silence

Opening Prayer: For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. (Psalm 62:1, ESV)

Scripture: Psalm 62:5

Journal: What role does silence play in your life with God?  How do you incorporate it into your daily rhythm?  What does it do for/in your soul?

Reflection:

          silence

a soul in silence

is like a flower blooming

becoming fully alive

becoming fully itself

in beauty and in truth

reflecting the delight

from whence it came

Prayer

Closing Prayer: For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is in him. (Psalm 62:5, ESV)

leaving jesus behind

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive us when we charge off in a direction and invite you to join us, rather than listening to your voice and following the leading of your Spirit.  This life is about following you, not about you following us.  Lord, have mercy.  Amen.

Scripture: Luke 2:41-50

Journal: How and where are you leaving Jesus behind these days?  Is he setting the agenda and the direction, or are you?  What would it look like to follow his leading?

Reflection: We are people on a mission.  Which, for the most part, is a really great thing.  The problem comes when we charge ahead with our plans and agendas and leave Jesus behind.  And we are usually a good bit down the road before we even discover that he is missing.  If it wasn’t so tragic, it would be comical.

Life with God always starts with stopping.  We have to stop, look, and listen.  We have to allow God to be the one to set the direction, the tone, and the agenda.  Otherwise, we are not really following him at all, we are just following ourselves.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to never leave you behind

the light

Opening Prayer:  O Jesus, Light of the World, shine your light this day, both in and through me.  Otherwise, there is no hope of dispelling the darkness within and around me.  Amen.

Scripture: John 1:4-9

Journal: Remember today that you are not the light of the world, Jesus is.  What does that knowledge do within you?  How will you receive, bear witness to, and reflect his light today?

Reflection: “In him was life and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.  He came as a witness concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.” (John 1:4-9)

Jim, 

I am the light of the world, you don’t have to be.  You are not responsible (or able) to eliminate all of the darkness.  You are just responsible to bear witness to my light.  Just try to reflect me, in the same way the moon reflects the light of the sun.  Only as I shine on you, will you be able to shine on others.  Remember that.  Otherwise, it will be easy for you to get overwhelmed and exhausted.

Love,

Jesus

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, without your light, there is no light.  Help me to always remember that.  Shine your light upon my heart, and throughout my life, this day.  Amen.

taking off and putting on

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to become more like you every day: I can’t do it on my own.  Give me the strength and the grace and the courage to “take off” and “put on” whatever is necessary to mold me into your image.  Amen.

Scripture: Colossians 3:5-14

Journal: What does Jesus want to help you take off?  What does he want to help you put on?  Will you let him?

Reflection:

Me: Lord, is life with you really as simple as taking some things off and putting other things on?  Is it really that easy?

Jesus: Simple, yes.  Easy, no.  In fact, it’s downright impossible without my help.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to do the things I need to do, in order to be the one you created me to be.  Only you can help me to do and be that.  Amen.

every single day

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, life with you doesn’t just happen by chance.  Help me intentional every day about how and where and when I will make space for you to speak and work and act.  Amen.

Scripture: Hebrews 4:7

Journal: How are you making time and space today to rest in God’s presence, listen to his voice, and be led by his Spirit?  What is he saying to you?  How will you make time and space for him tomorrow…and the next day?

Reflection:

every single day

the key to life in Jesus

is to relentlessly make

time and space

for him to speak

and move

and act

every. single. day.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, what do you want to say to me today?  I’ll shut up and listen.

becoming

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, please remind me that my becoming is not by happenstance; it takes place through relentlessly making time and space for you.  You are the source of my becoming, but my cooperation is required.  Thus, it takes both attention and intention.  It takes arranging my life, and my days, in certain ways.  Lord Jesus, help me to make time and space for you today…and tomorrow…and the next day.  Amen.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Journal: What is your becoming at the mercy of these days?  What would it look like to be more thoughtful and intentional about it?  How does God want you to arrange your life so that he might begin to form his life in you?

Reflection:

     take charge

take charge

of your becoming

stop giving the world

so much power over you

give time and space to God

let him control the narrative

he alone knows who

you were meant to be

and he will gladly tell you

if you will just listen

Pray

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to not allow my life to be at the mercy of mood, whim, and circumstance, but help me to arrange it in such a way that it makes time and space for you to move and work and act within me.  Amen.

beauty and tragedy

Opening Prayer: There is a dying, O Lord, that is good and beautiful, and one that is sad and tragic.  Help me to know the difference between the two.

