Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Today’s text

Philippians 4:4

Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful.

Reflection

Help me rise, dearest Friend. Draw every thought to you. Take one each captive that my soul may transcend the moods that weigh my heart.

I long for distant voices I have missed for many weeks. My heart wants to fly, but cannot elevate above the carpet, weighted, as it is, with worry and impotent imaginings of what might be happening to my beloved.

Necessary details of living--letters to write, calls to make, the little logistics of meetings, programs and classes--gobble the hours, consuming the days. The heart trudges through all the while longing to return to the essential.

And that, dear Heart, is you.

You dwell in this laden heart of mine. And joy comes only as I stop to listen, heart to Heart, to the eternal Heart of your nearness, abiding within.

Joy flows from this secret place. It is irrational, really. It makes no sense. The days do not grow shorter … or easier, when I fly to this gracious space. I am no more accomplished or competent and have won no successes anyone might see.

But joy comes as I turn my eyes in to listen again to you, the Heart of my heart. Little wonder, I suppose, for there I know myself in you, truly inside your immensity, the soul enveloped in its true home.

And there is joy. But of course, that’s where joy dwells.

So I can be joyful … in the Lord.

Pr. David L. Miller