Preparing for Lent

 

This week we begin the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday.  Like the season of Advent (when we get ready for Christ’s birth), Lent is a time of preparation for the mystery of Holy Week and Easter.  I encourage you to view the time between now and Wednesday thinking of how the coming weeks can be a holy time of reflection and renewal.

 

What might replenish your soul?

What might be refreshing you given all that is going on in your life?

How can you be intentional and prayerful about the season of Lent this year?

Is there a stirring/swirling within you that is longing to be heard?  Note: this stirring and swirling could be a positive – something you are curious about OR something unresolved that you are avoiding or not dealing with.  Remember how the Spirit surfs over the chaos creatively in Genesis 1:1 ~ Lent can be a time of letting your soul surf over all that is moving in your life.

And since Easter is a celebration of new life, how can you be most alive this Lent?

 

A couple of suggestions:

1.     Our theme for Lent on Sunday mornings is “Table Talk” based on Jesus’ teaching and preaching in the Gospel of John after Jesus washed the disciples’ feet.  You can create an altar in your home using one of your tables.  You could put a special cloth on that table, fresh flowers, and a Bible.  You could put a box of crayons and blank paper to color your prayers every day.  You could put special photographs of sacred places and people that you hold each day in prayer.  Let your imagination loose and run wild.  I would love to see a photo of YOUR table.

2.      Our theme for Morning Meditations during Lent is focusing on the narrative of Lazarus.  You will learn more about this beloved son of God in the coming weeks.  But I pray leaning in and listening to Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead (sorry, spoiler alert) might awake us to the beauty of new life around and within us.

3.      I will be posting videos on a project I am calling, “Your Lenten Toy Box” on YouTube and Facebook.  I hope you will enjoy these and find them meaningful.

4.      There are classes at the church starting this Thursday morning at 11 am focusing on moving, drumming, and storytelling.  Call today to RSVP.

 

I pray Lent this year will help you explore the interior and exterior of your faith.  I pray as you enter this holy time there are more than a few traces of God’s grace.  As always, if you want to talk, I welcome the opportunity and blessing to journey with you in the coming days and weeks.

 

May you be enfolded by an embrace of the Eternal now and throughout the weeks to come. Amen.

Prayerful Friday

 

We wrap up and wind down another week of Morning Meditations as well as the month of February.  I am wondering, what is stirring with you?  We are on the cusp of Lent which begins next Wednesday, March 2.  As you prepare to enter the holy season when we focus on Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we can come back to the questions we asked in January:

What are you searching for?

What is filling the jar/jug of your life?

What is your prayer as we prepare to march into the month of March?

Where do you need healing?

Where do you sense your life flowing or growing or going right now?

What helps you feel most alive?  If Easter is a celebration of new life or renewed life, then the season of Lent should help us prepare our hearts for this mystery through prayerful practices (more on this in the coming days).

 

The beauty of questions like this is we can return to them throughout the year hearing new details we may not have noticed when we first pondered the question in January.  I hope you are journaling your thoughts on these questions, because you can look at them after Easter and in the middle of June and next September.

 

May God’s love that meets us in all times and places, especially right here and now, guide your meditations and movements and all the ways you are exploring the art project called, “Your Life” in these days.  Amen.

Pushing Pause

 

Thursday is the push pause day.  Thursday is the time to breathe and be in God’s expansive and embracing love.  Thursday is the moment to say, our morning meditations don’t need more words but rather open us to God’s original language of silence.  As always, you can rewind and review past Morning Meditations.  More importantly, I pray you rest in God’s love today in life-giving and renew ways.

 

Holy One, the children’s song got it right, “Love, love, love, love.  The gospel in a word is love.”  Yet, Your love, O God is evolving and expanding and elastic.  You can embrace and enfold more than we could ask or ever imagine.  So let me rest in Your love today in ways that restore me and set me in right relationship with you and with myself so that I might live out of Your source of Familial Holy love for all that is and will be.  Amen.

