After a week away from sharing three things I liked with you, it’s good to be back! Here’s what I got for this week:
First, I liked this new band I discovered while in Florida. They’re called Khruangbin—pronounced “Krung Bin. Go here to listen. You’ll notice that there are no lyrics to their songs. It’s just good music. Or at least that’s my opinion.
Second, I liked an insightful section of Joan Chittister’s book Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today. For context, Chittister describes Benedictine spirituality as listening in three directions: 1) listening to God, 2) listening to the wisdom of others, and 3) listening to your life. Chittister’s comments on listening to your life struck me:
The Rule [of St. Benedict] teaches us to listen to the circumstances of our own lives. We have to begin to face what our own life patterns might be saying to us. When we are afraid, what message lurks under the fear: a horror of failure, a rejection of weakness, panic at the thought of public embarrassment, a sense of valuelessness that comes with loss of approval? When we find ourselves in the same struggles over and over again, what does that pattern say: That I always begin a thing with great enthusiasm only to abandon it before it is finished? That I am always reluctant to change, no matter how good the changes might be for me? That I keep imposing unsatisfactory relationships with people from my past on every new person I meet? That down deep I have never given myself to anything except myself? Not to my friends. Not to my work. Not to my vocation. (21)
Rather than simply reacting to the patterns in our lives, we can learn to pay attention to them and ask what they might be revealing about us.
Third, I liked this prayer from Lectio365’s Sunday afternoon devotional:
Jesus, will you put a new song in my heart. Give me words to name your beauty, your life, and your joy. Sing through me the story of the God who gives favor for a lifetime. Expand my belief that, even when sorrow is present now, joy comes in the morning.
AMEN!
Until next time . . .
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