The Places You've Lived that Live in You ~ Part 4

 

So far this week, you’ve made rectangles of places and circles of people; you’ve looked at the lessons learned from each plot of land where the soles of your feet touched the soil of the earth.  You’ve paid attention to the stories that went with belonging to the tribe of people who orbited your sphere and life.  Today, I invite you to hold your one wild and precious life.  I need to be reminded not to grade my life.  I need permission to breathe and be.  The color commentary in my mind can be quick to say, “Welp, Wes, if only you had realized that sooner, we wouldn’t be in this fine mess of life.”  I often speak more harshly to myself than I ever would to anyone else.  Breathe in the breath of God.  God has been, is, and will always be in those rectangular places of life.  And God can never be confined or contained in any space and always invites us to break down the boundaries and barriers that hem us in with a liberating love.  You don’t have to do anything else with your artwork of life today.  Let God, who is right there as close as your next breath, hold you as you behold where you’ve been, who you’ve been with, what lessons you’ve learned and the ways you’ve been shaped not only into the beautiful image of God but also by the world where you found yourself.  May God, whose love never lets you go, be felt in real ways this day.  Amen.