Friday Prayer

 

God of love that will never let us go.  As June winds down and wraps up, help us hold the truth that Your embrace greets us with the rising of the sun, stays with us wherever we go, goes before us to open the door before we arrive, and fluffs the pillow when we lay our head down to sleep praying the Lord our souls to keep.  You keep us.  You care for us.  You love us ~ not because You overlook our brokenness and bruises and less-than-brilliant moments.  You love us because You know we are a work in progress and the longing of our hearts to move toward You.  Move us toward You this day and in the days to come in ways that we might be awake and aware of Your goodness and grace that follows us our whole life long.  In the name of the One who is Your love incarnate, Jesus the Christ.  Amen.

Savoring our Unknowingness

 

Yesterday, we slowly savored the well-known words of Paul’s poem on God’s love.  He continued his prayer in 1 Corinthians 13 with these words:

⁸ Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. ⁹ For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part, ¹⁰ but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. ¹² For now we see dimly, as in a mirror, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. ¹³ And now faith, hope, and love remain, these three, and the greatest of these is love.

For we know in part…

For we speak in partiality…

For our point of view is a view from a point…

For we see in a mirror dimly…

For you are not the same person you were five years ago…

For your understandings are not the same as you thought back in your 20s or 30s or 40s

For the 8-year-old version of ourselves still resides within us and sometimes we want to stomp our foot in protest…

For the “me” each of us hides (sometimes even from ourselves)…

For we long to swim in the sea of God’s love, but we are not sure we should dare to dive in…

Friends, remember that nothing separates us from the love of God.  Nothing.  Go ahead, dare to dive into these words as we did yesterday.  Slowly pray the words above.  Where did you predict with absolute certainty something would happen and when it didn’t you prayed no one would remember your words?  Where did you sound a bit childish this week?  Where did you believe you had the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, only to find out there were some pieces missing from your puzzle?  Where can you let God’s love enter your life fully to be fully loved for who you are?  May your meditations this morning be a blessing beyond words.  Amen.

Savoring God's Love

 

This week we are opening our hearts and lives to the poem prayer of Paul on love.  I’ve encouraged you to lay these words alongside the sharp shards of a situation in your life.  I’ve invited you to let these words be in conversation with what is unsolved and unresolved.  I’ve named that this isn’t a magic trick that will suddenly make everything better.

Today, I want to dive and dwell into what Paul is saying about love.  I believe 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 isn’t about human love, but about God’s love.  This is the way God’s love works and who God is.  Read these words slowly, savoring each syllable with me.  

⁴ Love is patient;

love is kind;

love is not envious

or boastful

or arrogant 

⁵ or rude.

It does not insist on its own way;

it is not irritable;

it keeps no record of wrongs; 

⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing

but rejoices in the truth. 

⁷ Love bears all things,

believes all things,

hopes all things,

endures all things.

Love (God’s love) never ends.

Now, I invite you to go back and re-read with an openness and inviting God to let these words sink and sing to your soul.  Where exactly do you need God’s patient love ~ with yourself, with others, with meetings today?  Be specific!  Where do you need God’s kind love to reside in your life at this moment?  Again, name a place and space where this is your deepest prayer.  Where do you want to let go of the envy of comparison?  How might you do that?  Where do you long to let go of needing to prove yourself or the need to be necessary or show how productive you are?  Where have you been arrogant or rude?  Where do you need to shred the record of wrongdoing ~ for yourself and others? 

Pause after each line letting these ancient words move in your life with the love of God that will never let any of us go.  Amen.

Meditation on 1 Corinthians 13

Yesterday, we placed 1 Corinthians 13 alongside an actual tension-filled, Humpty-Dumpty broken situation in your life.  We did this, not because 1 Corinthians 13 is Elmer’s glue to put everything back together easily and magically.  We did this, not because I think the hurt and ache of life can be resolved by applying a Bible verse like an ointment to a rash.  We did this because I want you to hear how revolutionary and challenging these words are.

When 1 Corinthians 13 is offered only to a couple being married, we can Disney-ify the words.  We can think, “Aww, isn’t that sweet.”  But, when we consider the context that these words are written to a people in conflict, and could be written to our conflicts, that shifts the tenor and tone of these words.  Just as in our lives, there are those in Corinth who were maybe yelling or giving icy glares and stares of the silent treatment or had even left the church, suddenly these words don’t sound so wonderful. 

