Friday, January 18, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 36:7-9

How precious, God, is your faithful love. So the children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your house, you let them drink from your delicious streams; in you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.

Reflection

Where will I drink today? Who will be the source of water that gives life to my soul? What sight will delight my heart and breathe the lightness of joy into my being?

Yesterday morning could I have guessed a thin boy named Troy would stop me in my tracks? Could I have known that his words, learned from me two years ago, would sit me back in my chair and render me speechless?

I didn’t know, but I know you, Lord, so I should not be surprised that streams of life appear on Thursday evenings as confirmation students scatter.

Troy’s mother approached me at the close of confirmation class as several dozen young bodies fled down the hall. I had prayed quickly at the end of our time, knowing we were late.

But they stayed. They told me my prayer echoed phrases of an ancient prayer I had taught this group years before.

I had forgotten that. But not Troy.

He spoke the ancient words, “Lighten our darkness, O God … .”

I felt his words and the beauty of a young soul not so different from my own when I was 13. I felt a love and longing for you, Holy One, in Troy’s heart … and mine.

And for a moment, I couldn’t speak.

I should not have been so surprised that a delicious stream of mercy and life would appear on a Thursday night, in a confirmation student … or anywhere at all.

There is nothing surprising about it. That’s the way you are. You are a delicious stream reviving my soul and breathing life into me.

And each time this happens I know the greatness of your faithful love. I know there is no need to find you because you find me. Again and again.

And again and again, I go my way in peace, my soul calm and at rest knowing there a God, a Mercy, who lives and flows, bringing delicious waters to the thirsty.

So I wonder, where will I drink today?

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Today’s text

Psalm 36:5-9

Yahweh, your faithful love is in the heavens, your constancy reaches to the clouds, your saving justice is like towering mountains, your judgments like the mighty deep. Yahweh, you support both man and beast; how precious, God, is your faithful love. So the children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the bounty of your house, you let them drink from your delicious streams; in you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.

Reflection

There are mornings the soul is tired and resists waking. The mind wants only rest, not thought or emotion, just quiet. Even the most gentle exertion of mind disturbs the heart’s desire … just to be.

This is such a day. Rest of soul and quiet of mind is my desire, and your words, Holy One, invite me into this space before the day’s activities pull me into engagement with souls in need and calls I must make.

I come to the quiet and find you here.

I hear words of an ancient soul who looks at the mountains and clouds floating above them. He surveys the vast sea and is moved to know your unlimited greatness, your merciful presence which knows no boundaries and is never hemmed in.

He drinks in that image as it moves awareness in his soul. The immensity of your creation and the generosity of your heart create quiet knowing in his soul.

He knows you are his help and will surround him on every hand, and he rests.

I come to the quiet and rest.

You are here, waiting in the silence to touch my soul and tell me there is no need to force the mind into thought before it is ready. There is no need to push the soul to feel what it is not ready to feel in this morning hour.

This no need for anything but to be, to rest, to let ancient words awaken whatever they move in mind and heart.

You are my rest before this day. You are my peace. You are the quiet of this space and the quiet of my soul.

You are the silent assurance awakened within my morning mind, the assurance that I will know souls where love and you abide this day.

I will touch and pray, smile and laugh and know you in the faces and needs I meet.

My body and mind will be lifted from rest to see and be the love you are, simply because I have come once more to the quiet where I need do nothing but to be … with you.

And I know that even as you lie waiting in the quiet of this space for me, you await my coming in the hearts of the lives that I see … this day.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, January 14, 2013

Today’s text

Isaiah 62:4-5

No more will you be known as 'Forsaken' or your country be known as 'Desolation'; instead, you will be called 'My Delight is in her' and your country 'The Wedded'; for Yahweh will take delight in you and your country will have its wedding. Like a young man marrying a virgin, your rebuilder will wed you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.

Reflection

We live in two overlapping spheres, or so we imagine. Most often we think we live on an earthly, material plane and try with mind and heart to reach another, ‘higher’ plane, the realm of the spirit where we feel ourselves as so much more than flesh and blood.

Lifting our minds into that space we close the gap between ourselves and God, the Transcendent One. But, unfortunately, most of our time and energy is spent on material matters, earthly things that do not touch the deeper substance of who we are--or excite our souls with the touch of transcendence.

We are locked into this material, mortal plane, or so we think. We are wrong.

The marriage of heaven and earth, eternity and time has happened in time and space. The blessings of tomorrow come to us today. Eternity is known in the beauty of the moment as the Lord of heaven and earth pours the divine substance of love and grace, life and wonder into each little moment of time.

Begging us, God does, to look and see, to watch and know that transcendence doesn’t wait for our arduous striving. Delight is not a rare occasion.

It is as present as each sunrise and as close as the breath in our lungs, as sweet as the sound of children singing and as fresh and new as the ability to enter one more day … where we can know and share the touch of life and love in our hearts and on our flesh.

The uplift of transcendence, the higher realm and deeper awareness we seek to feel overlaps and penetrate our time and place. The material world bears the wonder who is the Wonder from which all life springs.

Heaven has married earth … with delight, and delight thus sprinkles our days.

We have no need to lift our hears, to strive to enter some higher plane but need only to look and see, feel and know the wonder of living, the beauty of life and grace of loving.

Our flesh, our hands and feet, our smiles and touch carry us into that higher realm … to the abode of the Holy One, for whom we hunger.

And our knowing tells us the truth … neither we nor this good earth are or will ever be forsaken, for earth has become the doorway to grace of heaven.

Pr. David L. Miller