Time of Preparation
Begin by taking inventory of your surroundings. Are things in your vicinity conducive to a time of personal worship? Are there any changes or adjustments (turning off tech, making yourself comfortable) you need to make before you begin?
When you are ready, take some time to sit in silence and prepare your heart for worship. Ask God to clear away any distractions that might keep you from being truly present in this moment.
Commission
In this final movement, we are encouraged and equipped for the work God would have us do.
“He got right up and went home to his father.”
—Luke 15:20 (MSG)
When all is said and done, what is it we are looking for? What is the common cry of every human heart? I think a case could be made that what we are looking for…is home.
What is home to you? For those who have had a positive home experience, home is a place of comfort and peace. If that’s the case, the idea of finding our home is God is an expansion of what we already know. For those whose experience of home was difficult, or even worse, then finding our home in God is an invitation to know what we were meant to experience but were denied.
For all of us, though, the invitation is the same. For the ways we’ve wandered, in the midst of the pain we carry, despite our sometimes stubborn insistence that we need “something else,” the Spirit’s call continues to echo in our lives as it has throughout all time: Come home.
In Peterson’s Message translation of John 15, he renders a familiar invitation of Jesus this way:
“I’ve loved you the way my Father has loved me. Make yourselves at home in my love.”
—John 15:9 (MSG)
As you meditate on these words, how do you respond? Are you able to receive them? If you find them difficult, don’t let that be an excuse to beat yourself up. Jesus knows exactly how we feel, and his invitation is one filled with patient understanding and compassion.
Spend some time contemplating these words of Jesus, who tells us that he loves us just as God has loved him. What does that mean for you? Are you able to receive the intimacy and deep comfort they bring? What would it look like for you to take one more step along the road home?
The Road Home
Tell me, where is the road
I can call my own,
That I left, that I lost,
So long ago?
All these years I have wandered,
Oh, when will I know
There's a way, there's a road
That will lead me home?
After wind, after rain,
When the dark is done.
As I wake from a dream
In the gold of day,
Through the air there's a calling
From far away,
There's a voice I can hear
That will lead me home.
Rise up, follow me,
Come away, is the call,
With the love in your heart
As the only song;
There is no such beauty
As where you belong:
Rise up, follow me,
I will lead you home.
Music by Stephen Paulus
Words by Michael Dennis Browne