Thank You for Being a Friend (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

In the early days of social media, my account kept suggesting I become friends with celebrated actor Ashley Judd. Yes, that Ashley Judd, daughter of music star Naomi Judd and sister to country music legend Wynonna Judd.

 

That friending suggestion popped up with some regularity. Eventually I just couldn’t resist: I clicked on the link. 

Yes, I was that naive.

The screen quickly displayed a message informing me that Ashley couldn't be friends with me because she already had too many friends. 

 

It was quite the mystery why the prompt was there. She was a movie star and I was…well, not. I eventually realized it was because the algorithm thingy recognized we both grew up in Kentucky. So, of course we might know each other. But I had learned my lesson. From then on, I just ignored it.  

 

It's too bad, really. I think if Ashley welcomed me into her circle of friends, I could share some stories that, being from Kentucky, would resonate with her. I could tell her about Paul and Mike, about Carolyn and Ginny Ann, about Bob and Robin, Bruce and Bonnye; about the great times we all had exploring the Land Between the Lakes, spelunking, picking apples to earn spending money, writing poetry, climbing on the monkey bars, playing on the train tracks, driving through the 19th Hole, playing baseball on a makeshift mowed-out diamond, being in school plays and musicals, canoeing Kentucky Lake, holding hands, and, yes, skipping stones.  

 

Great memories of growing up in West Kentucky. Yes, I think Ashley would recognize some of that—and might welcome a friendship that helps her recall her own growing-up times. Welcoming me would open her to a whole universe of those who are part of me. 

When Bob Dylan wrote his song “I Contain Multitudes” (based on a line in Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself”), he brought forward a key idea: that we contain those who welcomed us into their lives, those who have influenced us, those who shaped us, those who helped make us who we are. 

Both authors saw a connectivity that stretches across time and space. It’s a wonderful way to understand the promise of true friendship Jesus made to his disciples in this week’s Matthew passage, a promise connecting them to the Creator and source of all:

 

"Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”

 

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Graphic — Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night. Also, a brief piece connecting that painting and Whitman’s poem:

https://blogs.charleston.edu/hons172/2026/03/15/song-of-my-starry-night-cosmic-interconnections-in-van-gogh-and-whitman-lilly-miller/

A little friending music (“Thank You for Being a Friend” —The Golden Girls theme):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU4Zeiwvy6g

 

 

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Join us Friday morning on Zoom* or in Waco at Our Breakfast Place for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We start at 8:00. There’s always great food, great scriptures, and a fine time talking about them. Laughter keeps showing up, too. 

All are welcome. Nobody here has “too many friends” . . .

 

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=p&d=62

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper8.pdf

 

Genesis 22:1-14

Psalm 13

Jeremiah 28:5-9

Psalm 89:1-4, 15-18

Romans 6:12-23

Matthew 10:40-42

Proper 8 (13) (June 28, 2026) (Fifth Sunday After Pentecost)

 

Vanquishing the Big Bad (a Steve Orr scripture reflection)

There has always been a “Big Bad.” 

 

It’s been with us for so long, we’ve woven it into our stories. And in those stories, there have always been heroes to fight it. Knights to battle the dragons. Dark Knights to defeat the criminals. But it was Buffy the Vampire Slayer and her “Scooby Gang” of vampire-stakers who first named it the “Big Bad.” In their stories, it was never just the monsters they fought each week. It was something truly world-shattering. 

 

So, what is the "Big Bad"?

 

• It’s knowing that those you thought were your friends now seek to harm you, that your family shuns you, that no one stands with you. 
• It’s facing inescapable death when there is no longer any water.
• It’s the realization that you and your child are not going to survive.
• It’s drowning when the mighty waters rise above you.
• It’s the sure knowledge that no knight, whatever his or her stripe, can save you from what is to come.
• It’s there in the moment you realize all is lost, the moment when clarity shows you there really is no escape.

 

The Big Bad is front and center in this week’s Bible passages. In Genesis, we find Hagar expecting death in the desert—for herself and for her baby—when her water runs out. We find the Psalmist fearing the exact opposite end: too much water. 

