February 23: Make Room in Your Hearts
♫ Music:
Day 10 - Friday, February 23
Title: Make Room in Your Hearts
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 7:2-11
Make room for us in your hearts; we wronged no one, we corrupted no one, we took advantage of no one. I do not speak to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more. For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it—for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while— I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.
Poetry: The Mower
By Philip Larkin
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.
GOD’S COMFORT
Lent is about reflecting on the suffering and sacrifice that Christ experienced on our behalf. It is through God’s grace that we are redeemed, and we celebrate that on Easter. In reflecting on Christ’s suffering, one aspect we appreciate about this passage is the reality of our human experience that is portrayed in it. Unlike some of the airbrushed pictures we see, or the curated presentations of someone’s life in social media, or made-for-TV episodes that tie life in a pretty bow of closure, we see raw experience in Scripture. We see this in the stories of lives portrayed in both the Old and New Testaments. In the Psalms of lament, we read of the suffering of the Israelites, the hardships of life, the suffering brought on by harsh treatment from others, and we see it most poignantly in the brutal treatment given to Jesus in his last days on earth. Those who witnessed these events present the reality of his life, death, and resurrection in raw words. We believe that it is much easier to relate to this raw experience because we, too, experience some of that “rawness” in our lives.
Paul’s raw experience is described in our Scripture passage today. He said that he had no rest, and was “afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within.” There is no escape from the suffering that is inextricably tied to our human experience. There are external conflicts in relationships, jobs, finances, household tasks, natural disasters, etc., and there are internal fears related to our ability to handle all of these things… fears that keep us awake at night, that inhibit our actions with others, that keep us trapped in our beliefs about what is possible in this life. Yet, in spite of this, Paul says that he is “filled with comfort” and “overflowing with joy in all our affliction.” He experiences comfort in the midst of the external and internal struggles of life. It seems that he has done this by making room in his heart for others and by interpreting his experience in light of God’s love. He encourages the Corinthians to make room in their hearts for him, and by implication, we are encouraged to make room in our hearts for others: “to die together and live together.”
The comfort in the midst of affliction often comes through others. In fact, Paul notes that the “coming of Titus” comforted him. God works in and through people to bring about His purposes. We may not realize the ways in which our interactions with others are part of God’s way of bringing comfort in the midst of conflict and suffering. As a psychologist and a nurse, we each have had many opportunities to comfort those who are suffering. Dutch Catholic priest, Henri Nouwen, writes: “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” The connection to and comfort of others is portrayed in the painting provided by Alice Beasley.
As we reflect on the suffering and sacrifice of Christ on our behalf during this Lent season, it is beneficial to realize that suffering, sorrow, and affliction can be experienced with the comfort only God can provide. While not a pleasant thought, suffering is a normal part of life and we should expect to experience difficulty. It is often in the midst of pain that we are reminded that Christ suffered and died so that we may have abundant and eternal life.
Prayer:
Lord, as we reflect on your suffering, may we experience the comfort of others and your Spirit in the midst of our suffering. Thank you for your sacrifice for us; thank you for your Spirit that indwells us, and thank you for others you bring into our lives to minister to us.
Amen
Clark D. Campbell
Dean, Rosemead School of Psychology
Biola University
Donell Campbell
Associate Professor of Nursing
Associate Director of the Nursing Department
Biola University
About the Artwork:
Circle of Friends
Alice Beasley
2012
Fabric quilt
83 x 134 cm
Textile artist Alice Beasley says of her work, “Fabric is my chosen medium of expression through which I create realistic portraits of people and objects. I find color, light, shadow, line and value in the pattern of ordinary household fabrics. From these I snip small pieces that I arrange and fuse into a figurative composition. As such, the work grows from within rather than being applied to the surface of a canvas by paint, pencil or similar drawing tools. When the image is complete, I sew it together with the stitch line constituting the final “drawn” line.”
About the Artist:
Alice Beasley is a textile artist whose work has been exhibited in many venues throughout the United States including the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, as well as abroad in Madrid, France, Japan, and Namibia. She works in the long tradition of quilt making, transforming fabric into contemporary images of human relationships and community life. From the beginning, her goal has been to use fabric as a medium of expression, incorporating the same light, shadow, and realistic perspective used by artists in other mediums, but without the use of paint, dyes or surface treatments. Instead, Alice uses the ordinary quilter’s tools of commercial fabric and thread to make portraits and vibrant still life compositions.
About the Music:
“Sans Souci“ from the album Sans Souci
About the Composers/Performers:
Eliot James and Tom Hobden met in 2007, while working together on Noah and the Whale’s debut album Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down. After time spent touring and recording in their respective fields, they collaborated in 2016 and composed an ambitious orchestral album called ROAM, which was recorded with the Hungarian Film Orchestra and released on London label Village Green. Their band Pêtr Aleksänder was born from a desire to create a more controlled sound by limiting their instruments to piano and strings, but never at the expense of the raw, emotional impact that a simple yet incisive sound can deliver. Early recordings, such as Sans Souci, quickly caught the attention of streaming services, the wider public, and renowned Indie label Nettwerk, who offered the band a record deal in December 2017. The band released a music video for “Bells” in September 2017, featuring aspiring dancer Jacob Lang, a finalist in the contemporary dance category of BBC Young Dancer 2017. A support tour with Norwegian singer Susanne Sundfor in October 2017 saw the band perform across the UK and in Sweden. Their live shows involved just the two bandmates performing an array of instruments by way of looping and re-imagining arrangements. Eliot and Tom are currently in the music studio working on the debut Pêtr Aleksänder album, to be released in 2018.
About the Poet:
Philip Arthur Larkin (1922–1985) was an English poet, novelist, and librarian. He came to prominence in 1955 with the publication of his second collection of poems, The Less Deceived. He contributed to The Daily Telegraph as its jazz critic from 1961 to 1971 and he edited The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse. After graduating from Oxford in 1943, Larkin became a librarian at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull in the UK. It was during the first thirty years, while he worked as a librarian, that he produced the greater part of his published work. Larkin's public persona was that of a no-nonsense, solitary Englishman who disliked fame and had no patience for the trappings of the public literary life. Larkin was chosen in a 2003 Poetry Book Society survey, almost two decades after his death, as Britain's best-loved poet of the previous 50 years. In 2008 The Times named him Britain's greatest post-war writer. In December 2016, the 31st anniversary of his death, a floor stone memorial for Larkin was unveiled at the Poets' Corner in London’s Westminster Abbey.
About the Devotional Writers:
Clark Campbell is currently the Dean of Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University. He holds degrees from Wheaton College (BA) and Western Seminary (MA, PhD). He is a widely respected psychologist with more than 25 years of clinical experience. In addition to his role as Dean and Professor, he oversees the operations of the Biola Counseling Center, a university and community-based counseling center that serves the clinical training needs of the Rosemead doctoral programs. He and his wife, Donell, co-authored today’s devotion.
Donell Campbell is an Associate Professor and Associate Director in the Nursing Department. Her professional career includes over 35 years nursing experience in various settings including, Intensive Care, Medical, Surgical, Home Health, and Community Services, with more than 15 years in management of Medical, Surgical, Social Service, Cardiopulmonary Service, and Education departments. Donell and her husband Clark have three adult children and one grandchild. The Campbells attend Whittier Area Community Church.