Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:33
For God is not a God of disorder but of peace—as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people.

Thought for the Day: I’ve been wondering what it means to be “The Lord’s people” in a day and age when most of us patently reject the idea of subjugation of any sort, ask even if it’s subjugation to God. But surprisingly, being God’s loyal subject isn’t really enslavement, it’s freedom. I know it seems unreasonable, but in the realization that we are One with God (and each other, and everything in creation) comes a huge change of consciousness, a relief, a release, peace.

The Bible was written when pretty much every government was a monarchy, and people were oppressed under the heavy greave of the Roman Empire. The painful desire for liberation led biblical writers to use terms for God they and their readers understood. For them, God was the Supreme Monarch, who frees us from our human monarchs. Even though we don’t relate to their language today, the metaphor behind their stories is still pertinent: out of chaos, God creates order, whether that is the chaos of a forming universe, or the chaos of our own lives.

Prayer: Modern life is sometimes unbearably difficult, God, so I gladly submit to your leadership and Divine Wisdom. Lead on, O Cloud of Presence! Amen.