A Daily Dose of Good News

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Today, this devotional will be offered online at https://youtu.be/4rGqaiNcdu0.
A printer-friendly version is available at DDGN 20211222

Additionally, if you’d like to talk about this Daily Dose of Good News further, or previous ones, have questions, or additional thoughts, please feel free to email me at sara.wunsch@engagedbygrace.org.  I’d love to interactively engage with you about them.

Good morning!  It’s December 22 and it’s time for our Daily Dose of Good News!  We’re reading from Isaiah 42:14-21.

 

For a long time I have held my peace,

    I have kept still and restrained myself;

now I will cry out like a woman in labor,

    I will gasp and pant. 

I will lay waste mountains and hills,

    and dry up all their herbage;

I will turn the rivers into islands,

    and dry up the pools. 

I will lead the blind

    by a road they do not know,

by paths they have not known

    I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

    the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

    and I will not forsake them. 

They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame—

    those who trust in carved images,

who say to cast images,

    “You are our gods.”

Listen, you that are deaf;
and you that are blind, look up and see!

Who is blind but my servant,
or deaf like my messenger whom I send?
Who is blind like my dedicated one,
or blind like the servant of the Lord? 

He sees many things, but does[c] not observe them;
his ears are open, but he does not hear. 

The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness,
to magnify his teaching and make it glorious.

 

Here ends the reading.

 

I think this text is so interesting.  The beginning is all about God’s timing and I think that’s a really critical piece.  God’s timing fluctuates.  It doesn’t always make sense to us.  There are times that God is still or God is inactive- or seems inactive- by our standards and our judgment.  We don’t understand why God’s not doing something, why God’s not acting.  But remembering that God knows the timing. Like a pregnant woman, God knows: ‘ok, the time to act is now- so now you’re going to hear me gasp, now you’re going to hear me pant, now you’re going to see me move, now you’re going to see me act- because the time is now’.  So, the whole theme of the psalm is about trusting God.  Trusting God in the timing when it doesn’t make sense to you.

 

I love the imagery at the end, that is very affirming of blindness and deafness.  The idea that God’s servant is the blind one, God’s servant is the deaf one.  There’s a component of that, that they see, but they don’t observe.  So the idea of:  trusting in that.  A blind person may not see all the details.  A blind person may know that I’ve got blonde hair, they may be able to see that. They may be able to see I’m wearing a white shirt and there’s something black on it.  They may not be able to see anything specifically.  They may not know it’s a butterfly on my shirt.  Or they may not know I have freckles, or whatever. They may not be able to observe specifically, but they are perceiving- in ways of perceiving what God wants them to know.  I think that imagery here of:  what do we know as truth about God?  Not because we’ve observed it with our own eyes or heard it with our own ears, but because we sense it somehow in a deeper way?  Where do we not need to see it ourselves in order to trust it and believe it?  Where can we rest in our quest to understand everything?  Believe me, I get that (laughs).  Right?  We’re all going to want to figure it out sometimes, or see it on our own, or hear it on our own.  But there’s a deeper trust in God to let go, surrender, and say:  “I don’t see how this is going to unfold.  I don’t hear something that’s obvious to me in this, but I’m going to trust you anyway.  Even if I don’t see it.  Even if I don’t hear it.”  God’s point is:  “that pleases Me. That’s righteousness for Me.  That’s dedication for Me.  To trust Me, God, in that, rather than these graven images.  Rather than these tangible things you could observe and perceive”.  Be blind. Be blind!  Trust the One you don’t see, literally, in front of you.  Trust the One, you may not hear, literally, in front of you, but who may guide you nonetheless.

 

I think it’s a beautiful example of turning blindness and deafness, not into detriments, but into glorifications of God.  Ways that we can persevere, and glorify God and know God better through our blindness and through our deafness.

 

I encourage you today to be blind, to be deaf- to trust God no matter what it looks like and no matter what it sounds like.  Just rest and trust God and know that you are held. (I’m in my favorite ‘held’ spot in my house, this swinging basket chair, where I feel very secure and very held in arms that embrace me here).  Know that we’re held by God.  No matter what it looks like, no matter what it sounds like. Be blind.  Be deaf.  Be willing to be in those states where we don’t have to figure it out.  We can just trust God and know who our God is, and in that, we don’t really need to see the specifics of anything.  We don’t really need to hear the specifics of anything, OK? Trust our God to lead us.  Have a great day everybody!  Bye-bye.