# Letting go Day 7 > Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God. ### Opening Prayer: *Take, Lord, and receive all that I am and have. You’ve given it all to me; I give it all back to you. Do with me as you want. Just give me your love and your grace and that’s enough. ~St. Ignatius* #### Psalm for the Week: Psalm 130 #### My Soul Waits for the Lord #### A Song of Ascents. *130 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice!Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.* *5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.* #### Scripture for the Day: Genesis 22:1-19 #### The Sacrifice of Isaac *22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.* *9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”[c]* *15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.* #### Reading for Reflection: *Thus Jesus introduced us to the shocking power of sacrifice, which can turn something that looks for all the world like loss into something that feels for all the world like gain. According to Frederick Buechner, “To sacrifice something is to make it holy by giving it away for love.” Even if someone is trying to pry it out of your hands. Even if those standing around you laugh and shout that you have no choice, you have a choice. You can still decide how you will let go. You can still open your hands at the last moment and give up what others thought they were taking from you. You can even make it holy by doing it for love. (Home By Another Way by Barbara Brown Taylor)* *You told yourself you would accept the decision of fate. But you lost your nerve when you discovered what it would require of you: then you realized how attached you still were to the world which has made you what you were, but which you would now have to leave behind. It felt like an amputation, a “little death,” and you even listened to those voices which insinuated that you were deceiving yourself out of ambition. You will have to give up everything. Why, then, weep at this little death? Take it to you—quickly—with a smile die this death, and become free to go further—one with your task, whole in your duty of the moment. (Markings by Dag Hammarskjold)* #### Reflection and Listening: silent and written #### Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself #### Song for the Week: I Lift My Hands *I lift my hands to the coming King* *To the great I Am, to you I sing* *For you’re the One that reigns within my heart* *I will serve no foreign gods,* *nor any other treasure* *For you are my heart’s desire,* *your Spirit without measure* *Unto you I will bring my sacrifice* ### Closing Prayer: *Lord God, be the delight of our hearts, even as we are the delight of yours. And help us to leave behind all thoughts, actions, and attitudes that do not reflect the beauty of that delight. May everything else pale in comparison with the passion we have to be truly yours. In the name of Jesus. Amen. (JLB)*