For Faith

What to do when God is silent, goes the question. But maybe what is really being said here is, ‘God is not speaking to me in a fashion that is convenient or dramatic enough to address my anxieties and hardships.’ Being the anxious creatures that we are, we might be conflating the idea of God’s silence with God’s abandonment or God’s nonexistence. But, as we get to know God, we learn that silence is really a language for God. A means of communication. And if that is true, then, a mature relationship with God invites us to learn a new language! Think of music – it is made up of both notes and rests. Rests aren’t the absence of music. And, rests aren’t inferior to notes. Both are essential. The presence and artful arrangement of both combine to make beautiful music. If we want to hear from God, we may need to remember what the prophet Elijah learned, that God didn’t speak in the wind or the fire or the earthquake but rather, “…in a still small voice.”
5 Lenten Questions with Bishop Rob Wright
Join Bishop Wright in a 5-part video series to help guide us during this season of sacrifice and self-examination.
Cuando Dios Calla

Self-examination means we pause and check-in with our soul. And we ask our soul two questions: What are my patterns? And, do they increase well-being? Ultimately the practice of self-examination is a gift because it moves us from blindness to gaining new sight. Recent laundry commercials tell us about something called nose blind – where we smell a smell so often we get used to it and cease to be able to detect or describe it no matter how odorous. Self-examination invites us to consider the possibility of what we could call “soul-blindness,” or the inability to detect or describe the ways in which our soul is blind. Soul-blindness happens because of un-named or unprocessed pain or being overrun by fears or because of ignorance or unwillingness to reconsider convictions. The most pervasive example of soul-blindness is the ability to recognize flaws in everyone without being able to see our flaws. Jesus talked about the ability of seeing specks in others’ eyes while refusing to see the log in our own eye.
– An excerpt from Bishop Wright’s 5 Lenten Questions video series.
5 Lenten Questions with Bishop Rob Wright
Join Bishop Wright in a 5-part video series to help guide us during this season of sacrifice and self-examination.
Autoexamen

God being near is how it all gets started and is sustained. God was near to Jesus at his baptism, near enough to whisper the words “beloved” and the affirmation “pleased.” God wanted new nearness to Jesus so God directed him through Spirit to the soul-making crucible of “wilderness.” And though Satan was in the wilderness with the wild beasts, so were angel companions. God’s nearness, more often than not, doesn’t eradicate hardship, it uses it for some new faithful resolve. Did you notice after the arrest of Jesus’ cousin John – the one whose fiery faithfulness helped him believe – that Jesus picks up the fragments of John’s simple sermon? And what he leads with, the very first thing Jesus wants us to know, is near where God chooses to be. Near is how God chooses to be. I sure hope that what is driving us is God’s nearness.
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
Cerca

Before St. Paul begins his best-known chapter – the one about love, 1 Corinthians 13 – he finishes the 12th chapter with this, “I will show you a more excellent way.” Given all of the division and vitriol that has become a normalized part of life, we might need to pause and ask ourselves a couple of questions, do I really believe that love is the more excellent way? And if we really do, what is love’s cost for me right now? The people many of us venerate from Jesus to Martin Luther King Jr. to Hank Aaron, each had their reckoning. Each stood at an intersection. Each was faced with a choice – either the holy books they read were just ideals never meant to govern real-world relationships or those words were reliable mile markers on the way to a better expression of community and civilization. In their lives and in the lives of too many to name, men and women convinced that love of neighbor no matter how difficult, no matter the ridicule, no matter how impractical has always made the difference. Their certainty that “love never fails” is actually the hope that the world and the church are still borrowing. Thank God for those among us who are convinced that love is “…the more excellent way.”
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
Convencidos

Whether we’re meeting God for the first time or the eighty-second time there’s a reliable rendezvous available to us. It’s at the intersection of our failing strength, fraying faith, and God’s understanding and power. This crossroad is where God infuses our expiring lives with God’s everlasting-ness; our perpetual weariness with God’s never weariness. This is God’s pattern, to bless us in a place and fashion where we could not boast in anything but God. There’s a rare honesty with God and ourselves that comes with desperation! Somehow, that honesty gets God’s attention. The promise that scripture makes us is that there’s a real-world difference-making power that seeks to renew us. Causes us to soar. And, makes us walk and run without normal natural exhaustion. Somehow, in a place more important than my intellect, I know Isaiah is right.
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
Cita

