they didn't realize

Opening Prayer: Get my attention this day, Lord Jesus, otherwise I am likely to leave you on the shore of my life unrecognized.

Scripture: John 21:4

Journal: What is God trying to say to you through this short verse today?  How are you like the disciples?

Reflection: “Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.” (John 21:4)

Apparently, it was difficult to recognize the risen Christ, just ask Peter and John, or Mary, or the travelers on the road to Emmaus.  I wonder why that was.  Was it something about him or something about them that kept the realization from happening?  Or maybe it was just the situation.  Maybe it was the early morning sunlight, or their preoccupation with trying to haul in a catch of fish, or their frustration with not being able to do so.  Maybe it was the grief and sadness and confusion of having lost their dear friend and teacher and leader.  After all, Mary came to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus, and what she found was a Jesus more alive than he had ever been.  That would have been a surprise to anyone. 

The real question is not about them but about me.  How many times in my life have I failed to realize it was Jesus?  After all, he has been there all along, but I have failed to recognize it.  And where am I currently failing to recognize that it is Jesus?  Where and how is he standing on the shore of my life, just waiting for me to finally realize that it is him?

Pray

Closing Prayer: Give me eyes to see you, Lord Jesus, and a heart to recognize you in the midst of the events and interactions and conversations of my day.

good friday: the one who stayed

Opening Prayer: On this Good Friday, Lord Jesus, help me to stay at the foot of the cross and watch and listen to all that you have for me there.  Help me look deeply into your eyes of love and be forever changed. 

Scripture: John 19:28-37

Journal: Why do you think John stayed at the foot of the cross why all of the others scattered?  Will you stay at the foot of the cross today?  Will you look into the battered face of Love and let it seize your heart and change your life?  What does it look like for you to stay with him?

Reflection: “The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true.  He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. (John 19:35)

O John, why did you stay?  Why did you stay to the bitter end?  Why did you stay until his dying breath, when all the others had fled?  Was it because of love?  Was it because you knew that love is stronger than fear?  Was it because you knew that perfect love casts out fear?

Teach me how to stay as well.  Teach me how to believe in love.  Teach me how to dwell in the house of love rather than the house of fear.  Teach me to look deeply into the eyes of Love and glean all that there is to glean from its delicious and delightful fruit.  Teach me to stand when I’m tempted to run away, teach me to stop when I am always on the go, teach me to listen when I am constantly speaking, and teach me to believe that perfect love always has ahold of me even when I am filled with fear and doubt.  Only then will I know what you know.  Only then will I know that I, too, am the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Pray

Closing Prayer: “Fix your eyes on the Crucified and nothing else will be of much importance to you.  If his Majesty revealed his love to us by doing and suffering such amazing things, how can you expect to please him by words alone.” ~St. Teresa of Avila

a prayer for palm sunday

Loving God, on this day we remember that going up to Jerusalem cost Jesus his very life.  So we come before you, conscious of the way religious words and holy phrases can slip so easily from our lazy lips and our hardened hearts.  What do we really know of your mountainous truth, your rock-hard integrity, the depth of your suffering for love of us all?  Forgive us for the shallowness of our faith and the timidity of our following: forgive us for the ready excuses we make for going our own way and claiming it as yours.

Turn us round again, we pray, by your Holy Spirit, active within us and among us.  Show us how to be open again to your faithfulness and to your freedom, that we may live new lives and be again bearers of the seeds of the realm of Jesus.

—Going up to Jerusalem by John Harvey