Words of Wisdom

On this day when we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, I want you to listen to the words he preached in his final Christmas sermon entitled, "Hope".



Now let me suggest first that if we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective. No individual can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world. Now the judgment of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers or we are all going to perish together as fools.


It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can’t leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that’s handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that’s given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that’s poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that’s poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you’re desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that’s poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that’s given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you’ve depended on more than half of the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.


May these words of wisdom offer more than a trace of God's grace...but be born/lived/leaned into in such a time as these.



Blessings ~~

Random Thought 3

Recently, my son and I went to see the new Star Wars movie.  I will totally try not to spoil anything about the movie.  I think most know that Rey, the heroine of the movie, goes to study the way of the force with Luke Skywalker.  There is one exchange between them that I found so profound.  It went like this:

Luke Skywalker: Breathe. Just breathe. Now reach out. What do you see?
Rey: Light. Darkness. A balance.
Luke Skywalker: It's so much bigger.


The insight and idea that light and darkness are not opposites, but in balance, is really at the heart of all religious thinking.  Too often, religious language wants to say that some stuff/behavior/beliefs are good and other stuff/behavior/beliefs are bad.  But such either/or thinking truly needs to stop.  Not only is it unhelpful, it is hurtful to much of God's good/amazing creation.  There is darkness in this world.  Sometimes that is scary and other times sacred.  Almost every mystic at some point (regardless of which teacher s/he was following) has an experience of the "dark night of the soul."  You cannot go around it.  You cannot fast forward or buy your way through it.  You have go into the wild, wilderness wandering at night.  You have to stumble and fall.

It can happen when you get a pink slip unexpectedly.
Or grief pays an unwelcomed visit.
Or a relationship abruptly ends. 
Or pain just sits in your soul for some other reason.

So often, we forget in those moments to breathe.  Just breathe.  We also lose our ability to see quickly.  The narrowness of the moment puts blinders on our eyes.  All we can see is the loss or feeling left out.  We don't notice those who are reaching out, because we might be pushing them away or our pride might be preventing us for asking for help.  The root of the word, "anxious" is the sames as narrowness.  It is when we feel stuck between that rock and a hard place.  When all paths seem blocked.

That happened in Scripture as the Israelites were exiting Egypt.  Suddenly their forward process halted by a big old Red Sea.  Some threw up their hands in frustration.  (Sounds familiar).  Some wanted to give up.  (Yup, been there too).  Some said, "Thanks a lot God" because we love to deflect our pain to others.  Then, a new way opened up when the sea parted.  I wonder how many times I have been too busy mumbling or grumbling about the darkness or brokenness that I missed the parted seas in my life?  Because I didn't just breathe and be open to God who continually is creating anew and afresh.  And remember, even when the people of God got to the other side...they still had to wander in the wilderness for forty years...it wasn't all promised land next left as their feet stepped onto dry land.

It is so much bigger than this.  But for now, can you let these random lines of dialogue sing to your hearts?  Can you enter into the mystery they point toward and proclaim?

May the traces of God's grace offer you moments to breathe and be on this day.

Random Thought 2

Laughter to me is a form of prayer.  I believe this because laughter is a full body experience.  You process the joke in your brain, your body responds with a sound of joy, your heart and soul dance to the music coming from you. 

We live in a world where so often we focus on the brokenness and pain.  To be sure, we should not ignore these realities and especially those who are hurt and need healing.  Yet, if we think we can manufacture a perfect world before we every laugh or enjoy...we might be waiting awhile.

I take joy in the fact that I believe Jesus laughed joyfully at times.  I think of the time some religious people asked him about paying taxes.  He asked for a coin...inquired about whose image on was on it...then I am convinced he pocketed that coin given to him.  Or the time when he invited himself over to Zacchaeus' house, he had to be laughing to himself.  I wished we had more stories about Jesus telling jokes with his disciples.  There needs to be moments when we allow the cathartic release laughter brings.

Would you please pray with me:

God who delights in the peculiar and perplexing,
God who formed the duck-billed platypus
And who crafted colorful rainbows that come out after the rain.
God who loved to appear in the most random ways
To Moses in a burning bush that wasn't consumed...
To Elijah who fled for his life and was hiding in a cave...
To our world in a dusty, drafty barn...

Help us find our love of laughing.
Help us rekindle our ability to laugh at ourselves.
For me to laugh when I get too serious or somber or scholarly,
Let Your grace work and wiggle in my life,
Tickling my soul with joy.

Surround us in these days to hear the beauty of laughter...
Sustain us in these days to see the wonder of joyfulness...
Strengthen us in these days to not only sing about joy to the world, but to embody that prayer in our very lives.

In the name of the One whose presence still brings a smile to our faces.

Amen. 

Random Thought 1

This past week as I was performing a wedding there was a random thought that fluttered and flew through my mind.  As the couple was exchanging vows, they arrived at those words:

"For better, for worse...
For richer, for poorer...
In sickness and in health...
In joy and in sorrow."

And I realized that perhaps those are not always either/or moments but rather can be both/and.  There are moments you can be both in a state of joy and sorrow...times when we your body might be sick and your mind/soul well...times when you can feel richer beyond belief regardless of a bank account and times when you know that life is better because of the person beside you even facing the most difficult moment you have in your life.

I think it is easy to hear these as either ends of a pendulum.  There is truth that sometimes life does swing from one extreme to another.  There is also truth that we tend to spend a majority of our time in the messy middle between those two ends.  Most days are not the best day EVER...or the worst.  Most days I am no longer a poor college student...nor can I retire quite yet.  With extra candle on my birthday cake, my body starts to show signs of another year...but I am still grateful for my health. 

