Thursday, January 17, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 36:5-9

Yahweh, your faithful love is in the heavens, your constancy reaches to the clouds, your saving justice is like towering mountains, your judgments like the mighty deep. Yahweh, you support both man and beast; how precious, God, is your faithful love. So the children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your house, you let them drink from your delicious streams; in you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.

Reflection

There are mornings the soul is tired and resists waking. The mind wants only rest, not thought or emotion, just quiet. Even the most gentle exertion of mind disturbs the heart’s desire … just to be.

This is such a day. Rest of soul and quiet of mind is my desire, and your words, Holy One, invite me into this space before the day’s activities pull me into engagement with souls in need and calls I must make.

I come to the quiet and find you here.

I hear words of an ancient soul who looks at the mountains and clouds floating above them. He surveys the vast sea and is moved to know your unlimited greatness, your merciful presence which knows no boundaries and is never hemmed in.

He drinks in that image as it moves awareness in his soul. The immensity of your creation and the generosity of your heart create quiet knowing in his soul.

He knows you are his help and will surround him on every hand, and he rests.

I come to the quiet and rest.

You are here, waiting in the silence to touch my soul and tell me there is no need to force the mind into thought before it is ready. There is no need to push the soul to feel what it is not ready to feel in this morning hour.

This no need for anything but to be, to rest, to let ancient words awaken whatever they move in mind and heart.

You are my rest before this day. You are my peace. You are the quiet of this space and the quiet of my soul.

You are the silent assurance awakened within my morning mind, the assurance that I will know souls where love and you abide this day.

I will touch and pray, smile and laugh and know you in the faces and needs I meet.

My body and mind will be lifted from rest to see and be the love you are, simply because I have come once more to the quiet where I need do nothing but to be … with you.

And I know that even as you lie waiting in the quiet of this space for me, you await my coming in the hearts of the lives that I see … this day.

Pr. David L. Miller