What's in Your Net Today?

 

When Tuesday arrives with a long list of things to do;

And the weather pattern of your soul is gloomy or blue;

You don’t know if you have the strength to see today through;

But you get up, get your coffee and cereal and start to chew;

You scan the headlines, your calendar (your net) searching for something new;

The internal clock says it’s time to go, up and at ‘em, put on your shoes;

You run though the drive through, bank, doctors, life spent in a queue;

You go about your day, so fast and frenzy, the scenery is a blurry view;

Suddenly, you remember the Easter promise, life holds another clue;

To slow down, breathe, hold lightly the good and bad, let God be the glue;

That you don’t have to push, pull, white-knuckle, control, and always stew;

There can be a way of life lived where you exhale and your souls says, “Whew.”

This is the day God has made and God’s love is seeking you to woo;

So you open your hands, heart, let God interrupt and get in a word too;

Let laughter be a prayer; and silence fill your soul; and grace in your heart brew.

There is another way to be in the world today, beyond the gray color of hue.

Rather a hope, peace, joy, and love that is seeking now to breakthrough.

 

I pray today, in this season of Easter, you will find playful and prayerful ways to move about your life.  I pray you will be surprised by the Sacred.  I pray you will be earnest and authentic.  I pray you will be honest and heartfelt as you fish your way through today.  And the above amateur poem of help you fish in life differently today.  With great love to you all!

What's in Your Net

 

⁹ When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn.  John 21:9-11

 

One hundred fifty-three fish, that is a lot of fish.  I picture fish of every shape, size, shade, and species.  A vast variety, a delightful diversity, and an astounding assortment.  Step into this scene with me.  See Peter’s muscles strain and sweat on his forehead as he hauls the net ashore.  See Peter, who was already soaking wet from his morning swim, trying to do it all by himself.  Did you catch that in the story above?  Oh, that one might connect with all my Type-A over-functioning tendencies.  Witness the holy mystery of a moment that Peter had done countless times in his life as a fisherman.  Remember, fishing for many of the disciples was not a vacation, but a vocation.  They had hauled in nets so many times, they could do it in their sleep.

 

But this was different.

 

When the holy shows up in the ordinary.  When God moves amid a moment we are going through the motions.  That can happen in our lives each week and we miss it.

 

As I step into the scene, I also see the humor and joy of it all.  I wonder, why did Peter put on clothes before diving into the water?  But then I wonder why I do the strange and silly things I do.  I wonder, who counted the fish?  Seriously, did Peter go over, haul in the net, then start counting?  Did everyone have to wait for him to finish before they had breakfast?  How long did that take?   

 

But the question that sits on my soul is, what is in the net of your life this week?  You can answer this with the events on the calendar or go deeper with what is on the shelves of your soul.  You can answer that question emotionally or physically or spiritually or relationally.

 

What is in your net?  The vast variety of moments that we both plan and those that show up unannounced on your doorstep.  Remember, we don’t do this alone.  Jesus is already cooking up a sacred presence to feed us as we move about our day.  Or as I said yesterday, Jesus prepares and we participate.  That is a mantra for every day.  This mantra builds on the Easter-ing mystery.  Life doesn’t just happen to us, we show up, open up, and participate.  We get to co-author the story we tell ourselves.  It is collaborative and cooperative with the Creator. 

 

What is in your net as you start this week?  Name and notice, bring to your awareness to what you carry.  As you move about the week, continue to see what gets caught in your life amid the sea where you find yourself.  I pray, deep in my heart, you have more than 153 experiences and encounters with God’s grace and love this week and this makes all the difference.  Amen.

