Author Archives: Bill Britton

Daily Riches: A Life of Constant Repentance (The Episcopal Liturgy, Tim Keller and Thomas Merton)

Posted on by under Contemplation and Activism, Social Justice

“We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.” (Episcopal Liturgy)

“There is so much evil done on our behalf [as Americans.] … A racist criminal justice and penal system. War, drones and torture. Systemic poverty, the absence of worker protections or living wage laws, the constriction of unions. Oppression of the poor, immigrants, people of color. Globalized capitalism and sweatshop labor. The abuse and exploitation of the environment for financial gain and our financial ease. Racial injustice. Environmental injustice.” David Henson

“… it is the work of Christians in the world to minister in word and deed and to gather together to do justice. … A life poured out in doing justice for the poor, is the inevitable sign of any real, true gospel faith.” Tim Keller

“Contemplation, at its highest intensity, becomes a reservoir of spiritual vitality that pours itself out in the most telling social action.” Thomas Merton

“Seek justice, reprove the ruthless,
defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”
Isaiah 1:17

Moving From Head to Heart

  • One church tradition may emphasize the need for repentance for “the evil we have done” and another for “the evil done on our behalf.” Which is your tradition? If you listen, can you hear God speaking in both traditions? What is lost by listening to only one or the other of these traditions?
  • Does your tradition have a place for the words of the prophet Isaiah? How does your church (or church tradition) “seek justice?” How does it “reprove the ruthless?”
  • Do you agree that, as Christians, we should repent for “the evil done on our behalf?” Is that even possible? If so, what would it look like? What would be the point? Would it be unpatriotic?
  • Can you let you heart be moved by the call to both of these kinds of repentance?

Abba, help me to live a life of constant repentance, full of purity, love and justice.

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For More: Generous Justice by Tim Keller

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Awareness and Loving Listening (Anthony De Mello)

Posted on by under Change Yourself First, Loving Listening, Loving Well, Mindfulness

“When I’m listening to you, it’s infinitely more important for me to listen to me than to listen to you. Of course, it’s important to listen to you, but it’s more important that I listen to me. Otherwise I won’t be hearing you. Or I’ll be distorting everything you say. I’ll be coming at you from my own conditioning. I’ll be reacting to you in all kinds of ways from my insecurities, from my need to manipulate you, from my desire to succeed, from irritations and feelings that I might not be aware of. So it’s frightfully important that I listen to me when I’m listening to you.” Anthony De Mello

“Then [Joseph] had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. ‘Listen,’ he said, ‘I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, ‘What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?’ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.” Genesis 37:9-11

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • It’s our “conditioning … insecurities … need to manipulate … desire to succeed … [and] irritations and feelings” that make it so difficult for us to truly listen – to listen lovingly. Imagine how hard it must have been for Joseph’s family to hear about his dream.
  • Are you aware of the “triggers” that spoil your listening? How defended you are? controlling? impatient? unteachable? What would you add to this list?
  • This is an area where training will serve us better than merely trying. How can you train to “listen to you” while you “listen to me?” Can you practice watching your conversations from outside? Can you bring an “inner stability” (Nouwen) to conversations, so that it’s not “all about you?”

Abba, teach me to lovingly listen to others by teaching me first to know and hear myself.

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For More: Awareness by Anthony De Mello

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Sabbath and the Trance of Overwork (Wayne Muller and Thomas Merton)

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness, Hurry Sickness, Loving Well, Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care

“Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop. We do not stop when we are finished. We do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this stack of messages, or get out this report that is due tomorrow. We stop because it is time to stop…. Sabbath dissolves the artificial urgency of our days, because it liberates us from the need to be finished. … In the trance of overwork, we take everything for granted. We consume things, people, and information. We do not have time to savor this life, nor to care deeply and gently for ourselves, our loved ones, or our world; rather with increasingly dizzying haste, we use them all up, and throw them away.” Wayne Muller

“Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity
when activity is not demanded of me.” Thomas Merton

And [Jesus] said to them,
 “Come away by yourselves
to a secluded place
and rest a while.”
Mark 6:31

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Is the “trance of overwork” preventing you from having “time to savor this life?” Is your urgency necessary or “artificial?” Really?
  • Is your life characterized by a “dizzying haste?” Do you have the time to care “deeply and gently” for yourself and your loved ones?
  • Is your “time to stop” only when you’re “finished?” If so, what does that say about you? Do you ever really stop?

