Saturday, August 18, 2018

Romans 8:5-6

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.

Life and peace

Breathe and feel the air flowing into your lungs ... giving you life, a gift, always, again and again. Freely bestowed.

Life in the Spirit begins with the realization of the giftedness of one’s life, for here the truth of God is known. God gives. Breath. Life. Spirit.

God’s delight is giving life to you and to all that is. The divine heart wants the life in you to be full, which means you are intended to bask in the joy and freedom of those who know they are infinitely loved by and Infinite Love, who attends us every single step and moment of our lives ... until the day we are received back into ultimate intimacy with God.

Knowing this gives life and peace, joy and the freedom. So set your mind on the Spirit. Let the Spirit of the Great Love fill you and evaporate every regret of the past and every anxiety about the future.

Do not live according to the flesh, which is to say according to your anxious, threatened ego with all its fears of being hurt, used or disrespected.

Our egos clothe themselves with titles, degrees, wins, accomplishments, real or feigned, so that we look good. It’s all a futile effort to convince our anxious hearts ... and others ... that we are good, important, to be taken seriously. This but a façade for the vulnerability, the weakness and our anxiety of being “less-than” which we feel within.

This is what it means to live according to the flesh. There is no peace there, no freedom to live and love and share your heart’s truest desires and hopes.

That happens only when we know the Love God is. So know. Today. Breathe, and set your mind on the Spirit.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, August 13, 2018

Psalm 104:31-34

 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
   may the Lord rejoice in his works— 
   who looks on the earth and it trembles,
   who touches the mountains and they smoke. 

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
   I will sing praise to my God while I have being. 

May my meditation be pleasing to him,
   for I rejoice in the Lord.

Song of the morning

We are made for praise, for joy. Never forget this truth. It is essential.

The Holy One rejoices in creation, delighting in the earth, the planets, stars and the entirely of the cosmos—and in you. For you are the delight of God’s eye. You are the smile of joy on the divine face.

It is not right, I suppose, that I should think of you, Loving Mystery, as if you are a person with a body and face. You are beyond all that and beyond everything, truly everything I can think or imagine.

Yet, I relate to you and think of you as I can, and I know the delight, the gentle smile of purest pleasure that fills me when I look on the face of my beloved, when I hear their laughter and know all is well with them. Joy fills my being.

Can it be wrong then that I, fashioned in your image, should imagine you smiling, taking pleasure, filled with joy at the greening of the earth on a summer morning as the world awakens, cardinals’ call and golden flowers bask in sunlight?

Even more, you delight in me, in the love I know and share, in the moments when morning delight carries me away and my heart is one with the song of the morning, praising you.

It is for this that we are made: to know you in all things and to praise you, to reverence the Love you are and to serve this holy cause of living and caring for the life that surrounds us at every hand.

Fill me, today, with the joy of knowing and loving you, and I will sing your praise ‘till evening falls.  

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Psalm 139:7-9

Where shall I go from your spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

Encompassing Love

A giant eye stares from the top of a stain glass window in the church of my youth. The eye does not look threatening, nor is there any apparent compassion its steady gaze. It just stares at you from its place near the back of the church where everyone walks in … and walks out.

Look slightly to the right as you wait to shake the hand of the pastor, and you discover you are being watched by an unflinching observer who never blinks. I don’t know the intention of the artist—or the architect who placed it there, but I’d have preferred a different image at the church door as I departed.

Jesus' hands raised in blessing would have been nice. Something that said, “Go in peace, I’ll be with you … and waiting here when you return.” For that is the gracious message and comfort that meets us here: Where shall I go from your spirit?

Go, there is no place I will not be for you, no place I will not go. Go, just try to hide from me. Try to cut yourself off. Do you think Love surrenders so easily?

Go wherever and to whomever you please. Go where the road takes you. Explore every single hidden side of yourself. Go and imagine you can be alone … anywhere.

Not so. For I AM, and I AM there with you, walking alongside, waiting for you to notice Love attends your every step. I AM that Love.

I am not an unblinking eye that seeks out your every failing. I am not the Everlasting Seer ever looking over your shoulder.

I AM Encompassing Love, like the wind that caresses every contour of earth and sea, surrounding and enveloping you and all that is. Holding you fast. Always.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, August 10, 2018

Luke 12:27-28, 31

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith ... Instead, strive for his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

Breathe

I know what you want me to know, Holy One.

Come away with me, you say. Look around. Be where you are, wherever you are ... and breathe. For you and with me.

