Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Galatians 2:16

[Y]et we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.

Receive the day

One cannot earn what cannot be earned. One cannot pay for that which is freely given. And to offer payment in any form for a gift dishonors the heart of the giver.

And God’s heart is free and full, giving before any request can be made.

We are given life without asking to be born. We are given every new day without a prayer being offered. We receive the mystery of the person we are, shaped by forces of genetics, time and history, as a gift we continue to open up through the end of our lives.

Gift, grace, giving, giver. Oh, I should say, Giver.

No one can justify themselves to God, for God is Giver of all life and all that is, including this crazy life into which I wake each morning.

Actions, deeds, our works, however good … or evil … do not and cannot start or stop God’s self-giving, for the Holy One is a Loving Mystery who pours out Love and welcome to all that is, wanting only that we should receive with joy and live with generosity.

There is no way to justify yourself, to put yourself in proper relationship with such Love except by saying, ‘Thank you,’ and to sharing the Love who finds you on the journey.

Receive the day. It’s a gift from a great Giver you will never understand, except as you learn to love.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Acts 2:14-17a

 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: 
“In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ….

Crazy and free

It is amusing to me that witnesses to Pentecost thought Jesus’ disciples were preaching under the influence. I assume they were happy drunks, joyfully prattling on, syllables cascading across their fumbling lips and falling on ears barely able to separate out they were saying.

In vino veritas, the Romans say. In wine, truth.

For wine evaporates inhibition and sets the tongue free that hidden hearts might reveal themselves and buried truth might breathe.

So, I suppose the disciples were drunk or at least a bit tipsy. Their fears and inhibitions dissolved as they were filled with awareness of a Love who shatters all human expectations.

Speaking in every language of one truth, they told of Jesus, who shattered the ancient curse of separation from God and each other. They were one, one with him, one with the Love that filled them, breathing the Spirit of the One who was creating a new humanity with new hearts and minds.

We are called to this oneness, to know the infilling of the Spirit who is the Presence of the Love God is, a Love that never dies, that evaporates fear, that awakens hope, that makes you a little crazy and free so that some might wonder if you have been nipping at the bottle: Crazy and free to cast away every sadness and speak the Love we know, the Love who is, the Love who always will be.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Luke 24:44-53

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.

Another world

When I imagine this scene I think Jesus disappears from their sight into a cloud, but it might just as well be that he walked away and somehow stepped into another dimension, another universe parallel to our own.

It all seems too fantastic to believe except that our physicists now suggest parallel universes are likely not the figment of feverish imaginations. And who knows what time and space are like in those universes, or if time and space exist at all.

They may wrap around or penetrate this world in ways that affect our time and space. Perhaps the boundaries between our universe and others are thin.

It’s all beyond my feeble mind, but some things are not.

Jesus is received into the fullness of the Mystery from which he first came. With gentle ease, he enters that universe beyond our own because he is of one being this Mystery. He belongs to it. It is in him, dwelling deeply in him without separation.  

Everything he ever did or said expresses a dimension of reality, the truth of the universe from which he came and into which he passed when his time here was done.

When he passed from our dimension back into the one from which he came, he left with hands raised, palms out, blessing his friends that they might wait for the life that was in him to fill them. Then they were to take that blessing to the ends of this earth that our world may be infused with the wonder of a new world waiting to be born in us and every earthly place.

That was their job. And it’s still not done.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, April 28, 2016

John 14:23, 27

Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. … Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.’

One word

There is only one word in your vocabulary, Holy One. Love is the word, as Love is your nature, and we are to keep that word, the word that you are.

A successful day is any day where love is known and awakens the Love Who Is within us. All other days are lived far from the peace you alone give.

Funny that I should use such a word, success. I don’t really like it, and it is not typically considered a spiritual word. In fact, American visions of success are often defined by pursuits that hinder the spiritual life, wealth, fame, power, influence and status.

Jesus criticized making these things the focus of our lives, telling us instead to seek the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. His words and life define that righteousness.

He poured water in a pan and washed his friends’ feet, an act of humble loving service. This is the word we are to keep.

Keeping that word, we find that there is a Love in us we did not create but discover in our depths. This is the indwelling of God, and it is this indwelling that moves us to love in the first place. But in living this love we discover the Loving Mystery living in us.

