Today’s text
3 John 1:13-14
“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Prayer
Arrivals and departures mark our days, Eternal One. Beloved friends and family move far to fresh places and chapters. Others come into our days, or they return from time away. We hope to know them still, and that they will know us, too, in the comfortable ways we once shared.
Every coming and going emblazons a bittersweet truth in my soul, as If I had to learn it anew. Nothing is forever. I know it all too well; must life or you keep reminding me, Ancient One?
The goodness I now know, the faces and laughter, the gentle moments with beloved will not endure. Nor will I. And my efforts to share the depth of my heart with those you have given me fail miserably and often. Face to face, I would speak the love I have known in them and the love in which I treasure each one, words too often unspoken or poorly so.
Help me, dearest One, to speak the love and wisdom you have given me to share, that the life I share with others may be life indeed, rich in the incarnation of your divine heart. May needed words be spoken that your joy and ours may be complete.
And remind me, too, that even my missed and failed opportunities are not lost in your eternity. You redeem every moment, joining each one with the dancing love of your life that even our bitterness might be kissed with your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
Posts
All Comments
Monday, July 23, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:11a-12
“Whoever does what is good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.”
Prayer
Who is this faithful soul to whom the truth and your beloved saints testify? Is he a community leader? Perhaps the messenger who carried this little letter into the congregation? Is he just one more faceless name in 20 centuries of those who have loved and hoped in you, dearest Jesus?
But he is not faceless is he, Holy Mystery? His faithfulness and care, his love and service shine with the crystalline illumination of your holy face, a face no one has seen.
Yet I have seen. We have seen you many times in the care and justice, love and peace of faithful souls alight with your wonder. Their faces shine in our hearts and memories. We have been loved into life by them, and through them we have received you, grace upon grace.
So if may, my Lord, let me speak to Demetrius and to all who now rest in paradise with you, enjoying that beatific vision that is yet denied me: Thank you for your faithful witness. Thank you that your lives shined with a love as ancient as eternity. Thank you that your flesh became for me the flesh of my friend and brother Jesus. Thank you.
And thank you, Loving Mystery, for taking flesh and soul in the lives of your beloved, from Demetrius through all generations, and in me. I, too, bear your wonder. Thank you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:11a-12
“Whoever does what is good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.”
Prayer
Who is this faithful soul to whom the truth and your beloved saints testify? Is he a community leader? Perhaps the messenger who carried this little letter into the congregation? Is he just one more faceless name in 20 centuries of those who have loved and hoped in you, dearest Jesus?
But he is not faceless is he, Holy Mystery? His faithfulness and care, his love and service shine with the crystalline illumination of your holy face, a face no one has seen.
Yet I have seen. We have seen you many times in the care and justice, love and peace of faithful souls alight with your wonder. Their faces shine in our hearts and memories. We have been loved into life by them, and through them we have received you, grace upon grace.
So if may, my Lord, let me speak to Demetrius and to all who now rest in paradise with you, enjoying that beatific vision that is yet denied me: Thank you for your faithful witness. Thank you that your lives shined with a love as ancient as eternity. Thank you that your flesh became for me the flesh of my friend and brother Jesus. Thank you.
And thank you, Loving Mystery, for taking flesh and soul in the lives of your beloved, from Demetrius through all generations, and in me. I, too, bear your wonder. Thank you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:11
“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
Prayer
All rests upon seeing you, Blessed Goodness. The shattering image of absolute goodness, whole and true, pure and undiluted dissolves and washes clean the encrustations of evil on the human heart.
You are whole-hearted and full, given utterly to life itself, taking delight in all that is, weeping tears of joy at the beauty of earth and its sorrow, wanting nothing more or less than to wrap all that is in the loving joy ecstatically dancing in your inner life.
I have no words for this. How dare I speak of your inner life, for you have no inner or outer? You are pure Being Itself, life without limit. You simply are. And you are goodness, that eternal ecstatic dance of love within and beyond our human time and space. Forgive my presumption, my daily assaults on your immense majesty, my constant failure to bring to words the loving wonder of your goodness.
But how can I not speak of that intuition of your loving presence that never goes away? It is always there, however vague or obscure. How can I not seek to capture the dancing fire of your life, since it is my greatest need, a need you fashioned in my depths?
I hunger to see and snare with words the goodness you are. When I see you I am free and full and finally myself, that expression of your love that you intend in creating me, light of heart and walking lightly upon your earth.
So let me capture with mere words something of your undiluted goodness, that, seeing you, I may join the dance of your delight in my little moment of your eternity. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:11
“Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
Prayer
All rests upon seeing you, Blessed Goodness. The shattering image of absolute goodness, whole and true, pure and undiluted dissolves and washes clean the encrustations of evil on the human heart.
You are whole-hearted and full, given utterly to life itself, taking delight in all that is, weeping tears of joy at the beauty of earth and its sorrow, wanting nothing more or less than to wrap all that is in the loving joy ecstatically dancing in your inner life.
I have no words for this. How dare I speak of your inner life, for you have no inner or outer? You are pure Being Itself, life without limit. You simply are. And you are goodness, that eternal ecstatic dance of love within and beyond our human time and space. Forgive my presumption, my daily assaults on your immense majesty, my constant failure to bring to words the loving wonder of your goodness.
But how can I not speak of that intuition of your loving presence that never goes away? It is always there, however vague or obscure. How can I not seek to capture the dancing fire of your life, since it is my greatest need, a need you fashioned in my depths?
I hunger to see and snare with words the goodness you are. When I see you I am free and full and finally myself, that expression of your love that you intend in creating me, light of heart and walking lightly upon your earth.
So let me capture with mere words something of your undiluted goodness, that, seeing you, I may join the dance of your delight in my little moment of your eternity. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:9-10
“I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.”
Prayer
We are guests here, my Lord. The earth is not mine. I did not make it. The soil with its fruit and flowers of myriad and unlikely color, the sun’s warm caress, the rain wearing resistant rock into rich loam, gentling the ground that seed may spring from the darkness: all this awaited my appearance in time and space, carefully prepared by your genius through unnumbered millennia that life might spring forth in abundance, delight to the eye and strength for body and soul.
Nor did I create the structures of society that allow my common and ordered life. Long generations preceded me, struggling against chaos with the mind and good will that is the breath of your Spirit in every generation, moving us to seek that More for which we know we are made.
And the community of faith in which my hungry heart finds its home, there, too, I am a guest. I receive what you have done in loving hospitality through the resurrection of my brother, Jesus, welcoming me to know the life that appears in him, ever inviting, “Come you who labor. Abide in me.”
And I come, finding again the hospitality that meets me in every place of my habitation, discovering again that I am always a guest, dependent on an unnamed hospitality for each breath, each step, each of the millions of tiny acts and occurrences that make my life possible and worth living.
Thank you. Those two words are the quintessential prayer. I know of no better. Thank you, dearest Loving Mystery, for your immense hospitality throughout all ages, creating life abundant and giving your life eternal through Jesus, our brother. Your great and continuous giving fills me with gratitude that I, with all your saints, may become the face of your resplendent hospitality, shining in the face of Jesus the Christ, your beloved and mine. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:9-10
“I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.”
Prayer
We are guests here, my Lord. The earth is not mine. I did not make it. The soil with its fruit and flowers of myriad and unlikely color, the sun’s warm caress, the rain wearing resistant rock into rich loam, gentling the ground that seed may spring from the darkness: all this awaited my appearance in time and space, carefully prepared by your genius through unnumbered millennia that life might spring forth in abundance, delight to the eye and strength for body and soul.
Nor did I create the structures of society that allow my common and ordered life. Long generations preceded me, struggling against chaos with the mind and good will that is the breath of your Spirit in every generation, moving us to seek that More for which we know we are made.
And the community of faith in which my hungry heart finds its home, there, too, I am a guest. I receive what you have done in loving hospitality through the resurrection of my brother, Jesus, welcoming me to know the life that appears in him, ever inviting, “Come you who labor. Abide in me.”
And I come, finding again the hospitality that meets me in every place of my habitation, discovering again that I am always a guest, dependent on an unnamed hospitality for each breath, each step, each of the millions of tiny acts and occurrences that make my life possible and worth living.
Thank you. Those two words are the quintessential prayer. I know of no better. Thank you, dearest Loving Mystery, for your immense hospitality throughout all ages, creating life abundant and giving your life eternal through Jesus, our brother. Your great and continuous giving fills me with gratitude that I, with all your saints, may become the face of your resplendent hospitality, shining in the face of Jesus the Christ, your beloved and mine. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:9-10
“I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.”
Prayer
What greater blessing is there than to lose ourselves in you, free, free, free from ravages of driven ego? What greater grace can I enjoy than to disappear in you so that all I know is your encircling love, stilling all want and desire in a holy nearness where we are one and anxious need is abolished?
Fully encompassed within your enveloping embrace, most of what I think I am disappears. All that remains is that which holds and is held by your loving, and I am that loving.
I occupy less space than I normally require in my daily places and conversations. Rapt in you, I grow small but real, secure but brave, gentle but capable of greatness, for I am that which I am only in your love, filled with the substance of your divine life, able to give whatever your abiding grace requires of me.
And the need to be first evaporates; the urge to exclude that I may be greater dissolves vaporous illusions. For I know what is real and true, and that is you who are love, who fill me and all that is with life unimaginable, known now in moments of graced oneness, exquisitely heralding eternity in your embrace. Thank you that I should taste eternity and know the freedom you intend. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:9-10
“I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends, and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.”
Prayer
What greater blessing is there than to lose ourselves in you, free, free, free from ravages of driven ego? What greater grace can I enjoy than to disappear in you so that all I know is your encircling love, stilling all want and desire in a holy nearness where we are one and anxious need is abolished?
Fully encompassed within your enveloping embrace, most of what I think I am disappears. All that remains is that which holds and is held by your loving, and I am that loving.
I occupy less space than I normally require in my daily places and conversations. Rapt in you, I grow small but real, secure but brave, gentle but capable of greatness, for I am that which I am only in your love, filled with the substance of your divine life, able to give whatever your abiding grace requires of me.
And the need to be first evaporates; the urge to exclude that I may be greater dissolves vaporous illusions. For I know what is real and true, and that is you who are love, who fill me and all that is with life unimaginable, known now in moments of graced oneness, exquisitely heralding eternity in your embrace. Thank you that I should taste eternity and know the freedom you intend. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, July 16, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:6b-8
“You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ; accepting no support from non-believers. Therefore we ought to support such people so that we may become co-workers with the truth.”
Prayer
What is truth that we should become coworkers with it? How shall we discern between truth and appearance, except through time? The true is solid and lasting, dependable and enduring. It is solid rock on which we plant our feet, assured the ground will not shift beneath us.
But what is truth; what can it be, if not you? And what are you, if not this mad and gentle love that wears the face of my brother Jesus?
This love neither fails nor fades. It endures from eternity to eternity, stretching through my little moment of time, connecting me with that which is ever certain, unending, unfailing, unceasing, a constantly flowing stream through all reality and time.
All else fades, fails and crumbles. The years roll on, crushing the goods and passions that demand our attention and exhaust our labors. But today’s necessity soon disappears, dropped and forgotten in an infinite sea of eternity.
But you, your incarnate love, full of grace and truth, remain. You always remain. You are truth, and your truth is that love that ever flows: an eternal, life-giving spring that runs not dry. When all I depend upon seems uncertain and all my certainties dissolve in the shifting currents of time, you are. You are truth. And you are mine.
So let me dwell in your truth and do the truth you are, expressing your mad and gentle love in my flesh. Though it may seem foolish and out of touch with the fashions of the day, I hunger to labor with you, Gentle and Eternal Love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:6b-8
“You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ; accepting no support from non-believers. Therefore we ought to support such people so that we may become co-workers with the truth.”
Prayer
What is truth that we should become coworkers with it? How shall we discern between truth and appearance, except through time? The true is solid and lasting, dependable and enduring. It is solid rock on which we plant our feet, assured the ground will not shift beneath us.
But what is truth; what can it be, if not you? And what are you, if not this mad and gentle love that wears the face of my brother Jesus?
This love neither fails nor fades. It endures from eternity to eternity, stretching through my little moment of time, connecting me with that which is ever certain, unending, unfailing, unceasing, a constantly flowing stream through all reality and time.
All else fades, fails and crumbles. The years roll on, crushing the goods and passions that demand our attention and exhaust our labors. But today’s necessity soon disappears, dropped and forgotten in an infinite sea of eternity.
But you, your incarnate love, full of grace and truth, remain. You always remain. You are truth, and your truth is that love that ever flows: an eternal, life-giving spring that runs not dry. When all I depend upon seems uncertain and all my certainties dissolve in the shifting currents of time, you are. You are truth. And you are mine.
So let me dwell in your truth and do the truth you are, expressing your mad and gentle love in my flesh. Though it may seem foolish and out of touch with the fashions of the day, I hunger to labor with you, Gentle and Eternal Love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, July 13, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:6b-7
“You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ; accepting no support from non-believers.”
Prayer
What can we possibly do that is worthy of you, Gracious One? What work of hand or heart qualifies? You are ever more, beyond reach of our humanity. Our thoughts are always sullied by sin, and our finest deeds are double-minded. They do not measure against the single-hearted holiness that is full and complete in all that you do and are.
You are love, and all that you do is love, full-hearted, undiluted, undivided, totally given in grace to such as us. You extend the hospitality of your own life, inviting us to come and rest, abide and know that you desire to share all that you have and are with us, all love, all forgiveness, all mercy, all wisdom, all justice, all compassion, all eternity, all.
