Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2006

Today’s reading

Philippians 1:1-11

“For all of you share in God’s grace with me ... . And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight ... so that on the day of Christ, you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God” (Phil. 1:7, 9-11).

Prayer

The day is drear, O Keeper of the Colors. But your grace remains, vibrant and varied, coloring creation and every life with precision. Each bears particular expression of the love you are and glorifies you by being itself.

Is this the harvest or righteousness we bear, Holy One? Do we glorify you by being that expression that your blessed life is pleased to shape in us through the constellation of histories and inheritances we did not choose? Does the love whom you are yield its harvest by being known in our mortal, fallible lives?

If so, accept my amazement--and my thanks that the life I live may bear something more than the anxieties that stir the idle, foolish and poisonous words that drip from my lips. Thank you that I may yield more in this life than the defensiveness and self-concern that leave so little room in me for anything but me.

I am tired of me. I weary of the drabness of life on my own terms, my days depleted by the same gray fears and worries. I long for colors of your life that lift all constriction and allow me to breathe free. Animate my drear flesh with the vibrance of your love. Complete in me your holy and blessed image, train me for holiness, that the little corner of the world I inhabit may be brighter for the light you are, more gracious for the love that is your nature, brimming with hope in you who leave no promise unfilled.

Glory to you. You are the colors of life beyond measure. You privilege me with the life you are. Accept my morning praise. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller
Dean of the Chapel, Director of Spiritual Formation