Today’s evening meditation is available below in audio and script formats. The audio version is also available for free download on the player.

Reading

“We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.”

—George Bernard Shaw

Quiet

As your day draws to a close, spend a few moments in silence and stillness.

Commentary

Shopping for things we do not need, even if it is only window-shopping, wastes a lot of vitality; energy flows out with every little desire. It is a surprising connection, but an extravagant shopper will find it difficult to love. He or she scatters their love all over the department store. We can become bankrupt in love this way. 

When it comes to our personal vitality, we have no atoms to split, no windmills to set up, no sun to draw on for an alternative source of energy; we have to conserve what we have and make it last. When we find it difficult to love, we can think of it as a personal energy crisis. By not buying things which are neither necessary nor beneficial, we conserve the precious natural resources of the earth, and we save our personal energy, too. 

So if you want a good, stiff test of your capacity to love, go into your favorite store some day – preferably when there is a sale – and see if you can walk straight through, looking neither left nor right, and come out unscathed. It may sound unbelievable, but it can be done. (WLB)

Blessing

May your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may able to discern what is best for your life.

—Philippians 1 (NT)

Podcast Feeds

Abbreviations

BC The Belgic Confession

CAC The Center For Action & Contemplation

CD The Canons of Dort

CIB Church In Bethesda Prayers

DZ - Donna Z.

HC The Heidelberg Catechism

MAO - Michael A. O’Sullivan

NT The New Testament

OT The Old Testament

RP - Ryan Phipps

WC The Westminster Confession

WLB Words To Live By

WLC The Westminster Larger Catechism

WSC The Westminster Shorter Catechism

ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A