Friday, December 9, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Go out to meet the Lord
Wisdom is vindicated by her works.
Wisdom comes and goes in my life. And my “works” reflect that. One moment I’m thinking about neighbors taking all the parking places in front of our apartment, and the next I’m filled with peace, forgiving everyone, especially myself. Resentment, replaced by rejoicing, then by resentment again. Over and over.
We played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance. We sang a dirge, but you didn’t mourn.
I forget that no one dances to my drum, and when I forget I resent and complain, at least inwardly. That darn drum beats inside my head till I have a headache, or until I speak up and say hello to someone. When I open myself, even to others whose heads are filled with their own drums, everything changes.
The Lord will come; go out to meet him! He is the prince of peace.
When I open up like that, I’m praying. I don’t call it that, but God’s grace intervenes, and I stop thinking of myself. God has room to work. He never gives us stones, he always gives us bread. Relationships might feel wrong or ugly or unfair, but they always turn if I wait for God to turn them.
That sounds a little optimistic; maybe I’m wrong?
I, the Lord your God, teach you what is for your good, and lead you on the way you should go.
The Bible is full of lavish promises of God’s presence in our minds, in nature, and in our relationships. We do need, however, to show up and accept his grace, receive his love. And since I forget time after time, I need to show up again and again, accept again and again. Seventy time seven times seven times seven …
If you will hearken to my commandments, your prosperity will be like a river, and your vindication will be like the waves of the sea.
God pleads with us to hearken to his words, his commandments, his grace, his mercy, and his love. He is the one who brings justice, he is the one who forgives. Without his creative touch constantly in my life, even my heart stops beating. And without his forgiveness, I stop forgiving. Then I’m miserable. Even eating is no longer a pleasure: “The man I hate will not permit me to enjoy the taste.”
Delight in the law of the Lord and meditate on it day and night. You will yield your fruit in due season; your leaves will never fade. What you do will prosper. I will watch over your ways, and show you the just way. And you will have the light of life.
I have a few early morning prayers to add to those I pray now. Mary’s determined prayer seems right: “Let it be done unto me according to thy word.”
Also David’s gritty prayer about his own ingrained selfishness: “Cleanse my with hyssop and I will be clean.” Hyssop is a rough shrub with stiff, coarse leaves. Monks wore hair shirts to simulate that cleansing.
God is not angry with me. But God welcomes the chance to do some deep cleaning. Say yes, David. Just accept.
(Isaiah 48, Psalm 1, Matthew 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
