Thursday, December 4, 2008

Today’s text

Mark 1:4-8

John the Baptist was in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptized by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins. John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey. In the course of his preaching he said, 'After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.'

Reflection

Come, Lord Jesus. Pour your Spirit into my hesitant heart.

My soul fears its failures and knows its weaknesses. I equally fear the freedom you bring to all on whom you pour your Spirit.

Do I really want to live freely, giving myself fully to those you have given me to love, serving without reserve those you have placed in my care?

I know this soul of mine. For all my impulsiveness, my heart holds back from those with whom I do not feel the ease of acceptance, those with whom I disagree, those who may look on me with doubt or suspicion.

It is typically human, I know. But my old wounds require a wall of protection that is exactly what your Spirit would strip from me, exposing my heart to hearts I do not know and have not yet learned to trust.

You invite me to trust you more than measures I use to cushion myself from the pains of leading and loving, from the vulnerability of opening my heart beyond its comfort zone.

But entering such vulnerability and encountering my weakness is exactly what I must do if I am to be human, human the way that you are, human the way you intend for all who love you.

So come, Lord Jesus. Fill me with the Love that is your Spirit. Then, knowing the Love you are, I will know there is nothing to fear … but missing you.

Come, Lord Jesus. Pour your Spirit into my hesitant heart.

Pr. David L. Miller