Bethlehem Bound part 3

 

This week, I’ve been inviting you to prepare your heart for the beginning of Advent this coming Sunday.  You’ve had a chance to reflect on what you are longing for and what you are carrying in the backpack of your life.  Pause to ponder what is growing within you right now ~ could be a dream or a desire or a prayer or a possibility ~ we can be pregnant in many ways.  Yesterday, you unpacked your backpack to think about what you are carrying before you start the path and are Bethlehem-bound.  Were there things in your backpack you’d forgotten about?  Were there things you needed to recycle before heading to the stable? 

 

Today, if you had to select one word right now to describe what is in your heart, soul, mind, and life, what might that word be?

 

Do you sense excitement or exhaustion?

Do you feel hope or are you hanging on by a thread?

Do you long for possibility, or is there too much pain?

 

Of course, only having one word to describe the beautiful complexity that is you can be an exercise in frustration.  We are multitudes; many words roam around within us.  Many words want to take up residence or pitch a tent in our minds, refusing to leave.  Maybe you need more than one word.  You could fill up a page trying to express all that is swirling in you. 

 

Now, is there a word you long to let loose in your life that might guide you to Bethlehem?  Is there one word like a star that you can follow to the stable?

 

Here is a short list of possible words you can choose for the season ~ but I pray this opens your imagination:

• Jesus 
• Christ 
• Bethlehem
• Manger 
• Shepherds 
• Angels 
• Mary
• Joseph
• Incarnation/God-in-the-flesh
• Advent/waiting/wandering
• Wise Ones 
• Frankincense and Myrrh or Gifts
• Peace
• Joy
• Faith
• Hope
• Love
• Emmanuel: A name for Jesus, meaning "God with us". 

 

Or go read the words to your favorite Christmas Carol as a source to find a word.

 

Ponder today what word might cause your soul to stir.  A word that gives life and energy to your weary and worn-out soul.  A word that reminds you, God is still singing in the world today.  May this pondering guide you and hold you on this Thanksgiving Eve.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound Part 2

 

Yesterday, I invited you to think about what you want to carry in the backpack of your life to the manger this year.  Part of the invitation is to empty out what you’ve been carrying so far.  There is a great line in the hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” that goes, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  So, what hopes do you carry?  This could be personally, relationally, spiritually, and for our community and country.  What fears do you carry?  Again, these could be for yourself medically or relationally, or for our world?

We all have an invisible backpack.  Seth Godin reminds us that you don’t know what anyone else is carrying in theirs.  We may think we know, but we don’t.  And often, we can be unaware of what we carry in our own lives.  Before you start down the pathway to where Jesus is laid in a manger, first sit with your one wild and precious life to see what has accumulated in your backpack this last life.  I remember when our kids were young, we had to go through their backpacks often because papers and trash and forgotten items would all congregate at the bottom…and you don’t want to leave a banana peel for weeks on end.  

But how many of us have a metaphorical banana peel that has been lying around and we’ve been carrying out ~ maybe unaware.  To sit with your life this week, asking, What am I holding onto right now?  Or make two columns: hopes and fears.  Or think back over the last year of what brought you joy and love and peace, where you felt hurt, wounded, and treated as less than a beloved child of God.  May such sacred pondering be a way that sets your sights and hearts on this 25^th day of November for all that we will celebrate one month from today.  Amen.

Bethlehem Bound Part 1

 