Eight Words for Love Part Three

 

Whew…we have finished your Greek “love” history lesson.  I am pleased to announce that everyone received an “A”.  Wait, you think, I was being graded?  I pray hearing different understandings of love helped you both deepen your understanding of the different dimensions of love and identify people who you love in uniquely beautiful ways.  The point is not to classify or compartmentalize each person you know.  I don’t need to put members of my family in one of the eight categories forever and ever.  Moreover, people can shift or occupy more than one word for love.  Someone who started in the playful love of ludus might move to philia love and even to familial love.  It might also be that you had a love for someone in a familial way then after some unfortunate or hurtful words are exchanged your love for that person needs a new boundary. 

 

In short, love is not static.  Relationships change. Love is dynamic and ever shifting in new directions. 

 

When has this been true in your life?  Have you had a soul friend who now the relationship has been defined differently?  To state the obvious ~ such shifts hurt.  The power of love is that it has the potential and possibility and promise to help, even heal, as well as hurt and harm.  People we grow close to can leave wounds and scars in our souls ~ which is an endless truth and never-ending source of material for Teen Pop, the Blues, and Country music.  Yet, there is deep in the human soul, a desire for affection and affirmation, for all eight ways of love to be encountered and experienced in life-giving ways.

  

Today, I invite you to continue to think about the people you care about and who care for you.  The invitation isn’t just a mental classification, but a way for us to move about our lives and encounter those we meet along the pathway of life today.

Eight Words for Love Part Two

 

Previously on yesterday’s Morning Mediation, I introduced you to four Greek words for “love”.  I also invited you to name and claim people who embrace and embody that understanding of love for you.  If you didn’t read yesterday’s meditation, go back, and look at it.  Or maybe you want to review those four from yesterday.

 

It’s okay, I’ll wait.

 

Don’t worry, there isn’t going to be a quiz.  A fifth word for love in Greek is pragma,

this is a long-term love.  This is a like a flame that has been burning brightly day after day or the warm embers of a fire after the initial blaze (or eros love) is done.  This is a love born of ups and downs, twists and turns.  There are similarities pragam shares with phila and ludus type love.  But this is also distinctive and different because of the ingredient of time.  I think of people in our church who have been married for fifty or sixty years embracing what Paul meant when he wrote, “love is patient, love is kind” (1 Corinthians 13).

 

Next love is also going to sound familiar, philautia love.  This is love of self.  And hopefully after the Morning Meditations this year you are thinking, “Wait, didn’t Jesus say something about that?!”  Yes, yes he did in Mark 12 about loving neighbor as yourself.  We have reflected upon this, and I pray you are still finding new ways to care and be compassionate for yourself.  To let your compassion in you be a well from which you share generously with others as God replenished and renews your “morning by morning” with the endless mercies of God’s grace.

 

The seventh love is familial love.  This is the love of be-longing.  For some this can be your family, the tribe who shares your DNA; for others you have a chosen family.  Family are the people we depend on and don’t leave us when the chips are down.  The people we both share care with and receive care from.  Familial love shapes us and forms us.  I believe it is never too late to find people on this earth with whom familial love takes on a face, flesh, breath, and bone.  I believe Jesus, God-made-flesh, came to claim all of us as brothers and sisters with familial love.

 

Finally, last but not least, mania love.  Wait, you think, I thought the Beatles created that!  Or maybe it was Beanie Baby craze.  Or whatever is trending on Twitter today.  But it is good to name and notice that love can go over an edge and become an obsession.  Love can take over our minds and evict rationality from residing there.  Mania can come in all shapes and sizes.  We all can get caught in the craze of wanting the newest book in a series or waiting for the next episode of our favorite show.  Mania is anytime we cannot seem to be apart or obsess over something or someone.

 

Once again, I invite you to name and notice how each of these types of love have been embodied or encountered in your life.  I encourage you to be self-reflective and specific.  It can be easier to name the mania in someone else and miss our own moments when we got too caught up in spending all our resources on something that we thought would bring us love or peace or joy ~ or all three.  Who embodies familial love, how are you practicing philautia love, and who comes into your mind with pragma love?  I pray that as all eight words for love swirl and stir, you can start to see the depth, power, possibility, and promise of love to be a fierce source of strength and guiding/grounding force in our relationships here and now.  