Breathe in the air of knowing there is One who loves you more than you can possibly comprehend.

Breathe in the air of freedom that is the Love I am for you. Always for you. Always will be.

Release all fevered thoughts and worries about who you are, about what you have done or failed to do, about what the future holds or about everything you think you must do. Most of those musts are self-imposed. Let go of them.

For that is not life. Life is knowing this Love, abiding, resting, feeling this Love around and within you.

Life is settling into the present moment, living what is, doing what the moment requires, then moving on, knowing that is enough. Life is knowing there is One who smiles on your very existence, eager to hear you laugh at the simple joy of being alive.

It is feeling yourself inside, surrounded and held by an Everlasting Love, knowing that you inhale this Love with every breath you take.

This is what you want me to know. This is what you want for everyone. Today.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Psalm 63:2-4, 7

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.

So I will bless you as long as I live;

I will lift up my hands and call on your name. …

For you have been my help

In the shadow of your wings I sing for joy

Morning prayer

This is where we start each day, with a word of praise to the One whose sanctuary is not made with human hands. You, Lord, dwell among the trees and encompass mountains tops and broad plains, the rivers and streams that flow on and on, the waters giving a sense of timelessness … and peace.

I watch the waters, and I know … you, who are as timeless as the water’s flow, on and on, bidding me to sit at water’s edge that I may know that my life, too, is carried in the current of your love, made fresh by each new awareness of you.

Creation surrounds and holds us, each part speaking our name, whispering, “I am here. I dwell amidst this beauty. All you see is the joyful play of my divine heart. Come and know me.”

Fill my heart, Holy One, as I go again to woods that surround and hold me in a womb of living beauty where birds sing and deer shyly watch as I walk, an invader in their home.

I go to see their beauty, to hear the song of birds; that is true. But really I go to hear and know you, to breathe and feel your steadfast love that is new every morning.  

Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear you in this earthly sanctuary that is our home … and yours. Grant us grace to see you in every grace and beauty, in each face we see, in moments of joy and those that call for our compassion.

Help us to see and hear and know your steadfast love. Today.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, August 6, 2019

Mathew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

Always with you

It is a mystery to me why and how the faith I hold dear is typically considered a way of believing and not a way of being and living.

Maybe it is our own fault. Thousands of books, disgorged by Christian publishers for centuries, smugly parsed the fine details of Christian doctrine dismissing all those "other religions" which believe the wrong things. 

But listen: Obey everything I have commanded, Jesus says; follow my teachings, knowing I am with you. Always.

This is not about thinking the right thoughts, holding to correct doctrines or believing a set of affirmations about who God is. It is about hearing and entering the struggle to live the way of Jesus, always knowing that the Love we have seen and known in him is ever near and always will be.

His teachings, which we are to obey, challenge every part of our lives, but they are not hard to understand: Be merciful. Show compassion. Live with generosity. Seek to forgive. Trust there is a Love who knows our needs and treasures each and every one of us, even those we do not like. But be thankful for them, too. They will challenge you to learn to live with love and justice so that you may become like the Loving Mystery, Jesus calls, Father.

And always know: I am with you, Jesus says, no matter where you are, no matter what happens to you, no matter how you feel today or will tomorrow. I am. And I am with you. Always.

We are invited to know this Love, not as an idea but as a deep interior reality. In knowing, our hearts open to become the Love who love us.

Pr. David L. Miller  

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Psalm 90:1-2

Lord, you have been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. 

With an everlasting love

Home is wherever Love finds you. And wherever Love finds your heart … you are home … wherever you are.

You are the home for which we long, Holy One.

Deep hungers move us to press beyond ourselves, beyond where we are and what we know until we find the heart’s true home where our inner longings still … as we know: This is what we truly need, this is what we always wanted but could never name. Such is our human condition.

Wherever our daily journeys take us we search for the home beyond every home we have ever known, eager to enter that place, that condition of knowing the Love beyond all others, the everlasting home that stirs our longing.

Arriving there, knowing the place in our soul for even a moment, releases streams of living water, currents of peace flowing through the heart, freshening the soul with a joy known nowhere … but in you.

With an everlasting love, you seek us. In our in-most longings you draw us to yourself that we may abide in you, resting in the everlasting love you are.

Find us today, Holy One. Seek our hearts in all the places we go and through every face we meet. Speak our name through the voices of earth and sky, color and wonder. Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear you in the wonder of everything you have made.

