Meditations

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26:3

“This activity of our heart may be compared, not inappropriately, to that of a mill which is activated by the circular motion of water. The mill cannot cease operations so long as it is driven by the pressure of the water, and then it becomes quite feasible for the person in charge to decide whether he [or she] prefers wheat or barley or darnel to be ground. And one thing is clear: only that will be ground which is fed in by the person who is in charge.

In a similar fashion, the mind is under constant pressure in this life. From all sides temptation comes in torrents to drive it along and in no way will it be free of turbulent thoughts. But the workings of zeal and diligence will decide which of these thoughts may be allowed in and cultivated. And, as I have said already, if we turn to the constant meditation on Scripture, if we lift up our memory to the things of the Spirit, to the longing for perfection, and to the hope of future blessedness, then the thoughts deriving from all this will of necessity be spiritual and they will hold the mind there thoughts have been.

However, if we are overcome by sloth or by carelessness, if we give ourselves over to dangerous and useless chattering, if we are caught up by worldly cares and in profitless worries, then there will follow in effect from this a harvest of tares to serve as a ministry of death to our hearts. As the Lord and Saviour of us all proclaimed, where treasure lies for our works and for our hopes, our hearts will of necessity abide there too.”

John Cassian (360-435) in Conferences as recounted in Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell (SCM: Norwich, 2004) 81-82.

The title of this classic work, Conferences, could be rendered, Meetings with Monks, for that is what it is. A record of a series of discussions between desert fathers who were deeply dedicated to God.

Here, Cassian looks at the heart to choose zeal and diligence over sloth and carelessness. If we don’t give ourselves to the former, we find ourselves caught up in the latter: “worldly cares and in profitless worries” instead.

By using the comparison to the mill, he gives us a picture of the forces at work, both for an against us. Constant pressure. But it is our choice what to make in the mill and how to stay focused along the way: constant meditation.

Perhaps that’s why God led me to do daily posts almost 13 years ago, and why you read them? As today’s Scripture notes, we need to remain steadfast. Let’s make generosity in our mill for God and others.

God help us not be overcome by the turbulent thoughts.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:15-16

“We have to shine not only before others by our good works and by what we say, but also before the angels in our prayer, and before God in the intentions of our hearts. In the presence of the angels our lamps will shine with unsullied reverence when we sing the psalms attentively in their sight or pray fervently; before God our lamp is single-minded resolve to please Him alone to whom we have entrusted ourselves.”

Guerric of Igny (1070-1157) recounted in Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell (SCM: Norwich, 2004) 80.

Cool name, Guerric of Igny. Not much is known about the life of this Cistercian abbot who studied under a Benedictine monk and lived a life of prayer, mostly in Belgium.

What we do know is that he cared about about not just shining before others with good works, but also before the angels in heaven and before God in his heart. He reveals the secret to this; Live with with single-minded resolve to please God. The rest falls into place after that. God help us do this today.

Father, by your Holy Spirit, help us live with single-minded resolve to please you so that heaven sings, people sees, and you will be honored. Do this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me His prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. 2 Timothy 1:6-8

“Paul reminds Timothy ‘to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands’, One can guess from these words how dispirited and dejected Paul must have believed Timothy to be at this time. Paul’s words remind us that much zeal is required to stir up the gift of God in us. Just as fire requires fuel, so grace requires our glad and willing consent if it is to be fervent. For it lies within our power to kindle or extinguish the grace of God within each of us. That is why Paul admonishes us: ‘Do not quench the Spirit’. The Spirit is quenched by sloth and carelessness, but kept alive by being watchful and diligent.’

John Chrysostom (347-407) in one of his sermons, recounted in Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell (SCM: Norwich, 2004) 64.

Paul wanted Timothy to fan the flame of the gift God had given him. For whatever reason, circumstances had caused Timothy to pause, to sit on the bench. Paul wanted him to get in the game. Is it time for you to do this?

Chyrsostom calls us to exchange sloth and carelessness with watchfulness and diligence. For Timothy, “grace requires glad and willing consent.” Or in plain terms, God won’t work through us unless we make ourselves available.

What about you? Are you in the proverbial dugout instead of on the baseball field? If so, fan to flame the gift God has given you! Don’t let the fear of suffering slow you down. Suffering will happen, but you will emerge victorious.

Your generous service depends on it.

But be sure to fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully with all your heart;consider what great things He has done for you. 1 Samuel 12:24

“The world ridicules devotion in life, caricaturing devout people as peevish, gloomy, and sullen, and insinuating that religion makes a person melancholy and unsociable. But the Holy Spirit, speaking through the mouths of the saints and indeed through our Saviour Himself, assures us that a devout life is wholesome, pleasant, and happy.

