September 22 - September 28

9 comments:

Mandy said...

Hello- I have been praying the hours; most days I get to at least 3 offices. This morning the prayer for the week was: Grant that I, Lord, may not be anxious about earthly things, but love things heavenly; and even now, while I am placed among things that are passing away, hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.†
I needed the reminder that I am placed among things and problems and struggles that are passing away.
Also been reading Philippians to listen to a series Rob Bell is doing on that book.
BTW- W. Brueggeman and Phyllis Tickle both spoke at Mars Hill over the summer, I highly recommend listening to those podcasts!

Tim Suttle said...

Hey gusy,

I was a slacker yesterday and didn't do anything. I don't know why. When the time came for the hours I just thought "I'm not going to do it," it was wierd. But today I'm on it again. I did the BCP hours this morning early and then lectio with staff. I just did the divine hours after lunch & will try and hit it again before I head home.

Mandy, I was justing thinking about that prayer you wrote out here because I just read it in the Midday office. I love that Tickle connected it to the line from king David - "I'm about to go the way of the earth."

I was thinking about how we cannot consider the whole earth to be passing away. We don't view the earth in dualistic ways (physical realm is evil, spiritual realm is good). So as we "hold fast to those that shall endure" we actually hold fast to physical realities on this earth. I think that's what we do when we love our children or serve the poor - or even build our churches. But we realize that some of the corrupted parts of our life on the earth will be removed (see financial markets driven by greed and usery), but some will be and are being recreated and resurrected. Anyway...that prayer had me thinking.

What I want to know is what time-zone do you put in when you are reading the hours?

Peace,

Kerrie said...

Great lectio at the office today. I really needed that to center my day on God! I've been concentrating on the thought of being prepared, in not an administrative way, all day today. Love it.

Tim Suttle said...

I did the BCP morning office today. We're reading through Acts and the story of Esther. Why do I love it so much when the King's evil assistant totally gets screwed by Mordecai & Esther? It's like a great Disney movie. I should probably be more broken-hearted for him, but I'm just not.

Mandy said...

I have been praying the hours but honestly, the last few days have felt flat. I think about things I need to get done, or just get generally distracted, while I am reading. Some of them I have even blown off, even though I totally could have done it.

BTW-my time zone is GMT-UK, Ireland, Portugal……….

Tim Suttle said...

I did the bcp hours this morning. Esther's enemy got hanged today and it didn't make me feel any better. Then in Acts, some guy was casting out demons in Paul's name and the demon apparently looked right at him and said "Paul I know, Jesus I know...but who the heck are you?" and proceeded to beat him so badly that he barely got away with his life.

The bible is wierd...

Kerrie said...

I can of roamed around to different passages about understanding today. Galations has a particular verse that spoke to me. Lots of good prayer time today.

Tim Suttle said...

Friday Confessional:

I confess to having an up and down week. When it was up, it was really up. When it was down, it was honestly not that bad. Plus it was usually because I was worrying about things I have no control over. Worry is another of my favorite sins.

I confess that my greatest fear is that people won’t like me or won’t respect me. I learned this again this week. I’m sure there are some ways that I’ve gotten better on this, but I still feel like I’m struggling with it like I’m in high school or something.

I confess that I am ontologically linked community. I’ve preached this and tried to practice this for so long now that it’s absurd that this reality would sneak up on me…but it did. I confess that this is a good thing, even though it’s hard. I think this week I learned just how much it has infiltrated my being. It's a challenging way to live, but I think it is life abundantly.

Thanks be to God.

Mandy said...

Friday Confessional:

I confess that I had to go to Websters.com to be sure what “ontological” meant.

I confess that I could just cloister-up in my little house and be alone a lot more than I thought was possible. And of course having no friends lends itself to that…..I sort of need some people to bug me or pry into my business a little. This kind of scares me because I don’t think that God calls me to aloneness, but it sure is easier.

I confess to letting my family have idol-like status. I never set out to do this, of course, but it seems I let the idea of a “good” family take front seat to almost everything else. I am seeing this clearly now that the 3 of them are away from me a lot of the time. (this may not make much sense, hard to articulate)

Miss you all!