Day 40
Forty is a spiritual number. It is repeated in the Bible over and over more than 90 times. Of course the 40 days and night of Noah is the best known reference to 40. King David reined for 40 years. Job lived for 140 years. Moses stayed on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights and then led the Jews across the desert for 40 years. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert in preparation for his ministry and so on and so on.




Forty represents a long period of time resulting in a big change. There are 40 days of preparation, probation, trial, and rest followed by a new life, renewal, or the beginning of trial or a challenge.


Forty day periods are still powerful. You can start a new habit or stop one in just forty days. Fourty days of continuous meditation begins to create change in your heart and in your mind. Forty weeks does even more. Have you started to notice those changes? Are you calmer? Are you more peaceful? Do you turn to meditative silence on a peaceful Word when you are stressed? What are the differences? Are you noticing?


Verse for Today
Judges 5:31


. . .But may they who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength." Then the land had peace forty years.


Word
Time


Today I will spend a moment in silence reflecting on the presence of God, always there, always timeless as I take time to notice and reflect on how that the recognition of that presence changes me.

Day 39
When I was a child my Sunday School teacher gave us an assignment. We were asked to promise that the next time we were upset or annoyed at school we would walk around and smile at everyone we met. She wanted us to take note of what time we started and how long it took to feel better.

I got angry with my teacher who had said something I thought was unfair just days later. It mattered at the time, but I do not remember what it was now. School was letting out and as I left the building I did as I promised. I smiled deliberately over and over again at the other kids as they were leaving.  They smiled back, even if they had not been paying attention to me at before.  In just a few minutes, before I even realized what was happening, I felt better.

When I did notice feeling better I was irritated again, this time at me. I wanted to stamp my foot. I earned my anger after all. It was justified. Never mind that feeling better was much more enjoyable than being angry, I was entitled to feel bad.

How easily we give up our peace with rationalizations and justifications. How often do we choose to be unhappy when happiness is within our grasp? How often do we blame others for our choice?

Verse for Today
1 Peter 1:2 . . . Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Word for Today
Choice

Today I will make a choice to be happy and at peace and as I sit in the silence I will know I chose.

Day 38
Have you ever heard a story that just stays with you? When I was in a youth group as a teen one of our leaders told a story I have never forgotten. She said she knew a woman who was driving down the road on a normal evening. She stopped at a light and an armed man jumped into her passenger seat through her unlocked door.

The man pointed his gun at her and demanded that she drive. The woman was frozen in fear. Instead of driving she began repeating over and over again, “I am covered with feathers. I am covered with feathers. I am covered with feathers.”

The man was so surprised he was taken aback. He screamed at her "drive!" She chanted louder. He yelled, “Are you crazy!” She got even louder. Not knowing what else to do he reached across and opened her door and demanded that she get out. When she hesitated, he pushed her out, slid into her seat, slammed the door, and drove off without her.

She was repeating a portion of her favorite verse from Psalms. It was the only thing she could think to do. Every time I read the verse I think of her.

Verse for Today
Psalms 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Word for Today
Covered

Today I will remember that whatever happens, where ever I am, God is and I am covered.

Day 37
Terror is a strong word. It seems much bigger than fear. English is a limited language. We have fewer words to express our emotions than Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. We do not have words that express levels of fear. We go from fear to terror with nothing in between. How much difference is there from our first inkling of concern until we get to full blown terror? Does it matter? Is all fear the same?

In fear, peace is released. Our bodies change. The normal flow of breath stops, we tense, and fight or flight chemicals flood through our systems. It becomes harder to think. To calm ourselves we have to stop the physiological changes even for a moment.

Just stopping to breathe can be the first step. Taking slow deep breaths is very calming. Saying peaceful words can help as well. In situations where we are not in physical danger, any time we feel an urgent need to do something right now based on fear, it is time to stop. In a moment of meditation we can remember we are not alone. When we are at peace we can hear guidance. When we act from strength and not fear, we make better decisions.

Verse for Today
Psalms 91:5 You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day . . .

Word for Today
Stop

Today I will stop my busy life for a moment to experience the peace that comes with a divine connection found by meditating on the Word.

Week 36
Stress is a strange thing. It means one thing to one person and another to the next person. I have two beautiful little granddaughters born three months apart. The biggest stressor in their lives is time out. You can ask them if they want to go to time out and they stop, stare at you with wide eyes, and shake their heads no as hard as they can.

Time out to them means sitting still on a chair for two minutes – not such a terrible thing to us adults. We smile because we know they will get through their two minutes and be just fine. We know – they do not.

How many times has that been true for me? How many times have I stressed about something that looking back looks like nothing now. I created the stress in my mind. It did not really exist at all. I could have created peace and acceptance just as easily. It was a choice.

In Daniel, we see a calm faith. He is thrown to the lions and yet he never gives up his faith and never lets go of his peace. He does not worry about good or bad.  He does not think about fair or unfair.  He stays in the moment and deals with what is in front of him trusting that all will end well.  When he is not eaten, his steady stand converts all those around him. When we stand faithful and keep trusting despite the lions that may appear to surround us, we are an example of our faith. When we stress we give away our peace.

Verse for This Week2 Corinthians 5:7
We live by faith, not by sight.


Word 
Steady

Today I will feel peaceful as I rest in my faith and trust that I do not need to give into stress when my two minutes comes around.

Week 35
Have you ever felt unheard? Do you ever feel like you are misunderstood? Have you ever thought that even God ignores you? Has it ever seemed that no matter what you do, it seems to make things worse not better? Christian mystics call these time periods the Dark Night of the Soul. Lamentations is about such times. In Lamentations, the author talks about God hiding the light.

Of course God never hides the light. The light we all crave is always available. Our prayers are answered even when we think they are not. These are the times when we look back and realize we were getting exactly what we asked for, it just looked and felt differently than we expected. Yet just like the author of Lamentations we will soon see the truth, all we have to do is listen.

Verse for This Week
Lamentations 55-58
I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit. You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief." You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear." O Lord, you took up my case; you redeemed my life.

Word
Heard

Today I will sit in silence and know that everything in my heart is heard without having to speak a word.

Week 34
There is one thing that is true from the moment we were all born. We will, someday, hopefully later rather than sooner die. It is part of the human condition that we are all on a temporary journey in human flesh. As we go along we will have to let people go. Yet the good news is that human flesh is not the end. I find comfort knowing that even after death my loved ones continue on.

I know that those who go before me are just leading the way.  They are transformed and immune to pain.  We can celebrate.


Verse for This WeekJob 5:21
You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes.

Word for Today
Protected

Today I will sit in silence knowing that where ever I am, God is, I am protected and all is well.