Abba, teach me to stop and rest – to learn to care deeply and gently for myself – and then out of that place, to care deeply and gently for others and our world.

__________

For More: Sabbath by Wayne Muller

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The “Daily Riches” from RicherByFar are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest!  –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Technical Problems

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Hi everyone, I’m away this week and thought I had all my regular readers covered with the blog going out daily via Buffer. I but discovered today that many of you are not receiving the blog – those of you have subscribed on the website. I’m very sorry, and disappointed about this. I will be back online Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Please look for me then. In the meantime, if you go to the blog itself, you’ll be able to find something there to fill the void in the meantime.

I really appreciate all my followers/readers, and ask you to pray that God will use this small ministry of mine as he sees fit.

Thanks,

Bill

Daily Riches: Prayer and the Wandering Mind (John Donne, Brennan Manning, John Bunyan) *

Posted on by under devotions, Patience with Yourself, Prayer

“I neglect God and his angels for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door; I talk on in the same posture of praying, eyes lifted up, knees bowed down, as though I prayed to God; and if God or his angels should ask me when I thought last of God in that prayer, I cannot tell. Sometimes I find that I had forgot what I was about, but when I began to forget it I cannot tell. A memory of yesterday’s pleasures, a fear of tomorrow’s dangers, a straw under my knee, a noise in mine ear, a light in mine eye, an anything, a nothing, a fancy, a chimera in my brain troubles me in my prayer.” John Donne

“One of the cardinal rules of prayer is: Pray as you can, don’t pray as you can’t. … Remember the only way to fail in prayer is not to show up.” Brennan Manning

“The great thing is prayer. Prayer itself. If you want a life of prayer, the way to get it is by praying.” Thomas Merton

“When you pray, rather let your heart be without words
than your words without heart.”
John Bunyan

“But when you pray,
go into your room,
close the door ….”
Matthew  6:6

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • John Donne shares very honestly about his problems in prayer, and the humor in his report shows he is not condemning himself. Perhaps he is just letting these distractions “float on downstream” – not resisting them or really even giving them any mind. What do you think? Can you extend grace to yourself in this regard as he does?
  • If you focus on the “noise of a fly” or the “monkeys in the trees” (Nouwen) you’ll probably give up in frustration. Can you “show up” according to plan each day, regardless of whether you feel delighted or distracted? What would be the importance of doing that?
  • For your “heart to be without words” isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Have you tried to pray by just silently giving God your attention?

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For More: Seventeenth-Century Prose and Poetry, eds. Coffin and Witherspoon

Thomas Merton is also good on this topic.

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Thomas Merton expresses my heart for Daily Riches: “If I dare, in these few words, to ask you some direct and personal questions, it is because I address them as much to myself as to you. It is because I am still able to hope that a civil exchange of ideas can take place between two persons — that we have not yet reached the stage where we are all hermetically sealed, each one in the collective arrogance and despair of his own herd.” I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. I appreciate your interest! – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Practical Thinking About Loving Union with God (Pete Scazzero) *

Posted on by under Awareness, Loving Union with God, Patience with Yourself, Self-care

Pastor Pete Scazzero suggests thirteen indicators of being out of loving union with God:

  • I feel anxiety in the tenseness and tightness in my body.
  • I am not present or listening intently.
  • I feel pressure, with too much to do in too little time.
  • I am rushing.
  • I give quick opinions and judgments.
  • I am fearful about the future.
  • I am overly concerned with what others think.
  • I am defensive and easily offended.
  • I am preoccupied and distracted.
  • I am resentful of interruptions and abrupt.
  • I am manipulative, not patient.
  • I am unenthusiastic or threatened by the success of others.
  • I talk more than I listen.

“Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine,
so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”
Jesus in John 15:4

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • This list is a profound body-focused diagnostic tool. What is your body telling you about your present experience of loving union with God?
  • The desert fathers talked about the life of faith this way: “I fall down; I rise up. I fall down; I rise up.” The point of the list is that your body will tell you when you have “fallen down.” When you do, can you be gracious with yourself (instead of heaping self-recrimination, wallowing in guilt and shame, or making excuses), and simply act to reestablish union?
  • It’s hard to live in loving union with God and others. Will you accept God’s guidance to you, to help you do better, as he speaks to you through your body? Has God been speaking to you lately in this manner? Have you been listening?

Abba, anxiety, defensiveness, talking too much, hurrying, criticizing others – these are the “trouble lights” in my O.S. I’d rather not notice them, but if you’re going to talk to me this way, I want to listen. Please help me pay attention to the indicators and steer myself quickly back on course.

__________

For More: “Your Body is a Major, Not Minor Prophet” by Peter Scazzero

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Thomas Merton’s goal is his writing is the same as mine in this blog: “The purpose of a book of meditations is to teach you how to think and not to do your thinking for you. Consequently if you pick up such a book and simply read it through, you are wasting your time. As soon as any thought stimulates your mind or your heart you can put the book down because your meditation has begun.” I’m not Thomas Merton (!), yet I hope these Daily Riches will lead you into much life-enriching meditation. – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: The Achilles Heel Of Evangelicalism (Ruth Haley Barton)

Posted on by under Silence, Solitude, Stillness

“…I believe silence is the most challenging, the most needed and the least experienced spiritual discipline among evangelical Christians today. It is much easier to talk about it and read about it than to actually become quiet. We are a very busy, wordy and heady faith tradition. Yet we are desperate to find ways to open ourselves to our God who is, in the end, beyond all of our human constructs and human agendas. With all of our emphasis on theology and Word, cognition and service–and as important as these are–we are starved for mystery, to know this God as One who is totally Other and to experience reverence in his presence. We are starved for intimacy, to see and feel and know God in the very cells of our being. We are starved for rest, to know God beyond what we can do for him. We are starved for quiet, to hear the sound of sheer silence that is the presence of God himself.”  Ruth Haley Barton

“The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by.’
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord,
but the Lord was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake,
but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake came a fire,
but the Lord was not in the fire.
And after the fire came [lit. “the sound of sheer silence”].
When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face
and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.”
I Kings 19:11-13

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Do you feel the need for silence? Have you thought about how practicing silence could be a beneficial “spiritual discipline?”
  • Is your faith tradition “very busy, wordy and heady?” Is it characterized by “theology and Word, cognition and service?” Are you starved for something more: for rest, quiet, intimacy?
  • Will the speed level and noise level of your life allow you to hear God if he comes to you in “sheer silence?” Are you willing to make some changes? to carve out some silent places?

Abba, help me as I seek out silence, to attend to you there in love, and receive there your love for me.

________________________

 Thomas Merton expresses my heart for Daily Riches: “If I dare, in these few words, to ask you some direct and personal questions, it is because I address them as much to myself as to you. It is because I am still able to hope that a civil exchange of ideas can take place between two persons — that we have not yet reached the stage where we are all hermetically sealed, each one in the collective arrogance and despair of his own herd.” I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others. (Psalm 90:14) . I appreciate your interest! – Bill

Daily Riches: Broken Before God … and Beloved (Henri Nouwen, Brennan Manning, and John Egan) *

Posted on by under Uncategorized

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can, indeed, present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. … Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the ‘Beloved.’ Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.” Henri Nouwen

“Living in awareness of our belovedness is the axis around which the Christian life revolves. Being the beloved is our identity, the core of our existence. It is not merely a lofty thought, an inspiring idea, or one name among many. It is the name by which God knows us and the way He relates to us.”  Brennan Manning

“I stand anchored now in God before whom I stand naked, this God who tells me ‘You are my son, my beloved one.’”  John Egan

“Who then will condemn us? No one—
for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us,
and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand,
pleading for us.”
Romans 8:34

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Are you aware of how dangerous it could be for you to be really successful or popular? Can you list some of the possible pitfalls?
  • What about us makes power, success and popularity so intoxicating? (“the greatest trap”)
  • Do you feel loved by God?  Is that sense of His love at “the core of your existence?”
  • What can you change in your life to better hear “the sacred voice that calls you ‘the Beloved’?”
Abba, may the truth of your love for me be the foundation of everything I think, say and do. Jesus, thank you for pleading for me. Drown me in your love.

