Better than life

So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. (Psalm 63:2-3)

Better than life

Grant us spacious places, Holy One,

where our hearts roam free,

where the chattering mind

quiets, where consciousness is but

a blank, an empty screen, calm,

waiting for thought, image, emotion

to appear from hidden depths, telling

us what is deep within, waiting,

eager to be born, to live, in us, inviting

us to know the joy of being

who we truly are, expressions

of your holy love, given

to earth that Love may live,

that Beauty may shine, breathing

life through our lives, always

more precious than we know.

Each one, every one, unique, appointed

for a holy purpose, to speak, to shine

with the Love who is better than life.

Go now, into your day, every day

knowing the Love you seek … seeks

you. Earth and stars, the sanctuary

of the Illimitable, bid you open

your heart to see and know and

enter the ecstatic praise of the angels.

Pr. David L. Miller

Under the umbrella

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was one of the twelve; he went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers of the temple police about how he might betray him to them. (Luke 22:3-4)

Under the umbrella

Morning comes. The sun shines, and what is this ... hope? Joy? Yes, both. They are always connected.

From what miraculous source comes this uplift that fills the soul from earliest morning hours?

Even the gloomiest of Old Testament prophets could write, “Sorrow endures for an evening, but joy comes in the morning.” And so it does. Because that is who God is and what God does.

Joy arises from darkness of soul, and hope from the despair of losing yourself, the person you know you are and can be. It happens as the light of the Love Who Is Everywhere somehow touches and awakens that same Love living in the deepest recesses of our souls.

Whatever happens to us, no matter how lost we may feel sometimes, this Love remains. This Light still shines, however obscured at the moment.

The encroaching darkness of Lent daily moves us closer to hearing the greatest tragedy in human history. The evil one enters the heart of Judas who betrays Jesus to those who hate him. We know what follows: The One who is truly good and fully God among us is rejected, beaten bloody and hung out to die.

But even this happens under the umbrella, within the compass of God’s enduring love and power. 

Evil has power in this life, but a Greater One works in all this. The One who is Love is always at work to make light shine out of darkness, to bring joy and hope from deepest night. In Jesus’ story … and ours.

That is the way God is. Always. And always will be.

Pr. David L. Miller

With gratitude and hope

Now the festival of Unleavened Bread, which is called the Passover, was near. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death, for they were afraid of the people. (Luke 22:1-2)

With gratitude and hope

We are people of gratitude and hope. As Christians, this is our orientation to life no matter what is happening to us. Whether present circumstances are sunny and bright or threatening and cold, we face each new day and every fresh circumstance with these attitudes.

Because we know ... God. We know the Love God is. We know what God has done and promises to do.

At the end of his life and ministry, Jesus prepares to celebrate Passover with this friends, the 12 he had chosen as disciples on brighter days back home in Galilee.

Passover is a meal of identity and hope. It recalls and celebrates the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egyptian slavery. This event marked their identity as a nation, a people chosen and cherished by God.

Passover also looked forward to the appearance of the Messiah, the Promised One who would usher in the rule of God’s mercy and justice, filling the earth with God’s holy Presence even as the waters cover the sea, the prophets said.

It was a meal of gratitude for everything God had done to choose, love, guide and abide with the people, and a meal of hope for a world so much better than the one we experience.

Knowing he will soon suffer rejection and death, Jesus prepares for the Passover meal where he will renew God’s ancient covenant with Israel and extend it beyond one nation to every nation.

He will expand the promises of God beyond one people to every soul ever born ... that we may greet every day with gratitude for the immensity of love God pours out on us... and with hope for total union with the Love who wakes us each new morning.

Pr. David L. Miller

Filled and falling

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. (Luke 4:1)

Filled and falling

Filled with the Spirit, Jesus goes into the desert. He goes to battle demons of self-interest and greed, sloth and narcissism that bedevil the tangled wilderness of our minds and hearts.

I see him ... and smile, for I know he will not fail.

He refuses to compromise with the powers of evil. He will not do the right thing for the wrong reason. He will not turn from the painful way when resistance and hatred oppose him. Nor will he seek power for himself; power is for one thing only: loving service of the Father’s will.

We could reflect on how different he is from our tangled hearts. Our egos are busily at work even in our best moments, curating our image, subtly serving ourselves. But guilt and shame are not the point of Lent. They are the very opposite of the point.

Jesus is the point. Falling in love with him and everything in him, that’s the point of watching and knowing him.

Look and see the love, the commitment, the freedom, the suffering and the beauty of his life, given to reveal the will of the Loving Mystery he calls Abba, Father.

