Step 1: Talk to God
Jesus, it is interesting to note our behavior as we have aged. We are more aware of our finiteness as we accompany our friends through medical crises. Many of our friends are stricken with something. In many cases, it has turned out to be terminal and we have walked the last few steps with them. It has been a blessing and it also has given us a message that we are not meant solely for this life.
Being retired has given a lot of time to practice the presence of God – more so than when we were working hard to nurture our families and build a secure life in our profession for our families. It is gratifying that You have made yourself present to us in a way that we can access. You ride in the car with us. You are there when we wake up during the night. You are there when we are enjoying our grandkids and when we are thankful for being with our partners for so many years. You are there when we see our children nurturing their children and making their way in their chosen professions. I know you were always there, and we acknowledge it, but now you are so much more present. I guess because we have the time to notice.
Many are spending more time going to Church. I guess there are many reasons for that. Some are noble, non are ignoble. It may be a good routine to start a day with Church that might be pretty empty of significant things to do. We hear a good message, we receive you in communion, and we see the same people most every day. We enjoy praying in a minyan with other believers. It is comforting.
Some think they need an insurance policy. They hope they can DO whatever they need to do to get into heaven. They fear You as Judge. We know our actions have consequences but earning heaven is not one of the consequences. But it is not ignoble that they think this way but you have told us a better message about Your Father.
I ask you to take their good intentions and routine and bless it with the Peace that only you can give. Not a peace that comes from what they are DOING but rather the Peace that comes from becoming more intimate with you. You called us friends. Slaves, friends: in the Old Testament, Moses (Dt 34:5), Joshua (Jos 24:29), and David (Ps 89:21) were called “servants” or “slaves of Yahweh”; only Abraham (Is 41:8; 2 Chr 20:7; cf. Jas 2:23) was called a “friend of God.”
Continue to bless us with awareness of your presence. Hold us in your intimate relationship with us—as friends. May our awe at the Trinity not just inspire fear but amazement that anyone can so love us.
Step 2. Listen to God
| Hebrew Scripture | New Testament |
| Psalm 139
A hymn to G-d’s presence and intimacy. LORD, you have probed me, you know me: 2you know when I sit and stand;*a you understand my thoughts from afar. 3You sift through my travels and my rest; with all my ways you are familiar. 4Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all. 5Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, far too lofty for me to reach. 7Where can I go from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? 8If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, there you are 9If I take the wings of dawn* and dwell beyond the sea,* 10Even there your hand guides me, your right hand holds me fast. 11If I say, “Surely darkness shall hide me, and night shall be my light”*— 12Darkness is not dark for you, and night shines as the day. Darkness and light are but one. II 13You formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. 14I praise you, because I am wonderfully made; wonderful are your works! My very self you know. 15My bones are not hidden from you, When I was being made in secret, fashioned in the depths of the earth.* 16Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be. III 17How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them! 18Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands; when I complete them, still you are with me. 19When you would destroy the wicked, O God, the bloodthirsty depart from me! 20Your foes who conspire a plot against you are exalted in vain. IV 21Do I not hate, LORD, those who hate you? Those who rise against you, do I not loathe? 22With fierce hatred I hate them, enemies I count as my own. 23Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my thoughts. 24See if there is a wicked path in me; lead me along an ancient path.
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John 15:9-14
As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. 13* No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends,* because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. 16It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. 17This I command you: love one another.
John 14:1-14 * “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith* in God; have faith also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? 3* And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. 4Where [I] am going you know the way.”* 5Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, then you will also know my Father.* From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father,* and that will be enough for us.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves. 12Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
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Put together what you said to God and what God said to you in scripture. Dialogue.