I especially invite those who are celebrating a wedding anniversary this year to ponder the vows you said your partner.  I often tell couples that vows are elastic...they can stretch and grow with each passing year.  They can expand to include new experiences and encounters.  But vows need to be tended.  Think of your most amazing event (for us it is walking around Disney).  Of course we enjoy that.  But I also try to enjoy our walks around the neighborhood.  We love celebrating the special days but also the ordinary Wednesdays that come about every week.  In what ways are your vows allowing you to grow into who God crafted and created you to be?

I pray as you ponder this...you might sense more than a trace of God's grace in your life.

Grace and peace everyone ~~

Why Musical Prayers

I wanted to usher you into 2018 with two songs that are on repeat/replay both in my car and in my soul.  First, the prayer song by Matt Maher Clean Heart is taken from Psalm 51.  I want to invite you to go read that prayer.  You can click here for one version (NRSV) or here for another version (The Message)  

Seriously, I will wait while you actually read this psalm.

Your first reaction, if it is like mine, is, "Well thanks for that uplifting message, Mr. Donald Downer.  Next you are going to tell me that it is time to go see the dentist for a root canal."  This psalm is a bit like sandpaper on my soul.  It reminds me that we live in a world where religion has been mixed with pop psychology and positivism.  I can spend too much time talking about God's love and not about this truth: "If I am alright.  And you are alright.  Why is the world not alright?"  There is brokenness in this world.  Matt names it well at the beginning.  We woke up this morning and rather than our mind stay on Jesus as the spiritual teaches us, we started yelling and tweeting and trying to cling to power.  We woke up this morning not with your mind on Jesus but whether we are winning or losing.  This psalm reminds me that I cannot save myself.  I do nee to be open to God's work in my life.  But that patient, persistent, crafty, and creative will of God is working regardless whether I see/sense it or not.  Like water running over a rock, smoothing the rough surface, that is God's grace and presence in our lives. 

It is also important to notice and name that Psalm 51 was written as the subtitle suggests: A David Psalm, After He Was Confronted by Nathan (the prophet) About the Affair with Bathsheba.  Not only was this psalm written as a confession, but David the King had sent Bathsheba's husband into battle so that David could have the affair!  Brokenness often begets brokenness.  Which is why I wanted to offer you Matt's song early in the early in the year.

The chances are pretty good at some point in the coming three hundred thirty days you are going to do something you regret or wish you had a rewind button in you life.  There are moments when I say something and want to immediately reach out, grasp the words and put them back from whence they came (as if I could do that).  There are moments I feel boneheaded or cause brokenness.  This isn't about guilt or hanging my head.  It is a reality of life.  Mistakes happen.  And this song from Matt and the psalm help us process the pain so we don't pass it along (which usually sounds like, "Well, if so- and - so hadn't done such-and-such this never wouldn't have happened). 

Secondly, the Carrie Newcomer song, A Small Flashlight reminds me that I don't always see as clearly as I like and I don't always get to see the whole forest for the trees.  The pastor/poet Thomas Merton put it this way:

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always though
I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. 

What is that small flashlight for you in the midst of the darkness?  Where is God calling you to shine the light...not that you can see all the way down the road to your final destination...but see enough to take the next right step?  Do you see the grace upon grace that we have that small flash light to help us with that next step?

I invite you to go back and listen to both songs again (I won't make you re-read the psalm...but know it is there for those moments this year if you need that confessional prayer).  Let those words continue to guide you with more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~

Musical Prayer take two

Let this video and song be a prayer for you today...

The way is dark up ahead of me
The way is dark and I cannot see
What I love the most is a flashlight beam
Lighting up the way when I cannot see

The way unfolds like an open hand
The way unfolds like I didn't plan
And only in looking back do we understand
That the way was true as an open hand

Over trials and trouble I've already come
And the net appeared when I needed one
Yes the road is dark and the ground is rough
Most the time a flashlight has to be enough

We move forward one step at a time
Wide-eyed and hopeful, lost and half blind
Mistake by mistake, we all learn to be kind

There is so much to see and to realize
If I could close my mouth and open up my eyes
And the world will tell us more than enough lies
But we'll find our way with a small flashlight

A Small Flashlight by Carrie Newcomer

May there be a bright trace of God's grace in your life this first week of 2018 that is a small flash light for your life.

Musical prayer

Let these words be for us a prayer...

Woke up this morning
The whole world was yelling
I wish I was dreaming
Of all that we've been through
My soul has been searching
For some deeper meaning
I know there's a kindness
That leads me to the truth

When everybody's looking for another fight
When trouble's on the rise, no end in sight
Oh Savior, won't You come and make the wrong things right
Let me be the place You start
Give me a clean heart

What is forgiveness if it isn’t given
We measure our mercy
When mercy is a flood
Give us a vision
Your eyes of compassion
In all this division
May we be known by our love

When everybody's looking for another fight
When trouble's on the rise, no end in sight
Oh Savior, won't You come and make the wrong things right
Let me be the place You start
Give me a clean heart
Give me a clean heart

You blessed those who cursed You
You loved those who hated You
On the cross You died for me
To bless those who curse You
And love those who hate You
You said to love my enemies!

When everybody's looking for another fight
When trouble's on the rise, no end in sight
Oh Savior, won't You come and make the wrong things right
Let me be the place You start
Give me a clean heart
Give me a clean heart
Give me a clean heart
Give me a clean heart
Give me a clean heart

Matt Maher's Clean Heart

Amen.