Breathe

 

As March winds down and wraps up, as we find ourselves in the messy middle of Lent, I wonder how is it with your soul?  Seriously?  Honestly?  Whole-hearted-ly?  I am not looking for you to say, “I’m fine” through clinched teeth and a tight jaw with your shoulders so tense they touch your ears while you are exhausted from not getting enough sleep last night ~ I can say that because I live that.  How is it with your soul?  When was the last time you checked in with yourself ~ physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally and mentally?

 

Take a breath.  Breathe in God’s grace that holds us and behold how you reflect God’s image. Breathe out all those messages your inner critic screams as your mind offers unsolicited color commentary on your life.  Breathe in God’s peace, wholeness or shalom, that seeks to gather all your parts ~ the beautiful and broken and ordinary into God’s embrace.  Breathe out all the striving and saving and fixing we try to do.  Breathe in the love of God that is unconditional and uncontrollable and unceasing.  Breathe out the carbon dioxide of choke us.  Let out a loud sigh.  Even louder so I can hear it where I am!

 

Now, take a piece of paper and check in ~ what is roaming around your mind?  Again, be honest and earnest in this ~ about the good, the bad and the ugly.  Where are you worried, where are you wondering, where are you wandering?  What concerns and celebration spin on the hamster wheel of your mind? 

 

Now check in physically, do a body scan from the top of your head to pinkie toe.  Where is there sore muscles, pain, or ache?  What do the soles of your feet feel like?  How about your stomach is it settled (in the rest and digest stage) or doing summersaults? 

 

Now check in emotionally and spiritually ~ ask, “How is it with my soul?”  It doesn’t have to be amazing or awesome.  You could have an ordinary, okayish, day.  You could be having a terrible, rotten, no good, awful day.  You could be confused or frustrated.  You could be doubting today and have endless questions for God.  Remember, there are no good emotions or bad emotions.  Emotions are energy is motion~ emotions point us in a direction, that we can take or not take.  Same with thoughts.  Both are data points.

 

How are you and God doing?  It’s okay if you are going through a rough and rocky patch with God.  It is okay if you need to lament that God isn’t swooping in and saving us from all the brokenness and pain.  It is okay to shake a fist and raise a voice.  It is okay if you are confused about where God is or what God is calling you to do ~ I often am.  Where you are is where you are ~ and you can only start right here.  Remember, your emotions and thoughts don’t need to be chased or acted on, sometimes they just need to be noticed and heard.

 

Who do you pray for today?  Maybe a friend is going through cancer treatment or having surgery or struggling.  Maybe for our church.  Maybe for your enemy not to be a jerk today or for you to be able to respond without your words dripping, drenched with sarcasm.  For people and places you do not even know or will never visit. 

Now breathe and slowly exhale.  Again, breathe and slowly exhale.  Breathe and be knowing who and whose you are.  Amen.

Prayer ~ Mothers of Mysticism Series

 

I pray this week has been filled with “Aha” moments.  Maybe you have googled the names of the mothers of mysticism, read a few more quotes where they shared their wisdom, or found God’s goodness through the prayer practices these fiercely faithful women embodied.  Today I invite you to listen and learn from Therese of Lisieux.  She is relatively recent living in the late 1800.  She wrote a book called The Little Flower.  

Therese once said, “Remember that nothing is small in the eyes of God.  Do all that you do with love.”  

Or my favorite, “The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy.  It depends upon the way we occupy that place.”  You may need to read that quote a few times.  

She challenges us by saying, “Perfect (or sacred) love means putting up with other people’s shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.”  

Finally, “A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”  

So may you today, my friends, find a word or a smile to share with those who cross your path.  May you occupy this place where you find yourself with love.  May you remember that it isn’t about being special or spectacular, because the sacred is found in small actions on this day.  Amen. 

Stroll ~ Mothers of Mysticism Series

 

So far, in our whirlwind tour of mothers of mysticism, we have spent time with Catherine of Siena, Hildegard von Bingen, Teresa of Avila and today one of my favorites, Julian of Norwich whose book, Showings I read in seminary.  Julian had visions, like so many of the brave and bold women we have met this week.  

