A Dead End (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

A dead end can be a negative or a positive, depending on your viewpoint. But when you come upon one unexpectedly, it can mean real trouble. 

Exploring under the earth—whatever you call it: caving, spelunking…crazy—just draws some people. My friend and I were two of those people. 

We started out walking. Then we had to crouch a bit. Soon enough, we were crawling on all fours. All of this to find the rumored “crystal cave.”

And always moving on a slight decline. 

In time, the tunnel dimensions grew tight. We were completely flat. We had lost the ability to turn over on our backs. There was only enough ceiling height for us and our gear. 

We eventually found ourselves at a juncture. Left? Right? Like many of life’s choices, the two tunnels bore no sign to indicate the best choice. For no particular reason, we chose the left tunnel. We expected more decline and got excited when the tunnel turned even more downward—until we came to the wall.

Dead end. 

So there we were, one in front of the other, heads down, feet up. At this point, the tunnel was too tight for us to turn around. We hadn't found the crystal cave. We couldn't go forward. We were out of options. 

We just wanted to give up. 

Are you feeling that? The claustrophobia? That sense of failure? No room to maneuver? Nowhere to turn? Stuck between a rock and a hard place?

Tzoros is the Hebrew word for this situation. It's the word for trouble. But not just any run-of-the-mill trouble. It means dire straits, nowhere to turn, between a rock and a hard place, no room to maneuver, out of options, no margin.

That's the word in this week's Psalm 91 passage where God says, "Those who love me…I will be with them in trouble [tzoros].”

More often than not, we don’t see tzoros coming. Whether we expect it or are caught off guard, what a difference it makes to not be alone! My friend and I were able to discuss our situation, cheer each other up, and crawl backward to that earlier junction. It took a little longer, but our wrong turn helped us know which was the right turn. And taking that other tunnel led us to the crystal cave (which was breathtakingly beautiful and well worth all the trouble). 

In “Traveling Mercies,” Anne Lamott writes: "This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we're most sure that love can't conquer all, it seems to anyway. It goes down into the rat hole with us…and there it swells and comforts. It gives us second winds, third winds, hundredth winds." 

That is God's response to no margin, to dire straits, to "out of options," to trouble so bad it needs a special word to describe it. God knows when we are in tzoros and will be with us in it. God goes down into it with us. God meets us at the dead end—even if we’ve been there before! 

No matter how much tzoros, God's expansive (and expanding) love truly can conquer all.

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PHOTO: Photoshop Express 

 

Though not to everyone’s liking, Anne’s book turned out to be something I needed. It might be the same for you. Here’s the Goodreads link to Anne Lamott’s “Traveling Mercies.” 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10890.Traveling_Mercies?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=xdAjaO4iVE&rank=1

NOTE: Even though I used Psalm 91 in this week's reflection, you should read all of this week’s scriptures. This is one of those weeks when they all revolve around the same topics: choosing to occupy a reality governed by God, doing the things that really matter, thinking differently about our lives because there is a really good reason for it all.

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Join us Friday morning for DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast. We meet at 8:00 on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place restaurant for an interesting hour of food, scripture, and fellowship. 

Picks and shovels must be checked at the door.

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=384&z=p&d=77

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper21.pdf

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

Psalm 91:1-6, 14-16

Amos 6:1a, 4-7

Psalm 146

1 Timothy 6:6-19

Luke 16:19-31

Proper 21 (26) (September 28, 2025)

What I Learned Digging a Ditch (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

I had a generous weekly allowance when I started high school. It covered school lunches and more. Then one day, the school raised the price for lunch—taking all of my allowance. 

 

In the midst of this, I heard an announcement on the school PA system: A boy was needed to do some manual labor on Saturday. I hurried to the office. I wanted that job. I was motivated by my need for money, and I really didn’t much care what I had to do. 

 

As it turned out, the job was digging a ditch.

 

Those who have dug ditches will agree, I believe, that it is not usually a complicated enterprise. You move earth from one place to another place. There is another fairly universal truth about ditch digging: Unless you have access to some sophisticated equipment, it's hard work!  