A Brief Prayer for Today

 

A brief prayer on this Friday, O God, for You to anchor each of us amid the current of life in these days.  When images of war in Ukraine still cause us to wonder, “What can I do?”  When the pain of discrimination and stories of other’s hurts sit uneasy on the shelf of our souls.  When the constant chatter in our minds has endless color commentary of ways we are bumbling and stumbling, we need Your Resurrection power and emphatic, “Yes!” to life.  We long to remember that You are hovering in our lives.  We need Your surprising grace to remind us who and Whose we are.  We need Your love to feed and fuel what we do and say. So as we enter this day, help us move in concert with You.  Help the melody of our lives be in tune with You.  And let our words and actions be part of Your symphonic fanfare in these days.  Alleluia and Amen.

Thursday Pause

 

Thursday pause comes with an invitation today.

Name the ways God surprised you this week.

Notice moments you stayed open to God’s movement and caught a glimpse of God’s grace.

Even as the world roared and gnashed teeth, you bravely and boldly said, “Resurrection happens”.

New life is happening here, even as the constant drip of negativity soaked and saturated your soul.

Easter-ing is a verb and way of being.

Easter-ing is an openness and anticipation of God.

Easter-ing is naming and noticing how God shows up.

The more we are awake and aware of the Holy hovering, the more we keep searching for God.

Join me today…breathing in God’s joyfulness and exhaling the tension.

Breathe in God’s promise…breathe out the sense that “it” is all up to you.

Breathe in God’s creativity…breathe out the idea that you are all alone.

Breathe in God’s mystery…breathe out that responsibility to solve every problem.

Breathe in God’s energy…breathe out the temptation to toss in the towel.

Breathe in the new life of this day God has made…breathe out the belief that there is nothing new under the sun.

Today is brand new…tomorrow is too.  May this truth guide your life with every breath you take.  With great love for this day to be an Easter people.  Alleluia and Amen.

Poem and Prayer

 

Being playful isn’t always the definition of prayer.

We believe talking to God is to name our errors;

Or to bow our heads at the floor to glare.

Or to open our hearts and souls lay bare.

But, what if, the Easter-ing prayer has flair.

Connecting with God joyfully as a daily affair.

Not as a place where we feel trapped or snared,

But rather that holy peacefulness that today is so rare.

We could find promise and possibility in music we blare.

We find laughter talking with a friend in our armchair.

Being present over perfect, seeking to be open and aware.

So this day, write bad poetry or try a new style with your hair.

Pick out an outfit that is brash and bold that you wear.

Or just find ways to shine your light, your love to share.

God’s presence isn’t found in a hostile stare and glare.

God’s presence is found here and whenever we risk to care.

So come with me to live Easter if you are willing and dare.

Your life and mine can be caught up in God’s symphonic fanfare.

 

Christ the Lord is risen today, may you and I find ways to stay open to God’s guidance and grounding every hour.  Alleluia and Amen.

Searching for Strength

 

This week we are exploring various ways to be open to discovering God woven and working in our lives.  Sometimes these moments come as a surprise, catch us off guard.  Other times, we arrive at a moment praying to encounter the Eternal.  Easter holds both.  For example, Mary went to the tomb on the first Easter not plotting or planning on Resurrection.  It takes time for Mary to awaken to God bringing life from death (and as we heard on Sunday, it takes even longer for the disciples who were locked in a room to be aware of the holy hovering in their lives).  New life can be a surprise because it comes packaged in change.  And you and I know that change can be challenging.  Look around your life right now to places where change is slowly at work.  This can come in the form of age, relationships, volunteer opportunities, or the countless subtle changes that are always happening.  One of the great contradictions of life right now is that while we often get excited about what is new and next, there is something in our souls that will crave the familiar and known.  Hold that tension.  The moments we long for things to change (which is always a slow process), but as we take a step toward that new direction and destination that is something within us that points out all the flaws of the moment.  We are great at pointing out what isn’t quite right, so better to turn and go back to what is known.  One part of the Holy surprise on Easter is that Jesus was both familiar/recognizable and different.   Jesus was instantly recognizable and at the same time had changed.  Not only could he now enter rooms that were locked, as we heard on Sunday.  I love how Mary could not see that it was Jesus on Easter, thought him to be the gardener, perhaps because her eyes were full of tears, but upon hearing Jesus say her name, she knows!  I have seen the Lord.  Where has the holy surprised you recently?  Maybe this week as you prayerfully complete the sentence, “I have seen the Lord…” you might fill in the blank of that sentence today with places you’ve been surprised.

