Today’s Readings: Psalm 89:20-37; 2 Samuel 7:1-14a; Mark 6:30-34, 53-56; Ephesians 2:11-22
Have you ever noticed that it’s easy to get so busy in our day-to-day lives that we start unintentionally pulling back from our relationship with God? I’ve had that experience several times in my life. One of those times was during my mid-twenties. During that time period, I had been in my first teaching position for three years. The challenge had diminished greatly so I started adding commitments to my life. I started playing the piano for the weekly worship services at church; I volunteered to direct the church’s choir; I began serving as a precinct committee officer for the political party I was affiliated with at the time; I started work on a Master’s Degree in History at a local university; and I helped with the campaign of a presidential candidate. I absolutely loved everything I was doing so I felt I couldn’t give up any of the commitments. Over that period of time, however, I became pulled in so many different directions that I started to get burned out – all because I failed to re-fill my gas tank by devoting time and energy to my spiritual life. As I read today’s passage from 2 Samuel, I couldn’t help but wonder if the same thing might have happened to David. And what makes me think that? We’ll in the earlier chapters of 2 Samuel, David made a practice of going directly to God in his process of discernment. Now – by the time we get to chapter 7 – David is no longer speaking directly to God; he used the prophet Nathan to communicate with God for him. The process of using an intercessor might have seemed more efficient at first for David, but the consequence of that decision was that he became less and less attuned to God as was evident through some of the choices he began to make (i.e. rushing the construction of the Temple). Today I would invite you to take inventory of your life and consider whether you’ve become so busy that you have little if any time for the One who matters most of all. If that’s the case, I would invite you to re-do your schedule so that you can create time each day to nurture your relationship with God. That little scheduling exercise just might be the thing that help gets your life back on track. Til next time…
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1 comment:
I just wanted to say how profoundly appropriate this posting was for me on this particular day. True, I'm reflecting back 2 days later, but it still strikes me as remarkable. This past Sunday, my husband and I went to church together for the first time (really the first time together...ever...other than once at my home church in St. Louis). We have decided that now that we are closer to having a family, we want to get established in a church community. I went in thinking I would be looking out for a place for my family and came out realizing how much I needed such a community as well. The familiarity of the service and the unconditional acceptance of the church members was almost overwhelming (so much that I almost cried twice during the service). I decided that I need to take some time to reconnect and reacquaint myself with my spirituality...it has been put on hold for too long.
Ironically, the church we went to was yours! We look forward to meeting you sometime when we come back:-)
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