• The journey of Joseph from Jacob’s house to Potiphar’s household to prison cell to Pharaoh’s palace; from slavery in Genesis 37 to “saviour” of the world then in Genesis 50 is calling out to me.

• The journey of Ruth, “the foreigner, the Moabitess,” from widowhood in Ruth 1 to gleaner to sustainer and great grandmother of David (thus in the lineage of Christ) in Ruth 4 is beckoning to me.

• The journey of David from a shepherd boy to being a king to a fugitive hiding in caves and harbouring in the desert is knocking on the door of my heart.

• The story of Joseph, from carpenter to “father of God,” (Mt 1:16; Lk 3:23,38) and Mary, from the virgin of Nazareth to the “mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14) is awakening within my soul.

• The three kings, the wise men, the Magi who saw the Star and followed its rumour in the dark nights from the East to Jerusalem to Bethlehem continue to bear me gifts unfolding.

• The stories of the Disciples who “put their faith” in Jesus at the 1st miracle in Cana (John 2:1-11), who were co-creators with Christ at the many signs and wonders and who were also betrayers, deniers and deserters before each became who they were called to be.  Their journeys resonate with my inner sojourn.

What then happen to the story of the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, after the villagers came to know Jesus for themselves?  What then happen to Jarius’ 12-year-old daughter who was given a 2nd chance at life?  What then happen to the woman caught in adultery but set free by Jesus?  What then happen to the rich young ruler whom Jesus loved?  And what then happen to the prodigal son and the resentful older brother?  What then happen to the invalid and the paralytic and the man born blind and the lepers who were all touched and healed by Jesus?  What then happen to the multitudes who “ate and were satisfied”?

What then is happening within me???

With this inner awakening I hear God inviting me to a season of Growing TRUST alongside this biblical “community of humanity”.  To grow in a season of trusting in the unconditional love of God with childlike surrender.  To make room for God in my soul by letting go of nostalgia and notions of God that are now old and dysfunctional.  And to join Jesus in His final prayer upon the Cross, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Lk 23:46, NIV)

For many years during the “dark ages” of my life journey, this prayer of M Basilea Schlink was my daily companion : “Father, I don’t understand you, but I trust in your love.”  Now some 15 years later do I realize that God was putting steel into my spiritual resolve to cultivate and nurture this growing trust. God has been putting “manure” to fertilise my growing trust.

May be the best “resolution” for 2011 and beyond would be to pray these words of Psalm 31:5 – “I put my life in your hands” (The Msg) and together let us be growing trust!

Rev Simon Tan & Rinda Teo
Listening Inn, Singapore
“All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Ps 139:16)

To Henri Nouwen, “Gratitude in its deepest sense means to live life as a gift to be received gratefully...Gratitude as the gospel speaks about...embraces all of life : the good and the bad, the joyful and the painful, the holy and the not so holy.”

To Habakkuk, grateful thanks is expressed with the following words...

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day...

Habakkuk 3:17-19, 16

Gratitude is not a matter of emotion or an attitude one can muster by choice.  Gratitude is a difficult discipline as it calls us to trust the “pruning Hands of God” at work in the challenging and painful moments of our life, purifying our heart for greater love, hope and faith!

Grateful people are the Habakkuks who will and can celebrate God exuberantly with all of life even when it is dry and deprived.  Praise and thanksgiving that the Bible speaks about embraces all of life, in totality.  To rejoice and give thanks to the Sovereign LORD and to be joyful in God our Savior involves our physical body, our whole being, body, soul and mind, not just our lips.  To celebrate God is both the heartbeat of the Christian faith and a discipline.

The Cross as God’s symbol of Divine Intercourse into humanity all on His own initiative – not to mention at what personal cost! -  must surely bring forth deep gratitude, gratefulness of heart that overflow into Eucharistic (thankful) living!  Our daily experience of God’s descending grace must fuel heartfelt thanks ascending.  

Personally, GRATITUDE, in a one-liner is –

Giving Reflective Adoration That Instills Thanksgiving
to the Undeniably Dependable Emmanuel

May 2010 be a year where we can grow to know the Emmanuel God as the “God With-In Us” in one of the following retreats.