This coming Sunday, November 30^th, we begin the season of Advent.  The four Sundays before Christmas are set aside for us to prepare our hearts, souls, and lives for the birth of Jesus.  For four Sundays, we open to God who sings through the wombs of Elizabeth, pregnant with John the Baptizer, and then Mary, pregnant with Jesus.  Their lives model for us fierce faithfulness.  Where, when, and how can we be pregnant with the possibility of God in these days?  Remember, life was not all chocolate rivers and pony rides for Elizabeth and Mary.  These two brave and bold women each faced discrimination due to gender, age (Elizabeth being older and Mary being young), marital status, and geographical location ~ neither was famous nor an influencer with thousands following their every post.  God moves in ways that leave us speechless and silent with a mystery beyond our explanation.  God moves in ways that provide endless exploration in our lives.  More than likely, you have been to Bethlehem before.  You have sung Silent Night drenched in candlelight.  You have been in the Christmas Pageant growing up.  The story may not be new to you, but you have never been this age at this point in history with all that is swirling around you and within you.  Today, I invite you to write down your prayers as we prepare for Advent.  Thirty days from today, we will arrive at a stable, step inside, to behold and to be held by a mystery that can change our lives.  How can you prepare a manger-shaped space in our hearts, souls, and lives this year?  What does it mean that God comes in the flesh of a vulnerable baby this year?  Where do you pray, “Come thou long expected Jesus?” this year?

Chew on these questions, savor the taste of these questions, and see what comes up in response to these questions.  And may you sense the presence of the One who is with us and for us, Emmanuel, God in the flesh and form of Jesus, born anew and afresh this year.  Amen.  

Love Has You

 

“Secure – Love has me – you relay and receive what others have to other, don’t worry about whether you will get what you need, don’t experience shame, can try new things and make mistakes, and can relax.”  Sacred Attachment by Michael John Cusick

 

Love has you.  Full stop.  End of sentence.  I know that many voices want to contradict and challenge this idea.  People are shouting at their screens right now or the piece of paper where they are reading this, saying, “Well, love doesn’t have me, Wes…because you don’t know what so-and-so did to me, said to me, and hurt me this week.”  You're right.  I don’t.  I don’t know the discrimination you faced because of the color of your skin or because of the person you love.  I don’t know what it is like to be you.  But I do know that God’s love has you.  That doesn’t mean you are “safe and secure from all alarms.”  Ask Job, Jeremiah, and Jonah.  Ask Mary, Hannah, and Hagar.  Ask Jesus.  Love has me is not a guarantee of a bubble-wrapped life safe from being tossed, thrown, dropped, or dragged through valley moments you did not ask for…thank you very much, God.  Scripture tells us time and time again that faith is not an insurance policy.  Faith is not a money-back guarantee.  We know, from grief work, that the price of love is pain.  People we love die.  There is an empty chair at all our tables this Thanksgiving for someone we love and whose presence left fingerprints on our hearts.  There is ongoing hate that hovers in the cold, stone hearts of people ~ true of Pharaoh in Exodus and Caesar in Jesus’ day.  I don’t know what makes you feel insecure, unsafe ~ but I do know that Cusick is right, that we need places and people who see us, soothe us, help us feel safe and secure to be ourselves.  This is always the vision for the church ~ not that we get it right all the time.  We are still featherless bipeds with more than a few bugs in our operating system.  I still say things I immediately regret and want to grab the invisible words from the air and shove them back in my mouth.  I am human ~ from the Latin humus meaning ground.  I am soil and stardust.  I am blessed and broken.  I am hurting and holy.  All of this is true.  When I can fully lean in and live out of that truth, I proclaim with Jacob, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” (Genesis 28:16).  May you and I find many moments when we say those words in the coming days.  Amen.  

Safe

 

“Safe is I’ve got this.  You are protected from physical and emotional dangers, harm, experience repair of ruptures in relationships, have appropriate boundaries (neither rigid nor unpredictable), empowered to explore and move, and present to your whole self (including body)…seen and soothed and safe is what helps us feel secure.” Sacred Attachment by Michael John Cusick

 

