved up. Our blood pressure frequently rises. Thoughts can swirl, seemingly out of control. Our emotions may flash light warning signs of danger below the surface of our awareness. When we wait, we pay attention to what our soul (all of who we are) is telling us and we slow down. Taking a deep breath, we pray: “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits.” As we repeat the words, our minds start to notice a different path. Our emotions are affected by a hope in there being more than the darkness we’ve experienced.

Watchman would wait through the darkness of the night at posts around the city, looking out to see where danger or threats might come under the veil of darkness. They also waited, knowing that morning would come. The darkness would lift, and the sunrise meant an end to the vigilance. Our souls may feel vigilant, and the psalmist prays that the waiting and watching would be with hope, trusting and knowing that things won’t always be hard with the threat of danger. As we learn to wait with hope, our souls find stability and calm.

In the midst of our journey, the practice and habit of waiting … slowing to notice what is unfolding … is vital. Waiting allows us to connect with the heart of God, whereas frantic, panicked reactions frequently leave us with regrets and messes to clean up. As we connect with the heart of God, we counsel with the Holy Spirit and seek to listen for wisdom and discernment.

Theresa of Avila, the 16^th century reformer of the Catholic church in Spain, wrote:

“Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things are passing away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things
Whoever has God lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.”

Do you feel the rootedness in her words? Patience (or, waiting) comes as we slow down and put our hope in the One who alone suffices. God is enough for us. It is His forgiveness and grace that roots us in a place of humility. “But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared.” (vs. 4) And, it is His love that gives hope (vs. 7). 

Experiencing God’s love on the journey means that we are learning to slow down. We may want to go fast and get where we think we are going, but our souls (all of who we are) become anchored in God’s presence and grace as we trust that God holds the timing, the pace, and the destination.

Priest, author, scientist, theologian, and teacher Teilhard de Chardin, SJ shared the following regarding this invitation to patience and waiting:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.

Reflection questions: in what ways do you find yourself impatient on this pilgrimage? Have you seen a lack of patience create messes in the past? What will it look like for you to embrace a waiting posture in your life right now?

Prayer: Lord, I wait for You, my soul waits, and in Your word I hope. My soul waits for You more than watchman for the morning. Amen.

Read the Psalm

These pilgrim prayers return to a familiar place with the word “afflicted” in verses 1 and 2. Psalm 120 used the word distress, and it comes from the same root word as afflicted, expressing the idea that one has been put in a tight, narrow spot. The connotation is that there does not seem to be room to breathe.

The Psalms of Ascent come back to this place of lament because times of affliction are so common. We can’t walk too long or far without experiencing them or being reminded of them. Even if we are not currently experiencing a time of distress, remembering affliction is critical. It helps us not to turn the “blessings” of Psalm 128 into promises. It aids us in walking with others in love and patience as they suffer. The psalms of lament comprise approximately half of the 150 psalms we find in Scripture. It is significant to note that the prevalence of lament is an invitation to include prayers of lament in our lives.

We may be tired of distress or even fearful of it, but it is part of what it means to be human. Suffering is possible because we were made in the image of God. To be in distress (affliction) occurs because we are made to love and be loved. The center of this love is our experience of God’s presence in our lives. It is being at home as well as the journey of walking home with God. 

As things distract us from His presence and perhaps distort our understanding of His presence in our lives, our suffering and pain increases. These distractions and distortions can derail us, and they can also become pathways for a deeper understanding and experience of God. Understanding this reality is at the core of how we navigate suffering … ours and/or the suffering of others. Thomas Keating made the observation that: “The presence of God relativizes all human experience in a way that transcends (it) without necessarily delivering you from the particular aches and pains or violence you are suffering.” Affliction invites us to open our hearts and pour them out to God. In the space that is opened with lament, love enters and fills. Until space is opened, our hearts are often too full to receive.

Writer Annelise Jolley observes: “One of the most paradoxically comforting responses to suffering is to name it. We long to acknowledge death or illness or betrayal for exactly what it is. We want a friend who sits by the hospital bed and affirms that this isn’t fair. We want a chaplain who holds the hand of bereaved parents and refuses to point out a silver lining.”

