Sunday-Ps.50 does not leap up at me immediately. It is a psalm of judgment that fits perfectly the reading today from Isaiah. God decries worship if it does not show up in lives worthy of being in a worship space. We often enter gorgeous sanctuaries but bring in lives that are inappropriate to the presence of God, no matter how carefully and elegantly clad we may be.How christians dare call Judaism legalistic with these passages repeated in Scripture astounds me.
Monday-I notice when I find myself saying, "I should do such and such." Self-talk affects our unconscious thinking and acting. Decades ago I remember reading psychologist Karen Horney's phrase "the tyranny of the should," only slightly more philosophical than the Saturday Night Live line, "You're shoulding on yourself!" When I catch myself saying "I should" do a certain task, if I can translate it "I'd like to..." or "I need to..." then it lies close to my passion. (If not, it's someone else's call). I move from "should" to "can" to "will"--then discern when and how to act on it. Ira Kent Groff
Tuesday-I may as well continue with some quotes.Micheal O’Siadhail goes against the grain of a long marriage become dull and routine.”over bequeathed secrets we learn to repossess/in hints and traces, these words we must guess....riddles of what we read between the lines...this tick-tack of things we still negotiate....those unheard words that in a heart betoken/ all of all which must remain unspoken.” What surprises do you receive from someone you have known for a long time? What must remain unspoken in your prayer life, if anything? How are we still secrets to each?
Wednesday-I saw this quote from William Blake in David Ford’s fine book, The shape of Living (p.157): “every moment has a couch of gold for soft repose...there is a moment in each day that Satan cannot find...once is found,it renovates every moment of the day if rightly placed.” to me it sounds similar to a sabbath moment of repose in each day. just as we can take one day of rest a week, perhaps we should alos take some sabbath time each day to refresh the working soul.
Thursday I read the new Dan Brown novel, Inferno. He is hardly a prose stylist, but his plot is moderately involving. It centers on readings of Dante’s great three part poem on the afterlife, The Divine Comedy. Most of us remember the first part, Inferno, on Hell. why is that, do you think?
Friday-I am seeing a lot of postings of back to school. it always makes me a little sad. From carefree to work is a tough transition. Do we ever feel as if the child is ready for hte next step in life? do you have back to school memories in your experience or children or grandchildren? I wonder if God feels that we are not ready to face the world with our level of strength, daily?
Saturday-”Unlike the claims of consumer society, the community operates with a powerful vision, a vision that affirms that the future is not yet finished. God has a powerful intention and resolve to bring us to a wholeness not yet in hand.” Walter Breuggemann in Texts Under Negotiation
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