Friday, October 3, 2014

Today’s text

Romans 3:21-24

 But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus … .

Knowing … grace

Who blesses you? What blesses you? I asked this of a friend yesterday.

By blessed I mean that anxiety leaves you. It flies away. Doubts … about yourself, about what you have done or need to do … disappear. They are gone.

You know you can say anything, be utterly and totally honest about your fears or failures, what you have done or not done. You know you are accepted. You are free and know you are loved, accepted, treasured and beautiful … despite whatever confusion or confliction or troubles you have or will face.

The blessed have no need to prove themselves, to win approval or justify their words or actions as having been the right, proper or smart thing to do. There is just freedom of soul deep within.

Who … what … lifts you into this state of blessing?

There are moments we know blessing; in these moments we truly know … God.

Early this week I took my tired, confused and conflicted self to the back patio. I was hungry for a little peace and quiet. I wanted every other voice to fade away so I could hear the voice of my own depths, catch up with myself … and make sense of the thoughts and feelings stirred up by experiences of the day.

Drink in hand, I retreated to the back patio and sat in the sun, now gentle, having lost the harsh glare of summer. Bricks warm beneath my bare feet, a breeze released a rain of leaves from the birch tree, golden and brown, blanketing the earth.

I had thought to read, carrying a book, but reading was not on my soul’s agenda.

I simply sat, enveloped and encompassed by rays of the autumn sun that did not ask me for anything. Nor did I have to ask them to come and warm me, to surround and fill me. The sunlight just came, free and full, filling me with a gentle awareness that there was no need for me to do anything but to be there and to let the sun do its healing work on my soul, telling me again what blessing is … and what God is like.

God speaks to the listening heart: “All you need do is to sit in the sun and know … the Love I am comes to you not because you ask for it or deserve it, not because you have done something to prove yourself, but because I , the Lord, am who I am.

“I am the Love who reaches out to accept and justify sinners. I am Jesus Christ who touches and heals, welcomes and makes whole … not the well but the sick and the broken, the confused and the needy, the imperfect and those who lose themselves amid the conflicting demands on their lives.

“There is no need to justify yourself to me. No need to prove your worth. Just take your tired and wounded heart and sit in the places … and with the people … where you know my love freely given. I will do the rest.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Today’s text

Psalm 80:7

Restore us, O God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved. 

Light

Too much time is spent

in darkness, not knowing,

not feeling, not overwhelmed

by this love that never turns away.

I know … you are always

turned toward us, never

looking away, but the

weight of earth’s sadness

clouds the heart and shadows

the eyes so they cannot see

and do not glisten with tears

Knowing …

You.

I savor those tears; they

are gift in my soul, light

in my eyes and heart, death

of every sadness, love

of every moment, blessing

everything and everyone

who happens by; alive,

in the circle of  Your vision,

at the center of your sight,

alive, alive, alive, finally,

born anew, saved.

Autumn sun on patio bricks,

warm under foot, the heat

of summer gone, leaves

raining from the river birch

blanketing the earth in the

wealth of summer, a carpet

of gold and brown, a world

alive and golden, kissed

by light from the Source

of every light, inviting the

heart to sit in quiet warm,

held in the Light that never

turns away  …and know.

Light is everywhere, it

seems, rays of life present

inviting our presence that

we might sit for a moment

and let it do its saving work.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, September 29, 2014

Today’s text

Psalm 80:7, 14-15

Restore us, O God of hosts;
   let your face shine, that we may be saved. …
Turn again, O God of hosts;
   look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
   the stock that your right hand planted.

Soil

I can never move home again.

The ground where

You planted me is home

no longer.

It formed me. I lived

close to the soil and to

those who labored on

it, struggling

with winds and weather,

rain and its lack, who went

to their rest with  

soil-stained hands,

laid, finally, beneath the soil

which had pained and pleased

them, the soil where they,

like me, had been planted.

I knew this ground,

the country roads and

town streets I walked,

every rough spot in the asphalt,

soft places where the asphalt

cracked and sank, where

potholes appeared and were

filled again each spring.

.

I walked them a thousand

times, kicking rocks up the street

to salve adolescent wounds,

releasing anger at the

confines of this world,

hoping for a world beyond

my teachers and tormentors

where someone would see

me, beyond their image

of what I was, even though

I didn’t know myself. I knew

Only that this piece of soil

in which I was planted

was not home

and could never be.

You meant me to grow

like the fields of corn, no,

more like the hay

and sweet clover that

doesn’t march in neat rows.

You planted me in that

particular soil,

Holy One, a peculiar plant

that needed that place

to fill my senses

with the fragrance of

growing things, stirring hope

to know a world beyond

the soil which grew me.

Look at this soul planted

in the soil of this earth, now

far from the fields of hay

and sweet clover and the

soil-stained dignity of the

hands who worked it.

Tend the growing of this

peculiar plant that is yet

to be that the seed you

planted may bring its harvest

of grace and the beauty

of the fields that still stir

my heart.

I would be as they.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Today’s text

Psalm 25: 5-6

Lead me in your truth, and teach me,
   for you are the God of my salvation;
   for you I wait all day long.
Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and of your steadfast love,
   for they have been from of old. 

Morning praise

A long way I have traveled,

not only in miles and years

but in emotion and truth.

Love and fear,

hope and despair,

ecstasy and bitter

disappointment. I

have known them all,

sometimes on the same day.

I have breathed rare air

of giddy joy, beyond

any my younger soul

imagined.

I thought this was life

in truest form,

hoping for more,

thinking something was

wrong with the world

or me when, disappointed,

I fell from the heights.

Moments, wondrous moments,

Which I savor and to which

memory and heart cling,

thankful for what I

have known, learned, felt,

filling me with the beauty

and gratitude.

Each ascent to heights of

of human joy occasions

its own unique fall. Each

fall is more gracious still;

an awful grace it is, never

without pain, but grace

it is still … because

I fall into you,

the Mystery who is Love,

steadfast and sure.

Every road, every mile,

every height and fall,

every hope that fails,

finally, takes me back

to you where I find myself

and know

that no matter my emotion

I was never really lost

and never will be.

Nothing is lost to your love;

everything finds it's place.

Pr.  David L. Miller