Eight Words for Love Part One

 

This month we’ve been reflecting on the word, “love”.  In many ways, our use (or overuse) of this word in English puts too much weight upon those four little letters.  After all, there is a distinction between my love for ice cream and the love for my family.  Moreover, we tend to describe or define love as sentiment, even syrupy or sappy, rather than the source of our being.  Perhaps we could take a lesson from our Greek brothers and sisters who have eight different words for love. 

 

Who knew you were going to learn so much when you started reading the Morning Meditation this morning?  What are those eight words, I imagine you saying to me.  I am delighted you asked!

 

In Greek there is eros love, this is passionate and physical love.  It is that moment of butterflies in the stomach, head over heels, and our brains flooding our bodies with all kinds of feel-good chemicals.  There is a logical, reasonable explanation why you can’t help but smile after those first few dates of falling in love.  Your mind is sending out all kinds of dopamine and serotonin, giving you all the “feels”.  In some ways, this is the kind of love our current culture overemphasizes and idealizes.  It is also the kind of love that can fade or fizzle because of the energy (physically and emotionally) it takes to sustain.

 

Then there is philia or friendship love.  I love how our Celtic brothers and sisters give us the phrase, “anam cara” meaning “soul friend”.  This was the person you could share your inner-most self with, the one you let into the cobweb corners of your heart that you aren’t sure are really lovable.  Our soul friend is the one we haven’t seen in a few months but pick up the conversation comfortably right where we left off as if no time had passed.  This kind of love is important because it is where you are seen fully for who you are and see others fully.

 

Then there is ludus or playful love.  This is a connection where we just enjoy each other.  Think of two kids who meet on the playground for the very first time, become fast friends, spend all afternoon running around and laughing, and hug each other tightly when it is time to go.  Those two children may never see each other again, but for that moment they shaped each other’s life.  They enjoyed the moment.  We need more playful love.  It is also a love of the present moment and seeing the holiness of sharing that moment with another.  There is a joyful innocence in this kind of love that can warm your heart and remind you of our shared humanity.

 

Then there is agape love, which you probably have heard in a sermon or two.  This is selfless love.  C.S. Lewis called it “gift love” that expects nothing in return.  Agape love can be found when we volunteer our time.  We don’t do it for an award or recognition, but because our hearts beckon us to share and shine our light.  Agape love says life is not just about me.  It is the kind of love that Jesus described on the last night of his life that is the way to serving others.

 

We push pause on the list today for you to ponder these four pathways of love.  More importantly, is there a person you could name right now who you have a ludus love for?  A person with whom you are always laughing?  Or what about an “Anam cara” who is that soul friend?  We are blessed by some people in our lives who offer us love in more than one of the ways described, defined for love.  For today, let the playful, soul-filled, gift-giving love of God enter into your life in holy ways.

Singing Praises take Four

 

We finish our week with the fourth and final verse of Praise to the Living God.

 

Praise to the living God, around, within, above,

Beyond the grasp of human mind, but whom we know as love.

In these tumultuous days, so full of hope and strife,

May we bear witness to the Way, O Source and goal of life. 

I invite you to re-read this verse.  It is as if it could have been written today.  It is good theology of God as a living force woven into our lives.  God who is part of each day.  God who is within you – around you wherever you go – and above.  God cannot ever be captured or contained but can be experienced.  I especially appreciate the last two lines – in these tumultuous days so full of hope and strife.

Did you catch that?  Full of hope and strife.  Often our minds want to fixate on one or the other.  Too often it is the latter, the strife.  We have litanies of lament of all that is wrong.  And then, unfortunately, if someone points out something positive, we can dismiss that person as being “Pollyanna” or “naïve” or out of touch.  The human mind, heart, and soul can hold two thoughts in tension.  Your mind, heart, and soul can hold together hope and strife – even when the two seem to contradict each other. 

 

Where do you sense hope today?  Name it.  Claim it.  Pray it.

Where is there strife?  Name it.  Claim it.  Pray it.

Now repeat!

The more this prayer posture forms a new neuro-pathway in your mind, the more you will notice that these two are not in contradiction, but is the way life has always been.  When we hold the beautiful mystery of both hope and strife, our witness can be more powerful to the One who is at work in our world today. 

