undone, thursday

Thursday, March 27

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

Opening Prayer: Here, Lord, I abandon myself to you.  I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed.  Now I give it up to you.  Do take entire possession of me.  Work in me all the good pleasure of your will.  Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you.  I leave myself in your hands.  Amen. (The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith)

Scripture for the Day: Hosea 6:1-6

Reading for Reflection:

So now the house [my identity] is in place, shiny and bright.  I have applause and esteem.  They congratulate me for my flexibility and leadership and enthusiasm and what I’ve done and am doing.  But this house of mine is somehow askew: it’s my house, not the Lord’s house.  “In vain do the builders build.”  And yet I know in my heart that each step was taken because it was right and seemed to be the Lord’s way.  Yes, it was, but he had something else in mind for it.

     Then another image rose spontaneously as I walked along.  It was the Lord as an artillery captain who came in front of my fine house dragging his cannon and proceeded deliberately and systematically to shoot the whole damn thing apart.  Story by story, wall by wall, brick by brick he gunned down the house that took me twenty-five years to build until only rubble was left, pieces of masonry on the ground, and I'm standing there with the debris of my life at my feet looking at the ruins.

     The strange thing was this big wide grin on the Lord’s face as he gunned it apart in high glee.  It’s as though he said to me: now watch the top story while I blow it apart.  There!  Now watch the second story: there it goes!  Isn’t that great?  Now watch the back wall: hooray!  Now the side walls, now finally the front and it’s all gone.  Isn’t that marvelous!  And he turned to me with joy and warmth and smiled on me with much encouragement. (A Traveler Toward the Dawn by John Eagan)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

                 
Closing Prayer: O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in trust shall be our strength: by the power of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)