A Perfect Day

My blog post yesterday was a mixture of discouragement and optimism, the optimism coming from my confidence that the gift of a new day would bring new opportunities to experience the presence of God.  That was exactly what the day brought, and this morning i am filled with joy and peace because of that experience.  i had only to stop relying on myself, to slow down and wait for God rather than rushing through the day as if my life depended on crowding as much as i could into it.  i went to sleep last night with a deep feeling of satisfaction, falling asleep as i was saying a prayer of thanks for all the goodness of the day.  i slept soundly and woke this morning feeling refreshed.

Once again, i learned that every day is perfect as God gives it to us.  The imperfection rises from my failure to appreciate each moment, my allowing busyness to prevent me from acknowledging the presence of God in each of the day's experiences.

My prayer for myself and for you this morning is that we will open our hearts to the joy and peace of this day and every moment in it, knowing that this day is a gift from God and therefore perfect.

O, Still Small Voice of Calm

Yesterday was one of those days that are a whirlwind.  By the time it was over, i was completely exhausted and drained emotionally.  Nothing bad happened; i simply allowed myself to overbook the day and paid the consequence.  In my blog post yesterday, i ended by praying that i, and those who read my post, would spend the day anointing the feet of Jesus.  That's not how i spent my day, though certainly service to others was involved.  That service was not the focus of my day.  Instead, my focus was on gritting my teeth and getting through the day--not a wise way to face the challenges of the day.  It didn't help that i didn't feel particularly well yesterday, something that is quite unusual for me.  Perhaps i had a little bug that kept me from being at my best.

This morning as i prayed, i tried to sort out my feelings about yesterday in my conversation with God.  Phrases from the Whittier poem that we sing as "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, forgive our foolish ways" kept popping into my head.  One stanza ends with these lines:

Let sense be dumb,

Let flesh retire,

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still small voice of calm.

i realized that is what my day lacked yesterday.  i allowed the "wind" of the day to prevent me from listening for that "still small voice" that would have brought me calm had i stopped long enough to listen for it.  i confess that i am still not entirely at peace.  i have many responsibilities facing me today, but instead of allowing the day to take control and beat me up, i'm going to try and listen for the voice of God that is there.  i may not be entirely successful, but i won't feel guilty if i'm not, because i know that God is at work in my life and it is God that will do the work of transformation, not me.

My prayer this morning is that each of us will listen for the "still small voice of calm" speaking "through the earthquake, wind, and fire" of our lives.

To Thine Own Self Be True

Two men that i admire deny the existence of a Creator, and i have been reading what they have to say.  Their denial of the existence of God doesn't bother me, but those who noisily preach God's existence by insisting on a literal acceptance of the Biblical account of creation that denies the evidence of science do bother me.  The personal faith of the so-called Creationists and proponents of Intelligent Design doesn't upset me.  It is their insistence that any discussion of the evidence of science that contradicts their views is offensive.  Their intolerance and their campaign to force others to hear their views, the forced teaching of these views by those who don't accept them, is very disturbing to me.  

There are two basic beliefs of which i am convinced: first, that there is a Creator who is the ultimate cause of all that is, and second, that each of us is an immortal soul.  i don't seek evidence of the truth of these two beliefs; they are so much a part of me that to deny them would be to deny my very existence.  The fact that others are not convinced of these beliefs is not troubling to me.  Each of us must be faithful to the intuitions of our own hearts, and we are wrong to insist that others hear our views, much less be forced to transmit them to others.

As i prayed and meditated this morning, i read in the 18th chapter of John's gospel the account of Jesus being slapped by an official of the high priest when Jesus was brought before Annas.  My first reaction was, "How could someone have dared to slap this great and good person?"  As i prayed about the reading, i realized that every time i ignore a good that i could do for another i am in fact slapping Jesus.  On the other hand, every time i do good for another i am pouring oil on the feet of Jesus.  My responsibility, then, is to look for ways to pour oil on Jesus' feet and to be reminded that ignoring opportunities to do good injure Jesus again and again.

My prayer this morning is that we will be true to our own hearts and spend our day anointing the feet of Jesus.

Let All Things Now Living

This morning a gentle rain is falling and the world outside is filled with a beautiful fog.  As i meditated, i thought about the great infinity that is God and the miracle of God's love.  It is amazing that the Creator of all things loves all creation, every living being, me included.  i thought of the miracle of the cycles of nature, being reminded by the raindrops i heard falling on the roof.  i thought of Katherine Davis' wonderful hymn that begins with the words that are the title of this post.  The lines that immediately came to mind were

His law he enforces,

The stars in their courses,

And sun in its orbit obediently shine;

The hills and the mountains, the rivers and fountains,

The deeps of the ocean proclaim him divine.

Davis' original words refer to God in the masculine gender, but that doesn't diminish the way her text expresses how i feel this morning.  God has wonderfully made this creation, and i rejoice that his infinite love comes to me in the quiet.

May your day be filled with wonder and joy in the majesty of creation.

