In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you. (Matthew 5:48, MSG)
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if only this spiritual life
were about “spiritual things”
i might manage
if only i could cloister myself
to worship, watch, and pray
i might feel competent
if only there were a simple list
rules to guide and bind and lead
i might make the grade
but it’s not just jesus and me…
there are kooks in cars
who cut me off while on their phones
and cause my rage to rise
there are critics in corners
who trash my name behind my back
and rankle my resolve
there are crooks in commerce
who falsely claim and double-deal
and rile my rectitude
and i who am our father’s child
who breathes the air of kingdom new
yet still enfleshed and flawed and frail
must greet and speak and work beside
all manner of neighbor, friend, and foe
and this is where new life must grow —
in soil of human interchange
shaking hands or by hands struck
as heaven’s rain falls on us all
Love this, Mike.
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Lovely!
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Love that last line
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Indeed.
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+1
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Thank you for reminding me of this prayer.
Our previous priest prayed this shortly before him leaving our parish.
(These reminders through your good memory and learning are just some of the the things I will miss about you when IMonk closes.).
Susan
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“if only this spiritual life
were about “spiritual things”
i might manage
if only i could cloister myself
to worship, watch, and pray
i might feel competent
if only there were a simple list
rules to guide and bind and lead
i might make the grade
but it’s not just jesus and me…”
brings to mind this,
from the longing in the prayer of Aidan of Holy Island, Lindisfarne, a ‘tidal island’ attached to the mainland only when the tide receded to form a ‘land bridge’ twice a day.
But when the tide came in and covered the land bridge, Lindisfarne was once more an ‘island’ isolated from the busy mainland, and the monks were left to pray in peace.
Here is Aidan’s prayer, written long ago in northern Britain circa 635 A.D.
”
“Leave me alone with God as much as may be.
As the tide draws the waters close in upon the shore,
Make me an island, set apart, alone with You, God, holy to You.
Then, with the turning of the tide
prepare me to carry Your Presence to the busy world beyond,
the world that rushes in on me till the waters come again
and fold me back to you.””
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