Words to Ponder

The above quote from Mandela has been sitting and simmering on my soul all week long.  So often I believe our choices are more grounded and guided by fear than by hope.  Fears that someone might make more money than us, gets us up early in the morning into the office.  Fears that our neighbors might have a better vacation keeps us always trying to feed Facebook positive images.  Fear is the tool our political parties seem to return to time and time again.  This is not new.

When Jesus was born, Herod was so paranoid by a baby that he ordered all male infants killed...so Jesus and his family fled in fear.  During Jesus' life, the Pharisees feared that Jesus was eating with the wrong people so they accused him of being a glutton and drunkard.  Jesus died because he was misunderstood by people.  Crucifixion was a weapon of fear.  Jesus came to confront fear.  This doesn't mean that fear is completely removed from our lives...perhaps far from it. 

We know fear all too well.  And we misunderstand fear all too often.  We think fear should always be avoided at all costs.  Just look confident.  Fake it until you make it.  Just puff your chest out and look like you are in control...even as your insides churn relentlessly. 

Jesus faced fear.  I believe, Jesus felt fear too.  He prayed in the garden for God to remove this cup.  Fear is part of our life.  We cannot avoid it or admonish it.  But as another one of my favorite author says, Elizabeth Gilbert, "Don't let fear pick the radio station."

That is one of those quotes, along with Mandela's above, we nod enthusiastically to right now.  But then...then when something happens in the news, fear comes knocking on the door.  But then...then when the political party that is not align with you does something that you are against and feel powerless....fear is suddenly in the kitchen making you a taco.  But then...then the doctor utters some words you never wanted to year...fear is now not only as close as your next breath but feels caught in the back of your throat. 

We cannot control fear.  We acknowledge it.  We listen to why it is here.  One of the ways you take the power away from fear is to stop denying it and instead start a dialogue with it.  Fear will always break down in the face of our logical and loving sides ~ especially when those two sides team up.

So, what is it you are fearing right now?  In your life, in your family, in your community, in the country and the world?  Name the fear...notice that it is always there.  But don't only listen...talk back to fear.  Tell it, in a calm and centered voice, that you know where it is coming from...but there is also that song of hope that wants to be heard from our heart.  The hope that today is not like yesterday... and tomorrow has promise and possibility of its own too.

Tell fear that it needs to rest its case...and then let hope take the stand to offer a testimony that life is more than just one side.

And may there be more than a trace of God's grace in this practice for you this week.

Blessings ~~

Normal

What pops into your mind when you hear the word, "normal"?

Do you think of your daily routine and rhythm?
Do you see "normal" as positive?
Or is it negative?
As in, normal is boring?

For the past four weeks, we have been remodeling our house.  There has been no normal!  There is no normal when you are making daily visits to Home Depot to stare at plumbing fixtures.  There is no normal when a thin lay of dust covers every possible surface. There is no normal when you are trying to balance work, kids, and life.

So, after all these days, normal sounds like an amazing place.

This can be true when you are going through grief or trying to heal or struggling in any way.  You start to crave normalcy.  You begin to want normal not just a place to visit for a few hours...but want to take up permanent residency. 

Normal has some tremendous positives.  You can know what to count on when you are in a normal state.  There is almost a grove...it might now be the most exciting beat to dance to, but it is steady and smooth and doesn't sound like a screeching tires coming to a stop.  Normal has an upside of being predictable and persistent.  Normal is also good after living in a state of chaos or feeling out of control. 

I get why normal is scene as less than ideal.  But after a few weeks I have a much better appreciation for the positives of normal.  So, with the bathrooms nearing completion.  With the house finally clean.  With life settling back into the groove, even rut, of day-to-day, I give thanks for the state of normal.

May you find more than a trace of God's grace in the midst of the normal moments of life this week.

Blessings ~~ 

Friday Poem and Prayer

The flame flickered and fanned with the wind.
Against the chill of the air,
The warmth of the tiny light kept the cold at bay.
Against the creeping darkness,
The tiny light reached out allowing me to see.

One candle.
One flame.
Yet, it is more than enough.

One moment.
One hope.
Yet, with God's grace there is always enough.

This day.
Right now.
Opening us to a promise and possibility that is more than we can describe or define.

So may the One who is with us and for us
Surround you with more than a trace of God's grace
Every moment this day and week.

Blessings ~~

Rest

Rest

There is an advertisement on the radio right now that in a cheery voices proclaims, "Being busy is good.  You are getting things done.  Checking things off your to-do list."  It then goes on to say that because you are so busy, you don't have time for dinner...so don't worry this particular place will help you out...because everyone needs help.  So just stay busy...that isn't the problem...the problem is this body that needs food.  But don't worry the cheery voice and food place has your back.

Rest.

