# Between day 2 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *O Lord, our God, so much of this life is lived in between; between the now and the not yet, between arriving and departing, between birth and death and rebirth, between growing up and growing old, between questions and answers. Help us not to live only for some distant day when the in between will be no more, but help us to step into the mystery of that sacred space here and now—knowing that it will be a place of genuine change and true transformation. (JLB)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 46 #### God Is Our Fortress #### To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth.[a] A Song. *46 God is our refuge and strength, a very present[b] help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;God will help her when morning dawns.6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth.9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah* #### Scripture for the Day: Psalm 73:1-28 #### Book Three #### God Is My Strength and Portion Forever #### A Psalm of Asaph. *73 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;their hearts overflow with follies.* *8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.* *9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them.[a]11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?”12 Behold, these are the wicked;always at ease, they increase in riches.13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning.15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children.* *16 But when I thought how to understand this,it seemed to me a wearisome task,17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.18 Truly you set them in slippery places;you make them fall to ruin.19 How they are destroyed in a moment,swept away utterly by terrors!20 Like a dream when one awakes,O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you.* *23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory.25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength[b] of my heart and my portion forever.27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge,that I may tell of all your works.* #### Reading for Reflection: *We keep praying that our illusions will fall away. God erodes them from many sides, hoping they will fall. But we often remain trapped in what we call normalcy, “the way things are.” Life becomes problem-solving, fixing, explaining, and taking sides with winners and losers. It can be a pretty circular and even nonsensical existence.* *Instead, we have to allow ourselves to be drawn into sacred space, into liminality. All transformation takes place there. We have to move out of “business as usual” and remain on the “threshold” (limen, in Latin) where we are betwixt and between. There, the old world is left behind, but we’re not sure of the new one yet. That’s a good space. Get there often and stay there as long as you can by whatever means possible. It’s the realm where God can best get at us because we are out of the way. In sacred space the old world is able to fall apart, and the new world is able to be revealed. If we don’t find liminal space in our lives, we start idolizing normalcy. We end up believing it’s the only reality, and our lives shrivel. (Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Cleft of the Mountain *I will run to the cleft of the mountain and wait for You* *Will you come and meet with me?* *I will wait in the cleft of the mountain for You to pass by* *Will you come and meet with me?* *Oh, what a joy it would be* *Just for a moment to lay at the feet of the Lord* *Oh more than anything that’s what I long for* *Oh, what a change it would bring* *Just to look deep in the face of the King Who gave all* *You gave everything so You could meet with me* *Will You meet with me?* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord Jesus, Help me to trust you fully in the midst of this life that seems so chaotic and unsure at times. Give me, this day, a firm place to set my feet as I walk toward you through this ever-changing world. Amen. (JLB)*