Bryan Richardson

Hope

Re:Verse passage – Jeremiah 29:10–14 (day three)

“When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place.”

When every conceivable calamity has crashed down all around, when waking up doesn’t end the nightmare, when nothing remains of all you called valuable, when people you have loved the most have become the source of your deepest heartache, when you have asked yourself how you got to this place of misery – hope itself seems like an exercise for fools only. Has God too lost track of you? It feels like it, and no word to the contrary from well-meaning folks will change what you feel all the way to your marrow. You need others to sit with you until your dying day if need be and quietly hope when you cannot do so for yourself.

Security

Re:Verse passage – John 10:10 (day three)

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Thievery occurs when there is shortage, and shortage occurs when people are attempting to gain power over one another, and power grabs occur when people are insecure about their existence. There is no thievery in a way of life in which people are counting on God, because there is no insecurity. Jesus lived with complete confidence in God, and he teaches you his way of life so that you can do the same. A life in the way of Jesus is a life in which there is no shortage because there is complete security. That reality gets muddled by so much heartbreak – cruelty, abuse, trauma, etc. – and those feeling the weight of that distress need tenderness from the church.

Trustee

Re:Verse passage – Genesis 1:26–27 (day three)

“…let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

As far as anyone on earth knows, life on this planet is the only life that exists anywhere, and human life is, therefore, the only intelligent life known to humans in the physical realm. Even if future discoveries confirm that life exists elsewhere, earth is still humanity’s charge. The Bible declares so. And this, then, marks a being as human: the responsibility and act of caring for and stewarding that over which that being has power. Humans have power over all other forms of life. Intelligence and emotional capacity are the engines of that power. We will answer to God for the way we use it.

Already

Re:Verse passage – John 14:6 (day three)

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.’”

This verse might seem at first blush to be a statement from Jesus that he occupies the role of gatekeeper, fervently guarding access to God lest any undeserving ne’er-do-well slip through security and gain proximity to God without proper authorization. What’s actually happening here, though, is that Jesus is removing the barricades that people run into when they wonder about God: am I someone God would love as is? What if God is so removed that he can’t be found? Who am I? How do I know I even matter? To all these pressing questions, Jesus says, “You deeply desire to find acceptance from God. Look at me; take my hand; you’re already there when you do.”

Within

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 31:10-31 (day three)

“Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.”

When chapter 31 begins, the Bible explains that this closing section on noble character in a woman was taught to King Lemuel by his mother. It pleased God to ordain that this wisdom from this wise woman he created occupy this place in scripture. And what do these words reveal? That God has made sure that a woman’s worth does not come from whom she attaches herself to. Her worth does not come from the standards the world system devises – and certainly not from standards that society declares her body must meet. Her works will praise her. What comes from within her will say enough. Jesus affirmed it: what is external to a person doesn’t generate uncleanness, but rather what comes from within a person.

Communion

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 27:17 (day three)

“Iron sharpens iron,
So one man sharpens another.”

Nothing will replace one human life living together with another human life – longing, discovering, struggling, reaching, finding, revealing, hurting, repairing, nurturing, loving. Without this connection, a person will be injured, and might well die. Life with another is no luxury. It is as necessary as food and air. It is the way a human being develops. There could have been no substitute for a human Savior. God became flesh because we cannot find our way without the company of another human. God created you and me to exist as fully human only as we are in fellowship with other humans. It’s a mark of God’s image. You are not merely living better when you share life deeply with other people. It’s more profound than that. You cannot be fully yourself without such communion.

Longing

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 23:17-18 (day three)

“Do not let your heart envy sinners.”

It’s not uncommon to caricaturize sinners as those who crush people who get in their way, or those who don’t worry about good and evil. But those descriptors don’t reveal what actually happens to a human being as that person tries to find welcome, nurture, connection, and safety – things that only love will provide. Sin arises when a person has become so fearful of not finding those things that whatever promises such things presents an attractive proposition which the person then pursues. Such a person, desperately longing for love that will save a life, will follow that promise to the death, and the collateral damage will be agonizing for everyone connected to that person. Surely envy is not the way to regard such a person, but rather compassion that moves you to love.

Rule

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 22:7 (day three)

“The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.”

Cheap shoes are cheap for a reason. What is that reason? Electronic devices can’t exist in mass quantity unless certain conditions are met. What are those conditions? You can afford a certain good or service. Can a person long afford to provide those things for you? This is curiosity. This is hearing people. What happens to all those people? Do you know? Do you care? Do you hear them? The Lord does. From cover to cover, from “Your brother’s blood cries out from the ground” to “The wages you’ve withheld from those who’ve served you cry out against you,” the Bible demands an accounting from you for how you live with people. There’s always someone less powerful than you over whom you can find it easy to rule.

Wealth

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 15:15-17 (day three)

Better is a dish of vegetables where love is
Than a fattened ox served with hatred.

Riches are not evil in and of themselves. Much good can come from the beneficent use of wealth. Ailing loved ones can get premium care; adverse circumstances don’t turn into catastrophic losses; and so on. But riches cannot fill the need for love, welcome, nurture, and safety in the presence of people who are important to you. Financial abundance is a poor substitute for human touch and empathy. It can serve as a distraction from the absence of those things for a while, but eventually, emotional starvation will make itself known, with extremely distressing outcomes. When you apply money to circumstances to make life better, will you also apply love?

Fracture

Re:Verse passage – Proverbs 14:34 (day three)

“Righteousness exalts a nation,
But sin is a disgrace to any people.”

What is righteousness? Is it doctrinal purity? Devotion? Moral behavior? A profession of faith? God and country? Progressive cred? Repudiation of liberalism? Siding with the tax collector instead of the Pharisee in Jesus’s parable of the men who when to the temple to pray? Many will insist they aren’t perfect, even though they think they’re right. Righteousness is tricky that way, for individuals and for the nations. Claims to righteousness often have the effect of drawing lines and fracturing community. These days, it’s not uncommon to hear groups of people setting themselves against each other, declaring they’d rather not build a nation with those who don’t meet their standards. What kind of disgrace awaits such a people?