It is a circle you can enter any point. You can discover Love living within and then live that love, or you can give yourself to this crazy world in acts of love and discover the Love Who Is was always there, in you, waiting to be known and cherished.

And to know you within, Holy One, to know the Love Who Is, is to enter the peace that Love alone can give.

The day is still new. Sleep has not yet fallen from my eyes. Coffee is yet required. But already I know you, and I know that I will enter the land of your peace this day. For you speak the one word you are in every love I meet and every love I feel.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, April 25, 2016

John 14:23, 27

Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. … Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.’

What truly is

Christian faith is inherently mystical. There is an indwelling presence we can know and be aware of as we walk through our days. 

This is the Presence of the One who dwells in the inmost soul, and in some sense is that soul, for we are the human, physical manifestation of the Great Soul of the One who is Love.

Our prayer and worship, our times of sharing our lives together help awaken awareness of what is true in every moment. We are never separate from the Holy One, who dwells in our utmost interior.

We ‘keep the word,’ living in relationship with Christ and those who seek and love him that we may enter and dwell in the truth of ourselves and of God.

Dwelling there, we know there is One we cannot fathom who has chosen, in utter love and gift, to dwell within us, to make the divine home in us. Knowing … a knowing that is awareness of Love’s dwelling within, we experience the peace the world cannot give.

We know we are not alone … and never will be, for we live in this Love and this Love lives in us.

Our despair and sadness come when the struggles of living, the disappointments of our lives, pull us from the awareness of what truly is. Those times come.

But just when it seems our true nature and the Presence of Love abiding feel lost forever, just when joy and hope are disappearing, just then another soul in whom Love dwells speaks a word, takes our hand, becomes the voice, the friend and companion who awakens our hearts once more to the Love who abides.

And again we know, we abide in a Love who never ceases to find ways to restore us to what truly is … and always will be.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Revelation 21:1-3

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them; 
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.’

Moments ...

I ache today, O Lord. I ache to know you, to find and feel your nearness in the eyes and hearts of others with whom I share this work, this faith, this struggle to know who we are in you and what we are to be.

I get weary of feeling alone sometimes. Cut off from friends who breathe life into me. Ignored by those I serve as if what and who I am make no difference, a wall flower at a party where I do not belong and at which no one really wants me, an irrelevancy, lost in world that has passed me by.

I hunger for community, to be touched, known, loved, treasured, and to belong to this new city, a soul community that is the home of the Loving Mystery who is the only true home we ever have.

Yes, I want to be home in the Love you are, a Love that lives in the eyes and hearts of those who truly know you. You live in communities where hearts can breathe the fresh air of freedom only Love truly provides.

I long for the city of God, a place, a time, even a moment, where being is all that is needed, where every breath draws in the Love who is the soul’s true home.

Send, O Lord, these timeless moments, of knowing.

Pr. David L. Miller

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Wednesday, April 13, 2016

John 10:27-30

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

Knowing ...

There is so much of life that is not lived in the joy, quiet or boisterous, of knowing.

Knowing the Mystery you are—the inward awareness of being with and in you—this is life far beyond the mere fact of existence and its assortment of activities.

I sit and listen. I touch a hand or look into the eyes of want or love or pain, emotions truly expressed, and I am, at times, rendered speechless. There is nothing I can say because, in the moment, I know this Mystery, this Love. You.

I am inside, sharing in the Life who is the Source of all existence, pleased to enter a world about which I knew nothing until my hair turned, a world where I am one with the Love whom I know and feel, one with the One whom I see and hear in the depth of others’ words and feelings, if only they could see and hear and know.

We carry the Loving Mystery in our depth, creations of the One Love who is before time. And this Love never casts us out. Nothing can or will separate us from the Loving Mystery within, the One from whom we live so far even though this One is so close.

We are one with the Father. This is the deep truth of our lives though we live far from it … and far from the joyful awareness that Jesus knew every moment.

So help us hear your voice, Jesus, the voice of oneness with the Father, that we, as you, may share the joy of eternal life, today.

Pr. David L. Miller

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Sunday, April 3, 2016

John 21:4-8

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the lake. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

Love sees

Only Love truly sees.  Love alone opens our heart to see the truth and need, the pain and joy of another human heart. Only love, a truly Great Love, evaporates our defenses so that we may be seen for what we are, in all our beauty and brokenness.

