With open hands

For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. (Mark 9:41)

With open hands

Open your hands and lift the cup of your soul to receive.

The battle for your soul is won not by doing but by receiving the water of life that is the Presence of the Love who longs to fill you to overflowing.

We come into the world, creatures of the Love who is the Source of all things, that we might be a little epiphany, expressions of Love’s joy in time and space. We become who we truly are not by competing, winning, being stronger, better, smarter, richer or more successful than others … but by receiving.

Receiving love; that is. We receive the Love who made us in every act of reception, every time we hold up the cup of our soul in recognition that we need to be filled with the water of Love’s gracious presence.

It is paradoxical, but true, that winning is often losing. Being successful or stronger, seeming to ‘have it all together’ is invitation to the illusion that you can live and give, pour yourself out, be the one who is strong and calm, dependable and responsible … without your cup running dry.

Do this long enough … and you lose your soul. For your soul is the Love of the One who made you.

We each need to return to our Source with open hands and a humble heart, lifting high our cup and saying, “Lord fill me again. Only then will I have the living water to bless another … who is as thirsty as I.”

And we need to be open to those the Holy One sends, eager and humble to receive even from those you did not expect to come bearing water of life to your parched heart.

Blessed are those who feel their emptiness. They shall be filled. Blessed are those who share the waters of life. They will know the joy of the Lord.

Pr. David L. Miller

Look first

Jesus said to him, ‘If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.’ Immediately the father of the child cried out, ‘I believe; help my unbelief!’ (Mark 9:23-24)

Look first

Do not believe in your own faith, nor in the power of prayer. This leads only to despair, for we know our weakness and vacillation.

One hour our faith is firm and secure, only to dissolve when anxious uncertainties burst our bubble and drain our hearts hollow, leaving us empty of the resolve we thought unshakable moments before.

So we must not trust ourselves or in the strength of our belief. As long as we are looking at ourselves our joy and strength is in peril. And the more attention we pay to the weakness or strength of our faith … the worse off we are.

We are looking the wrong way, at the wrong person.

Turn from yourself and see Jesus. Look at the One who can do all things, whose divine love and will never wavers. Never.

Look at him and trust the Love who abides and speaks in him. This Love is the power of Life itself, eternal life being poured through him into the world … and into our lives each time we turn from any imagined strength of ours to see him.

His face, his love, his presence stills our anxiety and dispels thoughts and worries about whether we are weak or strong in faith. It doesn’t matter if we are weak. He isn’t.

“Help my unbelief” is not a good prayer. It is looking in the wrong direction. In every moment, kind or hard, look first at him. You’ll see everything you need.

Pr. David L. Miller