Daily Devotional for August 29

​

August 29                                                        Mark 13:28-37

The heat wave broke in the night and we needed a blanket
to finish our sleep. The cool of the morning refreshed my spirit
as I hung wash on a line between trees in the yard. The birds
sang and the yellow wildflowers stood bright in the morning
sun - but a feeling of change permeated the air, and we all
knew that summer would soon turn to fall.

Yesterday I visited a friend in the hospital. The sickness has
touched her central nervous system now, and it causes her
to tremble. The simplest manual task, like putting on slippers,
becomes a lengthy labor requiring patience, determination,
and the concentration of prayer. Although she says the shaking
is "a bummer," I see that she has accepted the challenge of
learning a new way to put on her slippers, a new way of
experiencing her life. Her sickness ministers to her friends,
her daily struggle illuminating the truth that we cannot control
our lives, that change is inevitable, that our choice lies in how
we respond to it.

Take some time now to consider the way you receive change
in your life. If there is fear, resistance, and the need to control,
see if you can let go, remembering the image that Jesus gives
us of the household servants, each with an assigned task in
the owner's house. The word Jesus says to you he says to
everyone: "Watch!" Whatever your circumstances may be,
whether in sickness of health, in creating or simply sustaining,
you are called to be alert and watchful, fully conscious of God's
presence in your life.

​

From The Road to Emmaus - An inclusive devotional Edited by Joseph W. Houle

Emmaus House of Prayer - Washington D.C.1989