So it is not a surprise to me that it is the one you especially love who first recognizes you, Jesus.

When you are greatly loved … and greatly love …your senses are tuned to any and every sign of the Heart whose presence brings you joy.

The abundance of fish is a sign of the abundance of your love and life. But it is the one with whom you shared closest intimacy that sees beyond the outward sign to you. Your love of him … and his of you … opens his eyes that he may know you beyond, behind and within this moment at the shore.

He sees and knows … you are the Eternal Abundance of Love and Life who fills his heart as full as the net he hauls to the boat … and always will.

You are the fullness of God’s heart seeking to catch us all in your great net, bringing us home to the Love who is and was and ever shall be.

Moments come when I feel and know exactly what he knew that day on the shore. He saw and knew … you. And for the rest of his life, that is all he truly needed.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, April 1, 2016

John 21:1-4

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

The moment

I hold my breath, anticipating the moment, Jesus. Your friends will soon see you truly alive. Their hearts will burst with joy. Excited shouts will explode from their lungs as they race toward you, knowing … the Heart they most want and need is right there … with them.

They returned to their old life, fishing. It was what they knew. They could do it without thinking. Their arms and legs instinctively went through the motions.

But their minds were far away in another place and time. Their hearts bled for the One, the Great Love they had seen and known, the Loving Mystery for whom the world had waited through long, brutal centuries.

They had eaten and drank, held and kissed the cheek of the One, the only One who could soothe their aching eyes and fill them with the Great Love who is and was and ever will be.

They had walked and talked with the Holy Love who embraces all that is … and them, despite all the ways they failed him. Of all men and women who have ever lived, they were the most blessed … and the most wounded, for having betrayed him and watched his awful death.

Now, they go on, returning to something they know, trying to find a way to live without the One who is Life.

And I hold my breath, for I know: you are there, waiting at the shore. Always. The moment will soon come, and joy will fill every chamber of their aching hearts.

He stands there, waiting.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, March 28, 2016

From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday

I order you, O sleeper to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise up from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

We are one

Good and gracious God, this voice crosses many centuries to appear on the page of my prayer book.

I have no idea who wrote this sermon. The name and face are lost to history, but I recognize the voice. It is your voice, your truth and love speaking to the troubled and conflicted places in my heart.

You speak and heal me with a Love that awakens tears of joy and knowing what only the heart can.

I feel the worlds as much as I read and see them in my mind. I feel and know: you would not have me living in the hell of unknowing for even a single moment. Hell is not to know, to feel far off as when our sins and conflicts separate us from knowing the Love that is ours always.

So I turn from all that is petty and negative, from all that is dark and hurtful to the heart. I turn the eyes of my heart to what is light and love, to beauty and grace, and there I know you, shining like the sun, eyes lit with a love who wants and treasures me, removing all sin and shame, lifting every sadness and doubt.

Seeing you within, hell is banished. It cannot stand the joy of such Love unbounded.

I enter heaven and am blessed once more, knowing that we are never separate one from another. We are one person, your love living deep within my own love for you. These are not two but one.

All that I am is in you, encompassed in this great sea of love, and everything you are pours in and through me, leaving no room for anything but the love you are … and that we are … together.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

      I     Isaiah 65:23-25

They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.

Hope

Bring peace, O Lord, the peace that only you can bring. We have seen enough of death and killing, hatred and destruction. We ache for the peace of your kingdom where loving kindness fills the earth as water covers the sea.

This hope is not our own, Holy One. It is your gift, your Presence at the center of our souls. We carry you within. You are the Soul of our souls, the soul of the Universe who evermore presses forward in hope for the fulfillment that comes when the Love you are infuses every heart, every moment and every act.

This is not the world in which we live. The world of the morning news bleeds once more with stories of bombs and killing and death. The poison of hatred again denies the truth that the human family is one and when one bleeds we all bleed.

Your hope is that we may all be one, one with each other, an oneness that comes only as we are one with the One Love you are, one with the Love from which we come, one with the Love that is our truest and deepest soul, so denied whenever we hate.

For you are not hate; you are the Love the hopes even when the smoke of destruction fills the halls of airports and trains stations, even when poisoned souls regret that the death count is not higher.