You invite us into your own being, which is love itself, where we know, finally that we have arrived home, our final destination. There, you transform us, mind and soul, that we might become the great generosity you are, extending that hospitality of love and life we find in you.
Just so, your life shines in our inhospitable world, fulfilling your holy desire to be all in all. May it come soon, My Lord, for that will mean the salvation of all has arrived. Until then, may we reveal its coming in deeds of grace and hospitality that your joy and ours may be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:6b-7
“You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ; accepting no support from non-believers.”
Prayer
What can we possibly do that is worthy of you, Gracious One? What work of hand or heart qualifies? You are ever more, beyond reach of our humanity. Our thoughts are always sullied by sin, and our finest deeds are double-minded. They do not measure against the single-hearted holiness that is full and complete in all that you do and are.
You are love, and all that you do is love, full-hearted, undiluted, undivided, totally given in grace to such as us. You extend the hospitality of your own life, inviting us to come and rest, abide and know that you desire to share all that you have and are with us, all love, all forgiveness, all mercy, all wisdom, all justice, all compassion, all eternity, all.
You invite us into your own being, which is love itself, where we know, finally that we have arrived home, our final destination. There, you transform us, mind and soul, that we might become the great generosity you are, extending that hospitality of love and life we find in you.
Just so, your life shines in our inhospitable world, fulfilling your holy desire to be all in all. May it come soon, My Lord, for that will mean the salvation of all has arrived. Until then, may we reveal its coming in deeds of grace and hospitality that your joy and ours may be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:5-6a
“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends; even though they are strangers to you; they have testified to your love before the church.”
Prayer
I give you thanks, Gracious One, for words of gratitude about your beloved. You privilege me to live among a community of your saints, a favor I value too little. Forgive me for dishonoring and discounting this gift that surrounds me day to day.
You allow me to hear words of appreciation and gratitude for your saints. The words often surprise, expressing joy and praise for souls I had disregarded or discounted, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.
The words and laughter of gratitude for these souls startles me into repentance. They undermine my assumptions and quick conclusions about those whose beauty, truth and faithfulness I refused to see because I was so sure that I understood. I could not see because I was so certain that their weakness or fault defined them.
Just so, I missed seeing you alive in their flesh, stirring their struggle to be that which you would bring to life in them. Others see what I did not. And you used their words to reveal my cold stony heart and to turn me from the way of death. Thank you.
Give me a heart slow to judge and eyes eager to see and celebrate the beauty and faithfulness of your children, especially those who are difficult for me. Let me peaceably and faithfully do for others the work you have appointed to me. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:5-6a
“Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends; even though they are strangers to you; they have testified to your love before the church.”
Prayer
I give you thanks, Gracious One, for words of gratitude about your beloved. You privilege me to live among a community of your saints, a favor I value too little. Forgive me for dishonoring and discounting this gift that surrounds me day to day.
You allow me to hear words of appreciation and gratitude for your saints. The words often surprise, expressing joy and praise for souls I had disregarded or discounted, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.
The words and laughter of gratitude for these souls startles me into repentance. They undermine my assumptions and quick conclusions about those whose beauty, truth and faithfulness I refused to see because I was so sure that I understood. I could not see because I was so certain that their weakness or fault defined them.
Just so, I missed seeing you alive in their flesh, stirring their struggle to be that which you would bring to life in them. Others see what I did not. And you used their words to reveal my cold stony heart and to turn me from the way of death. Thank you.
Give me a heart slow to judge and eyes eager to see and celebrate the beauty and faithfulness of your children, especially those who are difficult for me. Let me peaceably and faithfully do for others the work you have appointed to me. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, July 06, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1: 3-4
“I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely, how you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
Prayer
What is it to walk in the truth if not to walk in you, Gracious One? What can it be, if not to express your beauty, to share in your giving, to live--in some small or great way--the love whom you are?
This is life. This is living. All else misses the point and fails to satisfy the soul’s deep hunger. You fulfill our hunger as we share what you give in the daily round of our life, with the soul in the bed, the heart who hungers for acknowledgement, the friend or family member who doubts her own goodness as your child, the vacant eyes who can no longer hope for wholeness or joy.
We find joy as we receive and share your blessing. You complete our joy as we know and celebrate the lives of those near or even complete strangers who incarnate your life in their living. But if they bear your life, they are not strangers at all, are they?
Let us walk in the truth this day that we may honor you and bring your joy to those who long for your beauty. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1: 3-4
“I was overjoyed when some of the friends arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely, how you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
Prayer
What is it to walk in the truth if not to walk in you, Gracious One? What can it be, if not to express your beauty, to share in your giving, to live--in some small or great way--the love whom you are?
This is life. This is living. All else misses the point and fails to satisfy the soul’s deep hunger. You fulfill our hunger as we share what you give in the daily round of our life, with the soul in the bed, the heart who hungers for acknowledgement, the friend or family member who doubts her own goodness as your child, the vacant eyes who can no longer hope for wholeness or joy.
We find joy as we receive and share your blessing. You complete our joy as we know and celebrate the lives of those near or even complete strangers who incarnate your life in their living. But if they bear your life, they are not strangers at all, are they?
Let us walk in the truth this day that we may honor you and bring your joy to those who long for your beauty. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.”
Prayer
How good it is, how pleasant when we live together in harmony. It fills the soul with peace and quiet joy.
And it fulfills your purpose, Blessed Triune One. Our harmony reveals the loving unity of your inner life. The wonder of unity bears the final future into the present that we may know the completion of life in your kingdom. We taste eternal life, and know the goodness to which we move.
Harmony among my sisters and brothers of the faith, of the flesh, of friendship comforts and completes my heart, Dear Friend. Seeing human souls live a single moment in harmony and care-full unity can move me to tears. I know why.
Tears come at the appearance of souls finding a home where they might rest, revealing my own hunger and promising its fulfillment. More than a promise, such a sight allows me to rest, knowing my home is ever in you, in the love you are, the love you incarnate in frail human relationships.
May it happen again today. And may I see it. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.”
Prayer
How good it is, how pleasant when we live together in harmony. It fills the soul with peace and quiet joy.
And it fulfills your purpose, Blessed Triune One. Our harmony reveals the loving unity of your inner life. The wonder of unity bears the final future into the present that we may know the completion of life in your kingdom. We taste eternal life, and know the goodness to which we move.
Harmony among my sisters and brothers of the faith, of the flesh, of friendship comforts and completes my heart, Dear Friend. Seeing human souls live a single moment in harmony and care-full unity can move me to tears. I know why.
Tears come at the appearance of souls finding a home where they might rest, revealing my own hunger and promising its fulfillment. More than a promise, such a sight allows me to rest, knowing my home is ever in you, in the love you are, the love you incarnate in frail human relationships.
May it happen again today. And may I see it. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, July 02, 2007
Monday, July 2, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.”
Prayer
I wake in the morning to find a love already stirring my soul. Who put it there? How did it get in me … and grow, so that it is not at my command? It bubbles from a place beyond reach of conscious willing. Apparently, I bear a Spirit beyond my own that has its own desire and purpose.
Joy accompanies this love, suggesting there is no need to resist. It draws me to faces, past and present, the fleeting thought of which stirs warming gratitude though I’ve not seen some of them for decades. But I carry them with me whether I know it or not, even as I bear the mystery of this love.
The mystery is you, Dear Friend. You are the love that bubbles from source unseen in 21st century souls. You are the same now as when Gaius opened this little letter to find loving gratitude spilling from the heart of a friend, pouring out words of blessing for which we all thirst. At least I do.
I thirst not only to hear them but to find them already whole and formed in my heart, ready to share. For then my heart is filled with you, filled with blessing and joyous consolation and eager to share. I don’t think there is greater joy than this.
And that is the joy I wake to find this day. You answer my heart’s great need before I have words to pray it. But finding the words also blesses and brings joy. Thank you. I know you intend to pull all of us into the joy of your loving--the ancient elder, Gaius, me, the faces that flit through my heart, all of us.
Let us never stray for this awareness. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.”
Prayer
I wake in the morning to find a love already stirring my soul. Who put it there? How did it get in me … and grow, so that it is not at my command? It bubbles from a place beyond reach of conscious willing. Apparently, I bear a Spirit beyond my own that has its own desire and purpose.
Joy accompanies this love, suggesting there is no need to resist. It draws me to faces, past and present, the fleeting thought of which stirs warming gratitude though I’ve not seen some of them for decades. But I carry them with me whether I know it or not, even as I bear the mystery of this love.
The mystery is you, Dear Friend. You are the love that bubbles from source unseen in 21st century souls. You are the same now as when Gaius opened this little letter to find loving gratitude spilling from the heart of a friend, pouring out words of blessing for which we all thirst. At least I do.
I thirst not only to hear them but to find them already whole and formed in my heart, ready to share. For then my heart is filled with you, filled with blessing and joyous consolation and eager to share. I don’t think there is greater joy than this.
And that is the joy I wake to find this day. You answer my heart’s great need before I have words to pray it. But finding the words also blesses and brings joy. Thank you. I know you intend to pull all of us into the joy of your loving--the ancient elder, Gaius, me, the faces that flit through my heart, all of us.
Let us never stray for this awareness. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 29, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:13
“The children of your elect sister send you their greetings.”
Prayer
Another goodbye: a farewell speaking simple words of grace from one life to the heart of others. I quickly pass over such words, Gracious One. They feel pro forma, a necessary formality with little meaning. I race by them in disregard, whether here in sacred text or in daily life. Life is busy; I must hurry to the next thing.
Greetings carry more weight in traditional cultures. The touch of a hand to the heart, a bow, hands brought together before the breast: these give honor and show respect or even affection.
I wonder: how much of your love and grace do I miss as I race through life? How much consolation and blessing do I push aside in my hurry to get on with it? I fear that I often miss your grace in the gentle hospitalities of those I meet each day.
I miss not only the goodness of human souls, but you. And of all the things I would miss in life, it grieves me most to miss you. For it is you for whom I most hunger. It is your gracious voice I most need to hear. Without it, my soul withers and dies.
Grant me grace to walk slowly, to pause amid the feverishness of life to hear and savor words of common hospitality and humanity. And give me a heart to know you in each one. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:13
“The children of your elect sister send you their greetings.”
Prayer
Another goodbye: a farewell speaking simple words of grace from one life to the heart of others. I quickly pass over such words, Gracious One. They feel pro forma, a necessary formality with little meaning. I race by them in disregard, whether here in sacred text or in daily life. Life is busy; I must hurry to the next thing.
Greetings carry more weight in traditional cultures. The touch of a hand to the heart, a bow, hands brought together before the breast: these give honor and show respect or even affection.
I wonder: how much of your love and grace do I miss as I race through life? How much consolation and blessing do I push aside in my hurry to get on with it? I fear that I often miss your grace in the gentle hospitalities of those I meet each day.
I miss not only the goodness of human souls, but you. And of all the things I would miss in life, it grieves me most to miss you. For it is you for whom I most hunger. It is your gracious voice I most need to hear. Without it, my soul withers and dies.
Grant me grace to walk slowly, to pause amid the feverishness of life to hear and savor words of common hospitality and humanity. And give me a heart to know you in each one. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:12
“Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”
Prayer
That our joy may be complete: This is your desire for us, Holy Joy, the ecstasy of face-to-face communion with you and your beloved. From the beginning, Blest Christ, you dwelt in face-to-face communion with the One you call ‘Father,’ rapt in a joyous eternal dance of mutual love and sharing.
This is what you want for us. You made us and all creation for such communion. In the mutual sharing of hearts and hands and in the meeting of minds, we encounter much more than the hands and eyes of those before us. We commune with you.
In the most mundane exchanges of hospitality and help, of giving and receiving our needs, we taste the communal ecstasy of your own divine life. We share your joy here and now in our little corner of existence, to be completed in the fullness of eternity.
You made us for the ecstasy of this holy communion, which we know as we share goodness and pain with each other, incarnating your own trinitarian life in our time and space.
Give us eyes and ears to perceive this mystery in every face and encounter that our joy and yours may be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:12
“Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.”
Prayer
That our joy may be complete: This is your desire for us, Holy Joy, the ecstasy of face-to-face communion with you and your beloved. From the beginning, Blest Christ, you dwelt in face-to-face communion with the One you call ‘Father,’ rapt in a joyous eternal dance of mutual love and sharing.
This is what you want for us. You made us and all creation for such communion. In the mutual sharing of hearts and hands and in the meeting of minds, we encounter much more than the hands and eyes of those before us. We commune with you.
In the most mundane exchanges of hospitality and help, of giving and receiving our needs, we taste the communal ecstasy of your own divine life. We share your joy here and now in our little corner of existence, to be completed in the fullness of eternity.
You made us for the ecstasy of this holy communion, which we know as we share goodness and pain with each other, incarnating your own trinitarian life in our time and space.
Give us eyes and ears to perceive this mystery in every face and encounter that our joy and yours may be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:10-11
“Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.”
Prayer
These words are hard, Holy One. They say things I do not want to hear, bearing a message contrary to the welcoming love I know that you are. “Abide in me,” you never tire of saying to my heart. “Come make your home in me, and I will make my home in you.” Your invitation is so different from this warning.
But even here I sense your loving concern. Your heart grieves that we should lose the life eternal you are pleased to share. You would not have us miss drinking from the cool stream of your soul and find refreshment on our sometimes weary ways.
So you warn us not to welcome anything that would distract us from intimacy with you, anything that obscures the faith that is the path of fellowship in your love.
