# Broken Day 5 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *O persistent God,deliver me from assuming your mercy is gentle. Pressure me that I may grow more human,not through the lessening of my struggles,but through the expansion of them…Deepen my hurt until I learn to share it and myself openly,and my needs honestly. Sharpen my fears until I name them and release the power I have locked in them and they in me.* *Accentuate my confusion until I shed those grandiose expectations that divert me from the small, glad gifts of the now and the here and the me. Expose my shame where it shivers, crouched behind the curtains of propriety, until I can laugh at last through my common frailties and failures, laugh my way toward becoming whole.(Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 31 #### Into Your Hand I Commit My Spirit #### To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. *31 In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame;in your righteousness deliver me!2 Incline your ear to me; rescue me speedily!Be a rock of refuge for me,a strong fortress to save me!3 For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name's sake you lead me and guide me;4 you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.5 Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me, O Lord, faithful God. 6 I hate[a] those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.7 I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul,8 and you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.9 Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also.10 For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing;my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. 11 Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors, and an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.* *12 I have been forgotten like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel. 13 For I hear the whispering of many— terror on every side!— as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. 14 But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” 15 My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! 16 Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love! 17 O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. 18 Let the lying lips be mute, which speak insolently against the righteous in pride and contempt. 19 Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you, in the sight of the children of mankind!* *20 In the cover of your presence you hide them from the plots of men;* *you store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.* *21 Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. 22 I had said in my alarm,[b] “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.23 Love the Lord, all you his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage,all you who wait for the Lord!* #### Scripture for the Day: Luke 22:54-62 #### Peter Denies Jesus *54 Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. 55 And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 56 Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” 57 But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” 58 And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” 59 And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” 60 But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. 61 And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” 62 And he went out and wept bitterly.* #### Reading for Reflection: *The first response, then, to our brokenness is to face it squarely and befriend it. This may seem quite unnatural. Our first, most spontaneous response to pain and suffering is to avoid it, to keep it at arm’s length; to avoid, circumvent or deny it. Suffering—be it physical, mental or emotional—is almost always experienced as an unwelcome intrusion into our lives, something that should not be there. It is difficult, if not impossible, to see anything positive in suffering; it must be avoided away at all costs.* ​ *When this is, indeed, our spontaneous attitude toward brokenness, it is no surprise that befriending it seems, at first, masochistic. Still, my own pain in life has taught me that the first step to healing is not a step away from the pain, but a step toward it. When brokenness is, in fact, just as intimate a part of our being as our chosenness and our blessedness, we have to dare to overcome our fear and become familiar with it. Yes, we have to find the courage to embrace our own brokenness, to make our most feared enemy into a friend and to claim it as an intimate companion. I am convinced that healing is often so difficult because we don’t want to know the pain. Although this is true of all pain, it is especially true of the pain that comes from a broken heart. The anguish and agony that result from rejection, separation, neglect, abuse and emotional manipulation serve only to paralyze us when we can’t face them and keep running away from them. When we need guidance in our suffering, it is first of all guidance that leads us closer to our pain and makes us aware that we do not have to avoid it, but can befriend it. (Life of the Beloved by Henri J. M. Nouwen)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Come Ye Sinners *Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,* *Weak and wounded, sick and sore;* *Jesus ready stands to save you,* *Full of pity, love and power.* *I will rise and go to Jesus,* *He will embrace me in His arms;* *In the arms of my dear Savior,* *O there are ten thousand charms.* *Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,* *God’s free bounty glorify;* *True belief and true repentance,* *Every grace that brings you nigh.* *Come, ye weary, heavy laden,* *Lost and ruined by the fall;* *If you tarry till you’re better,* *You will never come at all.* ### Closing Prayer *Now,O Lord,calm me into a quietness that heals and listens, and molds my longings and passions,* *my wounds and wonderings into a more holy and human shape.(Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder)*