Moonlit

I love how a half moon ~ which that glinting glimmering of halo light is above ~ sends and shines forth as a full circle.  Now, had I had my a camera other than my iphone, you might have been able to tell that it was only a half moon.  But I still found it wonderful that the moonlight sends forth a glow in all directions.

When Jesus said, "Let your light shine," he didn't mean just toward the people you liked.  He didn't mean just in the places and spaces you will/want it to go.  Light escapes in all directions.  Once a candle is lit, the only way to stop its benefits from being sent/shining forth is to extinguish it.

Of course, we are great about doing this.  We would rather stumble, fumble, and fall in the dark than let someone we don't like get some of our light we don't think s/he deserves.  We want to cling to control.  We want to determine the direction of our energy.  We want to be the master of our destiny and destination.

But light being light doesn't always cooperate with our scheming, plotting and planning.  Again, Jesus said that the rain falls on the just and unjust.  Moonlight does the same.  It generously soaks and saturates all the earth.  The beautiful moon was not just for me...but for people who hold different thoughts, vote differently, see the world differently with those same moon beams. 

Oh, I know, we are taught a very, linear and rational way of being.  You need to behave so you can get ahead.  We are told to finish our broccoli before dessert.  We are raised in a conditional way of life.  But, that doesn't mean everything operates that way. 

In fact, it seems, that God does not.  Which is why we are so flummoxed and frustrated to explain God intellectually.  You cannot always prove beauty.  You cannot create an equation for grace.  You cannot always quantify/qualify love.  Somethings are bigger than the container of the word that seeks to describe it.  Somethings are bigger than our minds, which is where our hearts and souls and goosebumps down our skin come in joyfully dancing. 

I can't prove the beauty of the moon.  I can't tell you want it felt like to snap a photo of a celestial body 238,900 miles away could cause me to catch my breath.  I can't tell you how a subtle breeze broke through the blanket of humidity just at that moment and slipped away just as fast.  I can't prove any of that to you, because the moment has faded away.  It was thirty seconds on a Thursday.  One moment that will continue to sing and speak to my heart for days to come.

Sometimes, an author once said, there are single moments that take days to unpack in the stillness and solitude of our souls.  The photo above is one such moment ~ a trace of God's grace ~ I share with you as we prepare to enter into August tomorrow. 

Grace and peace ~~ 

Flow and Flowering

I took the above photo one week ago when I was in Chautauqua, NY.  I was struck by first the beauty of the lilies.  To be clear, I am not the biggest fan of this flower.  Or more to the point, my allergies are not a fan of this flower.  It's potent pollen invades my head like a hostile takeover...it storms into my sinuses stomping on every nerve until my head is pounding.  As you can imagine, Easter Sunday at the church is in two words...good times!

But since this flower was outside.

But since I had my camera with a really good lens that I could stand back to get this picture.

But since there was not a whole field full of this flower, just a few scattered here and there, I could take in the beauty of the flower.

But after studying the purples and pinks blending together...the black freckle spots randomly dancing across the petals and the bright orange anthers dangling down...it was like creation was putting on a fireworks display that didn't disappear or dissipate after a bright burst but lingered for all to be beckoned toward.

But it wasn't only the lilies that were open that called to me...it was the three closed mouth pods just waiting for the moment and time to shine, spring forth.

That seems to be a metaphor...a sacred truth...for our lives.  At any given time there are parts of our lives that are flowering...brilliantly and boldly.  Then, there are parts that are still closed, waiting and watching.  Then, there are other buds that have dropped their leaves to the ground having already released its energy (and pollen!) into the world.

What for you right now, this summer as July is coming to a close, is blossoming and blooming?  What is brilliant and beautiful?


What is still closed, waiting ~ perhaps needing more rain or sun or for the soil of your soul to send forth its nutrients?  Which also leads me to wonder, what is nourishing the soil of your soul right now? 