I wonder, what was Paul thinking writing this?  Does he really believe that the church in Corinth could turn their hearts, minds, souls, and lives around to live this way?  And then, the more difficult and demanding call, does Paul think you and I and we as the church can do that today?  Gulp…that’s a little too close to home!

If it is only up to humans to practice these words, I am not sure what will happen.  But, because God is God and moves in the chaos/brokenness/less than perfectness of our lives, maybe these words are possible.  Look back at your drawing from yesterday, recall that situation, person, place, experience, or encounter that is like a bag of sand you are lugging around in your life.  Paul is saying there is a freedom Christ gives to set down all the pain of life.  This freedom doesn’t guarantee an easy life.  This is a freedom from brokenness is a freedom for sharing/letting loose God’s love.  This freedom redirects our energy and effort away from fanning flames of hate and misunderstanding and anger to a freedom for being an instrument of God’s presence in the world.  To be sure, two thousand years after Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection, there is no express lane to God’s realm here on earth.  We keep praying with openness to let love be planted in the soil of our souls, to take root, and grow for the sake of the world God so loves.  May you and I continue to let these words to the Corinthians and to the church today rummage and roam around our hearts on this day. Amen.

Meditation on 1 Corinthians 13

 

I invite you to think of a conflict, something that makes you uneasy and makes your stomach all queasy.  This could be a situation that you’ve tried to resolve, but all your plotting and planning have not yielded the results you’ve wanted.  This could be a relationship where there is stress and strain, and you are not quite sure how things went off the rails.  This could be events or experiences; this could be something personally you are facing.

Imagine this situation is like a piece of broken glass.  There is probably a jaggedness, roughness, sharpness to what you are holding right now.  It has probably left woundedness and scars…maybe continues to do so. 

Describe this situation to the best of your ability.  Name the thoughts, emotions, soul stirrings, and where all this sits in your body.  In fact, go ahead and draw a stick figure (this doesn’t have to be museum quality Picasso painting), the more rudimentary and elementary, the better.  In fact, get a crayon to draw your stick figure!  Now, write down your thoughts around this brokenness next to the head of your stick figure – especially the things you’ve tried to resolve the situation or the questions you have or the things you’d like to say to the other person.  By the heart, write down the emotions – could be anger or sadness or numbness.  By the soul of your stick figure, write what is deep within you, your prayer for this brokenness.  You can write down the hurt you’ve absorbed and where the pain still aches and your deep hope for a different way. 

Look at your visual prayer ~ because that is what you’ve just drawn!  Your embodied prayer that resides in you.

Over the last few weeks, we have been eavesdropping on Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.  We have heard how the Corinthians loved to disagree and debate everything!!  In fact, I daresay, you could take every contentious and controversial church meeting you’ve ever been in ~ and we have all been in those ~ combine them all together ~ and that is the kind of conflict that hovered and hung in the air of the Corinthian church. Sounds delightful!  I am sure that was a fun church to join! 

Now, lean in and listen to Paul’s famous poem/prayer ~

If I speak in the tongues of humans and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. (That is exactly what was happening ~ lots of noisy gongs of people pontificating and proclaiming that they had the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth) ² And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. (Again, people at the First Church of Corinth had forgotten the fundamental truth that our point of view is a view from one single point!) ³ If I give away all my possessions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. (How we can sometimes offer humble brags or do things to make ourselves seem like super spiritual people.)

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (That is a really long list and reminds me that without God there is NO way I could do any of the above.)

I wonder, given the situation you described, how do the above words sound?  What do the above words provoke and evoke?  Maybe you think, “Paul doesn’t get how difficult that person is!”  Or maybe an honest, heartfelt question, “Is this really possible or practical?”  Or maybe we would just prefer these words to stay as part of a wedding ceremony than interrupt our anger at someone or something or ourselves.  For today, hold the messiness and the truthfulness that not every situation can be easily resolved in a half hour or one morning meditation post from me.  May the God who hovers creatively and compassionately over our stick figured lives be with you today.