Even then, you press on toward the hope to which you call us, the hope for which you made us. And so, we, too, must hope and press on, seeking to know and become the Love you are, the Love we are. For your Soul burns in our own, and that is why we hope … an ache that drives us evermore to you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

John 12:1-8

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’

From the heart

Mary moves me, O Lord. You draw near the end of your course, and she is ready. She has planned for this moment, eager to kneel at your feet to bless you. She watches and waits for the right moment when she can pour out her heart and reveal the exquisite beauty of a soul that knows you.

She moves me. I watch her and weep as she pours out the perfume. Hers is a love that cannot be contained. All that matters to her is loving you, blessing you, releasing the rush of love that overflows her heart’s deep reservoir.

She lives from the heart, and I want her near always, for I want to live from the heart. Anything less is not quite human. So I watch, hoping to touch her, hoping her beauty will touch and awaken my guarded heart that I, too, may pour out the fullness of my heart to you and all you love.

I don’t know why Mary loves you as she does. Perhaps you healed or blessed her. Or maybe seeing you heal and bless moved her to love whatever you are and whatever is in you.

It was grace that brought her to her knees to show such love for you. That’s who you are. You are the grace from the Holy One from whom we all receive grace upon grace. And having received we become the beauty you are, like Mary kneeling at your feet.

As a young man, I wanted knowledge, insight, great learning. Now all that really matters is becoming as she is.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

Smiles

I saw a smiles this week that lit up my heart, eyes sparkling with loving joy that tap a fountain of tears in my soul. It had been too long since I felt that light and tasted those tears.

Those smiles awakened life in me, reminding me that you, Holy One, are alive in me. You are those tears and the light that sets me free from dark drudgery when worry and too many details weigh my heart.

I see what I am and who I am to be in the smiles that lifted me. I saw you smiling in their eyes, and felt how hungry you are to be the light that burns brightly in my soul and lights up rooms when I enter.

I am a vessel of your life sent to be a light to those in the dungeons of doubt and despair, guilt and shame, worry and sadness. You send us as to shine with the light of your presence that the souls of all you love may truly live.

Isaiah’s words are a call to know and make known the freedom found nowhere but in the Eternal Love who lights the earth with every dawn and sprinkles the night sky with the starlit wonder of a billion distant suns.

But those smiles are brighter and more powerful than all those suns.

They awaken your living presence in sleeping souls and light human eyes with loving joy and everlasting hope. They breathe the exquisite air of your life into our lungs and we live, truly live.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Isaiah 42:5-7

Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it: 
I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations, 
   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

To be human

This is an identity to be known and a mission to be lived.

For freedom you come to us, Holy One, opening our eyes to see and truly know the freedom that comes from knowing you.

From ancient times until now your messengers did not come to bind people’s hearts but to release them to become what you always intended … human.

To be human is to raise your hands and heart to the sky in gratitude for life; to open your arms in loving welcome to others; to receive the day with hope knowing all it holds is a holy gift to be opened wide-eyed like a child on Christmas morning.

To be human is to live with joyous expectancy despite disappointments and struggles because Love is and always has one more surprise.

The ancient prophet, Isaiah, spoke to a people in bondage, held captive by a foreign invader. But deeper still was the bondage that held their hearts and minds.

They were failing to hope that they would ever see and touch home again. Their minds could only conceive a life … a half-life … lived in bondage, far from the hills and streams, people and places where they truly knew, loved and worshiped you.

They had begun to settle for less than their full humanity because they failed to know your fullness, Loving Mystery.

You called them to be a people revealing what it meant to trust and serve the abundant heart of the One who stretched out the heavens like a sheet.

“Look up,” you said then … and now. “Look at the panoply of the heavens. Breathe the sweet air of earth and know: It is I who made them. The Love from whom they come … comes now to shatter the chains that bind your hearts and minds from the prison of fear and doubt, shame and guilt.

“I come that you may know the freedom for which I made you.”

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Isaiah 41:17-20

When the poor and needy seek water,
   and there is none,
   and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
   I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water. 

I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
   the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive;
I will set in the desert the cypress,
   the plane and the pine together, 
so that all may see and know,
   all may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
   the Holy One of Israel has created it. 

