return, friday

Friday, February 12

Opening Prayer: Come on, let’s go back to God.  He hurt us, but he’ll heal us.  He hit us hard, but he’ll put us right again.  In a couple of days we’ll feel better.  By the third day he’ll have made us brand-new, alive and on our feet, fit to face him.  We’re ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge.  As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival.  He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground. (Hosea 6:1-3, The Message)

Scripture: Hosea 6:1-11

Journal: How has God torn you, that he might heal you?  How has he struck you down that he might bind you up?  How has he used the circumstances of your life to make you more his own?

Reflection:

it was not invited

and at the time not welcomed

but nonetheless it came calling

bursting through the door

barging into my settled life

turning everything upside down

wounding me to the bone

leaving a deep mark

both upon and within

one that has taken up residence inside

entering my very bloodstream

it will never leave

it is a part of me now

a companion and guide

willing to teach if i am willing to listen

willing to lead if i am willing to follow

life as it was before

has ceased to exist

nothing will ever be the same

it is not bitterness

it is reality

i am forever different

in an incredibly painful

but very good way

thanks be to God

for loving me enough

to wound me

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, O God, that you love us too much to allow us to settle for less than all you dreamt for us to be.  Use whatever means necessary to conform us to the image of your Son.  In his name and for his glory we pray.  Amen. 

return, thrusday

Thursday, February 11

Opening Prayer: O God, Lover of our souls, forgive us when we turn away and chase after people and things that were never intended to fully satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts.  Forgive us, O Lord, and bring us back once again to your arms of mercy and affection.  Amen. 

Scripture: Hosea 2:1-19

Journal: What other lovers do you chase after rather than God?  How is that working for you?

Reflection:

 

     Hosea 2 is such a challenging, convicting, and passionately tender chapter.  It calls me to recognize the ways I have left the Lover of My Soul, and have chased after lovers that can never even begin to satisfy the deepest longings of my heart.  It calls me to name them: affirmation, success, achievement, significance, security, recognition, esteem—and on and on and on.  And it invites me to recognize them and call them the cheap hookers that they really are.  It urges me to repent, to turn, to stop chasing after these sorry substitutes and turn back to the One who knows me like no other and loves me like no other.  It asks me to leave their flimsy, glittering arms and return the arms of him who can hold me like no other, who made me uniquely and wonderfully for deep intimacy with himself.  It forces me to answer the question, "Are you chasing lovers, or are you chasing me?"

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, my God, what false lovers do I continually chase after for my food and my water; for my security and my significance; for my value and my worth; for affirmation and identity?  Help me to recognize the fact that when I chase after these lovers, I have left you, my One True Love.  Allure me now, O Lover-God, betroth me to yourself.  Ravish me with your passionate love and capture my heart completely.  Make it wholly yours, that I may chase only after you all the days of my life.  Amen.  

ash wednesday

February 10 (Ash Wednesday)

Opening Prayer: Gracious God, today begins a period of inner reflection and examination. The days stretch before me and invite me inward to that silent, holy space that holds your Spirit. This special time beckons me to see my life through Christ's eyes and the truth and reality of your love incarnate. Give me the grace to enter the space of these days with anticipation of our meeting. And, when I open my soul to your presence, let your loving kindness flow over me and seep into the pockets of my heart. I ask this for the sake of your love.

Scripture: Joel 2:12-17

Journal: What do the words of the Scriptures today do in you?  What does returning to God mean to you today?  What does it mean to you this season?  What do you need to leave behind?

Reflection:

 

     In Christian tradition, one of the most solemn days of the church year is Ash Wednesday, when believers enter a season of preparation for Easter by confronting their own mortality.  That this season lasts forty days is no mistake.  Those who follow Jesus are meant to follow him into the wilderness, where they too may be tested. 