Embodying God's Presence Prayer

 

God, continue to slow me down.  To notice the ache in my body, to notice the joy, to taste the goodness and grace that are part of this journey of life.  Help me remember that everyone is facing and fighting something which I may know nothing about.  As Paul says, we see in a mirror dimly.  Help me celebrate my connections this week.  The sweet laughter with friends and the moments of talking to a neighbor and the hug that still lingers.  Help me grieve the pains of words spoken too quickly and sharply by another or by my own internal critic.  Help me continue to be open to the truth that crafted in Your image and longing to belong are part of this condition called, “Humanity.”  May You continue to show up in my life in these days in ways that delight me and with a love that never lets me ~ or anything in all the world ~ go.  Amen.  

Embodying God's Presence

 

Today, I share one of my favorite prayers with you ~

 

Slow Me Down 

Slow me down, Lord!                                                      
Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind.
Steady my harried pace
With a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me,
Amidst the confusions of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves
With the soothing music 
Of the singing streams
That live in my memory.

Help me to know
The magical power of sleep,
Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations 
Of slowing down
To look at a flower;
To chat with an old friend 
Or make a new one;
To pet a dog;
To watch a spider build a web;
To smile at a child;
Or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day
That the race is not always won by the swift;
That there is more to life 
Than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward
Into the branches of the towering oak
And know that it grew great and strong
Because it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,
And inspire me to send my roots deep
Into the soil of life's enduring values
That I may grow toward the stars
Of our greater destiny.

- Offered by Dave Johnson and Kyra Shahid; Written by Orin L. Crain

Embodying God's Presence Part 3

 

This week we are hold the twin truths that you are God’s beloved and our deep desire to belong.  We have tried to practice this of wearing out skin out in the world among other humans.

How is that going?

My guess is that you’ve probably had some moments when you were able to embrace and embody both truths.  And there were sometimes when it was a swing and miss.  Remember that a good batting average in baseball is 3 out of 10 times.  Remember that in baseball errors are a part of the game.

There is no magical formula that makes this easy. There are no rules or simple steps.  And there is an abundance of opportunities to practice this every day. Continue to open your mind, imagination, heart, and whole life to God who shows up in your life and in the life of every person you encounter today.

Prayer: God, You are still at work in me and around me, help me be patient and kind and loving to my self and my neighbor, for Your love is what fuels and feeds my life every day.  Amen.

Embodying God's Presence Part 2

 

Yesterday, we held two twin truths together ~ one ~ you long to be who God made you to be and who you are becoming.  And ~ two ~ you long to belong to a community where you can show up as yourself.  When these two are in harmony, our lives feel full.  But, when there is tension between these two, it causes our hearts to ache and souls to break and we want to resolve that tension as quickly as possible.  This tension is part of life from the beginning, many of us pick up in childhood that it isn’t okay to show up as we authentically are.  We are told by our parents that, “Boys don’t cry” or “Girls aren’t as good at math.”  Neither of which are true. We are told by our teachers if we are good at a subject. We are told by our friends whether our clothing is stylish enough. We are told by our church whether our faith is strong or orderly. We are told by the voices around us that if we use this new brand of toothpaste all the world will fall at our feet.

Even when I say in a morning meditation that you, as you are right now, are crafted and loved into being in God’s image, I get that those words barely may cut through the words you heard in the past and the noise of the present.  When so many point out what is imperfect and incorrect in us, we long to belong.

On top of this, we are hyperaware that we may get kicked out of the tribe.  If we don’t nod our head or vote in a certain way or show up or say the right words we may just be put out the curb.  There is still our ancestral DNA where when you got booted from the tribe that met you might be lunch for a lion in the bush over there.

We return to the question; how can we be our unique self and connect communally to others?

Today, I invite you to take time to notice and name moments when you felt you had let go of a part of you so that you could fit in.  To use Paul’s words from chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians ~ when has your hand said to your eye, “You are no longer need.”  This is metaphorical language here.  When have you said, “I will just go along to get along.”  Or I won’t say anything because I don’t want to rock the boat.  Let be clear that this could be in our families, church, or community.  Hold these words for the truth they continue to show us in such a time as this.

Prayer: God, You craft me in Your image.  Yet, sometimes there is so much about me and we I want to change.  Help me live the truth that I am accepted and affirmed with Your affection and so is that person I will see when I go to the store today. Amen.

