Today’s text
1 John 1:4-5
Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete. This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
Reflection
Each morning I pull back the corner of the drapes in the bedroom and look east, into the coming day. I want to see the pale blue of clear days just before the sun rises above the trees.
I don’t always get what I want. Some mornings promise only gray skies. That’s alright, but my heart is brighter on days when the air is clear and the sky transparent, eagerly waiting for the sun to fill the Earth with light.
And to fill me.
I, too, am filled with light on such mornings, and I know what it is to be light, to know the light of God far beyond the promising light of morning.
You are light, Holy One. I know your light as interior experience, an intuition not only on bright but gray days as well.
But this day is bright, as are all days when I know you as internal brightness, the joyful lilt of heart that is ready to welcome each face the day brings, receiving all that comes with a gentle and open spirit beyond all defensiveness and fear.
Filled with light and joy, knowing not an iota of anxiety, I … I love. Love flows freely because my heart is filled with the light you are. In this state, I begin to see as you see, to understand as you understand, to love as you love.
I sense how you see me and all that is. You hold us in loving joy, in this appreciative delight that fills me. I experience a lightness of being, lightness of soul, and all that is shines in its created beauty.
My eye and heart is open and eager not to grasp the day and claim it as my own, but to gently receive it, appreciating each moment as a holy gift.
I am free from every need to be something, prove something or do something other than to bask in the light that fills me--and to know the joy of the One who is light.
You are light, Holy One, and there is no darkness in you. Flood my heart with light all this day that I may continue to taste the joy that is in you.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
Posts
All Comments
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Today’s text
1 John 1:1-4
Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete.
Reflection
The place of joy is not a place but a movement, a flow, ever changing and always new. Joy is not a point of arrival but a way of being and living, the way of sharing life and emotion, experience and wisdom.
Joy happens when you are caught in … or surrender to the flow of love and life that moves from the Infinite Source to the Son, Jesus, who is the gracious face of the Eternal Mystery who cannot be seen or touched or known.
Love and life flows from the Father, the Source, the Eternal Mystery, to the Son … and onto us. Jesus shares intimate fellowship with the Father whose being flows into him … and onto us as we live in communion with him and all those who enjoy communion with him.
The result is joy. It cannot be otherwise. In the communion of receiving and sharing the love and life of our Source, we are at home, a home that is not a place but a way of being.
The way is receiving, again and again. No, constantly, each day allowing the flow of love from the Father wash over us and move us however and in whatever direction it may take us, nudge us.
The way of joy is to flow with the current of life and love from God, which means not grasping or holding fast to the life we have received or to whom we think we are.
We hold our lives as in an open hand, allowing what is there, what is in us and who we are to flow onto others that the life that is in us and the love we know is a current coursing from us to others.
Just so, we are part of the river, joined in the common current of love and life that emerges from the Source, the Father, the Infinite Mystery, the Eternal One.
Joy is being, knowing and feeling oneself in such shared fellowship where who and what we are is shared, flowing to others even as their wisdom, struggle and grace, their pains and joys flow from them to us and others in this stream of life.
Our lives are not a possession to be grasped tightly in fearful hands. Grasping brings more fear; opening heart and mind to receive and share is the way of joy through which the river grows wide and deep.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 1:1-4
Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete.
Reflection
The place of joy is not a place but a movement, a flow, ever changing and always new. Joy is not a point of arrival but a way of being and living, the way of sharing life and emotion, experience and wisdom.
Joy happens when you are caught in … or surrender to the flow of love and life that moves from the Infinite Source to the Son, Jesus, who is the gracious face of the Eternal Mystery who cannot be seen or touched or known.
Love and life flows from the Father, the Source, the Eternal Mystery, to the Son … and onto us. Jesus shares intimate fellowship with the Father whose being flows into him … and onto us as we live in communion with him and all those who enjoy communion with him.
