What sustains your spirit through hard times? What (or who) helps you listen for the Inward Christ to guide your work?  How do you find the time to practice listening with the inner ear, seeing with the inner eye that is central to seeing beneath the surface of the chaos around you?

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’

Toward whose experience do the words of Psalm 27 draw my attention? How do these words capture what they are facing? How do the words of Psalm 27 communicate my own experience? Why does it feel like things are not okay and not going to be okay, if that’s how it feels? Why does it feel like things are going to be okay, if that’s how it feels?

What meaning and guidance am I finding in this scripture, today? What is Jesus going through in the wilderness? What is his struggle? What does Jesus critique and affirm as he resists these temptations? What temptations should I resist? Why?

Tori is a writer, speaker, educator, and activist. She is the creator of White Homework which is a curriculum designed to help people create their own personalized antiracism plan. The courses were developed as a response to the hundreds of requests she got from individuals asking, “I don’t want to be racist, but what do I DO?” Prior to this, she worked in higher ed, doing recruitment for Underrepresented Minorities in STEM. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.

27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.