Embodying God's Presence

 

As we continue to let the words of Paul inform and inspire our lives this summer, this week I want to turn toward and tune into the words about being the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12.  Remember, Paul is writing to a church where conflict was on the agenda of every meeting ~ sounds like a wonderful place to be – sign me up, I think sarcastically!  Part of the problem was (and maybe still is), people want to rate and rank everything.  There remains this competition to score points on an imaginary scoreboard of life.  People at the First Church of Corinth wanted to know that their casserole was the blue ribbon best at the potluck; that their leadership was so Christ-soaked it was as if Jesus himself was right there; that their sermons knocked it out of the park every single week (that last one might be a bit too close for comfort.  Gulp!).

Paul wants to remind the Corinthians that there is no “I” in church.  (Thank you to every sports movie ever for that cliché).  Built and baked into the human condition is this deep desire both to be seen as unique and to be accepted/affirmed/belong.  We long to be who God crafts us to be individually and we long to be in community.  Therein is an honest tension.  We long to belong and we long to be our authentic accepted self.  There are times those two are not as compatible or easily put together as we want them to be.  This isn’t easily resolved or solved.  There is no answer in the back of the book of life to help us figure out how to navigate the “me” and “we” of life. 

Paul draws on the image of a body.  He writes in chapter 12, ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

There are many ways to take this passage.  First, we can look at our own lives.  Often there is a part of our body or life we wish/want to be different.  Remember back to January 1 of this year, if you made New Year’s Resolutions often those relate to our physical or emotional or mental or spiritual changes we want to make.  We often say, “New Year, New Me.”  The practice of wearing skin, of being human size, comes with a built-in color commentary in our minds that loves to point out all the places you could be just a bit better.  And if your own internal critic doesn’t do it, scrolling through social media will activate that part of our brain software almost every time.  Part of what I hear in the above words is the reminder to be human size.  I hear the affirmation that you, right now, are crafted and created in God’s image.

Savor this with me…re-read those last two sentences as many times as needed to let it sink in.

Remember, Paul is not writing to isolated individuals, but he is writing to a whole community and church.  We are connected to one another.  We are connected to people who are also hurting and hiding and trying to figure out life.  And sometimes the ache of life comes out as shame or blame or guilt or pull someone down to prop yourself up.  Happened in Corinth.  Happens in June of 2023. 

Today, I invite you to tell your inner critic/commentary, that you are created in God’s image.  And…so are the other people you meet today.  Come back tomorrow and we will dive deep into how this practice goes.

Friday Prayer

 

Guiding God, You are with us every second and step of the day.  You hold our hand when the road twists and turns like a rollercoaster.  You help us make meaning by authoring our story, connecting us, and reminding us that our first, middle, and last name is, “Beloved”.  When the wolves of today pay an unwelcome visit, give us courage.  When we struggle, open us to those who You send who share unconditional love.  When we stumble, pick us up.  When we feel joy, help us share this.  When there is a beautiful ordinariness, let that too speak of Your sacred presence.  Be with us and bless us to be a blessing.  Amen. 

What to do next??

 

So far this week, we have noted the twists and turns.  We have focused on the wolves (metaphorically) that challenged and changed us.  Yesterday, we added the layer of ABC (agency/belonging/calling or cause) as a window to make sense of our lives.  This week, I want to share one final thought from Feiler’s book.  He says there are actions we can take in our life right now.  He names these as:

 

Accept it ~ identify your emotions/thoughts/gut as one window to express what you are experiencing.

Mark it ~ ritualize the change through writing or painting or making something that symbolizes what is stirring within you.

Shed it ~ give up clinging for what was or controlling every last detail.

Create it ~ try new steps toward new ways ~ remembering that you didn’t arrive where you are overnight and won’t reach a destination in a single step.

Share it ~ seek wisdom from others, especially people who will listen to you.

Launch it ~ embrace and embody a new way of being, bravely move toward where God is nudging you.

Tell it ~ share what you are now experiencing that is different and distinct to others, this will help you continue to accept it~ and continue the cycle above. 

 

Feiler notes that in transition you will feel fear, sadness, shame, guilt, anger, and loneliness.  We often think, “Shouldn’t I be further along by now?!?”  As a runner, I know that my competition isn’t the person next to me in a race, but myself.  I know what pace or time I am aiming.  The person who passes me is running her own race.  And the point isn’t the medal at the finish line, those often gather dust in a drawer anyway.  The point is the process that begins with training, leading up to the excitement of starting the race, the challenge of midway through the race (when I wonder what was I thinking?!?), and finishing the race ~ even if I walk across the line.  May the words above help you today.  In the words of the Spiritual, “Guide my feet while I run this race, yes, my Lord! Guide my feet while I run this race, yes, my Lord! Guide my feet while I run this race, for I don’t want to run this race in vain!”  Feel free to sing this as a prayer today…and add the second verse, “Hold my hand, Lord, while I run this race”.  May these words be experienced in your life this day.  Amen. 

