By Pastor Frank Wulf
Echo Park United Methodist Church
La Plaza United Methodist Church

Psalm 127:2
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil,
for God gives rest to God’s beloved.

Over the years, I have grown tired of making resolutions for the new year. It’s a tradition, I know, to take advantage of the turn of the calendar to articulate new aspirations and goals for how we intend to live our lives in the weeks and months ahead. We want to be better, do better, live better than we have in the past… to make our lives more meaningful and purposeful in the context of some wider vision of what our living could be.

The problem is that most new year resolutions amount to little more than a false start. I exercise for two or three weeks before deciding I have better things to do with my time. I watch my diet until some craving for junk food overwhelms me. I set aside time for devotion until something inside me decides that it’s enough just to listen to a Bible podcast and pray as I drive through LA’s congested traffic. I’ll be more loving and forgiving toward people until some “idiot” runs a red light and forces me to slam on my brakes.   My experience has been that resolutions seldom rise out of the realm of wishful thinking and aspiration. They all too rarely result in any real change of life. The momentum of how I’ve always lived, of entrenched habits and routines is just too strong.

So of course, I began 2026 by making a resolution anyway. I didn’t call it a resolution; I called it a promise to myself, but it was the same thing. I decided that I would enter into the discipline of writing a brief daily devotional that I would share on the church website and on Facebook. It would be rooted in the deep wisdom of the Bible and yet tied to the challenges of the present time. It would be – for me and maybe even for others – a source of inspiration and hope in the face of a world that is increasingly hateful, fearful, cruel, violent, and deceptive. And as could perhaps have been expected, no devotional ever got written or posted… until now.

I didn’t know when I first made that promise to myself that I would contract a life-threatening illness that would land me in the hospital for the better part of a week. Neither did I anticipate that it would take weeks to recover from the illness. I didn’t want to believe my doctor when he told me that I should expect recovery to take longer “at your age” than it did when I was 30. Ugh! Still, this period of recovery is giving me the opportunity to step away from my normal routines and to spend some time reflecting, reading, praying, and dreaming. It’s reminding me that life in God is more than just doing, doing, doing all the time; it is also about being, about resting, about trusting in the one who creates me, calls me, cares for me, and protects me. As Psalm 127:2 reminds us: “God grants rest to those whom God loves.”

There is much to be done in this chaotic world in which we live. The principalities and powers are roaring with hatred. They’re flexing muscles and brandishing weapons to threaten their opponents and intimidate the people. They’re fomenting ignorance and fear as they consolidate their power and escalate violence. These principalities and powers must be resisted with all the courage and strength we are able to muster. And that is happening – in Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, Teheran, Los Angeles, Manila, Caracas, and around the world. Though I would like to join that resistance in person, to be physically present in efforts to protect God’s beloved yet vulnerable children, my time is not now. I can pray. I can hope. I can encourage from afar. Right now, however, I need to rest, trusting others to carry on the work that needs to be done. My time will come soon enough by the grace of God.

Rest is not an act of laziness. It’s not even a matter of inactivity. To rest is to trust that this world belongs to God – whatever the spiritual forces of wickedness and evil powers of this world might claim to the contrary. It’s about believing that goodness really is stronger than evil, that love is stronger than hate, that light is stronger than darkness, and that life will ultimately prevail over death. The victory belongs to God. We all have our own part to play in the struggle for justice and love. But this means that we need to be as strong and prepared as possible when our moment arrives. Rest is our time for healing, strengthening, and prayer as we prepare to follow courageously along the path that God is leading.

So today, I embrace rest as an act of faith. In this moment my calling is to pray. The moment will come soon enough when I will be able once again to join sisters, brothers, and siblings in Christ in the front lines of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God.

Bless us, O God, with times of sacred rest so that we may be strengthened, empowered, and inspired to follow courageously in your paths of justice, peace, grace, and love. Amen.

May God bless you all!

Frank

P.S. God willing and energy permitting, I will try to keep my promise to myself and produce another devotional tomorrow.

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