Our Daily Bread
/by Rev. Eric Folkerth
Dennise sent me this meme on Facebook this week. It speaks pretty deep truth for us this year, doesn’t it?
I have always been attracted to the phrase which is attributable to St. John of Lennon (Hey, he’s a saint of a kind…)
“Life is what happens when you are making other plans…”
One of the things that is so deeply maddening about the year 2020 is the inability that any of us have to make, or keep, plans. If we are being honest so many of our life-plans have been disrupted by 2020.
For some of us, plans that we looked forward to for years have either been put on hold or cancelled…weddings, graduations, new jobs.
It is the same for us at the Church. We’ve been forced by circumstance into this odd holding pattern, where —as I wrote to you about last week— everything has the firmness of “wet toilet paper…”
But, through it all, you are getting through. I know it may not feel like it every day. I know there is terrible loneliness and isolation, in a year when we *need* to be with people.
But you are making it through. I hear and see of the courage of your families and I am awed by it.
What happens to us when we are forced into this kind of situation is that our vision narrows and shortens, and we start to fear the future.
Our friends in Twelve Step groups have a deeply spiritual and profoundly important insight for us, though:
“One day at a time…”
That’s how you make it through a time like this. Just live each day as it comes. Don’t look too far forward, because even though we love to plan, the spiritual path now is day-by-day survival.
I know it doesn’t *feel* like enough.
But sometimes it is. Sometimes, it’s enough just to get through the day…the month…the year…
As James Taylor wrote, in a song inspired by the death of his brother:
“Oh, it’s enough to be on your way.
It’s enough to cover ground.
It’s enough to be moving on.”
God understands this. And God is with us, through it all.
That’s why God instructs us to pray one specific line of The Lord’s Prayer:
“Give us this day, our daily bread.”
This line harkens back to the concept of “Manna” given to Israel during their time in the wilderness. Jesus calls us back to very ancient history, and God’s people have always affirmed….that while we want to plan, and strategize and move forward, sometimes it’s enough to put one foot in front of the other…it’s enough to be on your way…
Sometimes, it’s enough just to have our “daily bread.”
While the entire Lord’s Prayer is important, I urge you to pray this one line constantly during these days. Pray for the heart to embrace the “daily bread” of 2020, as much as we’d rather have an entire meal.
And trust that God will be with us through this time, that we WILL make it through, and that a banquet of God’s blessing and mercy awaits us on the other side.