Advent Hope Part Two

 

This week we are centering in on the word, “Hope.”  We are lighting a candle bravely and boldly shine with hope before us.  We are courageously calling that one single, solitary, fragile, flickering flame of energy, “Hope”. 

 

What did you notice about your sitting with hope yesterday? 

Did spending time tending and paying attention to “Hope” help you notice traces of grace?

Did your brain go into overdriving trying to point out all the reasons such exercises are futile?

 

One of the suggestions in our Advent Devotion, “A Less is More Christmas” is to create a Christmas playlist.  I would like us to do that together today.

 

In the comment section you can name ONE or TWO Christmas/holiday selections that fill you with hope kind of music.

 

I will start with my favorite, “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”  I especially love the line, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  How God in Christ Jesus can hold all that we pray for and all that we are afraid of.  This is good news and gospel medicine to my soul.

 

Now, your turn.  Remember ~ one or two.  The fun part of this is that in our collaboration is we can inspire hope in each other. 

 

Bonus exercise ~ listen to each other’s favorite music and write a short email/text/message to the person of gratitude for the connection!

Advent Hope Part One

 

Yesterday in worship we lit the candle of “hope” to begin the season of Advent. 

 

To light one single candle called “hope” can feel foolish or might just be the most fitting metaphor of the world as we know it right now.  One single candle doesn’t seem like much.  Afterall, one strong breeze or rush of wind could extinguish that candle in a blink of an eye.  So, too, with hope.  One hurried or hateful word can sometimes cause our hope to crumble.  We can be in a state of contentment, then one phone call that a family member is in the hospital can cast us into chaos.  We might cling to hope that way we would with sand or water, but in tight fists small grains of sands or droplets of water find ways to escape despite our best energy.

 

Sometimes with hope, the more we cling or control, the more elusive this state of being can be.

 

Perhaps hope is not about what we do, but about what God offers to us. 

 

I love the following wisdom from author/poet Jan Richardson ~

 

"The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before ... What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon."

 

Today, I invite you to light one candle in your home and say the word, “Hope”.

 

What leaps within you?

What stirs within you?

 

Try your best to tell your rational, reasonable brain, “Would you kindly be quiet whilst I listen to hope for just awhile?” Our brain loves to point out all the flaws and fumbles when we try to hope.  Our brain loves to remind us of what happened last time we hoped, and things came crashing, crumbling down; never mind that one moment when you hoped, and life took a new direction and dimension in an amazing way.  I sometimes call my brain, “Mr. Bossypants,” because it seemingly always wants to offer all kinds of evidence and objections – while on the surface these might seem helpful – underneath our “rational” minds are trying to cover the fear of failure or making a mistake.  But I believe your heartfelt, honest response to those two questions above are vital for Advent this year.  So thank your brain for its input, but tell him/her/it that for now ~ you and the candle are going to sit silently in hope – in anticipation – to ponder for the sake of God who moves at a slow, savory pace.

 

May your Advent pondering of hope today usher you into an encounter and experience of the Eternal Hope that is always with us softly singing.

 

Prayer: God let the seeds of hope guide me this Advent; let me water hope through my words; tend to hope through my actions; and trust in You that the world is changing within me and around me by Your hope that has no end.  Amen.

Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Ahead

 

We began the week honoring St. Cecilia, the patroness of music.  Today, I want to honor one of my favorite female authors, Marilynne Robinson.  She is a theologian and prophet and pastor.  She once wrote, “I have spent my life watching, not to see beyond the world, merely to see, great mystery, what is plainly before my eyes. I think the concept of transcendence is based on a misreading of creation. With all respect to heaven, the scene of the miracle is here, among us.”

 

On this day after Thanksgiving, I can think of no better prayer practice and posture than to try to witness to what is right before our eyes.  The scene of the miracle is here, among us in the ordinary and every day.  In leftover turkey in your refrigerator.  In moments of sitting outside soaking in creation trying to still our busy lives.  In times of laughter with friends.  In moments when God-goose-bumps race and run down our arms.  This is the holy hovering and humming here and now for you and me. 

