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When Life Feels Meaningless

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 7  Read: Job 7 Listen: (2:23) Read: John 7 Listen: (5:53)

Scripture Focus: Job 7:13-16

13 When I think my bed will comfort me
    and my couch will ease my complaint,
14 even then you frighten me with dreams
    and terrify me with visions,
15 so that I prefer strangling and death,
    rather than this body of mine.
16 I despise my life; I would not live forever.
    Let me alone; my days have no meaning.

Reflection: When Life Feels Meaningless

By Erin Newton

It’s 8am; my alarm goes off with the alert: “Good brain meds.” When my doctor prescribed medication for my worsening anxiety, I was a little disappointed. Four decades had I coped and managed and now—I couldn’t even function.

Job and I are good friends. A miserable soul he is, and I like that. He’s a man of suffering and familiar with pain (Isa 53.3), but unlike our Lord, he does open his mouth. He complains.

The story of Job opens with a heavenly scene where we, the readers, get an inside view of what lies behind Job’s suffering. But Job is on the receiving end of pain and misery. He is in deep grief over the loss of his children. He is in deep financial ruin. He’s now covered in sores. And his wife and friends aren’t the best comforters.

Job’s words feel personal. We are familiar with the exhaustion at the end of the day, looking at going to sleep as our only comfort. We then toss and turn in our beds, sometimes (in my case it was daily) tormented by nightmares. We despise the chronic pain in our body or the instability of our minds. Leave me alone, we beg.

The beauty of the book of Job is the rawness of emotions. Finally! Someone gets it! We commiserate with Job and his pain. We have been there too. Maybe we are there now.

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10.10). “Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy” (John 16.22).

Life and joy are promises. They are given by God even if our minds cannot grasp it. It’s not really our duty to feel the joy he’s giving us all the time. We can try and we can pray for it. But the life and joy he promises are more deeply rooted than our own feelings.

As this new year begins, I encourage you to seek help if Job’s words sound like your own. I have. I have found help from friends and family, spiritual guides, pastors, biblical and regular counseling. I have a psychiatrist and doctor at my side now too.

We are so thankful that you are here today. Stay. May the joy that cannot be taken away be tangible even today.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. — Psalm 86.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more about Counting Waves

The disciples urged Jesus to awake, their voices strained with fear. “Teacher, do you not care if we drown?”

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Constant Streams

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 6  Read: Job 6 Listen: (2:56) Read: John 6 Listen: (8:27)

Scripture Focus: Job 6.14-21

14 “Anyone who withholds kindness from a friend

    forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

15 But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams,

    as the streams that overflow

16 when darkened by thawing ice

    and swollen with melting snow,

17 but that stop flowing in the dry season,

    and in the heat vanish from their channels.

18 Caravans turn aside from their routes;

    they go off into the wasteland and perish.

19 The caravans of Tema look for water,

    the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

20 They are distressed, because they had been confident;

    they arrive there, only to be disappointed.

21 Now you too have proved to be of no help;

    you see something dreadful and are afraid.

Reflection: Constant Streams

By John Tillman

Job needed comfort. He needed the refreshment of kindness. Instead, Job’s wife told him to “curse God and die.” (Job 2.9) Job’s friends subtly (and not so subtly) blamed him for some secret sin, some fatal flaw bringing God’s judgment. Job compared them to inconstant streams.

In the ancient Near East and the American Southwest, wadis carve their way across the desert. Wadis vary in size. Some are like a ditch. Many are like small canyons. In the rainy season, water and snowmelt rush down from the heights and surrounding mountains, filling the wadis and bringing life to the desert. But in the dry season, when water is most needed, the wadis are dry.

A wadi isn’t a person. And a wadi being dry in the dry season is not a surprise. It’s not a choice. When Job needed it most, in his driest season, all his resources ran out. But they should have been reliable. Can you relate?

You might feel that you are waiting by a dry stream now. But something else is true about wadis. Rain far, far away in the hills can cause them to suddenly fill up with water. We are at the very beginning of Job and there are many long chapters of debate, arguing, and angst ahead of us. But at the end, Job is refreshed by others. Rain is on the way.

God uses Job’s friends to restore him. (Job 42.10-11) Scripture describes a scene not unlike the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. Every relative and person Job knew came to him with a financial gift. Job was “the richest man in town” once again.

There are two lessons for us here. First, like Job, we may need to wait for God’s answer, but we should not doubt that it is coming. However dry our streams are, even when friends dry up, remember that God makes streams in the desert. (Isaiah 43.19-21; 44.3-4; Psalm 65.9; 74.15; 78.16)

Second, as friends, we need to recognize our ability (and responsibility) to channel God’s blessings, refreshment, and encouragement. Eliphaz dreaded Job’s fate. (Job 6.21) His fear dried up his encouragement. He blamed Job to shield himself. When our friends struggle, instead of fearing their fate or protecting ourselves by subtly blaming them, lean into how much God loves them.

