The little girl stormed into my office with a scowl on her face. “Pastor, Jimmy said bad words to me.” “He did?” I replied. “What did he say?” She whispered, “He said, ‘shut up!’” I suppose when you’re young and had to work hard to learn how to talk, being told to shut up is a terrible curse.

Would God ever tell us to shut up? Don’t be too quick to answer. Here’s Amos 5:21-24 as paraphrased by Eugene Peterson. “I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice–oceans of it. I want fairness–rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”*

That was the devotion at the planning meeting for the 2016 Florida-Bahamas Synod Assembly. It made us reflect on all the “religious things” we think are so important, but God doesn’t really care about. It’s actually freeing to realize that. Don’t weigh yourself down with things that don’t matter to God. So God tells us to shut up and listen, and in the quiet we hear a promise of God’s unending love.

Read Psalm 46:10-11, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne

*The Message,© 2003,2994, 2995, 2996, 20000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson.