Being the One ~ Gratitude part Five

 

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.” ~  Maya Angelou.

Please pray with me: Life-giving God, in the beginning You fashioned, formed, and loved us into being.  You breathed in the breath of life that is still swirling and stirring here and now.  Thank you, for this most beautiful day.  Thank you for this one precious and wild life.  Thank you for those whose love reminds me in real ways of Your love that will not let me go.  Thank you, God, for small ways that I experience Your goodness.  Thank you for a vision of gratitude that sets my feet toward a different destination than the one preached and proclaimed by the voices of the world.  Thank you that these two words can re-order how I see what was, is, and will be.  May this attitude of gratitude not just be some platitude for this summer day, but a way of being in the world for the rest of the year.  May I join in the prayer and praise of the Samaritan who came back to Jesus with thanksgiving, may that truth interrupt me in holy ways this day and for countless days to come. Amen. 

Being the One ~ Gratitude Part 4

 

“It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” ~ Germany Kent

 

What brings you life?  What helps you feel alive?  I am convinced that it isn’t just meaning or purpose we are searching for in the world, we are longing/thirsty for feeling fully, authentically, wholly, and holy alive.  We want our senses and souls to be awake and aware.  So today, I want to invite you to being to make what is called, “Life giving list”.  Full credit to Steve Cuss for this idea!  The Life-giving list are small encounters and experiences that help you feel alive.  The list isn’t constructed with the special or spectacular ~ like once-in-a-lifetime trips or things that take weeks to plan ~ the list is built for the moments of everyday, ordinary life.  Some examples from my life:

 

Tasting ice cream

Holding Gina’s hand

Hugging my family

Writing a sermon and these daily meditations

Laughing

Taking a photograph out in creation

 

The point is to have a list of things you do and encounter every single day.  The simpler the better because we can practice daily.  I recently heard Steve say he tries to actively cultivate 15 things from his life-giving list each day starting with smiling when he sees his daughter in the morning or hugging his wife before going to work.  Steve’s list has over 150 things from his ordinary life.  You don’t have to come up with that many, but start the list today.  Try to come up with fifty ways you can take note of what you are grateful for rather than what you lack.  If you want to talk more let me know.  Better yet, I would love to share/swipe lists with you sometime.  May you pause and write down your Life-giving list today and may this be an encounter and experience of God’s grace.  Amen. 

Being the One ~ Gratitude Part 3

 

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.  I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” ~ G.K. Chesterton

 

Recently I was in a class where the facilitator said, “What gospel is your self-criticism and constant cynicism trying to teach and tell you?  And does it lead to life?”  Those questions have stayed with me.  The constant chatter in my mind loves to point out all that is wrong and broken and less than ~ both within and around me.  The commentary that accompanies my life can be laser-focused on why the person said that or do that hurtful thing.  When I focus so much on that, I miss the laughter of my daughter or how delicious my coffee tastes.  It doesn’t have to be either/or, dualistic, choose only one.  We need to grieve…something we don’t do very well.  We need to process the pain that so many of us carry around on the shelves of our souls.  When I survey what is there in the storeroom of my life, I can be shocked when I realize and recognize that something I thought I got over is still hanging around.  For example, there is a comment by that person I told myself I was totally over…not gonna let that person steal my joy.  But then, almost out-of-the-blue it is like the scar is brushed against and starts to throb again.  I find myself having an imaginary debate with that person and what s/he said back in January.  Oh, our minds and hearts and souls can carry around more luggage than a Boeing 747!! 

 

Gratitude re-focuses our vision.  Gratitude can direct us in new ways.  Gratitude opens me to the wonder of life.  The wonder of the typing words that I can post online for people thousands of miles away to read.  The wonder of the bird singing outside my window.  The wonder of air conditioning helping to keep me comfortable.  Wonder.  Where does gratitude help guide you today?  How might this help you live in the wonder of the moment that is called “the present”?  May those questions evoke and provoke you as you live.   May God’s grace, gratitude, peace, presence, and love fill you each second today.  Amen. 

Being the One ~ Gratitude part 2

 

“Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for the present, and creates/cultivates a vision for tomorrow” ~ Melody Beattie

 

This week, we are cultivating and curating a practice of gratitude, thanksgiving, and living with appreciation.  Melody Beattie’s quote invites us to look back with eyes of appreciation.  Rewind and review the last month.  What gratitude stirs and swirls within you?  I am grateful to the staff at Florida State University who hosted the orientation and led sessions that were helpful to us as parents about to drop our son off at college in a few weeks.  I am grateful that we traveled there and back on roads I did not pave and don’t physically maintain.  I give thanks for food that nourishes me, but that I don’t grow.  I give thanks for a church where people listen and seek to embody love for each other.  I give thanks for our staff who share their gifts and shine their lights.  I give thanks for YOU, dear reader!  You faithfully read and comment on these meditations.  I give thanks for my family who inspire and fill my heart with love.  I give thanks for worship on Sunday, conversations, meetings, and holy moments of honoring the lives of our saints.  Suddenly, July looks a little different.

 

This does, as Beattie says, give peace for this present moment.  I know the world today is broken and bruised.  I am not just trying to put frosting on a burnt cake to serve to you.  I am inviting you from dualistic – either/or thinking – where we operate at extremes of best or worst ever!!!!  To a non-dualistic, paradoxical, beautiful tension way of being that can hold lightly the good and bad.  Yes, the war in Ukraine breaks my heart.  Yes, the polarization in our political climate causes pain and the discrimination in our country hurts so many.  Yes, there is so much that we long and want to make better.  And at the same time each day, God is at work bringing forth beauty and repair and inviting me as a collaborator.  As Richard Rohr says, “The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the good.”  The best way to be light is to shine light, not just keep turning off the light with our cynicism and passing along pain.

 

Which is what Beattie is saying.  You are creating and cultivating tomorrow.  You are writing the future when you think everything is going to you know where in a handbasket OR let your light shine in brave, beautiful, bold ways.  Some won’t like it.  Some trolls on Twitter will try to steal your joy because they have no joy.  You either accept their script to live from, or cling to the gospel script of good news that shows us another way.

 

May gratitude today help you see the good that brought you safe this far, wraps around you this morning, and will lead you throughout this day and this week.  With thanksgiving for YOU, Amen. 

Being the One ~ Gratitude

 

“If the only prayer you said was, “thank you,” that would be enough.  If you cannot find gratitude, you will never find peace.” ~  Meister Eckhart. 

This coming Sunday, July 31, we will focus on the Parable of the Grateful Samaritan who comes back to Jesus, after being healed of his skin condition, to say, “Thank you.”  The story can be found in Luke 17:11-19.  I encourage and invite you to pick up your Bible and read out-loud this story.  (Note, I know it sounds strange to say, “read out-loud”, but the Bible throughout most of human history was heard orally – not just confined to the silence or our minds as we read privately.  Reading Scripture can mean both speaking and hearing the words on the page.  As you bring your voice to the words, where do you put/place emphasis?  As you bring your voice to the words, where do you feel the words evoking and provoking something within you?  I believe such a practice, while a bit awkward at first, might help us speak/hear/live our way into scripture in new and life-giving ways!  Okay, tangent done…back to my point.)

The Samaritan comes back to say, “Thank you.”  I believe this can be a powerful prayer practice.  We all like to be thanked and appreciated.  We all carry wounds of times we poured our heart and soul into a project and didn’t feel recognized ~ which connects to the passage from yesterday in church.  Those who worked all day felt unappreciated or even foolish.  There are also moments when we criticize others and point out the flaws and foibles in their efforts ~ something to ponder anytime you want to give feedback to someone!!  To say, “thank you” is holy and as Luke 17 reminds us, makes us well or whole or full of Shalom (peace from the top of our heads to our pinkie toes).

 

Who would you say “thank you” to today?  Can you challenge yourself to say a genuine, heartfelt, honest, authentic “thank you” to five people?  By this, I mean, face-to-face, not just in the comment section online.  Let someone hear your thanks, let that person see the gratitude in the gaze of your eyes, let that person feel your warmth.  May each of us, like the Samaritan, live life with a glad and generous heart.  With my heartfelt love and appreciation for you.  Amen.

Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh Part 5

 

“It never hurts to keep looking for sunshine.” ~ Eeyore

If you know anything about the Winnie the Pooh characters, this quote from Eeyore might catch you off guard.  Eeyore is usually the one who loses his tail, get stuck in a log, misses the party, and seems to always have his head hanging low.  But, in this quote, Eeyore jolts us with a dose of truth.  It doesn’t hurt to look for sunshine.  To be sure, others may say you are naive or Pollyanna or out of touch.  But sunshine provides resources of warmth (sometimes too much in the summer) and vitamin D and helps plants and humans and all of earth thrive and feel alive.  To look for sunshine is a prayer practice that I invite you into this day.  When you go to the store and your favorite item is BOGO; or someone offers you a smile; or you take time to do nothing but breathe and be.  May these moments of holiness warm you from the inside out.  I pray you have found the quotes and meditations this week helpful, playful, and meaningful.  I pray you will search out wisdom from our Still-speaking God that doesn’t always come from churches or sermons or even pastors!  God’s wisdom can be found in countless places and voices.  May this truth open you to the Spirit that is swirling and stirring today.  Amen.  

Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh Part 4

 

 “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

 

What would it mean for you to do nothing today?

If you are like me, a cold shiver just went down your spine!!

You mean just sit here.  Not write.  Not read.  Not binge watch Netflix?

Just be and breathe?

 

Some of the most brilliant people in the world carved and calendared time to breathe and be.  The world was not always on a treadmill running and racing as fast as you can.  The world was not always connected by the phone in your pocket and notifications that sent you reaching to respond immediately. The world was not always busy or living life in a frenzied, blurry pace.  As one article recently put it, we all need a big chill pill ~ to daydream, stare out the window, sit on a park bench, and let your mind-wander. 

 

What if, after lunch today, you did nothing?  After lunch don’t race and run to the next appointment or to do item.  What if we took Winnie the Pooh’s wisdom of doing nothing, that science backs up as being very necessary for our well-being (body, mind, and soul) as an invitation?  By the way, the church, borrowing from our Jewish brothers and sisters, has talked about this for centuries ~ we call it Sabbath.  I pray this practice today awakens your awareness of God’s grace ~ and you would live from that place of love.  Amen.    

Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh Part 3

 

“The things that make me different are the things that make me, me.” ~ Piglet

 

One of the things I love about Milne’s Winne the Pooh stories is the cast of characters.  In some ways I can connect with each character as a part of our own story. 

 

I see myself in Pooh in my endless search, not for honey, but for the most delicious bowl of ice cream…along with searching/seeking other things too!

I see myself in Piglet in the quiet moments when I don’t feel confident or competent. 

I see myself in Tigger when energy, enthusiasm, wells up within me ~ like on Sunday mornings as I preach.

I see myself in Owl when talking about the Bible, I could go on and on and on, perhaps boring others, with how endlessly fascinating I find Scripture.

I see myself in Rabbit, sometimes a bit grouchy, but being outside in the garden helps and sharing the fruits of my labor with others.

I see myself in Kanga and Roo when with my family, the love and support that gives life. 

I see myself in Eeyore when I get caught in seeing only the brokenness in life, but there is a tenderness and earnestness to Eeyore too. 

I see myself in Christopher Robin in wanting to live life as an adventure rather than a struggle.

 

You are uniquely you, but there are deeper truths that connect you to others.  There is the beautiful tension that you are who you are because of the others who have left fingerprints upon your heart.  None of us is “self-made”, but we do get to shape our stories.  I pray today you would both celebrate that there will never be another you on this earth, but that you are made up of the encounters with family and friends.  How do you see the cast of characters (whether it is from Winnie the Pooh or your favorite show) contributing to the creation that gazes back in the mirror as you brush your teeth?  May these questions prompt you to sense and live from God’s love today.

Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh, Part 2

 

“I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” ~ Piglet

 

I find Piglet’s question to be one worth pondering.  We are so caught up in the narrative of negativity and sacristy, that we miss traces of God’s grace.  Or, if we sense the Sacred we tend to keep that to ourselves rather than shouting and sharing God’s love with others.  Our cultural script is one of, “this is the worst time ever.”  Remember, author A.A. Milne lived through both World Wars in England close to the horrific actions of Germany.  He witnessed atrocities humans are capable of, and he created a cast of characters that teach us another way.  Piglet is often seen as shy, perhaps not as self-assured as the others in the Winnie the Pooh’s cast.  But, his question is one we could ask ourselves this morning.  What is going to happen today that is exciting?  It doesn’t have to be special or spectacular.  It could be a surprise phone call from family or friends.  The excitement can come in reading a book. The excitement can be walking outside or sitting to breathe a be.  When we wonder, we are open to the fullness of life with all its mystery ~ the good, the not so great, and the downright difficult.  To wonder is a prayer posture ~ because God rarely shows up in the exact way we expect ~ think of Mary’s life interrupted to be the God-bearer of Jesus.  To wonder is to lean in to life with all that is rather than hold everything at arm’s length with a critical or cynical eye.  We need moments when we take off the armor we often wear that we believe will shelter or shield us for the hurts and harms.  Yet, the armor I wear does not always protect me from the off-the-cuff comments on social media or the words people say that minimize/rationalize pain I might be feeling.  To live with anticipation and openness that today something exciting is going to happen.  Today something life-giving will happen.  I would love for YOU to share what is exciting, the beautiful and ordinary on this Tuesday midway through the month of July.  I can’t wait to hear what you say.  Amen.

Wisdom from Winnie the Pooh Part 1

 

“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” ~ Winnie the Pooh

 

This week, I invite you to hear wisdom of A.A. Milne, author of the Winnie the Pooh series.  Milne was born in London in 1882.  Growing up one of his teachers was the author H.G. Wells.  But even though he had such a famous storyteller as an instructor, writing was not Milne’s original career.  Instead, he studied mathematics in school.  He served in both World Wars.  Out of those experiences, perhaps as a way of processing all he had experienced and encountered, writing became more and more a part of his life.  Winnie the Pooh’s friend, Christopher Robin, is named for his son.  What I find fascinating about Milne is that woven into his light-hearted, children’s stories is sacred wisdom.  We might think these are just childish stories about an imaginary stuff bear who wants honey all the time or a Tigger who loves to bound gleefully around or Eeyore whose glass always seems half-empty.  Yet, these are stories are about diverse friendship ~ each character has a way of being in the world.  The stories are about how we relate and connect with those who are different.  These are stories about adventure and living life.  As someone who saw the pain of both World Wars, I hear Milne’s words as born from a deep place within his soul. 

 

Today, ponder Pooh’s words.  What it is that is taking up room in your heart?  This could be good – like ice cream on a hot day or talking to a family member/friend.  Or what is taking up place in my heart could be a comment someone made to me a few days ago or that jerk who cut you off in traffic.  The smallest things might be sweet or sour.  To make the smallest thing that resides within you a prayer to God – whether it is good or bad.  May you sense the One whose love is written on your heart as the story of life hold and enfold you today.

Friday Prayer

 

Please pray with me: Prodigal God, You continually care for us in life-changing ways.  We open our lives to You this day with both anticipation and some trepidation.  We long to live another way – reaching out and connecting to others.  We long to embrace and embody the wisdom of the Prodigal Father whose love met the sons where each was at.  We long to let the words of the Good Samaritan be gospel medicine to heal our sin-sick-frenzied-anxious-fear filled and often angry souls.  Yet, we are not sure we can.  We don’t know what others will think.  We are not sure we can afford the social capital cost of change.  We struggle to be love, even though we are Your beloved, because we are unsure this way of being in the world makes a difference.  We turn instead to scripts that promise us power and profit and possibility.  We cling to our ways, rather than running, like the Prodigal Father, toward acceptance and reconciliation of the “other”.  We hold back our time, talents, and treasures, passing by on the other side, rather than stopping to attend to those on life’s road.  Help us today live Your way.  Guide us with a presence and possibility that Your story, O God, is one that can bring healing and hope; life and light; grace and grounding to our hearts, our homes, our community, our church and our country.  In the name of the One whose stories still disrupt us in beautifully divine ways, Jesus the Christ. Amen. 

Pause

 

As we pause to breathe and be today, what is stirring within you that you want to offer to God?  Is there a new thought, action, way of being you long for God to continue to nurture and nourish?  Is there a moment when love broke through in life-giving ways?  Has there been a time this week when you tried with all your soul to love and things still went off the rail?  Hold your one precious and wild life.    

 

Breathe in God’s embrace of your prodigal younger son…breathe out the feelings of being lost and wandering and the realities that all our lives have moments of being in the muck/mud.

Breathe in God’s care of your prodigal older son…breathe out the pain that can sit unresolved within us which cause us to NOT join the party.

Breathe in a love that will not let you go…breathe out all that demands you “earn” or “deserve” more than others.

Breathe in the invitation to share God’s love with others…breathe out the barriers we construct as humans.

Breathe in moments when you have found yourself injured, needing help…breathe out the understanding that we have to do it all by ourselves.

Breathe in your Good Samaritan efforts to help…breathe out times that was misunderstood or mistaken by another. 

Breathe in and be in God’s presence without words.

 

Now, repeat the above as many times as you need this morning.  Each time hear the way your story is finding new scripts from Scripture to read and live from.  And may you know love; may you know strength; may you know rest; and may you know joy and peace this day. Amen.

Loving Our Enemies??

 

The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; (perhaps) because generally they are the same people.  G.K. Chesterton

 

Next Sunday, we will turn to another amazing story in Luke’s gospel on the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).  Both the Prodigal Family and Good Samaritan are unique to Luke, only found in his Gospel.  Both are poignant and powerful and point to the story God is seeking to author in our lives.  Both remind us of our beautiful brokenness and the promise of healing.  The above quote from Chesterton is a great connection between the two passages – a bridge that can link the two parables.  Sometimes our enemies don’t just live next door, but under the same roof or share the same family tree roots!  We live in a world where divisiveness is so pervasive that we struggle to listen to someone who is different, and loving the other feels is too demanding.  Perhaps this is because we don’t really love ourselves.  Our brokenness is not what we hear on the news, but is within us ~ and this makes us uneasy and queasy and we will do anything to stop the ache.  We find it more acceptable to stay in our isolated tribes of people like us, then to reach out to someone else.  Loving our enemies has never been easy or particularly popular.  We may say we agree with loving our enemies only to struggle to live that out in our lives each day.  If we hear this life-changing invitation of Jesus as central to the Gospel, how might these words re-write our story?  Pro tip: this will not make you famous, gain followers on social media, or even be appreciated by others.  We don’t love our enemies as a strategy but because the presence of God so compels our souls.  There is no money back guarantee on love that will promise to make you smarter, happier, or admired.  But like anger and fear, love is a potent fuel to feed our lives.  Your words and actions have an energy, an undercurrent, waves that can guide you.  Are you being guided closer to others or are the waves of the world separating your boat of life from others?  Are you being guided to reach out, as the Good Samaritan, or just pass by others you encounter on life’s road?

 

The prayer posture and practice is to notice the person in front of you.  This means at the store, doctor’s office, walking in your neighborhood, and at the dinner table.  This also means the people you are reading online or listening to in the car.  This means the voices internally and externally.  To be awake and aware of who is inhabiting the world and whose energy you are interacting with as you go about this day.  May this prayer practice help you be open to God who often comes to us in ways that interrupt and disrupt us with a presence.  May you especially be open to those on the fringes and frays, those who are in the ditch like the Good Samaritan (or like the younger son who was in the mucky mud of life).  May this help us love our neighbors, enemies, family, friends, and ourselves in such a time as this.  Amen.

The Energy that Defines Us

 

We are continuing to let the echoes of the Prodigal Family (Luke 15:11-32) dance and dwell and help us define the stories we tell ourselves and others this week.  Yesterday I shared a quote from Rev. Timothy Keller about how all three characters (Father, Older Son, and Younger Son) are part of our operating systems.  Their scripts are like programs downloaded into our lives.  Our words can echo their words.  Today, we turn to a quote from Henri J.M. Nouwen’s book, “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” to help us dive deeper into this parable. 

