Trustworthy? (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Trust is big. It’s part of the scaffolding we build our lives around. Emotions, choices, relationships: all impacted by trust. We even put it on our money.

 

In the hit show The X-Files, one catchphrase was “Trust No One.” The other was “I Want To Believe.” Each week, fictional FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully worked the space between those two ideas, tackling mysteries tied to UFO sightings, government conspiracies, and urban myths. Layered into it all was the true central theme: Whom do we trust—and how?

 

Ernest Hemingway wrote, "The best way to make people trustworthy is to trust them." That thought was penned after he experienced the 1918 Flu Pandemic. How could he feel comfortable taking that approach? Does it sound dangerous to you? At the very least, it sounds risky.

 

What level of risk can you live with? How much are you willing for your behaviors to put at risk the lives of family, loved ones, and strangers?

 

For many of us, when we weigh the possible costs of choosing the Hemingway Option, the risk of being hurt (or worse) just seems too high. We won't do it. When I can actually see someone acting in a way that places me at greater risk than if they acted a different way, then their regard for my wellbeing must be suspect.  

 

In this week's scriptures, the Psalmist implores God to "Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone." Call it the Psalmist Option. 

 

Whom should I trust? When I need rescue, God is my deliverer. When I need a place to hide away, God is my refuge. But I won’t test God by ignoring obvious pitfalls in this life. What I‘m going to do is choose the Psalmist Option: Trust God to deal with my enemies and to pull me from any traps they set.

 

Jesus put it best in this week’s John passage: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me.”

 

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

 

Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom* and in person at Our Breakfast Place. For a Bible study, there seems to be an unusual amount of laughter… 

 

No traps have been set. Trust me. 

 

Blessings,

Steve

 

*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=47

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_FifthSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 7:55-60

Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16

1 Peter 2:2-10

John 14:1-14

Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 3, 2026)

 

The Sheep of Stephen King’s Dark Christianity (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Stephen King described his novel The Stand: The Complete Uncut Edition as “this long tale of dark Christianity.” It’s an apt description. The novel is packed with themes any Bible reader would recognize. 

One in particular stands out for me: King’s characters have strange dreams. 

 

Each dreams of a person and a place. All the dreamers are called to come. Each commences a journey to follow the voice in the dream. In time, the dreamers form into groups, moving with single-mindedness across the country toward a destination. Like the sheep in this week’s Gospel of John passage, each knows the sound of their shepherd’s voice—and they come when they are called. 

 

The hitch? They aren’t all hearing from the same “shepherd.” And journey’s end is decidedly different for each group.

It’s highly unlikely we will have experiences like Stephen King’s “sheep.” There are similarities, though. We, too, will travel a spiritual journey, be called to follow a shepherd, and get to choose our shepherd. 

 

Are you among those who can say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” like in this week’s Psalm 23? Or, like some of The Stand characters, does the call you hear belong to a shepherd who is not at all good?

 

God knows that we, like sheep, stray. And God welcomes us back if we choose to return. In fact, if we do return, the apostle Peter assures us in his first letter: The good shepherd will once again be “the Guardian of your souls.”

 

We are not sheep. 

 

But we are like sheep. And just like the characters in King’s novel, where we take our stand matters. Choose your shepherd, today. Don’t risk not hearing the Good Shepherd when He calls. 

 

 

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ARTWORK: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

More about bad shepherds: 

https://onelostsheep.net/2018/07/21/good-shepherds-and-bad-john-foley-sj/

 

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Will you be at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast Friday morning? Join us at 8:00 on Zoom* or in person at Our Breakfast Place. We eat, pray, and read this week’s Bible passages. What follows is a wide-ranging discussion [COUGH free-for-all COUGH] and laughter. 

 

Sheep welcome. 

 

Blessings,

Steve 

  

*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=46

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_FourthSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 2:42-47

Psalm 23

1 Peter 2:19-25

John 10:1-10

Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 26, 2026)

 

The Heart of the Matter (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

Eagles singer Don Henley and friends wrote “The Heart of the Matter” in 1989. The song was a hit because of Henley's voice and the fact it is so singable. The lyrics tell us that a former love has found someone new. How many similar songs have you heard? A hundred? A thousand? If you thought the song was about a person pining for their lost love, you weren’t alone. 

 

It’s just that, well, there's quite a bit more to it. Check these lyrics:

 

The more I know, the less I understand.

All the things I thought I knew, 

I'm learning again.

I've been tryin' to get down to the Heart of the Matter,

But my will gets weak

And my thoughts seem to scatter.

But I think it's about forgiveness,

Forgiveness,

Even if, even if you don't love me anymore.

 

We discover the song is not really about someone pining for a lost love. It’s an exploration of what should come after that. The lyrics include themes of love, grace, and trust. Henley, of course, pours his soul into each verse, making it easy to get lost in his singing—and miss the song. Paying attention, we soon realize that the singer's search for that next step—the heart of the matter—leads to just one place: forgiveness. 

 

You don't find that in just any old song about lost love. This is a transcendence over the love that was lost, an elevation to a higher love, a love that forgives "even if" his old love doesn't love him anymore. 

 

Listen to The Heart of the Matter (with printed lyrics): 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0l8MLRVpj8&pp=ygUedGhlIGhlYXJ0IG9mIHRoZSBtYXR0ZXIgbHlyaWNz

 

The Greek word for this kind of love is agape. It’s an unconditional love, a love without self-benefit, often referred to as "love, in spite of." It's that challenging kind of love we have to employ to love our enemies. 

 

Agape is also the kind of love the apostle Peter writes about in this week's 1 Peter passage. He calls for his readers to love one another “from the heart”—deeply, warmly, earnestly. He urges believers to truly live out the new commandment Jesus gave them. “Love one another” is more than a little challenging, but it is essential to life together as His disciples.

 

In the song, we discover: "All the things I thought I figured out, I have to learn again." Now is the perfect time to start learning, again, how to release all the negatives: bitterness, envy, anger, revenge, malice, hatred. We must continually revisit this, keep returning to it—deeply and earnestly from the heart—as a fundamental building block of our growing faith.

 

Forgiveness: That's how we "get down to the Heart of the Matter."

 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express filtered through Photoshop Express 

Some quotes on forgiveness:

https://quotement.com/i-forgive-you-for-hurting-me-quotes/

 

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Join us Friday morning at Our Breakfast Place or on Zoom* to read the scriptures, discuss their meaning, and learn how better to love one another. DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast starts at 8:00 and officially ends at 9:00 (but some stay around and visit).

 

No one is required to sing.

 

Blessings,

Steve 

  

*Zoom link (Zoom allows you to mute the camera and the microphone if you don’t wish to be seen or heard.)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89947678414

 

SCRIPTURES FOR SUNDAY AND THE COMING WEEK

Find them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts/?y=17134&z=s&d=45

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_ThirdSundayofEaster.pdf

 

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19

1 Peter 1:17-25 — 2:1

Luke 24:13-35

Third Sunday of Easter (April 19, 2026)