While I spent much of the rest of the weekend recouperating. I also had to go back into work to deal with a project that isn't going well at the moment. Coming home tonight, getting ready to sleep, I was struck again by this simple prayer book. One of the prayers, jumps off from a short passage of scripture that has been running over and over in my head. (Perhaps this one will eventually land so deep in my spirit, that I really rest in it for a while...).
"Apart from me, you can do nothing..." (Jn 15:5) [CCC2732]
In this little prayer book, the response to this passage is a quote from St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
Draw me after you:
The bride has great need to be drawn onward, and drawn by no other than he who says, "Without me you can do nothing" (Jn15:5)...
She knows that your ways are blessed and that anyone who follows you does not walk in darkness. But if she prays to be drawn onward, it is because she cannot attain to your righteousness on her own strength. She prays... because no one comes to you unless the father draws him (Jn 6:44)....
We often feel like we can accomplish a lot.
In our own strength, we can and do get a lot of things done.
But, unless we are with Jesus... with Him... Him in us, nothing we do is good. Nothing will survive the burning away of the chaff. All we do on our own is wood, hay, and stubble. Perhaps glorious in our own eyes, but ultimately, it's just lifeless dust cast out of the kingdom.
Maybe I'm just taking too long to learn this particular lesson, but I am struck by those few words...still. Tonight I want to be drawn onward toward Him, who is everything.
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Jesus, I don't want to do anything without you.
Without you, I am nothing...
With you, I have everything, because of you.
(Psalm 139)
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1 comment:
mmm... like this...
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