If you have to force yourself to pray, those prayers are of far more account with God than any prayers which bring comfort with them.
Day, Dorothy. The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus (Plough Spiritual Guides: Backpack Classics) (p. 49). Plough Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
Prayer (en)forced by discipline
Better than no prayer at all
Maybe
Prayer forced by need
Day after day
Hour after hour
Even if only
“I need You”
Certain
dw
Copyright © 2020, becomingflame.com
Reflecting again on the nature of hope brings me back to a quote from Frederick Buechner I posted last year.
Click through to see where I think hope ends.
Then at last we see what hope is and where it comes from, hope as the driving power and outermost edge of faith. Hope stands up to its knees in the past and keeps its eyes on the future…shall is the verb of hope.
Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “A Room Called Remember”
Up to its knees in the past – becoming flame
Grace and peace to you…
dw
When your habit
your normal course of action
doesn't hear me out
doesn't let me finish my sentence...
When I am shushed
if the question that matters to me
doesn't matter to you...
When I seek a better solution
for all of us
and my words
expressing ideas important to me
in language important to me
are shifted
to your words and language
or struck from the final deal
altogether...
When I strive to paint
together with you
a world with more variety
of color and line
and my colors and lines
are painted over
or are imperceptible
except to one who knows
just where to look for them...
When everything I offer is met with
Not here
Not now:
What do I do
with a lifetime
of the ends of sentences
jammed in my throat
and the wildly alive
Image of God
burning
here and now
in my chest?
dw
Copyright © 2020 becomingflame.com
To do during COVID-19 or any other crisis or any other normal time: Love God with all I've got. Love every person that crosses my path. Love the people I don't like and who don't like me. Plead for God's will to be done here as if this were heaven. Act and speak accordingly.
Grace and peace to you…
dw
OUR GREATEST DANGER is not our sins but our indifference. We must be in love with God. It is not so much to change what we are doing, but our intention, our motive.
Day, Dorothy. The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus (Plough Spiritual Guides: Backpack Classics) (p. 29). Plough Publishing House. Kindle Edition.
What I do,
What I intend to do,
And how I feel about it
(I keep thinking)
Are distinct,
Separate, in fact,
And controllable,
(I keep telling myself)
Their interactions civil
And honorable
To any casual observer
(I keep believing)
Until the slightest whisper of a feeling
Changes my mind and my actions
Forever
dw
Copyright © 2020, becomingflame.com
becoming flame 