The place of knowing

Thursday, October 17, 2019

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering." (Luke 11:52) 

Grant, Holy One, that I should know you and share what little I am able to understand, which is very little indeed.

But this much I know: The soul’s knowledge of you is not a pedestal from which to look down upon others, imagining one is more advanced in some way.

That is the great sin of the proudly “religious,” anxiously imagining they are “right” or somehow better than those they critique.  

There is no such advancement in me. I remain forever a beginner in this life, so often falling back on myself, failing to live and love what you have been so willing to share with me of your own divine heart.

This is why I so desperately return to this, my holy space, where you seem so pleased to meet me, and I am so blessed to know that I am always welcome, I … such as I am.

So I return and ask: Tell me again. Speak to my heart once more. Give me that knowledge that is you, and I will struggle (it’s the best I can do) to share what this heart knows, if only I can find words and ways to express the mystery that inexplicably lives in my heart.

The ways and words of others who love you have been the door though which I entered the wonder of your loving presence.

May I, too, in this time of my life, be a door through which others may enter the place of knowing.

Pr. David L. Miller

To know and flow

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

“So give for alms those things that are within; and see, everything will be clean for you."    (Luke 11:41)

To know and flow

How many gifts remain ungiven because we hesitate? How many gracious words of blessing and thanks remain unspoken, hidden in our hearts because we did not take that next step to act or speak what our hearts knew and felt within?

The Spirit moves the heart, urging us beyond ourselves to turn holy intentions into gracious realities that we might move with the Spirit.

Our joy and purpose is to know and flow with the current of God’s love. The Love who is God’s Spirit within us awakens desires to bless and give, to care and encourage, to make our corner of the world more gracious, humane and beautiful.

The Spirit gives birth to such blessed newness in our hearts, eager for us to give what we have been given, to speak the blessing and joy that others need, to share the gifts that will relieve a burden and lift a heart.

Do not wait. Do not tell yourself that there will be time later. Do not let the pace of life drown out the Spirit’s voice, distracting you from the holy purpose and impulses the Spirit stirs in your heart.

Those stirrings are a gift, a reminder that the Holy One loves you and loves for you to be an expression of divine warmth in a world where so many feel the cold ache of loneliness.

The time is now. Today is the day of salvation. The Spirit stirs your heart. The Holy One waits with eager expectation for your response … that the Love beyond all naming may be known … through you.

Pr. David L. Miller