But what of those who do not know the mystery of your purpose to be incarnate and real in all that is, deifying the entire universe? What of those who deny that you appear in the flesh of our brother Jesus, out of love for a world you always intended to enter? What of those who mistake and refuse the wonder of this mystery?
I understand this warning, but does your love not burn also for these? Would not holy hospitality reveal the wonder of your growing enfleshment in the lives of those who share intimacy with you?
I will live with this question, Dearest Friend, enjoying your hospitality that welcomes even me. Help me to know when to welcome and when to stay clear for the good of my soul and the fulfillment of your purpose. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:10-11
“Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.”
Prayer
These words are hard, Holy One. They say things I do not want to hear, bearing a message contrary to the welcoming love I know that you are. “Abide in me,” you never tire of saying to my heart. “Come make your home in me, and I will make my home in you.” Your invitation is so different from this warning.
But even here I sense your loving concern. Your heart grieves that we should lose the life eternal you are pleased to share. You would not have us miss drinking from the cool stream of your soul and find refreshment on our sometimes weary ways.
So you warn us not to welcome anything that would distract us from intimacy with you, anything that obscures the faith that is the path of fellowship in your love.
But what of those who do not know the mystery of your purpose to be incarnate and real in all that is, deifying the entire universe? What of those who deny that you appear in the flesh of our brother Jesus, out of love for a world you always intended to enter? What of those who mistake and refuse the wonder of this mystery?
I understand this warning, but does your love not burn also for these? Would not holy hospitality reveal the wonder of your growing enfleshment in the lives of those who share intimacy with you?
I will live with this question, Dearest Friend, enjoying your hospitality that welcomes even me. Help me to know when to welcome and when to stay clear for the good of my soul and the fulfillment of your purpose. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, June 25, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:8-9
“Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive the full reward. Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
Prayer
Where can I fly to go beyond you? To what ends can I strive to reach where you are not? Can I move back in time to the darkness that existed before the light of life burst from your infinitely fertile womb? Can I race the light, running ahead to wait for you to arrive?
There is no going beyond you for you are beginning and end. Where I go you are there waiting. You wait in the flesh of all that is. You shine with the light of tomorrow in the lives of all whose hearts consent to your in-dwelling love. Made in your image, you bring that likeness, your living word to life in us, revealing again the mystery of your way.
And that? To regenerate yourself again and again in hard resistant matter and in the tender flesh of all you create. You seek in every moment to birth your life again, to make Word flesh so that we may know you--and have you.
The thought transcends imagination and coaxes tears from eyes that only now are beginning to believe that it is true. It takes a lifetime, I think. But it comes with such joy: We have you. The light and love you are dwells also in us.
Let us consent to your love on every occasion that you might shine in us, as in our brother Jesus. Your world needs it. And more than anything, we need to know that we have you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:8-9
“Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive the full reward. Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.”
Prayer
Where can I fly to go beyond you? To what ends can I strive to reach where you are not? Can I move back in time to the darkness that existed before the light of life burst from your infinitely fertile womb? Can I race the light, running ahead to wait for you to arrive?
There is no going beyond you for you are beginning and end. Where I go you are there waiting. You wait in the flesh of all that is. You shine with the light of tomorrow in the lives of all whose hearts consent to your in-dwelling love. Made in your image, you bring that likeness, your living word to life in us, revealing again the mystery of your way.
And that? To regenerate yourself again and again in hard resistant matter and in the tender flesh of all you create. You seek in every moment to birth your life again, to make Word flesh so that we may know you--and have you.
The thought transcends imagination and coaxes tears from eyes that only now are beginning to believe that it is true. It takes a lifetime, I think. But it comes with such joy: We have you. The light and love you are dwells also in us.
Let us consent to your love on every occasion that you might shine in us, as in our brother Jesus. Your world needs it. And more than anything, we need to know that we have you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:7-8
“Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is a deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive the full reward."
Prayer
You are our full reward, one we receive even now in water and word, flesh and blood. I will not deny your flesh, for that would be to deny my own flesh and the flesh of those who have been holy sacraments of your life for me, touching me with your divine love in flesh and blood, sweat and tears.
You appear in the flesh, Impenetrable Mystery, putting a face on the hunger for that More we could never fully name. Only in seeing you, touching you, hearing words carried by finite human breath, can we say, “Yes, this--you--is that which I have always wanted and needed.”
You, Loving Mystery, Divine Darkness, appear in our brother Jesus who reveals the fullness of your desire to pour blessing onto all creation, and more: In him we discover the mystery of our own life. You pour your life into us, en-fleshing yourself, each of us an expression of your divine delight, each a particular articulation of your love and creative joy, each a partial expression of the wonder no eye has seen.
Stir the presence and power of your Spirit within us this day that we may fulfill the holiness and reveal the eternal beauty you would speak in and through our flesh. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:7-8
“Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is a deceiver and the antichrist! Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we have worked for, but may receive the full reward."
Prayer
You are our full reward, one we receive even now in water and word, flesh and blood. I will not deny your flesh, for that would be to deny my own flesh and the flesh of those who have been holy sacraments of your life for me, touching me with your divine love in flesh and blood, sweat and tears.
You appear in the flesh, Impenetrable Mystery, putting a face on the hunger for that More we could never fully name. Only in seeing you, touching you, hearing words carried by finite human breath, can we say, “Yes, this--you--is that which I have always wanted and needed.”
You, Loving Mystery, Divine Darkness, appear in our brother Jesus who reveals the fullness of your desire to pour blessing onto all creation, and more: In him we discover the mystery of our own life. You pour your life into us, en-fleshing yourself, each of us an expression of your divine delight, each a particular articulation of your love and creative joy, each a partial expression of the wonder no eye has seen.
Stir the presence and power of your Spirit within us this day that we may fulfill the holiness and reveal the eternal beauty you would speak in and through our flesh. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1: 5-6
“But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you heard it from the beginning--you must walk in it.”
Prayer
You are our commandment, Hidden Spring. You are love, and we are alive with your being. You are Being itself, the infinite, bubbling, blessed source of our souls, the living spring of all that is. We are alive with your life, a life which is love, unceasing, unfailing, ever-seeking, constantly-generating, self-giving love.
The command of our very being is the love you are. The secret of our joy and all lasting satisfaction is to obey you, to be true to the need to love with which you fill us.
We know your command. It is as alive in us as the life we live, for it is the life we live. It is your life, the life of the boundless spring of unceasing love.
To walk in your way is a blessed gift, for it is to know the love in which you made us, the love that surrounds and embraces us, the love the bubbles, too, in our secret depths where you continue to pour yourself into us that we may live.
So let us walk in your commandment, true to the particular love you have given us to share. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1: 5-6
“But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you heard it from the beginning--you must walk in it.”
Prayer
You are our commandment, Hidden Spring. You are love, and we are alive with your being. You are Being itself, the infinite, bubbling, blessed source of our souls, the living spring of all that is. We are alive with your life, a life which is love, unceasing, unfailing, ever-seeking, constantly-generating, self-giving love.
The command of our very being is the love you are. The secret of our joy and all lasting satisfaction is to obey you, to be true to the need to love with which you fill us.
We know your command. It is as alive in us as the life we live, for it is the life we live. It is your life, the life of the boundless spring of unceasing love.
To walk in your way is a blessed gift, for it is to know the love in which you made us, the love that surrounds and embraces us, the love the bubbles, too, in our secret depths where you continue to pour yourself into us that we may live.
So let us walk in your commandment, true to the particular love you have given us to share. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:4-5
“I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another.”
Prayer
You are truth, and the truth that you are is love. All that is flows from your divine heart, the boundless fountain of being, a river of overflowing generosity.
From you the cosmos explodes into life from an infinitesimal grain expanding even now into myriad forms of magnificence. Life and matter, color and impenetrable darkness, intricate worlds invisible to human eye, the vast immensity of space that staggers the soul: all of it fills us with wonder that it--that anything--should be.
Why is there anything, if not for you? Your creative love births a billion worlds and raises human consciousness that the universe might know and name and praise you, the Unspeakable Wonder.
And you are not done. We do not know what forms of life and awareness you may yet raise from the dust to humble our human presumption that we are highest and greatest.
What is it to walk in the truth in such a universe? What can it mean but to tenderly love and care for all you continue to make, for each other, and for our own fragile souls? Fill us with wonder and gratitude for all that is, for life itself--and for all you must be, Unspeakable One. For you are truth, and we would walk in the truth of your overflowing heart. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:4-5
“I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another.”
Prayer
You are truth, and the truth that you are is love. All that is flows from your divine heart, the boundless fountain of being, a river of overflowing generosity.
From you the cosmos explodes into life from an infinitesimal grain expanding even now into myriad forms of magnificence. Life and matter, color and impenetrable darkness, intricate worlds invisible to human eye, the vast immensity of space that staggers the soul: all of it fills us with wonder that it--that anything--should be.
Why is there anything, if not for you? Your creative love births a billion worlds and raises human consciousness that the universe might know and name and praise you, the Unspeakable Wonder.
And you are not done. We do not know what forms of life and awareness you may yet raise from the dust to humble our human presumption that we are highest and greatest.
What is it to walk in the truth in such a universe? What can it mean but to tenderly love and care for all you continue to make, for each other, and for our own fragile souls? Fill us with wonder and gratitude for all that is, for life itself--and for all you must be, Unspeakable One. For you are truth, and we would walk in the truth of your overflowing heart. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, June 18, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:3
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.”
Prayer
You give such promise for the day, Joyous One, a reason to go forward with great expectation. I sense your smile, your joy, in these words, and they evoke lightness of soul and being in my body as well.
Your grace, mercy and peace will be with us. The gifts of your life will attend us on our various journeys through the routines and surprises of the day, this day. There is no uncertainty here, only purest assurance of your blessed nearness and of the joy you take in blessing those you love.
You will be with us. And we will know you, blessed Jesus. We will know you as the truth and love of the great Loving Mystery whose immensity makes beggars of all us who try to name what our minds cannot grasp.
The prospect of living the day with you fills me with delight and the delicious joy of anticipation. Is this joy an expression of the joy I sense in you, Holy One? Are we and all creation intended to be enrapt in this joy? Is this your purpose?
You smile. It is true. This is your desire. Lift our souls with your grace, mercy and peace that we may share and shimmer with your divine joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:3
“Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.”
Prayer
You give such promise for the day, Joyous One, a reason to go forward with great expectation. I sense your smile, your joy, in these words, and they evoke lightness of soul and being in my body as well.
Your grace, mercy and peace will be with us. The gifts of your life will attend us on our various journeys through the routines and surprises of the day, this day. There is no uncertainty here, only purest assurance of your blessed nearness and of the joy you take in blessing those you love.
You will be with us. And we will know you, blessed Jesus. We will know you as the truth and love of the great Loving Mystery whose immensity makes beggars of all us who try to name what our minds cannot grasp.
The prospect of living the day with you fills me with delight and the delicious joy of anticipation. Is this joy an expression of the joy I sense in you, Holy One? Are we and all creation intended to be enrapt in this joy? Is this your purpose?
You smile. It is true. This is your desire. Lift our souls with your grace, mercy and peace that we may share and shimmer with your divine joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 15, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.”
Prayer
Do we love that which abides in us, Holy One? Do we adore that truth which roots itself deeply in our souls, springing from seeds long since sown?
If so, you have sown seeds of beauty in my soul, for it is beauty that enchants me, filling my heart again and again on these summer days. It comes in many forms: the delicate yellow roses near my chair, the playful smile and shimmering dark eyes of a two-year old who dares me to catch him, a human soul embracing the crazy, unpredictable given-ness of her life as the precious gift that it is.
All of it beautiful. All of it fills the soul with joy. Does this mean the beauty I behold in each of them dwells also in me? If so, thank you, for the beauty I behold is you who are Beauty Itself.
You are the sower of the holy seed. You are the beauty that grows. You are the truth that abides, filling and moving us to love … you, and to love you in all the infinite disguises in which you are pleased to appear.
So abide Hidden Mystery. Abide here in us forever that our souls forever may be filled with love for you and all that shimmers with your beauty. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.”
Prayer
Do we love that which abides in us, Holy One? Do we adore that truth which roots itself deeply in our souls, springing from seeds long since sown?
If so, you have sown seeds of beauty in my soul, for it is beauty that enchants me, filling my heart again and again on these summer days. It comes in many forms: the delicate yellow roses near my chair, the playful smile and shimmering dark eyes of a two-year old who dares me to catch him, a human soul embracing the crazy, unpredictable given-ness of her life as the precious gift that it is.
All of it beautiful. All of it fills the soul with joy. Does this mean the beauty I behold in each of them dwells also in me? If so, thank you, for the beauty I behold is you who are Beauty Itself.
You are the sower of the holy seed. You are the beauty that grows. You are the truth that abides, filling and moving us to love … you, and to love you in all the infinite disguises in which you are pleased to appear.
So abide Hidden Mystery. Abide here in us forever that our souls forever may be filled with love for you and all that shimmers with your beauty. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Today’s text
2 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.”
Prayer
I praise you this day for your irresistible presence. My heart is no immovable object. You know how to move me and you do so again and again.
Your truth abides and resides here in us, in me. I hear the stories and struggles of your children, and in each one you call to me: “Speak, write, witness. Gather up the fullness of your heart, and speak from the incomprehensible depths of my love.”
Your words fill my heart with desire and tears of yearning until I witness again to a love that refuses to release me--or any of your beloved. Your grasp on our hearts is strong, and the longing in our hearts is your longing living and abiding in us, filling us with knowledge of the love you are and the pain you bear.
