Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Today’s text

3 John 1:13-14

“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”

Prayer

Safe within my cell, I write these words to you, Great Mystery. Playful music dances in thin air, a wordless prayer for you to come into this space to make words appear in my emptiness, words that will wing me into your nearness.

I like it here, alone, away from the feverishness of the day. All that matters is listening and being true to what you give, or at least to what I perceive you want me to share. There are days I never want to leave this space. It is holy and quiet, and the music bears me into you where I taste again that which I love best.

But there is work to do, faces to meet, books to read, documents to craft, consolation to share with souls needier than mine. And you made me for this work. So I go, however reluctantly, from this quiet place into that tiny corner of creation on which you would have me pour the oil of care and gladness that souls might be healed.

I wish I were as eager to move from solitude into daily encounters as are those who serve you better than I can. But that it is not how you made me. Yet I pray, Loving One, let me bear the love I know here into my every encounter with your saints, your world. Move me again from blessed solitude to reveal to each face just how beloved they are to you.

Let me speak face to face that love I savor in this silence that I might be true to the words that appear in my emptiness. Amen.

Pr. David L. Miller