# Grasping day 1 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Lord Jesus, forgive me when my bleeding and wounded heart causes me to grasp for life and relief from any and every source available. Instead, help me to reach only for you—that I might touch the fringe of your robe and find healing and wholeness for the brokenness of my heart and soul. In Your Name I pray. Amen. (JLB)* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 16 #### You Will Not Abandon My Soul #### A Miktam[a] of David. *16 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;I have no good apart from you.”3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,in whom is all my delight.[b]4 The sorrows of those who run after[c] another god shall multiply;their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.* *7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.[d]8 I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being[e] rejoices;my flesh also dwells secure.* *10 For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.[f]* *11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy;at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.* #### Scripture for the Day: Mark 5:24-34 #### 24 And he went with him. *And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”* #### Reading for Reflection: grasping by Jim Branch *something is terribly wrong within her a long slow bleeding of her heart and soul* *has been her constant companion for as long as she can remember so many things she has tried to make the bleeding stop or to make her feel better for at least a moment but the long line of solutions have failed her so here she stands even worse off than she was before desperately grasping for wholeness or healing or even a glimmer of hope maybe Jesus… maybe He will… be able to stop the bleeding of her weary heart “if only I can get near enough to reach and touch” and when she finally* *grasps for him the bleeding stop the wound is healed the broken is made whole relief streaks down* *her tearstained cheeks freedom finally he turns and looks his eyes meet hers she falls to her knees in fear and confusion* *“daughter”* *He tenderly whispers to the depths of her heart and soul indescribable intimacy* *in the middle of a crowded street* *“go in peace”* *with a gentle smile upon his lips knowing this is what she most deeply longs for “be freed from your suffering” and indeed she is no more bleeding no more grasping only love* *and in the midst of her bleeding and grasping and healing i am reminded of my need for the same reminded of the open wound of my insecurity of my grasping for value and affection when only One offers the touch that will bring wholeness and freedom* *so there is an invitation for me to a new life of indescribable intimacy and freedom with the One who calls me his “son” with the One that whispered me into being and longs for wholeness and freedom for me if I will let goof all of the ways of my grasping heart* *and just reach out for the edge of his robe pray that I have the courage to reach out like the woman* *We mostly spend our lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional, intellectual—even on the spiritual—plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest: forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be: and that Being, not wanting, having and doing, is the essence of a spiritual life. (The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: Tender Mercy *Hear my cry for mercy* *As I call to You* *As I lift my hands in Spirit* *And in Truth* *We cry mercy* *(in the name of the Father most Holy)* *We cry mercy* *(in the name of the Son Who was slain)* *Lord have mercy* *(in the name of the Spirit indwelling)* *Tender mercy Lord* *You are mercy (in the name of the Father most Holy)* *You are mercy (in the name of the Son Who was slain)* *Lord have mercy (in the name of the Spirit indwelling)* *Tender mercy Lord* *In Your tender mercy* *Brought by grace through faith* *I will lift my heart* *Toward Your most Holy place* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord Jesus, give me the grace and the strength and the courage to take off that which I use to cover myself; and to clothe myself only and always in you alone. Amen. (JLB)*