This truth abiding in us will be with us forever. For you are eternal, and our lives are caught up in your eternal longing. The deep well of desire of my heart tells me at least this much.
Thank you for that longing, for in it I know you, the incomprehensible, the irresistible, the love I cannot name.
Thank you for allowing me to know your beloved chosen ones, to hear their stories which fill me with your love for them in all their pain and beauty. There, too, I know you, and I see your abiding as you take shape in the contours of their faces. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
2 John 1:1-2
“The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever.”
Prayer
I praise you this day for your irresistible presence. My heart is no immovable object. You know how to move me and you do so again and again.
Your truth abides and resides here in us, in me. I hear the stories and struggles of your children, and in each one you call to me: “Speak, write, witness. Gather up the fullness of your heart, and speak from the incomprehensible depths of my love.”
Your words fill my heart with desire and tears of yearning until I witness again to a love that refuses to release me--or any of your beloved. Your grasp on our hearts is strong, and the longing in our hearts is your longing living and abiding in us, filling us with knowledge of the love you are and the pain you bear.
This truth abiding in us will be with us forever. For you are eternal, and our lives are caught up in your eternal longing. The deep well of desire of my heart tells me at least this much.
Thank you for that longing, for in it I know you, the incomprehensible, the irresistible, the love I cannot name.
Thank you for allowing me to know your beloved chosen ones, to hear their stories which fill me with your love for them in all their pain and beauty. There, too, I know you, and I see your abiding as you take shape in the contours of their faces. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, June 11, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:21
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
Prayer
I resist endings, Eternal One, all endings. They remind me that I will come to an end. I am mortal flesh. I will pass away, disappearing into your eternity, hoping to awaken in intimate abiding with you have haunted me every day of my existence. But in this life every ending reminds me of all the others, the ‘going aways,’ the ‘good byes,’ the deaths and departures that have torn my soul.
And now I come to the end of this little book that has led my soul in prayer these months, leading me into lands previously unknown to me. I don’t want to go. I fear I will forget what you have written on my soul. I do not know or trust that you have inscribed it so deeply that it will stay and abide in my heart, teaching me what I need to know to live. For I want to live, not merely exist, and it truly consoles me that this is your desire too. Make it so, dear One, this day and always.
But now one last verse: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Here, too, you miss no opportunity to console and guide this heart of mind. I am your child, beloved, like all those others to whom you are so tender. And you would not have me walk outside the cloud of your enveloping love. I am to live in awareness of you who are true and eternal, who are all-possessing love.
Idols of self-indulgence and self-chosen principles, idols of goals and values, of gain and victories that would displace you in my heart--these are not you. They do not and cannot envelop me in the love that birthed the universe. They drain life and vitality from me, stripping me of the awareness and enjoyment of eternal life.
So I will cling to you, the true and eternal, the love illimitable, the infinite nearness, the intimate transcendence, the dazzling darkness, the One I name Loving Mystery, who abides, awaiting me each day like the morning sun with a holy invitation, whispering, “Come, stand in the warmth of my light. You will live.”
Thank you.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:21
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”
Prayer
I resist endings, Eternal One, all endings. They remind me that I will come to an end. I am mortal flesh. I will pass away, disappearing into your eternity, hoping to awaken in intimate abiding with you have haunted me every day of my existence. But in this life every ending reminds me of all the others, the ‘going aways,’ the ‘good byes,’ the deaths and departures that have torn my soul.
And now I come to the end of this little book that has led my soul in prayer these months, leading me into lands previously unknown to me. I don’t want to go. I fear I will forget what you have written on my soul. I do not know or trust that you have inscribed it so deeply that it will stay and abide in my heart, teaching me what I need to know to live. For I want to live, not merely exist, and it truly consoles me that this is your desire too. Make it so, dear One, this day and always.
But now one last verse: “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Here, too, you miss no opportunity to console and guide this heart of mind. I am your child, beloved, like all those others to whom you are so tender. And you would not have me walk outside the cloud of your enveloping love. I am to live in awareness of you who are true and eternal, who are all-possessing love.
Idols of self-indulgence and self-chosen principles, idols of goals and values, of gain and victories that would displace you in my heart--these are not you. They do not and cannot envelop me in the love that birthed the universe. They drain life and vitality from me, stripping me of the awareness and enjoyment of eternal life.
So I will cling to you, the true and eternal, the love illimitable, the infinite nearness, the intimate transcendence, the dazzling darkness, the One I name Loving Mystery, who abides, awaiting me each day like the morning sun with a holy invitation, whispering, “Come, stand in the warmth of my light. You will live.”
Thank you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 08, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:20b
“We are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
Center my heart this day in the middle of the enveloping cloud of your loving presence. Quiet my soul and give me the peace that knows all is well, for I am in you, who are Love.
Anxieties seek to undermine the assurance and calm in which you welcome me to live. I weary of beating back the fears that haunt my soul even after decades of struggle. But I will quit fighting. For I know quiet of mind flows from one thing, one truth, one reality--you, from the awareness that in every moment I am in you, the true, the eternal, the Loving Mystery.
Abiding in you is eternal life. In you I find rest and peace, hope and strength. Fears evaporate, and my heart beats slow and steady. My soul flows with a love and joy that springs from eternity. I walk surrounded by your cloud of enveloping presence, and I know you, for I know your desire. And what are you if not the constant desire of your divine heart?
You seek to fill my flesh and all that is with your love and life. So this day I shall dwell in the cloud of awareness, knowing that which is true and eternal and near as my breath--the Love whom you are--that you may fill me and be glorified in my mortal flesh. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:20b
“We are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
Center my heart this day in the middle of the enveloping cloud of your loving presence. Quiet my soul and give me the peace that knows all is well, for I am in you, who are Love.
Anxieties seek to undermine the assurance and calm in which you welcome me to live. I weary of beating back the fears that haunt my soul even after decades of struggle. But I will quit fighting. For I know quiet of mind flows from one thing, one truth, one reality--you, from the awareness that in every moment I am in you, the true, the eternal, the Loving Mystery.
Abiding in you is eternal life. In you I find rest and peace, hope and strength. Fears evaporate, and my heart beats slow and steady. My soul flows with a love and joy that springs from eternity. I walk surrounded by your cloud of enveloping presence, and I know you, for I know your desire. And what are you if not the constant desire of your divine heart?
You seek to fill my flesh and all that is with your love and life. So this day I shall dwell in the cloud of awareness, knowing that which is true and eternal and near as my breath--the Love whom you are--that you may fill me and be glorified in my mortal flesh. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:19-20
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
You are true, which means you are holy and firm, solid and constant, certain presence and undiluted nearness, the first and last word of life itself. On you we can ever depend, for you are true.
Eternal you are, which means you are forever young, yet ancient and abiding, never frenzied or fevered. All time is at your disposal and serves your purpose. No secret of existence is lost to you, no life, no being, no moment. You are the Dazzling Dark, present to all that was and is and shall be, the eternal.
You are eternal life. You are everlasting, Being Itself, Infinite Source, Impenetrable Mystery, the Divine Darkness from whom all life springs fresh and flows like a river through time and space. Time and history are the flow of your creativity joy … and sorrow in the emptiness.
And we are in you, the true, the eternal, the Loving Mystery who is life, eternal life. We partake of the fullness of you who are all Fullness, receiving the fullness of life and love that we might live with joy and holy purpose, and at the end fall asleep in you for whom our moment of time is but a blink.
We know you. I know you, true, eternal, life and love. And you hold nothing of what you are from me. May my heart and mind abide constantly in you. Dwelling in the enveloping cloud of your presence, consenting to your life and love, may I, too, be true, eternal, life and love, receiving and being all you are pleased to share. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:19-20
“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
You are true, which means you are holy and firm, solid and constant, certain presence and undiluted nearness, the first and last word of life itself. On you we can ever depend, for you are true.
Eternal you are, which means you are forever young, yet ancient and abiding, never frenzied or fevered. All time is at your disposal and serves your purpose. No secret of existence is lost to you, no life, no being, no moment. You are the Dazzling Dark, present to all that was and is and shall be, the eternal.
You are eternal life. You are everlasting, Being Itself, Infinite Source, Impenetrable Mystery, the Divine Darkness from whom all life springs fresh and flows like a river through time and space. Time and history are the flow of your creativity joy … and sorrow in the emptiness.
And we are in you, the true, the eternal, the Loving Mystery who is life, eternal life. We partake of the fullness of you who are all Fullness, receiving the fullness of life and love that we might live with joy and holy purpose, and at the end fall asleep in you for whom our moment of time is but a blink.
We know you. I know you, true, eternal, life and love. And you hold nothing of what you are from me. May my heart and mind abide constantly in you. Dwelling in the enveloping cloud of your presence, consenting to your life and love, may I, too, be true, eternal, life and love, receiving and being all you are pleased to share. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:19-20
“We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
I dwell in the cloud of knowing. I dwell in you, the true, where that which is false and illusory disappears and fails to confuse my sight and soul. In the true, I know what is real and substantial. I know you and only you. For you are the true, the lasting, the real, the constant. There is no illusion or lie in you, no failure or fading, no dilution of love or life, only the ultimate and eternal truth of life itself: You.
You who are love: That is the true that never fails or falters.
Enveloped by the in the cloud of your all-possessing love, I no longer see the “realities” I confuse with the true. The lies about what gives strength and security, meaning and purpose disappear. The only security that is real is You, your love alone. And my true self appears only as I rest in you. All else is illusion.
Clothed and surrounded, enveloped and enclosed within the cosmic expanse of your embrace, I no longer dwell under the power of evils and fears that enslave me body and soul. I know the freedom of being in Love Itself, and I know that anything less is half-life and illusion. This is real and true, as eternal as your love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:19-20
“We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”
Prayer
I dwell in the cloud of knowing. I dwell in you, the true, where that which is false and illusory disappears and fails to confuse my sight and soul. In the true, I know what is real and substantial. I know you and only you. For you are the true, the lasting, the real, the constant. There is no illusion or lie in you, no failure or fading, no dilution of love or life, only the ultimate and eternal truth of life itself: You.
You who are love: That is the true that never fails or falters.
Enveloped by the in the cloud of your all-possessing love, I no longer see the “realities” I confuse with the true. The lies about what gives strength and security, meaning and purpose disappear. The only security that is real is You, your love alone. And my true self appears only as I rest in you. All else is illusion.
Clothed and surrounded, enveloped and enclosed within the cosmic expanse of your embrace, I no longer dwell under the power of evils and fears that enslave me body and soul. I know the freedom of being in Love Itself, and I know that anything less is half-life and illusion. This is real and true, as eternal as your love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, June 04, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:18
“We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them."
Prayer
You would have me know this. You want me to live with quiet assurance that, born of God, I bear your life that keeps me from sin that undermines your purpose and distances my soul from your fullness.
You want me to live … knowing that you live in me and I live in you so that neither fear nor worry, not past, present or future can shake my heart from the calm your love claims for me.
There is a cloud of knowing in which I sometimes find myself. In the cloud, I know myself in you, surrounded and enveloped. I dwell in this cloud of knowing. It is palpable, embracing my every move and thought, overshadowing my body and being.
It reveals reality to me: I dwell in the atmosphere of you, the environment of an unspeakable divine love. I am in you. Aware and abiding in the cloud, I cannot sin for I dwell in a love that also fills me. The fears and anxieties that are the seed of my sin do not exist in the cloud. With the demons that attack in the wee hours, they are absorbed and dissolved in the cloud of your holy presence.
I am, in a word, safe, for all I know is you, the cloud of presence, the cloud of knowing where I know only peace and a joy that does, indeed, pass understanding. I am a child of the cloud, born of an all-possessing love who dwells within and in all the places of my wandering. I want to know this always. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Today’s text
1 John 5:18
“We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them."
Prayer
You would have me know this. You want me to live with quiet assurance that, born of God, I bear your life that keeps me from sin that undermines your purpose and distances my soul from your fullness.
You want me to live … knowing that you live in me and I live in you so that neither fear nor worry, not past, present or future can shake my heart from the calm your love claims for me.
There is a cloud of knowing in which I sometimes find myself. In the cloud, I know myself in you, surrounded and enveloped. I dwell in this cloud of knowing. It is palpable, embracing my every move and thought, overshadowing my body and being.
It reveals reality to me: I dwell in the atmosphere of you, the environment of an unspeakable divine love. I am in you. Aware and abiding in the cloud, I cannot sin for I dwell in a love that also fills me. The fears and anxieties that are the seed of my sin do not exist in the cloud. With the demons that attack in the wee hours, they are absorbed and dissolved in the cloud of your holy presence.
I am, in a word, safe, for all I know is you, the cloud of presence, the cloud of knowing where I know only peace and a joy that does, indeed, pass understanding. I am a child of the cloud, born of an all-possessing love who dwells within and in all the places of my wandering. I want to know this always. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 01, 2007
Friday, June 1, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:16-17
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal. There is a sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.”
Prayer
I do not know what mortal sin means, Dearest One. I cannot grasp it. I know only that sin kills, right here and now. It is the illusion of separation from you. It is living without awareness that I and all that is are always in you, and you are in us. We exist only because we bear your Being. We are never separate from you, from your life, from your wonder, from the vitality and love you are.
Such awareness brings gratitude and calm. Anxiety flees the field, leaving the assurance that I am alive with you. The life I live is your life breathed into flesh. Every breath resonates with the peace that I have all I need in life and death. For, I am alive with you, the Boundless Spring of love and being itself.