What has passed its prime?  Releasing, that within nature - including us as humans - energy/life is never fully destroyed.  The same number of atoms exist today that existed 13.6 Billion years ago.  Resurrection is continually woven into our lives, we don't call it take or haven't been taught/told to look at the ways we shed dead skin cells as new ones take their place every single day.

What is blossoming for me is the gift of grace I've had this summer away on Sabbatical.  I've laughed with my family; visited some amazing places (like Alaska, Chautauqua, and places here in FL); I've met new people; I've gotten rest and renewal.

What is still closed and waiting are classes and sermons I am planning and preparing to share with my family.  What is closed and still waiting is school around the corner as displays of supplies show up in stores.  What is closed and still waiting is the second half of this year.

What has passed its prime?  We are always growing, changing, shifting...that is part of life.  I am still processing some of the flowers that once bloomed in my life but no longer are present.  Certainly, with two kids in high school, it feels like a blossom has passed (known as elementary and middle school).  Certainly, my marriage is entering a new place and space with two teenagers ~ one about to drive.  But within me, I always feel like there are moments slowly fading away. 

I pray within the photo and reflection there is more than a trace of grace ~ I pray there is a truth for you in these summer days.

Grace and peace ~~ 

Tangled and Twisted

Where does one branch end and the other begin?
Where in this tangled, twisted mess is order?
Like a ball of yarn in the paws of a cat,
Or the Christmas tree lights hastily put away last year,
Or metaphorically, my life, things are not always neat and tidy.

Relationships are tangled in words spoken to prove points.
Silent moments to commune with the swirling sacred are set aside so I can look busy.
Energy is given to that which does not evoke and invoke life.

Nature declares the holy truth that tangled and twisted can be beautiful.
Scripture declares that for creation to spring forth, there needed to be playful chaos.
Our lives are a living witness to this truth.

What feels tangled and twisted in your life today?
Whether it is your spouse...your friend...your family...your co-worker...your connection to God...your whole enterprise of trying to paint on the canvas called, "life" and all you keep getting is something that looks like a mess.

Is there any holy in that?

I stare at the shades of brown in the photo.
The variety of sizes and shapes.
The beautiful intricacies that intimately are growing side-by-side.
And I smile, because the twists and turns in the patchwork quilt of my life, I pray might bring forth a trace of God's grace this day.


I pray the same for you.

Blessings ~~

The Things We Miss

This summer, I have let loose my inner Ansel Adams and explored the beauty of photography.  There have been sweet, serendipitous moments when through persist patience...and sometimes just stubborn doggedness, I have been able to capture a moment like the one above.

But, as much as this photo makes me smile...and I pray it might evoke and invoke something with you too...I don't necessarily want to talk about just one photo.  Rather, I am excited about the creative process that leads to one split second when my finger finds the button to snap this one.

A bit of background.  We were at Sunken Gardens.  We had just started to wander around.  We saw some turtles, who were most cooperative at moving slowly so I could capture their picture.  We saw the yellow variety of the Golden Shrimp Plant, which I am sure you remember from high school biology class is really Pachystachys lutea.  And yes, I did totally Google that because even though I was just at Sunken Gardens...even though that Scientific Classification was clearly labeled on the sign in front of my face...I could not even begin to remember those Latin words!  Like the turtle, the plant posed and even slightly swayed in the breeze like a model smiling for the camera.  Then, we went to the butterfly garden.

Now, when one goes to a "butterfly garden"...one expects to see...butterflies.  But, when we first started to wander and walk around the colorful plants, there was one butterfly.  One.  Let's call this butterfly, "George".  George, I believe, had ingested the last few drops of someone's discarded 5-hour energy drink or perhaps had visited a humming bird feeder to sip of the sugary substance usually inside...because George could not and would not stay still.  George would no more than land on a flower petal, then he would be off again.  George flight path was a bit woozy.  The brown and golden parts of George's wings would forever remain elusive and evasive from my eye.

