Waiting for Direction

"We are all pencils in the hand of God."

Mother Teresa

I've been practicing a new spiritual discipline: lectio divina, a combination of listening prayer and meditation.

The past few weeks, I've been a bit haphazard with it, what with the holidaze and travel and lots of family fun. But I am determined to settle back into the habit of making time to read a small segment of Scripture and then take time to meditate on it. Not because I have to but because I want to.

Being an Accidental Pharisee involved an awful lot of have-tos that wore me out--and didn't produce intimacy with God. I'd do what others told me I had to do. Then, just for good measure, I'd add a few of my own had-tos to the list of acceptable behaviors.

I'm learning why I did this. And I'm learning to discern what all those had-to behaviors are. Made-up provisions for getting it right with God.

It's like I was the student who needed to learn how to write. But, instead of allowing the Teacher to instruct me, I took the pencil and said, "I know what to do," and added a bunch of unneccessary steps to the process.

I think I'll rest in the Teacher's hands for a while.