Filled with the Spirit, he knows the wondrous and beautiful heart of God. God fills him. This filling frees him to be for others, for us, giving himself even unto death. All this, that we may be filled with the Love in him … and know what he knows.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friends of God

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ (Luke 4:9-12)

Friends of God

I’m not quite sure what it means to test God. Our best explanation comes from stories in Hebrew Scripture, our Old Testament, in which people refused to trust God’s provision for their needs.

They demanded a sign from God, something clear, even spectacular that proved God is God and would do what they needed God to do for them.

Doesn’t sound like much of relationship. Most of us would back away from a “friend” who always wants something from us and who pouts if we don’t produce.

At other times, the people of God took God’s blessing for granted: Blessing and divine protection are ours because we are favored, even if we ignore God’s call to be just and merciful, welcoming the stranger and caring for those in need.

Such presumption is not the relationship the Holy One desires with us.

We are invited into a relationship of mutual love and trust in which we do not take God’s presence and blessing for granted, but live in joyful gratitude for every blessing in our lives.

We are invited to be partners in God’s loving mission to the world, caring for the goodness of creation and extending loving care to those who suffer or struggle.

It is incredible but true: God seeks our friendship … your friendship. Friends don’t presuppose on each other. They share their hearts, their hopes, their joys, their needs, wants and goals.

So we do not take God’s blessing for granted or demand that God better do what we want or we will turn away. We trust the Love who wants to walk day-by-day with us.

Pr. David L. Miller

Simple souls

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” (Luke 4:5-8)

Simple souls

All great souls are simple souls. They know one thing. They think and feel one thing. They live with one clear image, one definite purpose to which they surrender their lives.

They seek to praise, reverence and serve God with their every word and action.

I don’t think Jesus wavered for a moment at the temptation to worship and serve the powers of evil and hate to gain power. I don’t think he blinked an eye as the evil one displayed the kingdoms of the world.

His heart was calm and his mind clear because he knew who he was ... and whose he was.

His eye, mind and heart were fixed upon a single purpose: To reveal the loving beauty of God’s kingdom that we may see, know and enter the blessedness God has for every single soul ... and for every single morsel of creation.

Jesus was pure of heart. Purity of heart is to will one thing: to love God and all that God loves with the fullness of heart, mind and soul.

Our divided, complicated hearts are not simple. We long for contradictory things. We often do not know what we want ... or need ... or what is truly good for us.

Jesus’ unwavering heart shows us the way. The purpose of our lives is to worship the Loving Mystery who reveals the divine heart to our hearts in Jesus ... that, we, too, may have simple souls.

May your soul be simple, simply given to him, today.

Pr. David L. Miller

Staying true

The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’ (Luke 4:3-4)

Staying true

The Judean wilderness is a barren moonscape burnt beige-to-brown by the relentless blaze of the blinding sun, century after century. Years can pass without rain and weeks with barely a cloud.

It is there that Jesus wandered for 40 days, tested for his mission, sitting, walking, praying, sweating in the day and shivering in desert nights.

Like prophets and mystics before him, he communed with the mystery of God’s call echoing in his mind and heart, while suffering deprivations of hunger and thirst that would deter him from whatever it was that God was calling him to do.

He could use his power to ease his struggle, avoiding the bitterness of hunger and thirst. But he does not. There can be no shortcuts around the difficulties of his mission. He must live out his call in the face of challenges and hardships.

He knows: Life … Life … is not entered by satisfying our most human hungers, but by hearing and obeying the Divine Inner Voice calling the soul to surrender to the loving call of God to give itself away in loving service.

Jesus listened, heard, obeyed and carried out the mission of revealing the absolute fullness of divine love for me … for you, even through rejection and the cross.

We are enveloped in the Love that was tested in the heat of the Judean desert. This is our deepest truth, to which we return in every need. Imagine him there, staying true to the Father’s voice. He does this for you … that you may know the Love that is always for you.

With shame, we also should acknowledge that we shy from the difficulties of following him, fearing rejection or hardship, holding our tongue when we might speak a word of love, justice or guidance, refusing to interrupt our purposes and needs to serve another soul.

The way of life is to obey the Divine Voice of Love within you, no matter the cost. It is the way of Jesus. The way he shows us the Love that is ours, always.

Pr. David L. Miller

Let go

Is not this the fast that I choose:

   to loose the bonds of injustice,
   to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
   and to break every yoke? 
⁷ Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
   and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
   and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 
⁸ Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing shall spring up quickly (Isaiah 58:6-8).

Let go

What are you giving up for Lent?

This is a common question. Lent is a season of spiritual discipline and renewal. For centuries, it has been associated with fasting, giving something up during the season as a sign of repentance and turning back to God.

We normally think of fasting as refraining from eating or drinking. It might mean giving up coffee and chocolate (God forbid) or alcohol or fatty foods or TV or Facebook or cell phones ... or our distracting, over packed schedules. These are all things we likely need to cut down on anyway.

