Tuesday, February 28, 2023
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
In praying, do not babble like the pagans, who think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them. Your father knows what you need before you ask him.
Deep under my religiosity and spiritual practices, undercutting my prayer, lies much unfinishable false-self business. In other words, I don’t believe in myself. The assurances that pour almost aloud from every corner of the Bible get lost on their way to my soul, disappearing into blank walls and mental fog, and my vision fails. When I want to be looking up at my Father, I am distracted again and again by my careless and chaotic thoughts.
Be still, and know that I am God. Be still. Be still. BE still. Be STILL.
Clarence Heller’s four line poem about courage cuts to the point:
It takes courage to eat tomato soup wearing a white blouse.
It takes courage to travel to a foreign land unaccompanied.
It takes courage to give a ride to a stranger.
And it takes courage to claim your own goodness.
So often I notice I’m babbling (like the pagans) – if not aloud, then certainly inside my thoughts. I write and speak sometimes in simple self-defense, to get something inside me into a straight line. While I’m writing my mind settles into the words that appear on the page. The moment I stop writing, the thoughts begin flying around again, like starlings out of order, squawking.
There are prayers, too, that clear my mind:
Thank you for giving me this time of peace.
Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou among women. Not exactly a prayer to God, but a rosary that brings me into quiet.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
This is how you are to pray: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus insists that we not worry about tomorrow. Even unfinished projects can be finished for the day. Today has enough work of its own. God’s own way with his creation proceeds like that. When I hurry things along, I usually become anxious and afraid.
While God watches, waits, and loves me.
There’s no hurry, David. One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.
I’ve been feeling especially rushed this week. It’s tax season, and I need to get started. It’s the end of the month, and so there are extra things to do, to finish, to settle. I just got back to Austin from Urbana, and we’re leaving again next week. Times flies so fast.
All the while I watch friends and family, especially our grandkids, get busier and more rushed themselves, and my desire is to set a quieting example.
God whispers, and at last I hear him.
David. There’s no hurry. Watch me.
Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
Really my child, it’s true. There is no hurry.
 (Isaiah 55, Psalm 34, Matthew 4, Matthew 6)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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