She once found herself in a pit of life that she could not escape and felt Christ’s presence right there.  This caused her to say, “Jesus did not say, ‘You will never have a rough passage, you will never be over-strained, you will never feel uncomfortable,’ but he did say, ‘You will never be overcome.”  

Julian, like Hildegard, found holy in creation.  “The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.  God is the ground, the substance, the teaching, the teacher, the purpose, and the reward for which every soul labors.”  

Julian was one of the first to preach and teach expansive and evolving language.  She said, “As truly as God is our father, so truly God is our Mother.”  

And “We need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker’s marvelous love so fully.”  

Julian reminded us that we don’t need to hide our vulnerability from God, as if we could, but rather we offer our full selves, warts and all, to the One who knows the number of hairs on our head.  

Finally, Julian once said, “The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.”  Now, to be sure, that is difficult and demanding in some places ~ especially when watching the news!  

But today’s prayer practice is to take a walk around your block.  As you do, remember Teresa saying that to love your neighbor is holy, so if you bump into someone, feel free to chat for a while.  I encourage you to find one thin place, one place where you feel goosebumps/God-bumps or flesh bumps.  Perhaps it is a butterfly that briefly flutters past.  Perhaps it is a flower that catches your eye.  Perhaps it is the wind on your skin or the sun warming your face.  Where do you feel you are embraced and enfolded by the Eternal as you wander around?  By now, I hope you realize you don’t have to walk 10,000 miles to do this, just to the end of the driveway to fetch your mail will be enough.  May your wandering in the wonder of the world today help you discover the Divine right on your doorstep.  Amen.

Sit! Mothers of Mysticism Series

 

So far this week we have stood in the sun with Catherine of Siena calling us to be brave and bold.  We have sung with Hildegard von Bingen who remind us that music softens the souls of those around us.  And today we turn toward the mother of mysticism, Teresa of Avila who was born in Spain in the 16^th Century.  While she, like Catherine and Hildegard, wanted to join a monastery, her father disapproved.  She also faced several severe bouts of malaria.  You may be well familiar with one of her most famous invitations to faith, 

“Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands, no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out his compassion to the world.  Yours are the feet with which he is to go doing good.  Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.”

 

Pause with me to check in with your body, your full self.  How are you doing today physically?  Do you have aches and pains?  Gaze at your hands, how have you reached out with Christ’s love embodied in your fingers?  Look at your feet, where have you gone this week?  With whom has your path intersected?  What words have fallen from your lips?  What thoughts race around your mind?  What stirs and souls in your heart/soul?  You are an incarnation, in the flesh, living faith, of Christ who we follow.  Hold this truth that Teresa awakens beautifully, profoundly, powerfully for us.

 

Teresa also said, “Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.”  

In a world of FOMO (fear of missing out) we are constantly concerned that something better is happening somewhere else.  We race and run in all directions, frenzied and fearful that the grass is greener over there.  Teresa says no, right here is holy, because right here is where God is.

 

Teresa also said, “The surest way to determine whether one possesses the love of God is to see whether he or she loves his or her neighbor.  These two loves are never separated.  Rest assured, the more you progress in love of neighbor the more your love of God will increase.”  

And, “Prayer is an act of love.  Words are not needed.”   

 

Today, sit in silence listening for God.  Given what Teresa said above, we might be tempted to race off to save the world.  I think of the cartoon character Mighty Mouse, whose catchphrase was, “Here I come to save the day.”  We all want a cape or the lasso of Wonder Woman to right all wrongs.  Yet, contemplation, letting God get a word in edgewise in your agenda, letting God’s realm awaken in you is the first and final step.  It is only out of prayer that we seek to act and the act returns us to prayer to check in with the Creator who corrects and consoles us because our actions will always be human-size.  May the holy silence today be a moment of God serenading you with love.  Amen.