Once we are seen and soothed, we can live from a different place.  There is a different spirit that motivates our movement.  No longer is our energy poured into protecting the mask for someone to really see us lest they judge us.  We know move about the world differently.  To be sure, we live in a world that is constantly shouting, “Danger!!”  Our brain came with operational software to alert you to the lion lurking in the weeds, only now the lions are coworkers who betray you and take credit for your work.  Only now the lion is family members who offer you only conditional love if you wear the right religious/political/family mask.  Only now, the lion is a culture that will cancel you if you don’t toe the party line.  Only now the lion is a church that demands alliance and for you to increase your pledge.  Only now the lions are trolls on social media who respond to your post with words that drip with shame.  You have already met the “lions” in your life; you have their claw marks on your skin/souls.  They go by different names and show up in predictable and sometimes surprising ways.  Because, like a gazelle in an open field, we all feel too exposed to a world that loves to comment and really loves to critique, offering you unsolicited advice.  Everyone wants to tell you how to improve your project of life.  We need a space where the people who see us and soothe us, cheer us on.  We need people who say, “You’ve got this.”  I think back to elementary school, where I would color with abandon and not worry about the grade.  I think back to early sermons when I didn’t worry about someone sending me an email dripping with disappointment.  I think back to moments of being carefree, not careless, but showing up as God calls each of us to be.  Is there a place you are safe?  Where and with whom can you intentionally cultivate that?  Where and for whom can you invite another into your space to be seen, soothed, and safe today?  May each of us do more than think about that last question, but seek to live that question with others.  Amen. 

Soothed

 

“Soothed means I’ve got you…others are available and responsive, comfort and care especially when distressed or ill, vulnerability and dependence are welcome, affection. Soothed promotes healthy self-soothing and gets us to safety.”  Sacred Attachment by Michael John Cusick 

 

In order to be soothed, we must first be seen.  Yesterday, we named and noticed how hard it can be to let down the mask of respectability and responsibility we all wear.  We want to be seen as competent and in control.  The truth is, it is not good for us to be isolated individuals on an island population of only the unholy trinity of me, myself, and I.  We need others.  All life is relationships.  We need people to see us and to help soothe us.  To be sure, there are ways we can soothe ourselves.  Breath work is important ~ when we notice our breathing and intentionally slow down our inhales and exhales.  This is one way we can calm our nervous systems.  One way to do breath work is to breathe in a verse of Scripture and breathe out another.  For example,

 

Breathe in, saying, “The Lord is my shepherd.”

Breathe out, saying, “I shall not want”

 

Try that a few times.  Breathing in each of those words, tasting them on the tip of your tongue, and letting each syllable sink and sing to your soul.  The Lord is your shepherd.  Each time you exhale, speak the words aloud, I shall not want.  Let those words be in conversation, not conflict, with the fact that we do want.  We want to be seen, soothed, safe, and secure in a world where those four words are not always experienced.  We want to know that our retirement is a big enough safety net.  We want to have a good day.  We want to feel loved fully.  I hold these truths lightly.  Not because I think God is shaking God’s head in disapproval at my long laundry list of wants, but because when I see my honest wants, God holds those with me.

 

Or you can breathe in to the count of four, hold that holy breath for five, and exhale for the count of six or seven or even eight.  Pro tip: when you hold your breath, do so gently, savoring this space between the inhale and exhale as if God’s very spirit is moving in you ~ because we know one of the first acts of Creation in Genesis 2 was for God to breathe us on the breath of God.  May these two practices help you feel soothed.  May your interaction with one person today help you know you are seen as beloved and soothed by such love.  May you sense a love that has you and will never let you go.  Amen.  

Willing to be Seen

 

“Seen is I get you…others are engaged and attuned to you and your needs, accepted and known for who you are, experience the delight of others and feel love, valued, welcome.  Seen is a foundation for experiencing soothing.”  Sacred Attachment by Michael John Cusick

Yesterday, I invited you to get out a piece of paper and write down the word “Seen”, and then fill that piece of paper with people, places, events, and experiences where that word would describe what you encountered.  Who “sees” you?  The truth is, we are all really good at wearing masks.  We all have a public persona that we put on when we go out to interact with other featherless bipeds.  Oftentimes, this mask is formed and forged by cultural scripts.  I want to be seen as successful, intelligent, witty, approachable, relaxed, centered, and calm.  On the surface, we can project these qualities.  As Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage,” and we want the Academy Award for best performance in real life.  