As Jesus teaches in the synagogue he is interrupted by a man with an “unclean spirit.” When we see those two words in scripture it means a demonic spirit. A spirit that is not love. A spirit that opposes God. A spirit that harms the community and the host. Unclean spirits have infected the church and the nation. How could Jesus of Nazareth endorse any individual or group that accepts and supports people wearing clothing that says, “6MWE” Six million wasn’t enough” in reference to the Holocaust? How could Jesus of the Bible accept and support people who chanted “hang Mike Pence” when Jesus himself was publicly lynched? The issue here is not politics, it’s Jesus! A mature Christian understands that you cannot put the flag, any flag, higher than the Cross! Who do you say that Jesus is? The bible says that “unclean spirits” are afraid of Jesus. The bible says Jesus rebukes and casts out “unclean spirits,” leaving the hosts, purged, restored, and in their right mind.
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
“Maligno“

Simon and Andrew “immediately” dropped their net and joined Jesus’ friend making campaign. To my mind, either Jesus was exceedingly compelling, or their discontent with their occupation was peaking or both? Sometimes we can think of these bible stories in too pristine a way to be of good use. Life has so much grey. Life has so much of both. COVID has allowed many of us the space to acknowledge that we weren’t in love with our previous routine anyway. It’s just that the “sounds of our own wheels” drowned out that “still small voice.” Still, Jesus’ invitation persists. I wonder, are you discontent enough to hear Jesus’ offer anew? What would more urgent, more adventurous faith look like for you this year?
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
“Ambos”

“Hello Darling
Today I find myself a long way from you and the children. I am at the State Prison in Reidsville which is about 230 miles from Atlanta. They picked me up from the DeKalb jail about 4 ’0 clock this morning. I know this whole experience is very difficult for you to adjust to, especially in your condition of pregnancy, but as I said to you yesterday this is the cross that we must bear for the freedom of our people. So I urge you to be strong in faith, and this will in turn strengthen me. I can assure you that it is extremely difficult for me to think of being away from you and my Yoki and Marty for four months, but I am asking God hourly to give me the power of endurance. I have the faith to believe that this excessive suffering that is now coming to our family will in some little way serve to make Atlanta a better city, Georgia a better state, and America a better country. Just how I do not yet know, but I have faith to believe it will. If I am correct then our suffering is not in vain.”
An excerpt from a letter from Dr. King to Coretta King
October 26, 1960
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
“Hola Cariño”

Be like the wise men who brought Jesus gifts this year.
1. Follow your star. Where is the star of your heart leading you? Yes, I know COVID has complicated everything but really, follow your star.
2. Take a journey. Even if it is virtual, go somewhere new. We are meant for new. New learning. New friendships. New ideas.
3. Ask your questions. Jesus’ birth prompted questions from everyone. What is your question? So often God is nudging us through the questions that live softly and persistently in our spirit.
4. Don’t stop short. We get so close to our epiphany only to give up or get discouraged. Don’t stop short. The wise men traveled so many miles in faith from their home to Jerusalem. But, it was the last ten miles from Jerusalem to Bethlehem that gave them their heart’s desire. In the immortal words of Congressman John Lewis, “Don’t give up and Don’t give in. Keep your eyes on the prize.”
Happy New Year!
For People with Bishop Rob Wright
The new podcast expands on Bishop’s For Faith devotional, drawing inspiration from the life of Jesus to answer 21st-century questions.
“Comenzando de Nuevo”

As we say goodbye to 2020 and face 2021 there’s much to grieve and to give thanks for. When I consider where we have been and where we might be headed as a world, nation, and church, the biblical idea of wilderness helps me make sense of things. Wilderness throughout scripture is both that place of desolation and divine intervention. As we face what many have labeled as ‘a wilderness time in our country,’ let me say to you, don’t lose heart! Remember, God is a wilderness God and God delights in making a way in the wilderness. Those two truths fire our hope and direct our steps for the year ahead. Our present challenges are not insurmountable because nothing is impossible for God. In fact, looking at Jesus’ life, death, and Resurrection, we see that God does God’s best work in the wilderness! God has a way forward for us collectively and as individuals right through this present wilderness, accumulating as we travel with God, the faith and joy that is our inheritance.
Happy New Year!
“Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs up, Can’t you see it? I put a way in the wilderness.”