Sing! Mothers of Mysticism series

 

Yesterday we celebrated Catherine of Siena (feel free to google her name to learn more).  Today we turn to Hildegard von Bingen who lived between 1098 and 1179.  She, like Catherine, became a nun as a teenager and had divine visions throughout her life.  She began to record these in a book called, “Know the Ways”.  She was a philosopher, musician, and lover of creation.  She once said, “Even in a world that’s being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.”  “We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others.  An interpreted world is not a home.  Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.”  And “Humanity, take a good look at yourself.  Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation.  You’re a world -everything is hidden in you.”  Also, “Sing!  The song of rejoicing softens hard hearts.  It makes tears of godly sorrow flow from them.  Singing summons the Holy Spirit.  Happy praises offered in simplicity and love lead the faithful to complete harmony, without discord.  Don’t stop singing.”

 

I wonder, as you hold these three quotes from Hildegard alongside the four from Catherine of Siena yesterday, what themes are beginning to emerge for you?  I hear each beloved daughter calling us to be brave ~ which is so inspirational given that both lived in a time when women’s voices were not valued.  Both remind us of the beauty of creation ~ that we are caught in an inescapable web with all of life.  Both remind us that the world is not perfectly polished, but we keep embracing and embodying the prayer for God’s realm to come in us and be in concert between us. 

 

Today, I invite you to find a favorite piece of music and sing along!  Sing to the world.  Sing to God.  Sing out your prayer on this day.  Or better yet, find some others to make a chorus of joyful noise to the world.  May Hildegard’s wisdom begin to unearth and unfurl your shy soul to the glory of God here and now.  Amen.

Shadow - Mothers of Mysticism Series

 

As the month of March winds down and wraps up, we rewind and review some of the fiercely faithful women we have met in the Gospels.

 

The Canaanite woman who compassionately confronts the log in Jesus’ eye reminding him to practice what he preached when he said, ‘it is not what goes into your mouth (like unkosher bacon) that defiles but what comes out of your mouth (like words calling a beloved daughter of God a ‘dog’)’.  In this story Jesus’ humanity is showing and showing us that change is holy.

 

The woman who hemorrhaged for 12 long years that caused our hearts to break and souls to ache at the face of such suffering.  We held lightly that often we are quick with the cliches in the face of suffering (everything happens for a reason) because such pain is difficult and demanding to process.  We named that often we want to throw our human explanations at suffering like it was deserved or destiny or devil or deny that it is really that bad.  We compare suffering to others like it is some competition none of us want to win.

 

The woman bent over calling us to stand up tall and in solidarity with the suffering of the world right now.

 

The woman at the well who was the first disciple to become an apostle, to share the good news of God’s love that changes everything and everyone…how she converted an entire village with such expansive and inclusive love.

 

Next Sunday we will meet the woman who persists and insists justice from an unjust judge ~ reminding us that we are not the first to experience systemic oppression by callus and calculating people who care nothing about fellow featherless bipeds.

 

Because we have only scratched and skimmed the surface of the richness our sisters in faith have shown us, in April we will sit at table with Jesus and watch as a woman anoints his feet, dries them with her hair, and kisses embodying vulnerability at the heart of faith.

 

One thread and theme of the above is that all the women are unnamed which reminds us that too often in our objectification of our sisters we do the same today.  This week, I want to honor the mothers of mysticism whose wisdom stands on the shoulders of the women in the gospels we have met in March.  The first woman is Saint Catherine of Siena who was one of 25 children (which is a lot of siblings!!).  She was born in Italy, wed herself to Jesus as a teenager, and was a powerful voice of peace convincing Pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome during a tumultuous and violent time (reminding us again of how history repeats itself).  Catherine once said, 

“Start being brave about everything.  Drive out darkness and spread light.  Don’t look at your weakness. Realize instead that in Christ crucified you can do everything”.  

“You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.”  

“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices.  It is silence that kills the world.”  

And, “It is only through shadows that one comes to know the light.” 

Today, take these four brilliant quotes of St. Catherine, stand in the sun light, absorb the warmth of God that is like love, look at the shadow you cast reminding you that we are all human-sized, and let God sing to your heart with the wisdom of the mothers of mysticism calling us to be God’s people today.  Amen.

