Note: these were hurriedly compiled after a brief trip, so I may have missed a citation or two
Sunday-Ps. 14 asks will evildoers ever learn? All of us get caught in ruts. All of us hope for new outcomes of the same old paths. What are the hardest spiritual lessons for you to grasp?
Monday-T. S. Eliot wrote, "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." There are people like that. They are the caretakers of orderly accounting, measures of income and outgo and assuring that everything balances out. The less drama the better. The disorienting thing is that God is not so careful. Twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain are not enough to satisfy one hundred famished people. But they do. And then some.
Tuesday-a piece of a player from` the pastor of Broadway Methodist, Indy, who has been facing victims of violence of late:” release myself to the faith that I hold dear.I ask that you will grant this simple prayer that I be healed/freed/liberated/delivered to know/show/share love in all of its facets free from the pain of the past, free to welcome and experience joy in the present, free to welcome and experience joy in the future.”
Wednesday-Come Thou Fount-Robert Robinson was twenty-two years old when he wrote this hymn. At twenty-two many are finishing school, beginning a job and/or contemplating marriage. Not Robinson. He was thinking of death. Robinson's verse 5 doesn't make it into many hymnals. Could it have something to do with his asking God to speed up the day of our death? From God Pause
Thursday-What happens if my agenda doesn't line up with Jesus' agenda? I suspect Jesus doesn't force himself on me anymore than he forced himself on the hungry people and the frightened disciples. But I do think that ultimately Jesus' agenda of reconciling the world, of revealing God's radical grace and of healing a broken world, wins out. I just hope that I can be a part of that. Holy Jesus; forgive us when we try to be the church without you. Help us to hear your invitation to follow you and to be yoked to you. And may you have your way in our lives. Amen. Brian Malison
Friday-Abbey of the Arts has a piece on going through the day with a precious dog winter-here’s one-I am not a morning person. This is the hour when I sometimes wish I could sleep in, but Winter will have none of that. She is ready to go out first thing and as the sun rises earlier and earlier as we near the summer solstice she calls me out of bed earlier as well. Some mornings I am gifted with a glimpse of the full moon setting or the glorious swathe of pink across the sky. In these moments I even find myself grateful to awaken with the dawn. I prepare my heart to receive the day ahead.
Saturday-A young couple moves into a new neighborhood...while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean; she doesn't know how to wash correctly." Her husband looks on, remaining silent. Every time her neighbor hangs her wash to dry, the young woman makes the same comments. A month later, the woman is surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and says to her husband: "Look, she's finally learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this? "The husband replies, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows." And so it is with life... What we see when watching others depends on the clarity of the window through which we look.
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