Lament invites us to name the suffering, but we may struggle to do so if we do not feel safe and secure in God’s love. Lament opens us in such a way that we experience that we are safe in the love of God. When we cling to our fear, anger, and hurt, it can become the dominant way of thinking and perceiving. As we pour out all these afflictive emotions to God and meet God’s love and compassion, we experience safety at home in this love. Romans 8 makes clear that nothing can separate us from God’s love (i.e., His presence) and the implication is astounding: if nothing can separate us, then everything is place of connection. We can trust God in our lament, knowing that we meet Him there. When the psalmist writes “yet they have not prevailed against me,” the idea is that even the affliction could not take them away from God’s love and the journey home.

It is in the real conditions of our lives, not where we’d like to be, that we experience God’s presence. He is always unconditionally present in the specific conditions of our lives. Often, the real condition of our life is that we want vengeance on those who have afflicted us. We tend to go one of two ways with feelings of vengeance: we fixate on them, or we try to ignore them. What if we prayed them? This is the invitation of lament and specifically an imprecatory psalm. An imprecatory psalm prays for and asks God to bring affliction upon others. The words of Psalm 129 specifically pray for the demise of the afflicters: “Let them be like grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up.” The prayer also asks that they not have anyone in their lives who might say: “The blessing of the Lord is upon you.”

This is not a “nice” prayer, but it is real. It is not parroting the words and emotions we think we should have or would even like to have, but praying the hard, cold pain. Can we really pray this way? God invites us to trust Him with all of who we are, including the part that may desire harm to be done to another. The effect of this kind of prayer is that our desire for harm and retribution is transformed. The safest place in the world is prayer as we pour our hearts to Him.

Reflection questions: do you feel safe in God’s love? How does praying a prayer of lament seem to you? Are you able to pray this way? Do you sense an invitation from God?

Prayer: Lord, I entrust all of me to you. I feel deeply my affliction, and I don’t think I can pray for the well-being of my afflicters. Not right now. I lean upon Your goodness and grace. Amen.

“We’re all just walking each other home.” Rumi

Share with at least one other person what has been shaped in you as you begin this journey. Share your desires for the journey and what you are noticing about yourself in relation to God’s presence with you.

If meeting with a group, walk through some of the reflection questions and share together. What is your prayer/desire that you might hold before God after these first days of Walking Home? Share with the group and pray for one another. 

Take a walk with God and use your imagination to envision the reality that God is with you. Reflect on your gratefulness for the previous week as well as your desires for the coming week. Express those reflections to God in prayer or simply walk in silence, knowing that He is present and aware of all your reflections. 

Take some prayerful time today to review the week and savor the goodness and grace of God with you. Engage the following questions as an examen for the week. In addition, engage in a creative exercise: write a poem, paint a picture, plant a flower, stack some stones, etc.

The examen each week will center around discernment, desire, and dwelling. 

• Do I have a sense of where I am? Or what is the state of my soul? (discernment) This question is important so that we are meeting God where we are and not where we’d like to be or think we should be. 
  • What do I want? (desire) We examine our desires because desire is the foundation for a life of seeking God’s heart. We may have desires we do not want or desires that are less than a desire for God, but we ask this question to notice how our desires are being shaped, reshaped, and deepened. 
  • How is God loving me? (dwelling) In the house of the Lord (which is prayer), we experience God’s love. Noticing the ways God is loving us deepens our awareness of and connection to dwelling (abiding) in God’s loving presence. 

Take some time with each of these questions … perhaps journaling your responses. Slow down and notice.

Where am I? (the discipline of discernment) 

What do I want? (the discipline of desire) 

How is God loving me? (the discipline of dwelling)

Prayer: Lord, thank You for walking with me as I walk home. Help me to receive the gift of sleep and restfulness. May my anxious toil be transformed to trusting partnership with You. Amen.

Creative Exercise … engage in something that gives expression to your experience this week. Consider sharing this with someone or keep it between you and the Lord.

Read the Psalm

From a prayer shaped by Ecclesiastes, we move to a prayer shaped by Proverbs. The words “fear the Lord” are a theme in Proverbs and also frequently misunderstood. When the concept of fear is connected to the Lord, it means to notice, to be aware. To fear the Lord is to be aware of His presence and activity. We might ask the questions: God, how are you involved in this? How are you present in this situation?

