stilled and quieted

Opening Prayer: I have stilled and quieted my soul like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, put your hope in the Lord now and forevermore. (Psalm 131:2-3, NIV)

Scripture: Psalm 131:1-3

Journal: What is the state of your soul these days?  Why?  What would it take to still and calm your soul?  What would you have to believe?  What would you have to do?

Reflection: Wouldn’t it be great if all of our interactions with others came from this “stilled and quieted” place within us, rather than the place of our deepest fears and anxieties and insecurities?  Imagine what a difference it would make in everything if we knew deep down to our core that we were so passionately and completely loved that there was no longer any need to prove ourselves to anyone or anything.  Then we would be like a weaned child with its mother, rather than a restless, demanding, and insecure one.  Then we would rest secure in the loving embrace of our God—finding our hope in him—rather than everything always having to be up to us.  It would be a whole different—and wonderful—way of being.

Pray

Closing Prayer: Help me, O God, to be content and secure in your loving embrace.  For only then will I ever be able to truly love others.  Amen.

absorbed

Opening Prayer: Lord, awaken me, you whose love burns beyond the stars; light the flame of my lantern that I may always burn with love. (A Traveler Toward the Dawn by John Eagan)

Scripture: Romans 13:11-14

Journal: What are you absorbed in these days?  How is it causing you to miss what God is doing?  How are you asleep spiritually?  What would it take to wake up?  Will you?

Reflection: But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about! ~Romans 13:11-14, The Message

     Absorbed.  Ouch!  Hits me right between the eyes.  If I am honest, I have to admit that not a day goes by when it doesn't happen to me.  At some point each day (or multiple points each day) I get so caught up in what's either in front of me, or ahead of me, that I lose touch entirely with God's presence within me, and what he is doing around me.  I don't know that I would have called it dozing off, because it appears so active.  But that's exactly what it is.  It is getting so consumed with myself, and my agenda, that I fall asleep on God.  I get distracted and sidetracked by the things on my list and fail to even ask what might be on his.  I think that's probably the definition of absorbed.
     So how do I combat this tendency?  How do I wake up to God and fall asleep to myself?  How can I be up and awake to what God is doing?  I think the answer is easy; and really hard.  I pay attention.  I begin my day with God and I set alarms within my day that will bring my heart and my soul and my mind back to God in case I fall asleep.  I set something on my phone or I stick something in my car to remind me of his love and his presence.  I plant a word or a phrase or a psalm in my heart and let it take root there for the day.  I remember it every time it comes to mind, and recite it to myself.  I say the words of the ancient prayer and listen for the prayer of God that rises in my heart.  I set concrete times within the day where I will stop and return to him, just as the saints and poets and pilgrims have been doing for centuries.  I frame my day with the prayer; the prayers the Church has been praying since the beginning of time.  For this is not a new problem.
     And if I do all of that then maybe, just maybe, when I lay my head on my pillow at night, I will be able to smile. I will think back and be grateful for an awareness of God's presence and his work that has helped me to align myself more and more with his will rather than just my own.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Most Holy God, wake me up from my soul’s deep slumber and bring my life under your complete control.  By your grace, awaken me daily to the reality of your presence within and around me.  And, by the power of your Spirit, make me responsive to your will and your direction.  Amen.

common prayer

Opening Prayer: Teach us to pray, O Lord.  Show us what it means to have a common life of prayer; one that is practiced in community and not in isolation.  Help us to learn how to lift our voices to you as one.  In the name of Jesus we pray.  Amen.

Scripture: 1 Chronicles 23:1-6

Journal: What does your common life of prayer look like?  What do you think God wants it to look like?  How do you enter into prayer with the rest of God’s people?

Reflection: When we go to prayer in the Psalms we find, often to our surprise, that we have been ushered to a pew in the vigorously rich worship of Israel.  When David organized Israel into a worshipping congregation, thirty-eight thousand Levites were assigned to provide the leadership and support required.  Prayer in Israel was not left up to individuals to do or not do as they more or less felt inclined.  This was a public works project of impressive dimensions.  It was neither private nor peripheral.  Common worship takes precedence over private devotions. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: I will tell of your name to my brothers: in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the Lord, praise him! (Psalm 22:22-23, ESV)

thanks

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  Know that the Lord is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.  For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues to all generations. (Psalm 100:1-5)

So, Psalm 100 is my psalm for the day.  As a matter of fact, it has been my Sunday psalm for a couple of months now.  Little did I know that it would be the Psalm for my birthday.  My 58th, to be exact.  And I can't think of a more appropriate prayer for this day.  My friend Robert always says, before he starts reading a psalm, "Listen to the words of the ancient prayer and listen for the prayer of God that rises in your heart."  Well, this psalm IS the prayer of God that rises in my heart today.  I am so incredibly grateful, so glad.  I'm so grateful for 58 years of life and love.  So grateful for 36 (in August) years of marriage to my best friend and the love of my life!  So grateful for my three incredible (grown) children and my one wonderful daughter-in-law.  So grateful for deep and wonderful friendships.  So grateful for the opportunity to make a living doing the things I love the most.  So grateful for the sweet (and totally undeserved) way that God continues to draw me further and further into his great heart of love.  If all of that doesn't make a person "shout for joy" and "worship the Lord with gladness" nothing will. 

wait

Opening Prayer: Wait for the Lord.  Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14, NIV)

Scripture: Psalm 27:14

Journal: What does it mean for you to wait for the Lord right now?  How is that going?  How are you trying to avoid waiting?  What is actually helping you to wait?

