Author: Erin Newton

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Honeycombs

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 25  Read: Proverbs 16 Listen: (3:15) Read: Mark 6 Listen: (7:23)

Scripture Focus: Proverbs 16:24

Gracious words are a honeycomb,
    sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Reflection: Honeycombs

By Erin Newton

“You can catch more bees with honey.”

Just the other night I was walking my dogs when another dog-owner started yelling for me to “Move on!” Apparently, I was walking too close for this person’s liking, and they were already angry. I wish my response had been gracious words. I think I muttered an exasperated, “I’m trying!”

I love the metaphor used in Proverbs 16: Gracious words are a honeycomb. Graciousness, in the Bible, is often paired with words about compassion and mercy. In this text, the Hebrew word means “kind.” Kind words are a honeycomb.

My sister has an apiary—she keeps bees. From her experience (and a fascination with all things in nature), I have learned about the intricate part of bee life. First, honeycombs do not occur spontaneously. They are carefully made. In fact, it requires the whole hive of worker bees to make honeycomb. Second, honeycombs are made from ingredients inside bees that are then deposited (and chewed and re-deposited) by other bees. Lastly, honeycombs hold not only honey but pollen and the brood of future bees. In short, honeycombs are more than a dessert tray.

Words can be honeycomb. How should we think about this metaphor?

Gracious words are not simply something to sweeten things. We have heard about “toxic positivity” where people attempt to ward off bad feelings or ignore bad situations by infusing positive statements. Think about someone who has lost a family member. It might be simple to say, “They’re in a better place now!” It might be true but it’s not always soul-sweetening or bone-healing (as our proverb says). Gracious (kind) words should be nourishing. They are not just words for a moment but words that can give life.

Gracious words are the result of what is inside us. Like the wax created from the parts of the bees themselves, gracious words are not just phrases we memorize. Bees search for pollen and convert that to create honeycomb. We too must be looking for life-giving words from Scripture. The Gospels remind us, “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Matt 12.34; Luke 6.45).

Producing gracious words requires practice and work. Like building a honeycomb, we cannot expect to speak kindly when we have only ever practiced rudeness, sarcasm, insults, objectification, othering, or any sort of speech that tears down.

Kind words are carefully crafted. Kind words heal souls.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Love the Lord, all you who worship him; the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily. — Psalm 31.23


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

Read more: When Skepticism meets Kindness

Sometimes we look at kindness and assume there is a scheme of self-promotion…We treat the servants of mercy as spies.

When Skepticism meets Kindness
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Existential Dread

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 18 Read:  Proverbs 9 Listen: (1:50) Read: Psalm 39 Listen: (1:49)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 39:4-7

4 “Show me, Lord, my life’s end
    and the number of my days;
    let me know how fleeting my life is.
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,
    even those who seem secure.

6 “Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom;
    in vain they rush about, heaping up wealth
    without knowing whose it will finally be.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
    My hope is in you.”

Reflection: Existential Dread

By Erin Newton

Existential dread is a deep-seated feeling and anxiety about the meaning of life. We sometimes equate the experience with the proverbial “mid-life crisis.” As I entered the working world after college, I learned you can have a similar feeling at that time, called the “quarter-life crisis.” What may cause people to dye their hair, buy a shiny new car, quit their job, and pursue a new career is this deeply rooted concern about life. What are we doing? What is this all about?

As Christians, we are taught to exchange our initial ambitions for a life in Christ. Our plans become whatever God’s plans are for us. And that is all well and good. But I think we are sometimes shocked (and maybe embarrassed) when we reach a point that we’re asking the same questions as Psalm 39: What am I doing with my life? When am I going to die? How much longer do I have? Have I wasted it all? Isn’t it all rather pointless?

This psalm seems to ebb and flow between statements about being silent, then a burst of questions and pleading with God. This first half of the psalm focuses on the relatively short nature of our human lives. As if an echo from Ecclesiastes, the psalmist says, “Everyone is but a breath.” Vanity. Vanity. Everything is meaningless.

The fact that these words are preserved for us should give us some comfort. We all feel this way at some point in time. It is not being ungrateful for the life God has led us through. It’s simply a question that we often wrestle with.