     For me, at least, the peak of the service comes when the priest invites the congregation forward to the altar rail to receive ashes on our foreheads.  Those of us who have done it before know that we are being invited to our own funerals.  Kneeling shoulder to shoulder at the rail, we wait our turn, hearing the priest say to others what will soon be said to us.  “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” the priest says to me, making the sign of the cross on my forehead.

     Because she has just dipped her thumb in the cup of ashes, I get the full dose.  Extra ashes fall on the bridge of my nose.  I worry for a moment about how silly I will look when I stand up and turn around.  Then I get the sudden urge to ask for more, to ask for a whole bowl of ashes on my head.  But it is not yet my turn for a whole bowl.  For now, all I get is a taste of death, while there is still time to say please and thank you to the Giver of all life.

     Popular religion focuses so hard on spiritual success that most of us do not know the first thing about the spiritual fruits of failure.  When we fall ill, lose our jobs, wreck our marriages, or alienate our children, most of us are left alone to pick up the pieces.  Even those of us who are ministered to by brave friends can find it hard to shake the shame of getting lost in our lives.  And yet if someone asked us to pinpoint the times in our lives that changed us for the better, a lot of those times would be wilderness times. (An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, as we enter this season of Lent, give us the courage and the strength to fully face both our sinfulness and our great need of your mercy and grace.  May these next days and weeks help us to see the high cost of our sin, and the unfathomable depths of your love.  In your name we pray.  Amen

return, tuesday

Tuesday, February 9

Opening Prayer: O God, our Heavenly Father, help us to come to our senses today and return to you, whatever that may look like.  And when we do, help us find you there to meet us: running, leaping, laughing, hugging, kissing, and celebrating.  It is more than we dare ask or imagine.  Amen. 

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

Journal: In what ways do you need to come home to the Father today?  What do you think his reaction is to you?  Do you dare imagine that it is like the one in Luke 15?  Place yourself inside this story and experience the tender love of the Father.

Reflection:

 