 

This coming Sunday, we begin the season of Advent.  At the heart of this season is one of the most miraculous moments in human history ~ God entering our world in the form of a vulnerable infant.  God still enters our world with each new birth.  God is in the flesh in you because you are crafted, created, loved into being by God.  Every morning when you look in the mirror you are seeing one of the infinite ways God is incarnate (which simply means embodied) in you. 

 

Yet, we don’t always practice this holiness with ourselves and others.  We are quick to judge where we fall short, fumble, and false starts.  We are quick to point out other’s blunders and fumbles.  We know that Jesus taught, “Do not judge,” but we have quickly abandoned that challenging invitation because we can post anonymously in comment sections on-line.  We prefer the cultural narrative of the bottom line, balance of our bank accounts, and whether we are winning.  The gospel medicine of good news, of God’s care for the lost, lonely, left out and left behind is what we encounter each Sunday, but how can we live that way? 

 

Advent is a time to re-orient our lives toward God’s prayerful plea to live differently.  Advent is a time for us to recall that hope is not found in any store or shelf or online sale; peace is a practice internally to impact the external world; joy is a fuel (rather than hate and fear) of life; and love wins.  God’s love born in a dusty, dirty stable against the backdrop of Roman political power of might makes right.  What we are preparing our hearts for is a mystery we will never fully understand but is a truth that can change our lives if we decide to live as if the Gospel is true and trustworthy.

 

Hold your one precious and wild life (to quote Mary Oliver).  Behold your life on this day for the beautiful gift you are.  And may you give thanks to the Author and Source, 

Thanksgiving Poem/Prayer

 

God who meets us in moments of grace;

God who continues to leave a loving trace;

God, Your image from each can never be erased;

Enfold us on this Thanksgiving Day with Your embrace.

We admit we are not always the most thankful bunch.

We can be less than gracious; throwing a verbal punch.

Too often we live our lives in the blur of a time crunch.

We tend to gobble our food quickly barely tasting our lunch.

You invite us this day to offer heartfelt prayer, praise, and thanks.

To slow down, savor, let Your love rewire our mental databanks.

To be honest, heartfelt for all that has been this last year, we are frank,

Sometimes we don’t always know how to give thanks, we draw a blank.

Meet us, we pray, with gratitude and peace on this Thanksgiving Day.

Help us see the way that prayer can be found in food, laughter, and play.

And let this moment linger, last, and show us a way.

That every day can be one of giving thanks we say.

May the amateur poetry, prayer for this Thanksgiving bring a smile to your face and warmth to your soul.  May God’s love surround you today and offer you strength.  I give thanks to you, dear reader, for sharing in this practice of Morning Meditations each day.  Happy Thanksgiving and much love.  Alleluia and Amen.

Naming and Claiming our Past

 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  To be sure the history around this holiday is complex, complicated, and we may prefer to cling to the notion that it was just a nice meal with turkey shared by the Native people of this land and Pilgrims of the buckled, wide-brimmed hats.  As Brian McLaren says, “We gravitate toward simplicity rather than complexity.”  To be sure, there were many Thanksgiving moments for those who had migrating to this country.  In Virginia in 1619, the English immigrants declared a day of Thanking to God for safe passage.  In 1637, the governor of Plymouth declared a day to celebrate winning a battle against the Native people of this land.  I didn’t learn that in history class.  In 1789, George Washington invited everyone to give thanks to God for the birth of a new nation.  Finally, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln asked all to give thanks for the military success of the Civil War.

 

When we read that history, it can make us uncomfortable.  We don’t like to appear like we don’t know everything and so instead today we tend to double down on our truth, and we struggle to listen to anyone or anything that asks us to change.

 

Maybe right now you would rather I just debate whether it is better to have pumpkin pie or apple pie tomorrow. 

 

Or maybe you have stopped reading today’s meditation all together.  I share the messiness of our human history because I believe we need to be honest about our past.  Perhaps we can begin to understand that some of the reasons why we struggle to love each other is because loving each other has always been challenging to people.  For some reason, we are drawn to fear rather than gratitude and grace.  Listen to the voices of leaders; read the emails asking you for donations; and turn on the news, how much gratitude or grace do you hear? 