 

As the Psalmist realizes, it is now the day of our trouble. We need to call on the Lord. If the prophet Jeremiah tries to withhold the message of God, it becomes like "a burning fire shut up in my bones," a fire he cannot hold in. That message, the one so hot no one can contain it, is that God continues to care about us, cares enough to "deliver the life of the needy from the hands of the evildoers."

 

Death has been the Big Bad for so long—the biggest, the truly-inescapable fate—for as long as recorded history. But that time has ended.

In time, Jeremiah’s bone-burning message took human form as the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And it was His sacrifice that turned death—once an inescapable prison—into a mere way-station. 

 

That’s why, in the day of our troubles—facing our own world-shattering Big Bad—we can confidently call on the Lord. We can know—in our very bones—the Big Bad can never overcome the Biggest Good.

 

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PHOTO: Steve Orr (Antioch Historic Cemetery, Tolar, Texas)

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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast continues to meet Friday mornings at 8:00 on Zoom* and in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. Please join us for an hour that will leave you energized and ready for the coming week.

 

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=p&d=61

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper7.pdf

 

Genesis 21:8-21

Psalm 86:1-10, 16-17

Jeremiah 20:7-13

Psalm 69:7-10, (11-15), 16-18

Romans 6:1b-11

Matthew 10:24-39

Proper 7 (12) (June 21, 2026)

 

Hope in Deep Winter (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

On our minds in winter: When is summer? In the northern hemisphere, many consider Memorial Day weekend the unofficial start. Meteorologists start summer on June 1. And then of course, there is the traditional start: Summer Solstice, which lands on June 21 this year. And, because of their long winters, New Englanders hold out for July 4. 

Whenever it starts for you, summer is a lovely time. When winter finally ends, we feel an uplift in spirit. Joy swells the heart. A kind of collective amnesia overtakes, clouding the harsher memories of winter.

Deep in the bleak days of winter, instead of dwelling on momentary difficulties, we look ahead. Our thoughts turn to the spring to come, the green grass, blooming flowers, and the planting of gardens. We think of the warm days of summer and the coming (though still far distant) harvest. 

 

We have hope.

 

We know that every inch—every foot in some places—of snow piled upon the ground over the long winter is actually a storehouse. It’s water, just waiting for warmer weather to release it. Water that brings life to the land, the plants, the animals, and all of us humans who could not survive without it.

 

In this week’s Romans passage, the apostle Paul talks about a "hope that does not disappoint," one that has more substance than a mere wish. It's a confidence that good is coming, is on its way, will certainly arrive, may already be present in some other form. Paul asserts that enduring our sufferings will grow our character, the kind of character that can rest in the belief that our faith is not misplaced. 

 

It’s our storehouse of hope. And it will see us through the winters of our lives.

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PHOTO: Steve Orr

BONUS MATERIAL:

Astronomical Summer: This is the summer most of us have heard about. In the northern hemisphere, it starts at the Summer Solstice, usually June 20 or 21, sometimes called the longest day. This occurs when the northern half of the Earth is tilted toward the sun and the southern half is tilted away from the sun. The National Weather Service has a great illustration at: 

https://www.weather.gov/cle/seasons

Meteorological Summer: You might hear this term on your local weather report. It refers to what Meteorologists consider the hottest three months of the year: June, July, and August. It starts on June 1. This one-pager from NOAA compares Astronomical seasons and Meteorological seasons:

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/meteorological-versus-astronomical-seasons

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We, too, have that hope that does not disappoint. Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast on Zoom* or in Waco at Our Breakfast Place. We meet at 8:00 for an hour that feeds us, physically and spiritually, and from which we draw hope for the days ahead.

We are expecting weather. So, dress appropriately.

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=p&d=60

 

Print them from here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Ax_Proper6.pdf

 

Genesis 18:1-15, (21:1-7)

Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19

Exodus 19:2-8a

Psalm 100

Romans 5:1-8

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Proper 6 (11) Third Sunday After Pentecost (June 14, 2026)