A Positively Poetic Priest

I want everyone to take a moment to put yourself in Solomon's feet, God comes to you and says, “Ask what I should give you.” Whoa. The first 'make a wish' moment. We do have this opportunity, we are allowed to tell God what we would like God to give to us many times this is exactly how we use prayer. God, give me a better work situation, help my daughter find a husband, and give Marshall a new arm Oh, and the VBS students all want to be better at Fortnite. Solomon was a little better at thinking through the opportunity he had in conversation with God and asks for an understanding mind, knowledge of good and evil, to be able to govern the people in telling this story we typically say that Solomon asks for wisdom I have a few issues with this story, partially because the Hebrew word for wisdom isn't used when Solomon asks for understanding, though it is used at the end when the story says God gives Solomon a wise and discerning mind, and the story is a total show of patri...

We don't tend to think of being shrewd as one of the spiritual gifts of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, self control, faith, humility, none of those sound remotely like shrewdness. But as I thought longer about the idea, I thought of discernment. Discernment is a gift of the Spirit. And discernment is the ability to judge well, going beyond the simple pros and cons of a situation and seeking out spiritual guidance to see the nuances and find the path forward. The definition of being shrewd is having sharp powers of judgment, being astute, being creative in thinking and looking at issues from multiple sides to see the outcomes. Being shrewd fits into the idea of discernment. Discernment is important in many different aspects of our lives. While the parable we heard from the gospel of is offputting there are a number of lessons we can learn from it.  Everyone agrees that it is a confusing and hard to figure out parable. Every...