Just listen

I hear a voice I had not known: ‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden ... .' (Psalm 81:6)

Stop. For one moment, just stop and listen. Listen to nature. Listen to your breath. Listen to the voices within you. Listen to the person who just happens by. Listen to the world as it stumbles through another day.

You may hear a voice you barely recognize … or one that is so familiar, so near and dear you cannot imagine a day without it.

God speaks in all things. There is no speech, no words, but the voice of Love speaks every moment, begging you to feel and know Love’s holy gift in your every breath.

The divine voice coaxes you to delight in every beauty and to relish every love, to savor every grace that frees and fills you with joy, and to give yourself to every situation that cries for your love.

God is always present, working, speaking in the depth and dynamics of every situation to heal and bless, to guide and give life, abundantly, to every soul and all creation.

Don’t believe the lie that God is far off or silent. Just listen.

Pr. David L. Miller

Live your joy

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us (Ephesians 5:1-2)

Imitate God? How can one ever imitate the inimitable?

The idea overwhelms the mind and shatters the heart. We cannot imagine the majesty and mystery of God who commands the morning, rides on the wings of the wind and yet is closer than our breath.

And we know all-too-well the things we cannot forget--our betrayals and falsehoods, the words and memories that attack in the night, the aching regret over not being the person you could have been, the sin you tell no one except God alone.

Knowing all this, know one thing more: You are God’s beloved, treasured from all eternity, chosen before the birth of time, destined to be one with the One who is Love and nothing but.

So release every shame, every guilt. You are just as beloved as Jesus when he stood dripping wet in his baptismal waters and heard the voice, “You are my Beloved.”

Breathe that in every morning. Make it your mantra through the day. Then, dearly beloved, go live your joy.

Pr. David L. Miller

Living bread

 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’  (John 6:51)

You are what you eat, which is true of both body and soul. So do not consume the anger and negativity that flows so freely in society. It poisons the heart and kills the soul. You are made for living bread.

“So take me to your soul,” Jesus pleads. “My life, my words, the Love that takes flesh in my every act is bread for your soul. Take it in. All that I am is yours. Savor it all until your sleeping soul awakens, and you become the love that I am.

“My flesh will become yours, and yours will become mine. We will live in heart-to-heart communion, you in me and I in you, one, sharing the everlasting love of God. You will taste eternity, knowing how dear you are to God and the forever that awaits you.

“You spend so much of your life on that which you imagine will make you happy. But only the bread of my soul satisfies the hunger in your heart for that something more you cannot give yourself.

“I am that more. I am bread, and I freely give.”

Pr. David L. Miller