Daily Devotional
February 7: Love in Community
- Scripture: Acts 2:44-47 – All who believed were together and had all things in common; 45 they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds[a] to all, as any had need. 46 Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts praising God and having the goodwill of all the people.
- Reflection: We are designed as social beings. Connection is important to our wellbeing. We also show and experience love through community and belonging.
Reflect on how your presence contributes to the health of the community. In times when we are so divided by issues, we are called to rebuild community. God’s love comes to life in our relationships with each other. We can begin by showing up for each other. - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Attend a community event or gathering.
SONG
- We Are Family by Sister Sledge: https://youtu.be/uyGY2NfYpeE?si=g-AZQ1BARNYHIimI
- Where You Belong by Kari Kimmel: https://youtu.be/GfCUQtTttoQ?si=NVt-GQQcNiqf6vJk
- I Am Loved by Mack Brock: https://youtu.be/9OmYhgvwQa8?si=gs-HjWnUlZc0O4EJ
“Lore” — R. S. Thomas
Job Davies, eighty-five
Winters old, and still alive
After the slow poison
And treachery of the seasons.
Miserable? Kick my arse!
It needs more than the rain’s hearse,
Wind-drawn to pull me off
The great perch of my laugh.
What’s living but courage?
Paunch full of hot porridge
Nerves strengthened with tea,
Peat-black, dawn found me
Mowing where the grass grew,
Bearded with golden dew.
Rhythm of the long scythe
Kept this tall frame lithe.
What to do? Stay green.
Never mind the machine,
Whose fuel is human souls.
Live large, man, and dream small.
“The Summer Day” — Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean–
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down —
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?