ABC of life

 

This week we are taking on the role of lifestorian inspired by a book by Bruce Feiler.  On Monday we began a life timeline.  On Tuesday we named the wolves that we still face or fear or fight in our lives.  But this is more than just data or facts because humans are meaning making machines.  We constantly try to connect the dots and form conclusions.  As we do this, we would be well to remember Paul’s insightful words about not knowing why he did what he did (see the Morning Meditations from the week of May 22).  Feiler talks about the ABC of meaning. 

A is for autonomy or agency ~ you author the story you tell yourself and can edit it;

B is for belonging or connections, family/friends matter in our stories, we are not isolated individuals or as Genesis 1 says, it is not good for a human to be alone;

C is for cause or calling or purpose, we long to know that we are making a difference.

Look back at your timeline (or spiral or twisty map that you’ve been working on).  Put an “A” where you made a choice.  For example, I can put an “A” next to attending Drake University, United Theological Seminary, and Luther Seminary.  I can put an “A” next to the prayerful decisions about which church I would serve.  I can put a “B” next to marrying my best friend, the birth of children or visits to see my dad and brother.  I can put a “B” next to my mom’s death.  I can put a “B” next to people in our church who bless me.  And I can put a “C” next to places where I feel God’s love freely flowing through me like writing these meditations or preaching or being out in creation.  Remember from a few weeks ago, Ronald Rolheiser quote, “A healthy soul must put some fire in our veins, keep us energized, vibrant, living with zest, and full of hope as we sense that life is, ultimately, beautiful, and worth living.” Where on your timeline does the fire burn brightly ~ and you let your light shine.  May pondering the ABC’s of your life open you to the beautiful story you and God are collaborating to compose right now..

Encountering Wolves

 

Italians have a phrase for the upending of life ~ lupus in fabula ~ Fabula means fairy tale ~ or the idealized version of life.  Fabula means those times when everything is going well.  Lupus is wolf or trouble or conflict.  There is always a wolf in the fairy tale~ might be an actual wolf or that time when we get lost in the woods and can’t see our way out.  If you avoid/deny the wolf, you also avoid/deny/diminish your own agency.  When you reviewed the high points, low points, and turning points of your life yesterday, where did you discover wolves or times you got lost or stuck?  One of the realities of the world today is that the wolves may not be literal, but many still feel their warm breath on the back of their necks.  For our ancestors, the human brain needed a radar to be on alert for wolves or lions or bears…oh my!!  But where I live in FL, in my HOA, I don’t worry too much about encountering a bear, an alligator maybe, but bear or wolf not so much.  So, the wolves become metaphorical.  I can worry about discrimination and violence and pain that humans cause each other.  I can worry about the wolves of challenges that my children will face as they set out into the world.  I can worry about the wolves of our church that challenge us to be faithful in these days.  And when anxiety feeds and fuels my life, I can end up over functioning and overthinking everything.  If I just do one more thing, then I might feel in control.  If we just have one more meeting, we might come up with a better plan to attract more people.  This can create a gap in our lives, where what we preach about God (nothing separates us from God’s love) but we may act as if grace is all up to us…or we judge who deserves grace…or we are not sure grace can be trusted. 

This week, as you take on the role of a lifestorian, what wolves have you encountered in life?  What wolves do you fear are lurking around the corner?  These could be physical/health or relational or communal or emotional or spiritual or all the above.  Let your life speak honestly to you…and may you hold the truth that God’s love holds you with an embrace this day.  Amen.  

Listening to Your Life

 

Recently, I read a book by Bruce Feiler, who describes and defines himself as a lifestorian ~ a person who dives deep into life.  One of my deep beliefs is that God shows up disguised as my/your life.  There is no “spiritual” separate from “real” life…because all life is spiritual, we cannot compartmentalize or categorize our life.  All is interconnected.  It is like the difference between waffles (with their separate distinct squares) and spaghetti where everything is mixed and mingled together – we don’t know where one noodle ends, and another begins.  The more we see life as threads woven together in a tapestry, the more we might notice God the seamstress sewing in our lives.