Prayer

 

God who comes to us in so many ways, God of ten thousand disguises that we encounter in life, God who is found in the smell of pumpkin spice candles, child’s smiles, laughter, tears when someone is holding our hand, caring and sharing, filling the buckets of all, embracing people with our humanness and holiness.  God who is love that can never be exhausted or fully explored in this life.  Continue to help keep us open to You.  Continue to help us deepen our relationship with You.  In this season of Lent may each of us experience Your eternal movement in a way that awakens us afresh and anew to how You are at work, even here and especially now.  Move our hearts, compel our lives, fill our souls to be Your people in the world right now.  In the name of the One who is Your grace, hope, peace, joy, justice, care, and love embodied in the flesh, Jesus the Christ. Amen.  

Many Names

 

This week we have explored and expanded upon understandings of God.  Today, I invite you to write your description of the Divine.  Or if you prefer, draw God.  Or if you prefer to compose a poem or write a hymn or somehow, in someway give expression of what is in the cobwebbed corner of your soul about how the Sacred has/is/will continue to shape you. 

 

I think of a great hymn by Brian Wren entitled Bring Many Names.  Read these words to provoke your thoughts today:

 

Bring many names, beautiful and good,
celebrate, in parable and story,
holiness in glory, living, loving God.
Hail and hosanna! Bring many names!

Strong mother God, working night and day,
planning all the wonders of creation,
setting each equation, genius at play:
Hail and hosanna, strong mother God!

Warm father God, hugging every child,
feeling all the strains of human living,
caring and forgiving till we're reconciled:
Hail and hosanna, warm father God!

Old, aching God, grey with endless care,
calmly piercing evil's new disguises,
glad of good surprises, wiser than despair:
Hail and hosanna, old aching God!

Young, growing God, eager, on the move,
saying no to falsehood and unkindness,
crying out for justice, giving all you have:
Hail and hosanna, young, growing God!

Great, living God, never fully known,
joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,
closer yet than breathing, everlasting home:
Hail and hosanna, great, living God!

 

I love that last verse ~ to pray and pay attention to the One who is never fully known, but knows us/loves us fully.  Pray to the One who continues to hold a light amid the chaos of today.  Pray to the One who is right here hovering next to your lips as you inhale and helps you find a safe space to be.  This living God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.  Amen.

breathe

 

You might be thinking after 8 passages yesterday, so much Bible this week.  So, let’s breathe for a moment.

 

Breathe in God’s curiosity about all creation that continues to evolve and expand.

Breathe out an image of God who is frustrated and ready to throw lightning bolts.

 

Breathe in God’s forgiveness for you.

Breathe out clinging to our agendas, clicking on things to make us happy, clenching our fists to have our will done right now.

 

Breathe in God evolving, expansive, and expressive love.

Breathe out a sense that you have to earn or prove yourself before the One who knows you fully.

 

Breathe in God’s faith in you…yes God’s love is about trusting you.

Breathe out all the objections that just popped into your imagination about why God should find someone else!!

 

Breathe in God’s love which was, is, and will be the foundation on which we build our faith.

Breathe out the hurt and harm and loathing that hangs heavy in the air around us.

 

Breathe in a vision of God that can transform your life.

Breathe out all those sermons that preached fear of being in the hands of an angry God.

 

Breathe in the breath of God.

Breathe out the gospels of the world.

 

Breathe in and be in the presence of the One who holds you.

Breathe out as you rest in being held and beholding such love.

 

Amen.

Eight Passages

 

Yesterday we held the words of the prophet Joel who said God is, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.  I invited you to think about the images, pictures, feelings, sensations this description of the Divine swirled in your soul.  Now let’s expand and explore where Joel got this idea from:

 

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation.  Exodus 34:6-7a.