__________

For More: Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen

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“There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.” (Marie Antoinette) , and thus “Men more often require to be reminded than informed.” (Samuel Johnson) The purpose of Daily Riches is to return again and again to a list of critical concepts at the core of the spiritual life. “Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you [may] already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.” (2 Peter 1:12)  I appreciate your interest! When you find this helpful, please share! – Bill

Daily Riches: Attending to and Living In the Present Moment (Jane Kenyon, Alan Wilson Watts & Cynthia Bourgeault) *

Posted on by under Awareness, Mindfulness, The Sacrament of the Present Moment

“I got out of bed on two strong legs.
It might have been otherwise.
I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach.
It might have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill to the birch wood.
All morning I did the work I love.
At noon I lay down with my mate.
It might have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks.
It might have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls,
and planned another day just like this day.
But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.”
Jane Kenyon
(Jane Kenyon died from leukemia on April 22, 1995)

“We are living in a culture entirely hypnotized by the illusion of time, in which the so-called present moment is felt as nothing but an infinitesimal hairline between an all-powerfully causative past and an absorbingly important future. We have no present. Our consciousness is almost completely preoccupied with memory and expectation. We do not realize that there never was, is, nor will be any other experience than present experience. We are therefore out of touch with reality.” Alan Wilson Watts

“The spiritual life can only be lived in the present moment, in the now. All the great religious traditions insist upon this simple but difficult truth. When we go rushing ahead into the future or shrinking back into the past, we miss the hand of God, which can only touch us in the now.” Cynthia Bourgeault

” … you do not know what a day may bring forth.” Proverbs 27:1b
“This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Are you approaching today as if you know “what it may bring forth” – planning, controlling, sucking it up, sleep-walking through it? Does your answer reveal someone who is “out of touch with reality?”
  • What’s happening to you now? Are you opening your heart to God?  relaxing in God’s unconditional acceptance of you? experiencing a rootedness that will inform your day?
  • Might not such a present moment be the most important of the day – the most real, most formative, most strategic? Imagine being oblivious to it due to what seemed an “all-powerfully causative past [or] an absorbingly important future.”

Abba, today may my soul be “as light as a feather, as fluid as water, simple as a child, as easily moved as a ball, so as to receive and follow all the impressions of grace.” (J. P. de Caussade)

__________

For More: Collected Poems by Jane Kenyon

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These Daily Riches are for your encouragement as you seek after God, and as he seeks after you. My goal is to give you something of uncommon value each day in 400 words or less. I hope you’ll follow my blog, and share it with others as we seek to find our satisfaction in our unfailingly loving God. (Psalm 90:14) I appreciate your interest! – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Busyness and Laziness (Eugene Peterson and Thomas Merton) *

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness

“Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing. It’s filling our time with our own actions instead of paying attention to God’s action. It’s taking charge. … The word busy is the symptom not of commitment but of betrayal. It is not devotion but defection. The adjective busy set as a modifier to pastor should sound to our ears like adulterous to characterize a wife, or embezzling to describe a banker. It is an outrageous scandal, a blasphemous affront. Hilary of Tours diagnosed our pastoral busyness as ‘irreligiosa solicitudo pro Deo,’ – ‘a blasphemous anxiety to do God’s work for him.’” Eugene Peterson

“Set me free from the laziness that goes about disguised as activity
when activity is not demanded of me.”
Thomas Merton

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing.” Luke 10:38-40a

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Do you ever fall into the trap of “activity when activity is not demanded” of you? What does this say about you?
  • Are you offended by the charge of laziness in your busyness? How often are you guilty of “doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing?” Can you give an example of when this happens to you?
  • Can you see how busyness might be the “enemy of spirituality” in your life?

