Sometimes I think when Jesus, at the Lord’s Supper, was saying “whenever you do this…” he was meaning “whenever you eat….” So that would mean a lot more often than we do, we ought to be thankful and remember he is our sustenance. Then, that whole part about eating or drinking “in an unworthy manner” makes a lot more sense. We should not be hasty or unthinking as we eat, but accept every meal as a gift. Maybe we should start eating a little better, too.
Brennan Manning says that God gives himself most fully to us in solitude, but we should not expect that we leave God behind when we leave our solitude.
Watch out, there will always be “wild animals.”
A beautiful thought from C.S. Lewis:
The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in shoving it all back; in listening to that other point of view, letting that larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.
Each of us has our own currency in which we deal, and we long to amass more of it: money, time, power, comfort. The trick is being satisfied with and present to what is in front of you, whether it be poverty, busy-ness, powerlessness or distress.
Even in our affluent nation, we live from a psychology of scarcity. There is never enough time or money, or whatever we have set our hearts on as that which will fulfill us. Funny, I don’t think nations with much less have this problem. Do we have what we need for today?