Reflection:

wait

waiting is a funny thing
on the one hand
when we are made to wait
it feels like we are wasting time
but on the other
it is not the wasting of time at all
but the ripening of it

waiting accomplishes something
a hidden agenda
divine purposes
a growing and readying
a preparation for the time
when all will be right
for the unveiling of all
that has been taking place
in the dark and fertile soil
of our becoming

waiting for the Lord
does not mean
trying to figure out
what we can do
while we wait
it just means waiting
thus there is no wait and
only wait alone
when we add the and
we stop waiting altogether

who knows
maybe God is trying
to get us to the end of ourselves
for we typically only wait
as a last resort
after we have
exhausted all other
alternatives

wouldn't it be great
if somehow we learned
to wait first
rather than immediately
spring into action
for if we were to do that
it seems like
we would save ourselves
a lot of wasted motion

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14, ESV)

bothered

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me a heart of compassion this day; one that sees people the way you see them and loves people the way you love them.  Amen.

Scripture: John 11:1-44

Journal: Where do you see pain within or around you?  How do you think God feels about it?  How does he want you to feel about it?  What do you think he wants you to do about it?

Reflection: It is hard to read John 11 and not get the impression—especially when you study the words carefully—that Jesus was bothered.  Oh sure, he was heartbroken.  He was moved to tears by all of the pain and suffering he witnessed around him, especially the sorrow of his dear friends, Mary and Martha.  I believe it was the tears of these beloved sisters than moved him to tears himself.  

     But there is something more going on here.  Jesus was bothered.  You can especially see it in John’s use of the words “deeply moved” in verses 33 and 38.  On the surface they look like nothing but sadness and sorrow, but underneath they communicate much more.  The word used here in the Greek is embrimaomai, which literally means “to snort in indignation.”  Jesus was indignant.  He was not pleased.  He was frustrated.  Or, at the very least, he was really, really bothered.  He was bothered to see his friends in great pain.  And he was bothered again when the some of the onlookers said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

     I guess the real question is: What, exactly, was Jesus bothered by?  Was he bothered by the lack of faith being exhibited around him?  Was he bothered by the way it caused those around him to question the goodness of his heart?  Or was he bothered by the fact that it didn’t have to be this way?  This (a world of death and suffering) was never his intention in the first place.  And, who knows, maybe it was all of the above.  All we do know is that Jesus was bothered.  And you know what?  I’m glad.  Something deep within me wants a God who is bothered by death and suffering and sorrow and pain.  I think that being bothered is a necessary component of compassion.

     You see, compassion is not just pity, or even empathy.  Compassion is to be lovingly bothered.  It is to love someone enough to be deeply affected by their hurt and pain, but also to be bothered enough to do something about it.  To enter in somehow.  Compassion is love in action.  And it is the “bothered” part that keeps us from merely being heartbroken for someone, and moves us to action.  Compassion, as in this case for Jesus, hates the effects of the fall, and moves in the direction of trying to reverse them (with God’s help) whenever possible.  It is not merely being grieved about the world, but also being willing to do something about it.  Jesus was filled with compassion, and wants us to be as well.  What are you bothered about these days?  How has it moved you to  loving action?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, forgive me when I am not bothered by what I see around me and within me.  Thank you that you were bothered; bothered enough to get involved in offering people the healing and the wholeness they desperately needed.  Help me to do the same.  Amen.

from leading to being led

Opening Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I am still so divided.  I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, popularity, pleasure, power, and influence.  Help me to become deaf to those voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.  I know this will be a very hard road for me.  The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life.  I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions.  There are no times and places without choices.  And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.  Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place.  Give me the strength and courage to live my life faithfully, so that I will be able to taste with joy the new life which you have prepared for me.  Amen. (The Road to Daybreak by Henri J.M. Nouwen)

Scripture: John 21:18-19

Journal: Where is Jesus leading you these days?  What is he asking of you?  Where might you be running ahead rather than following him?

Reflection: There is a shift that is necessary in the life of faith.  It is a subtle shift, yet an enormous one.  It typically comes when we have a few years under our belts; when we have seen the limited results of our own efforts.  When we begin to realize that all of the stuff we have been doing in our lives, may not have yielded the fruit, or the results, we had hoped.  When we begin to tire of running around in a million different directions, aimlessly trying to do a million-and–one good things.  

     It is the shift from endless activity, to dependent passivity.  It is the shift from trying to control things, to a willingness to surrender and let go of our own plans and agendas.  It is the shift from initiating to responding, from anticipating to participating, from doing to being.  It is the shift from dressing yourself and going where you want, to stretching out your hands and being led to a place you would rather not go.  It is the shift from leading to being led; and it is a hard one indeed.  

     For the call of Jesus to “Follow me!” does not involve us running ahead of him, but staying behind him.  It does not involve us running around doing a bunch of our own good stuff, but actually stopping to listen to him, so that we can do his stuff.  The only question is: Are we willing to do that?  Will we allow ourselves to be led by him, even if it be to places we’d rather not go?  After all, if we are truly following him, he is the one choosing both the route and the destination, not us.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, give me the courage and the faith to truly follow you, wherever it may lead, whatever it might cost.  Let me give myself fully to your care and your control.  For your glory.  Amen.