Fearing the Lord is described as the beginning of wisdom in Proverbs (1:7; 9:10). Wisdom is discernment, and asking how God is present and involved is the ultimate discernment. In this psalm/prayer, the words “walks in His ways” are paired with “fears the Lord.” This couplet is about awareness (fear) and response (walk). This response of walking in His ways is a result of discerning His ways. 

From here, we ask the question: what are His ways? Of course, in Isaiah 55:8, God reminds us: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.” Before we start to look at His ways, a posture of humility is important. It can be easy to think that we know His thoughts and ways, but God is inviting us to consider that His thought processes are different than ours. His way of interacting with His creation is different than we might expect. 

We do “have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) but we can’t assume that we will always understand or see the logic. God has infinitely more information at His disposal than we do. In addition, His processing speed is faster and His processing flows from pure love. Consequently, His ways are often mysterious (see both 1 Cor and Ephesians for extensive use of the word), and at the same time, they are perfect (Psalm 18:30).

Love is always at the center of His ways. Because God is love (1 John 4), this is the interpretive lens through which we should look at what it means to walk in ways. His ways are inherently relational since God exists as Trinity (the perfect union of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). To walk in His ways is to walk in love (Ephesians 5:2). All the commands of Scripture are about love. (Matthew 22:34-40) Moment by moment, we discern through prayerful attentiveness to the Lord and His love.

The first word of this prayer is the often-misunderstood word “blessed.” It does not mean that everything will go well or that we will not have troubles. The Beatitudes of Matthew 5 make this incredibly clear as do the experiences of our lives. Blessedness is the state of experiencing closeness and connection with God, and it is largely unconnected to the circumstances and conditions of our lives. God Himself is deepest desire of our heart … blessing is to experience Him. Ephesians 1:3 reminds us that He has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” 

So, the one who fears the Lord experiences a closeness and connection with God. As it relates to our life with God, things we may have previously thought of as a “blessing” might be the opposite. For example, if we were to receive a large sum of money, it might draw us away from noticing the Lord and enjoying our life with Him. In this case, the money would not a blessing at all, but the exact opposite.

Strangely, the last verses of Psalm 127 would seem to suggest that the result of fearing God is having a good family. However, the proverbial nature of this prayer alerts that what is prayed are not promises but a description of how things tend to go. Proverbs are observations from years of experience, given from the older to the younger. We may want guarantees, promises, and control but this is not about ensuring outcomes.

In general, we experience healthy relationships when we walk in the ways of the Lord. In a similar way, when we eat healthy foods, our bodies will be healthy but sometimes there are factors we do not control like genetics or environmental issues. Similarly, in our relationships, when love is the currency, our relationships tend to go well. It does not mean that our children will love God as we do or that there won’t be other challenges because they are so many things we do not control. 

As we fear the Lord and walk in His ways (awareness and response), we discover more and more that we control almost nothing except our awareness and response.

Finally, the “blessing” of verse fives draws us back to Zion – the space where God’s presence was experienced directly for the ancient people of God. To bless from Zion acknowledged that knowing His presence is the destination and desire.

Reflection questions: how would you describe “fearing God” to someone? (in your own words) Ask God to give you insight into what walking in His way (through the lens of love) might look like in your life.

Prayer: Oh Father, may I live today with awareness and responsiveness. Give me eyes to see You in all things and to follow Your ways of love and kindness. Amen.

Read the Psalm

“The Lord gives His beloved sleep.” Sleep … rest … peace. When we are stressed and anxious, sleep is often elusive. As we engage our belovedness and trust that we are secure in Him, it leads to peace and restfulness. If God is building the house and watching the city, even though we may have responsibilities, we know that He is the One holding it all … because we are His beloved.

Anxious toil is related to waking up early and going late to bed. If everything is dependent upon us, then we will likely work ourselves into sleeplessness. The reality is that the work is never done. Whether it is parenting, a career of some kind, or ministry opportunities, the work never comes to an end … if we are trying to hold it all together … if everything depends upon us. 

In Psalm 4:8, the psalmist proclaims: “in peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” When we know that we are safe – that we are the beloved of God – we rest, we sleep. Sleep has been shown to be one of the most important factors for a healthy life. It is no wonder that God gives sleep, or rest, to His beloved – to those who have embraced the reality that they are loved. “How am I sleeping?” may be one of the most important questions related to our life with God.