 

Or better yet, don’t do any of that.  Instead, on this Thanksgiving Eve know that our ancestors were fully human.  The Pilgrims, who the UCC claim as our ancestors, did some amazing acts of God’s love and they also hurt/harmed Native people.  Early UCCers defended the slaves who overthrew the Amistad and owned slaves.    We were quick to give land holding men a vote and slow to see God’s gifts for ministry in women, African Americans, and LGBTQ.  We may be the first denomination to ordain God’s beloved who were not white men, but we still hear the struggles of countless ministers today who grew up on the margins, the fringe and fray of life. We are all a mixture of contradictions, even though we don’t want to admit it.

 

To embrace complexity, that the human story of prayerfully seeking to be God’s people has always had twists and turns, helps me live in the less-than-perfect present moment.  Our shared history reminds us that we too are getting somethings right and other things all wrong.  We don’t judge our ancestors.  This isn’t about shame or blame; grief or guilt.  We prayerfully seek to learn from yesterday to grow more into who and how God is calling us today.

 

For the richness and less-than-perfectness of our past, I give thanks for this present moment when we can continue to pour out our prayers of lament, confession, adoration, thanksgiving, and seeking God’s guidance, grace, and love to be the good news that is needed today.

 

Prayer: O God, You are our help in ages past.  You are our hope for years to come.  You are the shelter in the stormy blast, and our eternal home.  Amen. 

Celebrating Today

 

Growing up, Thanksgiving week was holy chaos in our household.  The countertops were cluttered with cans, the turkey took up a home in either the sink of water or a whole shelf in the refrigerator, and windows always seemed to be steamed up as delicious smells came from the kitchen causing your mouth to water. 

 

I remember sneaking a few of the French-fried onions that went on top of the green bean casserole and marshmallows that went on top of the yams.  Looking back, we found many creative ways to make vegetables unhealthy! 

 

I remember Tuesday was pie day.  Mom would make pumpkin and apple.  They would sit out on our screened in porch which doubled as a second “refrigerator” as the temperatures dropped in Iowa.  The smell of spices hung in the air; you could taste the nutmeg.

 

Tuesday was usually the last day of school.  We would write our thanksgivings on the colorful construction paper feathers and glue onto a turkey we cut out.  The hot lunch would feature lumpy mashed potatoes swimming in a sea of gravy.  It was as if Thanksgiving lasted all week long.

 

What memories of Thanksgiving do you have growing up?  Did you travel to see family?  Did you help lend a hand in the kitchen?  What do you remember being taught about why we celebrate this day?  Rewind and remember what this week meant.  If you want, I invite you to find some construction paper and write down your gratitude on some turkey feathers today.  And may you sense the sacred in smiles looking back on meaningful moments from Thanksgivings past.

 

Prayer: Come, ye thankful people, come ~ let us sing songs of prayer and praise everyday to God.

Celebrating Today

 

Today is a holy day.  Not because you need to start thawing your turkey so it is ready for Thursday.  Although that is a good idea.  Not because you are praying that the store still has the fixings for green bean casserole, which clearly the Pilgrims would have served at the first Thanksgiving if only those delicious French-fried onions had been invented.  Not because you have thirty-three shopping days left until Christmas, and we all know that last minute shoppers this year are going to be gifting you a Snicker’s bar and socks because that is all that will be left on the shelves.

 

No, today is holy because it is the Feast of St. Cecilia.

 

And the people of God all said, “Oh, of course, I knew that.  I am totally going to celebrate that today by singing the song Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel.”

 

Actually, that isn’t as much of a joke as you might think ~ not only because it isn’t that funny.  St. Cecilia is the patron saint of music.  It is reported that she made a vow of virginity, but her parents forced her to marry.  On her wedding day, she sat apart singing to God in her heart.  She was eventually martyred for her faith.  Although, we are not quite sure when exactly she died.  In 1516, the artist Raphael painted the Ecstasy of St. Cecilia (see painting above).  In 1570, Normandy hosted the first music festival in her honor.  Over the years, famous composers were commissioned to create works in her memory.  In fact, some even say that song, Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel is about her. 

 

See how much you learn reading these morning meditations?