Prayer: God embrace and empower me to be open to the ways hope and strife are both growing within me and around me.  Help me celebrate the goodness and work with You.  I offer to you today the pain and strife.  I pray I might be part of lessening the strife in our world today.  Take my life, O God, let me be; a blessing to all those I see.  Praise to You, O God.  Amen.  

Singing Praises take Three

 

For Thursdays, I ask you to push pause.  To continue to breathe and be in God’s presence.  Today I invite you to read or sing or prayerfully ponder the third verse of our hymn this week:

 

Praise to the living God, who knows our joy and pain,;

Who shares with us our common life, the sacred and profane

God toils where’re we toil, in home and mart and mill;

And deep within the human heart God leads us forward still.

 

I love that this verse invites us be awake and aware of our joy and pain; that God is with you in the sacred and profane.  What a holy invitation to hold close to our hearts.

Where is there joy today?  It doesn’t have to be leaping or cheering or best-day-ever kind of joy.  It could be the joy of a cup of coffee or causal conversation with a friend.  Notice the quiet joys of life.

Where is there pain today?  Where does it hurt?  Where do your heart break or soul ache?

Where is the holy moments today?  I pray reading these morning meditations are one moment.  But because the holy often shows up disguised as our ordinary life, there can be the sacred everywhere.  Remember, Moses thought it was just another day at work when he came upon the burning bush and heard God’s transforming call to liberation.  Can you be opened to burning bushes today?

Give that truth, there might not be that is, “profane” or “mundane”.  Rather that might be our perspective.  If I dread doing the dishes, I may not notice the grace of warm water or the satisfying sensation of cleaning a dirty dish or how holy it can feel to complete a task.  Ponder if there are places, spaces, or even people you believe God would NEVER show up.  Is there a way for you to open to the sacred that is everywhere?

Or maybe you practice the invitation I gave on Sunday of holding bread, taking and tasting bread, prayerfully pondering the recipe of your life.

May your pausing and pondering be blessed.  May You know deep within your heart that where you are – home, mart, or mill – God is deep within your heart leading you forward still.  Amen.

Singing Praises take Two

 

We continue with the second verse of our hymn of the week, Praise to the Living God:

Praise to the living God, from whom all things derive,

Whose Spirit formed upon this sphere the first faint seeds of life;

Who caused them to evolve, unwitting toward God’s goal.

Till humankind stood on the earth, as living, thinking souls.

Notice the reference to the Spirit who plotted and planned and planted the ‘first faint seeds of life’.  I wonder what seeds are growing in your soul in such a time as this?  Here we are at the mid-point of February.  If you rewind and review what has happened so far in 2022, what new insights or ideas are forming?  What are you reading?  What is stirring in your imagination?

Or on this day in February, return to our January questions:

What are you searching for?

What is filling your life?

Where is your edge of unknowingness? 

How is the well of your life being replenished/refreshed?  Are there ways you are replenishing or refreshing another’s well? (Remember living water is both fed and feeds – you both receive and give!).

I pray today you might pay attention and be aware of the seeds of life that are springing forth with you.  May this hymn continue to be a soundtrack to your life this week.

 

Prayer: Planting, nurturing, nourishing God, help me pay attention to Your presence as the Holy Gardener of my life.  I pray you will continue to till, water, patiently wait, and care for me.  I also pray that I may appreciate how I am planted in a bigger garden.  I am not a solo plant alone…but my roots are caught up in a web of mutual connectivity with those at church, in the community, family and friends.  Praise to You, O God, from whom all things in me and around me derive.  Amen.

Singing Praises

 

Would you pray with me the opening verse of Praise to the Living God…and if you know the tune, sing it out with me:

 

Praise to the living God, the God of love and light,

Whose word brought forth the myriad suns and set the worlds in flight;

Whose infinite design, which we but dimly see,

Pervades all nature, making all a cosmic unity.