     We all know the story.  A father has two sons.  The younger of the two comes and asks for his share of the inheritance, so the father gives it to him.  The son then proceeds to leave the house for a distant land where he squanders his inheritance on wild living.  When he reaches bottom, in the filth and stink of the pig sty, he finally comes to his senses and returns home, practicing his speech all along the way, hoping his father will have mercy on him and take him back.  But the father had not been angry, in fact, the father had been waiting, watching, hoping, and dreaming of the day he would see his son on the horizon, coming back home.  That's where it gets really good.  That's where we begin to see the depths of the heart of this Father.  Just look at the words.
     While he was still a long way off.  Don’t you love this!  I love it because the son hadn't arrived yet.  The father loved him while he was still a long way off.  In fact, that's where the father met him.  He didn't meet him on the porch, and he didn't meet him inside the house.  He met him out in the field while he was still a long way off.  The son was totally loved and totally accepted by the father.  I don't know about you, but that is a great comfort to me, because I haven't arrived yet either.  I am still a major work in progress too.  I'm still in process.  I'm still on the way.  In many ways I'm still a long way off.  I'm still a mess, yet God the father loves me, accepts me, and meets me right there in the midst of it all.  What a father!
     His father saw him.  I absolutely love this word!  It is more than just a casual seeing.  In fact, this word is used often to describe Jesus' type of seeing.  It means to see into.  It is a seeing that goes far beyond the surface, to the very heart.  We all have such a deep longing to be seen.  I know, I know, we are fearful and hiding most of the time, but, at our core, we really do long to be seen, to be known, to be accepted, and to be loved anyway.  We are so tired of hiding.  We are so tired of trying to make things look okay on the surface.  We know better.  We know what really lies underneath.  But when we keep people on the surface in fear, we will never be truly known.  And we were made to be known.  The amazing thing is that the Father sees us, all the way to the core, and loves us anyway.  He sees us and doesn't run away screaming.  In fact, he does just the opposite.
     He was filled with compassion.  Instead of being repulsed by what he had seen, a deep love welled up in his heart.  The words used here literally mean to be moved from the depths of your being.  When the father saw the son (really saw him), he was deeply moved, from the depths of his heart, with love.  Be really honest here.  How do you think God really looks at you?  When he sees you, what fills his heart?  My honest answers are: disappointment, frustration, sadness, contempt, or, at the very least, indifference.  What about you?  Fill in the blank.  When God sees me he is filled with___________.  The truth is that he is filled with a love that comes from the depths of his heart.  We are loved more deeply than we could ever imagine. 
     He ran.  He what?  Are you kidding me?  God ran?  God ran to me?  He didn't wait.  He didn't make the son come crawling back.  He didn't stay on the porch.  As a matter of fact, he couldn't stay on the porch.  His heart just would not allow it.  His heart would not allow his feet to be still, so he ran.  That's what the whole incarnation is all about, by the way.  God just couldn't stay away.  He desires us so deeply that he runs to us.
     He threw his arms around him.  In spite of the leaving home, in spite of the time in a distant land, in spite of squandering his inheritance, in spite of the fact that the stink of the pig sty was still heavily upon him; he threw his arms around him.  He didn't make him go inside and change his clothes first, he didn't make him take a bath and get cleaned up, he wrapped his arms around him.  We all long to be deeply embraced: warts and all, stink and all, dirt and all.  God longs to wrap his arms around us.
     He kissed him.  And not only did he kiss him, but the words literally mean, he kissed him much.  He smothered him with kisses.  He could not stop kissing him, so deep was his love and affection for his son.  God has deep affection for us.  God longs for intimate and passionate relationship with us.
     So they began to celebrate.  All of us deeply long to be celebrated.  In fact, we long for it so deeply that we will be celebrated somehow by someone.  We will work to make sure it happens, or die trying.  Accomplishments, achievements, reputation, appearance, performance, etc.  Unfortunately, when we seek to have our need to be celebrated satisfied by the world alone, it is like a dog chasing its tail.  It is an endless cycle of need and desire.  It is a bottomless pit.  That is because we are chasing something that only God can give us.  God celebrates you!!!  He is delighted in you!!!  Come home to him, whatever that may look like for you today.  Come home and join in the celebration.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Father, thank you that you ran.  Thank you that your heart was so full of love for our return that you couldn’t get to us quickly enough, you couldn’t keep your hands from our hair, or your lips from our cheeks.  Thank you that that’s the kind of Father you are.  May we find ourselves in your loving embrace today.  Amen.

return, monday

Monday, February 8

Opening Prayer: My God, I lift my face toward you now like a hungry child asking to be fed.  My soul is starved; my flesh yearns for the touch that only you can give.  Come to me, O God, and stay with me; I abandon myself into your hands.  Do with me as you will, and whatever you do with me, I thank you.  I am prepared for anything; I will accept everything so long as your will is accomplished in the totality of my living.

     My God, I give myself to you, placing myself in your hands as a gift of love.  It is necessary for me to give myself to you in confidence and without reserve because I love you, and I know you love me also.

     Reach down inside me now, O God, and change the gears that race and roar.  In place of turmoil give me peace; in place of frenzy give me patience.  Then shall I be more like Jesus, who taught us to make room for you in our hectic days.

     Teach me, God, to make room for you in all the events and affairs of my days.  Then I shall find rest.  Then I will be at peace with myself and with you. (A Guide to Prayer for All Who Seek God by Rueben P. Job and Norman Shawchuck)

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

Journal: How do you need to come to Jesus today?  What yoke will you have to lay aside in order to do that?  What does it mean to take his yoke upon you?