 

Nouwen writes, “Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often, I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.”

 

Nouwen is describing and defining how both the younger and older son’s scripts are woven into our lives and hearts.  In both sons I see what Nouwen calls, ‘an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me,’.  Those words are particularly poignant and potent.  Do you hear your story in Nouwen’s words?  Do you see yourself? 

 

What if we all accept that it is our struggle and suffering too often define our stories?  How often does the emotion of anxiety – which can masquerade as anger or lashing out – control what we say and do?   

 

Then, what if, we recognize there is a better story of God’s love and grace that can co-author what we do and how we inhabit?  This love is not fluffy and simply ‘be nice’ ideas.  It is often pointed out that we don’t know what happened the day after the party.  Maybe the younger son and father needed to have a heart-to-heart; maybe the relationship was re-defined; there may have been tears shed as each shared the hurt and harm; maybe the older son was there too – or perhaps he never joined the party and is sulking out in the field.  We don’t know.  Families and relationships are complex and complicating and unique.  Each of us is a mass of constantly changing energy, when we collide with other’s energies, there is always a chemical reaction.  While sometimes we can predict what will happen, other times the elements of energy you meet in the energy of the other person will create something beautifully unique. 

 

How does the quote from yesterday and Nouwen’s from today deepen your connection to the story?

What new insights awaken within you as you think about the prodigal sons and father within you?

 

May you today know the healing embrace of God welcoming you home; may you know the presence and promise of God that says, “You are with me always”; and may your compass point you toward a love that will never let you go.  Amen.   

Your Operating System

 

The last few Sundays, we have opened our hearts to the parable of the Prodigal Family (Luke 15:11-32).  We have let this story of Jesus connect to our story.  On June 26^th, we connected to the younger son finding himself in the messy muck of life, which at times has been a place I have resided/called “home” ~ if not physically ~ certainly emotionally and spiritually.  There have been times, when like the younger son, my plotting and planning led me to a place I never intended to go.  I think about times when I have said something that wounded someone or moments I have been so laser focused on crafting/creating a career that I did not take my vacation time.  I have been there with the younger son bumping elbows with pigs, situations when I wondered, “How did I get here?!?”.  Then, there are moments I have been like the older son, adamant in my own corrected and righteousness and stubbornness.  The elder son, like the younger son who wandered away, hurt those closest to him.  I can too, when I am so concerned about getting my point across or scoring points on some does-not-exist scoreboard of life that I stomp on other’s toes.  Then, there is the lavish love of the father who goes out to BOTH the younger and older sons.  He meets both where they are.  When I let God’s grace feed and fuel my life (rather than anger or fear or pain), there is a wonderful wastefulness that is more than just being “nice” or “polite”.  I decide to let God’s love be my compass, the “why” we talked in the meditations last week, pointing me toward offering hope and healing. 

 

To me, it wasn’t only the younger son who acted prodigal-ly (although I don’t think that is a word).  Rather each person in the story was in some way reckless with resources; wastefully extravagant; and beautifully broken.  There have been countless books written and sermons preached on this parable.  Here is one quote from Rev. Timothy Keller’s book, “The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith,” “Your computer operates automatically in a default mode unless you deliberately tell it to do something else. So Luther says that even after you are converted by the gospel your heart will go back to operating on other principles unless you deliberately, repeatedly set it to gospel-mode.”  Deliberately reset your heart to gospel mode ~ not just once, but every single day.  There is an invitation for you and me today.

 

There is a bit of both sons and the father that live in each of us – each of their stories are downloaded to our mind’s operating system, but we need to reset and reaffirm the gospel operating system each day.  As you go about your day today ~ notice moments you are reading from each of these character’s scripts.  Like the younger son, I do this when I think I have it all figured out and wander away from God to do it MY way.  Like the older son, I have times when I stomp my foot demanding to be heard and cling to my certainty.  Like the father, I have moments I meet the person before me with God’s grace and love.  May that gospel mode operating system of God’s presence guide you today, help you write the script of your life each hour, and be what run in your heart each minute.  May you know peace, grace, and love today. Amen.