Don’t be an inconstant stream. Open up and let God’s love be made tangible in us. Let constant streams of God’s love flow to and through us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad. — Psalm 14.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Manna or the Man?

What are our motives for pursuing Jesus? Do we want the man or just the manna?

Manna or the Man?
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Hope’s Messengers and Means

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 5  Read: Job 5 Listen: (2:29) Read: John 5 Listen: (5:42)

Scripture Focus: Job 5.8-16

8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God;

    I would lay my cause before him.

9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed,

    miracles that cannot be counted.

10 He provides rain for the earth;

    he sends water on the countryside.

11 The lowly he sets on high,

    and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty,

    so that their hands achieve no success.

13 He catches the wise in their craftiness,

    and the schemes of the wily are swept away.

14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime;

    at noon they grope as in the night.

15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth;

    he saves them from the clutches of the powerful.

16 So the poor have hope,

    and injustice shuts its mouth.

Photo Info: Today’s photo is of Texans on Mission doing disaster relief in Jamaica, following Hurricane Melissa. Donate to disaster relief of your choice, or donate here, to Texans on Mission.

Reflection: Hope’s Messengers and Means

By John Tillman

An important part of interpreting scripture is knowing who is speaking to whom.

A famous internet meme shows an inspirational “verse of the day” calendar with the following text: “If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” (Luke 4.7) The text is less inspirational when you realize it is Satan speaking. When reading Job, we must be careful. Not all speakers are reliable sources of wisdom.

Job’s friends start well. They are deeply empathetic and caring. They share Job’s grief, sitting silently with him in his suffering. But once the conversation starts, they lose patience, and empathy evaporates. Even so, not everything they say is foolishness.

Shakespeare loved to hide truths in the lines uttered by his clowns, buffoons, and fools. Thus, Polonius gives us, “To thine own self be true.” Similarly, golden proverbs are sometimes found in the mouths of Job’s foolish friends.

After Job, Eliphaz is the first to speak. Of all the friends’ speeches, this first one is the least problematic. However, as we read Job’s friends, we must keep in mind their errors. God condemns them for not having “spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42.7) 

In what ways do the friends not tell the truth about God? 1) They assume suffering, including Job’s, is caused by sin. 2) They assume moral superiority over Job. 3) They assume God’s motives regarding Job.

Correcting for these errors, we can find truth and encouragement in what Eliphaz says. So what does Eliphaz get right?

When we are in trouble or suffering, we should appeal to God based on God’s nature. God is a wonder worker, a healer, a provider, and a restorer of lost things. God lifts the lowly, mourning, and needy. Call on him by these qualities.

When we witness those in trouble or suffering, rather than pass judgment as Eliphaz did, we should act based on God’s nature manifested in us. Being God’s image-bearers includes living out his nature as rescuers, healers, and helpers. To God’s self we must be true. Let us bring God’s hope and help by shining light to those in darkness, pulling the weak from the clutches of the powerful, and shutting the mouth of injustice, breaking its teeth.

We are not to be bystanders to suffering. Our calling includes intervention and prevention. We are not only to be hope’s messengers, but hope’s means.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. — Psalm 103.1-2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: The Waiting Man

What pools have you been waiting around? Are you growing complacent or bitter? Are you ready to give up? Is your heart paralyzed instead of your legs?

The Waiting Man
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Authority Check

Tell us about your year in the scriptures…

What has this year in the scriptures meant to you? Would you mind telling us?

  • How has your prayer life changed?
  • What passages surprised you with new meaning or relevance?
  • What passages did you read for the first time, or did you see a new detail you never noticed?
  • What passages came into your inbox at just the time in the year when you needed them?

We’d love to know how God spoke to you through the scriptures this year. Drop a note to info@theparkforum.org and put “2025 Scripture Reflection” in the subject line.

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 2  Read: Job 2 Listen: (2:11) Read: John 2 Listen: (3:02)
Jan 3  Read: Job 3 Listen: (2:32) Read: John 3 Listen: (4:41)
Jan 4  Read: Job 4 Listen: (2:06) Read: John 4 Listen: (6:37)

Scripture Focus: John 2.16-22

16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  18 The Jews then responded to him, “What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” 20 They replied, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” 21 But the temple he had spoken of was his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

Reflection: Authority Check

By John Tillman

When you abuse authority, and someone starts setting things right, it feels like they are attacking your authority. This feeling is a lie. You betrayed the authority’s giver by your abuse, and your authority lost validity.

When you give authority for something to be done in your name, and someone does it in a way that misrepresents you, anger is justified. Their actions told a lie about you, slandering your name in public.

