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Daily Devotions

Daily Devotions Provided by Pastor Whit McMillan

Whit McMillan is a pastor, author, advisor, Christian servant, and retired military chaplain. It is a joy and an honor to share these devotional “windows” from Pastor McMillan for your personal blessing and growth.

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Devotion for July 4, 2008

MUTUALITY Ephesians 4:32 THE NEED FOR TOGETHERNESS One of my favorite literary mentors, Frederick Buechner, wrote a fascinating warning about indifference to each other, and, contrapuntally, the need for it as we face a criticality of issues in our lives today. Paraphrasing him, he said, "We - and all humanity is included - are all "in it together, and indifference to each other is a growing problem, even in our families." We would do well, on this national observation of the Declaration of Independence - our nation's BIRTHDAY, if you please - to consider mutuality and "togetherness." We don't "hate" people so much as find ourselves being indifferent - and sometimes ignorant - and unaware of our neighboring others! Hear Joseph Newton: "Men are not often cruel with the ferocious cruelty of a tiger. Sometimes they are, unfortunately, but more often they are cruel with the cruelty of a cartwheel, which rolls over a stone or a human head with equal indifference and ease." I think of the people I may have become indifferent to - the people I feel no "together-ness-with"; the people to whom I prefer to remain deaf and blind. We fail to realize how dreadfully costly it is to remain aloof, silent, and uncommunicative with, and it's great cost to us now and in the future! We need to be alerted to how costly it is to us to maintain our "apartness" from them. Let me draw once more on Buechner: "The priest and the Levite {in Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan} looked in at the Man in the Ditch and for a minute they thought they saw themselves! Every man (woman)(child)(senior) we meet is the man in the ditch, half- dying for us. He needs our healing, and we need to be healing him. He's in need of mercy, and we are in need of being merciful. Buechner, closing his chapter, finally writes, "Neither of us can be really human, really alive, without the other." I can see now I will need to add another petition to my daily prayers: "Dear Father, wake me up to the fact that I am not always all by myself - on a private Pullman car of my own - on my way to heaven. May I use all my senses to understand what's happening to people around me - the man or the woman in the ditch! Persuade me by your Holy Spirit's loving, that, together - aware of each other - and helpful to each other - is the way You want me to live and the way I want to live in you - for you - the rest of my life! In Jesus' Name, Amen!"