I am a bachelor this week as my family is in Martha’s Vineyard with some friends. On my shabat today I read two things that really tied together.
I am reading Receiving the Day, Christian Practices of Receiving the Gift of Time, by Dorothy C. Bass. In the chapter I read today she was talking about receiving each day, just today as a gift from the Lord. Not being controlled by the failures of yesterday or the worries of tomorrow – ala Jesus in Matthew 6. And as a way of putting that on and practicing that developing rhythms and practices in your life that remind you of this day being a gift. She discussed Martin Luther who crossed himself as he woke each day to remind him of his baptism and that the sins of yesterday are forgiven in Christ and the worries of the future are not his concern but Gods. She then discussed Bohoeffer’s community formed around daily worship, prayer and work during the rise of Nazi Germany.
What struck me was Bonnoeffer’s question. “”Who can really be faithful in great things, if they have not learned ot be faithful in the things of daily life?” Then Bass comments, “Later, the great things required of him in the resistance movement would result in his martyrdom.” I want to be great. I want to se and live and lead the renewal of the church in our time. I so desire that. So much so that, that is what I pursue and not daily faithfulness so that when I am faced with greater more weighty decisions I am prepared, rooted, grounded, centered and oriented in Christ who is the Way.
Earlier that morning I was going through the daily prayer of the Irish Jesuits at www.sacredspace.ie and it had a reading from the Book of Tobit 2:3-8 which I have never read. It is an apocryphal book. Here are the comments about the book of Tobit:
“The story of Tobit is that of a just man living under an unjust civil law, and facing death for following his conscience: he risks his life by burying a fellow Jew. Am I ever placed in such a dilemma? Is my conscience up to the challenge if it comes?”
Hmmmm… May I (and we) be faithful today so that my heart, conscience, will, mind and spirit will be ready for the greater things!
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3 comments:
erwin mcmanus says this same thing in his book uprising - in a chapter titled "the weight of small things." here are a few of my favorite quotes:
"The great things that we long for and search for are found among the small things we may ignore or even discard."
"The great things of God come out of the small acts of faithfulness."
"It is not the great challenges that cause successful leaders to fall; it is the ignoring of the small things."
"This is the day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118v24)
What more do we need?
well said, BJ, well said.
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