Scripps Sunday- Alaska Edition #4

I read this quote for class last week and kept thinking about it.... 

The extraordinary resurrection story in John 21 when Mary recognizes the risen Jesus as he simply says her name, tells us a great deal about our prayer and our growth into mature discipleship. To sustain “life in the Spirit” under pressure, we need to retain the ability to say to God, “Tell me who I am.” Because I’m not going to settle with what everybody else is telling me—I’m not even going to settle with what I am telling me. I need to hear it from God, the God who tells me. Because then I know that I exist, I live, I flourish, because of his speaking. “I have called you by name,” says God, “you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1). And on that divine speaking of our name rests our whole being. Something in our prayer is about quarrying down to that level where we can hear that God is creating me and you, now in this minute—breathing our names into the world, making us alive. -Rowan Williams, Being Disciples

 In my spiritual direction this week, I took the quote above and ran with it and then wrote the following after my reflections from it all... 

"Tell Me Who I Am"

Walking side by side
on a lazy afternoon,
we kick a can down the dusty road—

The air is easy,
and we walk in the comfort

of silence together

until I turn to him and say,
Will you hold my hand?

Then I ask for what I need most-

Tell me who I am.

And he answers,
not with thunder,
but with the quiet weight of truth:

I have called you by name.
You are mine.

You are—
friend of God,
breath of joy,
seeker of my face,
one who is seen,
one who is loved into being.

And in that moment,
I take it all in.
This—this is my daily bread.
To wake, to walk, to listen,
to receive what the day holds—
and know it is enough.

Enough to live,
to breathe,
to savor
the gift of being called
by name.