The result is joy. It cannot be otherwise. In the communion of receiving and sharing the love and life of our Source, we are at home, a home that is not a place but a way of being.
The way is receiving, again and again. No, constantly, each day allowing the flow of love from the Father wash over us and move us however and in whatever direction it may take us, nudge us.
The way of joy is to flow with the current of life and love from God, which means not grasping or holding fast to the life we have received or to whom we think we are.
We hold our lives as in an open hand, allowing what is there, what is in us and who we are to flow onto others that the life that is in us and the love we know is a current coursing from us to others.
Just so, we are part of the river, joined in the common current of love and life that emerges from the Source, the Father, the Infinite Mystery, the Eternal One.
Joy is being, knowing and feeling oneself in such shared fellowship where who and what we are is shared, flowing to others even as their wisdom, struggle and grace, their pains and joys flow from them to us and others in this stream of life.
Our lives are not a possession to be grasped tightly in fearful hands. Grasping brings more fear; opening heart and mind to receive and share is the way of joy through which the river grows wide and deep.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Today’s text
1 John 1:1-3
Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Reflection
I envy those who saw and knew Jesus in the first generations of the church.
I don’t want to live in that more primitive time. I like our modern comforts. But I would have been deeply moved to sit at the feet of people who actually knew Jesus, touched him and felt what it was l like to be near him.
Even at this distance, I imagine the amazement in their faces and the glow in their eyes at the wonder they felt. I see and hear as they struggle for words to speak what they saw and felt and knew.
And I see myself in rapt attention, waiting for their words and presence to carry me away into the Eternal Presence where the soul tingles with joy in the awareness of being in God, inside the eternal and all-loving.
I can imagine and feel this only because I have sat at the feet of those whose bearing and words conveyed the presence of that which was from the beginning. I have known those who lived in such close communion with God, the Father, and Jesus, his son, so that eternity was in them, visible and touchable, touching me.
Their presence bore the Presence of the unseen God. Their faces shared the light that filled the face of Jesus. They knew what it was to share wordless communion with the Holy Presence, and their presence shared the light and warmth of the Holy Presence of those who were near.
We share and speak what have seen and known, what we have touched and what has touched us.
I need not return to the first century to know the hearts who knew Jesus alive and risen. I need only be with those who live in communion with him, to hear their words and listen to what is in their hearts.
Time is no obstacle to seeing and knowing him. He is as near as the light in the eyes of those who love him, as close as those who abide in the mystery of eternal love.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 1:1-3
Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us. We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Reflection
I envy those who saw and knew Jesus in the first generations of the church.
I don’t want to live in that more primitive time. I like our modern comforts. But I would have been deeply moved to sit at the feet of people who actually knew Jesus, touched him and felt what it was l like to be near him.
Even at this distance, I imagine the amazement in their faces and the glow in their eyes at the wonder they felt. I see and hear as they struggle for words to speak what they saw and felt and knew.
And I see myself in rapt attention, waiting for their words and presence to carry me away into the Eternal Presence where the soul tingles with joy in the awareness of being in God, inside the eternal and all-loving.
I can imagine and feel this only because I have sat at the feet of those whose bearing and words conveyed the presence of that which was from the beginning. I have known those who lived in such close communion with God, the Father, and Jesus, his son, so that eternity was in them, visible and touchable, touching me.
Their presence bore the Presence of the unseen God. Their faces shared the light that filled the face of Jesus. They knew what it was to share wordless communion with the Holy Presence, and their presence shared the light and warmth of the Holy Presence of those who were near.
We share and speak what have seen and known, what we have touched and what has touched us.
I need not return to the first century to know the hearts who knew Jesus alive and risen. I need only be with those who live in communion with him, to hear their words and listen to what is in their hearts.
Time is no obstacle to seeing and knowing him. He is as near as the light in the eyes of those who love him, as close as those who abide in the mystery of eternal love.
Pr. David L. Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)