Fill our hearts with the joy of being totally one with you, our home from everlasting to everlasting. Even one moment of this ecstasy is enough.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, July 30, 2018

Matthew 17:5-7

While [Jesus] was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Get up and do not be afraid.’

Get up and live

Do not let your heart be sad. Turn from every fear of what the future might bring. There is a voice that you long to hear in the depth of your being, a voice at once familiar yet far beyond your own.

It is the voice of Eternity, the voice of the One who alone can speak to the troubled and lonely corners of your being, a voice that knows every fear you have, every doubt that troubles your heart, and every wound you bear from days gone by.

The voice says once and for all time, “Do not fear. Get up. Live. Breathe. Know. Just know.”

There is a Love who knows you better than you know yourself, who knows what you need even when you cannot begin to say. There is One who dwells in the immeasurable moment of eternity and is present at the apex of your soul, hungry for you hear when fear or sadness drain energy and joy from your limbs.

Listen. Just listen to the Voice who speaks to you now: “Do not fear.”

It is the voice of the Beloved. The voice who speaks what Eternity is eager for you to know, completely, until it permeates your entire being: Do not fear.

The future will come with or without your anxious uncertainty of what the future will bring. Get up and live. Today. This day. It is all you have. It will be filled with hope and energy. Just hear this one exquisite voice.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Mark 14:32-36

They went to a place called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. And he said to them, ‘I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.’ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, ‘Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.’

Wakefulness          

Stay awake to who you are, to what you are called to be and do, for you are a word, a life, spoken by God as a partial expression of God’s own being.

Suffering and threat, discouragement and resistance from others and within yourself dissuades you from being that which you are. This is the central temptation of life, to be something other, something less than the soul you are.

An easier road appears that sidesteps the pain of speaking and living the truth of your life, of being the particular soul of love you are created to be and ever more to become. No human soul avoids this temptation, and everyone (except one, I suppose) falls under its sway at least sometimes.

Jesus does not fall to the power that opposes him and each of us. He prays. He stays awake to the power that tempts him and even more to the depth of his soul where he knows and hears the Voice of Love who tells him who he is and calls him to his mission.

He does not lose himself. He does not turn from the Love who lives within him to an easier way, but in suffering reveals the fullness of the divine heart, the Infinite Love who goes into death to break its power.

Staying awake is about knowing this Love, taking it in with every breath, sitting in silence and knowing you are not your mind, your thoughts, your accomplishments, failures nor even your hopes. 

You are not what others think of you nor the opinions you have long held about yourself.

Let it all go, and know: You are an expression of Everlasting Love. All that most matters is knowing this and living each moment in the freedom only such Love can give.

Life’s busy distractions and entertainments, its inevitable compromises, conflicts and pleasures, too, make it easy to lose yourself, to fall asleep and be so much less than you are. The best thing that can happen then is to feel the ache of incompletion within your heart, for that is the voice of Jesus calling you again to wake and know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

John 13:1-5

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.

Knowing who you are

Knowing who you are, you know what to do, and you have strength within to give yourself to it. Jesus knew. Do you?

He knew he would be betrayed. He knew he would suffer. But first he knew he was the presence of the Immeasurable and Inconceivable, the Love who is before time … and who is for us and all creation.

He knew the time had come to reveal the Heart who is our truest home. And knowing, he took a towel and washed the feet of his friends, like a servant. I cannot see this and not love him. It is impossible, for I see the Love by whom we are loved and I know who I am and who I can be, although I am so often not.

I am the object, the recipient, the treasured pearl of the One who is this Great Love. As are you.  

Imagine for a moment that it is your feet he washes. His hands move across the sole, then the toes, arch and top of your feet. See and know: It is our lives being caressed by the Love we have always needed but for which we could scarcely ask, ashamed of admitting our crying need and fearing such Love is impossible, an illusion.

But his hands tell us it is not illusion.

Jesus washes feet, a defining act, in which we know … who God is, who we are … and the Love we can share.

We are more blessed and noble creatures than we assume. We enter our true blessedness and nobility when we know, when the Love he is halts our driven lives and anxious efforts to prove our worth and asks, “Do you know?”

Real life starts in knowing.

Pr. David L. Miller

Saturday, June 30, 2018

John 11:32-37

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Why I believe

The way to understand Jesus’ divinity, his God-ness, is through the depth of his humanity, which is fully on display in these words. He comes, he sees the sorrow of people he loves and he stands at the tomb of a friend … and weeps.

I love Jesus for this. I don’t love Jesus for his power. I don’t love him because he did wondrous things, like raising his friend, Lazarus, from death.

