following and being led, day 7

Come to Stillness:
Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus,

      I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, popularity, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to those voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life. I know this will be a very hard road for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are no times and places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you. Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and courage to live my life faithfully, so that I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me. Amen. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 77

Scripture for the Day: Mark 1:14-20

Reading for Reflection:

 

                     The One Who Stayed

You should have heard the old men cry,

You should have heard the biddies

When that sad stranger raised his flute

And piped away the kiddies.

Katy, Tommy, Meg and Bob

Followed, skipping gaily,

Red-haired Ruth, my brother Rob,

And little crippled Bailey,

John and Nils and Cousin Claire,

Dancin’, spinnin’, turnin’

‘Cross the hills to God knows where-

They never came returnin’.

‘Cross the hills to God knows where

The piper pranced, a leadin’

Each child in Hamlin Town but me,

And I stayed home unheedin’.

My papa says that I was blest

For if that music found me,

I’d be witch-cast like all the rest.

This town grows old around me.

I cannot say I did not hear

That sound so haunting hollow-

I heard, I heard, I heard it clear…

I was afraid to follow.

            (Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

 

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

 

Song for the Week: He Leadth Me

 

He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

Refrain:
He leadeth me, He leadeth me,
By His own hand He leadeth me;
His faithful foll’wer I would be,
For by His hand He leadeth me.

 

Sometimes ’mid scenes of deepest gloom,
Sometimes where Eden’s bowers bloom,
By waters still, o’er troubled sea,
Still ’tis His hand that leadeth me.

 

Lord, I would place my hand in Thine,
Nor ever murmur nor repine;
Content, whatever lot I see,
Since ’tis my God that leadeth me.

 

And when my task on earth is done,
When by Thy grace the vict’ry’s won,
E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
Since God through Jordan leadeth me.

 

Closing Prayer:
Drive far from us all wrong desires and incline our hearts to keep Your ways: Grant that having cheerfully done Your will this day, we may, when night comes rejoice and give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (The Book of Common Worship)