 

I love that third line ~ whose infinite design which we but dimly see.  Or as Mark Twain is reported to have said, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.  It is what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”  We are living a world that loves the confident and certain.  We don’t like ambiguity or uncertainty.  We might even prefer in some ways being led astray rather than trying to sort through a complex truth that doesn’t give clear answers.  We see this in many areas of our life right now from politics to the church.  We crave solid ground to shifting sand.  Yet, the dynamic, ever-changing, VUCA nature of life means that we dimly see.  Think of it this way, are you the same person you were five years ago?  Ten years ago?  We change, we grow, our understandings expand.  We look back and think, “If I knew then what I know now.”  Which is to say in the present moment, we see dimly.  We are continuing to grow and change.

 

I give praise to God that we can continue to evolve as we explore; expand in new directions as we experience.  I give thanks to God that in these days we are reminded that not everything in life can be solved by a five-year strategic plan or another meeting.  Some things are beyond our ability to solve.  We sit with the unknown-ness of life.  I realize this is not a place any of us were taught or told to be.  It is uncomfortable.  Our brains keep telling us to do something, anything!!  But to sit with the sacred to listen for what God is up to and where we can participate.

 

Notice the order.  First, we sit in silence.  Second, we ask, what is God up to?  Not what is on my agenda or to-do list.  Not for my opinion.  But what does God’s wisdom say and how I can be part of that.  I know that is not a popular question, nor is it one that we are used to asking.  But it is a faithful, heartfelt question, especially when we are led in a different direction than we thought we would go.  Finally, we can ask God for where we can collaborate and cooperate with God.

 

I hope today, as the sugar rush of Valentine’s Day candy wears off, you might take time to listen.  Not just to your own thoughts, but for God’s still singing/speaking voice.  Listen to God’s prayer and for God’s presence here and now.  You may want to do this outside in creation where we remember that we are part of the soil and star dust.  Creation is who we are and perhaps when we sit in the presence of nature, we can hear the Creator clearer.  May this moment lead your heart to prayer and praise.  Amen.

With Great Love

 

Happy Valentine’s Day!!  I know that too this day is too wrapped up in romantic love, but did you know that this is a sacred day for the church?  Did you know there was a Saint Valentine?  Actually, the Catholic Church recognizes three Saint Valentines!  And you thought today was only about chocolate.  One St. Valentine rebelled against an Emperor who forced men to stay single so they could be soldiers.  This St. Valentine married people in secret weddings, which feel free to start humming the music to Mission Impossible here.  This St. Valentine was unfortunately beheaded by the emperor.  To which you say, “Well thanks for that happy ending, Pastor Eeyore!”  Another St. Valentine helped people escape harsh Roman prisons but found himself in jail.  This St. Valentine apparently sent letters to a young lady, who we think was the jailor’s daughter, and he would sign the letters, “From your Valentine.”  If by now you are wondering, “Does Wes have chocolate related information for today?”  I thought you might ask.  Did you know, approximately 58 million pounds of chocolate has been purchased over the last week.  So, do your part…my favorite is dark chocolate. 

Why the history lesson?  I think part of the spirit of this day is to embrace and embody love.  Not just love between two married people, but a love that opens space and receives others as created in God’s image.  Remember we started this year by diving and dwelling in Mark 12:30-31 about loving God, neighbor, and self.  Today is a celebration of how love remains central to the character of God and who we are in God’s likeness.  You can show love for yourself by eating healthy (and enjoying some dark chocolate too); going for a walk; or resting if you are weary.  You can show love for others by being kind to the person who bags your groceries at the store or your waiter/waitress at a restaurant if you go out.  You can show love for God through singing a song of praise for the way God’s presence feeds and fuels your life. 

This week we are going to turn and tune into the hymn, Praise to the Living God.  The words were written by Rev. Dr. Curtis Beach, who was a UCC pastor.  Rev. Beach lived in the 20^th Century, 1914-1993.  I love that this is a relatively recent hymn from our own denomination.  For today, ponder this question: how might you praise God in loving ways?  How might you share in the promise and possibility that love reconciles, renews, and restores us to whose we are?  How can you begin this week grounded in a love that makes all the difference? 

Happy Valentine’s Day with great love to you all.