Not that I didn't try mind you (see the comment above about me being stubborn and dogged).  I must have had 10 blurry photos of "George" on my camera.  5 more of where George was in the frame just seconds before, but then suddenly gone.  5 more of me trying to get a picture of George, but what I really got was the ground or the sky or my wife's left ear because as I was trying to follow George's incomprehensible flight pattern, my reflects would flick my wrist in a failed attempt to get George and his beautiful brown butterfly wings to show you.

I never got the photo.

So, often what we show the world is the perfect.  We post to Facebook and Instantagram the parts and pieces of our life that will get the most likes.  Even when we post something bad, it is often as a straw man set up to show how we overcame the difficulty and that the struggle is real.  And this isn't new, by the way.  I am sure in Caveman times people didn't paint on cave walls the time someone slipped on some ice, landed on his face, and almost impaled himself with his spear...which by the way would have totally been me.

The photos we don't get.
Or the blurry ones we don't post.
Or what I like to call, a thousand ordinary days when life unfolds in brilliant, technicolor boringness.

When there is no beautiful butterfly to post.

For me, it is trying to stay open to the moments of God's grace in the blurry mistakes of life that makes faith most vital and vibrant.  Staying open to God's love, especially when there is nothing exciting happening.  That is my invitation for me and I pray might stir the sacred in your soul too in these July days.

Grace and peace ~~

More than a Cliche take Four

We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!  But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.  The Message

I don't see things as they are...I see things as I am.  The mirror is smudged and smeared with our own experiences, encounters, bias, and beliefs.  Or as Anne Lamont says, "Of course, we think our opinion is right...otherwise we would get a new opinion!"

Today, I want to offer you some space.  Room to breathe and be.

Rather than tossing and throwing a bunch of words at you.  I invite you to re-read 1 Corinthians 13 by clicking here.  Read slowly and savor each word.  Read slowly letting the tiny spaces in-between the words of scripture settle and sing to you.

What insights or ideas spring/stir within you?  Listen to your own life's response.

What questions still linger?  We don't always need responses or answers to such questions.  We can live the questions of daily life.


Just sit with this passage and let it sit within you.


May there be more than just a trace of God's grace in this.

Blessings ~~ 

.

More than a Cliche take Three

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end. - 1 Corinthians 13, The Message

Paul never met a list that he didn't love.  Paul never met a run-on sentence that couldn't use just a few more words to make it better.  Paul never missed a moment to pile on more and more images so that your mind was swirling, soul saturated, and heart soaked.  Paul had a flair for the dramatic.  I like to think he was the kind of person who puts out the candles on his birthday cake with a fire extinguisher!

I mean just look at that list above.

Put others first, don't covet, don't boast/brag/puff out your chest, don't get a big head, don't insert yourself when it is not your circus and not your monkeys.

Okay, that is a pretty good list, Paul...thank...

Wait...he says...I got more.  It isn't about you, don't get angry, don't see life has a balance sheet, don't think you are better than others (or in the words of my grandmother, "Get off your high horse".).

Um...thanks Paul....really given us a lot to think....

Wait...he says there is more.  Focus on truth, everything and everyone belongs, trust in God, look for traces of grace before you, keep going, and don't live life staring at your rear view mirror.

Awash in a litany that won't end.  Swimming in a stream of images that are overflowing.  Thinking to yourself, "He could have just said - leap over tall buildings and save the world."

This is impossible.

I wonder if that is the point.

I wonder if Paul is really describing God...not us.  If Paul is trying to suggest and say, "Let me tell you how God works and wiggles in the world."  We made this into a to-do list, perhaps to prove ourselves worthy of the One who already loves us unconditionally and unceasingly.  We think, "Wow, that is a lot, but I guess I better get started."  When actually, this is already complete because of God's presence in our lives. 

I also wonder if Paul is being a bit overly dramatic to make a point to the bickering community.  It is as if he is saying, "Listen, baptism and what you serve at church dinners and what leadership roles you have or don't have, to put your time and energy there might not be the best way faithfully forward.  Because love will take every fiber of our being...and even then we are only going to get it right maybe 5 percent of the time!"

