Author: Erin Newton

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The Rat Race — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 28  Read: Ezekiel 28 Listen: (4:32)   Read: Ephesians 6 Listen: (3:17)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

This week of Readers’ Choice looks back at reflections about culture and calling.

Jason, TX — Love this quote “”Jesus came to give us life to the fullest. Don’t waste it yearning for earnings.” Something we need more of.

This post was originally published on March 4, 2026, based on readings from Proverbs 23:4-5.

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 23:4-5

4 Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
    do not trust your own cleverness.
5 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
    for they will surely sprout wings
    and fly off to the sky like an eagle.

Reflection: The Rat Race — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

When pressed to find a suitable cultural reference for the idea of “wealth isn’t everything,” my mind immediately went to Christmas stories: The Christmas Carol (admittedly, the muppet version) and It’s a Wonderful Life. But looking for a good one-liner, I think of Harry Bailey who says: “A toast to my big brother George, the richest man in town!” George has just had an epiphany about what brings value to life, and his friends and family rallied to keep him from financial destitution.

During a season beset with giving and generosity, such movies keep the “spirit” going. We are reminded that giving is good. But once the new year rolls around, we are back at it—the rat race. The “American Dream” is built on the idea of working hard and building wealth. Of course, many of us are probably not in any sort of space where our savings are increasing. Right now, making ends meet is about as good as it gets.

Struggling to have enough to live is exhausting. It is not hard to identify the various ways our lives would be easier if we had bigger inflow of income. We might read this verse and scoff, “Not my problem!” Who is really prospering right now? Believe me, I get it.

But the drive to try to be wealthy might be something we do struggle with. Wanting to afford things for ourselves and our families is not inherently bad. But if we are single-mindedly trying to gain and gain and gain, we are likely to burn out.

My husband recently said, “What if a little is enough?” He told me about a business model that used a shopping center for local businesses. The spaces were rented out in increments depending on the needs of the entrepreneurs. The idea was to avoid the larger box stores or franchises and keep expenses low. “Just enough for what they need to use.”

Just enough.

Where can we let go of the weary pursuit of building wealth and settle for “just enough”? What can we gain by stepping back?

The proverb says that money is fleeting. Money is easy to spend. Investments can be easily devalued. Heirlooms can depreciate. Precious jewels can be lost. Our satisfaction is often a moving goalpost.

Jesus came to give us life to the fullest. Don’t waste it yearning for earnings. Know when you have enough and then stop.

Prayer for the week:

We are taking a break from the Divine Hours Prayers this month. Each week, we will pray a prayer from Scripture or Christian history related to the week’s theme. This week’s prayer is related to our theme of culture and calling:

Christ with me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ in me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me. Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise. Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me. Christ in the mouth of everyone who thinks of me. Christ in every eye that sees me. Christ in every ear that hears me. — St. Patrick (385-461)

Read more: Watch

Jesus says many similar things in this passage: watch, beware, keep watch, be on guard, be alert, stay awake, be ready. He never says, “predict.”

Watch
Read more: Whose Table Are Your Feet Under?

Let us be drawn to Christ, frequently putting our feet under his table and inviting others to join us.

Whose Table Are Your Feet Under?
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Worshipping Through Horror — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 21  Read: Ezekiel 21 Listen: (5:29)   Read: Colossians 4 Listen: (2:21)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

This week of Readers’ Choice looks back at reflections about the Bible.

Barbara, TN — Yes, and wow, Erin! Thank you!

This post was originally published on May 13, 2026 based on readings from Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16.

Scripture Focus: Habakkuk 3:5-6, 16

5 Plague went before him;
    pestilence followed his steps.
6 He stood, and shook the earth;
    he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
    and the age-old hills collapsed—
    but he marches on forever.

16 I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.

Reflection: Worshipping Through Horror — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

For my doctoral studies, I’ve been researching terrifying imagery in the Old Testament. This means when I’m reading books with titles like Reading the Bible with Horror in public, people are looking at me funny.

The question I get often is, “Why horror?” Most of us feel more comfortable focusing on the pleasant places in the Bible: the psalm about being a sheep snoozing in a gentle green pasture or the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. Like it or not, however, the Bible has lots of scenes that terrify us. And it appears the prophets were a little shaken too.

