Pondering for Monday, July 12, 2021

Daily Office Readings for Monday of Proper10: Year 1                                 

Morning, Psalm 25; Evening, Psalms 9 and 15;
1^st  Samuel 18:5 to 16 and 27 to 30; Acts 11:19 to 30; Mark 1:29 to 45:

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you:” (Mark 1:35 to 37).

Jesus has just healed the mother in law of Simon Peter.  This is evidence that at least he, Simon, was married.  That’s the only way one gets a “mother-in-law.”  I ponder how many of the other followers were married. What does it mean to be in a committed relationship and then commit one’s self to following our Lord Jesus? Which commitment should come first? Ponder, ponder.

Simon tells Jesus, “Everyone is searching for you.”  Oh Simon, if only that were true.  Maybe people are looking for our Healer and Redeemer but do not know his name.  In our Acts reading for today we learn that the disciples, and therefore students of Jesus, who is the Christ or Anointed One, were first named “Christians” in Antioch. The name stuck.  I think it is important to remember that as Christians, we too are disciples, or students of our Lord Jesus. Are we learning what our Teacher is teaching us?  I think it is important to remember one very important lesson from our Lord Jesus. And that is, that our Lord Jesus goes to be alone to pray.  Private prayers are healing prayers. We don’t need words. All we need is to be open to God and whatever God has for us.

If we really need words to get us into a receptive state of being perhaps Psalm 25, selected for today, will help.  “Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long:” (Psalm 25: 3 and 4).  These are just two verses from Psalm 25. But I think praying the whole Psalm will assist in getting us into a good and private place wherein, like our Lord Jesus, we can connect with the God of our salvation.

When we practice praying privately it becomes easier to pray publicly.  Although it has been my experience that most people want to hear words.  Even when a speaker asks for, “a moment of silence,” in memory of the loss of a person, count the seconds. Rarely is it 60 seconds.  People don’t like silence. To make it real, I have gone to using a singing bowl with a mallet and watching my watch.  I really don’t care if I go over the minute.  After all, I am praying too.  We shouldn’t focus on the time, unless we are cheated out of it. Jesus got up and went to a “quiet” place to pray and Simon and the noise followed him. Let us have some holy silence at least once a day.

Let us live to love, rather than just live to live, listening to what the Spirit is saying to, and through the saints of God, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John