Daily Devotional • August 31
A Reading from Job 9:1; 10:1-9, 16-22
1 Then Job answered:
1 “I loathe my life;
I will give free utterance to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to God, ‘Do not condemn me;
let me know why you contend against me.
3 Does it seem good to you to oppress,
to despise the work of your hands
and favor the schemes of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as humans see?
5 Are your days like the days of mortals
or your years like human years,
6 that you seek out my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7 although you know that I am not guilty,
and there is no one to deliver out of your hand
8 Your hands fashioned and made me,
and now you turn and destroy me.
9 Remember that you fashioned me like clay,
and will you turn me to dust again?
16 Bold as a lion you hunt me;
you repeat your exploits against me.
17 You renew your witnesses against me
and increase your vexation toward me;
you bring fresh troops against me.
18 “‘Why did you bring me forth from the womb?
Would that I had died before any eye had seen me
19 and were as though I had not been,
carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not the days of my life few?
Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort
21 before I go, never to return,
to the land of gloom and deep darkness,
22 the land of gloom and chaos,
where light is like darkness.’”
Meditation
I am the light of the world … (John 8:12)
The eye doctor explained that my vision had probably started to blur in the decade of my forties. The mechanism for presbyopia is uncertain. Most efforts to explain near-sightedness suggest a loss of elasticity in the crystalline lens or possibly a loss of power in the muscles that bend and straighten the lens of the eyes. Knowing the ‘how’ of sight loss did not bring much comfort.
I missed having eyes that did not have to depend on glasses for clear focus. Furthermore, it’s hard to appreciate the reminder that you’re simply not what you used to be. As if to add insult to injury, one description for this failure of sight includes the following sentence: “Similar to grey hair and wrinkles, presbyopia is a symptom caused by the disease of aging.” The disease of aging? Ah yes, the Fall — thorns, thistles, sweat of the brow, and dust to dust — the fractured creation resultant of human obstinence.
The prophet Malachi promised that the Sun of Righteousness would bring healing in his wings and sight to the blind. The Son of God declared, “I am the light of the world.” When the disciple steps into the brilliance of this Light she cannot help but hope that it will erase the darkness that haunts her. More light may not provide for better reading, but it will quicken your heart and soul. In this way more light means more sight. It renews the possibility that you might not stumble at noon as in the twilight. This Light will enable you to keep in view the signposts on the way leading to the New Jerusalem.
Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord… (BCP, p. 111)
The Very Rev. Timothy Kimbrough is the director of the Anglican Episcopal House of Studies and the Jack and Barbara Bovender Professor of the Practice of Anglican Studies at Duke Divinity School. He was previously dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tennessee.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Ikara – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
Trinity Episcopal Church, Upperville, Virginia