Seeking 1

September 28, 2008

I was struck the other day by the opening question of Celtic Daily Prayer (CDP): Do you seek me with all your heart… soul… mind… strength? Each of these probably deserves a post. Today the heart gets first dibs.

How do you answer “Do you seek the Lord with all your heart?”

I answered in the negative with sorrow but without being down on myself. The prescribed response of CDP is “Amen. Lord have mercy.” Amen is the willing agreement to seek God with the whole heart. Lord have mercy is our admission of seeking imperfectly. And so it shall be until our every waking moment and every breath is seeking Him.

Scot McKnight wrote 40 Days of Living the Jesus Creed. 40 vignettes about loving God, others and self. I challenged myself recently to preach 40 sermons based on the Jesus Creed inspired by Scot’s book. I just finished number 11. 29 to go and I am still as excited as could be.

The heart is what we will with. It is the seat where dwells all that we hold dear. I like to think of the heart as a community that is made up of people and things that are there not according to our choice and people and things that we choose to invite in (this idea comes from David Ford). An example of who and what reside in the community of our hearts not by our own choice would be our parents, our childhood experiences (good or bad), our siblings, the teaching we receive early in life. An example of what we choose would be friends, experiences we wish to treasure, and other things that are not so good for us. Problem of the heart develop when by imprudence we invite people and things into our hearts we have no business inviting. If we open the door to lust, or violent thinking, or other negative things we create a tension that leads into some dysfunction. Overexposure to the wrong attitudes, and wrong images cause fightings within and without. In dysfunction it is hard to seek and to love God with the whole heart, with any semblance of holiness!

What shall we do? Run to the cross and at the cross where our savior died we ask for mercy. The Spirit of Jesus cleanses our hearts and we get a fresh start. Nothing else will do.

Posted by georges boujakly | Filed Under Celtic Daily Prayer, Morning Prayer, Sacred Rhythm 

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