Giving up something for Lent doesn’t make us more pure, nor does it make God like us better. God already delights in us! Jesus wants you as his partner in his life-giving mission in the world.

But fasting is still a good spiritual practice, and the prophet Isaiah tells us what we really need to let go if we are to know God’s light and love shining on us ... and in us, bringing the joy of God’s presence to our hearts and lives.

So let go. Let go of the things you cling to make you feel safe and secure and comfortable. Let go of the things that make you forget your need of God.

Let go ... of your bread and wealth to share with the poor.

Let go ... of luxuries that the needy might be clothed.

Let go ... of the politics of personal advantage and seek what is good for others.

Let go ... of your blindness and see the injustice suffered by the homeless, the refugee, the immigrant and those denied privileges you take for granted.

Let go ... of evil speech and eager judgment of others. The people who trouble you ... you don’t know what battles they are fighting within.

Let go ... of the compulsion to blame others.

Let go ... of satisfaction with the way the world is. Christ asks you to long and labor for a better world.

Let go of everything that is not mercy ... and anything that doesn’t do God’s justice.

Lent is about letting go the attitudes and commitments, opinions and behaviors that separate our hearts from knowing God’s great love ... that it might flow from our depths as a fountain of life for others.

Pr. David L. Miller

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

This joy is enough

He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts. (Mark 6:7-8)

This joy is enough

Jesus does not send us into mission alone. We walk together with those whose hearts are touched by the Love we know in him. We can look at them and see in their eyes that they know what we know, the freedom only immeasurable divine love can give.

The joyous company of those who know … and in knowing want to know more and more of this inexpressible grace … yes, this is enough to carry us through our lives. It binds us as one, lifting us when we are burdened and joining us heart-to-heart in our joys and in all the years may bring.

The authority Jesus gives us is the power of divine love to cast out demons of sadness and despair, guilt and shame, hatred and bitterness.

This Love is in us. It lives in our hearts and hands. It shines in our eyes and faces as we live and bless. 

It frees us to live beyond the fears of what comes next and what shall we do and will I be accepted and will we have enough.

For we have enough. All those questions have been answered.

We have the unimaginable wonder of the One who is Love living in us, and this always enough.

Pr. David L. Miller

Eternal moments

He took her by the hand and said to her, ‘Talitha cum,’ which means, ‘Little girl, get up!’ (Mark 5:41)

Eternal moments  

Moments bear eternity. A single second can contain the fullness of heaven’s glory. Look and see.

See Jesus’ eyes as he lifts a dying girl by her hand and gives back to her parents. The passion of Eternity, the fullness of the divine heart is compressed into a single moment, revealing everything you need to know about your life … and about who holds you and everything else, for that matter.

It’s all there as he speaks and lifts her. Eternity fills a single moment in which we see the full beauty of the divine heart and know: There is nothing but love in the heart of God for this world … and for each of us.

God does not love us in spite of who we are. There is nothing begrudging in the heart of God.

The Loving Mystery is overflowing generosity, a living fountain that never runs dry, ever flowing over, onto and into us, to make us whole, to make us truly human, filled with love and gratitude, joy and hope.

This is what it means to be truly alive and well, a wholeness that comes as a gift as we know the Love in Jesus’ eyes as our inner experience and deepest truth.

Warmth of healing flows through us as we watch Jesus’ eyes and listen to his voice as he lifts the girl and restores her to the arms of her grieving parents.

All of Eternity is there … in one brief moment. Look and see. It will heal you.

Pr. David L Miller

Listen

And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get …. (Mark 4:24)

Listen

“Listen. You will hear my voice. Just listen. I speak in the silent awareness of what gives life.”

Wake from sleep and notice your joy, your excitement, the exhilaration that fills you when you give yourself to something or someone for the sheer joy of sharing what is in you.

You are absorbed, totally given to what you are doing, not looking for an external reward of money or praise. Your reward is intrinsic. It arises from within as what you are doing and saying aligns with your soul, that is … with the way the Divine Mystery continues to shape you.

You are a word of God, a particular word through whom the Holy One speaks, ever seeking to say something specific … uniquely expressed through the contours of your life and history.

Listen closely to your soul, to the love and joy that arises from your depth. You will hear and know … who you are and the particular shape the Divine Majesty is pleased to take in you. It is revealed in the joy of doing and speaking and giving yourself as a gift.

Listening to your joy, you will know the Loving Mystery who longs to bless the world … and bless you … through what the Holy One has placed in your soul.

Listen … more and more. You will know the Love who has shaped your soul. You will know yourself as a word this Loving Mystery speaks from eternity into time. You will hear and know what the Divine Majesty hungers to say through your surprising and wondrous life.

You will know the Love your heart most longs to know, the Love who longs to live through you.

Pr. David L. Miller

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

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

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