The spiritual practice of Sabbath is critical to living as the beloved. As God set down the basic structure of a God-oriented life for His people in Exodus 20, He invited them to embrace Sabbath:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20:8–11)

Of all the 10 commandments, more description is given to Sabbath than any other. It is not only essential to rest, but also not easy. Sabbath is counter cultural as well as counter intuitive. It is counter cultural in our world today and even more so in the ancient days when people often worked seven days a week, especially during the planting and harvesting seasons. With Sabbath, God is saying, “you are My people, and I love you. Take a day of rest and watch Me take care of you.” The rest of the world may be anxious and think they must keep the plates spinning, but God is inviting rest as a way to engage the reality that He is the One building the house. If He is going before us … if He is leading us, then resting for a day is a bold proclamation of this reality. 

We live in an age of anxiety in which people anxiously try to navigate life. When we think that we are on our own, we work and work and work. God invites Sabbath as a practice so that we will come to terms with His presence and love in our lives. If we stop work and striving for a day week, we are acknowledging His love and care. We are trusting that He can hold our lives. When our sowing (investment of our lives) is aligned with His heart, we can know that He cares more about our work that we do. He holds all things.  

It is common to experience a sense of tension when we rest. If we lean into the tension as an invitation to intimacy with God as His beloved, our tension melts into trust as we see week after week that He does indeed hold our lives. 

The final verses of this psalm seem to shift gears at first glance. With infant mortality rates in the ancient world perhaps as high as fifty percent, having children was not at all guaranteed. This prayer is a reminder the children are a gift from God. The word “heritage” could also be translated as “inheritance,” and the word “reward” speaks of gift as well. Even today, parents who struggle to have children can begin to wonder if they’ve done something wrong, but Psalm 127 is a beautiful reminder that children, family, and home are all gracious gifts from God, not based on what we do or don’t do. 

So, why is this part of the prayer of Psalm 127? To remind us that all is gift. And, we steward the gifts of this life (and our life itself) by sowing in what God is building, what He is doing. Otherwise, beautiful gifts like children and a family could become sources of anxiety. 

Christ slept in the stern of the boat during a storm and all around Him wondered if He cared what was going on. (Mark 4:35–41) In our world, anxiety seems to be a badge to show that we care. As we engage in rest, our anxiety is turned to trust because we know we are the beloved of God.

Reflection questions: do you see places in your life where you are anxious? What would it be like to rest, knowing that the Lord is holding your life? Take a moment to imagine this.

Prayer: Lord, today may I not eat the bread of an anxious toil, and whether awake or asleep, may I dwell in the safety and security of being seen and known as the beloved. Amen.

Read the Psalm

As we move from Psalm 126, we may be left with the question: how do I know if I am sowing in the right things? Psalm 127, attributed to Solomon, expects this question and shapes a prayer around a response.

It possible that the psalm is attributed to Solomon because of the similarity with what he wrote in Ecclesiastes. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.” (Ecclesiastes 1:2–5) These familiar words express the reality that everything in life is vanity, or literally “vapor.” Nothing we do in this life has eternal substance to it in or of itself. Life comes and goes like a morning fog that lifts by noon. The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on to say that the vaporous quality of life is unable to satisfy the human soul.

Psalm 127 echoes this sentiment and puts it in prayer with the words “in vain.” However, there is a caveat given: unless the Lord. If the Lord is the one who initiates and leads the activity (e.g., building a house or watching a city), our activity is not in vain … meaning that it is possible for our activities in life to have meaning and substance as well as bring satisfaction. 

In one sense, nothing matters. Nothing is significant. In another, everything can matter and have deep significance when it is engaged with the Lord. Our sowing (the stewardship of our lives) is purposeful and meaningful when we are following along with what God is inviting. This gives a deep sense of clarity, and at the same time opens us to the need to seek the Lord and know His heart. In what ways is He involved? What is He doing?

