moving downward, thursday

Thursday, July 24

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

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, give us the grace and the strength and the courage to follow your invitation downward—to the place where there is only you and nothing else.  In your name and for your sake we pray.  Amen.

Scripture Reading for the Day: Psalm 103:8-19

Reading for Reflection: 

 

     As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. Psalm 103:14-15

     I've been thinking a lot lately about the spiritual value of being forgotten, and how forgotten creates some of the most fertile soil possible for the life of God's Spirit to grow within us.  It is the soil of humility, and dependence, and trust.  In fact, it is soil that is so fertile that fruit just seems to spring abundantly into being from within it.  So much so that it is a wonder I still resist it at almost every turn. Why is that?  It would seem that because of its fecundity I would want to dwell in the soil of forgotten as often and as long as possible; but of course the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, my default mode is to run away from it rather than embrace it; even though the chief fruit of forgotten is something that my heart most deeply desires—freedom. 

     Freedom grows abundantly in the soil of forgotten, if we are willing to take up its invitation to do a wonderful work within us, rather than allow it to be a source of angst, or insecurity, or fear.  Forgotten, when embraced, brings about freedom; both freedom from and freedom to. Freedom from having to prove myself. Freedom from trying to make a name for myself. Freedom from jockeying for position. Freedom from having to matter. Freedom from having to be the point. Which results in freedom to love God. Freedom to belong only to Him. Freedom to serve Him completely. Freedom to genuinely love people without needing anything from them in return. So not only does forgotten produce significant fruit within me, it also is incredibly fruitful for the Kingdom.  Therefore, maybe forgotten is not something to simply embrace, but something to actually pursue.

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands...Isaiah 49:15-16

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

            

Closing Prayer:

You love those with a heart for the poor

For the helpless, for those with no escape.

You love those who shamelessly and fearlessly,

And sometimes fearfully,

Go back to be with those who suffer.

You love those whose lives are forfeit to servitude

Of the needy, the unknown;

Those who by going back become unknown themselves.

You love those who whisper your affections in the shadows

To those who are hidden, who no one else cares for.

You ask us to proclaim your desires to the broken,

In the places devoid of reward or compensation;

In the places where no trophies are earned.

And because you first called us

Out of our own filth and brokenness and because of vast heart change,

We jump at the chance.

I’m willing to be unknown for You.

                                                ~Tim Branch

                                                February 5, 2011