Friday, March 9, 2007

Today’s text

1 John 2:12-14

“I am writing to you little children, because your sins are forgiven on account of his name. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have conquered the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who was from the beginning. I write to you young, people, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one” (1 John 2:12-14).

Prayer

What is this joy that bubbles from source unseen? What is this buoyancy in which I bob atop restless waves that are powerless now, to drag me to the depths? What is this consolation lifting me above the daily struggle to claim the day as a place of grace?

There is no need for the struggle this morning. The war is done and won, and you have carried the day by some process beyond my perception or understanding. There is just this joy in the morning that flows from the simple awareness that you abide, Eternal One, and abide in me. The evil that disfigures life, undermining the vitality and vibrancy of just being alive is no where in sight. It has fled the field of my soul.

For I know you who are from the beginning. Ask me what I know, and I can only answer, ‘not much.’ My knowledge is poor in concept, poorer still in content. It is but simple awareness of a mystery on which I would bet my life, and have. It is loving awareness of Love Abiding. May I name you this way? It seems fitting.

You abide. Amid the daily and the drab, the demands and destruction, you abide. Amid seemingly forsaken moments of such pain and loss that you are abolished from our vision, you abide. Love abides to overcome the evil that disfigures and destroys--and to give awareness of you who are Love Abiding, the ocean of grace in which we float. Amen.

--Pr. David L. Miller