The letter of James captures these themes as well as a challenge:

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:13–15)

“If the Lord wills” invites us to seek the Lord’s will. One’s will is their heart – their desire. How do we understand the Lord’s will? Ephesians 5:17-18 gives us some help: “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” We understand or comprehend the will of the Lord as we are led by the Spirit. This suggests a listening kind of prayer in which we seek to be attentive to the Lord’s presence and activity. The assumption is that the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts. We have a sense (an awareness) given by the Spirit to understand the Lord’s will (heart). 1 Corinthians 2:10-11, 16 furthers this:

“these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God … For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

We have the mind of Christ! Because of our union with Christ, we have an intimacy with Him that involves access to His thoughts … His heart, His will. All that we do can be with Him and not “in vain.” This is joy and privilege as well as a mind-blowing reality.

God is in all things. Our discernment is to understand how … to ask the questions: God, what are you up to? What are you inviting me to be and do? To ensure that we actually operate this way, seeking God must take priority over we do and the decisions we make. 

Typically, in life, we tend to make decisions and plans and then ask God to help or bless us in some way. “Unless the Lord” invites us to seek God first in all things – to know His heart and His ways before we act. This will often slow us down and perhaps make us inefficient by some standards, but it will ensure that our ways are in step with the Spirit of God. As we stay in step with the Spirit, the fruit of our lives is love, joy, peace, patience, etc. 

Reflection questions: in what areas of life do you sense that you need to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33)? Take a few minutes and simply ask the Lord speak to your heart – showing you how He is at work in the situations of your life. Prayer: Lord, truly, may I seek You first. In Your mercy, may I follow You lead in all things and be involved in the ways You are inviting. Amen.

Read the Psalm 

As we walk along the way with Jesus, we will experience the temptation to run from the hard parts of the story God is telling. When sorrow is the theme of our current circumstances, we often want to find some momentary joy or a bit of escape. When faced with trials and temptations, the tendency is to over-react rather than respond with trust.

The picture painted in Psalm 126 is one of abiding, or staying, with God as this story of death and resurrection unfolds. The invitation is to keep sowing seeds (a metaphor for stewarding one’s life and resources) even as there is sorrow. Sorrow often leads to inaction or retreat, but when one’s heart is being shaped by this way of Jesus, faithful action is the result. Faith is expressed in the words: “those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy.”

The metaphor of agriculture is helpful because a seed goes into the darkness of the ground, seemingly dead and gone forever, but then followed by new life. Much of following the way of Christ is like this. In our modern world, we expect instant results, and we want to know all the answers and reasons immediately. Sowing seeds requires trusting the story of Jesus, not our modern ways of engaging life. 

In the New Testament writings, Paul borrows from the concept of childbirth in Romans 8:22-25 to express how we engage the way of Jesus which is the design of creation:

“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

Hebrews 11:17–19 gives us a unique insight into Abraham’s thought process as he followed God’s command to sacrifice his son, Isaac. Of course, it is not hard at all to imagine that Abraham might have over-reacted and said: “no, there is no way I will sacrifice my son.” Or, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” He did not react but responded to what He knew of God’s pattern of working in the world. It allowed Him to abide, to remain, to stay in what God had invited for Him.

“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.”

Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. This is astounding because he had not seen anything like this before and did not have the history of Jesus’ resurrection to draw upon. However, he trusted that if this (sacrificing his son) is what was happening, then God had a plan grounded in His love and goodness as well as His promise to Abraham about his son.

Our responsiveness and obedience to God’s heart often feels like we’re losing everything. It can feel too hard and like we’re losing our freedom and our dreams. However, as Jacques Phillippe comments in Interior Freedom, 

“In order to become truly free, we are often called to choose to accept that which we did not want, and even what we would not have wanted at any price. There is a paradoxical law of human life here: one cannot become truly free unless one accepts not always being free. To achieve true interior freedom we must train ourselves to accept, peacefully and willingly, plenty of things that seem to contradict our freedom. This means consenting to our personal limitations, our weaknesses, our powerlessness, this or that situation life imposes on us, and so on.”

In the Welcome Prayer, Thomas Keating shares invites us to welcome it all:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me today, because I know it’s for my healing. I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. Amen. 

Reflection questions: are there circumstances in your life in which you are tempted to stop sowing? In these situations, what will it look like to keep sowing even as you weep?

Prayer: Lord, restore me and renew my life. Give me the courage and strength to keep sowing even as I feel deep sorrow. I trust that You will take what I sow in faith and raise it up to Your glory. I love You, Lord. Amen.