Today’s Bible Reading and an Excerpt

2 John

I have much more to say to you, but I don’t want to do it with paper and ink. For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face. Then our joy will be complete.

More thoughts for meditation

There is a great deal of turmoil in our country and around the world right now, especially politically. When chaos abounds we may momentarily lose our center in Christ. This week let’s use the simple letter from John the Elder to remind us of who we are.

“Guidance of life by the Light within is not exhausted as is too frequently supposed, in special leadings toward particular tasks. It begins first of all in a mass revision of our total reaction to the world. Worshiping in the light we become new creatures, making wholly new and astonishing responses to the entire outer setting of life. These responses are not reasoned out. They are, in large measure, spontaneous reactions of felt incompatibility between ‘the world’s’ judgements of value and the Supreme Value we adore deep in the Center. There is a total Instruction as well as specific instructions from the Light within. The dynamic illumination from the deeper level is shed upon the judgements of the surface level, and lo, the “former things are passed away, behold, they are become new.”

Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion

The depths of the Water stage aren’t always new, profound truths previously unknown. Rather, they are often simple truths more deeply experienced. Try reading the whole book (it’s just one chapter) every day this week. Focus in on the excerpt above. Read it several times and take an extended rest with these words. Read them slowly. Let them sit in you as you sit with them.

Suggestion for Action

Finally, receive the words from John the Elder as words from someone who experienced “water” himself. Receive this promise as you enter your day. What is your plan for the joy of talking face to face with your spiritual friend?

For I hope to visit you soon and talk with you face to face.