naked, day 7

Come to Stillness:

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

Opening Prayer:
O Lord my God, how I long to recapture the purity and joy of the Garden—when I was able to stand before you (and others) naked and unashamed. That, indeed, is what I was made for. But this side of heaven that is not my reality. My reality is filled with fear and shame; hiding and covering—terrified that I will be exposed, found out, not enough. How I genuinely long for true communion with you; total vulnerability; deep trust—to be fully known and fully loved. Have mercy on me! Amen. (JLB)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 30

Scripture for the Day: Romans 13:8-14

Reading for Reflection:

            The Naked Seed  by C. S. Lewis

 My heart is empty.  All the fountains that should run

     With longing, are in me

Dried up.  In all my countryside there is not one

     That drips to find the sea.

I have no care for anything thy love can grant

     Except the moment’s vain

And hardly noticed filling of the moment’s want

     And to be free from pain.

Oh, thou that art wearying, that dost neither sleep

     Nor slumber, who dist take

All care of Lazarus in the careless tomb, oh keep

     Watch for me till I wake.

If thou think for me what I cannot think, if thou

     Desire for me what I

Cannot desire, my soul’s interior Form, though now

     Deep-buried, will not die,

--No more than the insensible dropp’d seed that grows

     Through winter ripe for birth

Because, while it forgets, the heaven remembering

throws

     Sweet influence still on earth,

--Because the heaven, moved moth-like by thy beauty,

goes

     Still turning round the earth.

(from Pilgrim’s Regress by C. S. Lewis)

 

But our moment of solitude is precisely a moment in which we want to be in the presence of our Lord with empty hands, naked, vulnerable, useless, without much to show, prove, or defend.  That is how we learn to listen to God’s small voice. (Making All Things New by Henri J. M. Nouwen)
 
Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Just As I Am

Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot.
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Just as I am, tho’ tossed about,
With many a conflict, many a doubt,
Fightings within, and fears without,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Just as I am poor, wretched, blind—
Sight, riches, healings of the mind,
Yea, all I need in Thee I find,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.

Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
O yes Thy promise I believe,
O Lamb of God, I come. I come.


Closing Prayer:
Lord Jesus, give me the grace and the strength and the courage to take off that which I use to cover myself; and to clothe myself only and always in you alone. Amen. (JLB)