And Easter-ing can be moments of intentionally opening our attention to God.  You do this every Sunday when you come into worship.  You enter a time of prayer and praise ready to encounter the Eternal.  This happens differently each week.  Sometimes it is a hymn or anthem or sentence in a prayer or seeing someone you had not seen in a while.  I pray every Sunday you leave worship able to complete the sentence, “I have seen the Lord…”

Being open to God as God enters our lives in ways that surprise and we anticipate.  Being open to God as God moves about each moment of today.  That is being an Easter people during the fifty days of this season.  It is a prayer practice and posture.  May you and I sense God's strength sustaining us every day this week. 

Easter-ing ~ Week Three?!?

 

Painting by Brenda Robinson

Easter Meditation for this week

Wait…you may think, “Why are we still talking about Easter?”  After all, the lilies are long gone from the sanctuary and the stores have clearance out all the chocolate bunnies for another year.  We have moved on to May, a new month, so time for a new theme.  Right?  Actually, the season of Easter lasts fifty days ~ ten days longer than the season of Lent.  Hold that for a moment.  Often we see Lent as a somber and serious time; a prayerful time; a time set aside to focus our intention and attention on places where we need healing and help.  To counterbalance this, Easter arrives not just for a day or a few weeks, but for day-after-day, longer than the season of lent.  During these weeks you can:

 

Practice resurrection ~ paying attention to places of new life, new beginnings, new rustling within you;

Cultivate joy ~ this is that space within your soul that is an anchor in the currents of life.  Yes, my heart breaks at the news each night AND I trust God is not finished yet.  God’s character and creativity is to bring life from death.

Touch Creation ~ Resurrection is not only for humans but all creation.  God so loves the world, says John 3:16.  Moreover, many psychologists suggest that being in nature nurtures us in healing ways.

Notice and name gratitude ~ we need to see the promise and possibility of life, not only the pain in life.  Negativity in our world is like Velcro, it sticks and stays with us.  We can ruminate and let hurt live rent free in your mind.  Too often we are quick to discount, even evict, the moments of peace and joy for staying in our lives.

Keep praying the sentence I offered on Easter, “I have seen the Lord…”  You may see the Lord in the face of friends or a stranger who helps you in the store.  You may see the Lord in vivid, vibrant colors as you take a walk.  You may see the Lord in moments of quiet or laughter or reading or painting. 

 

Seeing the Lord is not just something you need to wait passively for God to arrive.  One the one hand, God comes disguised as our ordinary, everyday lives.  God arrives unexpected, in serendipitous ways.  On the other hand, you can cultivate practices that create space for God.  What if before you go into the meeting today you think, “I will stay open to seeing the Lord”.  Or before you go to a lunch date.  Or before you take a walk outside.  Or before you call someone.  Pausing for a moment before joining the Zoom or walking into an event reminding yourself that God is already there!! 

 

To be sure, this isn’t some magical formula that will offer a money back guarantee.  The meeting might go off the rails and people could hide knives in their sarcastic words.  And also in that meeting someone may do something to lower the temperature in the room or you might try to let the Easter-ing light of God shine through you.  To see the Lord starts to be a metamorphosis within us that takes time.  Which is why, perhaps, our earliest Christian ancestors designated the season of Easter to be longer than Lent.  If we spend 40 days being serious, perhaps we can look at these 50 days of Easter in a lighter way.  If we hold Lent as a somber season, Easter is the playful reminder that prayer is both. 

 

May these fifty days of Easter find you steeped in the sacred and surrounded by a holy love that continues to meet us in the wounds and wants ~ but doesn’t leave you in the darkness of the tomb ~ rather guides you to the new life and light of God’s, “Yes” to love.  Alleluia and Amen.