But inside the shy soul of all people, there is a stirring and a constant color commentary.  While my face may say “calm”, my brain and heart, and soul may be racing around worse than Chicken Little shouting, “The sky is falling”.  Like a duck gliding gracefully across a pond, we don’t see its webbed feet furiously flapping to propel the duck forward.  We may “see” someone on the surface, but we never really know what is beneath the veneer, the mask, the person wears (see Morning Meditations from October 13 about the Four Spaces).  I think of the great line from the hymn, “The Summons” that goes, “Will you love the you you hide if I (God/Jesus/Spirit) but calls your name?”  

That question takes a lifetime to explore and experiment with.  The reality is that we all have “let down our guard” only to have someone hurt us with words worse than sticks and stones that could break our bones.  Your soul and mine each have the scars of comments someone spoke ~ sometimes that wound hasn’t healed yet.   And so, my inner defense attorney shouts, “Objection!  I can’t let people really see me…what would they think!?!”  Today, I invite you to rewind and review the videotape of life when you showed and shared yourself to others.  The moments you felt fully seen, the times that still make you cringe in pain, and the hurt that hasn’t healed.  May all this be a prayer to the One who knows you before you know yourself.  May all this be held by the One whose love has you.  May all of you, your full public/private/ hidden beautiful beloved self, be seen today through the eyes of God ~ whose gaze delights in you.  Amen. 

Never-Satiated

 

Last week, I offered quotes from a book I recently read and enjoyed, The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron.  Today, I would like to share insights and ideas from another book, Sacred Attachment, by Michael John Cusick.  Cusick is working with attachment theory.   This is the deep desire in our human software programming that we want to have emotional bonds with others.  These connections are what help us manage stress, fear, and uncertainty.  Remember, all of life is relationships ~ with yourself, God, and others (or as Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” ~ Mark 12:30-31)

 

Or as God sang in Genesis 2:18, “It is not good for the human to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable ~ a companion and co-collaborator.”  Or as we talked a few weeks ago about the space in you and the space in others.  When those two spaces combine in a Venn Diagram of life and energy, there is a third space.

 

No one is an isolated island; no one is self-made, even though this runs counter to what our culture preaches, proclaims, and proscribes at the good life.  Cusick writes: “We want to be seen, soothed, safe, and secure in our lives.”  Life is like spinning in a tilt-a-whirl that is disorienting and dizzy.  There is a gap between the Gospel promise of Jesus to love and the reality of life.  Wait, pause, where do you sense a gap between what Jesus described as flourishing and your life today?  Cusick writes, “We struggle with unmet longings and expectations… our heart is ravenous in an over-indulgent world…never satiated.”

 

Notice how this “never-satiated” thirst is like what Cron described as addiction last week; we get attached to that which promises to make everything better, but doesn’t.  Or maybe the action helps numb the ache for a while, but then you wake up with a hangover or open your credit card statement or look in the mirror to discover that happiness wasn’t found where you thought it would be.  Jesus reminds us that God’s love has us.  God’s love is the shelter where we can be seen fully, our souls soothed, safe, and secure.  Rewind and review the videotape called “Your Life” and note times you felt seen, soothed, safe, and secure.  Maybe it was at summer camp, church service, a friend’s home, or a place you call home right now.  Take time to hold each word ~ seen, soothed, safe, and secure.  In fact, write down each word on a separate piece of paper and then fill that page with people, places, experiences, and events when that word was fully encountered and embodied in your life.  Name people who see you.  Name people to who you show God’s unconditional love.  Name places where you are free to be fully who God calls and crafts you to be.  May this exercise be a holy prayer practice for you.  Amen.  

Prayer for Today

 

Breathe and be.

Be and breathe.

Wrap your arms around yourself, giving yourself a hug. 

Hold that prayer posture as a reminder of the Holy hug and hovering next to you.

Be and breathe.

Breathe and be.

Trusting in the One who knows you fully and loves you to wholeness this day and every day in the dwindling year.  Amen.    

What do we want?

