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Morning Meditation
July 14, 2025
Deuteronomy 30:9-14
Moses said to the people of Israel, "The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Meditation predicate
“Michael O’Sullivan was my great friend. But I don’t ever remember telling him that. The words spoken at a funeral are spoken to late for the man who is dead. What a wonderful thing it would be to visit your own funeral. To sit at the front and hear what was said. Maybe to say a few things yourself.” Jackie O’Shea’s “eulogy” for Michael O’Sullivan who is sitting in the front row at Ned Devine’s funeral in the movie Waking Ned Devine.
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
Moses articulates to the people of Israel that they will be prosperous in all their undertakings. Presumably Moses would articulate the same for us today as our faith sustains our prosperity. But I don’t think God is sending us a message about the material or financial prosperity of our lives. Rather he is talking about the abundance of God’s grace that we create through our relationships.
Waking Ned Devine is one of my favorite movies. It is alternately comic and sentimental. The premise is that Ned Devine wins 6.8 million pounds in the Irish Sweepstakes, and he dies from shock watching his score on television. Jackie O’Shea and Michael O’Sullivan create an elaborate hoax in which their 50 fellow villagers conspire to convince the Lotto agent that Ned is alive and well and ergo eligible for his winnings. When the Lotto agent visits Tullymore, Michael O’Sullivan impersonates Ned Devine.
The plot journeys through a series of pratfalls and happenstance jinxes. Initially Jackie O’Shea intends to keep the winning for himself. But then Ned Devine appears in a dream, which Jackie interprets to mean he must share the winnings with the village. The villagers must convince the Lotto man that Michael O’Sullivan is Ned Devine. The plan almost falls apart when, unannounced, the Lotto man shows up at the real Ned Devine’s funeral just as Jackie is about to start his tribute to Ned. Jackie cleverly shifts gears and eulogizes Michael, who is sitting in the front row. The villagers go along, the Lotto man confirms Michael as Ned, and they collectively acquire 6.8 million pounds. Split equally they land a more modest 134,000 pounds. But it’s not the winnings that matter. It’s the love and friendships shared among the villagers, the genuine affection and the comprises they make to live with one another in their remote island village.
My father died in April. He was 85, had struggled with Parkinson’s for 6 years, and led a long productive life in the Lehigh Valley. He entered hospice in November and held his own through March. As his death approached Conor and Charlie each wrote him a letter. The letters relayed to him the half dozen or so things each of them would most remember about their Uppaw and Grandmom, who passed away in 2016. Like everybody, my dad couldn’t attend his own funeral. But he could read the memories two of the most important people in his life would carry. Those memories reflected my parents’ grace, and they reflected God’s love amidst my parents and C&C.
When talking to me about how to lead a good life, my mom would say, “Remember Glenn, there’s never been a hearse with a U-Haul behind it.” My mom’s point was self-evident: stuff doesn’t matter, God calls us to prosper in relationships. Build relationships and your grace will go beyond you. Ironically, genuine abundance, God’s abundance that survives us, can be found in those whose lives we touch and even more in those whose lives we shape.
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