Habakkuk has been given a vision from God of the impending doom on the wicked nations. Despite the terrifying revelation, he responds with a hymnic prayer. How many hymns have you sung that speak of God heading out to smite the enemy while being flanked by Plague and Pestilence? This type of imagery is good for our modern cinemas, not really for the church choir.

Habakkuk takes the terrifying image of God’s power and wrath and doesn’t flee from it. He encapsulates it in song. He carves it into history through prayer. But at the same time, he’s scared. This isn’t some machismo war-song. His heart is pounding. His lips are quivering. His knees are shaking. He can feel his own fear. Why? Because the image of God’s power has overtaken him.

Brandon Grafius, in Reading the Bible with Horror, highlights the effect of horror movies and literature in our Christian lives. We are sometimes drawn to such artistic expressions because the images typically encapsulate our fears. We fear dying, so there’s a blood-sucking monster. We fear ravaging illness (or global pandemics or virus-laden cruises), so horror would make Plague a monster.

Horror (well-crafted horror) and the Bible (especially the Old Testament) have something in common: “They both experience the realities of life too deeply to tell us that everything is okay when it’s not,” says Grafius. Habakkuk gets that. He’s scared. It’s terrifying. But his prayer admits to the reality of the darker parts of life. He knows God is working, but that doesn’t make everything sunshine and daisies.

Reading the Bible with horror means not avoiding these texts or rushing to make them more pleasant. Sometimes we need to pray about the terrifying realities of our world, knowing God is in our midst.

Prayer for the week:

We are taking a break from the Divine Hours Prayers this month. Each week, we will pray a prayer from Scripture or Christian history related to the week’s theme. This week’s prayer is related to our theme of the Bible:

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. — Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556)

Read more: No, Not Like That

We must trust God when he chooses to address evil, whether it is in our hearts, in our institutions, or in our countries.

No, Not Like That
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Stray Shepherding — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 14  Read: Ezekiel 14 Listen: (4:09)   Read: Philippians 1 Listen: (4:03)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

This week of Readers’ Choice looks back at reflections on Jesus and salvation.

Barbara, TN — Really powerful devotional…especially clarifying what a good shepherd is and isn’t and that we as the Lord’s sheep are being Shepherd by him and his perfect knowledge of us continually! Sadly we’ve had those experiences with shepherds and the best of it is that it keeps pointing out the man is not the right place to look. The Lord is my Shepherd!

This post was originally published on September 23, 2026, based on readings from Jeremiah 50:6.

Scripture Focus: Jeremiah 50:6

My people have been lost sheep;
     their shepherds have led them astray
     and caused them to roam on the mountains.
 They wandered over mountain and hill
     and forgot their own resting place.

Reflection: Stray Shepherding — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

In my first year of Hebrew classes, my professor explained verb tenses and used Psalm 23 as an example. He stressed, “The Lord is shepherding me”—not simply, “is my shepherd.” His point was that the guidance of our God is continual and ongoing, not just a point-in-time fact or a past action. I have taken more classes since that day two decades ago, but this statement comes to mind often.

A note here: We must remind people that the old theory that shepherds needed to be harsh and even “break the legs of a sheep when it was unruly” is false and debunked. That’s a terrible shepherding method and a horrendous advocation for abuse. (The Park Forum has written specifically on this point in Urban Legends and Good Shepherds.)

Over the last year, I’ve experienced the “sheep without a shepherd” situation. Matthew 9:26 speaks of this: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Oddly, I was a member of a functioning church. It was a church in transition and, despite reaching out to the pastors, my concerns fell through cracks. And then again two months later. And then again two months after that.

I follow an account where a photographer’s husband is a shepherd in Switzerland. It has been fascinating to see a modern-day shepherd’s life and then reflect on modern pastoral care for the church. This Swiss shepherd spends half of the year with his flocks in the mountains. He is separated from his human community for months, being integrated and connected to his sheep and goats. He knows their personalities, their struggles, their life cycles. They move up and down the mountain depending on the season.

