becoming bartimaeus

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

Journal: Put on your beggar’s clothes today and slip into the life of Bartimaeus.  What does he have to teach you?  What does he want you to know?  What is Jesus saying to you today through him? 

Reflection:

there is a beggar

inside each of us

dying to get out

longing to be set free

from the illusion of

strength and adequacy

a lowly pauper

waiting to be seen

and acknowledged

yearning to live out of

authentic dependence

neediness and weakness

instead of trying to

fool the world via

autonomy and control

but in order to make the leap

from falsehood to truth

we must be willing to

put on our beggar’s clothes

and allow the deepest cry

of our hearts to be

Lord, have mercy on me

only then do we have

any real hope of finding

genuine transformation

Pray

Closing Prayer: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!

wait for the Lord

Opening Prayer: “For God alone my soul waits in silence.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress; I will not be shaken.”  (Psalm 62:1-2)

Scripture: Psalm 62:1-12

Journal: How does God have you waiting for the Lord these days?  What does that look like?  Are you putting your hope in him?

Reflection: What does it mean to wait for the Lord?  What does it really look like?  And why do we have such a hard time doing it?

As a culture, we’re really not into waiting—for anything.  And when we do it’s usually only because we have no other choice.  And if we’re honest, even when we do try to wait for the Lord, we’re really not waiting for him but for a favorable outcome or a change in circumstance.  Most of the time, our version of waiting for the Lord is just trying to use him to get what we want.  He is not the end, but merely a means to our preferred end.  And anytime we approach God not as the end, but as a means to an end, we’re not really approaching him at all.  We’re only trying to get our way or further our agenda.  And that’s not what waiting for the Lord is at all. 

Waiting for the Lord is just that—waiting for the Lord. Waiting for the Lord is laying aside our plans and schemes and agendas.  It is letting go of autonomy and control.  It is surrendering our wants and needs.  Waiting for the Lord is a refusal to try and manage, maneuver, or manipulate outcomes.  It is standing before God totally empty and fully open, willing to do whatever he asks and to go wherever he leads.  Waiting for the Lord is the determination not to charge ahead until we receive a word from him.

Waiting for the Lord is not just something we do until the Lord shows up.  Waiting for the Lord is God showing up.  It is through waiting for him that we are changed.  We are not waiting for transformation; it is in the waiting that God is transforming us.  We cannot do it ourselves.

Thus, waiting for the Lord involves a total dependence upon God.  It involves the realization that we cannot do things on our own.  For whenever we try to do it on our own, we cease to wait for the Lord.  That’s why the psalm says: “For God alone my soul waits in silence.”

Pray

Closing Prayer: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence; my hope comes from him.” (Psalm 62:5)