 

Today, to honor St. Cecilia, listen to music.  Listen to your favorite music as a prayer practice and posture.  Maybe you want to start playing Christmas carols, contemporary music, or begin to compose the hymn to Mary that I asked for back in October.  You thought I had forgotten about that, didn’t you?  Let us honor one who has inspired others to create beautiful music.  Let us honor Cecilia who first knew the truth that to sing is to pray twice.  Let us find ways to get caught up in the holy which hums, conducts, and composes our life every day.

 

Prayer: When in our music, O God, You are glorified, and adoration leaves no room for human pride, we join with all Your creation unified singing, Alleluia!  

Gratitude for you!

 

Push pause with me this morning to rewind and review this past week.  We started with gratitude ~ not as something we possess or control but as a verb that can possess/control/guide our lives.  We named that we all have narratives in our minds/hearts/souls.  Some of those narratives contain pain that make a word like “gratitude” seem distant and disconnected from our experiences.  We honored that gratitude is a prayer practice and posture many of us were not taught and is not easily caught in our world today.  Finally, yesterday, I offered an amateur poem/prayer because that was a way to express gratitude and was just fun!!

My prayer this week was not to convince you about gratitude or fill you with information, but to shine a light on what gratitude means to you in this week leading up to Thanksgiving.  For you to check in with your own soul in these days.  For you to be aware and awake to what is happening within you and around you. 

I am grateful for you.  I give thanks that our world is full of such diversity that reflects God’s image.  My heart is full for each person who takes time each morning to read my words, especially my bad poetry!  My life is blessed by your love which is an embodiment, incarnation of God’s love made real in my life.

Thank you. Thank you for being you.  Thank you for the ways you reflect God and help me grow into God’s image.  With heartfelt gratitude for a grace that is more than a word, but a lived experience.  Amen.

Gratitude as a Poem/Prayer

 

God who meets us where we are,

God who is never distant or far,

Surrounding, sustaining, shimmering like a star,

Meeting us, even in our scars.

There is a story that guides our life;

Sometimes our narrative is full of strife;

Moments where we strive with all our might;

Always prayerfully moving toward Your light.

Help reframe, revise, rework, renew, rewrite;

Reassure us Your editing is never done with might,

You refashion, reform with love shining bright,

Causing us to move toward the grace of right.

This verse may never be sung by choirs

Quoted in Tweets or yelled from spires.

But the point is not only to inspire,

My prayer is to help others find their soul fire.

So let these words of this silly rhyme

Ring out like a church bell or chime,

Finding, feeding, helping all Your children climb,

Trusting in the One whose love is always on time.

 

Offered with gratitude to God who makes all our verses rhyme.  Amen.

Gratitude Part three

 

Any insights yesterday as you considered the story you tell yourself?  Did you take time to listen to the narrative in your brain?  Maybe right now you are saying, “Wait that was actual homework?  I didn’t realize Wes wanted me to turn that in!”  These are invitations for you, not requirements or assignments.

 

When I start to preach or teach about “Gratitude,” I realize that there are many ways to receive that word.  How you read Monday’s reflection is a reflection on your unique ways of being created in God’s image.  How you read Monday’s meditation was filtered and framed through your experiences and encounters.  If you grew up around people who are cheerful and found the sunny-side of life, maybe a reminder about gratitude is helpful.  If you grew up around people who were modern-day Eeyore’s and who taught you that someone is always out to get you, gratitude sounds another promise that could be broken.   Maybe the story you tell yourself is different and distinctive than those two examples I just shared. 

 

I know one story I tell myself is stuck in the muckiness of cynicism and criticism.  I was raised in an era of “critical thinking” which was often trying to point out where something was lacking or some argument fell short.  I was raised to believe that I could be “objective” not realizing how my experiences and encounters and geography and family had already formed and fashioned me to think/feel/speak/live in a certain way.  I had been given a story.  More and more I realize and recognize, my point of view is a view from a point.  I have so many filters and frames built from forty-something years on this earth. 

 

Given the narrative and operating system in my brain, I need to work a bit harder with gratitude.  Thanksgiving was not a prayer practice and posture I grew up with or was taught to me.  Yet, I do believe that gratitude is a holy way of living.  Thanksgiving can be an openness even when there is brokenness.  Such a way of life can begin to acknowledge that every moment has both beauty and bruises.  Every single second is imperfect and full of God’s love.  Such contradictions are not easily resolved and can cause restlessness within us. 

