Day By Day #22

Day by Day #22

MORNING/MIDDAY OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Luke 5:12–13

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Devotional

Jesus’ presence had a healing and transformative impact on people—physically, spiritually, and emotionally. As we become more like him, more rooted and established in his love, our presence can impact people as well.

Martin Buber (1878–1965), a German-Jewish philosopher and author, explores this profound principle in his classic book, I and Thou. The book was first published in 1923, just five years after the end of World War I.

Before the war began, Buber considered the “religious” to be mystical experiences that lifted him out of the earthly, ordinary experiences of everyday life. He was more concerned with the eternal than with the temporal, more focused on ecstasy than daily existence, more interested in what lies beyond the world than in the world itself.^a

That all changed one day in 1914, the year that World War I broke out in Europe, when a young man came to visit Buber.

What happened was no more than that one forenoon, after a morning of “religious” enthusiasm, I had a visit from an unknown young man, without being there in spirit. I certainly did not fail to let the meeting be friendly. . . . I conversed attentively and openly with him—only I omitted to guess the questions which he did not put. Later, not long after, I learned from one of his friends—he himself was no longer alive—the essential content of these questions; I learned that he had come to me not casually, but borne by destiny, not for a chat but for a decision. He had come to me, he had come in this hour.^b

The young man had committed suicide. The guilt Buber felt was not that he had somehow failed to remove the young man’s despair, but that he was not fully present to him. He was so preoccupied by his religious experience earlier that morning, that he failed to bring the full resources of his attention to their conversation. He did not turn to the young man with his whole being to actually feel with him. Instead of genuinely listening, he brought leftovers, a courteous but partial engagement.

For Buber, the experience felt like a judgment on his whole way of life.^c He realized that it is possible to have profound spiritual experiences and a “faith that can move mountains,” but that such a faith is worth nothing without a deeply present love for people.

Question to Consider

What would you say is your greatest obstacle or challenge to being fully present and engaged with others?

Prayer

Father, I am so easily distracted and preoccupied when I am with people, but I long to be the kind of person who genuinely listens and is fully present. I ask that you would change me so that I can be a transformative presence for others. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

MIDDAY/EVENING OFFICE

Silence and Stillness before God (2 minutes)

Scripture Reading: Luke 7:11–17

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, “Don’t cry.”

Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

They were all filled with awe and praised God. “A great prophet has appeared among us,” they said. “God has come to help his people.” This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.

Devotional

The gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus’ interactions with individuals—Matthew, Nathaniel, a prostitute, Nicodemus, a blind man, a Samaritan woman, and many others. When a rich young ruler came up to him, Jesus “looked at him and loved him.” He listened. He was present, never in a rush or distracted. He gave people the dignity of listening to their stories.

When is the last time you heard someone say something like this: “Those Christians are fantastic listeners! I have never known a group of people who are so genuinely interested in my world, so good at asking questions, and so attentive”?

When we choose to enter into the world of another person, we are choosing to be available and present. Jesus did not return the boy of Nain to his widowed mother without first having been present to her in her sorrow. In doing so, he modeled a relationship of care and loving presence. Here is how author Henri Nouwen describes such love and care:

From experience, you know that those who care for you become present to you. When they listen, they listen to you. When they speak, you know they speak to you. And when they ask questions, you know it is for your sake and not their own. Their presence is a healing presence because they accept you on your terms, and they encourage you to take your own life seriously.^d

In the same way, God invites us to grow in the quality of our presence to others so that they might experience his love through us.

Question to Consider

In what way(s) are you tempted to be distracted when you are with people rather than be present, deeply listening and accepting them on their own terms?

Prayer

Lord, teach me by the Holy Spirit to listen deeply to the people I am with today, to see them as you see them, and to love them as you love them. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)

^a William E. Kaufman, Contemporary Jewish Philosophies (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1976), 62–63.

^b Martin Buber, Between Man and Man (New York: Routledge, 2002), 16.

^c For additional insights on the impact this event had on Buber, see Kenneth Paul Kramer with Mechthild Gawlick, Martin Buber’s I and Thou: Practicing Living Dialogue (Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2003), 174–75.

^d Henri J. M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1974), 31–32, 36.