So what do we do? “But now, Lord, what do I look for?,” the psalmist asks.

Do we look for success? Do we look for companionship? Do we look for achievements? Do we look for a legacy? Do we look for a pain-free existence? These things are not necessarily wrong.

“My hope is in you.”

The psalm asks, “Show me,” and “What do I look for?” We want God to be a fortune-teller instead of a hope-holder.

Existential dread asks to see the future, assure us how this all turns out. We don’t get an answer to that question. There lies our hope.

We ask God the same questions century after century. The answer remains the same: We look to God for our hope and then we keep living.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

O God of hosts, show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved. — Psalm 80.7


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

Listen to: RSVP to Wisdom or Folly

Two banquets are prepared.
Two invitations go out.
Two hostesses beckon.
Which banquet will you enter? Who gets your RSVP?

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Mule Behavior

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 11 Read:  Proverbs 2 Listen: (1:53) Read: Psalm 32 Listen: (1:34)

Scripture Focus: Psalm 32:3, 9

3 When I kept silent,
    my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.

9 Do not be like the horse or the mule,
    which have no understanding
but must be controlled by bit and bridle
    or they will not come to you.

Reflection: Mule Behavior

By Erin Newton

Mules are notoriously stubborn. They are hybrid creatures; the result of breeding a female horse and male donkey. They are sterile, albeit hardy, creatures. Farmers and ranchers utilize the hardiness of the mule, yet a quick search for mules reveals a plethora of pictures depicting a bridled mule, firmly planted, resolutely fixed in place despite the pull and command of its handler. Despite all efforts, they often refuse to move.

We have our own idiom to describe people who refuse to do what is asked: Stubborn as a mule. It is typically not used as a compliment, for the intended recipient is someone who has been told to change and will not comply. The psalmist is warning people to avoid such mulish behavior when it comes to sin.

Psalm 32 begins with a thanksgiving for forgiveness. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven” (v. 1). It sounds like the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:1).

This psalm reflects on how sin weighs a person down. It is like one’s bones wasting away. Unrepentant sin, as the Spirit convicts our soul, gnaws and festers. When we repair our relationship with God, seeking forgiveness, we are restored. Blessed.

Forgiveness doesn’t come easy—asking for it, that is. We are naturally stubborn. Our pride wants to hold our ground and defend our ways. But the pulling from God and the weight of sin can be a painful experience. The psalmist tells us to give in.

There is, however, the need to ensure that the commands given to us are reflective of what Christianity demands. Is it God asking us to change? Who is pulling on our reins?

Our society is wrestling with issues of cultural religiosity, where “doing the Christian thing” is more akin to following club rules. Those who seek to retain power in the “club of cultural Christianity” see all resistance as mulish (and sinful) unrepentance. They hold the reins of some people asking them to follow without question. This is not what this psalm is saying.

Being obedient to God is not the same as following anyone who dons the title “Christian.” Mules are stubborn but they are not necessarily dumb. They often refuse when they perceive the situation is dangerous.

Who is holding your reins? Who is pulling you along, shouting commands to follow? May it be God, and God alone.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. — Psalm 31.1


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

Read more: Temptation Has No Gender

Power, wealth, indulgence, sexuality…nothing escapes the corruption of sin and no gender is exempt from responsibility.

Temptation Has No Gender—Readers’ Choice
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Same Old Story

Links for today’s readings:

Feb 4 Read: Job 37 Listen: (2:27) Read: Psalm 22 Listen: (3:49)

Scripture Focus: Job 37:14-16

14 “Listen to this, Job;
    stop and consider God’s wonders.
15 Do you know how God controls the clouds
    and makes his lightning flash?
16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised,
    those wonders of him who has perfect knowledge?

Reflection: Same Old Story

By Erin Newton

At no point in time has Job declared himself a scientific genius. When Elihu asks him if he knows how meteorology works, it is more of a statement than a question. Even if Job tried to answer his question, it’s not really the point.

The divine words in the next chapter sound nearly the same: “ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm?” (Job 38:25–27).

Job doesn’t know how storms really work but I am fairly sure he knows who makes them.

