Day 157, Evening
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
Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
—Ambrose Bierce
Commentary
When we get tense, it is easiest to vent our frustration by making cracks at others – it is a simple matter of geographic proximity. When we attack other people, when we become a source of trouble to others, it is not because we want to add to their trouble; we have just become an object of trouble to ourselves. When we are agitated, when we are ready to burst out in anger against others, the immediate solution is to go for a long walk.
In the ultimate analysis, our resentments and hostilities are not against others. They are against our own alienation from our native state, which is cosmic consciousness, or Christ-consciousness. All the time we are being nudged by some latent force within us, trying to remind us what our native state is. (WLB)
Stillness
As your day draws to a close, spend a few moments in silence and stillness. As thoughts about the day that just passed try to flood your mind, gently direct your thoughts back to God.
Prayer
• for growth in our character
• for God to give us eyes to see the sacred around us and within us
• for God’s forgiveness, and for the readiness to extend it to others
Abbreviations
BC The Belgic Confession
CAC The Center For Action & Contemplation
CD The Canons of Dort
CIB Church In Bethesda Prayers
HC The Heidelberg Catechism
NT The New Testament
OT The Old Testament
WC The Westminster Confession
WLB Eknath Easwaran’s, “Words To Live By”
WLC The Westminster Larger Catechism
WSC The Westminster Shorter Catechism