On Offer

Letter 4484

These gifts littered around my home and my land — food to eat, shelter to use, shade to cool, a wall, a shed, a garden, a forest, a meadow — are available and ready at all times.

Why do I wait? Why do I self-deny?

❖

Treasure awaits me simply grasping it.

Let me take what you offer, Lord.

Consider:

Can I accept your gifts today?

Reading:

❖ “Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, / Guilty of dust and sin.” — George Herbert, “Love (III)”

❖ “Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it.” — Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

❖ “And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” — Revelation 22:17 (KJV)

Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

World Events

Letter 4483

The sunlight touches everything I see from my window. The oak in my yard follows the same seasons that turn forests in far-off lands.

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A whole world, seen from my window. Even in hiding, perhaps I have influence.

Consider:

Can I pray for world events today?

Reading:

❖ “More things are wrought by prayer / Than this world dreams of.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”

❖ “He showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand… and it was answered generally thus: ‘It is all that is made.’… ‘It lasteth, and ever shall, for God loveth it.'” — Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

❖ “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.” — 1 Timothy 2:1 (KJV)

Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Out of Disorder

Letter 4482

Day by day, the items I arranged so carefully have fallen out of place. One by one, a shelf of tidy objects meets disarray. At some point, if I am honest when looking about my rooms, I must say they are disordered.

This is the point at which I most need you, Lord.

❖

The placement of objects will not in itself doom nor save me. They reflect my inner life.

Lead my thinking, Lord, out of disorder into order, from chaos into peace.

Consider:

Can I allow my thoughts to be guided?

Reading:

❖ “Order is Heaven’s first law.” — Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

❖ “First, keep thyself in peace, and then thou shalt be able to keep peace among others.” — Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

❖ “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind…” — Romans 12:2 (KJV)

Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Wall For Ages

Letter 4481

Building a stone wall to divide one field from another. Will my neighbors praise the careful work? Will they see my industry?

All ephemeral. The labor and responses will fade into mist. When we are all dust, the wall will remain.

Will history show it to be a pile of rocks, or will it stand straight? Will future walkers rest on it?

❖

Lord, let me work for the ages.

Consider:

Can I work for history today?

Reading:

❖ “Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build for ever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for.” — John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture

❖ “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” — Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

❖ “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.” — 1 Corinthians 3:14 (KJV)

Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.