What can mortal sin be but the determination to live in the illusion that this is not so? Your divine life has come in the flesh of my brother Jesus--and continues to come in and to the flesh of all you love? And you all love all you have made. Is mortal sin this dualism that separates you from our common life, denying that you are here, present and knowable in every moment?
If so, I will pray for those who fall into such sin including myself, for it is a terrible darkness.
Awaken our senses, Abiding Presence. Evaporate the illusion that clouds our vision so that we may know every breath we take draws in your creative love as you seek to fill us and all that is. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:16-17
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal. There is a sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.”
Prayer
I do not know what mortal sin means, Dearest One. I cannot grasp it. I know only that sin kills, right here and now. It is the illusion of separation from you. It is living without awareness that I and all that is are always in you, and you are in us. We exist only because we bear your Being. We are never separate from you, from your life, from your wonder, from the vitality and love you are.
Such awareness brings gratitude and calm. Anxiety flees the field, leaving the assurance that I am alive with you. The life I live is your life breathed into flesh. Every breath resonates with the peace that I have all I need in life and death. For, I am alive with you, the Boundless Spring of love and being itself.
What can mortal sin be but the determination to live in the illusion that this is not so? Your divine life has come in the flesh of my brother Jesus--and continues to come in and to the flesh of all you love? And you all love all you have made. Is mortal sin this dualism that separates you from our common life, denying that you are here, present and knowable in every moment?
If so, I will pray for those who fall into such sin including myself, for it is a terrible darkness.
Awaken our senses, Abiding Presence. Evaporate the illusion that clouds our vision so that we may know every breath we take draws in your creative love as you seek to fill us and all that is. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, June 1, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:16-17
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal. There is a sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.”
Prayer
I do not know what mortal sin means, Dearest One. I cannot grasp it. I know only that sin kills, right here and now. It is the illusion of separation from you. It is living without awareness that I and all that is are always in you, and you are in us. We exist only because we bear your Being. We are never separate from you, from your life, from your wonder, from the vitality and love you are.
Such awareness brings gratitude and calm. Anxiety flees the field, leaving the assurance that I am alive with you. The life I live is your life breathed into flesh. Every breath resonates with the peace that I have all I need in life and death. For, I am alive with you, the Boundless Spring of love and being itself.
What can mortal sin be but the determination to live in the illusion that this is not so? Your divine life has come in the flesh of my brother Jesus--and continues to come in and to the flesh of all you love? And you all love all you have made. Is mortal sin this dualism that separates you from our common life, denying that you are here, present and knowable in every moment?
If so, I will pray for those who fall into such sin including myself, for it is a terrible darkness.
Awaken our senses, Abiding Presence. Evaporate the illusion that clouds our vision so that we may know every breath we take draws in your creative love as you seek to fill us and all that is. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:16-17
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal. There is a sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.”
Prayer
I do not know what mortal sin means, Dearest One. I cannot grasp it. I know only that sin kills, right here and now. It is the illusion of separation from you. It is living without awareness that I and all that is are always in you, and you are in us. We exist only because we bear your Being. We are never separate from you, from your life, from your wonder, from the vitality and love you are.
Such awareness brings gratitude and calm. Anxiety flees the field, leaving the assurance that I am alive with you. The life I live is your life breathed into flesh. Every breath resonates with the peace that I have all I need in life and death. For, I am alive with you, the Boundless Spring of love and being itself.
What can mortal sin be but the determination to live in the illusion that this is not so? Your divine life has come in the flesh of my brother Jesus--and continues to come in and to the flesh of all you love? And you all love all you have made. Is mortal sin this dualism that separates you from our common life, denying that you are here, present and knowable in every moment?
If so, I will pray for those who fall into such sin including myself, for it is a terrible darkness.
Awaken our senses, Abiding Presence. Evaporate the illusion that clouds our vision so that we may know every breath we take draws in your creative love as you seek to fill us and all that is. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:16
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal.”
Prayer
I know sin all too well. My heart is not singular and pure. My soul does not shine with the crystalline clarity of your divine heart. Each intricate facet of your Being glimmers with the unsullied, undiluted purity of the Love whom you are. Who can gaze into light so pure, so piercing?
I am nothing like this. My sin is the source of most of my pain and sadness, my weakness and worry. I would love and trust you, finding strength and calmness of heart amid the feverishness of life. But on too many days I turn from the plentitude of your provision and quickly am trapped in anxiety about my want of skill and time, insight and ability. My incompetence and inadequacy for the tasks of your calling mock me.
In abject need, I turn and fall again into the fullness of your love, and my soul is enveloped in a cloud of knowing assurance. I am certain again, not of me, but of you, of the constant presence of your love, of the infinitely abundant reality that I dwell in the atmosphere of a love that will never abandon me to my own devices.
My heart is filled my life, eternal life, which is to say, with you. And I live. Oh, that I could always live like this. This alone is life, a life you give to sinners and wanderers like me. Pour your loving nearness on all of us this day that we may glow with a glory not our own. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:16
“If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God will give life to such a one--to those whose sin is not mortal.”
Prayer
I know sin all too well. My heart is not singular and pure. My soul does not shine with the crystalline clarity of your divine heart. Each intricate facet of your Being glimmers with the unsullied, undiluted purity of the Love whom you are. Who can gaze into light so pure, so piercing?
I am nothing like this. My sin is the source of most of my pain and sadness, my weakness and worry. I would love and trust you, finding strength and calmness of heart amid the feverishness of life. But on too many days I turn from the plentitude of your provision and quickly am trapped in anxiety about my want of skill and time, insight and ability. My incompetence and inadequacy for the tasks of your calling mock me.
In abject need, I turn and fall again into the fullness of your love, and my soul is enveloped in a cloud of knowing assurance. I am certain again, not of me, but of you, of the constant presence of your love, of the infinitely abundant reality that I dwell in the atmosphere of a love that will never abandon me to my own devices.
My heart is filled my life, eternal life, which is to say, with you. And I live. Oh, that I could always live like this. This alone is life, a life you give to sinners and wanderers like me. Pour your loving nearness on all of us this day that we may glow with a glory not our own. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:14-15
“And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.”
Prayer
According to your will, you say. Whatever we ask … according to your will … we will receive. And what is your will other than what you are? You are love, and you are glorified in words and deeds of love. These reveal you. They glorify you, enlarging your life on this thirsty planet. This is your will, and this prayer you never turn away. You always answer.
The longer I live the more I believe that, Holy One. The longer I live the more I know I need that prayer. Faces pass through my life, my office, crossing my path with human pain and joy beyond my capacity to understand. I listen agnostically, knowing only that I do not know their want, their need or their wounds.
And I pray: Help me to love this person. Help me to love this person …and the unique journey that brought them to my door. Truly, my Lord, I want nothing more than this.
Then I wait, and you answer. Of that, I am certain.
So I boldly pray again, over this and every day, over each person I shall meet today: Let me love them, regardless how pleasant or troubling they may be to me. May my words and deeds glorify you, enlarging your life on this thirsty planet, making you more present. That is your will, and for that I shall pray. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:14-15
“And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.”
Prayer
According to your will, you say. Whatever we ask … according to your will … we will receive. And what is your will other than what you are? You are love, and you are glorified in words and deeds of love. These reveal you. They glorify you, enlarging your life on this thirsty planet. This is your will, and this prayer you never turn away. You always answer.
The longer I live the more I believe that, Holy One. The longer I live the more I know I need that prayer. Faces pass through my life, my office, crossing my path with human pain and joy beyond my capacity to understand. I listen agnostically, knowing only that I do not know their want, their need or their wounds.
And I pray: Help me to love this person. Help me to love this person …and the unique journey that brought them to my door. Truly, my Lord, I want nothing more than this.
Then I wait, and you answer. Of that, I am certain.
So I boldly pray again, over this and every day, over each person I shall meet today: Let me love them, regardless how pleasant or troubling they may be to me. May my words and deeds glorify you, enlarging your life on this thirsty planet, making you more present. That is your will, and for that I shall pray. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:13
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Prayer
There are some things I know, O Nameless Love. I know the breath in my lungs. I know the sound of the crickets and tree frogs as I sit long evenings on the patio. I know the beauty of human souls surrendered to a great love for which they are willing to suffer.
And I know all these are your dance in the emptiness of time and space.
I know that all love and life, all beauty and wonder, all self-sacrifice and true generosity, all kindness and gentleness, all joy and peace are the fullness of your Being playing a holy game, coaxing me to join in that I might live.
I know it brings you joy to lift human souls into the fullness of the Love you are, where we find fullness of life and joy.
In all of this, I know you. And knowing you is eternal life. Thanks for letting me know. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:13
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Prayer
There are some things I know, O Nameless Love. I know the breath in my lungs. I know the sound of the crickets and tree frogs as I sit long evenings on the patio. I know the beauty of human souls surrendered to a great love for which they are willing to suffer.
And I know all these are your dance in the emptiness of time and space.
I know that all love and life, all beauty and wonder, all self-sacrifice and true generosity, all kindness and gentleness, all joy and peace are the fullness of your Being playing a holy game, coaxing me to join in that I might live.
I know it brings you joy to lift human souls into the fullness of the Love you are, where we find fullness of life and joy.
In all of this, I know you. And knowing you is eternal life. Thanks for letting me know. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:10-12
“Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Prayer
Eternal life is in you, my blessed brother. And the life that is in you is in me, for you are in me. What is it to have you, to have life?
You are the incandescent burning of a love that has no name. You are the visible face of impenetrable eternity. You are the human features of infinite wonder. You are the unceasing love of the Father’s unfathomable heart.
To have you is to have this love, this life abiding in the depths of one’s being. It is to be in-dwelt by a divine abiding in which one’s heart can finally rest and abide. This awareness, this reality is eternal life.
I have no idea what it was like for you, my Jesus, to know the fullness of this life in your mortality. There must have been as much sorrow as joy as you witnessed what we do to each other and your creation. But joy is unmistakable, in you and even in my sad soul.
So, too, are freedom of heart and mind and a peace that comes as love abiding melts sadness and doubt and fills with the awareness that you are love; you are always love and you fill me with the love you are.
In moments of fullness, the only possible sadness is the knowledge that, too soon, I will lose awareness of you and revert to ordinary consciousness, not knowing your exquisite nearness. But in those moments I know you; I know myself, and I know what life is for. Let me, let none of us, ever forget. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:10-12
“Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Prayer
Eternal life is in you, my blessed brother. And the life that is in you is in me, for you are in me. What is it to have you, to have life?
You are the incandescent burning of a love that has no name. You are the visible face of impenetrable eternity. You are the human features of infinite wonder. You are the unceasing love of the Father’s unfathomable heart.
To have you is to have this love, this life abiding in the depths of one’s being. It is to be in-dwelt by a divine abiding in which one’s heart can finally rest and abide. This awareness, this reality is eternal life.
I have no idea what it was like for you, my Jesus, to know the fullness of this life in your mortality. There must have been as much sorrow as joy as you witnessed what we do to each other and your creation. But joy is unmistakable, in you and even in my sad soul.
So, too, are freedom of heart and mind and a peace that comes as love abiding melts sadness and doubt and fills with the awareness that you are love; you are always love and you fill me with the love you are.
In moments of fullness, the only possible sadness is the knowledge that, too soon, I will lose awareness of you and revert to ordinary consciousness, not knowing your exquisite nearness. But in those moments I know you; I know myself, and I know what life is for. Let me, let none of us, ever forget. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, May 21, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:6-9
“This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to the Son.”
Prayer
I can’t say that I quite understand this, My Lord Christ, dearest friend. Does water refer to your baptism in human flesh? Does blood point to your death, faithful to God at the hands of those who hated and feared you? And the Spirit? Shall I think of this elusive constant one as that vitality of life and joy, who evermore recreates the face of the Earth--and me--in the divine image you reveal and are?
These three agree, giving God’s own witness that you are Lord, the revelation of God, the human, incarnate face of Eternal Wonder. You are the smile of God on the madness of the world. You are the knowing face of eternity turned in love to me amid all the unruliness of my life.
The water, the blood and the Spirit of joy that attends me each time I think of you: these invite me to know you, not merely as human friend but as abiding, divine presence, attending my every breath. Breathing in, I know you. I know you as the love of the Holy One who wants to known by every heart, by all that lives and by each spoonful of matter. Constant divine desire.
And I? I come to the close of another chapter, another semester, changed, deeper I hope. But you remain unchanged, constantly making witness to the love you are through our brother Jesus, the Christ.
Give us eyes and ears to receive your witness as we go our ways. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:6-9
“This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. There are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to the Son.”
Prayer
I can’t say that I quite understand this, My Lord Christ, dearest friend. Does water refer to your baptism in human flesh? Does blood point to your death, faithful to God at the hands of those who hated and feared you? And the Spirit? Shall I think of this elusive constant one as that vitality of life and joy, who evermore recreates the face of the Earth--and me--in the divine image you reveal and are?
These three agree, giving God’s own witness that you are Lord, the revelation of God, the human, incarnate face of Eternal Wonder. You are the smile of God on the madness of the world. You are the knowing face of eternity turned in love to me amid all the unruliness of my life.
The water, the blood and the Spirit of joy that attends me each time I think of you: these invite me to know you, not merely as human friend but as abiding, divine presence, attending my every breath. Breathing in, I know you. I know you as the love of the Holy One who wants to known by every heart, by all that lives and by each spoonful of matter. Constant divine desire.
And I? I come to the close of another chapter, another semester, changed, deeper I hope. But you remain unchanged, constantly making witness to the love you are through our brother Jesus, the Christ.
