Lectio Divina
Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.
You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.
Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.
Follow me and I’ll show you how.
Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self.
Mark 8, Eugene Peterson’s Translation
The original meaning of the word theology was union with God in prayer. Today theology has become one academic discipline among many others.
Henri Nouwen
I’d been manipulated one time too many by someone telling me God’s will for me and disappointed one time too many by God not telling me his will for me, so I just stopped crediting him, stopped listening for him.
But if Scripture is about anything, it’s about moment by moment reliance on the Spirit of God, trusting that every good and perfect gift is from him, that he is with us in suffering, that his Spirit guides and comforts us.
Mandy Smith
Prayer
Jesus
We’ve made a mess
Flags
Fortunes
Platforms
Wars
All in your name
Pastors build ladders
with the wood of your cross
ascending religious careers
claiming to be disciples
of a Rabbi without a home
And I,
Well I,
I want to believe
I'm unlike the others
I know how to stand
at a careful distance
I know how to name
what has gone wrong
I know the language of justice
I know the failures of church
I know the machinery of power
I know how money moves
I know how holiness becomes a brand
And I certainly know
how to tell a story in which
I am the one who sees
Jesus
save me
from needing to be
the one who sees.
Jesus
When I am still enough
I find you near
You do not ask me
to explain the world
You ask me
to follow you through it
So here I am
I repent
I return
The arguments I rehearse
they run loud
Can you quiet
the part of me
that has to win?
This morning
This day
This breath
I am listening
I am seeking
May my next moments be lived
in union with you
in service
to my daughters
in attentiveness
to my wife
in hope
for my neighbors and enemies
May a smile arrive
as your love,
shed abroad my heart,
melts away
the need to be right
and leads me towards
the joy of being kind.
Jesus
You are making
all things new.
Begin in me.
Blessing
Dear Friend
May you return this day
wherever you find yourself
to the quiet center
where the mercies of God are new.
May your ideologies
that separate
the wheat and the tares
become idols
laid at the feet of Christ.
May prayer no longer be
words spoken to God,
but a life lived
in union with God.
Be blessed.
In the Name of Christ
Who Called Zealots and Tax Collectors alike
to Follow Him
Amen