The Word Made Flesh

Last Lord's Day, our pastors were away to visit family members in another state, and one of our lay leaders preached.  The Gospel Lesson was the first chapter of John, a difficult reading for me to understand, as is most of John's gospel.  Two points of his sermon seemed to be made for my sake, though I'm certain the preacher was not preaching to me.  But as he made these two points, i thought, "God is bringing me new understandings through this sermon."

First, the preacher made a statement to the effect that every time one does a service for another, the Word is being made flesh.  Why had i never thought of the phrase, "the word made flesh," in that way?  Certainly, each time we become Jesus to another we are putting flesh on the abstract concept of the Word, and the person to whom we have become Jesus in turn becomes Jesus to us, the Word made flesh, just as Jesus said that "when you do it unto the least of these my brothers, you do it unto me."  Suddenly the prologue of John's gospel became so much clearer to me.  This is the Word, that we love and serve one another!

The second point that impressed itself on me was that being a Christian means that we are followers of Jesus.  To be a follower of Jesus means to do as Jesus instructed.  Being a Christian is not an intellectual assent to faith, but a course of action.  It seemed to me that i was seeing the role of our actions as an expression of our faith, as if for the first time, that i was understanding for the first time that serving others as Jesus instructed is not only an expression of our faith but a path leading us to faith.  One of the functions of the church is to bind Jesus' followers together to make possible service that is not possible alone, to have a larger vision of how better to serve others.  Being a part of the church enables those of us who follow Jesus to accomplish much for others that we could not do alone.

Even now, as i write about the experience of this worship service, i am amazed at the impact of being reminded of truths i already knew and of seeing the beginning of John's gospel in a new way had on me as i sat in the service.  My prayer is that you and i will "make the Word flesh" in service to others and that those of us who call ourselves Christians will see the actions of serving others as both the path to faith and as an expression of that faith.

If Only . . .

During the past couple of days, i have encountered several who live their lives by an "if only" philosophy.  Their happiness depends on some future conclusion: if only this task were completed, happiness would come; if only there were more money in my bank account, happiness would come; if only others loved me more, happiness would come.  My heart goes out to those who are dependent on future events or the actions of others to realize happiness, because i don't believe such happiness will ever arrive.  i continue to try and eliminate "if only's," "should's," "need to's," "ought to's," and the like from my vocabulary.  i am coming to realize that true happiness comes from experiencing each moment of the hear and now fully, from depending on God to take care of the future, and from ceasing to regret past mistakes.  If i live in the present moment and sense God in my heart right here, right now, there is true joy, peace, and happiness, and that happiness is not dependent on external events or on the actions of others.

i must mention one surprise that came to me last evening as i opened our devotional booklet for this new year.  Each night just before we fall asleep, my wife and i read a daily devotional.  The devotional for January 1 was titled, "A Clean Slate."  i was astonished because this was the very image i had of this new year.  i remarked to my wife that perhaps this was a sign that God is leading me to some new truth in this coming year, or perhaps it's just a happy coincidence.  i'll try to practice what i preached in the paragraph above and trust God to take care of the future by leading me to find out whether "sign" or "coincidence" is the right label for what i've described.

May you live life fully in the present and enjoy the gifts of God in each moment you experience today and through the rest of the moments of this new year.

A Clean Slate, An Adventure

A couple of days ago, i posted about the removal of our Christmas decorations from our home and how this is always upsetting to me.  i sought to focus on how the restoration of our home to normalcy--in the sense that decorating for Christmas is a special event, something out of the ordinary--is important to my wife, and i tried to set aside my usual anxieties about packing all the decorations away and focusing on meeting her needs.  By the second day of this chore, i was much more relaxed about it and could take joy in seeing the normal appearance of our house restored.

As i thought about the new year that begins today this morning in my readings, prayers, & meditation, it suddenly came to me that this restoring of our home to its usual appearance and the subsequent cleaning up is a symbol of the new beginning that the start of a new year offers.  By removing the Christmas decor, we are marking the end to the celebration which concludes the old year and preparing our home for the new year and its promise.

Two other images came to me as i sat in the quiet of the early morning.  One was of how each new day is like a clean slate that God has given us, just as the new year is a clean slate full of opportunity and optimistic expectations.  The past is gone, and we begin afresh, asking God to lead us and order our lives.  When i attended school, we used old-fashioned chalk boards.  i can remember what fun it was to erase those big green boards, then to take a damp cloth and remove the chalk dust residue, leaving a shiny green surface on which the teacher could write.  Each new day is like that.  The residue of the past has been wiped away, and the slate that is our lives is ready for fresh learning.

If you have read many of my posts, you are aware that one of my great loves is bike riding.  Each time i begin to ride, i am excited about new experiences, even though i usually follow the same bike trail each time i ride.  There are always new things to see and new thoughts to think during the ride.  i thought this morning of what a great adventure it would be to climb on my bike and just ride as long as i want for as far as i want, without the constraints of a time limit that i usually must abide by.  My thought this morning was that the new year is just such an adventure.  Even though the year will come to an end, at the beginning of the year, the days stretch out before us in a long procession and the end seems to be far distant.  What new experiences, thoughts, and learning await us during this coming year?  What adventures are there for us to enjoy if we are open to them?

May your new year be a great adventure and may each day be a clean slate ready to be filled with marks that bring you joy and satisfaction.