“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money.’ Yet you do not even know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wishes, we will live and do this or that.’” (James 4: 13-15)
Henri Nouwen (from: ‘You are Beloved’) “We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to the voice saying to us: ‘I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it!’ Imagine.”
Brother Laurence was known as the kitchen saint for his ability to infuse the presence of God into each and every moment of his day, whether washing dishes, scrubbing floors or latrines, or engaged in the various offices of the day. His ‘secret’ became the title of his book, ‘Practicing the Presence of God’.
As Nouwen reminded us, this day we have a unique opportunity to make everything new, an opportunity to practice the presence of God at home, in transit, at school, workplace, meetings and more. We may be a mere mist of the morning and in God’s love and presence we will ‘live and move and have our being’.
Prayer: Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I’ve no time to be a great saint
by doing lovely things, or watching late with Thee, or dreaming in the dawnlight,
or storming heaven’s gates, make me a saint by getting meals, and washing up the plates. Warm all the kitchen with Thy Love, and light it with Thy peace; forgive me all my worrying, and make my grumbling cease. Thou who didst love to give men food, in room, or by the sea, accept the service that I do,
I do it unto Thee. Amen (attributed to Brother Laurence)
Kenn Stright
(To access the entire “Morning Devotions” mini-series, click here.)