Change is inevitable and not necessarily bad. Jeremiah’s shepherd is moving the congregation over the hills and mountains. But it’s astray. These shepherds, who were revered among their community and blindly followed by the flock, are not as wise as they proclaim to be.

The result is a lack of rest. No peace in the community. No peace with God. No peace internally.

With all the verses about human shepherding, I’m so thankful for Psalm 23. The Lord is shepherding me. I’ve moved into a new flock with a new set of shepherds who dwell among us, knowing our lives and our hurts. But it’s still the Lord who ultimately shepherds. And he does not lead astray. He guards me; I don’t have to be his defense.

Prayer for the week:

We are taking a break from the Divine Hours Prayers this month. Each week, we will pray a prayer from Scripture or Christian history related to the week’s theme. This week’s prayer is related to our theme of Jesus and salvation:

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. — Apostle Paul, Eph 3.14-19

Read more:  Urban Legends and Good Shepherds

Abusive leaders have used this metaphor to justify “wounding” parishioners with “tough love” because they are “good shepherds.”

Urban Legends and Good Shepherds — Readers’ Choice
Readers’ Choice is Here!

This month, we reshare your favorite Park Forum posts from this year. There’s still room for more. Tell us about one we should include.

What posts helped you heal?

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A Terrifying, Absent God — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 7  Read: Ezekiel 7  Listen: (4:32)  Read: Romans 10 Listen: (3:21)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

This week of Readers’ Choice looks back at reflections on prayer and devotion.

Barbara, TN — Praise the Lord!  Powerful, Erin, and passing it on. Thank you.

This post was originally published on September 30, 2026, based on readings from Lamentations 5:20-22.

Scripture Focus: Lamentations 5:20-22

20 Why do you always forget us?
    Why do you forsake us so long?
21 Restore us to yourself, Lord, that we may return;
    renew our days as of old
22 unless you have utterly rejected us
    and are angry with us beyond measure.

Reflection: A Terrifying, Absent God — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

I have been teaching a study on Job and horror. Initially the combination raises a lot of questions and concerns. How can these two things go together? Are we allowed to talk about the places in the Bible that absolutely terrify us?

As I prepare each week, it becomes increasingly clear that the emotions of being afraid or terrified are quite common in the Old Testament. We like to think that it was the raging seas or the catastrophic floods that encapsulate all that is terrifying in those books. But what I have found, and what has been pointed out by other scholars, is that one of the most terrifying realities, or at least perceptions, is the terror of being alone, forsaken by God himself. 

When you think about the book of Lamentations, we often assume it’s just a long poem of sadness. We see it as a cry from the prophet to God about all that is wrong in the world. While that is not untrue, I want to highlight for a moment the scary aspect of a world where God does not see you.

Job often cries out asking God to look away, give him less attention. But there is also the terrified pleas for God to show up and give him an explanation. Lamentations has that same sense of terror. The book closes with this dreadful thought—what if God is done with us? What if we’ve gone too far? What if we have outrun his love? What if we are alone?

If this was our only book in the Bible, we’d all be a miserable lot. Thank God for the testimony of so many others! We know we are not alone. We know we cannot outrun the love of God. We know that Lamentations is voicing the terrifying doubts and worries we all have and we know that it is not the last word. 

But the cry is familiar: Why do you forsake us for so long? When we are suffering, when the world continues its merciless series of catastrophes and abuse—it feels like time is at a standstill and that God is silent. 

Do we close the book of our faith with these final words of Lamentations? Absolutely not! Immanuel has come. God With Us is here. Despite the dark nights and shrill winds that obscure our ability to hear God, we are not alone.

Prayer for the week:

We are taking a break from the Divine Hours Prayers this month. Each week, we will pray a prayer from Scripture or Christian history related to the week’s theme. This week’s prayer is related to our theme of prayer and devotion:

Thanks be to Thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits Thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults Thou hast borne for me. O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, may I know Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, and follow Thee more nearly, day by day. Amen. — Richard of Chichester (1197-1253)

Read more: Prescription for Peace

There are many saying the wounds of sin are not serious and “No harm will come to you.” Promising false peace is…deceptive and dangerous

Prescription for Peace
Readers’ Choice is Here!