Love isn't wishy-washy.  We think that because of too many Hallmark cards.  Love is actually the most powerful part of the world.  Love isn't just being a doormat, anything goes.  It will have a strong back and soft front.  Love invites us into a place where we see, as if for the first time, who and whose we are.  Of course most folks don't want to visit love.  Of course we distance and dismiss and deny that it is even possible or plausible.  Of course, because otherwise we'd have to change! 

We do this with Jesus.  He had to die for our sins.  We make God's unconditional love transactional.  It is not a commodity, like when I go to buy bananas and swipe my credit card.  We turn God's unceasing love into something that is depended on our belief - which by the way keeps us in charge the way we like it.  Rather, God's love is not just warm and fuzzy, God's love has known the pain of denial, desertion, and death.  That isn't something we can buy, it is a mystery that will change everything. 

In what ways do you resist Paul's words?
In what ways do you welcome them?
Who in your life can you share these words with in embodied ways?
Who do you struggle to let these words see the light of day with?

I pray as we let Paul's words really sink, settle, and sing to our souls, we will discover and discern more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~

More than a Cliche take Two

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.  If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.   If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.  1 Corinthians 13:1-7, The Message

Paul starts off his challenge to the bickering, bitterness, and brokenness by pointing out that love is the source that can energize and enlarge our lives.  But he realizes that goes against the grain of conventional wisdom - both in his day and still in our time too. 

Conventional wisdom that says, "Might makes right."  Or, "Life is a game of winners and losers".  Or, "You gotta get yours while the getting is good....there is only so much going around...don't miss out."  Conventional wisdom that loved to listen to the poetic prose and be amused by someone's profound insights and ideas.  Conventional wisdom that wanted to be astonished by someone's amazing feats.   Conventional wisdom that even said you should sacrifice and be humble.

All those boxes were clearly labeled with permanent marker for you to compartmentalize and categorize your life.  You organized your mental furniture into something rationale and reasonable. 

Paul says, "Not so fast."

Yes, people who can enchant and enthrall us can be good, but what is the source beneath and behind the poetic prose?  Is it love or it is the love of the spotlight?  It is a question I ask myself on Sunday mornings.

Yes, people who do great things for 15 minutes of fame can be good, but what is the energy around those amazing moments?  Is it love or just loving the attention? 

Yes, people who are willing to walk into the fire and no longer sit on the sidelines of life can be good, but deep down in their hearts is it the action of God or just being an actor?

The questions are rhetorical.  I don't know if deep down I can ever know what motivates and moves within you.  And even deeper down, I am not even sure I can ever know what motivates and moves within me!  In fact, you might remember, later in this chapter Paul is going to talk metaphorically about "seeing in a mirror dimly"...that is because we don't even see/know ourselves!  The stranger isn't always out there, but can be within us.  We walk up and don't recognize the face of the one staring back at us.

I don't think Paul is against being entertained or amazed or the deep desire to do something great.  I don't think Paul is trying to suggest we should never go see a movie or magician or believe that the Spirit might stir something deep within us.  Sometimes the greatest moments are found in a story that transports us to truth we might not otherwise be able to see.  Or, we need folks, as poet Emily Dickenson wrote, "Who tell the truth, but tell it at a slant." 

But, we can also hold in paradox the sense that seeing is not always believing.  Or as Barbara Brown Taylor said, "Sight is one of our weaker senses."  Yet, we have elevated what we receive and perceive to be the ultimate.  Paul, two thousand years ago, called that into question.  And perhaps today, we might close our eyes for a few moments, enter deep into the shadows of our own souls, to listen and to feel and to smell what is swirling within us and around us.

May the traces of God's grace move in our midst in more than just amazing ways, but in subtle ways like a hug, a soft spoken word, and the stillness of your own soul.

Grace and peace ~~