February 7, 2015

Mark 1:35-38

 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’

Where we are

They searched for you, and you went searching for them … not knowing whether they would accept or deny you their time and attention. It didn't matter. You went anyway because this is who you are.

You are the searching love that seeks and finds us where we are, in the common places of our lives, that we may hear your voice and know the Love who is our source, our hope, our joy and our destiny.

You speak a kingdom that we need go nowhere to enter, for it comes to us. It is where we are, and we enter every time we hear and trust the word you speak, for you tell us who we are and for what we are made.

We are made by and for the Love Who Is … and who always will be.  We find ourselves when we are found by you, when the Presence of Love in you penetrates our disbelieving hearts and we discover that you want us near you, that you have always sought us, that you are always near, that you are the voice of longing at the center of our hearts.

Yes, it is true … you long for us ... and in us. Yours is the longing we feel, the hunger to come home and rest in you … the Love who long has sought us, the One who is searching love.

You came to find us … right where we are, living our lives, wondering if the ache for that mysterious something more could ever be fulfilled, inviting us to know the Love for which we hunger is exactly the Love who seeks and finds us … where we are.

Praise to you Holy One. Praise to you for all the mysterious ways you seek our hearts that we may fall in love with you, the Love who is our source, our hope, our joy … our destiny.

Pr. David L. Miller

February, 6, 2015

February, 6, 2015

Mark 1:35-38

 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.’

Moonlight

I do not wonder why you wandered from the house into the moonlight hours waiting for dawn. I know.

There is gold in the mouth of the morning, says an old German proverb. I beg to differ. Strike the ’l’ please. There is God in the mouth of the morning, the wee hours when the world is still.

You went out and saw thin clouds slow dance across the face of pale moonlight, playing with the face of earth’s nearest neighbor. Sitting in silence, you watched the gentle waves of light and darkness wash across earth and sky as a thousand stars and more dotted the infinity none of us understand.

And you listened … to the Heart within your own heart to hear the Inner Voice of Love who longs to dance with us—playing like cloud and moon in the darkened sky, filling us with the peace of the silent hours that we may live one more day as people who know the Love you are … who find that Love finding them right where they are.

This is the Love you sought in the moonlight so that knowing and hearing you may draw us to sit with you that we, too, might hear and know what moonlight awakens in the soul in the dark hours.

I spoke with a 13 year-old atheist wannabe the other day. He thinks he is, but he isn't … at least not yet.

He had arguments from the science he has learned and the objections cynical minds have handed him. I offered answers, good ones, to his every question about God and faith and why he didn't need to commit intellectual suicide to have faith and know you, Holy One.

The words I spoke to him feel empty now. I should have told him what it is like to sit with you in the silence, listening to the heart’s hunger, as the night clouds dance in slow motion across the face of the moon.

I should have told him what it is like to be quiet and listen to the Inner Voice of Love who speaks and has spoken in the hearts of billions when the noise of life falls away for a few minutes.

But I had no words a 13 year-old would understand. Maybe when he has felt truest love in his heart and learns its voice. Maybe some night in the moonlight he will be moved to wonder. Maybe then he will know what we know … the Love who finds us where we are … and who speaks in the moonlight.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday. February 4, 2015

Psalm 147-1-4

Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
   for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. 
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
   he gathers the outcasts of Israel. 
He heals the broken-hearted,
   and binds up their wounds. 
He determines the number of the stars;
   he gives to all of them their names. 

Heal us, Lord

Heal the broken–hearted this day, O Lord. Bind up their wounds, for your people have many broken hearts and they break each other’s hearts for want of knowledge of you.

Knowledge of you is born in the Love you are, awakening your love in us. Words without love, knowledge without grace and understanding know nothing of the deepest truth of life. They do not know you who are Love and who seeks to bring all things into loving unity, which is your will.

You intend your people to be a people of grace where love abounds and care is the air we breathe. Such beauty is born when we see your greatness in the immensity of the stars and the gentle care you have for each of us.

You are great and small, near and far, tending to the cosmic wonder of the nebulae … and the tender needs of children. You care for the wounded heart, the fragile flower and cast the burning stars in vastness of space to light the sky and awaken wonder.

Seeing you great and small, immense power and gentle grace—and loving through it all—our hearts are healed and filled, and we become as you.

Only you heal the break heart, only the Love you are makes the magic of peace happen in our souls. So come to us, come to those wounded and longing to know your grace in the midst of your people.

Open the eyes of our hearts to see you great and small. Awaken your grace in our hearts that we may be healed and be healers of broken hearts and relationships.

Heal us Lord, and renew our lives.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Psalm 31:14-16

But I trust in you, O Lord;
   I say, ‘You are my God.’ 
My times are in your hand;
   deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors. 
Let your face shine upon your servant;
   save me in your steadfast love. 

Snow day

Make time stop;

the moments pass

too soon. I do not fear

the passing of time but

moments come so full

much time is needed to feel

and know what is in each one.

Packed full of eternity,

eternity is needed for the

heart to feel and know the

blessing of each, for mind to

claim and name the beauty of

the world silver blue and brilliant

white, winter splendor in golden sun,

radiant light so bright wintery eyes

cannot stand the wonder even through

dirty windshield, my soul aching to capture

with words this moment, to hold it, refusing

to let it go, grieving its passage, sorrow

that so many moments have gone

unnoticed, unnamed, their beauty

and love lost to the soul even as

my words reach to hold this one,

this joyous gift a little longer

lest it slip away, lost to my

heart, aching to hold the

love awakened, failing

for this love is too

large; it cannot

be held, for it

holds me.

I grasp for words

big enough to hold

the love and joy of blue

and gold, shimmering white,

blinding light, filling me with

a love beyond any loves I have

known. Oneness: the heart knows

no separation from the colors of

the day. We are one, one life,

one beauty, one love and

for one moment I feel

and know I am they

and they are me, and

I have everything

for which my

heart longs.

So stop time now,

Holy One, let no more

moments pass; this one

is complete, perfect, and I

am complete. Hold me here

in this moment, eternal oneness.

Let no more moments come or go

that this heaven may not be lost, lest

I be lost from this heaven. I want never

to lose what this moment is, but mere

words cannot hold it; they are too

weak. I cannot stop the passage

of time, so hold me, hold my

times in your hand that the

love that is here and now

might never be lost to

this heart that aches

to know what I know

on snow days.

Pr. David L. Miller