Wednesday, September 4, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Not long till harvest time
I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who causes the growth.
Jesus said with emphasis, “I only do what I see my Father doing.” His humility preceded him, this Jesus who was master of the storm, soother of the sea, and healer of all who came to him.
Jesus entered Simon’s house, where his mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and the fever left her.
We watch Jesus move through the world making decisions, touching and healing, preaching sermons that change the world. We know he is planting, we know he is watering, and we know God is causing the growth. What a crop Jesus plants! What a harvest he prepares!
The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor and to proclaim liberty for the captives.
Come, Lord Jesus, and touch me too. Hold my soul in your embrace, and let me fall with trust into whatever comes next. Can I do this with joy and confidence, free from fear, carrying the faith of our fathers? Even more, with the faith of Jesus?
It is in this state that God sends us out, reaching for the hands of others who need their own pulling up. We need each other in one way or another every day of every life. I know this best not by thinking it through, but out of my stillness, listening to God. Henry Nouwen speaks of this …
If it is true that solitude diverts us from our fear and anger and makes us empty for a relationship with God, then it is also true that our emptiness provides a very large and sacred space where we can welcome all the people of the world. There is a powerful connection between our emptiness and our ability to welcome. When we give up what sets us apart from others— not just property but also opinions, prejudices, judgments, and mental preoccupations—then we have room within to welcome friends as well as enemies.
You show me day by day how to receive your love and pass it on. Free me from the foolhardy ways of a workaholic Christian. Instead open up my body and mind to rest in you and follow. I want to be your servant as well as your child.
You have fashioned our hearts, and you know all our works.
Henri Nouwen again, writing before he died too young:
The older we become, the more we realize how limited we are in our ability to love, how impure our hearts are, and how complex our motivations are. And there is a real temptation to want to look inside of ourselves and clean it all out, become people with a pure heart, unstained intentions, and unconditional love. Such an attempt is doomed to failure and leads us to ever greater despair.
The more we look into ourselves and try to figure ourselves out, the more we become entangled in our own imperfections. Indeed, we cannot save ourselves. Only Jesus can save us. That is why it is so important to remove your inner eye away from the complexities of your own broken heart toward the pure but broken heart of Jesus.
Looking at him and his immense mercy will give you the ability to accept your own imperfections and to really let yourself be cared for by the mercy and love of Jesus. I remember how Thomas Merton once wrote: “God is mercy in mercy in mercy.” This means that the more we come to know ourselves, the more we come to know God’s mercy, which is beyond the mercy we know.
How sweet it is to be loved by you, Lord.
My soul waits for the Lord, who is my help and my shield.
(1 Corinthians 3, Psalm 33, Luke 4)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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