Focus

As you quiet yourself for this brief time, be willing to be open to God, however that may take place.

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Read

Isaiah 43:8-13 (NRSV)

Bring forth the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
who are deaf, yet have ears!
Let all the nations gather together,
and let the peoples assemble.
Who among them declared this,
and foretold to us the former things?
Let them bring their witnesses to justify them,
and let them hear and say, “It is true.”
You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
and my servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
I, I am the Lord,
and besides me there is no savior.
I declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you;
and you are my witnesses, says the Lord.
I am God, and also henceforth I am He;
there is no one who can deliver from my hand;
I work and who can hinder it?

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Reflect

While traveling through Alabama earlier this summer, I saw a sign for the annual Helen Keller festival, which is held in Tuscumbia. The festival commemorates an amazing story of overcoming enormous obstacles. Born in 1880, Helen overcame both blindness and deafness. Through the help of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, she learned to read, write, speak, and even graduate college. She would go on to dedicate her life to improving conditions for the blind and deafblind around the world.

Her story, plus the striking tone in the psalm, reminds me that many of us fail to use the eyes and ears we have been given. We may close ourselves off from the rest of the world, focusing solely on our own wants and needs. We become blind to the needs of our neighbors and deaf to their cries of pain.

Like Anne Sullivan did for Hellen Keller, we need to be jolted into an awareness of something greater. God is in the jolting business, working through the community of faith, to open our eyes and ears so that we can serve as a witness for salvation. How have you been closed off to your neighbor this week? How might you break out of yourself and serve as God’s witness?

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Pray

Lord, we want to be found with our eyes, ears, and hearts open to the movement of the Spirit among us. We pray that you will do a new thing in us and through us. Amen.

Go with God.