I love him for his tears … for being profoundly human, for sharing human vulnerability and sorrow. 

Here I know: I am not alone. None of us are. This Love that he is … stands with us, mourning the destruction of life and beauty, aching for restoration.

The humanity of God glistens in his tears, revealing the depth of divine love.

In Jesus’ heart, there is a Voice who speaks, “This should not be! Life must not be reduced to dust. Beauty and joy, color and laughter must prevail, for that is my will, my hope, my dream.”

This is God’s voice, the Loving Spirit who filled Jesus from first to last through his life. Healing and hope begins here.

Our hope for new life each and every day, our hope for final resurrection begin in the wounded heart of God that refuses to be content with anything less than life, life healed, life restored, life raised from every death that lays us low.

Jesus invites us to the privilege of knowing God through his tears that we may know we are loved beyond all imagination by the One whose heart refuses to let us go.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, June 25, 2018

Mark 1:14-15

Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’ 

Today

Do you know what kind of world this is? Can you believe that today is extraordinary? Can you go beyond the mind you have and truly see the wonder into which you woke this morning?

Despite the bitter divides of the political realm, despite the dying and struggling that goes on in every land, place and family, despite the injustice and denial of mercy that wounds millions ... even helpless children longing for shelter, this is a world in which the kingdom of God is present.

Many things seem to contradict such faith, but the energy of God’s love is here and now.

You see and feel it in every act of grace, every small mercy and every impulse to care and love. You know it every moment your heart with gratitude yearns to cry aloud, “thank you!” Thank you for the sacred gift of life that animates our bodies and for every glimpse of light and color that delights our senses.

The anger and bitterness that poisons so much of our public and political life fixates our minds on the ugliness of the times, poisoning our souls, hardening our hearts.

From this Jesus graciously calls us to repent, that is to go beyond your present mind to a new mind, a new way of seeing, a way that must be re-claimed each new day. Look beyond what divides. Look beyond the bitterness of the news. Look beyond all that fixates the mind on what is small, petty and divisive.

Look into your own heart and see the hunger for love and beauty. Look at the beauty of flower and hear the laughter of children when they are really being children, unperturbed by all that preoccupies their elders. Look and see where beauty lies and what is graceful and good. Look and see.

You live in a world where the kingdom of God, the living presence of the Love, is alive and well. Look and see. Believe the good news.

Pr. David L. Miller

                                                              

Friday, June 22, 2018

Matthew 3:16-27

And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’

At one

Moments come when my heart and the heart of God are like two circles, one overlying the other. The circles intersect within me, at least in part, and love floods in through the place they overlap. 

The Spirit God flows through the opening into me.  My heart is lifted into an exquisite joy that is only known when the human soul is one with its Source.

The moment may not endure for long, but the awareness and joy lingers long after, filling the body with energy and joy, vitality and strength, and contentment with being exactly who one is—a soul made by and intended for this unity.

This experience helps me understand Jesus.

The title Son of God is not to be understood biologically but relationally. Jesus is the Son who lives in constant unity, oneness with God.

The circle of Jesus heart and the circle of the Holy Mystery overlap completely, one superimposed over the other so that divinity, the Loving Mystery, fills and flows through him without obstruction.

The Spirit is unimpeded in him. Spirit flows from eternity through his physical body to reveal the wonder God is, the Love God is, the healing God is, the abiding presence God is.

In moments of oneness, when the circles overlap however partially in my heart, I know. I know who God is, and Jesus is truly my brother and savior. What he knew in full ... I know in part, even as he leads me to know the fullness of the Love Who Is and who hungers to flow into us as we pray and live, opening ourselves to the Love who is ... everywhere.

Be at peace. We are, of all beings, most privileged to know this mystery.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Luke 15:17, 31-32

But when he came to himself he said, “How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
Then the father said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.”’

One thing doesn’t change

A man has two sons. One takes his inheritance while the father is still living, thinking he can separate from the family and make a better life elsewhere.

The older son stays home, works like a dog on his father’s estate, doing everything he thinks his father wants from him … and resents it.

How many sons does the father have? Answer: none. One discards his identity and treats his father as if he doesn’t matter. The other never accepts and claims his identity as a son. Neither of them realize who they are … or how privileged.

But the younger son comes to himself and realizes he has a home and a father to which to return. He doesn’t claim his identity right away. He returns home hoping for a job, believing he burnt his bridges so there’s no going back to where he started. He refuses to believe his father will accept him as a son until his father sees him coming and throws a party.