In the accounts of Jesus cleansing the temple, the religious leaders have abused their authority. Jesus is the authority-giver and the one setting things right. This is what fuels the “zeal” Jesus displayed.

The religious leaders had authority to protect the sanctity of the temple courts and keep temple worship practices uncorrupted. Yet, in slipped commerce. In slipped goods. In slipped greed. In slipped corrupt banking practices, inflated exchange rates, and merciless price gouging. This probably happened as most corruption does, little by little, with lots of self-justifying logic.

But Jesus was not only angry about what slipped in. He was angry about who got pushed out. The noisy, messy commerce took up space designated for prayer. Instead of prayers to God, there was haggling about animals. Instead of souls seeking forgiveness before God, harried shoppers searched for the best animal they could afford.

This corruption also took up space for outcasts and foreigners. The very purpose of the Abrahamic blessing was for his family to bless all the nations. (Genesis 26.4) God said to the nations through Isaiah, “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45.22) But if nations turned up, they’d probably be turned off. The court designated for them was a filthy, noisy, corrupt market.

The state of the temple court told lies about God. Prayers for a price! God blesses those who can afford it! There’s no room for your kind to pray here; move along!

What is the state of your temple court? I’m not primarily talking about your church, unless you are a leader and have authority there. Paul calls believers “God’s temple.” (1 Corinthians 3.16-17) Are your words and actions misrepresenting God? Are you misusing your God-given authority?

At this time of renewal, run an authority check and let zeal for God’s temple consume you. May godly zeal fuel a renovation of your representation of God’s “temple.”

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

“Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the feast as usual. When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it. They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day’s journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances. When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere. It happened that, three days later, they found him at the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions; and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies. They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, ‘My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.’ He replied, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he meant. He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and with people. — Luke 2.41-52

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful

How has your past year gone? Are you, like the wedding host, staring down scarcity? Are you hovering over deep waters of disappointment?

From Your Nothing…Something Beautiful
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Reflection on a Year Gone By

Thank You to Our 2025 Donors!

What has this year in the scriptures meant to you? Would you mind telling us?

  • How has your prayer life changed?
  • What passages surprised you with new meaning or relevance?
  • What passages did you read for the first time, or did you see a new detail you never noticed?
  • What passages came into your inbox at just the time in the year when you needed them?

We’d love to know how God spoke to you through the scriptures this year. Drop a note to info@theparkforum.org and put “2025 Scripture Reflection” in the subject line.

Tonight is the last night to give to our ministry if you would like to have your gift credited to the 2025 tax year. Checks dated in 2025 and with a postmark in 2025 will be counted towards this year.

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Links for today’s readings:

Dec 31   Read: 2 Chronicles 36 Listen: (4:26) Read: Psalms 149-150 Listen: (1:36)

Jan 1  Read: Job 1 Listen: (3:38) Read: John 1 Listen: (6:18)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 150

1 Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
    praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
    praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
    praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Reflection: Reflection on a Year Gone By

By Erin Newton

In many places on New Year’s Day (or Eve), we sing “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish song that celebrates the practice of remembering those who have been in our lives for a long time.  

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

And who has been in our lives as long as God? Like the changing of seasons, this last day of the year allows us time to reflect, meditate, and continue the Advent practice of remembering what God has done—not only the birth of Christ but his daily caring of our lives.  

As we gather in our homes or with friends and family, we celebrate milestones. We look back at the accomplishments and hardships we’ve overcome. We remember the difficult times and those we have lost. We grieve the plans that did not turn out the way we wanted. We thank God for the plans that did.

Reflection can be a spiritual practice. The Bible instructs his people to tell of the great deeds of history to each generation. The whole concept of the gospel is telling good news to others. You remember. You relive. You root yourself in what God had done.

Just as the book of Psalms ends with a call to praise God, we too should note how he has carried us through this year, enabled our perseverance, granted us blessings, answered prayers, and steadied our doubting hearts.

Unlike the end of a book, we are simply turning the page to a new chapter. God will continue to be with us in the next challenges and the next victories. Not much of the future can be foretold with certainty but one thing is: God is with us. And that is worthy of praise.

Along with making goals and affirmations for the new year, let us reflect on…

   – A time this year that God brought you joy.
   – A time this year that God gave you peace.
   – A time this year that God calmed your sorrows.
   – A time that solidified what you believe.
   – A time when God helped you endure.
   – A verse that steadied your heart.
   – A hymn that brought you comfort.
   – A truth that changed you.
   – A person you prayed for.

May we begin the new year with hope in our Lord who has, and will be, a firm foundation.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

I will call upon God, and the Lord will deliver me.

In the evening, in the morning, and at noonday, I will complain and lament, and he will hear my voice.

He will bring me safely back…God who is enthroned of old, will hear me. — Psalm 55.17

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

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