Monthly Archives: July 2020
The following is a “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Press. (You can sign up for these yourself, if you would like. They are free, though you can also buy some books and keep Loyola in business, if you wish to do that.)
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (John 15:12)
“How familiar to us are these words of Jesus? Perhaps too familiar, that they have lost their meaning. Jesus shared with his disciples the same love he received from the Father. What is clear to Jesus can at times be vague to us. We are able to love others because we have first been loved by God. It’s one thing to know that in our heads. It’s quite another to be convinced of it in our hearts. The key is to make time in our busy lives to stop and allow God to love us, to actually feel God’s love for us personally. Loving others will flow naturally from our deep belief in God’s personal love for us.”
“How can I open myself more fully to God’s love today?”
“Is my experience of God based more on knowing or on feeling? How might I begin to merge the two?”
Do I allow myself to be loved by God? Or am I too busy?
Too busy to be loved! Is that crazy or what?!?
The correct answer is that, of course, it is crazy. And yet, it is always possible to make time for craziness. But do I carve out time to be loved?
It isn’t just about God, either. My wife and little dog want to give and receive love. Do I make time for them? A friend and I got together for coffee and breakfast this morning. Important to let myself be loved by my friend and to love him. (He picked up the tab, which is a very loving thing to do, by the by.) A 12-step friend just called. Again, a chance to be loved and to love someone else.
All day long, I have opportunities to be loved and to love others. Slow down, self! Slow down, and let God and others love you! Slow down, and let yourself love others. Slow down.
“Thanks for Everything!”
I am into list-keeping. Lists keep me more or less on track. Even in my personal journal, I do lists. I am especially fond of gratitude lists. I usually try to list 50 things for which I’m grateful. It’s a wonderful way to start the day, and I heartily recommend it.
This morning, I paused after item 49, and thought, “I need to make item # 50 count!” So, I wrote the following: “Every little and not-so-little thing you do for me and everyone and everything else in the universe.”
I immediately thought of some of the psalms that broaden praise and thanksgiving to God to embrace God’s goodness to all of creation. The biblical psalmists were not just into thanking and praising God for God’s goodness to them individually. At least some of the psalmists were also aware of God’s goodness to all people, and indeed to all creation. Psalm 104 is just one example. In this psalm, God is praised for his care even for wild animals and sea creatures.
I love Toby Mac. I love his songs and I love his concerts. He has a song out that is getting lots of play time on Christian radio. It has a very simple title—“Everything.”
“Everything”
I’m captivated, I’ll say it
I’m on a whole new intrigue
My space invaded, upgraded
I hear You talking to me
It’s in the boom of the thunder, it’s in the cool of the rain
And I’ll say I don’t ever want to get away
Tonight is beautiful
It’s got my mind on You
And everywhere I turn is a reminder
I see You in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me
I see You in everything
You’re all up in everything
My soul’s awaken
I’m taken by all the beauty You bring
You got it blarin’, I’m starin’
Love watching You do Your thing
There’s no mistaken Your style
No mistaken Your touch
I see the grand, I see the subtle of Your love
Lord, I see You in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me
It’s finding me in everything, all day
And every beat of my heart keeps reminding me
I see You in every little thing, all day
No matter where I go I know Your love is finding me
Tonight is beautiful
It’s got my mind on You
And everywhere I turn is a reminder
From the sparkle in her eyes to the starlit open skies
You bring my heart to life, fill me with wonder
Oh, I can see Your love, Your love in everything
And that’s why You’ll always be my everything
Yeah, I can see Your love, Your love in everything
And that’s why You’ll always be my everything
And a God who is able and willing to take care of the entire universe—everything—is a God worth trusting to meet my own little needs.
DOWN TO EARTH BELIEVER
- DTEB, “Getting Christ and Ourselves Back in Focus” November 11, 2024“Col. 3:1 ¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Col. 3:2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Col. 3:3 For you have died, and your life is hidden […]
- “Search Me!” October 27, 2024“Psa. 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24, English Standard Version) I am participating in a Bible study, and this is a prayer […]
- “Christian Speech” October 26, 2024“Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Foulkes, in his excellent commentary on the Book of Ephesians, writes the following, which I quote at some length: “29. Now the […]
- “God is in the Details” October 11, 2024“The devil is in the details.” (A general saying, often quoted by lawyers, reporters, and negotiators.) “God is in the details.” (Me, almost certainly not original.) “Luke 12:7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Jesus) God does not micromanage, but God […]
- “Grandma’s Pump” October 8, 2024When I was a little critter, I would stay at my grandma’s house for a night or two sometimes. I liked this for a lot for many reasons. One thing I liked about staying with her was that Grandma’s house was much more technologically advanced than ours was. For one thing, she had indoor water—sort […]
- “Wearing the #14 Wrong-Side-Out” October 5, 2024Pete Rose, #14, is dead. Many of the old guys with whom I play softball watched him play and appreciated him greatly. I do as well. He was one of the greatest players who ever played the game. Yes, he admitted (eventually) to betting on baseball. But many of us still regard him as one […]
- “Passing Along the Love (and a Link)” October 4, 2024Several years ago, a friend of mine put me onto a daily meditation by Richard Rohr and friends. I don’t read them all the time, but I probably should. They are good! I thought that today’s writing was especially good, and I also figured that this would be a good way to post something. I […]
- “Witnessing Versus Being Witnesses” September 19, 2024“Acts 1:1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, Acts 1:2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. Acts 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after […]
- “A Bathroom Prayer for Hurting Hands” September 11, 2024A week ago Sunday, my hands were hurting so badly at church that I went to the bathroom to run hot water over my hands. Arthritis perhaps, or carpal tunnel, or general orneriness—I don’t know why my hands hurt, but they do. They have for years. So, while I was running hot water over my […]
- “Waiting and Seeking” September 10, 2024“Lam. 3:19 ¶ Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! Lam. 3:20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: Lam. 3:22 ¶ The steadfast love of the LORD […]
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