Reflection:

 

     Come to me implies that we have been away from him to begin with.  That we have once again wandered off into our own patterns, agendas, and devices.  That we have taken up burdens that are not ours to carry.  That we are weighed down by fears and doubts and worries that are far too much for us to bear.  That life has, once more, worn us down and worn us out, and we are just about to collapse under that strain of it all.  How are these things true of your right now?  For it is into these very circumstances that Jesus utters this beautiful invitation, and everything within us breathes a deep sigh of relief.  That’s what we have been longing for and hoping for and dreaming of, but we have to be willing to come.  Will we?

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Dear Jesus, during this day help me quiet all the thoughts that fill my head—where I must go, whom I must see, and what I must do.  In their place, give me a sense of your order, your peace, and your time. 

     Help me to understand that you are in control, and I can trust you with my day.  Help me to realize that nothing on my to-do list is important if it is not what you want me to do.

     I give all my tasks to you and trust you to bring order to them.  In these moments, dear Jesus, come to me, be with me, and free me from the tyranny of “to do.” (Quiet Spaces by Patricia F. Wilson)

return, sunday

Sunday, February 7

Opening Prayer: O Lord, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence we shall be strengthened: By your Spirit lift us to Your presence, where we may be still and know that You are God. ~from The Prayer of Quiet Confidence

Scripture: Isaiah 30:15

Journal: How do the words of Isaiah speak to your life or heart today?  Will you embrace them or resist them?  What would it look like to embrace these words of Scripture today?

Reflection:

 

     Years ago a good friend of mine—seeing the busyness and chaos of my life—asked me if I was a human doing or a human being.  “Because I have a suspicion,” he said, “that you were created to be a human being.”  And of course he was right.  Why is it so easy to lose our way in this world, and begin to think that our value and our worth are determined by what we do, rather than by who we are—or rather whose we are?  It is such an easy trap to fall into, which is probably why God felt it necessary to remind us—in these verses in Isaiah—that our salvation and our worth is not dependent on what we do, or on how well we do it.  It is not dependent on how well we perform, what we achieve, or who thinks we’re wonderful.  It is dependent solely on God’s great love and mercy.  Once we remember that truth, and really believe it, then, and only then, do we have a real possibility of moving from human doing to human being.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord Jesus, please turn me from a human doing back into a human being.  For then I will be what you intended for me to be.  Amen.

serve, saturday

Saturday, February 6

Opening Prayer: Loving Father, teach me to love and care for those that need you today.  Those who are passed over and do not feel love unless I love them for you.  May Christ's love for others be felt through me today.  In your name and by your power I pray these things.  Amen. (Disciplines for the Inner Life by Bob Benson)

Scripture: Luke 4:16-21

Journal: What is your response to the Scriptures today?  What is God saying to you?  What is God asking of you?  What is God calling you to?

Reflection:

     Ministry is service in the name of the Lord.  It is bringing the good news to the poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and new sight to the blind, setting the downtrodden free and announcing the Lord’s year of favor (Luke 4:18).  Spirituality is attention to the life of the Spirit in us; it is going out to the desert or up to the mountain to pray; it is standing before the Lord with open heart and open mind; it is crying out, “Abba, Father”; it is contemplating the unspeakable beauty of our loving God.

     We have fallen into the temptation of separating ministry from spirituality, service from prayer.  Our demon says: “we are too busy to pray; we have too many needs to attend to, too many people to respond to, too many wounds to heal.  Prayer is a luxury, something to do during a free hour, a day away from work or on retreat.  The few who are exclusively concerned with prayer—such as Trappists, Poor Clares, and some isolated hermits—are really not involved in ministry.  They are set free for single-minded contemplation and leave Christian service to others.” But to think this way is harmful; harmful for ministers as well as for contemplatives.  Service and prayer can never be separated. (Living Reminder by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

Prayer

Closing Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

     Help me to realize the many voices of hunger, the many sounds of thirst, the many cries of loneliness, the many callings of sickness and nakedness and imprisonment.  Help me to hear in all of them something of You calling to me to become more than I am.  More understanding.  More compassionate.  More involved.  More like You. (Reflections on the Word by Ken Gire)