# Between day 7 > 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: Jeremiah 6:16 *16 Thus says the Lord:“Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,where the good way is; and walk in it,and find rest for your souls.But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’* #### Reading for Reflection: *Waiting as we see it in people on the first pages of the Gospel, is waiting with a sense of promise. “Zechariah, your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son.” “Mary, Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son” (Luke 1:13, 31). People who wait have received a promise that allows them to wait. They have received something that is at work in them, like a seed that has started to grow. This is very important. We can only really wait if what we are waiting for has already begun for us. So waiting is never a movement from nothing to something. It is always a movement from something to something more. Zechariah, Mary, and Elizabeth were living with a promise that nurtured them, that fed them, and that made them able to stay where they were. And in this way, the promise itself could grow in them and for them. (A Spirituality of Waiting by Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Weavings Reader* *This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it; the process is not finished but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road; all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified. ~Martin Luther* #### 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)*