Noticing...Naming Joy Here and Now

 

 

One of the ways I believe we can hold the creative tension between what is and what we pray could be is to be alert and aware of how joy is woven into our lives.  We are called to live in a  non-dualistic way between the storms and sacredness of life.  We are invited to cultivate and tend joy.  Joy doesn’t just happen.  To be sure, joy can arrive unannounced at our door…but if we are waiting around for joy, sometimes it is negativity and pain that want to keep us company.  Where our attention goes, there our energy flows.  If I am only giving my attention to what is wrong and never also hold what is right, that weighs down my soul.  Often we make our joy dependent on something else or someone else.  Ever find yourself saying, “I’ll be joyful when…”?  Joy paves the way each moment of the day. Matheson, whose hymn we have heard this week, could have just thrown in the towel and thought, “Oh well, I am blind, guess I can’t be a preacher.”  We also learned this week that Matheson’s sisters where his eyes and helped him out.  Matheson could have just said, “This pain will never end!”  Rather than writing the hymn we’ve prayed this week ~ which remember took him five minutes.  We need others.  In fact, joy and hope and love are always best cultivated and curated in community. 

 

If you would like some prompts on what might bring joy know this: February 11^th, tomorrow, is

~ National don’t cry over spilled milk day

~ National inventors’ day

~ National make a friend day

~ National peppermint patty day

~ National shut-on visitation day

~ National white shirt day.

 

Whew.  Who knew??  That seems like a lot for one day, so let’s spread the love and joy.  Today, you could go buy some peppermint patties and take them to someone who is shut in while wearing a white shirt.  OR you could be curious about your favorite invention and do some reading about who created it and how it works.  OR you could call your friend or reach out to a new friend.  May today you find amazing ways to explore and experience the Eternal who is calling us to creativity and joyfully shine our lights, because God’s love never lets us go.  Remember, if you spill milk today or tomorrow, try to laugh as you grab the paper towels.  Amen. 

Morning Meditation Thursday

 

Thursday is the day to push pause.  To breathe.  To be.  The invitation is to rest and relax into God’s presence.  Maybe you want to go back and re-read the verses of the hymn, O Love that Will Not Let Me Go.  May you want to read and hold each word.  May you want to savor each sentence.  You may ask the question, “How and where have I encountered this truth?” 

 

As always, before I wrote more, join me in prayer:

 

God who holds all that is in Your embrace, enfold me now I pray.  Through the storms, through the night, lead me on to the light…but also Precious Lord…help me notice Your guidance and grace isn’t just some light at the end of the tunnel but is there in the gray, gloomy, stormy times with a strength I need.  Let this truth show up in countless ways today that opens my imagination and stirs my soul.  Amen.

Joy through the Pain

 

Today we enter the wisdom and words of the third verse of, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.  I invite you to say or even sing/pray these words with me:

 

O Joy that seeks me through my pain,

To You I cannot close my heart;

I trace the rainbow through the rain,

And know the promise is not vain that you will ne’er depart.

 

Re-read those words, especially the first line.  O Joy that seeks me through my pain.  Joy not in spite of the pain or instead of the pain, but through the pain. 

 

I am not sure anyone has ever taught me how to do that?  I am not sure that is a spiritual muscle I exercise very often.  Usually, my dualistic mind categorizes and classifies something as good or bad; something as joyful or joyless.  But to be both?  Huh?  How does that happen or work?  This is where I believe curiosity and openness can be a pathway forward. 

 

Have you ever had a moment when pain and joy sat side-by-side?  Maybe it was a vacation where things kept getting delay and suddenly it became a joke that you could laugh about.  Maybe it was this week when you thought, “You know that person is amazingly creative at how he pushes my buttons.  You almost…almost…have to admire it.”  Or I often see this at funerals where tears and laughter mix/mingle together. 

 

Do you have moments when you have held together joy and pain?  Do you have a time when you traced the rainbow through the rain?  How might this truth open us to God’s persistent presence.  As always, I would love to talk more and hear how you are sorting through this in your life.

 

Prayer:  God through the tears I might shed help me also see the colors of Your love lighting the way; help me today experience and encounter how You are here in this moment, even when the gray clouds cover the rays of sun.  Help me explore how this truth transcends time from when Matheson first wrote these words to today.  Amen.

