Friday, October 3, 2014

Today’s text

Romans 3:21-24

 But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus … .

Knowing … grace

Who blesses you? What blesses you? I asked this of a friend yesterday.

By blessed I mean that anxiety leaves you. It flies away. Doubts … about yourself, about what you have done or need to do … disappear. They are gone.

You know you can say anything, be utterly and totally honest about your fears or failures, what you have done or not done. You know you are accepted. You are free and know you are loved, accepted, treasured and beautiful … despite whatever confusion or confliction or troubles you have or will face.

The blessed have no need to prove themselves, to win approval or justify their words or actions as having been the right, proper or smart thing to do. There is just freedom of soul deep within.

Who … what … lifts you into this state of blessing?

There are moments we know blessing; in these moments we truly know … God.

Early this week I took my tired, confused and conflicted self to the back patio. I was hungry for a little peace and quiet. I wanted every other voice to fade away so I could hear the voice of my own depths, catch up with myself … and make sense of the thoughts and feelings stirred up by experiences of the day.

Drink in hand, I retreated to the back patio and sat in the sun, now gentle, having lost the harsh glare of summer. Bricks warm beneath my bare feet, a breeze released a rain of leaves from the birch tree, golden and brown, blanketing the earth.

I had thought to read, carrying a book, but reading was not on my soul’s agenda.

I simply sat, enveloped and encompassed by rays of the autumn sun that did not ask me for anything. Nor did I have to ask them to come and warm me, to surround and fill me. The sunlight just came, free and full, filling me with a gentle awareness that there was no need for me to do anything but to be there and to let the sun do its healing work on my soul, telling me again what blessing is … and what God is like.

God speaks to the listening heart: “All you need do is to sit in the sun and know … the Love I am comes to you not because you ask for it or deserve it, not because you have done something to prove yourself, but because I , the Lord, am who I am.

“I am the Love who reaches out to accept and justify sinners. I am Jesus Christ who touches and heals, welcomes and makes whole … not the well but the sick and the broken, the confused and the needy, the imperfect and those who lose themselves amid the conflicting demands on their lives.

“There is no need to justify yourself to me. No need to prove your worth. Just take your tired and wounded heart and sit in the places … and with the people … where you know my love freely given. I will do the rest.”

Pr. David L. Miller