 

I pray this week you are dancing with gratitude in new ways.  That you are finding life-giving moments to see the light in the night or the hope even through the tumult.  For moments that your heart is strangely warmed and our soul is stirred.  I am practicing this prayer posture right alongside you this week and always willing to talk more.

 

Prayer: God continue to open me to the ways You are dancing in my life.  Continue to invite me to see the traces of Your grace and the glimpses of unconditional love that meets me where I am.  Take my life this day and each day, help me be open to You authoring/conducting/composing this day.  Amen.

Gratitude Part Two ~ the Story We Tell Ourselves

 

This week we are turning our attention toward gratitude.  This week we are exploring and examining where we are with thankfulness and appreciation, honestly naming if this is a struggle right now. 

 

I recently read that holding on to hope is a subversive action.  “Sub” – meaning beneath; “Version” as in the script or view from a point or a place where we stand.  We are given many scripts or “versions” in life.  We are told many stories.  One might be work hard, do your best, and all will be well in the end.  Or maybe the script is that life is tough so you gotta be tougher.  Or maybe the script is you gotta look out for number one.  Or maybe the script is love will find a way to win.  The story some people tell themselves is you gotta hustle and hurry to get ahead; that there are only so many resources out there so get yours now.  The story other people tell themselves is why bother?  The world is so broken and bruised, it isn’t worth fixing.  The story other people tell themselves is that if we could just do this action or convince those people of this truth all could be better.  The story we tell ourselves is what we consume and what consumes us.  All these scripts are variations of the versions we are taught and that are caught growing up.  Do you identify with those? 

 

Or how would you describe the script you are reading from in one sentence?

 

I don’t mean that question rhetorically. 

 

I will get to how the script of faith is subversive later this week.  But first we need to honestly and with open hearts acknowledge the script we are reading from in life.  The script influences our reactions and responses to words like, “Gratitude,” or “Love,” or “Faith”.  Your script is a filter through that narrative story we tell ourselves.

 

Pause today to ponder prayerfully the narrative arc of your life.  Do you see your life as a comedy or tragedy or series of random events?  Do you feel like the lead character or are others pushing you to the fringe and fray of your life? 

 

The narrative story you tell yourself matters and makes a difference ~ it is the home in which you dwell. 

 

I pray today that something above stirred your soul to wonder about the narrative arc in your life.  As always, I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Prayer: Co-authoring and collaborating Creator, help us understand in our minds, hearts, and souls the narrative that is guiding/governing our lives each and every day.  May this awaken us to a deeper awareness that my story is not the only story.

Gratitude Part One

 

Gratitude (a noun) described and defined by the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. 

 

We are a week and half out from Thanksgiving, I am wondering ~ how is your attitude of gratitude?

Please know that it is an acceptable answer right now to honestly, with heartfelt openness, say: “Depleted,” or “Gratitude? Now? Have you been watching the news at all!”  Or maybe you stopped reading this post.

 

Wait…come back…please!

 

I know gratitude is easier to express at some moments than it at other times. We can go through seasons or times when our attitude of gratitude is not being nourished and nurtured.  Then, there moments when we do have God goosebumps racing down our arms; perhaps taking us by surprise.

 

Have you had a moment of God-goosebumps recently?  A moment of awe or feeling surrounded by the sacred or sensed your soul leap – even it was a millimeter? 

 

Perhaps part of this is realizing that gratitude (like grace and love) is not something we possess or control ~ rather gratitude/grace/love are all energy that possesses and controls us.  Gratitude alongside grace and love can feel beyond our grasp and understanding.  Gratitude (sorry Dictionary) is not a noun, it is a verb.  Gratitude has energy, life, and a flow we can be caught up with engaging.  Maybe gratitude is a muscle, one that we struggle to exercise, rightfully so, in the last year.  We can’t just flex our gratitude once a year, it is a daily practice.  Sometimes our gratitude might just be thankful for our ordinary cup of coffee or appreciating the comfort of our robe that keeps us warm.  Gratitude for friends and people who love us.  Gratitude for a piece of pizza and ice cream (which is the meal I wish the Pilgrims served at Thanksgiving).

