Hey everybody, this is Steve and it’s time to look ahead.
Back in episode 100 we decided to pause for a few months, and reflect.
Over the course of the last 100 episodes we’ve covered a lot of interesting topics, and we’ll have
lots more to share this year.
That’s a lot of interesting material to consider, yet as we challenged you back in episode 100
I hope we all do more than simply consider it.
I hope “Be the Bee” inspires all of us, me included, to actually encounter God every day and allow
ourselves and our lives to be formed by Him.
So here are six things we should all be doing if we’re serious about being the bee.
About finding and encountering God in everything, every day.
1.
Be silent every day
God really is present in all places, and filling all things.
We’re just normally too distracted to see Him.
Here on “Be the Bee,” we’ve gone over why silence really is the key to prayer.
It’s really the key to being truly present to encounter both God and neighbor.
So it’s important that we take a few minutes every day to simply sit in silence,
with no distractions.
Find a quiet place, close your eyes, calm your heart, settle your mind.
Try not to be distracted by memories of the past or ideas about the future.
Try to simply be...in the stillness and realness of the present.
Even if it’s just for five minutes a day.
Because those five minutes can help you develop the inner stillness and strength that can
sustain you no matter how crazy the day gets.
So, every day, work to create a safe and silent place in your heart where you can speak to
God and where you can hear God speak to you.
2.
Pray every day
Being a Christian is about more than simply acting a certain way or doing good things.
It’s about more than abstract theology and our ideas about God.
It’s about connecting with God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Daily silence helps us set aside distractions and be present with the people in our lives.
And that includes being present with God.
So after we’ve spent a few minutes in silence, we can fill that silence with prayer.
That could be praying a service from a prayer book, or praying the Jesus Prayer, or maybe
a little bit of both.
A Spiritual Father can help you figure out the prayer rule that’s best for you.
It doesn't need to be much, as we learned from the life of our friend Symeon.
The link’s down in the doobly doo.
And the minutes you spend alone in prayer can help you be prayerful throughout the day,
constantly connected with God.
Praying, as St Paul said, without ceasing.
3.
Read the Scripture every day
Everything about our Christian lives is grounded in the person of Jesus Christ.
And an important place to encounter Him is in the Scripture.
From the story of Creation in Genesis, through the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms and
the Wisdom of the Old Testament, we see shadows of Christ, constantly at work in our lives.
In the Gospel accounts, we read about His Incarnation, His life among us, His death,
His Resurrection and Ascension.
In the epistles, we read how early Christians first made sense of this earth-shaking reality
that the Son of God took on flesh, and trampled down death by His death.
If you’d like to read the Scripture with us, and I hope you do, we’re once again
following our Bible in a Year Reading plan.
And we’re tweeting the readings every day at y2am_official.
4.
Follow the fasts
Fasting, among lots of other things, helps pull our bodies into the heavenly reality
made clear for us in silence, prayer, and the reading of the Scripture.
It helps make our commitment to Christ something real, something concrete, a real sacrifice
grounded in obedience and offered purely out of love.
So, while we may think about loving our enemies or forgiving offenses in the abstract, when
we fast, we suddenly realize how difficult even the simplest commandment of God is when
I mean, think about how hard it is not to eat pizza for 40 days.
Plus, when we see how grumpy we get on an empty stomach, we can see that we’re not
as in control of our sins as we might think, that our sins suddenly rise up on us when
we’re not well fed or comfortable.
That can give give us a new perspective on ourselves and our weakness, and help us see
that the hard work of repentance is far from over.
And remember, fasting isn't only something we do for 40 days before Christmas and Easter,
as we’ve discussed..
Besides the 4 major fasting periods of the year, we should do our best to fast every
Wednesday and Friday, with a few exceptions.
5.
Be merciful
Showing mercy to everyone we meet is essential to the life in Christ.
God is constantly merciful to us, loving us, caring for our every need, and forgiving us
no matter what we do.
As the Psalm says: “Surely your goodness and mercy, O Lord, shall follow me all the
days of my life.”
And the Lord asks that we show mercy on others just as He has shown mercy on us
as a sign of our love.
Being merciful can be shown in small things, like helping someone with their homework,
or even just smiling at someone who’s having a bad day.
It can be big things, like visiting those who are sick, or feeding those who are hungry.
We can also express mercy by forgiving those who wrong us, by being charitable with our thoughts,
by avoiding judgment.
Our attempt to live a life of mercy is the way in which we follow the second of the two
greatest commandments: to love our neighbor as ourselves.
6.
Celebrate Liturgy at least every Sunday
This is really where everything we’ve talked about comes together.
Because it’s in the Liturgy that our bodies, minds, and souls are awake to God and we stand
side by side with our neighbors in love, awaiting the transformative gift of Christ Himself
in the Eucharist.
We become most fully ourselves, most fully human persons, when we come together in the Liturgy
When we assemble as the Body of Christ to receive the Body of Christ.
So here we are, at the beginning of the new Church year, at the beginning of a new season
of “Be the Bee.”
And before us lies an incredible opportunity.
An opportunity to not just learn about God, but instead to really know Him.
To become the sort of people who know, in the very core of our being,
that the Kingdom of Heaven really is at hand.
That we really can find God in everything, every day.
I mean, that’s what “Be the Bee” is all about, right?
So I’m going to hold myself to these six things.
It may seem like a lot, and it’s probably going to be really hard at times,
but I’ll find a lot of strength knowing that you’re right there with me.
That we’re all, together, taking our first steps towards Christ and His Kingdom.
So let’s be the bee, and do these six things to make the most of the year ahead.
Together.
Be the bee, and live Orthodoxy.
Remember to like and subscribe, and share.
I'll see you all next week.
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