This month, we reshare your favorite Park Forum posts from this year. There’s still room for more. Tell us about one we should include.

What posts helped you understand the Bible?

https://forms.gle/Kj12Ziy4C9gQg8Xm7

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Songs of Ascent Playlist – Joy Chose You — Readers’ Choice

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 2  Read: Ezekiel 2  Listen: (1:38)  Read: Romans 5 Listen: (3:53)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Oct 3  Read: Ezekiel 3  Listen: (4:41)  Read: Romans 6 Listen: (3:28)
Oct 4  Read: Ezekiel 4  Listen: (2:56)  Read: Romans 7 Listen: (4:09)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

John Tillman, TX — To kick off this year’s Readers’ Choice, I want to start with a personal favorite: the “Songs of Ascent Playlist” series. Usually Erin and I work independently on whatever scripture comes up on our particular day. However, when all fifteen of the psalms of ascent landed within the five days of one week, it felt like a providential opportunity to do something thematic. Yesterday, I reposted the first one, which introduced the series, and today, I’m reposting one of Erin’s devotionals from the series. I’ve also added links to the other four at the end.

This post was originally published on July 29, 2026, based on readings from Psalm 126:1-2, Psalm 127:1-2, and Psalm 128:1-2.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 126:1-2 

1 When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

    we were like those who dreamed. 

2 Our mouths were filled with laughter.

Psalm 127:1-2

1 Unless the Lord builds the house,

    the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

    the guards stand watch in vain.

2 In vain you rise early

    and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

    for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Psalm 128:1-2

1 Blessed are all who fear the Lord,

    who walk in obedience to him.

2 You will eat the fruit of your labor;

    blessings and prosperity will be yours.

Reflection: Songs of Ascent Playlist – Joy Chose You — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

These three psalms of ascent are mountain peak songs: the rescue is complete; the singer arises out of the valleys of despair and enjoys the glories of restoration.

Laughing and dreaming—the scene probably looks like Maria twirling and singing, “The hills are alive with the sound of music.” It’s pure joy. It’s not only restoration of finances, but also of the soul.

Psalm 127 is the disclaimer amid the hill-frolicking joy. Restored fortunes, restored joy only lasts if it’s built by the Lord.

Finally, Psalm 128 returns to the restoration of blessings.

Restoration plus the Lord equals blessedness.

For those who were reading and singing these songs after the exile or during their routine visits and escapes from everyday duties, taking time for joy is spiritual discipline.

“Count your blessings” is said as a reproof for not being grateful. In other ways, it can be a good reminder to acknowledge the goodness of life here and now.

Donna Ashworth wrote a poem called “Joy Chose You,” which highlights the rarity of joy. Two lines help us here:

             “Joy does not arrive with a fanfare
            on a red carpet strewn
            with the flowers of a perfect life…

             … joy is supposed to slither through
            the cracks of your imperfect life…”

Whenever someone compliments our kids’ behavior or our relationship, my husband and I exchange a calm and knowing smile. Through fire and by God’s grace—that is the only answer we can give them. Like the psalmists here, we have been rescued (this time at least and in this area) so we have been granted moments of restoration and now we worship.

Have you taken time to count your blessings? Do you stop for a moment to acknowledge where God has restored you?

Admittedly, there are still many broken pieces in my life. I am still praying for a way out, a helping hand, an ease to a burden, but so far those are still unanswered.

The songs of ascent remind us that life is not just one mountain to climb but a series of peaks and valleys. We are not on a linear path from rescue to worship; it’s an ebb and flow, an up and down, an ascent and descent.

But here, now, let joy slither into the cracks of your imperfect life. Donna Ashworth says “joy chose you,” and I believe that “our God of joy chose you.”

Songs of Ascent series:

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Come now and see the works of God, how wonderful he is in his doing toward all people. — Psalm 66.4

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Songs of Ascent Playlist – Songs in the Dark

In your “playlist” of prayers, you need songs that cry out, “How long, O Lord? Even if your back has never been plowed with furrows, others’ backs have been.

Songs of Ascent Playlist – Songs in the Dark
Readers’ Choice is Here!

There’s still room to include your favorite. Tell us about a post we should share again.
What posts helped you pray?

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