 

Check in with the gratitude part of your life.  Name and notice whether you are on a scale from glowing with gratitude to your gratitude feeling smoldering low like the final wisps of smoke from a fire that has just been doused with water.  Maybe your gratitude is running on fumes.  Maybe you sense a spark of thanksgiving.  How full is your gratitude tank?

 

Check in with your head, heart, soul, and life; check in with family and friends on how their gratitude is doing; check in with me as your pastor.  Rekindling and remembering gratitude need not be an isolated, individual exercise.  Like all exercise gratitude is better in community.  I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Prayer: Abundant, extravagant, heaping grace upon grace God, we open our lives to You this day knowing that You meet us where we are.  Whether our gratitude tank is full or on fumes, help us and open us and hold us this day.  Remind us that if the only prayer we pray is, “Thank you,” those two words are enough to change us.  Amen.  

Morning Meditation for Friday

 

The final prayer practice and posture is one that is close to my heart ~ creativity.

 

I hear you saying, “But I am not an artist!”  I would like to remind you, you are!  You are created in God’s image, the imaginer and creative director of life.  Art is not only confined or contained by music or drawing or painting or poetry.  Art is living.  You practice the art of relationships.  You practice the art of breathing, sitting in silence, Sabbath, and simplicity.  You practice the art of inhabiting this planet with all your beautiful uniqueness.

 

You are an artist.  You may color, not with crayons, but with words.  You may create, not poems, but with safe places where people can be.  You may write, not novels, but with letters asking our leaders to make the world more just.  You may envision, not Broadway plays, rather with holy play that brings light and love and laughter into this world.

 

So today, celebrate the artist that is you.  Whatever it is that stirs your souls and causes God-goosebumps to form on your arms.  This could be listening to music and singing along at the top of your lungs.  This could be walking outside and listening to the trees.  This could be tending a relationship with a younger person who needs to know more than the brokenness that is too often woven into life.  There are countless ways you practice/embody the art of living.

 

Today is a great day to practice the prayer posture of art.  As you do so, may you release relentless love out into the world.  We will all be better for that if you do.  Amen.

Morning Meditation for Thursday

 

Whew, you have made it to day four.  I pray you are finding these invitations helpful and meaningful.  Please remember a spiritual practice and prayer posture is not something you “have to do,” “ought to do,” or “absolutely must do”.  When we are engaging God, I want to start by creating a guilt free zone.  God does not deal in shoulds or demands, God is One of holy invitations and awakening our awareness of love and grace in this world. 

 

This begins with your breath.

We build our inhale and exhale with silence both internally and externally.

We cultivate and create sacred space for Sabbath.

 

Now, we seek to live simply.  Simplicity can be everything from what we consume and what is consuming us.  Simplicity can mean monitoring how much news we are watching or what we are buying or what we are eating or how we are exercising.  Simplicity involves reviewing your calendar, check book, interactions, internal dialogue, and all the components that comprise life to see how these parts/pieces are working together ~ or are in tension.  Holy review of what is making up the stew of your life in these days.

 

For me, simplicity is about checking in with my mind, heart, soul, and body ~ which Jesus said all four are directed toward God’s love.  I check in with the thoughts roaming around my mind and the emotions in my heart and how God and I are doing and how my physical body is feeling.

 

In what ways can you check in with yourself today?  How will that information guide you toward transformation in God’s loving image?  How will letting God speak through your thoughts, emotions, holy connection, and physical being make a difference?

 

I pray that you will not only answer those questions, but you will also seek to live your responses in ways that honor you are God’s beloved.  Amen.

Book Release

 

Good morning Grace Traces Friends...

I am excited to announce that on November 30th, my book, A Christian Marriage Book - 52-Week Devotional for Husbands goes on sale.  I wrote the book over the summer.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on the value of sharing our life with another person.  I am also very proud that the book is INCLUSIVE!!  The book is written for both same-gender and opposite gender couples.  

I welcome you helping me spread the word.

1. Please forward this post so that your friends may know about this resource.

2. Consider purchasing a copy of the book for a family member or friend.  You can click here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/163807206X

3. Word of mouth is GREAT way too.

I am so grateful for all your help in getting the word out to others.

Blessings ~~ Pastor Wes

Morning Meditation for Wednesday

 

Yesterday, we built upon the prayer posture and practice of breathing with silence.  How did that go?  Honestly, let me know.  I would love to talk to you or put a comment/response to this question.

