Today’s Reflection
DISCERNING THE RIGHT DIRECTION – a thoughtful description of what love is at its core – enables us to move ahead not with optimism but in hope, not despite the lack of visibility but precisely because of it. …
Hope of this sort depends upon finding the right direction, often in circumstances where we cannot see the way – whether we are crossing a glacier in whiteout conditions or facing the often rigorous ambiguities of our lives. In such precarious and demanding conditions, what we need most is a compass and not a map, a directional guide that can help us locate our bearings.
When searching for a way through the wildernesses we face, we can only be sure of the terrain immediately before us. If we rely solely on a map with its projection of what the way should be, we’ll find ourselves distracted from the actual conditions before us.
Making progress depends on paying close attention to what is, facing difficulties as they present themselves, and then discerning in which direction to go.
Moving ahead requires us to face the present with its hardships and afflictions, knowing that these, too, are part of the way. To do this requires a measure of courage, that word formed from the Latin cor, or heart. In such circumstances, the challenge before us is not simply to avoid losing our heart. Rather, it is that of finding our heart, of living “heartfully.”
- Mark S. Burrows and John H. Ohlson
Weavings, Aug/Sept/Oct 2012
From “Love Is a Direction” by Mark S. Burrows and John H. Ohlson, Jr., page 14 in Weavings: A Journal of the Christian Spiritual Life, August/September/October 2012. Copyright © 2012 by The Upper Room. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.
Today’s Question
What steps are essential for you to discern God’s desire for your life? Share your thoughts.
Today’s Scripture
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.
John 6:51, NRSV
This Week: pray for public servants. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.
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Saints, Inc.:
This week we remember Clare of Assisi (August 11).
Lectionary Readings
(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Prayer and being in the Word are the initial essentials. Allowing Him to quiet me…presenting myself before Him is also right up there. And like the writer speaks of…being willing to go through the healing process. Facing what is right in front of me and trusting. To heal often involves acceptance of more initial pain, so that the healing can be whole.
I thought of an answer to today’s question but words were very hard to come by. Seeing Jill’s answer certainly was helpful. I’m still not so sure what to write. I know I am drawn to God. In God I find help for many aspects of my life. God is the only being who truly knows me. That makes all the difference.
Lord, may those in elected office and those running for elected office turn to you, find you, believe in you, and practice your teachings. When that happens the country, the world, will be a better place.
Politics is certainly in need of you.
The suggestion to focus on what is right in front of me really spoke wisdom to my heart. I keep looking ahead trying to figure out where God is calling me for the second part of my life now that my two sons have left home and I am feeling very overwhelmed and confused. Focusing on God’s Word each day and spending time in prayer are my two main guideposts. Today I was reminded from Psalm 37 not to fret – that it leads only to evil. This presents a great challenge to me as I have found myself fretting more and more as time goes by without making any discernible progress forward. I am going to make my focus for today “not fretting”.
It’s much like crossing a street.
Stop.
Look.
Listen!