Today's text
Matthew 24:36, 40, 44
[Jesus said:] “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father. … So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. … Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
Prayer
I should not be surprised that we cannot know the day or the hour. It has always been so.
For I remember, Jesus. I remember the despairing years of unending grayness. I remember the desperate wanting when I needed you to come to my heart, withered joyless in your absence. And even then, you still showed up, at least from time to time, startling my soul to tears in moments I could neither predict nor manipulate
And now, again, I stand in ready need of your arrival. I always stand in such need, Jesus. But there are times and days when I lose myself in the winds of circumstance, times when I am not myself, never more, always much less than when I am in your nearness.
Today is such a time. There is too much to do and think and too little time to feel and know just exactly what is happening in this soul of mine. And you know: I only know myself when I know your nearness, when you come with love and mercy, and my soul releases its conflicts and confusion into the enveloping ocean of your immensity.
I hunger to be myself, that which I am only in your inscrutable nearness, your all-embracing love.
So come, Lord Jesus, and keep coming.
Come with the final revelation of your holy reign. And until then, open our hearts to the sweet nearness of you who are ever here.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Friday, December 07, 2007
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Thursday, December 6, 2007
Today's text
Matthew 24:36, 40
[Jesus said:] “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father. … So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”
Prayer
What do I know for sure, Dear Friend? Not much, and little can I know, save your promise. All else I touch and know is temporal, changing, finite. Too soon it will pass away, all we know, our times and all we’ve touched with mind and hand.
I wish not to be morbid on a cold winter morning. The day is challenge enough, and a chilled soul offers no comfort when the air we breathe burns our lungs and bites our flesh.
We need a word of warmth, too, when times change: when people and places we have loved--and which have loved us--are carried on in that ever rolling stream, thinning the daily landscapes with which we have grown familiar. All our times end, and with an end a beginning, ready or not.
And here, Jesus, you tell me that I cannot know when this current will reach its destination and pour into the sea. Neither do you know. We know only your promise that there is an end to time when the Holy One will make justice and be mercy.
How? Who knows? But your promise stands firm amid our changing times and transitions. And a quiet comfort and calm humility floats through the heart’s chambers when we release our fevers into the assurance of your promise: “I will come to you,” you say. “I will come wherever you are and wherever you go. The master will not abandon the beloved.”
That is enough for us.
Come, Lord Jesus. May we stay awake to all your comings.
Pr. David L. Miller
Matthew 24:36, 40
[Jesus said:] “But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father. … So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.”
Prayer
What do I know for sure, Dear Friend? Not much, and little can I know, save your promise. All else I touch and know is temporal, changing, finite. Too soon it will pass away, all we know, our times and all we’ve touched with mind and hand.
I wish not to be morbid on a cold winter morning. The day is challenge enough, and a chilled soul offers no comfort when the air we breathe burns our lungs and bites our flesh.
We need a word of warmth, too, when times change: when people and places we have loved--and which have loved us--are carried on in that ever rolling stream, thinning the daily landscapes with which we have grown familiar. All our times end, and with an end a beginning, ready or not.
And here, Jesus, you tell me that I cannot know when this current will reach its destination and pour into the sea. Neither do you know. We know only your promise that there is an end to time when the Holy One will make justice and be mercy.
How? Who knows? But your promise stands firm amid our changing times and transitions. And a quiet comfort and calm humility floats through the heart’s chambers when we release our fevers into the assurance of your promise: “I will come to you,” you say. “I will come wherever you are and wherever you go. The master will not abandon the beloved.”
That is enough for us.
Come, Lord Jesus. May we stay awake to all your comings.
Pr. David L. Miller
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