Love that Won't Let Us Go

 

This week we are turning toward and tuning into the hymn, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go that George Matheson wrote on June 6, 1882.  Yesterday we learned that he wrote this hymn in five minutes.  I should also tell you that he was nearly blind and it was his sisters who helped him through seminary.  Read and sing the second verse with me:

 

O Light that follows all my way,

To You I yield my flickering flame;

Renew my spirit’s feeble ray,

That from Your brilliant sunlit day it may new brightness claim.

 

I am struck by how Matheson can name how our flames of light/life do flicker throughout the day.  Which leads me to the questions:

 

What gives your flame oxygen?

What can snuff out your joy of life?

Who are people who fan the flame of hope for you?

Who are those who drain you of feeling full?

 

Too often we fill our lives with “shoulds” and “have tos” and “musts”.  We wear these like badges.  While I don’t think we can live life as if everything is amazingly awesome, we can be more open and curious about how the brilliant sunlight of God’s love is renewing and refreshing us hour by hour.  For example, I don’t love cleaning the kitchen, but I do enjoy seeing the countertop be crumb-free and the our stainless steel refrigerator be smudge-free.  I may not always enjoy every meeting I attend on Zoom, but those give me moments to live the theology I preach because every square on my screen is filled with the image of God.  If I go into something thinking, “This will be awful,” it usually is.  But if I enter singing this second verse of Matheson’s hymn, I might be open.  This isn’t some magical way of thinking, but it is a prayer practice and posture.  I invite you to embrace and embody this.  Moreover, I would love to hear your experience of praying this hymn and how these words might shift your perspective. 

 

Prayer: God today I offer all the ways I am worn down and weary.  And I also turn my open, curious heart and soul to You to shine a ray of love that might guide me in new pathways that can restore and remind me of Your beloved-ness.  Amen.

Wrapped in Love

 

This month, as we prepare to celebrate Valentine’s Day, we are continuing to explore the promise and possibility of love.  This week, I want us to hold close to our hearts the words of the hymn, O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.  Here is the first verse:

 

O Love, that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in You;

I give You back the life I owe, that

in Your ocean deaths its flow may swell with ardor true.

 

George Matheson wrote this hymn on June 6, 1882, in five minutes.  Five minutes!  Matheson describes the experience of writing this way, “Something happened to me, which was known only to myself, and which caused me the most severe mental suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my life. I had the impression rather of having it dictated to me by some inward voice than of working it out myself.”

 

I find even more meaning in these words knowing that they were born not out of Matheson’s best day ever…but out of trying to process his own pain.  Often, we tend to categorize and classify life as either good or bad.  When things are bad, we can begin to catastrophize, where suddenly what we are experiencing is, “The! WORST!! THING!!! EVER!!!”  To be sure, when I receive bad news about a friend’s health, or someone says something that hurts; and when I hurt I tend to turn inside.  The pain becomes insulation and even isolates me from others.  We can ruminate or let your minds roam endless on the pain.  Matheson wrote his way out of that hurt.

 

Notice Matheson’s affirmation of God’s eternal affection.  Love that does not let us go ~ no matter what.  Or as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8, “Nothing separates us from the love of God.”  Yet, sometimes the evidence of our experience would suggest otherwise.  We do feel distant or at least disconnected from the Divine’s affection.  We wonder why didn’t God stop this hurt that is throbbing in my heart?  Rather than trying to solve the pain alone, Matheson says to rest our weary soul in God.  Or as another hymn lyric says, “Have we trials and temptations?  Is there trouble anywhere?  We should never be discouraged Take it to the Lord in prayer.”  How might you today notice, name, claim, and pray your way through the stress, suffering, and struggle?  How can you both offer this to God AND let God hold the hurt alongside?  Hold the hurt ~ not resolve or remove completely.  Human life has pain and joy; has moments of despair and delight.  The fullness of life is trusting how God holds all we are in a loving embrace.

 

Prayer: O God, do not let me go today.  I offer to You people I have hurt and need forgiveness.  I offer to You people who frustrate and flabbergast me and need Your wisdom.  I offer to You news I have heard that troubles my soul.  May I rest now in You leaning into Your everlasting arms and feeling Your embrace every minute today.  Amen.