Month: August 2015

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Endless Prairie of Grace

Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado Copyright Douglas P Brauner

The gift of grace allows us to reflect on life’s realities, knowing that we’re not alone.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said,
‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’
Then my spirit made a diligent search:
‘Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?’…
Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.” 
Psalm 77:5-7, 10-11 English Standard Version

As much as I enjoy the Paint Mines for its oddly shaped rocks, I also enjoy it for its never-ending prairie. Those of you who know me, know that I love the ocean. This is an ocean of another kind which seems to stretch as far as the horizon.

Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado Copyright Douglas P Brauner
Paint Mines Interpretive Park, Calhan, Colorado
Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Instead of hearing the crashing waves, you listen to the howl of coyote.  Instead of seeing a whale spouting, you notice a bounding deer. Instead of watching the graceful flight of pelicans, you contemplate the flight of a Great Horned owl as it silently passes by, and so I could sit on this bench for hours.

Yet I usually end up sitting for only minutes. The openness creates an uneasiness inside of me. It is hard to sit in the expanse of the prairie and not reflect on the reality of life.

The gift of grace is the ability to reflect on our lives and see the hand of God, not the failures of our human frailty. Satan loves nothing more than to drag us into the endless prairie of failure. Grace reminds us that we don’t sit alone on the bench of life. The one who has taken on our human flesh and who knows our frailty sits with us…and bless us.

Enjoy the view!

Categories
PWTE Daily Devotion

Reflection: The Difference Maker for a Tough Day

Lepaterique, Honduras Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Reflecting with people we respect can help provide perspective.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”
Galatians 6:2 English Standard Version

It had been a long day back in March of 2014. Some of us from our Honduras mission team spent the morning and afternoon with children in Lepaterique, others spent time on the road visiting two small villages. Whether we were on the road or hanging with children, by the evening we were tired.

Lepaterique, Honduras Copyright Douglas P Brauner
Lepaterique, Honduras
Copyright Douglas P Brauner

We still had work to do as we looked to the next day when we’d spend time with other children in other villages. We had to assemble these toy cars for the children.

There wasn’t much to this task. You pass a screw through a wooden wheel, washer, body, another washer and another wheel. Finally you hand tightened a screw. Not difficult, right?

When you’re tire even the simplest tasks are difficult. We were exhausted, a long day awaited us, and we still needed time for reflection.

It was this time of reflection that saved the day.

Wanting nothing more than to go to bed, we gathered around a table in a corner room at Betesda. In the midst of our exhaustion we were challenged to identify with someone we had met in Lepaterique, someone who had touched our lives.

We started our conversation with the words, “Hello, my name is…” and then we told that person’s story. There was laughter and there were tears. Our strength was renewed.

Our exhaustion was nothing compared to what our brothers and sisters in Lepaterique were enduring: A young man tried to make sense of his life after his mother had abandoned him, a family of four endured a long motorcycle ride to a remote community to proclaim Christ, a man worries that his dreams of going to the university might not happen if he cannot find his high school transcripts.

Reflection often puts our lives into proper perspective.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner

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PWTE Daily Devotion

The Ever-Present Force of Life

Fountain Valley Regional Park, Fountain, Colorado Copyright Douglas P Brauner

The power to live and thrive is in the Water of Life

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

“He also said to me, “It is done!
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
To the one who is thirsty I will give water free of charge
from the spring of the water of life.”
Revelation 21:6 New English Translation

It takes plenty of water for cattails to grow, which means you won’t find them in a desert but along ponds where there’s an abundance of water, and here they grow prolifically.  

Fountain Valley Regional Park, Fountain, Colorado Copyright Douglas P Brauner
Fountain Valley Regional Park, Fountain, Colorado
Copyright Douglas P Brauner

Cattails grow abundantly because they have two ways of multiplying.  Note the seeds on this flowering spike. In the fall these seeds are blown long distances where they take root next to other ponds, yet this is not the only way cattails grow. They also expand through their roots. All of this growth begins with and is sustained by water.

It’s hard to kill cattails once they’re established. The same is true of those of us who are attempting to follow Jesus. When we drink deep of God’s merciful water in Christ it is hard to destroy the faith that grows in us. That faith is nourished by God himself. There will be times when our growth is challenged by the circumstances of life but we continue to grow…and thrive.

As we grow, the seed of God’s Word is spread through us. Sometimes that seed drifts far from home and grows in the lives people we might not even know. At other times the growth happens through our roots, close to home.

All of this growth happens through the Water of Life. Jesus is our abundant source of this life-giving water.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner