Prayer Practice for the Week

Make Time

Make time. This exploration of Jesus will only be as meaningful as you make it. So make the time. Make the time to read the material. Make the time to do the activities. And, make time for silence, for uninterrupted, unfilled space. Thomas Keating reminds us: “Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation.” Set yourself a goal of 5 minutes each day to sit and listen. Use an egg timer or try e.ggtimer.com.

Daily Devotion

Scripture of the Day

What does the Holy One require of you, but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. ( Micah 6:8)

Reflection

There’s not much nuance to be added to this one for me. It’s pretty straightforward. Whatever I do — from Sunday morning worship to the 5k charity walk, from your private prayers all the way to my public preaching, from my going to the gym even to my buying a round for my friends — it better come from and lead back to three things: justice, kindness, and humility. Justice, not in the sense of revenge but reconciliation. True justice regains the enemy as a friend; it does not exact pleasure or relief from punishment. Kindness, not in the sense of polite niceties, but a deeper recognition of another’s humanity and my need for them to survive. And humility, in the sense that I never presume I have learned anything or enough.

Prayer

God, bring me back from my piety and my routine to the foundation of faith itself. Teach me a day-to-day justice that is embodied both by confronting evil and promoting holiness. Teach me a day-to-day kindness that moderates my temper and lengthens my patience. Teach me a day-to-day humility that does not needlessly hide what brilliance I have, but also knows that brilliance exists in many people and in many ways. Amen.