August Twenty-Eighteen
As citizens
of an invisible kingdom, we refuse to take our living cues from the world that
says to build, grow, measure, and rush to keep up. Instead we take our cues
from the new hope alive within us, from the life of Christ who has made our
hearts his home. We’ll stop trying to keep up with the fast-moving world and,
instead, we’ll settle down and keep company with the small moments of our
lives. We’ll pay attention to them, listen to what they have to teach us, not
rush by them as if they are unimportant. We know better than that by now. We
know the way these small moments link arms with one another to form the
timelines of our lives. We can’t afford to miss them. –Emily P. Freeman
Bless this day,
this blank page, newly
turned.
May its story, once written,
bring only glory to your
name.
-John Birch
Within the clutter
and confusion
of our daily lives,
help us prioritize ,
be good stewards
of our time and love,
grateful servants
of our gracious God.
-John Birch
Remind
us that our souls aren’t made for hurry but to find their rest in You. Teach us
the sound of your voice so that we can move to the unforced rhythms of grace.
Reveal to us our own assignment and empower us to do our own thing well. Give
us the courage to define our own margins, to be people with a strong no and a
thoughtful yes. Slow us down in your presence, we pray.
- Emily P. Freeman
Reverence may take all kinds of forms, depending on what it is that awakens awe in you by reminding you of your true size. ... Nature is a good place to start. Nature is full of things bigger and more powerful than human beings, including but not limited to night skies, oceans, thunderstorms, deserts, grizzly bears, earthquakes, and rain-swollen rivers. But size is not everything. Properly attended to, even a saltmarch mosquito is capable of evoking reverence. See those white and black striped stockings on legs thinner than a needle? Where in those legs is there room for knees? And yet see how they bend, as the bug lowers herself to your flesh. Soon you and she will be blood kin. Your itch is the price of her life. Swat her if you must, but not without telling her she is beautiful first. The easiest practice of reverence I know is simply to sit down somewhere outside, preferably near a body of water, and pay attention for at least twenty minutes. It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first. Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate, including the saltmarsh mosquito that lands on your arm. Just blow her away and ask her to please go find someone else to eat. With any luck, you will soon begin to see the souls in pebbles, ants, small mounds of moss, and the acorn on its way to becoming an oak tree. You may feel some tenderness for the struggling mayfly the ants are carrying away. If you can see the water, you may take time to wonder where it comes from and where it is going. You may even feel the beating of your own heart, that miracle of ingenuity that does its work with no thought or instruction from you. You did not make your heart, any more than you made a tree. You are a guest here. You have been given a free pass to this modest domain and everything in it. . ― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith
We don't have to do all of it alone. We were never meant to.
No one ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the
same river and he’s not the same man.
~ Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 – 475 BC
Until further notice, celebrate everything!
God of grace and mercy
present both in desert places
and green pastures,
who knows the shadows
in which we wander
and longs for us to walk in light,
whose arms embrace all those
who in despair cry out.
To you alone belongs our praise!
-John Birch
God of grace and mercy,
who knows the people we could be
yet loves us as we are.
To you alone belongs our praise!
God of grace and mercy,
who understands our frailty
and hears us when we call
To you alone belongs our praise!
-John Birch
Human beings may separate things into as many piles as we wish—separating spirit from flesh, sacred from secular, church from world. But we should not be surprised when God does not recognize the distinctions we make between the two.Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.
