I am an emeritus professor from Cornell University and was a Commissioned Lay Preacher in the Presbyterian Church (USA). For many years I have followed the Daily Lectionary as printed in the Mission Yearbook of my church. For each day of a two-year cycle, the lectionary lists four psalms and three other scriptural passages--usually one from the Old Testament and two from the New Testament. My practice is to copy down a verse or two from one of the psalms and from each of the other three passages. After I have written out all four selections, I reflect upon them, rearrange their order, and incorporate them into a meditation. Sometimes I retain much of the original wording; sometimes all that remains of a selection is an idea that was stimulated when I read the original words. All selections are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. For the Daily Lectionary, see the link below.


I Want to Be Made Well--Dec. 31, 2011



God, I want to be made well; I really believe so.
I have made plans; there are things I must do.

I am no king like Solomon, but there are those
who depend on my experience and leadership.

I want to sing new songs to you, and about you,
songs to tell the marvelous things you have done.

Then you remind me--I do not know what tomorrow
will bring, or what my life is, except what you give me.

Lectionary Readings
Ps. 98; 149; 45; 96
1 Kings 3:5-14
James 4:13-17, 5:7-11
John 5:1-15

Selected Verses
Ps. 98:1a
O sing to the LORD a new song,
      for he has done marvelous things.

1 Kings 3:6
At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I should give you."

James 4:14
Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

John 5:5-6
One man was [by the Sheep Gate pool] who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
Posted by Elmer E. Ewing

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