 

‘The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but by no means clearing the guilty.  Numbers 14:18a

 

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.  Psalm 86:15

 

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.  Psalm 103:8

 

 Jonah prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, for I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.  Jonah 4:2

 

The people refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.  Nehemiah 9:17

 

The Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.  Nahum 1:3

 

What do you notice in the above eight passages?  Which words are repeated from book to book?  Which descriptions and depictions of God are slightly different?  For example, some emphasize God’s graciousness and goodness to the thousandth generations.  Others say, “Well, perhaps God isn’t just a doormat we can wipe our sinful (which is to say our disordered longings) shoes on to feel better about ourselves.  Some prioritize love, other parts prioritize our relationship with God matters and makes a difference/makes us different.  Eight passages, all from the Hebrew Bible, that are remarkably in consensus on the character and qualities of the Creator.  Hold these passages pondering where do you sense God’s grace right now?  What does God’s mercy feel like (for me it is reminding me that I am God’s child, not God’s employee)?  What does it mean that God’s first response is not anger but curiosity and caring and compassion?  What does it mean that God doesn’t leave us orphaned (see John 14:18)?  Let these passages awaken you to encounter and explore a connection with God whose presence was, is, and will be an advocated for our humanness and longs for a life-giving relationship with each of us.  Amen.

Who is God?

 

Return to the Lord your God, for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from punishment.  Joel 2:13 (NRSVUE)

 

Now return to the Eternal, your True God. You already know God is gracious and compassionate.  God does not anger easily and maintains faithful love.  God is willing to relent and not harm you.  Joel 2:13 The Voice Version

 

A few weeks ago, on Ash Wednesday, I preached on this passage of Scripture as a reminder of how God is described, defined, and depicted in Scripture.  Too often we accept, adopt, and fall into the trap of Marcionism.  Who was Marcion?  I am glad you asked!  Marcion was born in 85 CE in Turkey, he was the son of a bishop, raised in the faith, but fell out of favor with the church because he believed that the God of the Old Testament was angry and wrathful and the God of the New Testament was loving, caring, kind, cuddly like a goldendoodle.  Ever found yourself quoting this first century theologian without knowing it?  This line of thinking, that God of Jesus is different than the God of the Jewish people in the Hebrew scriptures has been around for a minute or two or since around 85 CE.

 

Who knew you’d read a Morning Meditation, and a history lesson would break out? 

 

Fine, you might think, so the passage above in Joel describes God with soft verbs and a fuzzy lens.  But-what-about the plagues and violence and killing?  Let’s be clear that the New Testament isn’t all chocolate rivers and pony rides.  We are in the season of Lent that culminates and climaxes with Jesus hung on a cross, convicted by the Roman authorities for a crime he did not commit.  And don’t forget Paul can get persnickety in his letters.  Don’t forget in Acts two people die for not giving all their money to the church.  The Bible is an adult book written for people who are asked to hold ambiguity and complexity together. 

 

Remember, on Ash Wednesday, I note that this description of God isn’t just in Joel.  Wait, you think, “I was supposed to remember that sermon?!?  When will this endless stress end!”  Insert a sigh here.  Don’t worry, I am not asking you to remember all the times God is described as loving, grace-filled, mercy flowing, temper controlling, and endlessly forgiving, because we are going to look at those passages this week.  “Yay?” said the people of God with a question.  For today, I want you to read slowly over how Joel names and claims God.  What are the images of the Infinite that swirl in your mind when you read these words?  What does grace feel like?  What does mercy smell like?  What would it mean for God to show restraint in anger and instead seek love?  What does it mean that God doesn’t have an accounting problem with human brokenness, but knows us, because God forms us?  Hold these questions as our perplexing God holds us during this season of Lent.  Amen.

