Sandhya Rani Jha - Liberating Love Daily Devotional: 365 Love Notes from God

Praise for Liberating Love

I am so grateful for a daily devotional that honors both scripture and real life. Jha offers us a real jewel here, a way to root ourselves in The Word while not having to put on some kind of petty piety to do it. This devotional is magically pastoral and realistic. I really cant wait to use it! Nadia Bolz-Weber, New York Times bestselling author

Sandhya Jha has given us a devotional that is at once both comforting and challenging. In these times, we need more than ever to be reminded not only of the unconditional love of Jesus, but of his commandment to love boldly and courageously to bring liberation to all the world. Terri Hord Owens, General Minister and President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Liberating Love by Sandhya Rani Jha is the devotional that so many of us have been waiting to arrive. Through the carefully chosen scripture passages and thoughtful messages of solidarity and kindness in Gods voice, I felt seen, known, and cared for by a God that can often feel far away. There is no sorting through condemning, exclusionary theology or enduring shallow reflections, only the gift of words that affirm that the Divine sees and values my life and accompanies me in my strugglesa gift we can all use as we meet a world of challenges and oppression. Micky ScottBey Jones, the Justice Doula

I love this book. I have plenty of devotionals I have collected during the years. My all-time favorites get a space on my nightstand. This book will surely find a space. Sandhyas writing style is refreshing, inviting, and leaves a lasting impression on ones heart. I highly recommend this book for your nightstand. Sharon Risher, author of For Such a Time as This

Liberating Love: A Daily Devotional is a theological telescope for the soul. Rev. Jha dynamically extends and rearranges lenses to illuminate the kind of light that connects the beloved community with the deeply rooted gifts of scripture. The arc of justice-making and community-building is long. She brilliantly feeds us sustenance for each day as she carefully reminds us of the ways that we are liberated by and for community. Yvonne T. Gilmore, Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago, Reconciliation Ministry

In a world that too often feels like it is plunging into chaos, Sandhya Jhas steady voice calls us back to intimacy with a God who is both capable of shaping a world from the formless void and of holding our broken hearts in tender hands. This lovely book reminds us that God is always seeking to summon us into the joy of a new creation where peace and justice bind us together in a community that finds its home in Gods expansive love. Derek Penwell, author of Outlandish: An Unlikely Messiah, a Messy Ministry, and the Call to Mobilize

In a time when we need more than ever to remember we belong to one another, these beautiful, authentic devotions bring Gods hope for community straight to our hearts. Written with refreshing personal conviction and disarming tenderness, this devotional will set you free and empower you toward a life of love over fear. Sandhya Rani Jha ignites in us both the possibilities and divine presence embedded within as she makes Gods voice accessible and empowering. She pushes us to see all of Scripture as a collective call toward the heartbeat of God, one that steadily beats for those who are forgotten. Arianne Braithwaite Lehn, author of Ash and Starlight: Prayers for the Chaos and Grace of Daily Life

It is time to be still and read Liberating Love: 365 Love Notes From God . You will find new life in Gods love notes written just for you: words of compassion, encouragement, hope, and love. In these poetic, prophetic, and faithful devotions of love you will experience spiritual liberation. The world needs these love notes from God now more than ever. Sarah Griffith Lund, author of Blessed Are the Crazy: Breaking the Silence about Mental Illness, Family, and Church

Copyright

Copyright 2020 by Sandhya Rani Jha

All rights reserved. For permission to reuse content, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA01923, (978) 750-8400, www.copyright.com .

Bible quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Jennifer Pavlovitz

Interior design: Connie H.C. Wang

Photo on back cover: Cindy Manly-Fields

ChalicePress.com

Print: 9780827221963

EPUB: 9780827221970

EPDF: 9780827221987

Contents

Preface

A friend of mine gave me a very popular daily devotional a few years ago to support my commitment to a deeper relationship with Christ. It was very sweet and very personal. The intent of the writer moved me deeply because the writer wanted every person to have a deep individual relationship with Jesus that led them to be a better individual. It was like most devotionals in this wayseemingly apolitical, oriented toward me and Jesus, and a little dose of encouragement for a person of faith dealing with the hardships of being humanand not really oriented toward the creating of Gods kindom here on earth, which is a message that shows up in almost every passage in the Bible but in very little devotional literature.

As I was picking the devotional up to take to the free book table at the nonprofit I run, I found myself thinking, I wish there were a devotional like this for the rest of us...a devotional that connects us not just individually to Jesus but to each other, reminding us that every one of us was made in the image of God. A devotional that respects the scripture enough not to engage it literally, but to actually take it seriously.

And although I was alone in my apartment, I distinctly heard a voice say, Yes. You need to do that.

I received that word just before my father was rushed to the hospital and then ended up dying without ever regaining consciousness. I wrote about a quarter of it at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. It was a gift to stay grounded in the scripture so that I was accompanied during that time and the time after by ancestors who knew hope and promise and grief and loneliness and companionship and hard times and comfort. It was also a gift to write it while surrounded by healers: the doctors and nurses, the cleaning and administrative staff, the chaplain, the woman who signed in visitors to the critical care unit. All were instrumental parts of the whole care process they sought to bring to patients, many of whom would not make it. They all influenced how aware I was of God as Healer while writing this devotional.

I want to acknowledge Pastor Larry Love from the farming community of Woodland, California, who is so committed to church folks understanding that God has ALWAYS sought our best lives and thriving, not JUST in the New Testament, and that God is almost chasing us to make sure we know Gods love. Larry wrote a curriculum called Dash Through the Bible that people from my denomination studied across northern California in 2007. His subtle ways of teaching us to reject the anti-Semitic message that the Bible is about a vengeful Hebrew God of laws and a gentle New Testament God of love helped me reengage the Bible in such a life-giving way. Additionally, the illustrated book Mannah in the Wilderness was introduced to me by Rev. Deb Conrad from Flint, Michigan, when we were working with young adults volunteering with our denomination during the summer of 2016. I loved it so much that I assigned it to my niece as homework when she got in trouble and had to volunteer at my nonprofit the next winter. Finally, part of the theme of this devotional is about how the Bible speaks to us as community over and over. When I needed to do a final edit of this devotional, I couldnt imagine catching all the glitches by reading 366 devotions in a row myself, so I reached out to 11 friends so we could each take one month. My profound thanks to Riana Shaw Robinson, Kristi Laughlin, Yvonne Gilmore, Alan Dicken, Larry Morris, Chesla Nickelson, Jim Mitulski, Tuhina Rasche, Cinthia Kim Hengst, Amy Fourrier, and Gabriel Lopez. It takes a village to understand Gods word, and it took a village to create a devotional. And after all, it took years of wrestling with the text in community for me to begin to attempt something like this. As Riana said to me, this devotion is a gift for community, from community. At its best, that is how we connect with the divine as well: in and through and with one another.