 

“No quick fix once and for all…recovery is about what you do with your pain, emptiness each day.  Recovery is about discovering and rediscovering God in a way that will interrupt your self-destructive behaviors and addictions.” The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron

 

As you have explored and examined your life this week, the best wisdom for today is to breathe.  In our over-programmed, hustle and hurried, addicted to flurry and self-improvement world, we want to be our best selves…now!!  We want to thrive and flourish…now!  I think of the song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Veruca Salt (embodiment of our inner lust for life) sings:

 

I want a ball. I want a party
Pink macaroons and a million balloons
And performing baboons and ...
Give it to me…Now!

I want the world I want the whole world
I want to lock it all up in my pocket
It's my bar of chocolate
Give it to me…Now!

Click above to hear the whole song.

We want the whole world…and we want it now!  We want it our way…not just when we order a Whopper at Burger King.  And I think of Jesus in Mark 8:36 saying, “For what will it profit them (meaning you and me and we) to gain the whole world and forfeit their life/soul/energy?”  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”  Or as Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage in the Message version: What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

 

What are you running and racing toward that promises you life abundant, but just leaves you exhausted and your bank account drained?  What is it that you really want, but when you taste it, doesn’t satisfy?  Hold these hard, holy, life-long questions knowing that our patient and persistent God is always with us to help us sort through the beautiful broken rumble that is our life.  Amen.

Brokenness and the Process of Repair

 

Cron in his book, The Fix, goes on to describe how the 12 steps are for all of us, because we are all addicted or attached to something external to solve a very internal homelessness problem for our souls.  A quick review of the 12 steps:

1. We admit we are powerless over _____ ~ you can review the list in Monday’s Morning Meditation to remind you that we are all seeking some external salve for the scrapes and scars on our souls.

2. Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore our sanity.  We give up the notion that we can save or fix ourselves; we need help!

3. Decide to turn our will and lives over to the care of God as we understand the Sacred/Power greater than ourselves.  Steps 2 and 3 can be the hardest.  We live in a culture that says you gotta pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and God helps those who help themselves and only the strong survive.  But see where that logic has gotten us in the headlines today?  Not as “evolved” as we like to think!  

4. Make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves ~ or what Cron calls, “Hug the cactus”.  This is going to hurt.  This is hard and holy work.  We will need the help of others because shining a light on the scars, scrapes, and open wounds of our souls is not work we want to do, ever!  Cron says Make three columns on a piece of paper.  Column 1 is who did I hurt (include yourself); Column 2: where were you at fault; Column 3: what could I do instead?  Or go online to find other suggestions for this hard and holy invitation.

5. Admit to God, ourselves and another person the exact nature of our wrongs.  I was all in on this until there was that final part of saying my warts and wounds out loud to someone else ~ talk about feeling exposed!  Yet, that is important.  Pro tip: when you do this, choose someone who loves you and can hear you with an open heart. 

6. Ask God to remove all these defects of character.  Cron says, “You cannot hate yourself into being a more loving person.”  This higher power of grace and love needs to disrupt the stories we tell and absorb from the world.

7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings.  In other words, steps 6 and 7 take time.  You can’t fix yourself like you are microwaving a meal for dinner; it is going to take a minute and even a lifetime!

8. Make a list of all persons you’ve harmed and be willing to repair the rupture.  You already started this work when you hugged the cactus in step 4, but after inviting God to review and renew and revive you, maybe there are new insights into the trail of brokenness you have left.

9. Make direct amends wherever possible, except when to do so would injure others.  This is where we turn from the internal to the external.  Who do you need to face and seek to repair the relationship?  How can you do this?  Again, this takes time.

10. Continue to take personal inventory of your life. When we are wrong, promptly admit it.  This is the ongoing maintenance of your soul.  It is like changing the oil of your heart that we need to do regularly.

11. Through prayer and meditation, seek to tend/mend the relationship with God and ask for God’s guidance and grace.  

12. Having had awareness through these steps, try to share with others.  We seek to draw the circle wide to embrace and include those, especially people who think that they have their life all figured out.