Give us eyes and ears to receive your witness as we go our ways. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, May 18, 2007
Friday May 18, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 5:3b-5
“And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
Prayer
What is of the world but that which binds my heart and prevents me from loving? And why should I remain so attached to that which enslaves and dehumanizes? I don’t know why, but I do.
Mysteries, these are, but deeper still is the eternal which also is born in us, a newness that battles the ravages of ego and restless anger, coaxing and cajoling us to a humanity that is real and true, bearing the marks of our brother Jesus.
We are born of you Dearest One, brought forth in love, by love and for loving. So help us hear, trust and love that other inner voice which hungers for a humanity and mercy beyond our capacities to create.
Our hunger signals not your absence but your present Spirit healing and humanizing, revealing that we bear a treasure we shall never exhaust, neither in this life nor in that into which we shall one day disappear.
We are born of you, bearing a wonder and a grace, a mercy and a life for which we shall yearn until the most unruly and enslaved parts of our being are altogether new, born of God, fresh and free as a spring morning.
May we taste that newness this day and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 5:3b-5
“And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."
Prayer
What is of the world but that which binds my heart and prevents me from loving? And why should I remain so attached to that which enslaves and dehumanizes? I don’t know why, but I do.
Mysteries, these are, but deeper still is the eternal which also is born in us, a newness that battles the ravages of ego and restless anger, coaxing and cajoling us to a humanity that is real and true, bearing the marks of our brother Jesus.
We are born of you Dearest One, brought forth in love, by love and for loving. So help us hear, trust and love that other inner voice which hungers for a humanity and mercy beyond our capacities to create.
Our hunger signals not your absence but your present Spirit healing and humanizing, revealing that we bear a treasure we shall never exhaust, neither in this life nor in that into which we shall one day disappear.
We are born of you, bearing a wonder and a grace, a mercy and a life for which we shall yearn until the most unruly and enslaved parts of our being are altogether new, born of God, fresh and free as a spring morning.
May we taste that newness this day and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Tuesday May 15, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:17-18
“We love because God first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not see. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
I wake in the morning and begin the day with you for you make the morning. And when the sun lies low on its evening horizon, you are there. May my heart praise you then, too. And when the Earth’s good star fades and grows cold, when the sun’s golden rays wane and blink out, when it collapses and is a dark hole in infinite space, long after we and the stars of night have exhausted our substance and Earth’s fair beauty, too, is forgotten, even then you will be there, and you will be love. And you will not forget.
You are first, the love from which all things come and to which they go. You are the love who creates in joy and saves in holy passion. Your love is first in all things, setting life in motion and calling us to yourself in our brother Jesus who wore our mortal flesh and the eternity of your love.
Apart from you nothing is, for you are first, and you are love, a love that is the last word, too, the final reality into which all that is--and I--shall disappear, becoming one, at last, with the love that is the first movement in all life and creation.
Against your eternity it is hard to see that I and anything I do should matter. But it does, you say. The command you write on my being is be the love I receive, the love in which you fashioned and made me, the love that meets me in the morning and will awaken me to eternity, the love you are.
You are first; you are love. Let us know and be that love in our little moment of time. We will pass away, but the love we live will endure for eternity. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:17-18
“We love because God first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not see. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
I wake in the morning and begin the day with you for you make the morning. And when the sun lies low on its evening horizon, you are there. May my heart praise you then, too. And when the Earth’s good star fades and grows cold, when the sun’s golden rays wane and blink out, when it collapses and is a dark hole in infinite space, long after we and the stars of night have exhausted our substance and Earth’s fair beauty, too, is forgotten, even then you will be there, and you will be love. And you will not forget.
You are first, the love from which all things come and to which they go. You are the love who creates in joy and saves in holy passion. Your love is first in all things, setting life in motion and calling us to yourself in our brother Jesus who wore our mortal flesh and the eternity of your love.
Apart from you nothing is, for you are first, and you are love, a love that is the last word, too, the final reality into which all that is--and I--shall disappear, becoming one, at last, with the love that is the first movement in all life and creation.
Against your eternity it is hard to see that I and anything I do should matter. But it does, you say. The command you write on my being is be the love I receive, the love in which you fashioned and made me, the love that meets me in the morning and will awaken me to eternity, the love you are.
You are first; you are love. Let us know and be that love in our little moment of time. We will pass away, but the love we live will endure for eternity. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday May 14, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:17-18
“We love because God first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not see. The commandment we have from him is this those who love God must love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
I do not want my life to be a lie, Holy One. For you are truth, and more than anything I want to dwell in you, my heart living in face-to-face unity with your divine heart so that there will be nothing false in me.
There is, of course, for I am not pure of heart; my eye is not singular, given to you alone. Unjust anger, snap judgments and rejection of others come far too easily to my mind and well before I truly listen and know the truth of others lives and hearts. I value others for what they can give me, not as you love them, a flowing fountain of compassion whose reach knows no limit.
This is how you love each of us and me. You forgive my divided heart and the hard words that live in me, spoken or not, awakening again the desire of heart that never left, that was always there: to love as you love, to embrace all reality and every face with compassion that flows also in me when I know myself in you.
This is your will, the holy work you never abandon. Thank you.
Show me what is to love and not just in word or thought. Teach me how to love each face I meet. Give me a seeking heart that seeks this alone from you its only source. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:17-18
“We love because God first loved us. Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers and sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not see. The commandment we have from him is this those who love God must love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
I do not want my life to be a lie, Holy One. For you are truth, and more than anything I want to dwell in you, my heart living in face-to-face unity with your divine heart so that there will be nothing false in me.
There is, of course, for I am not pure of heart; my eye is not singular, given to you alone. Unjust anger, snap judgments and rejection of others come far too easily to my mind and well before I truly listen and know the truth of others lives and hearts. I value others for what they can give me, not as you love them, a flowing fountain of compassion whose reach knows no limit.
This is how you love each of us and me. You forgive my divided heart and the hard words that live in me, spoken or not, awakening again the desire of heart that never left, that was always there: to love as you love, to embrace all reality and every face with compassion that flows also in me when I know myself in you.
This is your will, the holy work you never abandon. Thank you.
Show me what is to love and not just in word or thought. Teach me how to love each face I meet. Give me a seeking heart that seeks this alone from you its only source. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Tuesday May 10, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:17-18
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment; and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”
Prayer
My love is hardly perfect, but you, Blessed One are. You are perfect love, whole and true, constant and unwavering, without beginning or end, a deep current flowing in the eddies of our little moment of time that we may know you. Thank you. You are our life.
You, Incarnate One, are the love that called us to know you, inviting us each to grow into what we may be, flesh and blood articulations of your loving desire, each of us giving particular expression of your divine heart.
Your all-possessing stream brought us to this place and carries us on to experiences and faces unknown. Let us ever abide in you wherever we are or go.
Abiding in you, fear evaporates, an illusion of human aloneness. You never leave us alone. We are always in you, having our being in your abiding. May we rest in the currents of your living nearness.
Perfect us in your love. Leave no part of our being untouched, unwashed, unpossessed that as you are, we may be: eternity in time, the love that casts out fear. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:17-18
“Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so we are in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment; and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”
Prayer
My love is hardly perfect, but you, Blessed One are. You are perfect love, whole and true, constant and unwavering, without beginning or end, a deep current flowing in the eddies of our little moment of time that we may know you. Thank you. You are our life.
You, Incarnate One, are the love that called us to know you, inviting us each to grow into what we may be, flesh and blood articulations of your loving desire, each of us giving particular expression of your divine heart.
Your all-possessing stream brought us to this place and carries us on to experiences and faces unknown. Let us ever abide in you wherever we are or go.
Abiding in you, fear evaporates, an illusion of human aloneness. You never leave us alone. We are always in you, having our being in your abiding. May we rest in the currents of your living nearness.
Perfect us in your love. Leave no part of our being untouched, unwashed, unpossessed that as you are, we may be: eternity in time, the love that casts out fear. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Monday May 9, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:15-16
“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.”
Prayer
You do not Love, Holy One. You are love. To say less is heresy and lie. I will not cheat my soul from its singular consolation, so I say again: You do not love. You are love. And you love me, filling this cold heart with the liquid fire of your own life.
And I know you, such as a human heart can. I know you as love enveloping body and being entire, embraced, possessed, lifted, carried, filled, lighter than air and needing nothing. Heart and mind fall silent and satisfied, at rest in final Sabbath, the soul’s journey done. Home at last, I rest.
You abide within as the true and pure substance of soul, uncut and unadulterated, the eternal triunity of the Love you are. Here.
You are love, and you abide. Abiding in you, words and deeds flow from that truest self that is entirely gift and not of my making, and I, too, am love. Not unadulterated perhaps, but … still. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:15-16
“God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.”
Prayer
You do not Love, Holy One. You are love. To say less is heresy and lie. I will not cheat my soul from its singular consolation, so I say again: You do not love. You are love. And you love me, filling this cold heart with the liquid fire of your own life.
And I know you, such as a human heart can. I know you as love enveloping body and being entire, embraced, possessed, lifted, carried, filled, lighter than air and needing nothing. Heart and mind fall silent and satisfied, at rest in final Sabbath, the soul’s journey done. Home at last, I rest.
You abide within as the true and pure substance of soul, uncut and unadulterated, the eternal triunity of the Love you are. Here.
You are love, and you abide. Abiding in you, words and deeds flow from that truest self that is entirely gift and not of my making, and I, too, am love. Not unadulterated perhaps, but … still. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, May 07, 2007
Monday May 7, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:13-15
“By this we know that we abide in him and he is us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.”
Prayer
Sleep refuses to clear from consciousness. Early morning fogs my mind, yet my soul seeks you, not by any conscious movement but by a willing I do not command. Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.
I will declare it for you awaken my heart’s deep desire before my lethargic will can shake its slumber. My desire is for you long before conscious willing can catch up to whatever it is, whomever it is that long ago took possession of this heart of mine.
But I know who it is, for it is you, who neither slumber nor sleep. Thank you.
You abide in those whose hearts and lives testify to Jesus. That testimony, even through the befuddled haze of stuperous morning mind, reveals again that I am not my own. I am yours.
I know of no better thought with which to start the day.
You abide, and I can no more escape you than I can shed my skin. I am possessed of the desire to say again, “May Jesus Christ be praised in the morning, every morning, in this and every human heart.”
May my words reveal you to all I meet this day, and to my own sleepy self. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:13-15
“By this we know that we abide in him and he is us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.”
Prayer
Sleep refuses to clear from consciousness. Early morning fogs my mind, yet my soul seeks you, not by any conscious movement but by a willing I do not command. Open thou my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.
I will declare it for you awaken my heart’s deep desire before my lethargic will can shake its slumber. My desire is for you long before conscious willing can catch up to whatever it is, whomever it is that long ago took possession of this heart of mine.
But I know who it is, for it is you, who neither slumber nor sleep. Thank you.
You abide in those whose hearts and lives testify to Jesus. That testimony, even through the befuddled haze of stuperous morning mind, reveals again that I am not my own. I am yours.
I know of no better thought with which to start the day.
You abide, and I can no more escape you than I can shed my skin. I am possessed of the desire to say again, “May Jesus Christ be praised in the morning, every morning, in this and every human heart.”
May my words reveal you to all I meet this day, and to my own sleepy self. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, May 04, 2007
Friday May 4, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:11-12
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Prayer
I wake and try to catch you with words. This is my day. It is like trying to snatch dancing flames to put them in a jar. I grasp at the air. The flame singes my hand, but when I open it my hand is empty. Again I capture nothing. My words fall flat to the floor. And my soul burns at my failure to catch and share some small beauty of your dance in time and space.
All in all, I would prefer to say nothing. Simply remain silent. I crave the silent knowing of your love in moments when there is no need to say a thing, just be. Then I know only you, undistracted by my weakness and failures.
So today, just let me watch and wait and listen in the silence for the slightest stirring of soul in which I know the dancing flame of your love living in me and in this people among whom I dwell.
That will be enough for me. But I lie; it is not enough. Inevitably, I will again try to catch fire in a jar. Forgive my failures, and make my hand quicker. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:11-12
“Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.”
Prayer
I wake and try to catch you with words. This is my day. It is like trying to snatch dancing flames to put them in a jar. I grasp at the air. The flame singes my hand, but when I open it my hand is empty. Again I capture nothing. My words fall flat to the floor. And my soul burns at my failure to catch and share some small beauty of your dance in time and space.
All in all, I would prefer to say nothing. Simply remain silent. I crave the silent knowing of your love in moments when there is no need to say a thing, just be. Then I know only you, undistracted by my weakness and failures.
So today, just let me watch and wait and listen in the silence for the slightest stirring of soul in which I know the dancing flame of your love living in me and in this people among whom I dwell.
That will be enough for me. But I lie; it is not enough. Inevitably, I will again try to catch fire in a jar. Forgive my failures, and make my hand quicker. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Thursday May 3, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:9-10
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Prayer
“That we might live,”… can I want more than this? I want to live. This burning desire from the depth of my soul makes me average. You create me and all that is with the desire for yourself. You are Life Abundant, and our souls are born on fire with the awareness that we are intended for More, for a great and surpassing love, for the mystery from which we spring. Failing to find this, we do not live in fullness for which you made us.
I did not spark this hungry flame. You did, making us in the image of your own desire.
But you do not make us search for the love of our yearning. You come to us. Your fullness wears the face of Jesus, our brother. Contemplating his every word and act, our senses come alive to More, to the surpassing love from which and for which we are made.