The world observes how devout people fast, pray, and suffer reproach; how they nurse the sick, give alms to the poor, retrain their temper and do similar deeds which in themselves and viewed in isolation, are hard and painful. But the world fails to discern the interior devotion which renders these agreeable, sweet, and pleasant.

Look at the bees: they suck the bitter juice from thyme and convert it to honey because that is in their nature. Devout souls, it is true, do experience bitterness in works of self-discipline, but they are engaged in a process that converts such bitterness into a delicious sweetness. Sour green fruits are sweetened by sugar, bringing a ripeness to what had been unwholesome to the palate.

In the same way, true devotion is a spiritual sugar which takes away the bitterness of self-discipline. It counteracts the poor person’s discontent and the rich person’s smugness; the loneliness of the oppressed and the conceit of the successful; the sadness of the one who lives alone and the dissipation of the one is at the centre of society. In a word its gift is an equanimity and balance which refreshes the soul.

In creation God has commanded the plants to bring forth fruit, each according to its kind. Similarly, he commands all Christians, who are living plants of His Church, to bring forth the fruits of devotion according to each person’s ability and vocation. The practice of devotion will need to be adapted to the capabilities, jobs and duties of each individual.”

Francis de Sales (1567-1622) from Introduction to the Devout Life as recounted in Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell (SCM: Norwich, 2004) 59.

Today’s post was long, so I will be short.

I pray that your generosity finds deep roots in interior devotion, that like a bee you take the bitterness of this life and convert it to sweet honey, and that as living plant of Christ, made alive by His resurrection, that you bear much fruit for God’s glory.

Give us the self-discipline to make it so, Holy Spirit. Amen.

He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” Then they remembered His words. Luke 24:6-8

“The Church is called to announce the Good News of Jesus to all people and all nations. Besides the many works of mercy by which the Church must make Jesus’ love visible, it must also joyfully announce the great mystery of God’s salvation through the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The story of Jesus is to be proclaimed and celebrated. Some will hear and rejoice, some will remain indifferent, some will become hostile. The story of Jesus will not always be accepted, but it must be told. We who know the story and try to live it out have the joyful task of telling it to others. When our words rise from hearts full of love and gratitude, they will bear fruit, whether we can see this or not.”

Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey (New York: HarperOne, 2006) reading for 7 November.

Today we celebrate the resurrection and the privilege of sharing the good news with others in gratitude for what Christ has done for us. He died on the cross for our sins, rose again, and washed us clean with His blood.

As Nouwen notes, “Some will hear and rejoice, some will remain indifferent, some will become hostile. The story of Jesus will not always be accepted, but it must be told.” We get to tell it out of gratitude.

And remember that when our sharing flows from a heart of love and gratitude, it will bear fruit, whether we ever see it or not. Our role is to proclaim the truth with boldness and joy, with love and gratitude.

For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human standards in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the Spirit. 1 Peter 4:6

“We focus on Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but we forget to pause in the stillness of the day between. Find time today to be present in that place of waiting. There is treasure to be found in the sacred peace that comes as you breathe in that place of quiet surrender. Don’t rush through the space called “between.”

Katherine J. Walden

On 8 April 2022, just one week ago, Dan Busby (my dear friend, mentor, fellow Major League Baseball lover, and basically like a father to me) wrote a CaringBridge post on waiting. It touched me deeply. It was called “There Is a Purpose for Being in God’s Waiting Room.” Check it out here. This paragraph stuck with me.

“I have never been good at waiting. I missed that course in college. Still, the word “wait” keeps showing up in my Bible. It reminds me that while I am waiting, God is working. Jesus said, “My Father is always at His work” (John 5:17). The sign on God’s waiting room reads “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).

So, as I sit “between” Good Friday and Easter just waiting and reading God’s Word, I find the “treasure” Walden was talking about. Jesus was working that Saturday. He was proclaiming good news to the dead and setting those captives free. So, when I am waiting, I can find peace in that place of surrender because He is working.

Thanks Jesus for your work for me and all of humanity.

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

“The highest act of love is the giving of the best gift, and, if necessary, at the greatest cost, to the least deserving. That’s what God did. At the cost of His Son’s life to the totally undeserving, God gave the best gift – the display of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”

John Piper in God is the Gospel (Wheaton: Crossway, 2005) 139-140.

It’s a beautiful day! I am not referring to the weather. It’s Good Friday, the day that the God gave sinful humanity the gift of His one and only Son. It was the highest act of love because God gave us the best possible gift at the greatest cost when we were totally undeserving.

