For A Sunny Saturday Morning

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bad news, coffee, forgivenes, Fully Human Divine, Good News, guidance, Hebrews, hospitality, lightness, Michael Casey, sleep, support, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

A page from Michael Casey’s book Fully Human Fully Divine gave me pause this morning. After a “short night” when sleep evaded me until about 1:30am, I needed some encouragement and it seems I have found it. Perhaps it might set the course for someone else today as well. I’m a little late in “coming to the table” that Casey offers as I’ve already had one cup of coffee, but it’s better late than never for me today. What about you?

Each morning as we rise from sleep we can say, “This day God will send me whatever support, whatever guidance, whatever forgiveness I need.” It is only a matter of remaining alert, watching for God’s agents. “Do not forget hospitality since in being hospitable some have unknowingly entertained angels” (Heb. 13:2). What a difference it would make if I were to welcome everything that happens as good news. It may require some extra digging in some situations to get beneath the surface affront to discover the pleasant surprise, but what a different person I would be if I were to jettison my readiness to qualify everything unexpected as bad news. What an incredible sense of lightness would infuse my heart and mind, and thus modify the way I present to others. (p. 151)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heed the Call!

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alarm, delight, Eli, God's will, greet the day, listen, Psalm 40, Samuel, sleep, Speak Lord, Thanksgiving, the call of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wakefulness

This morning I woke at 4:40am, much too early to begin the day. I snuggled back in but at 5:50 I opened my eyes a second time. I blamed this interruption of my sleep on the fact that in New York it was already nearly 7AM and settled back to wait until 6:30CST for my alarm. Five minutes later I heard the small sound alerting me that I had a text message on my phone and I knew I had a choice of how this day would proceed. With less than great gusto but with determination I got up from my bed saying to myself, “I greet this day with thanksgiving for all it will hold for me.”

God does have a sense of humor! As I began to read the Scriptures for the day, I recognized immediately the familiar story of the boy, Samuel, who sleeping in the temple near his teacher, Eli, wakes to the sound of his name being called. He goes to Eli and says, “Here I am; you called me.” Eli tells him to go back to bed because he hasn’t called him. When the scene is repeated twice more, Eli is finally awake enough to say to Samuel, “When you are called, say ‘Speak Lord, your servant is listening'”  because he knew that it was God calling Samuel. (SM 3:1-10)

Whether we hear the call of God in our sleep or during morning Scripture reading or in the circumstances of an ordinary day, Samuel’s willingness gives us a good example of how to respond. Psalm 40 adds an even more generous note to the message this morning as the psalmist sings, “To do your will, O my God, is my delight!” May you be blessed with a delightful day of wakefulness in God’s love.

As The World Turns

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darkness into light, Ecclesiastes, fatigue, gladness, joy, kindness of God, life, psalm 90, seasons, sleep, sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wisdom of heart, workday

*NOTE: Once again this morning, internet access has been spotty, thus the late entry here. I will be leading a retreat this weekend and am not sure how it will be for tomorrow and Sunday in the location where the retreat is being held. Stay tuned!

I’ve had a number of conversations this week with individuals speaking of “seasonal fatigue” around the shift from summer to autumn. One person said, “I’ve been sleeping nine or ten hours a night and still feel a bit tired during the day!” I told her, a recent retiree, to go right on sleeping that much and be grateful that she can, until the fatigue recedes. We continued the conversation with discussion of the rhythms of nature that were disrupted by the shift from an agrarian to an industrial society and inventions that allowed the prolongation of light to our days by artificial means. This is old news for us, of course, but there seems to be more recognition of the disruption as life speeds up and our workdays get longer or more intense. I am personally more aware this year of the movements of nature, day to day, as I mow different kinds of grass each month or see flowers and leaves shift week to week in their life cycle.

The readings this morning, Ecclesiastes (1:2-11) and Psalm 90, remind me of that flow. From Ecclesiastes: The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises…What has been, that will be; what is done that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.

This is all fine when we’re talking about nature – and it would behoove us to remember it as we try to control everything in our lives. But we are also in the throes of deep distress over world events, seeing worse happenings every day. Is there nothing we can do in the face of it? Psalm 90 responds: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. The psalmist continues, crying out to God, Fill us at daybreak with your kindness, that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.

Perhaps the key is in recognizing that the kindness of God is already in our midst and that our shouts of joy and gladness will arise from the realization that we must become that joy and gladness in the world in a manner that will transform the darkness into light.