Knowing him is life, for the fullness of your divine love fills him. Savoring that fullness fills me also, bubbling up, spilling over, leaving no empty spaces. And in that moment, I am alive as in no other. I live. And the life I bear is your own eternity, satisfying the ancient desire of every soul … and of mine. But the hunger returns. So fill me that I may live. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:9-10
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Prayer
“That we might live,”… can I want more than this? I want to live. This burning desire from the depth of my soul makes me average. You create me and all that is with the desire for yourself. You are Life Abundant, and our souls are born on fire with the awareness that we are intended for More, for a great and surpassing love, for the mystery from which we spring. Failing to find this, we do not live in fullness for which you made us.
I did not spark this hungry flame. You did, making us in the image of your own desire.
But you do not make us search for the love of our yearning. You come to us. Your fullness wears the face of Jesus, our brother. Contemplating his every word and act, our senses come alive to More, to the surpassing love from which and for which we are made.
Knowing him is life, for the fullness of your divine love fills him. Savoring that fullness fills me also, bubbling up, spilling over, leaving no empty spaces. And in that moment, I am alive as in no other. I live. And the life I bear is your own eternity, satisfying the ancient desire of every soul … and of mine. But the hunger returns. So fill me that I may live. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 30, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Love is as love as, Holy One. You are Love, and you do. You act, loving not in word alone but in deed and truth, giving your world its daily breath and the breadth of your mercy in our brother Jesus.
Love lives not in word alone but in actions. Your love allow us to enter the safe and wide space where our souls can breathe in the atmosphere of freedom, knowing we are well, no matter our circumstance, for we yours. We dwell in the precinct of your unchanging love and nothing can change this central reality of our lives.
So let us know you are love and become the love you are, safe spaces where other souls may breathe and find truest humanity. May our deeds and being provide welcome space where others might live and know the love that beats at heart of the universe and in your children.
And in our loving, may we know not only the freedom, the open space of soul you give, but you. We would know not merely your benefits but the Surpassing Wonder you are that we again may know that you are Love itself, seeking to restore in us your blessed image. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Love is as love as, Holy One. You are Love, and you do. You act, loving not in word alone but in deed and truth, giving your world its daily breath and the breadth of your mercy in our brother Jesus.
Love lives not in word alone but in actions. Your love allow us to enter the safe and wide space where our souls can breathe in the atmosphere of freedom, knowing we are well, no matter our circumstance, for we yours. We dwell in the precinct of your unchanging love and nothing can change this central reality of our lives.
So let us know you are love and become the love you are, safe spaces where other souls may breathe and find truest humanity. May our deeds and being provide welcome space where others might live and know the love that beats at heart of the universe and in your children.
And in our loving, may we know not only the freedom, the open space of soul you give, but you. We would know not merely your benefits but the Surpassing Wonder you are that we again may know that you are Love itself, seeking to restore in us your blessed image. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 27, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
It sounds so simple, Holy Simplicity. And it is, for you. Or so I think. For your heart is simple, pure, given to the one reality, the one truth, the one thing whom you are. You are pure of heart, simple to the core. You do not spin off in a million directions but are eternally the One Love abiding simultaneously in every time and every space, a living unity of love in which nothing else is mixed or confused.
You are love. In you is no complexity, only impenetrable simplicity of heart and desire.
No wonder I can’t understand you, for I am not simple or pure at heart. My heart is drawn and driven by forces from within and without. My mind is tossed by conflicting winds of desire, some holy, many self-serving and most beyond conscious awareness.
But there are times of sublime simplicity when, if only for a moment, all other desire falls away, and I want only one thing. Rapt in your simplicity, only one thing matters, only one can be expressed, only one is possible. One desire fills the empty spaces of my soul, evaporating all confliction of heart. And I know the love you are, the love you would have me be.
This alone matters. All else is so much noise. So let it be. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
It sounds so simple, Holy Simplicity. And it is, for you. Or so I think. For your heart is simple, pure, given to the one reality, the one truth, the one thing whom you are. You are pure of heart, simple to the core. You do not spin off in a million directions but are eternally the One Love abiding simultaneously in every time and every space, a living unity of love in which nothing else is mixed or confused.
You are love. In you is no complexity, only impenetrable simplicity of heart and desire.
No wonder I can’t understand you, for I am not simple or pure at heart. My heart is drawn and driven by forces from within and without. My mind is tossed by conflicting winds of desire, some holy, many self-serving and most beyond conscious awareness.
But there are times of sublime simplicity when, if only for a moment, all other desire falls away, and I want only one thing. Rapt in your simplicity, only one thing matters, only one can be expressed, only one is possible. One desire fills the empty spaces of my soul, evaporating all confliction of heart. And I know the love you are, the love you would have me be.
This alone matters. All else is so much noise. So let it be. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Grant me the most sublime of blessings, Loving Mystery. Grant me love’s knowledge of you who are Love itself. For love is knowledge; anything less is mere mental grasping, feeling about in the dark. Only love knows.
Only when I love does my heart open to see and know you. For how can a heart that does not love know you who are Love itself? And how can a heart love unless Love itself dwells in its depths? In loving we know you; in knowing you we love. The circle of loving begins and ends in you.
We see what we are, and we are what we see. I would see you, for you are love and only love allows me to savor your wonder and grace in the midst of a cynical and brutal age. Only love opens my soul to see you and to see as you see.
When I know you my soul opens up to embrace all you have made, like a spring flower awakened, drinking in the warmth of life and the grace of air to become beauty simply by basking in the gifts you give. Creation rushes into my senses to be embraced by a holy affection larger and more resonant than any I can produce. You love your world in me, and I know you in the loving.
I have no words that capture the truth of this ecstatic loving awareness. I only know that in such moments I know truth. I know you. So let me love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:7-8
“Beloved, let us love on another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Prayer
Grant me the most sublime of blessings, Loving Mystery. Grant me love’s knowledge of you who are Love itself. For love is knowledge; anything less is mere mental grasping, feeling about in the dark. Only love knows.
Only when I love does my heart open to see and know you. For how can a heart that does not love know you who are Love itself? And how can a heart love unless Love itself dwells in its depths? In loving we know you; in knowing you we love. The circle of loving begins and ends in you.
We see what we are, and we are what we see. I would see you, for you are love and only love allows me to savor your wonder and grace in the midst of a cynical and brutal age. Only love opens my soul to see you and to see as you see.
When I know you my soul opens up to embrace all you have made, like a spring flower awakened, drinking in the warmth of life and the grace of air to become beauty simply by basking in the gifts you give. Creation rushes into my senses to be embraced by a holy affection larger and more resonant than any I can produce. You love your world in me, and I know you in the loving.
I have no words that capture the truth of this ecstatic loving awareness. I only know that in such moments I know truth. I know you. So let me love. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
Prayer
Give me ears to hear the resonance of your speaking in all speaking, Holy Silence. I would listen to you amid the sound and fury of my little moment in time that I may know what is real and true. Otherwise, I lose myself … and you.
There is a silent spot in my soul with which I so often lose touch. Many voices distract me from the deep silence where you abide. The worst distraction is my own anxious voice, filling the empty spaces where I can truly listen and hear.
Close my mouth, and open my heart. Let me retreat to that silent space of soul to rest and listen for the cry of your Spirit enfleshed in these many lives I daily meet. You are there. I hear you often in cries of joy or sorrow, yearning or consolation. And I would listen to you more. Only so, hearing your voice in the voices, do I know you. And that is life.
So let me listen. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error."
Prayer
Give me ears to hear the resonance of your speaking in all speaking, Holy Silence. I would listen to you amid the sound and fury of my little moment in time that I may know what is real and true. Otherwise, I lose myself … and you.
There is a silent spot in my soul with which I so often lose touch. Many voices distract me from the deep silence where you abide. The worst distraction is my own anxious voice, filling the empty spaces where I can truly listen and hear.
Close my mouth, and open my heart. Let me retreat to that silent space of soul to rest and listen for the cry of your Spirit enfleshed in these many lives I daily meet. You are there. I hear you often in cries of joy or sorrow, yearning or consolation. And I would listen to you more. Only so, hearing your voice in the voices, do I know you. And that is life.
So let me listen. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 23, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Prayer
Greater are you, Holy One. Greater are you than the powers of death that stalk the Earth, greater than the fears of human souls, greater than the coarse judgments others make on us or that we heap upon ourselves, greater than the grief that grips our hearts over losses we must bear, greater than the sins and failures that haunts us, greater than the voices that deny your nearness, greater than the nihilism and cynicism that forsake love for power.
You are greater. And you are mine. That you are greater does not surprise me. What startles is the awareness that I bear you within as holy gift and possession from which my heart may fully live. Only in this awareness do I live fully; all else is half-life, grainy shadow in which the contours of beauty and joy are lost to soul.
But when I am aware that I bear a life that is Life, every moment becomes sacrament, and all life speaks with your voice, resonating with an uncreated love that is greater, always greater. Deus semper major. You are always more than mind or imagination, more than sorrow or struggle. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 4:3-6
“Little children, you are from God and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
Prayer
Greater are you, Holy One. Greater are you than the powers of death that stalk the Earth, greater than the fears of human souls, greater than the coarse judgments others make on us or that we heap upon ourselves, greater than the grief that grips our hearts over losses we must bear, greater than the sins and failures that haunts us, greater than the voices that deny your nearness, greater than the nihilism and cynicism that forsake love for power.
You are greater. And you are mine. That you are greater does not surprise me. What startles is the awareness that I bear you within as holy gift and possession from which my heart may fully live. Only in this awareness do I live fully; all else is half-life, grainy shadow in which the contours of beauty and joy are lost to soul.
But when I am aware that I bear a life that is Life, every moment becomes sacrament, and all life speaks with your voice, resonating with an uncreated love that is greater, always greater. Deus semper major. You are always more than mind or imagination, more than sorrow or struggle. May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 20, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:23-24
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and is already in the world.”
Prayer
Three words most please me, Dearest Friend: “in the flesh.” I read them and smile. They move consolation in my soul and mist my eyes. You … in the flesh.
You, my God, are deep, loving and hidden mystery. You dwell in an obscurity I can neither penetrate nor fathom. I cannot take the wings of the morning breeze and be carried into the place of your abode. I cannot think my way through the blinding light that surrounds your constant nearness.
I am flesh and blood. My skin interfaces the world, and through it I experience and know that I am real and alive. Only when you stand in the gentle light of day can I truly know you. And you do.
You wear our human flesh, revealing the inscrutable face of eternity. You do not remain an idea or concept, a transcendent magnetic power pulling us on to we know not what. You appear in ways that skin can know.
In you, my brother, Jesus, we see the beauty, the wonder, the loving joy, the fulfillment we never knew that we always wanted. Seeing you in the flesh, Loving Mystery, our eyes drink in the longing we could never quite name.
We confess you, my brother, as the gracious flesh of God, the mortal face of the Eternal Wonder. Thank you, Holy Mystery, that you show your life in ways that skin can know, for I would know you not just as transcendent wonder but as gracious friend, who desires my nearness as I desire you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:23-24
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and is already in the world.”
Prayer
Three words most please me, Dearest Friend: “in the flesh.” I read them and smile. They move consolation in my soul and mist my eyes. You … in the flesh.
You, my God, are deep, loving and hidden mystery. You dwell in an obscurity I can neither penetrate nor fathom. I cannot take the wings of the morning breeze and be carried into the place of your abode. I cannot think my way through the blinding light that surrounds your constant nearness.
I am flesh and blood. My skin interfaces the world, and through it I experience and know that I am real and alive. Only when you stand in the gentle light of day can I truly know you. And you do.
You wear our human flesh, revealing the inscrutable face of eternity. You do not remain an idea or concept, a transcendent magnetic power pulling us on to we know not what. You appear in ways that skin can know.
In you, my brother, Jesus, we see the beauty, the wonder, the loving joy, the fulfillment we never knew that we always wanted. Seeing you in the flesh, Loving Mystery, our eyes drink in the longing we could never quite name.
We confess you, my brother, as the gracious flesh of God, the mortal face of the Eternal Wonder. Thank you, Holy Mystery, that you show your life in ways that skin can know, for I would know you not just as transcendent wonder but as gracious friend, who desires my nearness as I desire you. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:23-24
“And this is the commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
Prayer
You didn’t make us to think or suppose, Blessed Assurance, but to be certain, clear and firm. Your love is more certain than the fresh light of morning. Your presence is dependable as the air that moves in and from my lungs, surrounding and filling me with joy at being alive and here and now.
The marks of your abiding are unmistakable too.
You awaken our senses to the love we have for your gracious face, a love you birth in our souls and extravert into our lives by loving us. You turn our heads to what trust we have in your eternally-constant loving that we may be certain, clear and firm.
Despite the uncertainties of our souls, we see love and faith stirring in us, signs of your gracious presence, and we know: You abide, Holy One, here in us. We are not forsaken, bereft or abandoned. We are not those who think you are near and suppose that you are gracious and forgiving.
We know. The love that bubbles from depth of soul, and our faith, however faltering, make it clear: You are here, and the signs of you holy labor are written in the flesh of our hearts.
Move us to abide in your abiding that we may keep your life-giving commands. Lift our hearts beyond the suppositions of our wavering hearts that we live in the certainty only you can give. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:23-24
“And this is the commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.”
Prayer
You didn’t make us to think or suppose, Blessed Assurance, but to be certain, clear and firm. Your love is more certain than the fresh light of morning. Your presence is dependable as the air that moves in and from my lungs, surrounding and filling me with joy at being alive and here and now.
The marks of your abiding are unmistakable too.
You awaken our senses to the love we have for your gracious face, a love you birth in our souls and extravert into our lives by loving us. You turn our heads to what trust we have in your eternally-constant loving that we may be certain, clear and firm.