Sermon Talk Back Part 5

 

God of wisdom and words; God of songs and silence, God who shows up each day in ways that awaken us and deepen our awareness of the holiness of life, thank you for this season of Lent to pay attention to You.  Thank you for the invitations to the spices on the shelf of our soul and the spices we turn toward and sprinkle in our life as a church.  Thank you for the sermon our life is preaching ~ give us ears to hear and hearts that are open.  Thank you for invitations to explore the worlds that the words faithfulness, forgiveness, generosity, prayer, and fasting open up.  We know there is more in the Sermon on the Mount than we can ever exhaust in this life.  Help us find that one inch of Jesus’ sermon where we can meditate/marinate in the secret sauce of You.  Be with us as we continue the season of Lent and I pray for every person reading these words that these days would not be dripping, drenched with guilt or unworthiness, but living creatively, faithfully, bravely and boldly our faith You inspire.  Lead us to a place; Guide us with Your grace; To a place where we'll be safe saturated in your love.  Amen.

Sermon Talk Back Part 4

 

As we rewind and review the Sermon on the Mount, I want to come back to Jesus’ words and wisdom in chapter 6 on faithfulness, forgiveness, fasting, generosity, and prayer.  When I preached on chapter 6, I invited you to put down definitions and descriptions for each of these words. 

 

And you are thinking, “I don’t remember that homework assignment!!  Um, I think I was absent that day.”

 

It’s okay, you can do it today!

 

And the people of God said, “Gee thanks???”

 

For me, faithfulness is growing in the image of God for the sake of the other.  I deeply desire to be formed and fashioned in image of God ~ to let God shape me, take me, and hold me.  But my soul is not a cul-de-sac ~ this isn’t about the unholy trinity of me, myself and I or navel gazing.  I grow to be salt and light for the world ~ God sends us out to share where we can and how we can.  What does faithfulness look like, sound like, feel like in your life?  What are examples?

 

For me, forgiveness is a process of letting go of the heartbreak and soul ache of life.  Richard Rohr says suffering is the reality that we are not in control or in charge.  People hurt us.  Systems oppress us.  There are sharp shards of brokenness in the world that lash and gash too many people.  And we could spend our days angry, blaming and shaming ~ which we do on social media and in the 24 hour news cycle and interviews with our leaders.  But forgiveness lives the words of Dr. King that hate is too great a burden to bear.  Hate harms us, it is like you swallowing rat poison and expecting the rat to die.  Forgiveness says, I need another way.  Forgiveness is a process (sometimes exhausting!) of day-by-day letting go of that hatred toward another as well as seeking reconciliation from those who we hurt.  Let’s be clear, you have stomped on some toes in your day too…you have said things you instantly and immediately regret/want to rewind time to shove those words back into your mouth!  Forgiveness is not just individual but collective.  There are groups of people we need forgiveness from, and we need to forgive.  Perhaps this is why we struggle with forgiveness, it is complex and complicated and controversial work. 

 

For me, fasting is about more than food.  One of definition of sin is disordered longing.  When I long for a new ipad to make me happy (even though I know I will still be the same schmuck once I buy the ipad, just with a bigger credit card bill).  Or when I think the vacation or new relationship or next zoom webinar will finally help me thrive and live my best life ever.  We are all restless, especially in a culture of unabashed consumerism.  To fast is to take the energy I pour into planning a great adventure or over working to prove my worth or filling every inch of my calendar with events, so I don’t have to deal with emotions ~ and instead direct my energy and attention and awareness to God showing up in my life.  Direct my energy toward those I need to forgive or need forgiveness from to free space for the Sacred to show up in my life and start cooking in new ways. 

 

Generosity is how I share the gifts of time, talent and treasure.  It isn’t just about giving money to church or other charities, it is about honestly and prayerfully seeking God’s wisdom in how I live, share, offer my heart, energy, words, and wallet each day. 

 

Last, but perhaps underneath all of the above, is prayer.  Prayer is silence, singing and sharing with others.  Prayer is walking in creation or sitting on the beach.  There are as many ways to pray as there are days in the week.  Prayer is when you feel alive and awake to the holy humming and hovering. 

 

All the above are pathways to the presence of God.  And to be clear, you don’t have to do all five at once.  One is enough for now.  Which of the above ~ faithfulness, forgiveness, prayer, generosity, fasting sings to your soul?  Which of the above to you feel a holy gravitational pull toward or a nudge (not guilt) to explore?  Listen to your one wild and precious life this day as a way for the holy to show up.  Amen.