lilies

Opening Prayer: Still and quiet my soul, O Lord, that I may be like a weaned child with its mother—safe and secure, at peace and at rest.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 131:2; Luke 12:27

Journal: What is causing you to spin inside these days?  What is occupying your soul?  How do you try to still and quiet it?  How is that working for you?  What does it mean for you to really trust God?  Will you?  How will you convince yourself that he is indeed trustworthy?

Reflection: "Like a weaned child is my soul within me." (Psalm 131:2) Don't I wish!  Yet the reality within me tells a different story.  I long for this to be true: to have a stilled and quieted soul, to be like a weaned child, safe in the loving arms of its mother.  But that is simply not my reality most days.  In fact, it's quite the opposite.  Even after praying this line every Friday for almost three years. . .not so much.  My soul is still consumed and chaotic, churning and spinning with all of the worries and concerns of this life that I simply can't seem to let go of.  Oh how I wish I could be like the lilies of the field who do not labor or spin. (Luke 12:27)  But I am not.  Instead my mind and my heart and my soul are like a broken record, constantly playing and replaying conversations and scenarios and circumstances that will probably never even come to pass.  It's maddening.

     But I'll have to admit, that even in the midst of all this spinning, I am still so grateful to have the words of this ancient prayer to offer hope that such a life is indeed possible.  That one day I will be so deeply convinced that God really is both able and willing to care for me, and all of my worries and fears, that I can actually trust him, and simply be, just like the lilies.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, help me to be like the lilies, to neither labor nor spin.  For that is the kind of life you want for me.  One in which all of my trust is in your unfailing love and care.  Amen.