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Morning Meditation
August 20, 2026
Scripture: Romans 12:10, 12,13, 16
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Excerpt from Desiderata:
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
by Max Ehrmann ©1927
Meditation: by Glenn Beamer
A friend gave me the Desiderata at my William & Mary graduation an unbelievable thirty-eight years ago. Along with Paul’s letter to the Romans, the poem is a commendation to seek and live humbly in Christ’s Peace.
I perceive that many of us are at least concerned about the ubiquity and oftentimes superficiality of social media. When I graduated college if you wanted somebody to read something you couldn’t “Send them a link,” you had to give them a book. Whatever our concerns the internet tide, now compounded by Ai’s tidal wave, is too great to still.
Social media creates an obstacle to living humbly in Jesus’ Peace. Facebook and Instagram posts incite us to share all kinds of life details that were more private during the previous two millennia. Social media can draw us into a never-ending and unfortunately superficial sharing that becomes an obstacle to developing meaningful, more local connections.
Our task is to channel our social media so that it serves as a supplement to how we create God’s peace. This summer my son Conor went to Camp Shohola for his fifth consecutive year. This year Conor became a junior counselor in training. I decided to follow Camp Shohola on the Instagram. Camp Shohola provides Conor with 7 weeks of sports, working outside, and guiding younger boys through their camp experiences – all of which is “Offline.” I was heartened that Conor’s used his restricted airtime to call twice his brother Charlie.
Gleaning my son’s life from Instagram became a gift and a challenge. I was genuinely proud to watch Conor engaging with his fellow campers int sixteen sports and camping different activities. Some of the sports were challenging and some activities were just plain goofy, and they reminded me of my own experiences at Scout Camp forty-plus years ago. I was proud watching Conor work with his younger peers and guide them to have positive experiences in Pennsylvania’s mountains. I was impressed when I Conor joined the 10k running club. I was grateful watching him grow when he didn’t know I was looking.
The challenge of using Instagram is not to fall for the bait – not to slip into a behavior Instagram is programmed to induce. After liking and following “Camp Shohola” I was inundated with entries about all kinds of camps – art camps, religious camps, sports camps – vying for my attention. By the third day I realized I was watching Conor for 15 seconds and “doomscrolling” for 20 minutes.
Doomscrolling can appear beneficial. After all I was watching young people engaged in wholesome activities. Nevertheless, we sit on social media at the expense of connecting with each other in more meaningful ways. The flash of peace we get from our technology explosion is ultimately superficial. If as Paul writes our task is to honor others above ourselves and to practice hospitality, then we must be physically present to one another. We use our abundant communication avenues sparingly and discretely.
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