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Today's Word

Today’s Word: Inevitable

Steve · August 6, 2013 · 3 Comments

Road May Flood. Aubuchon Road, St. Louis. SJG photo

The photo to the right was taken not far from my home near the bottomlands of the Missouri River. The sign is absolutely correct, as several times a year the rain, the river and the nearby creeks combine to saturate the fields and overflow the road — a perfect storm of natural events that creates something that no one control. You just have to be prepared to accept the inevitable and take another route for a while.

Inevitable events are the ghosts of our lives. They linger in the back of our minds and come out once in a while to haunt our dreams and bring worry to our waking lives. Parents get older and die. Loved ones suffer in a myriad of ways. We face our own life challenges and — in one way or another — stare down our own mortality. Life’s changes and storms are inevitable, so the challenge of our faith is to be prepared when they come, to be spiritually strong so that our first response is not to throw up our arms in exasperation but rather to throw ourselves into the arms of God, the unchanging changer who stands solid at the center of our ever-changing lives.

Ask yourself in silence:  Am I spiritually prepared for the inevitable events of my life? Am I building a faith and a relationship with God now, so that’s it’s ready when I need it most?

Today’s Word: Forgive

Steve · August 4, 2013 · 5 Comments

Forgive. Wicker Park graffiti, Chicago. SJG photo

I’ve been tryin’ to get down
To the heart of the matter
But my will gets weak
And my thoughts seem to scatter
But I think it’s about…forgiveness.
-Don Henley, 1995

Is forgiveness at the heart of matter? I guess it depends on the matter we’re taking about….But the truth is, when we harden our hearts and refuse to forgive or accept forgiveness, we set ourselves up for heartache and separation from those we once loved and from God. We hold on to so much pain, sometimes thinking that “we’ll show them” by our silence and refusal to forgive. In reality, we’re only hurting ourselves, of course.

Pain is real, and I’m certainly not trying to make light of it. We get hurt by people and by circumstances. We can feel we’ve been hurt by God. God certainly understands the human pain we feel. God understands that we may need to hold on to this pain for a while, to own it and make it our own. But at some point, God calls us to release ourselves and others from pain, no matter who is at fault. Over and over in the Gospels, Jesus calls us to forgive, to turn the other cheek, to move on so we can repair our own lives and our fractured relationships with God and others.

Ask yourself in silence:  Where in my life am I holding a grudge? Who do I need to forgive? Where do I need to seek forgiveness? Do I have the courage to do something about this today?   

Today’s Word: Busy

Steve · August 3, 2013 · 5 Comments

The Great Cross, St. Augustine, Florida. SJG photo.

In the Biblical story of the two sisters Martha and Mary (Luke 10), Martha is buzzing around the house, cooking, cleaning, waiting on everybody and “getting stuff done.” Her sister Mary, on the other hand, has seated herself at the feet of Jesus, resting serenely in his presence and words. When Martha objects to her lazy sister (can’t you just hear and see this story unfolding?), Jesus sets her straight: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”

So we should just pray all day and not worry about keeping house or going to work, right? Hardly. We still need to do the stuff of life. But we need time at the feet of Jesus, too. If we make prayer and the presence of God the foundation for the rest of our lives, we will find ourselves with less anxiety and worry, and with more peace of mind and heart. There is one thing we need. The rest will fall into place. The work will get done. But the better part — peace — will not be taken from us.

Ask yourself in silence:  Do I use busy-ness as an excuse to not spend time at the feet of Jesus? Do I let the presence of “stuff to get done” keep me from the presence of God?

Today’s Word: Harvest

Steve · August 2, 2013 · 5 Comments

Bounty of the harvest. SJG photo

I am no farmer and not much of a gardener. Sue and I grow annuals in flowerpots and once in a while grow some tomatoes, but that’s about it. Something in me would like to be, but I’m not sure I’m up to the commitment it takes to care for the potential harvest, however small. I grew up in urban St. Louis, but even there my father found the time and the space in our backyard to plant (mostly from seed) a healthy, organically grown crop of tomatoes, onions, lettuce, peppers and more. Today, I have friends who participate and work hard in community gardens, and I love the harvest at our local Farmer’s Market.

So I love the harvest (what’s better than a fresh tomato or strawberry?) and stand in awe and gratitude of all those farmers who bring us our daily fruits and vegetables. I am thankful for the often-underpaid farmworkers who plant and pick the produce that ends up in our supermarkets. And, as always, I worship the Creator who waters the fields and blesses the ground with nutrients. I adore the Lord who makes tomatoes taste heavenly and strawberries better than just about anything should be allowed to taste. We too easily take all this for granted. We just go down the produce aisle and there they all are, lined up and waiting for us, freshly misted. Today, let’s remember all those who bring us our food and the God who gives everything that is good: “The earth has yielded its harvest; God, our God, blesses us.” (Psalm 67:7)

Ask yourself in silence:  Can our eating (and our gathering together to eat) become an act of worship and prayer?

Today’s Word: Mirror

Steve · July 31, 2013 · 4 Comments

Mirror Lake State Park, Wisconsin. SJG photo.

In his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius encourages us to pause before we begin to pray and “become aware of God aware of me.” Consider, he suggests, that God “beholds me.” What an idea! We believe this at some level, of course, or else we would not pray at all, but this idea caught me off guard when I heard it a few weeks ago at a retreat preached by Paul Coutinho. We are so focused on God when we pray that it can be hard to fathom the idea of God being focused on us!

But that is exactly the gift that God offers us when we commit ourselves to times of solitude and prayer. Our all-seeing, all-loving God looks upon us as we pray, like a parent staring down into the crib of his or her new-born child, waiting for the child to move or breathe. (Remember that feeling, parents?) Just so, God watches us for signs of our spiritual life, listens for our words and encompasses us in a divine embrace when we place ourselves in his presence. God beholds us.

When we pray, we have the chance to see ourselves in the mirror of God’s eyes…to see ourselves as God sees us. With that in mind, how much more should we yearn for times of intimacy with God, times for us to look at each other in amazement and wonder?

Ask yourself in silence:  While in prayer, can I somehow see myself as God sees me? How does that idea sit with me?

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About the Author

Steve Givens is a retreat and spiritual director and a widely published writer on issues of faith and spirituality. He is also a musician, composer and singer who lives in St. Louis, Mo., with his wife, Sue. They have two grown and married children and five grandchildren.

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