Abba, remind me today
that it doesn’t really matter
what progress I make
or what I accomplish
or how I feel,
only that I love
as Jesus loved.
Only that.

__________

For More: The Contemplative Pastor by Eugene Peterson

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Thomas Merton’s goal is his writing is the same as mine in this blog: “The purpose of a book of meditations is to teach you how to think and not to do your thinking for you. Consequently if you pick up such a book and simply read it through, you are wasting your time. As soon as any thought stimulates your mind or your heart you can put the book down because your meditation has begun.” I’m not Thomas Merton (!), yet I hope these Daily Riches will lead you into much life-enriching meditation. – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Practicing Attentiveness to the Divine Presence Within (Thomas Keating and Gerald May) *

Posted on by under Asceticism, Contemplation, Contemplative Prayer, Meditation, Prayer

“Contemplative prayer begins to make us aware of the divine presence within us, the source of true happiness. As soon as we begin to taste the peace that comes from the regular practice of contemplative prayer, it relativizes the whole unreal world of demands and ‘shoulds,’ of aversions and desires that were based on emotional programs for happiness that might have worked for children, but that are, in fact, killing us.” Thomas Keating

“In one sense, quiet prayer is really nothing other than the practice of faithful attentiveness. I am not speaking here of meditation that in­volves guided imagery or scriptural reflections, but of a more contemplative practice in which one just sits still and stays awake with God. This kind of meditation is extremely difficult, especially in the midst of battles with addiction, because it gives us nothing special to do, no fancy ways to entertain our­selves or to escape from the simple truth of the moment. Attentive meditation can be a true ascetic practice. It is like fasting for the mind. One only sits there, inclined toward God, noticing the thoughts and sensations that come and go, adding nothing to them, subtracting nothing from them. The mind is allowed to be what it is, but it is seen. When properly practiced and truly graced, this kind of meditation—to the extent that we can bear it—can be very powerful in exposing and vaporizing mind tricks.” Gerald May

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father,
and you are in me, and I am in you. …
The one who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
Jesus in John 14:20-21

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Can you identify “emotional programs for happiness” in place in your life that are “killing” you instead?
  • Do you believe the words of Jesus that as God’s child, God dwells in you? How often are you aware of this “divine presence within” you? Can you simply be “faithfully attentive” to it?
  • The regular practice of contemplative prayer “relativizes the whole unreal world of demands and ‘shoulds’…” and gives us peace. The world’s demands are relentless, so it is any wonder that this relativizing work must also be “regular” or relentless?
  • Is your practice of contemplative prayer helping you find peace, and expose and vaporize “mind tricks?”

Abba, help me to recognize and reject my emotional programs for happiness, as I regularly spend time in your presence and you lovingly put the world’s demands and desires into perspective for me. Help me to grow in my awareness of your divine presence in me, and find my happiness there.

__________

For More: The Human Condition by Thomas Keating

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“There is nothing new except what has been forgotten.” (Marie Antionette) , and thus “Men more often require to be reminded than informed.” (Samuel Johnson) The purpose of Daily Riches is to return again and again to a list of critical concepts at the core of the spiritual life. “Therefore, I will always remind you about these things—even though you [may] already know them and are standing firm in the truth you have been taught.” (2 Peter 1:12)  I appreciate your interest! When you find this helpful, please share! – Bill

Daily Riches: Activism Requires Contemplation (Wayne Muller and Chris Heuertz) *

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Being the Beloved, Change Yourself First, Contemplation and Activism, Hurry Sickness, Rest and Relaxation, Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care, Social Justice

