Thursday, January 31, 2019

Seeds of love

Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ (Mark 4:8)

Seeds of love

It is love that I see in Jesus' eyes as he gazes across fields where wheat and wild grass grow, stems swaying in summer breeze.

His eyes embrace the hills as they rise from water’s edge, and he smiles. In that slight smile, I see and know his desire for me … and for every soul.

He wants seeds of love to grow in the soil of our souls that we might know and become the Love he is.

The Holy One has been sowing seeds of love in the world since Earth was new. Every moment of our lives sows seeds of divine life into our hearts.

Every day is a gift. Every sunrise an opportunity to open our hearts in gratitude for the privilege of being, for the startling truth that we are alive, for the ecstasy of touching the hand or cheek of someone we love, for the needs of others that call us beyond ourselves, for the crystal beauty of sunlight glistening on frozen snow.

Even our troubles and sorrows sow seeds, stripping way our defenses and opening our hearts (if we are willing) to know, again, that what most matters in the ecstatic simplicity of loving and being loved. Everything else pales.

Some seeds are snatched away like dreams at the moment of waking. Others find little root as we are too busy with living to notice … or to make space for them to grow in us.

I’ll not worry about the millions of seeds that found no place to grow in my life. I am too grateful for the seeds of love that somehow managed to take root and grow a harvest of divine love in me … and in so many millions of others. 

This is my greatest joy. It makes me smile … that same smile I see on Jesus’ face.

Pr. David L. Miller






Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Being with


And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, ‘He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.’ (Mark 3:22)

Being with

The best time of my day is when I am with you, Jesus.

I breathe deeply and read a few verses from a story where you teach or heal, bless or free a human soul from the grip of evil. I watch you, and my soul usually grows quiet, with few thoughts, if any, beyond the awareness of you.

Everything else disappears. There is only you, and this enough for me. Being with you drives out every anxiety and quiets the soul.

I don’t know how you cast out the evils and obsessions that torture our hearts and hold us in bondage. I know only that your presence is freedom, and that you are always there, waiting for me to come and spend time with you.

You are a living Presence, ever near, who always has a place for me where I can name whatever is in me without shame.

In your presence, the weight of the day, worries about the future and everything that is not love … evaporates. All that remains is an exquisite, rhapsodic awareness of Love that cleanses and frees the soul to know and be the Love who made it.

It is true that you are always with me. This is your promise, and in some obscure way I sense it is real.

But true knowing, awareness that frees the heart, happens most when I set aside time to be with you, moments of breathing, praying, meditating and watching you.

These are the best moments of the day, for I am with you.

Pr. David L. Miller




Monday, January 28, 2019

Knowing peace


He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. (Mark 4:26-27)

Knowing peace

For one year I would like nothing more than to live at peace with who I am, where I am, with the work I do, patiently accepting whatever comes to me without complaint.

One year. I’m sure I cannot keep this going, but today, amid the cold and snow, the door to such a life appears in the assurance of the sower who knows … and trusts … a life-giving power he does not understand.

Assurance marks his movements. He does not worry or fret that seeds scattered will not grow. His quiet heart dwells in the land of confident assurance in the power of Life to give life.

He waits and watches, eager for the harvest when the time is right, but there is no hurry. He knows it will come because he knows God.

God in great love and hidden mystery works in all things and every circumstance to bring something unknown, something new to sprout and grow.

Knowing this, he trusts, not knowing what will come, only that it will bear the beauty and grace of the One who sows the seed of Life in every moment and circumstance.

Set-backs and disappointments will come. Hurtful words and actions will wound the heart. Best laid plans will not always work out. There is no escaping struggle in this broken and sin-scarred world. 

Our anger and frustration over all of this are of no help. Nor is the desire to escape the everyday irritations common to all people.

Peace is not found in escape, but in knowing the One the sower knows.

Know ... and be at peace.

Pr. David L. Miller