Thursday, January 24, 2013

 Today’s text

Psalm 91:11, 13-16

For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways.
On their hands they will bear you up,
   so that you will not dash your foot against a stone. …
Those who love me, I will deliver;
   I will protect those who know my name.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
   I will be with them in trouble,
   I will rescue them and honor them.
With long life I will satisfy them,
   and show them my salvation.

Reflection

A beloved old face appears this morning. I hear my tired friend’s shaky voice on the phone as he tries to smile through the sad acknowledgment that he can and should no longer drive.

He is losing his freedom, his body falling at unpredictable moments, control of life slipping away.

Old age is tunnel, ever-narrowing until you can barely move, walk, drive or travel. One just is there, alive, one hopes with someone with whom you can share you time, your soul, your unfulfilled hopes and sweeter memories.

My heart sank as I listened to his tired voice confide the inevitable. I hate it. I hate to see him lose his strength. I hate that the tunnel of age is closing in on him, and I hope his soul will not also be held captive.

I want him to remember his heart is not so worn but remains supple and free. His soul can still rise and touch the Heart that will make his old heart sing in the freedom of one who knows he is so much more than a failing body, so much more than a man facing the darkness.

I want him to know that the Heart of Eternity in-dwells his heart.

He tastes that Heart in every love he has ever loved and in the love he knows even now. He sees that Heart in the beauty the races through his window with each new rising sun. He feels it in those golden rays that awaken hope for a life where the sun never sets.

Call to the Heart, dear old friend. Call to that Heart you know within your own heart. Say the Holy Name. Name his Jesus, Lord. Name him Infinite Love and Constant Friend.

Feel the rays of warmth shining from his face, his arms, his heart, warming your tired limbs.

Call his name. Repeat it on your breath. Feel it fill your heart with love and lift your soul far above the confines of the walls that close around you.

Yourself rise beyond narrowness and fly like a bird, rescued from captivity, soaring and playing on the currents of grace that will never let you down.

They will bear you up until the blessed hour when you fly into the Arms who have always held you.

Until then, old friend, say the name, say the name … and soar.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 91:9-11

Because you have made the Lord your refuge,
   the Most High your dwelling-place,
 no evil shall befall you,
   no scourge come near your tent.
 For he will command his angels concerning you
   to guard you in all your ways.

Reflection

An almost three-year old sits in a high chair while he and his family wait for a waitress to deliver food to their table. The adults and older siblings around him vie for his attention.

Each of them wields a cell phone, taking the little boy’s picture, trying to catch his delight as they tease and play with him. The boy glows and knows their delight in his tender heart.

He knows angels protect him. He can see them all around … and laughs with glee.

There is a shine in a beloved child’s face, a glow of knowing, a delight in living. Such a child knows that love surrounds him.

He looks into the faces of those who treasure him and lights up like the sun. Shame has no place in him. Confidence is the air he breathes, and when fears come he retreats into protective arms.

But life comes, hurts happen, fears attack, and we lose awareness that we live always in the presence of God’s angels, the lives of love that hover near.

We fail to feel the Presence of Infinite Love whose face shines on us with utter delight, seeing wherever we go, feeling every need and wanting only that we should know, truly know, like the heart of a beloved child.

For that is what we are, who we are, and the Love who shines on us wants that we should live in this constant awareness, for the Holy One hungers to catch smiles of delight lighting our souls and shining in our eyes.

God’s desire is no different from the joy of those gathered around the table waiting for their food. They were eating and drinking their soul’s desire … to see and know and the glow of belovedness on their little one.

Basking in the glow, their hearts, too, awaken to the blessed identity that life beats out of us, beloved, surrounded by gracious angels of God’s peace.

But sometimes forgetfulness falls away and we know, like when we sit in a restaurant and see a child glow, lighting our souls with awareness that Infinite Love is our refuge; the Holy One is our dwelling place.

Angels of grace attend us, every step of our way.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 91:1-2

You who live in the shelter of Infinite Light, who abide in the shadow of Infinite Love, will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress; my God, in you alone will I trust.’

Reflection

There is a dwelling, a place of peace we enter and find you, finding, too, the strength to walk freely through the day.

Unlocking the door of our inmost heart through prayer, we step into the place of meeting and knowing, the space where you abide, the place where your eternal welcome lies waiting

Prayer opens the door and carries us to the meeting place, a large room, no, an inner mansion with many rooms, and you are in each one. Each is shot through with filtered light and silent love that says nothing but receives each of us fully.

There is no fear, no anxiety about what comes next. Self-rejection and self-hatred have disappeared for they have no place in the Presence of Infinite Love.

We can wander through the mansion, stopping to look here or there, light streaming through curtained windows, illuminating the rooms, scattering the dust from floors and corners, filling the heart with every comfort of home.

“Here I am; here I belong,” the heart says. This is me, a world within my and every heart, a world I barely knew existed, and you are here, always, waiting for me to unlock the door and enter the place where we are together and my heart knows safety and peace.

Entering this gracious space is easier in my quiet morning place than it will be in coming hours. The time will come to rise from this chair where words find my fingers and carry me into this refuge of heart.

Too soon I will step from the quiet into the noise of living, and the peace and assurance I know here will fade and feel less vibrant and sure.

But this place, this inner mansion where you and I abide will still be there, within me wherever I go.

I want only to abide there, as I walk through this day. I don’t want to lose the awareness of this moment, the knowledge that you and abide together in this inner space where the safety of grace surrounds me on every side.

“You cannot escape,” you say to me. “ I do not leave. I dwell with you all through the day. Each step you take, I am there. None of your steps take you away from me, away from us, the unity of soul we know in this place. That is always … here.

“All you need do is say my name, bring a word to mind, call to me, remember this time. The door will open … and you will know.”

Pr. David L. Miller