Tuesday, January 23, 2018

John 17:20-23

‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

Beyond belief

Sometimes I don’t believe in God. I don’t need to. When I feel rapt in Love there is no believing, only knowing.

Believing is directed toward something separate, apart from who you are.  Knowing is oneness, experiencing unity with something or someone … so that something of what they are is in you.

The Loving Mystery draws us beyond belief, beyond imagining a God, a Being, a Someone out there. The Mystery who is Love embraces us in moments of life, igniting the flame of Love, giving us a heart-to-heart knowing of Love Itself.

Moments of such knowing come and pass, but what they teach endures. We come to know Love is not a thing to be believed but a Heart we know in our hearts.

Having known this Heart, we crave more moments of knowing, the ecstasy of oneness that comes in a thousand ways, the light of a sunset, clouds on the wings of the wind, a flower, a scent, a smile, a tear.

Unity in Love is the glory which Jesus shared with the Father, and it is this for which he prayed for those who follow him.

I don’t think I will ever understand exactly how the experience of oneness with Love happens to us. I know only that it is this for which we are born. It is this that the Loving Mystery wants for us. This One, this Love who is God, desires us, even as we know the fulfillment of our desire in the Love Who Is revealed in Jesus and who chooses to speak to us … in everything.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, January 22, 2018

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Held in open hands

White clouds, islands in the stream of time, flow across the January blue of an afternoon sky, reminding me again that life must be held in open hands.

Moments pass by like clouds. No hand can grasp and hold them fast. They slip through your fingers and continue on, carried in the current of time, replaced by those that follow.

Each one is unique, each to be received with thanks as they pass through your hands and continue on, leaving marks on your soul and memories in your heart.

We cannot stop the flow, and efforts to grasp and hold only cause pain. Wisdom … and faith … is to let go, knowing the Love who is will never abandon but will come in ways you cannot receive unless you hold each precious moment of living, each blessing, with open hands and a grateful heart.

Then what has been will bless and not bring sorrow, for you will know … Love is and always will carry you in that unending stream.

St. Paul was wrong …and right.

He thought the present world would soon come to a crashing end when you returned, Holy One. His expectations proved false.

But he was right. The present form of this world is always passing away, every moment. But the Love Who Is … and which we know … does not. Love is the current, Love is the stream who carries the clouds … and us … to grace unknown.

Trust and know.

Pr. David L. Miller