Being a leader is rarely easy, nor is balancing many responsibilities. A danger to those of us who see ourselves as doing God’s work is that we can get so caught up in our ministries that we fail to recall and be with the very source of our life, God.
The 12-century mystic, Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, understood this dilemma. “If you are wise,” Bernard wrote, “you will show yourself a reservoir and not a channel. For a channel pours out as fast as it takes in; but a reservoir waits until it is full before it overflows. And so communicates its surplus . . . We have all too few such reservoirs in the Church at present, though we have channels in plenty.”
How can you become that reservoir? What faith disciplines can you engage in to refocus your energies on the redeeming and reconciling love of God in Jesus Christ and realign your relationship with God?
This message is excerpted from “An empty reservoir is no good for anyone” by Linda Post Bushkofsky from the September 26, 2019, blog of the Women of the ELCA. Today we commemorate Catherine of Siena, theologian, 1380.
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