Elihu and the other three friends all refer to the natural world. They speak of the rain, the seas, the heavens, etc. So nothing that God points out in his speech is foreign to Job. He saw clouds, watched lightning, felt rain, and maybe swam in the sea. All the things Job’s friends asked him to consider were familiar. But none of their arguments resonated with him.

The arguments and advice given to Job for all these chapters have been like proverbs—there are universal truths and solid advice, but not always applicable.

Scholars have argued about whether Job had reason to repent, if his repentance was genuine, and so on. But I pause here today to think about how the attempted counsel of his friends, while full of truth, effected no change from Job.

Let’s consider 1 Cor 3:6-7: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”

Could God have answered Job right there in chapter 3 or 4? Absolutely. Why a week of silence and four friends with semi-helpful counsel? Perhaps because we’re all like them. Our call is to seek out friends, sit with them in their suffering, and hopefully speak wisdom. Does it affect change? Not always. (And we might get it wrong, just like them.)

And I think we’re a lot like Job. The truth might be found in a sermon, a friend’s encouragement, a line of a poem, a chorus in a song, a character from a book. We may need to hear truth from many mouths before we are changed.

And we need to keep speaking truth even if it’s been said before. We keep pointing to God and relying on him to affect change.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Test me, O Lord, and try me; examine my heart and mind. — Psalm 26.2

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

Read more: Prayers Before the Storm

May the weak be protected and the powerful be warned

May the proud be struck and shaken

While the humble stand on a firm place

Prayers Before the Storm — Guided Prayer
Read more: Hope In the Tree of the Cross

“He has done it,” Psalm 22’s last line proclaims. “It is finished,” Christ’s last breath from the cross echoes.

Hope In the Tree of the Cross

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Human Decency

Links for today’s readings:

Jan 28  Read: Job 30 Listen: (3:14)  Read: Psalms 11-12 Listen: (1:59)

Scripture Focus: Job 30:24-26

24 “Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man
    when he cries for help in his distress.
25 Have I not wept for those in trouble?
    Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, evil came;
    when I looked for light, then came darkness.”

Reflection: Human Decency

By Erin Newton

Human decency is a set of accepted moral standards. There is an expectation that people will act using human decency. We expect strangers to avoid violence, help the weak, and work for the betterment of society.

This is why Job says Surely. The word highlights, emphasizes, and intensifies the concept he’s about to state. Surely people don’t hurt hurting people. Job is relying on the universal concept of human decency.

Even in the ancient world, it was not the accepted standard for people to harm those who were already suffering. They did not assault those asking for help. Human decency isn’t a modern philosophy; Job’s view of the world is grounded in it.

By now, we’ve read through the stories of Job’s suffering and his friends’ poor assessment of his supposed guilt. Over and over Job has pleaded his innocence and questioned his suffering. If humans are expected to treat each other with kindness and respect, shouldn’t God also treat humans in such a way? This is Job’s mindset.

He feels beaten down by the divine hand because his suffering does not fit into their perspective of retribution. But something is not right for Job. He’s innocent and suffering.

This is one of those times that Job is expressing the fullness of his misery. He’s not holding back his words. He’s suffering and bringing it to God demanding that he answer. He brings human morality to the forefront. He knows that there are those who do hurt the helpless, but everyone can see how wrong that is. Is God acting wrong? Job is asking that sort of question.

As we wake up each morning, hesitant to turn on the news fearing another headline that brings heartache, grief, fury, and rage—we are hoping for human decency to prevail. We also are hoping for God to step in—fix our suffering, tell us why this is happening when we are trying so hard to do what is right. Like Job, we must keep asking and bringing into the argument that this is not how people are supposed to act.


We can rest assured that God can handle our doubts about his seeming inaction or his silence. In much the same way we keep calling our representatives, we plead with God. We keep coming to him: “Surely this is not ok. We are asking for light and all we see is darkness.”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Show us the light of your countenance, O God, and come to us. — Psalm 67.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Prayer When None Are Faithful

We relate to the psalmist’s cries…The costs of lies are all around us. Violence. Confusion. Desperation. Loss of life.

Prayer When None are Faithful—Readers’ Choice
Read more: Help That Brings Hope—Guided Prayer

Let us…be the kind of help that Job hoped for in the lives of those around us.

Help That Brings Hope—Guided Prayer