Despite the uncertainties of our souls, we see love and faith stirring in us, signs of your gracious presence, and we know: You abide, Holy One, here in us. We are not forsaken, bereft or abandoned. We are not those who think you are near and suppose that you are gracious and forgiving.
We know. The love that bubbles from depth of soul, and our faith, however faltering, make it clear: You are here, and the signs of you holy labor are written in the flesh of our hearts.
Move us to abide in your abiding that we may keep your life-giving commands. Lift our hearts beyond the suppositions of our wavering hearts that we live in the certainty only you can give. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:21-22
“Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.”
Prayer
Holy Risen Joy, you do not intend us for condemnation but for the bliss of boldness. You invite us to live in confident expectation of your constant blessing. Our hearts are weak, troubled easily, distracted and disturbed by sorrows and disappointments, by the weight of our labors and the stirrings of our stress. Confident joy eludes our grasp, sinking our souls and weakening our arms and efforts.
Fill our hearts with … you. Fill us with your risen life that we may arise in joy to the challenges we face, throwing our minds and full being into the tasks you have given us as we grow into your service. Do not allow us to languish, but lift us to the joy of knowing the indwelling of your love.
Then our hearts will not be downcast but ready and willing spirits will arise from our depths, and we will fear nothing, not our weaknesses or sins, not threats from without or within.
No, we will live. We will live filled with the boldness of your risen and deathless life. Joy will overflow our hearts, and we will be that portrait of your salvation that you intend.
And you will hear our prayers, for they will arise from Spirit to Spirit, from your life within us to your life ever beyond us, a holy circle of loving in which you catch and fill us with the boldness of everlasting joy.
So capture and fill us, I pray, that we may know no condemnation but only the joy of the Eternal Loving you are. You alone are life, and we who dwell in grayness hunger to live in the full light of day. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:21-22
“Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have boldness before God; and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do what pleases him.”
Prayer
Holy Risen Joy, you do not intend us for condemnation but for the bliss of boldness. You invite us to live in confident expectation of your constant blessing. Our hearts are weak, troubled easily, distracted and disturbed by sorrows and disappointments, by the weight of our labors and the stirrings of our stress. Confident joy eludes our grasp, sinking our souls and weakening our arms and efforts.
Fill our hearts with … you. Fill us with your risen life that we may arise in joy to the challenges we face, throwing our minds and full being into the tasks you have given us as we grow into your service. Do not allow us to languish, but lift us to the joy of knowing the indwelling of your love.
Then our hearts will not be downcast but ready and willing spirits will arise from our depths, and we will fear nothing, not our weaknesses or sins, not threats from without or within.
No, we will live. We will live filled with the boldness of your risen and deathless life. Joy will overflow our hearts, and we will be that portrait of your salvation that you intend.
And you will hear our prayers, for they will arise from Spirit to Spirit, from your life within us to your life ever beyond us, a holy circle of loving in which you catch and fill us with the boldness of everlasting joy.
So capture and fill us, I pray, that we may know no condemnation but only the joy of the Eternal Loving you are. You alone are life, and we who dwell in grayness hunger to live in the full light of day. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 16, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:18-20
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Prayer
The love we know and act is yours, All Searching One. You search deep into the crevices and unknown corners of souls to find places to fix fast and remain, there to work transformation of holy surprise.
We are the surprised, and the surprise is you. In blessed moments, we discover a compassion bubbling from source unseen, moving us to see and care beyond our normal vision and capacity. Our desire to be love and do compassion even among those who may care little for us surprises, so, too, our hunger to give and be given to that which transcends.
Our hearts spontaneously go out from us at the sight of particular need or beauty of soul, moving us beyond the narrow confines of self, blessing and surprising, revealing again that despite ourselves we bear a mystery deep in our flesh--You.
And you are our reassurance. For there are many times are hearts accuse for sin and failure, ancient and new. Old deeds may lie forgotten by those we injured yet castigate our consciences, sucking our strength, preoccupying waking hours and waking us from sleep with wrongs done and opportunities missed.
We have no defense but you, your love and truth that abides in the crevices and far corners of our souls, bubbling there, revealing that you are pleased to dwell even in us. Bearing your life, I order the accusing voices with your voice: “Sin be gone. My failure is forgiven. I bear a love larger than the wounds and weakness of my heart, more powerful than you, accusing voices. That Greater One abides here in me to close your mouth and drive you out.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:18-20
“Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Prayer
The love we know and act is yours, All Searching One. You search deep into the crevices and unknown corners of souls to find places to fix fast and remain, there to work transformation of holy surprise.
We are the surprised, and the surprise is you. In blessed moments, we discover a compassion bubbling from source unseen, moving us to see and care beyond our normal vision and capacity. Our desire to be love and do compassion even among those who may care little for us surprises, so, too, our hunger to give and be given to that which transcends.
Our hearts spontaneously go out from us at the sight of particular need or beauty of soul, moving us beyond the narrow confines of self, blessing and surprising, revealing again that despite ourselves we bear a mystery deep in our flesh--You.
And you are our reassurance. For there are many times are hearts accuse for sin and failure, ancient and new. Old deeds may lie forgotten by those we injured yet castigate our consciences, sucking our strength, preoccupying waking hours and waking us from sleep with wrongs done and opportunities missed.
We have no defense but you, your love and truth that abides in the crevices and far corners of our souls, bubbling there, revealing that you are pleased to dwell even in us. Bearing your life, I order the accusing voices with your voice: “Sin be gone. My failure is forgiven. I bear a love larger than the wounds and weakness of my heart, more powerful than you, accusing voices. That Greater One abides here in me to close your mouth and drive you out.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 13, 2007
Friday, April 13, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:15-17
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our live for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help?”
Prayer
Eternal life is love abiding. Grant us this every morning, Living One. For we, too, do murderer to the souls of those we bypass and take for granted. We work destruction in our failures of gratitude and grace, our refusals to bless and heal, to build up and encourage. We kill the souls of your beloved and the unity of your beloved community with glib words and backbiting.
We each are more fragile and needy than we have courage to acknowledge. We need you. We need each other. We need our communal sharing to be a holy sacrament of your eternal life lest we die, lest we dwell in haunts of sadness and prisons of distrust and anger.
Our souls yearn for the sweet freedom to soar and share and be, for once, ourselves, that rare person who emerges in the morning sun of unspeakable grace where we know we are loved beyond any measure.
And we are. You laid down your life for us, Risen Jesus, and now pour the resurrection of grace into our souls that we may live and grace every life we touch with the love we have received from you, the flowing fountain of eternal life.
May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:15-17
“All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us--and we ought to lay down our live for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help?”
Prayer
Eternal life is love abiding. Grant us this every morning, Living One. For we, too, do murderer to the souls of those we bypass and take for granted. We work destruction in our failures of gratitude and grace, our refusals to bless and heal, to build up and encourage. We kill the souls of your beloved and the unity of your beloved community with glib words and backbiting.
We each are more fragile and needy than we have courage to acknowledge. We need you. We need each other. We need our communal sharing to be a holy sacrament of your eternal life lest we die, lest we dwell in haunts of sadness and prisons of distrust and anger.
Our souls yearn for the sweet freedom to soar and share and be, for once, ourselves, that rare person who emerges in the morning sun of unspeakable grace where we know we are loved beyond any measure.
And we are. You laid down your life for us, Risen Jesus, and now pour the resurrection of grace into our souls that we may live and grace every life we touch with the love we have received from you, the flowing fountain of eternal life.
May it be so today. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:11-14
“For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. … We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death.”
Prayer
We know life, your risen life, in the presence of love, your love, abiding in us. Love is the form of your presence in and among us, Holy Mystery. And we yearn to rest in you whose name is Risen Love Abiding--and abiding here with me.
We yearn because we know what it is to abide in death, Risen One. It is an altogether common experience. Death is dwelling in anxiety about who I am, how I look, how I am doing, how others perceive me. It is fear about today and preoccupied worry about tomorrow.
Death is dwelling in cynicism and disdain for others, their actions and motives. It is separation from all with whom we share common human vulnerability.
Death is dwelling apart from you, separate from your liberating nearness, Risen Restless Love. Death, I know too well, and I weary of its hateful face.
So I come again in these moments to rest my soul in the mystery of your loving nearness. Knowing you here, abiding in this love I have for you, I know again, all is well. And resurrection happens again. I pass from death to life, knowing the love you breathe and speak through this soul.
May I never weary of this endless passage from death to life through which you breathe the life of your love into my soul. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, April 09, 2007
Monday, April 9, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:9-10
“Those who have been born of God do not sin because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God. The children of God and of the devil are revealed in this way: all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters.”
Prayer
You sow the seed of tomorrow in our hearts, Risen One. Planting your future deep in the soul’s soil, your seed takes root and grows into a vibrant hope that at once comforts and agitates, so that nothing satisfies but your grace, your life, your justice, your mercy … you.
Bearing your future in our bones, we hunger for the healing of time and space and of our own fractured souls. Such is your promise. Nowhere is it more transparent than in the transfiguration of your wounds, blessed Jesus.
You emerge from your tomb bearing the marks of the nails, the scars of your mutilation. The marks of living and dieing are not wiped from your flesh. They remain. So, too, on us.
Your wounds give silent witness to God’s purpose to heal not by removing our scars but by sowing in them the seeds of tomorrow, which flower into your immense beauty even in places of cavernous wounds and sorrow.
Grant that the seed of your resurrected love should take such root in us that sin be choked out so that you may bear in us the harvest of your love and mercy. There is no surer sign of your blessed rising. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, April 06, 2007
Friday, April 6, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:8
“Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil.”
Prayer
I have touched the place said to be the site of your execution, dearest Jesus. I have run my hands across the cool, gray stone on which ancient traditions say your friends placed you. My hands rested there and my tears fell, like all those who came before and who will yet appear.
Perhaps this is the spot where they laid your tortured body to rest. I do not know. But I do know the broken, shot, starved, emaciated bodies of human souls laid to rest or left to rot in road ditches in war zones on the far outposts of humanity. I think of these, too, as I think of your death on this Good Friday.
None of those deaths, none of the bodies bore any appearance of victory or triumph over forces of evil and destruction. Each cried voicelessly into the infinite silence, beseeching the heavens for an answer. Each joined earth’s ancient chorus, pleading for a mercy that can heal the sorrow and redeem the suffering.
You, blessed Jesus, fondest desire of my heart, are the answer to our ancient pleading. You are the mercy that heals the world’s wounds and redeems forgotten deaths of countless multitudes.
Your death destroys the works of the devil. You refused to repay evil for evil, hatred with more of the same. You reveal the eternal mercy that bubbles from the infinite spring of the heart of God. In you, we see the Immeasurable Mercy who holds every life, in every age, every soul, no matter how seemingly bereft or forgotten. In your suffering sorrow, I know the keeper of the sparrow to whom no suffering or death is lost or forgotten.
Your mercy destroys the ancient hatreds and fears of our heart. Bathe us in your mercy, suffering Jesus. You are our hope. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:7
“Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.”
Prayer
You are righteous. That is our hope and comfort. So often the word is a threat. Erring souls turn your righteousness into a weapon to beat others into conformity, flaying them for sin and frailty, for being human and weak and needy.
Surely, this makes you weep, even as you, my brother, wept over Jerusalem and in the Garden of Gethsemane. You wept in pain and sorrow for the fallen flower of humanity, for us and the mess we make of things, for the way we use your truth to enslave rather than free.
But you are righteous, and that is our hope. You keep the promise of God to love and to love us to the end. You, blessed Jesus, suffering Jesus, dieing Jesus: you are God’s ‘Yes!’ to all of us who must shout down the “No!” of condemnation and denunciation from accusing voices that haunt the dark corridors of minds.
We can never keep the voices away for long. So we rest in your righteousness. For you are God’s “Yes” … to me. Your righteousness is no weapon but is the gift of fulfilled promise that your love abides, and abides with and for and in us—and ever will.
That is our hope, resting in the suffering love in which you reveal the righteous love of God that never turns or fails. On this holiest of weeks, grant us this assurance. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Today’s text
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
1 John 3:4-6
“Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.”
Prayer
I know the pain of sin, Holy One, as do you. When sin does not separate there is no space between us, no here and there, no me and you. I rest in you who are not near but here, around, about, within--the all-enveloping wonder with whom I share a seamless intimacy in which there is no separation between my mortality and your eternity.
We are one, and I am certain beyond all doubt that your love holds me fast in this and every age. Assurance fills my heart; joy bubbles over, a flowing stream of life, love and confidence. The idea of turning from you, of seeking life anywhere but in you, is unthinkable, the foulest delusion.
But blessed intimacy shatters like glass when I turn from the constancy of your love to the shifting fears of my fretful soul. Ancient anxieties that I know far too well seize my mind, and I lose the exquisite intimacy of your abiding.
I refuse the invitation of love you write in the inscape of every circumstance and alienate myself from others, avoiding them in fear, boarding up my heart, no longer trusting that communal sharing you seek to work among us.
Sin separates, so that I no longer abide in you but in the disquiet of my mind where fears cloud my vision until I can see nothing else.
But you do not leave me to the lawless disorder of my heart. You come again and again, inviting me to abide in that incandescent love that evaporates my anxiety, restores our union and opens my eyes to see you and to know: my sin is not nearly sufficient to steal me from your love.
Open our eyes to see and know you in this holy time of your self-giving, blessed Jesus. Take away the sin that weights our souls and shatters our joy that we may abide in you, trusting all your love has done and will do for us from this time and forever. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)