Sunday-Ps.123 touches on the effect of scorn or derision on one’s life.It takes the problem to God, the Loving and Accepting One. If God hears our prayer what does it matter what others may say about us? Easier prayed than done, but a steady diet of praying out our deepest needs will work a change in the soul.
Monday-My father-in-law often jokes with me at the end of day. He asks, "So, did you wipe out all the evil today?" There will always bework to do in God's kingdom.This song,What Fellowship, What Joy Divine contains some reminders that the work we do is not our own. Nor do we do it alone. The work of the church is always done while leaning on the everlasting arms of Jesus.... The echo of the chorus makes clear that this is group work. .May we find joy knowing that God is in charge of the work that we do, and that we work—and sing—in the fellowship. Keith Anderson
Tuesday-Religious language reinforces a "do-it-right or not-it-at-all" attitude, mentally translating perfect as faultless. Yet the original New Testament Greek telios, and the Latin perfectum (behind our English word), mean "complete, mature, or whole." And the Greek noun telos means "goal or finish line." The apostle Paul can say, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal (telos); but I press on to make it my own,... Let those of us then who are mature (telioi) be of the same mind" (Philippians 3:12, 15). Ira Kent Groff
Wednesday-God’s life is an utterly shared phenomenon. If you are “holy” alone, you are not holy at all. Salvation is not a divine transaction that takes place because you are morally perfect, but much more: it is an organic unfolding, a becoming who you already are, an inborn sympathy with and capacity for the very One who created you and everything else too. You can then recognize that same deep sympathy or resonance in all others—even in its rejected or denied forms Richard Rohr
Thursday-Psalm 90:1-8, 12 -Towering mountains, firm, dependable, unwavering in grace, no shifting shadow, no turning away.How small am I? How fragile, how finite?My good moments and my bad, a roller coaster by the hour; just when I've got it, your perfection sheds light on something else.But what really matters? My failure? My sin? For even my evil will fade back to dust.Yet your mercy: firm, dependable, unwavering in grace, no shifting shadow, no turning away. -Keep my eyes on you, O God. You are constant even when I am a mess. Remind me what is important and give me life that is abundant in your love, Amanda Kempthorne
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Friday-Music as a spiritual practice means we enter a song as a way to discover and stretch beyond and within.Whether the music is contemplative or groovy, singing weaves the words and ideas into our consciousness using both brain hemispheres. What we upload in this way we test and often come to believe. What we believe, in turn, becomes part of our core.Richard Corrigan
Saturday-Sometimes I can get so darn serious about it all (and yes, somethings really do need serious thought and action). But the world will not be saved by this kind of concern and the action it inspires alone. We will also be saved by all that is delightful and beautiful, galootish and goofy. We are continually restored and redeemed in our moments of awe and wonder that such fine things can exist in our lives and in the world. These are the things we love - all of it, the big and little, the cares and concerns, the sublime and mysterious, the daily and ordinary, and every thing that produces a chuckle, giggle, or belly laugh.
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