“I have sat on dozens of boards and commissions with many fine, compassionate, and generous people who are so tired, overwhelmed, and overworked that they have neither the time nor the capacity to listen to the deeper voices that speak to the essence of the problems before them. Presented with the intricate and delicate issues of poverty, public health, community well-being, and crime, our impulse, born of weariness, is to rush headlong toward doing anything that will make the problem go away. Maybe then we can finally go home and get some rest. But without the essential nutrients of rest, wisdom, and delight embedded in the problem-solving process itself, the solution we patch together is likely to be an obstacle to genuine relief. Born of desperation, it often contains enough fundamental inaccuracy to guarantee an equally perplexing problem will emerge as soon as it is put into place. In the soil of the quick fix is the seed of a new problem, because our quiet wisdom is unavailable.” Wayne Muller

“My rhythms have become clearer over the years. I know I need:
Sabbath for Rest
Retreats for Reflection
Vacations for Recreation
Sabbaticals for Renewal.
“And if I don’t make rhythms for rest, reflection, recreation and renewal then all of these opportunities will inevitably be wasted on recovery.”
Chris Heuertz

“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
‘In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.’”
Isaiah 30:15

Moving From Head to Heart

  • Years ago Lewis Grant coined the phrase “sunset fatigue” to describe the exhausted state in which many arrive home at the end of a day. Do you often feel like you’re done before the day is?
  • Exhaustion sabotages much of what we do, not only at home after “sunset”, but in business settings, community service or in the work of social justice. Can you relate?
  • Muller and Heuertz both insist that we need to regularly stop, rest, delight and contemplate – essentially that self-care must precede any kind of usefulness. Does your life reflect this truth?

Abba, lead me regularly into the sabbath rest you have for me, and help me to live out of that. Impress upon me the need to care for myself well if I’m to be of any use to others.

__________

For More: Sabbath by Wayne Muller

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“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” (Malcolm X)  I love these words of Malcolm X , but I don’t agree with everything he’s said, written or done. The same is true for those who show up on the pages of Daily Riches. Eventually, writers and teachers from many diverse backgrounds will make an appearance here, and I offer their insights to you without any kind of vetting for “orthodoxy.” Sometimes we learn the most from those with whom we differ, and to turn only to those who are always right or reliable would eliminate everyone. My working assumption in Daily Riches is that the spirit of God will lead you into all truth. So I hope you’ll read, seeking to have your “truth” challenged, critiqued, and improved – and that a priori you’ll be for the truth no matter who tells it. That’s difficult but always worth the effort. Thanks for reading and sharing my daily blog. Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Sabbath and the Rhythm of Rest (Nancy Schongalla-Bowman and Mark Buchanan) *

Posted on by under Being and Doing, Busyness, Hurry Sickness, Rest and Relaxation, Sabbath Rhythms, Self-care

“Despite the commandment, despite the day of rest and savoring that closed the creation story, many of us struggle to maintain a rhythm that includes intentional times of play and “non-doing.” Having just finished nature’s season of Sabbath we are reminded that spring, creativity, newness of life, are preceded by fallow time when it appears that nothing is happening. Prayer too is a time when it appears that nothing is happening. But Sabbath and prayer provide necessary opportunities for us to re-align with God and to remember that our purpose is union, faithfulness, and delight, not perfection or productivity.” Nancy Schongalla-Bowman

“”The Exodus command, with its call to imitation, plays on a hidden irony: we mimic God in order to remember we’re not God. In fact, that is a good definition of Sabbath: imitating God so that we stop trying to be God.” Mark Buchanan

“Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work,
so that your ox and your donkey may rest,
and so that the slave born in your household
and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed.”
Exodus 23:12

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Many of us sense the need for “realigning with God” during each day (e.g., Daily Office) and in the course of each week (Sabbath) – and yet we “struggle” with these practices. What do you suppose accounts for that?
  • Even if the Sabbath command is no longer binding today, can you hear God’s heart in Exodus 23 – to give the gift of rest to his people and those who work for them – even to animals? Do you see value in rest and “fallow time” in the world?  in your life?
  • Do you agree with the statement that our purpose “is union, faithfulness, and delight, not perfection or productivity?” Even productivity? Have you built elements into your regular schedule that reflect this claim?