Stream of grace

I am drawn to water. My ideal home would be near a stream or a lake where I look out and see the sun rise or set on the water’s face. I would watch as earth’s fiery star turns the deep into a pool of wondrous color and be amazed that I am alive and able to feel the moment, falling in love again each day with life and the One from whom every moment comes.

Lakes awaken stillness in my heart, but I prefer water that moves, a stream or a great river that rolls ever onward to the next larger river and then to the sea, pouring into the deep, the sun recycling each drop that the rains may fall, awakening the earth to grow green and alive with color … and hope.

Sitting by the water, listening to the hush of a slow current or the chatter of a stream tripping among the rocks brings peace.

It quiets and assures the heart of a deep mystery: Despite the dry, hot places in our lives, life-loving grace is always flowing from the Heart of Wonder to our hearts. And if we are quiet and watch for a moment, it just may flow into us and fill us so full that tears of thanks will water our cheeks with the grace of gratitude.

You are the stream of grace that flows through all time and space. The river ever rolling from time unknown through the times of our lives, slaking our thirst when desert days scorch joy from our hearts.

You are the spring of life rising from earth’s secret center, bubbling fresh in smiles of love, the laughter of friends, the beauty of this unspeakable wonder we call a world and the fresh joy of awakening each morning to a new day, a truly new day.

For all this, accept my evening praise.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Isaiah 41:17-18

When the poor and needy seek water,
   and there is none,
   and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them,
   I the God of Israel will not forsake them. 
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
   and fountains in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
   and the dry land springs of water. 

Water life

I find my way back here again where water so often flows, hoping that the River of Love you are may awaken within … and a trickle may become a fountain … and a fountain a flowing stream. Only then am I truly alive; only then am I truly myself.

So, I come here to speak and listen through these faulty fingers that hit more wrong keys than right. It’s a fitting metaphor of this life where I miss the mark as often as not.

I get lost in the anxious details of living, gripped by longings I cannot still, aching to feel fully alive and free. And I am dry, thirsty to feel and know you in my deepest heart.

That’s why I am here, praying with these fingers, searching for words with just the right sound and rhythm that will awaken the flow of Love that you are in the depth of this soul. For I want nothing more than to feel one with you, the One I most need.

Millions before me thirsted for you and thirst now to be cooled in the deserts of living by gentle waters that still the heart.

I will not curse this desert of soul where thirst is all I know of you. For thirst gives rise to desire and desire to seeking and crying out to know your nearness. And it is in the crying out that I feel and know you.

My cry is more than matched by your ache for me. Could it be that you are as thirsty for me as I am for you? I believe it is true.

You are not content until I drink from the endless flow of Love that never runs dry, sitting still to hear the flow of living water from the deep pool of your soul.

You are a bottomless sea of Love, Holy One. And I? My soul is a pool of Love, replenished from your endless source each time I come here to sit with you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, February 15, 2016

Isaiah 40:3-5

A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
   make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be lifted up,
   and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
   and the rough places a plain. 
Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
   and all people shall see it together,
   for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ 

A way in the wilderness

My heart seems a wilderness, O Lord. I cannot find or make a straight path there. Nor can I fill in the valleys of melancholy into which I sometimes fall.

I long for the hills, the high places where my heart touches the cobalt sky, where I know the Love you are and know it in me, for me, flowing through me … and everything, everywhere.

I know your glory then, the glory of a Love at the heart of all things … and me. Nothing, absolutely nothing else matters then, for I know: all is well and held in the Love you are that will bring us all home.

But then, knowing your Love … I am home already.

I don’t want to plow down the heights of the hills and make them a plain. That’s where I see who I am, who you are and learn to recognize you in the hearts and eyes of others in the hills and valleys of living.

Your command to make a straight path, a smooth place runs contrary to everything about the human heart. There is seldom anything straightforward about why we do what we do. A twisting mystery of intention and apparent chance brings us to our current places and directs our futures. And life is never smooth for long.

So maybe you mean we need to prepare a way for you to come to us … or prepare ourselves to see and know you when you appear.

Maybe we are to stir our hope when we are in the valleys, and get off our high horses of ego and pride when too self-important, so that our hearts are clear and open to receive you who are ever present and loving, eager for us to know the Love that turns our souls into fountains of life, as you just have for me … again.

Your way is made straight at the tip of these fingers.

Pr. David L. Miller