 

The next posture and prayer practice John Mark Comer writes about is Sabbath.  This is a 24-hour time for rest.  Barbara Brown Taylor describes Sabbath as, “[The] day you are good for nothing.”  You cease moving so your soul can catch up. 

 

Like silence, you don’t need to start off with a full day.  Although, I caution my fellow Type A, work-a-holic friends, there is always a reason why you can’t take a full day.  And I can be wonderfully creative in the ways I let myself off the Sabbath invitation.  But many of the reasons why I don’t practice Sabbath are about me and my ego.  I like to prove that I am needed and necessary.  We wear busyness as a badge of honor in our culture.  Yet, this is the point of Sabbath, to remember who and whose you are.  You are more than what you produce or cross off your to-do list.

 

I invite you to pick two hours when you will stop.  This is important.  John Mark Comer says stop not only working but thinking about work or stress or strain.  When those thoughts come, acknowledge them, and pass them right to God.  Second, find a restful position.  This could be a comfortable chair or laying down on your bed.  Third, do something that brings you joy.  This could be food or talking to a friend or sitting outside.  Finally, breathe. 

 

I am inviting you to find two hours within the next week.  Then, like a video game, try to level up each week by adding an hour.  That means, if my math is right, by the end of this year you would be up to nine hours.

 

Now, if you just broke out in a cold sweat or thought, “I could never do that!”  Breathe.  This week is two hours.  Focus on that.  Please remember, if you struggle with this, I hear you.  I do too.  I would love to talk to you more about why this practice and posture is so important. 

 

One final suggestion on your Sabbath time, try to not watch television during those hours, at least for the rest of this month.  We could talk more about incorporating screens into your Sabbath time as you add hours on to the practice.  After all, there are some television shows that remind me laughter is a prayer to God, center and calm me.  We can certainly chat more if this is a deal breaker. 

 

I pray right now you will take out your calendar and block Sabbath time to be with God, to pray, and breathe.  For you to remember you are beautifully created in God’s image who also rested on the seventh day.  May that holy model move our souls and be experienced in our lives in these days. Amen.

Morning meditation for Tuesday

 

How is your breathing?  Did you find time to practice yesterday noticing your breath?  I love letting my imagination loose considering what I am exhaling out into the world and what I am inhaling into my being.  What I am sharing and shining in the world and what am I feeding and fueling my heart/mind/soul/life with?

 

Today, I want to invite you to continue the prayer practice and posture of breathing.  I want you to continue to hold lightly the question, “What do I want to be today?” as important for grounding and guiding yourself with grace.

 

I encourage you to spend time in silence.

 

Wait…keep reading, please.  I know that silence is not exactly the most exciting suggestion.  I know you would rather I talk about volunteering, saving the world, or even going to the dentist where my hygienist constantly asks me questions I can’t answer because she has sharp tools in my mouth.  Yes, I would take that over silence any day. 

 

But silence is how God gets a word in edgewise and nudges us.  How our soul catches up.

 

John Mark Comer writes, “There are two dimensions of silence – external and internal. External is when we get away from all the people and noise and stimuli and let our body come to quiet. Internal – which is harder to do – is when we calm and center on our mind on God, we come to a kind of mental and emotional rest in God.”

 

Prayerfully ponder when and where and how you can do this.  I invite you to be intentional and thoughtful.  While some people can practice the prayer posture of silence anywhere, I find I can’t be near my phone or computer because of the notification dings that are like Pavlov’s dog response of me reaching immediately to type something.  I find being outside helps, nature is healing to me.  I find around lunch time to be a good moment for a sacred pause.  Finally, you don’t have to do this for hours.  Five minutes is fantastic.  Ten minutes is fabulous.  Two minutes is great!  Jon Acuff says, “Never compare your beginning to someone else’s middle.”  That is, you don’t have to be a monk to practice this.  There is no grade.  Be patient, open, honest with yourself and how you enter this practice.

 

I pray that in the stillness and quiet of you with your breath, you remember God is breathing on you a breath of life, filling your heart with love, and calling you beloved.  May that rest within you and may you rest within the holy this day.  Amen.