Feiler writes about the story you were told as a child.  From a young age, you were given a family narrative.  This story can be ascending ~ we came from nothing, we worked hard, now we are something/somebody.  Or at the other end, the story could be descending ~ we used to have it all, but we lost everything.  Or the story could be an oscillating one ~ we’ve had ups and downs in our family, there have blessings and brokenness along the way.  I do think Feiler missed that sometimes we are given a story where everyone is against us which is why we struggle.  This is a story where if it wasn’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have any luck at all.  There can be a family story that is hidden in the shadow, where we don’t talk about it, rather there is a chilly silence.  What was the story you heard as a child growing up? 

Feiler asked people to tell him about their life in fifteen minutes ~ to focus on the high points, low points, and turning points.  Many of us may not be able to do this off the cuff, we would need time to reflect on the path that brought us to this present moment.  Perhaps this invitation sparks/stirs something within you.  Could you tell your story of life in fifteen minutes?  By the way, many of Feiler’s interviews went way beyond 15 minutes.  It isn’t easy to give the Cliff notes version of life.  As you look back on your life do you discern a central theme like named in the paragraph above?

William James said, life is lived in the transition ~ we cannot ignore/wish/will away the changes.  We accept, name, share, and embrace them into the narratives we tell.  We are always in transition, which is poignant for me with our daughter about to move into college in a few weeks. I invite you to take Feiler’s suggestion to heart.  Find a piece of paper and pen to reflect on your life path – high points, low points, and turning points - that have brought you this far.  May you sense the sacred sustaining you, especially in the unexpected twists and turns that happen to us all.  I would love for you to share your timeline with me.  May God, who is the co-author of our story, who edits our lives with love, sit beside you as you let these words simmer in your soul.  Amen.

Borrowing Words Part 5

 

So, here we are at the end of another week.  We look back at all that has filled our days this first full week of June.  We notice the people in whom God showed up disguised as our life.  Like Abraham and Sarah, sometimes we entertain angels unaware in our lives or at we bump into God’s saints without that being on our calendars.  We look back at moments of laughter and times of frustration and moments when we were on cruise control ~ just putting one foot in front of the other.  And we know God was there.  We pray for God to open our ears, eyes, minds, imaginations, and life so God might get a word in edgewise.  We pray for holy pauses and deep breaths before we go offer preaching and pontificating convinced that we know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  We realize that we see in a mirror dimly, we don’t always have life all figured out.  But we want to, because others seem to have been given the owner’s manual, and we missed that day in school.  May God remind us that everyone is trying to paint the moving train of life.  That in a world of constant change that rearranges our carefully planned and plotted lives, God’s love is the ground of our being and God shelter us in the storms of life.  So take my life today, and let it be a blessing to those I meet.  Take this moment and this day, let me get caught up in praise.  May I realize that it is in You I stand and stay.  Let God’s love have the first, middle, and last word this day. Amen.  

Borrowing Words Part 4

 

A blessing for being human by Kate Bowler

Blessed are we, living in this small space,
in these bodies we now inhabit,
within the walls of circumstance,
in these short years and finite strength,
and with these eyes that see only so far.

We are fragile, contingent beings.

Yet blessed are we,
recognizing that it is our limits as well as our gifts
that can shape the natural contours of what is possible,
that guide us to what is ours to do.

Blessed are we when it is not our greatness that speaks, but our littleness.
For it is our vulnerability that is the truest thing about us,
the place where mutual connection is possible,
where competition ends and community begins.

And oh how blessed are we in our fragility and dependence and brokenness,
knowing that You, O God, hold all things together.

There is no cure for being human…but for each other, we are all good medicine.

Borrowing Words Part 3

 

God of Wednesday when we are in the messy middle of a week.

Our good intentions and plans from Monday morning were thwarted by interruptions and we had to throw them out the window.

Our re-start of Tuesday, new day/new me attitude from yesterday got turned upside down because of the words were heard and the moment we opened the newspaper.

So, here we are on this hump day, middle of the week.

Here we are with this mixture of moments when things went awry, and…and we know that somethings have also gone alright this week.

We celebrate that lunch from Monday with a friend.

We felt Your nearness, O God, as we took a deep breath on Tuesday.

And here we are with You right now on this Wednesday.

