Monday Manna - Abiding in the Golden Tempo

Rev. T.J. Lucas

What Is Manna Monday?

Each week after Sunday's message, this is your invitation to keep the conversation going between you and God. Like manna in the wilderness, it comes one day at a time — a brief recap of where we've been and a gentle nudge toward where we're headed. The practice of Dwelling in the Word isn't Bible study. It's something quieter and more personal. It's showing up to the same passage each day and listening for what God might be saying specifically to you.

Sermon Summary:

Yesterday's sermon was illustrated heavily off of the historical 152nd Kentucky Derby win by a horse named Golden Tempo — a 23-to-1 longshot that nobody was talking about. He stumbled coming out of the gate and fell to dead last. And then, when it looked like the race was already over, he came from the back of the pack and won. Scripture does tell us in the kingdom of God that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

So many stories from this win were relatable--for those around the last supper table on the edge of the unknown and for us in our modern daily lives where the ground feels like it is constantly shifting.

Maybe you've been faithful for years and it still hasn't produced what you believed it would. Maybe you've watched other people surge ahead while you're still somewhere in the middle of the pack wondering if you misread God entirely. Maybe you've been pouring into something — a calling, a relationship, a dream — and the silence has started to feel less like patience and more like abandonment.

Jesus spoke directly into that feeling in John 14. The disciples were convinced they were about to be left behind. They had given up everything, and now the one they followed was telling them he was leaving. And what he said to them — what he is saying to you right now — is simply this: I am not leaving you without help. The Spirit I am sending isn't going to check in on you from a distance. He is going to move in. Stay. Abide in you through every season that feels like it's going nowhere.

Golden Tempo's trainer had seasons where she felt like s he was going no where. We all do at times. Cherie DeVaux spent fourteen years doing excellent work in someone else's barn before she ever trained a horse of her own. When she finally went out on her own, her first eleven months brought her not a single win. Not one. She thought about quitting but God is faithful and put a partner in her life that advised her to give it three more years. So instead of quitting, she stuck with it and last Saturday she became the first woman in 152 years to win the Kentucky Derby as a trainer. The fourteen years weren't wasted. They were the whole point.

Jose Ortiz, the jockey of Golden Tempo, had run eleven Kentucky Derbies without a win — following in the shadow of his older brother Irad who was also a jockey. Jose was always in the pack watching someone else's moment arrive before his. However, he rode patient. He rode faithful. And in the final stretch of race number twelve, he pushed at exactly the right moment to gain the win.

Then finally we have the horse, marked with a cross upon his face that was known as a "lazy" horse. He was not lazy, he just had his own pace and needed people to work with him that knew how to let the horse run it's own race to the win and that is exactly what happened.

So Beloved, you are not behind. You are being prepared and you are annointed with the cross too. The Spirit that Jesus promised is not watching your life from a distance — he is in you, sustaining a rhythm that the odds boards cannot measure and the world cannot see.

Find your own Golden Tempo. Trust the pace. Your moment is coming too.

Dwelling in the Word

Seventh Sunday of Easter | May 17, 2026

This week's scriptures pick up right where Sunday left off — what happens after the resurrection, after the promise, when Jesus is gone and the disciples are left standing there looking at the sky. Dwell with these passages this week and let them speak to wherever you actually are — especially if you're still waiting, still in the middle of the pack, still learning to trust what you can't yet see.

Instructions

Set aside a regular time and place during your week where you can sit quietly with God's Word. It does not need to be long, but it should be intentional. Choose a space where you can slow down and give the text your attention.

Read the passage slowly — once quietly, then once aloud. Pay attention to the word, phrase, or image that stands out. Sit with it. Write it down.

Ask yourself:

- What word or phrase is drawing my attention?

- What is bubbling up in me as I sit with it?

- Why might this part of the passage be standing out today?

Return to the same passage each day and notice what changes. The goal is not to master the text, but to let the Word dwell in you.

Scriptures

Acts 1:1–11 — Jesus ascends, and the disciples are left standing there, staring at the sky, being sent into something they can't yet see

Psalm 47 or Psalm 93 — A song for when you need to remember that God is sovereign over every outcome, every race, every season

Ephesians 1:15–23 — A prayer that you would actually know — deep in your bones — the hope you were called to and the power already at work in you

Luke 24:44–53 — Jesus opens their minds, blesses them, and leaves — and somehow they go home with great joy

Prayer

God, thank You for not leaving us on our own. Thank You for a Spirit who doesn't just visit — who stays. As we sit with Your Word this week, speak to the places in us that are tired of waiting, tired of being faithful without seeing results, tired of watching everyone else's moment arrive. Remind us that You haven't forgotten us. That the preparation was never wasted. And that when the moment comes, You'll be the one who carries us across the line. In Jesus' name. Amen.