Which of the above steps did your mind yell, “Objection, God, this is not fair!”  Which of the above steps did your heart open with curiosity?  Which of the above steps did you want to go racing back to your attachment or addiction of choice?  Hold all of this.  You don’t have to race and run off to complete all the steps today.  In fact, don’t!  To race through the Steps in order to finish is not the point.  For today, just know that this is one process (there are others) that can help invite and invoke awareness of God, who is everywhere and anywhere you are.  Amen.

en.

Tending to the Whimper and Whisper

 

“Call Addictions – attachments instead,” “Salvation is about coming home,” and “Sins are fixations that prevent the energy of life, God’s love, from flowing freely.  These are self-erected barricades that cut us off from God and from ourselves.”  The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron.

 

These three quotes from me summarize succinctly the human condition.  Or as I heard a psychologist recently say, “We are under-slept, over-fed, but under nourished, over-screened, and constantly told only you can prevent forest fires of all the terror and trauma of the world out there.  So go”.  No wonder we turn to something, anything, to both release and relieve the pain that our shy souls whimper and whisper in the stillness of the night when we are staring at the ceiling. 

 

I say this not because I want to add guilt or shame or blame onto your already fragile and fragmented feelings, but because this vulnerable honesty may help us see our beloved selves in a new light.  Vulnerability can open the shades that our addictions block us from encountering God’s unconditional love.  Cron goes on to talk about what he calls “Original vulnerability,” the human software system from the moment you were born didn’t come to adequate defense to fend off the unavoidable traumas, hateful messages, and emotional injury that all of us encounter at some point in life.  Even those who seem calm and in control are like a duck on the pond—sure, it looks smooth on the surface, but underneath their souls/hearts/mind, like a duck's feet, they're fluttering furiously! 

 

Today, hold and honor that this is the human condition.  Today, let God sit beside you, holding the “you” you try to mask (after all, Halloween may have been weeks ago, but every day we were multiple costumes!).  Today, know that you are known…all of you…even those parts you think you’ve covered and confined in some prison inside you…God sees you and loves you.  May this good news replace the gospels of the world, where success and consuming are seen as the only ways to a “good life”.  Indeed, Jesus told us that the truth of seeing ourselves as we are seen by God will set us free.  Amen.

One Good Book

 

One of my favorite books I read this last year was The Fix by Ian Morgan Cron.  The book is about the 12-step process that is the foundation of many recovery programs.  What I found so compelling and convicting was that Cron says that addiction is a feeling of “dis-ease, dissatisfaction, inquietude, and not at home-ness”.  I can have a roof over my head and food on the table and still feel queasy and uneasy and wheezy at the state of the world and of my own soul.  We are all, in some ways, spiritually unhoused.  Cron goes on to list some of the many ways we turn to external answers for this internal struggle.  Read the list slowly and notice where you hear your shy soul cry out.

 

We are all addicts to control, internet, work, relationships, people pleasing, alcohol or drugs, drama, video games, sugar, sex, social media, perfectionism, status-seeking, suffering, sports, plastic surgery, tattoos, Netflix, shopping and spending, love, rage and needing to be right, having to fix, approval, lying, caffeine, nicotine, worry, compulsive helping, exercise, dieting, knowledge, gambling, money, security, self-improvement, vacations and adventures, productivity, God and religion…

 

Cron’s point is that all of us try to frost over the burnt cake of life; we are all searching for that which can help soothe us, save us, and sustain us.  Where did you feel like Cron was reading your diary above?  I know I can turn to people-pleasing behavior, I am prone to overwork, approval, worry, and compulsive helping as ways to quiet my monkey mind.  As James Baldwin wrote, “Not everything that is faced can be solved, but nothing can be solved until it is faced.”  Addiction is not only for those who turn to alcohol to quiet the restlessness…but also for all of us who race and run off with our cape fluttering in the wind to save the world.  As my professor in seminary said, “The world already has a Savior, and it ain’t you.”  Ouch, but true.  As we turn toward the holidays, we know that the stress-o-meter in our souls can be notched up to max volume.  The voices shouting to go to one more party, be charming, make people laugh, bring the right hostess gift, sip more eggnog, and don’t forget to get a gift for your pastor (that is a joke by the way!).  Notice where you might be trying to work out your own salvation by relentlessly turning to something to numb the pain.  For today, offer those places honestly and vulnerably to God, who knows and loves and holds you always.  Remembering, nothing ~ not even my compulsive helping ~ can ever separate you or me from the love of God.  Amen.