Friday Prayer

 

Prodigal God, You meet us in the messiness of life and in our certainty.  You meet us like a Mothering God clothing us with robe, ring, and sandals.  You remind us, like the Older Son, that we are “always with You.” Help us own our lostness.  Help us realize that repenting isn’t about blame or shame, but about a turning toward You.  Jolt us from ways of death ~ whether that is addiction or racing through life or holding resentment that causes our blood to boil ~ granting us strength to go toward life.  Help me like the younger son to come to my senses.  Help me put aside and away the joyless pouting of the older son.  Help me live in the Prodigal Father’s lavish love that You give each of us every day when we open our eyes to this day You have made.  In the name of the One whose Parables help us understand and live the good news of Your story, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Pause

 

Breathe with me today.

 

Breathe in the grace that meets you right where you are…breathe out the ways you try to “prove” or “deserve” God’s love.

Breathe in the holy presence that empowers a searching inventory of your soul…breathe out trying to hide from the Divine.

Breathe in the why, your fuel that feeds your life…breathe out all the others who want you to subscribe to their scripts of living.

Breathe in God’s presence…breathe out what is restless.

 

Our hearts are restless until we find our rest in God.  May this truth be encountered and experienced this day and this week.  Amen.

Welp, that didn't go well

 

Yesterday, we spent time with the way the younger son’s script was our script.  We named and claimed our addictions and moments we get stuck in the mud.  But, as we heard on Sunday, both sons lost their way ~ even as the older son never left home.  The younger son’s regret is action, the older son’s regret is inaction.  I love the tension in this truth.  Sometimes we do something and think, “Welp, that didn’t go well.”  We make a move and fall flat, splat, on our face.  Because of that, the next time, we, like the older son, stay on the sidelines.  Only there we realize, or regret, that we didn’t risk getting in the game.

 

So, which is it?  Should we take a leap of faith like the younger son, jump at the chance to live in the moment?  Should we be a bit more calculating and careful, stay closer to home like the older son?

 

Like most dualistic ~ either/or choices ~ the response is in the messy middle.  Sometimes we need to leap and other times we need to wait.  Sometimes we need to move forward, other times we need to look both ways before stepping into traffic.  It is not a one-size-fits-all/in all circumstances formula because life is too dynamic to be contained or confined.  Sometimes it can help to pause and ask, “why”?  Why do I want to go there or do that or say something?  Do I want to prove something to myself or others?  Do I want to be seen in a certain way?  Or does my soul cry out that this is the way of life? 

 

To check in daily ~ or even hourly ~ with your soul and your why.  Your “why” in life is your compass.  Your “why” is your north star. 

 

Today, take a moment to name your “why”.  One note, I believe your “why” changes throughout life, shifting sometimes subtly and other times changing directions completely.  On these early days of July to check in with your “why” might help guide you in the coming days and for the rest of this year.  Amen.

Coming to Our Senses

 

Over the last few weeks, we have held the Parable of the Prodigal Family close to our hearts.  One of the commentaries on this Parable focused attention on the pods the younger son was feeding to the pigs.  These pod, which might have been a carob pod native to the Middle East, was a tactile and tangible symbol.  The fact that the younger son was staring at a food intended to feed a pig, an animal that any faithful Jewish person avoided, was a wake-up call.  Picture the younger son holding that pod standing in the pigsty, muddy muck of life.  See his mouth start to salivate as he, instead of tossing and throwing it to the pig, starts to bring the pod to his mouth.  See the younger son look around to make sure no one is watching as he nibbles a corner off the pod.  Watch as the younger son’s face in shock or surprise, as scripture says, “comes to his senses.”  To use the language of AA, the younger son realizes that he has hit rock bottom.  You may be familiar with the 12 steps of the AA program.  The first step is to admit the powerlessness over alcohol.  In a world where all of us have some addictions, you might find your powerless over gambling, money, success, trending on social media, work, fear, anger.  What is it that consumes you but does not fill you?  What do you keep returning to maybe to numb the pain/ache or because the dopamine surge in your brain gives you a jolt? 