Remind us, O God, that we can always return and re-tune the instrument of our life to You.

Remind us, O God, that just as the sower in the Bible who scattered seeds willy-nilly and some of them actually took root, so maybe You are not asking us for a bumper crop of love every day from my life.

Remind us, O God, that sometimes reasonably happy is a good goal, perhaps even a holy one.

So may the prayers of our cluttered hearts this day be offered to You.

Untangle and untwist our random thoughts and scattered souls and emotions we are not sure we can really share, to find a moment of stillness with You.

Be thou our vision in this moment and every moment.  Surround and sustain us with a love divine all love’s excelling that comes unconditionally from You.  Let our lives sing out with joyful noise in adoration that You are with us and nothing separates us from Your presence.  Please, God, we are really counting on this to be true today.  Amen.

Borrowing Words Part 2

 

Although the author is unknown, and the prayer below has become associated with Alcoholics Anonymous, the Serenity Prayer has something to teach and tell each of us.  Slowly read these words savoring each syllable.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference,

living one day at a time;

enjoying one moment at a time;

taking this world as it is and not as I would have it;

trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to Your will;

so that I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen.    

I love the opening three lines offer us a way to encounter and experience this beautiful and broken world.  That in every moment there are things we can change, things we cannot control, and we need the wisdom to know the difference.  In a recent podcast, a person said in every situation there are things that are mine, things that belong to another person (who I cannot change), and things that are God’s.  What is mine, theirs, and God’s.  Those are three good categories, because often what frustrates and flummoxes us is that we cannot change another person.  I am not in charge or control what the other person does or says or believes.  I can respond to what s/he says, but I cannot open that person’s head and re-wire their brain.  Or as Edwin Friedman wrote, “The colossal misunderstanding of our time is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change.” 

What can we do?

That is where the second, less well-known, part of the prayer comes in ~ we take one day at a time, enjoy (note that word ~ enjoy ~ in the less-than-perfectness of this moment ~ don’t delay or defer your joy OR let your joy depend on someone or something else) your world today.  We receive the world as it is ~ to be an instrument of God’s peace to combine with the prayer from yesterday.  Finally, I love that phrase, “reasonably happy”.  What a GREAT invitation.  This isn’t about having the best…DAY…EVER!!!  Today is about being reasonably happy.  I don’t know who wrote this prayer, but I am going to say it was a wise person who knew that if you string together a few reasonably happy days, you get some pretty good weeks, and some pretty good weeks can add up to a more-than-acceptable months which can point you to an above average year which can be a wonderful blessing moment-by-reasonably-good-moment. 

May these words today open You to God whose supreme love will never let you go. Amen. 

Borrowing Words Part 1

 

Last week, we stepped into the stillness and silence ~ as God’s first language.  We explored and experienced and experimented with what it would mean to move beyond words.  This week, I want us to ground ourselves in the words of others.  Some of the prayers I will share this week have been shared over centuries…some are contemporary…a few are my own.  We begin with the prayer of St. Francis:

Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

Now, go back and re-read this prayer with a pause after each line to let theords sink in and sing to your soul.  Let there be silent space within you after each petition to ponder.  What does it mean to be an instrument of God’s peace today?  What would that look like, sound like, taste and be like?  Be as specific as possible.  Being an instrument of God’s peace looks like being understanding and speaking carefully at the meeting today.  Being an instrument of God peace means that I don’t let the mountain of despair stop me from hewing a stone of hope (to quote Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.).  Being an instrument of God’s peace means laughing because there is goodness in this world.

What does it mean to sow God’s love specifically for you today ~ be concrete ~ and with whom?  Who are people you anticipate meeting today with whom you can plant a seed of love in the soil of their souls?  Name the people aloud, even if you are not sure how you might sow love with that person, because that person always shows up in all our lives with wonderfully creative ways to annoy us.  Where can you forgive?  Where might you let go of the white-knuckle grasp on anger you have been clinging to and fanning the flames of frustration each day because that person’s existence infuriates you?  Can you say today, “I prayerfully release my anger and pray for pardon in this brokenness”?  Where can you share and shine the light of faith and hope and let loose your smile with reckless abandonment?  The more specific you can find ways to embody and embrace this prayer ~ the better.  May the melody of instruments known as our lives come together in the symphony of God’s still composing and conducting ways today. Amen.