Good morning…
In the early hours of last Saturday, I wrote My Hope For These Twenty Year Olds. I pushed “send” on our blog post around 3:00 am then crawled back into bed for my second sleep. When I woke again, I revisiting our message, tweaking it a bit, like I often do. I did not alter the Scripture verse:
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too — your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful — I can’t take it all in! (Psalm 139:1-6, MSG).
I did feel compelled to change the final line of our blog post. The fresh words read: Dear Lord, please help us to gradually take in your reassuring presence, bit by bit. May you awaken in each of us a conversational relationship.
I finished a few other edits before I opened the following message, a message which had arrived in my inbox that morning at 5:01 am.
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DAILY MEDITATION | MAY 14, 2022 – God Invites Us Into Unceasing Conversation by Henri Nouwen
Prayer is not introspection. It is not a scrupulous, inward-looking analysis of our own thoughts and feelings but it is a careful attentiveness to the Presence of Love personified inviting us to an encounter. Prayer is the presentation of our thoughts— reflective thoughts, as well as daydreams, and night dreams—to the One who receives them, sees them in the light of unconditional love, and responds to them with divine compassion. This context of thinking in the Presence, of conversation and dialogue with Love, is the joyful affirmation of our gentle Companion on the journey with God who knows our minds and hearts, our goodness and our beauty, our darkness and our light. The Psalmist prays the prayer for us (Psalms 139:1–3; 23–24, NIV):
O Lord, you search me and you know me, you know my resting and my rising,
you discern my purpose from afar.
You mark when I walk or lie down,
all my ways lie open to you. . . .
O search me, God, and know my heart. O test me and know my thoughts.
See that I follow not the wrong path and lead me in the path of life eternal.
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God, how do you do it? Your Holy Spirit led me and the Henri Nouwen Society to share the very same Scripture verses, in different translations, on the very same morning. I felt guided to end our post: Dear Lord, please help us to gradually take in your reassuring presence, bit by bit. May you awaken in each of us a conversational relationship. Then Nouwen rode in on the very same wavelength: God Invites Us Into Unceasing Conversation. God, how do you break into our collective conscience like this? I continue to be amazed at our living Lord, who permeates our everyday lives in subtle and undeniable ways.
Even now, I prayerfully to narrow down my hope for these 20 year olds who are mourning the loss of one kind friend. It is the very same hope that I hold for each one of us: May we will each find ourselves gradually drawn like a magnet into honest, unceasing conversation with the God who leads us on the path of life eternal.
…Sue…
P.S. An important conversation continues in our small community, as we discern together whether or not our village of Vinings should become a city. Last month, we all were invited to hear insights from our Cobb County leaders in a well attended gathering. Two weeks ago, many of us filled the room to hear the perspective of the “Vote Yes” representatives. And tonight will gather together one final time as all Vinings residents are invited to hear the perspective of the “Vote No” representatives.
From 6:30 to 8:00 pm tonight, we will meet at the Vinings Marriott Courtyard – Overlook Room, 2829 Overlook Parkway SE, Atlanta, GA 30339. If you are interested and available, please join us.
My deep hope is that we all feel compelled to personally and peacefully discern: “God, in which direction should I cast my one vote?” I also truly hope that we will all make time to vote on or before May 24th.