It prompts me to think of ways I can follow suit. What is the best possible gift I can give others, not because they are deserving, but out of love? Sit with that idea today. I will too. Then give as the Spirit leads with love, joy and thankfulness to God for His generosity toward you.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

“So our Lord Jesus Christ presented us in His passion with all the difficulties and the daily grind of this present age; while in His resurrection He presented us with the eternal and blessed life of the age to come. Let us endure the present, hope for the future. That’s why during these days, we spend the days that signify the difficulties of the present age by grinding our souls, as it were, with fasting and discipline; while during the days to come, after Easter, we signify the days of the age to come. We aren’t yet there; I said “we signify them, “not” we possess them.” Until the passion, you see, penance; after the resurrection, praise.

That, you see, will be our business in that life, in the kingdom of God: to see Him, to love Him, to praise Him. What, after all, are we going to do there? In this age there are works of necessity… What are the works of necessity? Sowing, plowing, planting, sailing, milling, cooking, weaving, and any other similar works of necessity; and those good works of ours are also works of necessity: breaking your bread to the hungry is not a necessity of yours, but it is one of the person you are breaking your bread to. Welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, redeeming the captive, visiting the sick, giving advice to the uncertain, freeing the oppressed, all these belong to almsgiving; they are works of necessity…

Well, in that kingdom there won’t be any works of necessity, because there won’t be any neediness there… Where there is no neediness, there are no works of necessity… What, after all, are you going to do in order to eat, when nobody’s hungry? How are you going to perform those works of mercy? Who can you break bread to, when nobody is in need? What sick people can you visit, where perpetual health is the rule? What dead persons can you bury, where immortality never dies? The works of necessity vanish…”

Augustine of Hippo in Sermon 211A.1-2, “During Lent: A Fragment” in Sermons: The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, translation and notes by Edmund Hill (New City Press: New Rochelle, 1993) 133-134.

Happy Maundy Thursday.

It’s the day we celebrate the new commandment Jesus gave us: to love one another. We get to do it as He did it to us. It takes the form of sacrificial service. This side of glory, we get to love through “works of necessity” to all people, especially the undeserving.

Since the days of the early church, the Lenten practices have aimed to teach us self denial, such as prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, which were collectively codified as penance. And penance prepares us for life after the resurrection, or a time of praise.

We are in the days of penance, there are needs everywhere so we get to be generous at all times and on all occasions because that is the purpose for which we were saved by grace. To do good works of necessity which He prepared in advance for us to do.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

“The ‘looking unto Jesus’ which the apostle advises [in Hebrews 12:1-2], will keep us from being weary or fainting under our crosses; for this name was set upon the cross over our Savior’s head. This same Jesus at the end fixes and fastens all. The love of God in Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us; come what can, it sweetens all.”

Mark Frank in a reading from one of his sermons in Celebrating the Saints, compiled by Robert Atwell (SCM: Norwich, 2004) 2.

I feel my perspective changes as I look unto Jesus and approach the cross. Likely, you feel the same way. We shift from weary and fainting to being fixed and fastened.

This relates to generosity because Jesus meets us in our trials and brokenness. He often does not save us from challenges but through them. The key for us is to trust in His love and not money.

Many try to navigate hard times by holding on to money. Don’t do that. Put it in play. Pitch it in like a small stone. Like the rocks in the picture, when coupled with others, it makes a difference.

And it provides a solid foundation for us to walk on. If your cross is heavy today, look to Jesus. I find it helps me stay the course with living, giving, serving, and loving generously.

When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked. “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6:15-17

“If the outward were the measure of the Church of Christ, we might well despair. But side by side with us, when we fondly think like Elisha or Elisha’s servant that we stand alone, are countless multitudes whom we know not, angels whom we have no power to discern, children of God who we have not learnt to recognize. We have come to the Kingdom of God, peopled with armies of angels and men working for us and with us because they are working for God. And though we cannot grasp the fullness of the truth, and free ourselves from the fetters of sense, yet we can, in the light of the Incarnation, feel the fact of this unseen fellowship, we can feel that heaven has been reopened to us by Christ.”

B.F. Westcott in Christus Consummator (London, 1886) 58.

I needed Westcott’s words today. They caused my imagination to picture the heavenly host with me with the vivid imagery that I have only seen in Lord of the Rings movies, patterned after the classic works by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I was reminded that no matter how big the challenges we may face, we are not alone. We are part of a community of workers for God that are unimaginable in number and strength because they serve the King of Kings.

But alas, we are limited by the “fetters of sense” or by the world we can see, hear, and touch. But God’s power and His people number far more than those. We need only eyes to see that we are not alone but part of this community.

Open our eyes Lord, that we may see the hills full of horses and the chariots of fire surrounding us. Fight our battles for us as we stand trusting completely in You. Help us give others this perspective as part of our generosity. Amen.