Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

1610 Carlisle Road, Camp Hill, Pennsylvania  17011

Phone: (717) 737-0439 / Fax: (717) 737-5421

 Email: gelc@comcast.net

You are Here:   Home >  Pastor Joel's Corner >  Devotion Archives >  07-01-2007

Online Devotions

Devotion for the week of July 1, 2007

Life is full of expectations.  For instance, there is a saying about corn appropriate to this time of year:  “Knee high by the fourth of July.”  But we know that expectations are not always fulfilled.  The rain does not come.  The sun scorches the crop.  The corn stalks wither and die. 

We have expectations.  Our marriage will last for a lifetime well into our old age.  We will outlive our children.  The people we trust will be faithful.  But, again those expectations are not always fulfilled. 

Some of the most faithful people I have met in my life are farmers, who grow corn.  They prepare their fields, they sow their crops, and they watch and wait for the skies above to provide.  How they do this for their livelihood, I will never fully understand.  It takes incredible faith.  But when there is a bad harvest, is God to be blamed?  I have a tough time making that conclusion, anymore than we can blame God for any other unfortunate circumstance that comes into our lives.  God desires only that which is good for us. 

So what are we to do when expectations go unfulfilled?  We can cry.  We can scream.  We can get fiery mad.  We can even direct all this at God.  God’s shoulders are big enough to handle our tirades.  But, like the farmers I have known, after we have gone through all of that angst, we prepare the fields, we sow the crops, and we watch and wait for the skies above to provide.  It takes incredible faith to do that in farming.  It takes incredible faith to do that in life.  Scriptures says, “Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness” (Psalm 37:3).

            Let us pray…Holy God, our expectations are not always fulfilled, and it is hard to pick up the pieces in such despairing times.  Help us to watch and wait.  Provide the grace of heaven to our lives.  In Christ, we pray…Amen.

Top of Page    Previous Devotion   Next Devotion