C-19 Reflection #31: Wasting Time on a Monday
C-19 Reflection (#31)
Theme: Wasting Time on a Monday
Daily Scripture Readings:
Lamentations 3:22-26
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
25
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
26
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.
28
Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
29
Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
Psalm 139:13-18
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
Reflection:
Monday can be good for quietly refreshing your sense of God’s love. Getting things right and setting things straight at the beginning of the week. Henri Nouwen’s insight is that being refreshed by love involves letting go of the habit of comparing:
“John Eudes talked about that moment, that point, that lies before comparison, before the beginning of the vicious cycle or the self-fulfilling prophecy. That is the moment, point, or place where meditation can enter in. It is the moment to stop reading, speaking, socializing, and to “waste” your time in meditation. When you find your mind competing again, you might plan an “empty time” of meditation, in this way interrupting the vicious circle of your ruminations and entering into the depth of your own soul. There you can be with him who was before you came, who loved you before you could love, and has given you your own self before any comparison was possible. In meditation we can come to the affirmation that we are not created by other people but by God, that we are not judged by how we compare with others but by how we fulfill the will of God.” (~ Henri Nouwen)
Prayer:
** Please pray for the Lovering Spencer family today, as they gather to remember and give thanks for Rebecca’s mom.
