Thursday, September 13, 2007

Today’s text

Luke 14:33

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Prayer

This should be a somber song, Jesus, but I hear your words and smile, and I wonder: Do you, too, wear a wry grin as you speak them? You should.

I am possessed by desires and needs, wants and compulsions all of which leave me in anxious bondage. I wake in the wee hours wondering: how will I get my work done? How can I redeem my clumsy failures of speech and leadership? Why did say that” How could I forget this? Is there anything in me worth sharing?

I cannot keep this melancholy soul afloat when night demons cackle. They stir a restless sea of anxiety over status and ego, affirmation and failure, revealing again that I am possessed by what some lost part of me imagines is required to justify this life.

And you come along, Jesus, telling me to give it all up. Little wonder that your words make me smile. You invite me to drop what is in my hands that I may embrace you, and find, finally, the day break of love eternal before which my melancholy flies and night demons flee.

May this smile give you praise all the day long.

Pr. David L. Miller