The elder never left but also never accepted that all the father has, the love, the wealth, the blessings … are all his. All he ever needed to do was accept and enjoy what is right in front of him. Instead he resents his father and refuses to celebrate his brother’s return.

How many sons does the father have now? Answer: one, unless the older son comes to his senses and joins the party.

The story is all about identity, ours and God’s. God is full of grace and love, giving us a privileged identity as blessed children, sharing the wealth of divine life and love with us. It is God’s good pleasure to do so.

All that is in Christ is ours—forgiveness and blessing, power and wisdom, and intimacy with the great love that is in him. This, too, is ours.

Accept it, trust it, receive and revel in being God’s beloved, a soul in whom God delights. This is who you are. Never forget it. Remind yourself of this central truth of your life every morning. Nothing that happens today … or ever … can change this.

It’s who you are … and who God is.                  

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, June 11, 2018

Luke 12:1-3

Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered in thousands, so that they trampled on one another, he began to speak first to his disciples, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, their hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be proclaimed from the housetops.

True to you

In ancient Greece, actors on the stage were hupocrites, in modern English, hypocrites. They wore the face of another who was not them. Their surface appearance didn’t reveal the truth, the heart of the person.

This was the problem of the Pharisees, Jesus said. They played a role. Everything looked good and righteous, pious and faithful. But on the inside their hearts were far from the justice and compassion that are true faithfulness to God.

They were pretenders for the sake of how others see them, driven by the ego’s need to look good in the eyes of others.

All humanity shares this affliction, of course. Too much of what is inside us is not fit for public viewing—our sin, angry words, nasty thoughts, judgmental opinions. We, too, shape our public image so that is better than what we know of ourselves.

God knows all this, of course, and loves us anyway—fully, totally, extraordinarily … and forever. We are sinful, but beloved sinners who should not think ourselves shameful or worthless because we fall short of the goodness God seeks in us.

Acknowledging and confessing our sin is not an exercise in groveling. It is the cure for hypocrisy. It leads us into greater awareness of the Love who wants and transforms us into people who are not actors but true expressions of the Love God is for us … and for all.

Holy One, this day may we live not for the sake of how others see us, but only for the sake of your love.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, June 8, 2018

Luke 18: 13-14

But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’

Just be and know

Each day is unique. We may be sick or well, full of energy or listless. Our hours may satisfy our hearts or feel empty of meaning and devoid hope for the things we most desire.

Our hearts may confuse and confound us, divided as we often are about what we most want and need to live a fulfilling life.

You ask only that we come to you bearing our sin, our confusion, our uncertainty and unfocused lives, and lay it all out before you, speaking whatever is in us.

For only by speaking, holding nothing back, can we arrive at the blessed place where inner silence becomes an experience of you. Quiet settles over the heart, and we know ... this Love that is ever and always present waiting for us. Our home.

And the path home is simple honesty about our humanity and need.

It’s simple, so simple we seldom walk this way. But when we do our hearts rest in a free space where we know the Love who lies at the center of the soul ... and there is no need to know or do anything else. Just be ... and know.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, June 4, 2018

Romans 7:22-25

I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Truly one      

The divided heart is the source of great pain. The ego demands recognition, achievement, seeking always to be respected and taken seriously. Beneath this, our basic physical desires drives us toward the pleasure and satisfaction of fundamental hungers as quickly as possible.

There is another desire as deep or deeper than these within us that seeks higher purpose. We seek to live at one, at peace, with a higher self, what some spiritual writers call ‘true self,’ identified by these and others as the image of God, or even as the “God-seed, within us.

Human hearts are at war with themselves, battlegrounds of opposing desires, until they surrender to the presence of Love, the true self, within. But it can happen in in surrender to Love. Until then, there can be no peace. But the peace of oneness comes.

It happens in moments when we know, just simply know, a great love within us for ourselves and for all creation. It happens when we experience our lives as a great gift, feeling the wonder of being alive, in existence and surrounded by a universe of color and immensity.

It happens when—for even the briefest of moments—the heart simply trusts that the Love it feels within and releases the ego’s insistent demands.  It happens when our hearts feel truly one, sharing union with the Love from which we can never be separated.

It is then that the hearts rests quietly with the heart of Christ within us, our small heart resting at peace inside the embrace of his great heart that embraces all things.

It is then that the internal war ceases, and the heart smiles, knowing … it has finally found home.

Pr. David L. Miller