What does that word awaken within you?

Maybe the cliche that if you rest you rust.
Maybe it makes you wonder if you are being lazy.

As a self-identified Type A person, I know that it is easy to push myself.  Just one more thing...just more box to check...maybe if I get that thing moved from "to do" to "to done" I will feel better.  Only once you get it done...you are tired and another two things just appeared on your "to do" list.  How did that happen??

Rest.

In the beginning, God crafted and created for six days, then ceased to work...paused...rested.  That is an incredibly challenging image.  God rested...so what is our excuse?  Created in God's image means that we can find God's grace not only when we create...but when we stop. 

Rest.

Renew
Explore what it means to stop moving.
Stop checking emails or social media.
Take time to breathe and be.

By the rest of God find you sitting in the sacred each day this week, discovering more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~

Vision

This morning in church, we were singing the hymn, "Be Thou My Vision," I was struck by just how counter-cultural these words truly are.  This isn't about God affirming our hopes and dreams, this is about us turning and tuning our lives toward God.  The very first line is a petition for us to let go of individualistic ideas that are only and all about us.  Let these words linger in your life:

"Be now my vision, O God of my heart:
nothing surpasses the love you impart.
You my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Your presence my light."

Sounds exactly like something you'd hear in church.  But when you consider the commercials that we are surrounded by every single day that tell us we need to have it our way and right now!  To suggest that God's vision could surpass our vision challenges many of us to our core.

The second verse also challenges us:

"Be now my wisdom, and be my true word;
Ever within me, my soul is assured;
Mother and Father, You are both to me,
Now and forever Your child I will be"

God is our wisdom and word.  Again, something we are used to hearing in church, but how do we live this?  I don't think there is some one-size-fits-all prescription you can just apply to your life.  I think it can come from listening intentionally, sitting in silence, breathing and being.  Or it comes from listening to hymns not just for the melody but for the words that can challenge and change us.  Let these two verses sit in your life.

Is there a vision God has that is strangely warming your heart?  How can you align your life with the love of God that is found within your life?  Is God your best thought?  How might this help your soul feel assured?

There is no one answer to these...but to live the questions and let them sit on simmer ~ may there be more than a trace of God's grace as these stir and swirl in your life.

Blessings ~~

Dust part Three

Dust-playing God, move in the dusty parts of my life this day.
As you did in the beginning, breathe life into the parts of my life that I tend to ignore or imagine don't really exist.
Those parts of my life covered in dust of neglect.
Those parts of my life I keep hidden, tucked away.
Breathe into that dust, O God, this day I pray.

Stir and swirl up those million dust particles til they are spinning around me.
Stir and swirl the dust until like removing mortar from the floor a cloud hangs and hovers.
Stir and swirl the dust of my souls crafting and creating something new.

To be sure, there is chaos when the dust flies.
To be sure, it is messy and causes disruption.
But, just as You did in the beginning, O God, it was out of the sloshing, watery chaos where life came forth.
Out of the dust of renovation, creativity still comes forth.
And if that is true outside of our lives, perhaps it is true inside as well.
Inside as deep as our very souls.

So stir up the dust.
Swirl the millions of particles.
Renovate,
Recreate,
Renew,
And remind us of the sacredness of dust.
In this, may we find more than a trace of Your holy grace.

Amen.

Dust part Two

In the last post, we explored the invitation to show both the sides of our life that are beautiful and broken...to be honest that in our souls there is both which we are accustom to letting shine but also that which has a layer (perhaps thick) of dust settled upon it from years of sitting in our lives.

I am reminded that in Genesis 2, God takes dirt...or dust...forms, fashions and loves humanity into being.  God seems to see something sacred in dust, which might make all of us feel better about our living room furniture which we have been meaning to clean for the last few weeks. 

God plays in the dust...not only then and there in the pages of Scripture, but also here and now in our lives.

God delights in the dust...not only kids who are roll down grassy hills or splash in puddles causing splotches of mud to cling to their legs/arms/hair/everywhere, but also when we as adults can see how dust enables and enlivens life.

Without dirt and dust, there is no life.
Within dirt and dust, swimming unseen, is already life. 
Combining and coming together is the dust around us with the dust inside us.

Our souls were formed with the fingerprints of God imprinted in dust.
Our souls delight when we re-connect with the dust of creation.
Our souls long for the moment we might notice and name that dust isn't something we need to avoid but embrace.

Dust of moments we said something we regret.
Dust of moments this past week, we want a mulligan and try again.
Dust of moments this day...things we might be dreading, but could actually have life found within it's messiness.

God doesn't need to be shielded from our dusty side...God longs to get involved and knows intimately that it is out of dust that life springs forth.

May you and I find more than a trace of God's grace in that truth this week.

Amen.