Saints

 

As we wrap up and wind down our meditations with the Saints, here are a few prayers that I hope inspire your heart today:

 

Prayer of St. Anselm

O Lord my God, teach my heart this day where and how to see you,
Where and how to find you.
You have made me and remade me, and you have bestowed on me all the good things I possess, and still I do not know you.
I have not yet done that for which I was made.
Teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, or find you
Unless you show yourself to me.
Let me seek you in my desire, let me desire you in my seeking. Let me find you by loving you,
Let me love you when I find you.

 

St. Teresa Of Avila ~ Govern everything by your wisdom, O Lord, so that my soul may always be serving you in the way you will and not as I choose. Let me die to myself so that I may serve you; let me live to you who are life itself.  Amen.

A prayer of Julian of Norwich

In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss. In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving. You are our mother, brother, and Saviour. In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvelous and plenteous grace. You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us. You are our maker, our lover, our keeper. Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. Amen

 

Mother Teresa  ~ “I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I'm supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I'm praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

 

May the song of the saints continue to hover and hum in our souls every single day for the rest of this year and throughout the New Year to come.  Amen. 

Saints

 

Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church has a beautiful distinction of honoring a diverse group of people.  Their sanctuary has a mural created by artist Mark Dukes known as The Dancing Saints.  Here is a website to explore some of the images:

https://saintgregorys.org/about/the-dancing-saints/

 

For a close-up of each saint copy and paste this link into a new tab:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/saintgregorys-nyssa/albums/72157633771781664/with/26946263800

 

The saints depicted in this artwork include Anne Frank, Black Elk, Desmond Tutu, John Coltrane, Sojourner Truth, and many more.  This beautiful mural of Dancing Saints reminds us of the great cloud of witnesses who enfold us and hold us.  Saints need not be from the past, but are woven into our daily lives.  I pray you are starting to think about saints who have blessed you.  Saints are people who share the journey of faith with you.  Saints are the ones who challenge your understanding and stretch your soul.  Saints, like prophets, are people empowered and infused with God’s light.  Saints let God’s light shine through their actions and words.  We ~ you and me ~ are saints as we seek to live our belovedness with the world, especially here and now.  Saints are not heroes or sheroes…they don’t have to do miracles, unless we are speaking of the miracle of sharing life and living God’s love.  May our understanding of saints continue to help us move in new directions and destinations in our faith each day. 

Saints

 

On Monday, we named St. Katharine, who embodied our Racial Justice Covenant.  Yesterday, we named St. Francis, who embodied our Creation Justice Covenant.  Today, we turn to some saints who embodied our Inclusive, LGBTQ covenant.  A few examples are St. Joan of Arc, who is honored for her courage and challenging gender norms by wearing men’s clothing.  St. Hildegard von Bingen is a German mystic who embraced a variety of human experiences and expressions.  Hildegard wrote of the feminine aspects of our inclusive God.  You may have heard of St. Wilgefortis, who, to avoid a forced marriage, prayed to grow a beard and was crucified.  Finally, St. Aelred of Rievaulx was a monk who wrote about sacred friendship with same-gender individuals.  I pray that what you are realizing from the meditations this week is that there is a vast variety of religious expressions and people who have walked the road of faith before us.  We follow the footprints of brave and bold individuals who cared for all people regardless of skin color, who sought to be in harmony with creation, who saw people as God’s beloved and expressed love in beautiful ways.  When I read about folx like this, I realize that our covenants are built on ancient truths.  We are not the first, nor the last, to explore and expand the holy encounters with the Eternal.  I pray today you might find some time to look into the diversity of saints and begin to read about the ways people have made the road by walking faithfully with God each day.  Amen.

