Sunday-Ps. 52 did not leap up at me.
It seems to be a lament directed at a tyrant, or an evil powerful person. Where
do you feel moved to pray such words in 2013?
How true it is that evil does love falsehood, every harmful word and
deceit. One of the reasons evil persists is that people enjoy it and receive
benefits from it. On the other hand, the psalmist is certain that such power
will not last, and that we flourish in the house of God, for God’s love is
unfailing.
Monday-(from Ira Kent Groff) “Try
framing your procrastination as prayers. Turn to God in all things--even in my
procrastinations. I glance at daily to-do lists; I experience human feelings of
frustration. Finally, when you do make the phone call, send the e-mail, or
write the check, you've wrapped the action in a web of prayers. With a slight
inner shift of the sail, you are "turning to God in all
things"--praying your procrastinations.”
Tuesday-A therapist recently told me
that the nature of his understanding of the enterprise is essentially religious:
he wishes to help the client arrive at some different perspectives on the issue
that brings them to a therapist. For me, we find common cause with religious
faith as it offers up images and understandings to helpus see ourselves and our
neighbor and yes, God, in a new or deeper light.
Wednesday-I am trying to decide if I
am going to hang up a yard sale print in the office or home. Why do certain
pictures pull us in, but we can go past 100 similar ones? What pulls us in with
religious thoughts and images, but others leave us cold? What sort of religious
themes do you find attractive or that tend to drive you away? Do certain
pictures throw you into a different mood?
Thursday-From Frederick Buechner Two
apple branches struck against each other with the limber clack of wood on wood.
That was all—a tick-tock rattle of branches—but then a fierce lurch of
excitement at what was only daybreak, only the smell of summer coming, only
starting back again for home, but oh Jesus, he thought, with a great lump in
his throat and a crazy grin, it was an agony of gladness and beauty falling
wild and soft like rain. Just clack-clack, but praise him, he thought. Praise
him. Maybe all his journeying, he thought, had been only to bring him here to
hear two branches hit each other twice like that, to see nothing cross the
threshold but to see the threshold, to hear the dry clack-clack of the world's
tongue at the approach perhaps of splendor.
Friday-Again this year, our garden
has a number of crops coming up that we did not plant. Since the soul can be
compared ot a garden, I thought of times when something good appeared that was
not planned but seems a lucky addition o to the abundance of grace. Sometimes,
that sort of pleasant surprise is better than something that emerges from
thought and planning. Where do you most prize the spontaneous in your life?
Saturday-As I am preparing this, we
are in the midst of a heat wave. Few things feel more soothing than a heat wave
being broken with some blessed coolness. What helps you toward a cooling off
period when angry or frustrated? When have you enjoyed the experience of a
family crisis breaking, and the wonderful sense of normality returns?
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