Scripture: Colossians 3:5-14

Journal: What needs to die within you, so that something beautiful may be born?  And what beautiful thing within you needs to be nurtured so that it will not die from neglect?

Reflection: “The tragedy of life is not in the fact of death, but in what dies inside us while we live.” ~Norman Cousins

     beauty and tragedy

there is a dying

that is good and beautiful

that brings God joy and delight

it makes good space within us

for something new to be born

and there is a dying

that is sad and tragic

that breaks God’s heart

when we fail to pay attention

to what is good and beautiful within

and it dies from neglect

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me to pay careful attention to the things that are good and beautiful within me, so that they do not shrivel up and die out of inattention and neglect.  Amen.

the spiritual value of fragility

Opening Prayer: Forgive me, Lord Jesus, for always trying to operate out of my strength, rather than allowing others to see my fragility.  Give me the courage and the strength and the grace to operate out of my weaknesses, so that others might be able to see your power in and through me.  Amen.

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Journal: What do you typically do with your weakness and fragility?  How is your fragility an opportunity for God to show his strength and power?  Will you allow yourself to be weak so that his power can be made perfect in and through you?  How?

Reflection: If it is true that the power of Jesus is made perfect in weakness, then why on earth do I constantly expend so much energy trying desperately to not be seen as weak?  Weakness and fragility are not the enemy of the spiritual life, but its friend.  They are not things to be avoided at all cost, but things to be embraced, even pursued.  They challenge our pride, our independence, and our self-sufficiency; all of which are all enemies of the life of the Spirit.  And they produce humility, dependence, and trust—which provide the most fertile soil possible for spiritual growth and maturity.

So why do I attempt to hide my weaknesses and vulnerabilities at all cost?  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, my adequacy is in you, not in myself.  The sooner I learn that, the better off I will be.  And the more valuable I will be to your work and your kingdom. 

groaning as a spiritual practice

Opening Prayer: Lord God, teach me how to groan without falling into grumbling.  For groaning holds tightly to an unshakeable confidence in your goodness and an undying communion with your presence, while grumbling is filled only with bitterness, complaint, and accusation.  Help me to join you as you groan, both for and with me.  Amen.

Scripture: Romans 8:18-27

Journal: What are you more prone to, groaning or grumbling?  Why?  Where and how are you groaning these days?  Do you sense God’s presence and companionship in that?  And where in your life are you grumbling?  How is that separating you from God and isolating you from others?  How can you turn grumbling into groaning?

Reflection: Contrary to popular opinion, there is great spiritual value in groaning.  In fact, groaning is a discipline and a practice that we all should become well-versed in.  There is a lot of groaning in this life.  The world is not at all what it was intended to be, and that can either drive us crazy, or it can drive us to God.  It can make us frustrated and angry and bitter, or it can make us open and dependent and hopeful.  It can create distance from God, or it can create intimacy with him, it all depends on how we respond.

Groaning is a response to suffering and pain that holds tightly to an unshakeable confidence in God’s goodness and love.  It is a spiritual practice that deepens us and grows us, and can even arouse the Spirit of God within us.  Groaning can be kind of like spiritual contractions that make a way for something new and beautiful to be born in and through us.

Paul tells us that groaning is something that creation does, something that we do, and something that even the Spirit of God does. (Rom. 8:18-27)  Therefore, groaning is not just something to be endured, but something to be embraced.  It is an invitation into deeper union with God, as he groans with and for us.  Groaning creates depth and intimacy, if we do not let it devolve into grumbling.  That’s where we often get into trouble.

Groaning and grumbling are very different.  While groaning is a way of communing with God in the midst of our brokenness and pain, grumbling is the complete opposite.  Grumbling is an accusation against God. (Exodus 16:2-3)  Grumbling originates from a place within us that, because of our circumstances, refuses to truly believe that God is good.  Thus, grumbling, by its very nature, separates while groaning connects. 

The reality is that we are going to do one or the other, it is up to us which.  We can learn how to groan, or we can wallow around in our grumbling.  We can hold fast to God’s goodness and his love, or we can be full of doubt and despair.  For if we never learn how to groan, grumbling is all that’s left.  And it just goes downhill from there.

So which will it be?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Spirit of God, that you groan with and for me.  And thank you that even in those moments when my pain and sorrow is so overwhelming that I cannot pray, that you pray for me to the Father.  Pray for me this day, O Spirit, for in so many ways, I do not even know what or how to pray.  Amen.