Saints

 

Yesterday, I introduced you to St. Katharine Drexel, whom you may not have known before reading the Morning Meditation.  Today, I want to share about St. Francis of Assisi.  St. Francis is known for his love and care for animals, creation, and his tender heart for the poor and sick.  He is known for the prayer:

 

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.

 

Francis once said, “The safest remedy against the thousand snares and wiles of the enemy is spiritual joy”.  Or contemporary poet, J. Drew Lanham says, “joy is the justice we give ourselves.”  One stanza of Lanham’s poem goes, “Joy is all the Black birds, flocked together, too many to count, too many to name, every one different from the next, swirling in singularity across amber-purpled sky. Joy is being loved up close for who we are.”  Many parts of St. Francis speak to my soul, including his simple way of life.  In our own fast-paced, consumer-oriented, information-overload time, we need to slow down to God’s pace (remember the September slow-down meditations didn’t end when we turned the calendar to October!).  Take time today to pray with St. Francis by going outside.  You can read about St. Francis, who had a reputation for living a life of luxury as a young person before giving up all his wealth.  Or did you know that in 1223 Francis staged the first-ever live Nativity scene in Greccio, Italy?  St. Francis reminds me of our Creation Justice Covenant that instills and inspires us to see God’s handiwork in the world around us.  Step outside today and pray the prayer above for yourself and for our world, where faith, hope, and joy are needed today.

Saints

 

Yesterday in worship, we named our saints.  We sang the great line that, “saints are folks like you and me, God help me to be one too.”  Sometimes Protestants are squeamish about saints.  What is your reaction and response to this word, “saints”?  The Catholic church has over 10,000 saints.  Some are names you would recognize: St. Peter, St. Francis, St. Christopher (the patron saint of travelers), St. Jude (the patron saint of lost causes, which I can really identify with), and, of course, Mary and Joseph (Jesus’ parents) are saints too.  Have you heard of the practice of burying St. Joseph upside down in your yard to sell your house? I confess that I did that when we sold our house in Janesville years ago.  Or maybe you’ve seen a statue of St. Francis at your local gardening center, as he is the saint of creation.  Or maybe you’ve heard of someone praying to St. Joseph (Jesus’ foster father) when looking for employment?

 

There are saints for many occasions ~ Saint Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of the internet ~ not exactly the job I would want.  Saint Rita is known as the patron saint of impossible situations.  And St. Friard, who is the patron saint against a fear of wasps ~ which, as someone who has an allergy to stings, I am going to learn more about him, maybe buy his statue to keep in my pocket! 

 

What I find fascinating is the lives of faithful people.  My hunch is Friard didn’t set out to be known for his connection to wasps!!  Let me introduce you to another saint, St. Katharine Drexel, who lived 1858-1955.  She was the founder of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic University for African Americans.  She is now the patron saint of racial justice and philanthropists.  She came from a wealthy family.  Her mother died when she was five weeks old, so she was raised by a stepmother and father, both of whom cared for the poor.  She spoke about the injustices on reservations and gave up her wealth to become a missionary in the United States.  According to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, “She was crafty and politically savvy, working around Jim Crow laws in the South that prohibited Blacks and whites from sitting together in church.”  As one example of her craftiness, notes Anthony Walton, she set up church seating so that the separation ran from front to back, so that both whites and Blacks were sitting parallel to each other rather than with Blacks in the back.  To be sure, that doesn’t seem so revolutionary or rebellious, but I am sure if Twitter had been around during Katharine’s life, she would have had a few trolls threatening her. Also, did you know, her feast day is my birthday, March 3.  I encourage you today to look up St. Martin De Porres, whose feast day is today.  He lived in Lima, Peru, in the 16^th Century to learn more about his faith and how his song might sing to your soul in these days.