 

Let me spare you the hour-by-hour description of my first time to dig a ditch. It was not a great experience—not for me, not for my employer, and not for the ditch. 

But at the end of that very long, hot Saturday—literally, the end of the day—there was a ditch. 

 

And I got paid what I was promised. 

 

The experience was uncomplicated, but taxing. Simple to understand, but a real challenge to accomplish. Our spiritual walk is much the same. Don’t be fooled by those who tell you different: It is not complicated. This week’s 1 Timothy passage tells us God and Jesus want us to pray: for everyone—especially for rulers and governments—so we can quietly go about living our lives in peace and humility.

 

Not complicated.  

 

Yet, something like that can be very challenging. Praying for people with whom we disagree, people we don't trust, people we don't like, even people we didn't vote for: That's hard to do. It helps, from time to time, to stop and recognize that all we are asked to do are simple things—simple things like hear, believe, repent, rejoice, walk, wait, stand.

 

And pray. 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express and Photoshop Express 

Louis Sachar’s novel “Holes” is also a film. See what happens when several teens have to dig! Here’s the Internet Movie Database entry:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

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Friday mornings at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast are special. Starting at 8:00, we take an hour to eat, pray, read scripture, and engage in some fascinating discussions. We meet on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. You should join us. 

 

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=384&z=p&d=76

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper20.pdf

 

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

Psalm 79:1-9

Amos 8:4-7

Psalm 113

1 Timothy 2:1-7

Luke 16:1-13

Proper 20 (25) (September 21, 2025)

Kissing Frogs and Missing Princes (a Steve Orr Bible reflection)

In a scene in the film Jesse Stone: Lost in Paradise, Police Chief Stone (Tom Selleck) wants to mend a relationship with a woman he previously upset. But she’s frosty. She’s “kissed a few frogs” in her day and wonders aloud if he is one. When he offers to make it up to her “over a cup of coffee,” she quotes Mark Twain: “There's nothing to be learned from the second kick of a mule.”

 

You’ll need to watch the movie for the full effect, and for the resolution. In romance, it is our hope people will finally find what they’ve been looking for. We always want conflicts to resolve. But experience can be a cruel teacher, and some of us are slow to learn. 

 

That seems to be a running theme in this week’s Exodus and Jeremiah passages. God’s people were supposed to be in a committed relationship with God. But they just kept being drawn away to false gods, over and over. Still, you have to wonder: It’s not like they did these things in a vacuum. God kept giving them reasons to know that He was the real deal. He kept showing them that those false gods never delivered—that, at best, they were just frogs claiming kisses would make them princes. 

 

God’s people spent a lot of years “kissing frogs.” In fact, they kissed frogs for so long, they came to believe that was how things were supposed to be. 

 

Hopefully, we can read the Exodus and Jeremiah passages and learn their lessons. There’s no need to subject ourselves to a bunch of lies and liars trying to take God’s place in our lives. We should also be able to lean into what Jesus teaches in the Luke passage and the example of the Apostle Paul in the 1 Timothy passage. 

 

Because, after all, there really is nothing new to learn in the second kick of a mule. 

 

 

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PHOTO: Adobe Express and Photoshop Express 

 

“Stop Kissing Frogs!” (a short how-to article by Stephen White about focusing on what really matters): 

https://competitiveedgecoaching.com/stop-kissing-frogs/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CStop%2520kissing%2520frogs%E2%80%9D.,that%2520are%2520toxic%2520or%2520unproductive.

 

 

 

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DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast meets Friday morning on Zoom** and in person at Our Breakfast Place. The hour starts at 8:00. Join us for food, fellowship, scripture, and a robust exchange of ideas. Plus, there’s always a high chance of some possibly inappropriate laughter..

 

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=384&z=p&d=75

 

Print them here:

https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/Cx_Proper19.pdf

 

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28

Psalm 14

Exodus 32:7-14

Psalm 51:1-10

1 Timothy 1:12-17

Luke 15:1-10

Proper 19 (24) (September 14, 2025)