Friday, March 06, 2009

Friday, March 6, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 8:34-38


[Jesus] called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. What gain, then, is it for anyone to win the whole world and forfeit his life? And indeed what can anyone offer in exchange for his life? For if anyone in this sinful and adulterous generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Reflection

I am not ashamed of you, Jesus, for you are the way of life, and I hunger for you fully to become my way, my walk and my journey.

You surrendered yourself to the holy purpose of God, the rule of compassion that you promised will appear and fill all that is.

Your soul was completely identified with God’s purpose in the world. Neither your heart nor mind turned right of left from this singular focus.

This is the way of life and freedom. This is how you free us from ourselves, our preoccupations with self and ease. You unite us with God’s purpose, first filling our lungs with the breath of your compassion that we know the mystery of your love.

Only then we can discover by fits and starts, almost in spite of ourselves, that our greatest joy and freedom is found in losing ourselves in your purpose, in giving ourselves to some expression of the work of your kingdom.

Only we must discover what it is to which our heart longs to be given. Just what is that brings joy and freedom to our souls when we surrender ourselves to it?

Where does a new self arise in us, liberated from self-loathing and condemnation, free from preoccupation with our performance, joyous, playful and far from the awful solemnity that weighs down the self and image we so carefully protect?

Given-ness to your labor, to those you love, is freedom. Only there do we discover the joy of true life, for those who loses their life for, Jesus, will find it.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 8:34-35


[Jesus]He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.'

Reflection

Saving is losing and losing is saving. Life is meant to be given away. To give it away is to enter the adventure of living beyond ourselves and entering the world where God is near to the heart.

God is near always. But we know God’s nearness more acutely as we enter the life of giving up the self we so energetically protect to become the self we are in the heart of God.

That self emerges and rises from its hiding place deep in the soul when we know there is nothing to defend, when we recognize that our lives rest in unutterly love.

Then we know the self we have been is not the true self, the free self that God loves out of us. Looking back on what we have been, it all seems like illusion, a poor facsimile of the life for which God intends us.

In losing the self we think we are, the self we protect and pretend to be, we are free to be and ever more become that which the seed of God grows in us. That seed, planted in the depth of our hearts, springs to life when we turn from the illusion we pretend to be. It grows when again we feel the faintest rays of that Love who has long wanted us to arise from sleep.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 8:31-34


Then [Jesus]began to teach them that the Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter tried to rebuke him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings do.' He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Reflection

And how do human beings think? With that, Jesus, we are quite familiar, though we seldom take a step back to gain a long look at ourselves.

Truth is, most of our life is the search for the smoothest way through our days, not the most committed or principled. We seek what makes our lives simplest and protect the kingdom of our egos, refusing the invitation of deepest self to meet the One who awaits us there.

I find myself speaking of my ministry, as if it such a thing existed. It is your ministry in which I serve, your kingdom, your will, your face that is to be revealed in me.

And how do the joy of your grace and the sacrifice of your love come to expression in me? What do you make arise from deepest heart when I rest in your presence?

To what greater purpose of your kingdom am I so given that I seek that way, not that which is easy or smooth?

None, too often.

We lose our way, Jesus. We live far from the garden of our heart, forgetting what your grace seeks to grow in the good soil of our soul. Just so, we forget who we are and the cross your grace grows in our hearts.

For the cross grows there, in the heart, from the seed of your gracious love implanted. The cross is the fruit of your love, grown from the seed of your merciful presence. It grows in us, until we see just what it is you would give your world through us.

And we bear that cross, losing ourselves for a purpose worthy of those made in your holy image, the image of a coursing love, eternally flowing from depths we cannot see.

Dearest Friend, open our eyes to see your purpose growing in us. Teach us to nurture your seed and be guided by what grows.

Then we shall think as you think.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, March 02, 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

Today’s text

Mark 8:31-33


Then [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter tried to rebuke him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings do.'

Reflection

And how does God think? And how could we possibly know or understand?

Our lives are a mystery. Life, itself, is a mystery, cloaked in utter darkness and hidden in deepest recesses of time and consciousness.

Life comes to be. Generations rise and pass. Human souls suffer and prosper, often in utter disparity with any merit or deserving.

The gentle and good have as many problems and challenges as those who cannot see beyond the enlargement of their egos. But they all pass into the darkness at the end of our days no human eye can penetrate.

And you see it all, Lord of the Universe. You see them all rise and fall, and me, too, with all we love.

And what do you think? How do you see?

We have only this man, Jesus, whom generations confess is transparent to your face. He is your thought, your way of seeing. And he makes this human journey just as we do.

He avoids none of the usual human challenges. His vocation to love as you love brings him joy, yes, but many more troubles than he otherwise would have known.

And Jesus, when your friend urged you to avoid the trouble, you gave him the devil. This is not God’s thought, not the holy way.

The holy way is through every suffering, acceptance of every sacrifice born in the bosom of love. Suffering is not good of itself, but for the sake of the love, well that’s another matter.

For Love will decide everything. Love brings life from death.

And Love is God’s thought. Love is God’s way.

So let us think your thoughts and walk your way.

Pr. David L. Miller