# Dying Day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *You, O Christ, are my wealth. All those things I thought I couldn't live without "dissolve" in a glance from you. They are nothing when considered in the larger light of your intimate presence. How difficult it has been to come to this moment! The moment of letting go! I, who have learned so well to hoard, grasp, clutch, and control! Now I want only to be grasped by you. All my possessions are empty when they become obstacles to my union with you. O Glance of God, prepare my heart for the Great Surrender. Enable me to surrender my ego self so that I may put on Christ. Then I will begin enjoying heaven on earth. Amen. (Abide by Macrina Wiederkehr)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 49 #### Why Should I Fear in Times of Trouble? #### To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. *49 Hear this, all peoples!Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,2 both low and high,rich and poor together!3 My mouth shall speak wisdom;the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.4 I will incline my ear to a proverb;I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.* *5 Why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?7 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,8 for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice,9 that he should live on forever and never see the pit.* *10 For he sees that even the wise die;the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others.11 Their graves are their homes forever,[a] their dwelling places to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.12 Man in his pomp will not remain;he is like the beasts that perish.* *13 This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;yet after them people approve of their boasts.[b] Selah14 Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;death shall be their shepherd,* *and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,for he will receive me. Selah* *16 Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,when the glory of his house increases.* *17 For when he dies he will carry nothing away; his glory will not go down after him.* *18 For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed —and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,who will never again see light.20 Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.* #### Scripture for the Day: Philippians 3:7-16 *7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.* #### Straining Toward the Goal *12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.* #### Reading for Reflection: *I've been learning a lot about dying lately…and I hate it. I'm terrible at it. I would probably never choose it on my own, it is usually chosen for me. And I resist it almost all the time. But it’s just unavoidable.* ​ *Currently I am living smack dab in the center of Lent, walking the road to the cross with Jesus, knowing that much of the life I have lived—and loved—up to this point has been torn away, that on the horizon a cross awaits, and that there is some kind of new life and resurrection on the other side of it all.* ​ *But right now the cross is looming, the sadness of loss and the stench of death keep me from the joy and excitement of what is to come. I'm convinced that whatever it is will be beautiful, but there is still more dying left to do before I can get there. ~Jim Branch April 2011* #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Alas and Did My Savior Bleed *Alas and did my savior bleed* *And did my Sovereign die?* *Would He devote that sacred head* *For sinners such as I?* *Was it for sins that I have done* *He suffered on the tree?* *Amazing pity! Grace unknown!* *And love beyond degree!* *Well might the sun in darkness hide* *And shut His glory in* *When Christ, the great Redeemer died* *For man the creature's sin.* *Thus might I hide my blushing face* *While His dear cross appears,* *Dissolve my heart in thankfulness,* *And melt mine eyes to tears.* *But drops of grief can ne'er repay* *The debt of love I owe:* *Here, Lord, I give myself away* *'Tis all that I can do.* ### Closing Prayer: *Dear God,* *Please untie the knots that are in my mind my heart and my life. Remove the have nots, the can nots, and the do nots I have in my mind. Erase the will nots, may nots, the might nots that may find a home in my heart. Release me from the would nots could nots and should nots that obstruct my life. And most of all, remove from my mind my heart and my life, the am nots that I have allowed to hold me back especially the thought that I am not good enough. Amen. (Author unknown)*