 

I wonder if part of what the younger son did in the muddy muck of that pigsty was Step 4 ~ make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.  What a powerful invitation for each of us individually and collectively!!  What a holy, heartfelt prayer practice in these days to look at, hold, examine what is on the shelves of our souls.  

 

Especially important in this step is the word, “fearless”.  We all stumble and bumble ~ that is part of the human condition.  Yet, we have been taught and caught to deny and distance ourselves from this truth.  We push our brokenness into the shadows like a child sweeping a broken lamp under the rug praying mom won’t find out. 

 

How might you today survey your life noticing and naming the good, the bad, and the ugly?  Can you invite God to sit with you in life where you are living your beloved-ness and where brokenness causes you to do what you don’t want to do?  May there be a moment of “coming to your senses” in the sacredness of a love that will never let you go.  May each of us this day and week sense God’s grace in healing, hope filled ways.  Amen.

Prayer for 4th of July

 

Please pray with me the words of the hymn: “This is my song”:

This is my song, O God of all the nations,

a song of peace for lands afar and mine.

This is my home, the country where my heart is;

here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine;

But other hearts, in other lands are beating with hopes and dreams

as true and high as mine.

 

A few reasons why I find this song particularly powerful and poignant today, July 4^th.  First, we worship God who is the Creator of all places and people.  While we call the United States, “Our homeland,” we recognize that our citizenship is in God’s realm that does not have human borders or boundaries.  We worship God who crafts and creates all people, all places in God’s image.  We can honor our place and at the same time notice that God does not rate or rank countries.  On this 4^th of July, we are invited to hold the beautiful, creative tension. 

Second, we pray for peace.  We live in a divided country, state, and community.  We are more and more aware of how hostile we are and how hatred festers.  We pray for peace ~ a healing and wellness ~ for all human hearts.  We pray for peace with our brothers and sisters in Ukraine, in Oslo, in Akron, OH, in Uvalde, and Buffalo, in rain forests being destroyed and earth’s resources depleted.  Peace ~ wellness and wholeness ~ is what we seek and what will restore right relationship with God, each other, and the earth.  Peace is coming to our senses and turning/returning to God who is working to restore ruptured relationships that exist.

Even as we are connected to the holiness and wholeness of life, we live in a particular place and time.  Given the reality, we have hopes and dreams and seek God’s guidance for where we call “home”.  We recognize our solidarity with others.  We pray for those whose hopes and aims and dreams go in the opposite direction.  We pray for those who we fear or frustrate us. 

O, hear, our song and heartfelt, honest prayer, God of all people and places, on this day.  Let this song guide our lives and living every day this week. 

Amen.

Prayers for July

 

God of new days and new months, we arrive at the doorway to the half-way point of 2022.  We can look in the rearview mirror of life recalling our New Year’s resolutions from January of this year when 2022 was a blank canvass ready for us to paint new ways.  Remember, recall, what resolutions or prayers or ideas swirled inside YOU on January 1, 2022?  Name them this morning.  Are your prayers from six months ago still swirling and stirring in your life?  Have you forgotten them?  Is today an opportunity to name prayers for the second half of this year?  As you look back at the first half of this year, recall moments of laughing with friends.  If you close our eyes, can you still smell the lilies of Easter or hear the music that warmed your hearts?  Here we are, O God, on this first day of July.  Here You are, O God, meeting us in this moment reminding us that today is brand-new, and tomorrow is too.  This is a moment full of possibility and promise to live fully in the image of God that you are being fashioned and formed and loved into living.  Today, open your hearts to God’s grace which makes a difference and makes you different.  Open your imaginations to not be confined or defined only by the headline news, rather create space for the Good News of God who is always calling you home.  As you set sail for the second part of this year, clear out the cobwebs and clutter in our minds for Your good news that nothing separates you from God.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  Not even that objection right now the lawyer in your mind is trying to voice from the back of your brain.  Not even that regret that resides unresolved on the shelf of your soul.  Not even the bumbles and stumbles.  Open your life this day to leap into July ready to explore and experience the Eternal now of this moment.  May July be blessed with renewal, replenishment, and a recommitment to follow the One who is the light of the World, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.