Abba, sometimes it seems like everyone else is running, striving, and grasping – chasing the brass ring, measuring by accomplishment, affirmation and efficiency. I want union with you more than I want those things. Help me to develop a rhythm of regularly recalibrating my relationship with you and your purposes.

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For More: ”Sabbath: Keeping a Rhythm of Rest” by Nancy Schongalla-Bowman

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“There grows in me an immense dissatisfaction with all that is merely passively accepted as truth, without struggle and without examination. Faith, surely, is not passive, and not an evasion. And today, more than ever, the things we believe, I mean especially the things we accept on human faith—reported matters of ‘fact,’ questions of history, of policy, of interpretation, of wants—they should be very few.” Thomas Merton   These Daily Riches are designed to encourage examination of convictions, of faith, so that we increasingly trust in the God who is really there, and less in our ideas of Him. Thanks for reading and sharing my daily blog. –  Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: Search Your Heart … And Be Silent (Soren Kierkegaard, Isaac of Ninevah, and Brigid Herman) *

Posted on by under contemplative virtues, Loving Listening, Silence

“Every man who delights in uttering a multitude of words, even though he says admirable things, is empty within.
If you love truth, be a lover of silence.”
Isaac of Ninevah

“The present state of the world, the whole of life, is diseased.
If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I would reply:
‘Create silence! Bring men to silence.
The Word of God cannot be heard in the noisy world of today.
Create silence.'”
Soren Kierkegaard

“The most formidable enemy of the spiritual life is self-deception
and if there is a better cure for self-deception than silence,
it has yet to be discovered.”
Brigid E. Herman

“Tremble and do not sin;
  when you are on your beds,
   search your hearts and be silent.”  
  Psalm 4:4

Moving From the Head to the Heart

  • Have you ever delighted in “uttering a multitude of words … even admirable things” – and then regretted it later? If so, what was it exactly that you regretted?
  • Most people find silence uncomfortable. What about you? What does your answer say about you?
  • Can you imagine “loving” silence? Why would you want to love silence?
  • Do you think the Word of God can be heard in the noisy world of today? Think first before you answer.

Abba, the ever-present noise without and the plague of flies within make finding and experiencing silence challenging – and all the more necessary. Please help me to search my heart in a silent place where I can be cured from my self-deception and escape the disease of my world.

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For More: The Ministry of Silence by Brigid E. Herman

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“A faith without doubts is like a human body with no antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person’s faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.” – Tim Keller   In these Daily Riches I hope to encourage “long reflection” rather than simplistic faith. Thanks for reading and sharing this daily blog! – Bill (Psalm 90:14)

Daily Riches: What God Must Do to Live In Us (Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Donne) *

Posted on by under Death Daily, Desolation's Gift, Embracing Losses and Limits, Spiritual Formation

“In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one’s own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner dying grows to meet that death from without. Christians receive their own death in this way and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, ‘It is finished.’” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Here I never saw myself but in disguises; there, then, I shall see myself, but I shall see God too…. Here I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness; mine understanding sometimes cleared, my will at the same time perverted. There I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory.” John Donne

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
2 Corinthians 2:10

Moving From Head to Heart

  • “Christ in us gives us over to death (crucifixion) so that he can live (resurrection) within us.” What has this meant in your life?
  • These mini-deaths are “free” in that we choose them or submit to them. Have you been able choose to receive these kinds of difficult losses and trials as Christ’s “gift?”
  • “Our inner dying grows to meet that death from without.” How do these words affect your feelings about your own death?
  • Take a few moments to think about your physical death becoming “not the end but rather the fulfillment of [your] life with Jesus Christ.” Sit with that in quietness. What emotions arise from that?

Abba, the experience of death from within is both painful and frightening. Even so, I want to embrace the “deaths” you send my way so that Jesus will live more fully in me. Please help me “die to my own will” as I submit to your will for me when it comes to this “daily dying with Jesus Christ.”

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For More: Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

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“Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.” Augustine   My prayer is that these Daily Riches will always be offered and received in this irenic, unpresumptous spirit. Thank you for reading and sharing my daily posts. Bill (Psalm 90:14)