Look to the interests of others
Trust in the Lord and do good;
So you will live in the land and enjoy security. Psalm 37:3
Read Philippians 2:1—4
Again I come to day’s end, and again I take to myself the sheer pleasure — it is not less than that — of taking time to be. To be alone. To be with my thoughts. With God. And with God’s word. God is never without God’s word. As rich as God’s word to me is, however, I cannot hear it by remaining alone. I can only hear it if and as and when I come out of my lovely isolation, where no one usually disturbs me too much (can I ever really be that alone?); I can only hear God speaking this word to me as I live in community. Compassion, sympathy, being in full accord: these are not things I can do on my own. But what I can do on my own is to so keep company with the Lord, and so share his deep love for everyone I will meet, and so offer them to him in prayer, that I will relish the opportunity to meet my community. I will look forward to them, each one. I will prepare for genuine interest in each and in all.
Prayer
Loving God, you live in joyful communion, as Father loving the Son; as Son whose great pleasure is to say, ‘Abba, dear Father’; as the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the one who knows the deep things of God and who communes with my spirit. You have shed the love of God abroad in my own heart, so I must come out of myself. In you I can and I do look forward to feeling my way sensitively into the lives of the community in which you have placed me. I picture now those who come to mind, and pray that I may regard them as you do, and love them dearly.