Daily Lesson for Friday, October 2, 2015

Today's Daily Lesson is from Psalm 107 verses 1-8, 10-15, 17-21

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has redeemed from trouble
3 and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes,
finding no way to a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul fainted within them.
6 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
till they reached a city to dwell in.
8 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,

10 Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,
prisoners in affliction and in irons,
11 for they had rebelled against the words of God,
and spurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, with none to help.
13 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death,
15 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
17 Some were fools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
 they loathed any kind of food
and they drew near to the gates of death.
19 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent out his word and healed them,
and delivered them from their destruction.
21 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love.

Let the redeemed of the earth say so.

Over the last few Wednesday nights at church we've had a series on courage and I asked several people I consider to be courageous people to simply stand up and share their stories.  We had a couple who shared the story of losing an infant child and coming to terms with raising another who is gay and another with special needs. We had a man who stood up and began story by saying, "I'm (name) and I'm an alcoholic."  That's how he usually begins to tell his story he said.  And we had a woman tell the story of how she found courage after trauma. "This is really the story of how courage found me," she said.  Then she went on to courageously tell the story of losing her husband to suicide -- a word which she said must no longer be kept silent and in uttered, but must be spoken and cared for.

These were powerful, life-giving stories.

After the parents' story, another pastor said to me, "There were so many places where shame could have silenced them; but they dared to speak." They dared to speak, to tell their story, and therein was the power.

Brene Brown is a sociologist who studies how people react to shame. She says that what she calls "whole-hearted" people ("whole-hearted" might also be "courageous" as "courageous" literally means of the heart) are people who chose not to let their own shame silence them. Rather, they choose what she calls "vulnerability" which she says, "sounds like truth and feels like courage."

Shame wishes to silence us. It is debilitating and isolating. It tells us we're all alone. Speaking, on the other hand -- finding the courage to share our own stories with vulnerability -- is powerful, life-giving, and opens us to community, to intimacy, and to the heart-felt knowledge that God's power really is made perfect in our weakness.

Let the redeemed of the earth say so; let them have the vulnerability to speak that others might hear and find the courage to live and to speak also.