Pausing and Breathing

 

Today, I invite you to pause, breathe and be.

 

Breathe in memories of childhood that bring smiles to your face…breathe out the pain of the past.

Breathe in teenage years, dances, activities, prom, graduation…breathe out moments you were treated as less than fully beloved by God.

Breathe in the goodness and joy of building a career, your calling and sharing your passion…breathe out the striving and trying to prove you are successful.

Breathe in the holy moments of adulting…breathe out the problems that we could not fix no matter how hard we try.

Breathe in this moment right now…with all its beauty and brokenness…breathe out the agendas we have if only we were King/Queen of the Universe.

 

Breathe in…breathe out.

Listen to sounds of creation, your home, your own heart beating.

Be in this moment with the One who is Presence.

Amen.

The Story of Me and We

 

On Monday, I invited you to reflect on the chapters of your life, the story of YOU. Yesterday, I asked you to compose lists of events and experiences that make you, you.

You have a story you tell yourself that is impacted and influenced both what has happened internally and externally. There is a world within you and the world around you. Both are tangled and twisted together. Sometimes we don’t know where one begins and the other ends. But the truth is that you are uniquely crafted in God’s likeness with a light to shine AND there is a deep desire to connect with others. We are both individual and collective; we crave community and others can cause hurt and harm. Or as Carrie Newcomer has said, “Love is easy. People are hard.” I find this to be true. As you look at the chapters of your life, where is your story connected to another person’s story? For example, being a husband and father is a part of my individual life but is dependent on other people too. I have a story to tell about my family, but so does each family member. We know this to be true when we have a shared experience and yet encounter that moment differently. For example, I can feel and remember our family trip to the Grand Canyon one way; my kids another; and Gina still another way. We all went, but we came away impacted differently. The meaning and memories are both shared and distinctive. Our story is never just our own, but there is a cast of characters. As you look over your chapter titles and lists, are there other people there that play an important part in your story?

When you expand this truth, we start to see where some of the tension in life is at. Individuals inhabit this world in different, diverse, and distinctive ways. We want to own our stories, but our stories are impacted/influenced by others. To take this one step further: it is true that I have a story to tell where I am the lead character, not just a supporting actor. Each of us is trying to be the s/hero of our own story. We want to be the sage in another person’s story. We can feel like the victim of a third person’s story and even the villain of someone else’s story. Let these truths be like a light as you look back on the prompts from yesterday and Monday. May this help you edit your chapters and lists of important moments in ways that let God enter in. Our story is never about you as an isolated individual, there is always a "we" more than just a "me". May you find ways today to let God co-author your life and help you participate in the great symphony being conducted where each of us has a part to play. Amen.

The Story of YOU part Two

 

How is the writing assignment going from yesterday?  Wait, you think, he was serious about that?  Yup!  Okay, let me give you an alternative way to think about the invitation.  What are the top ten or fifteen or nineteen experiences and encounters in your life?  You could actually make multiple lists.  One could be professional; one could be personal; one could be playful.  For example, on one list I could put earning my doctorate and serving three amazing churches.  On another I could put marrying my best friend and having two great children.  On another I could put my love of Legos and the awe I felt standing at the Grand Canyon years ago. 

 

As a matter of fact, just start making the list.  Don’t get so caught up in classifying or categorizing.  Just reflect on the story of your life and start writing.  Again, I would love to see your lists when you finish.  May God, the co-author of all our stories, guide and ground you in this prayerful, hopefully playful, exercise.

The Story of YOU

 

Every single day you are working on a wonderful art project entitled, “Your life.”  Every single moment is a sentence; every single hour is a page; every single experience and encounter is part of the narrative God is co-authoring with you. 

 

Looking back over the last few weeks, what sticks and stands out for you?  What moments have left a lasting/lingering impression on your heart?  When has the ordinary been saturated and soaked with the holy?

 

Pause for a moment with me, get out a piece of paper, and respond to the above questions.  By the way, this is an open calendar quiz, you can look back at your paper calendar or app on your phone to remind you of where you have been and what has filled your days.  I encourage you to do this now.  It’s okay, I’ll wait.

 

When I look back some of what rises to the top is: celebrating Gina’s birthday, Ethan’s graduation, Sunday morning worship, laughing so hard at the last session of Artful Prayer tears came streaming down my face, family dinners, hard and holy Sacred Conversations on Race, Bible Study, and the session on “The Story of You” in May.  There is so much more.

 

Here is my invitation for June: Look back over your life as a story and name the chapters.  You might look at your childhood.  I would name my growing up in Iowa, “Just a city boy born amid corn fields”.  Look at your teenage years.  I might name that chapter, “Marching with the Drum Major God,” which combines my love of band and church as a teenager.  I might name the chapter of my early twenties, “Wait…I’m a Pastor…and a parent…and an adult…Gulp.”  I might name the chapter of my thirties, “White knuckling life,” as I tried to prove that I knew what I was doing.

 

Hopefully you get the point.  Rewind and review the art project of “Your Life” and come up with descriptions that capture some of the Spirit for you. 

 

And I invite you to please share these with me.  Email me or come in and talk to me.  This summer I want to HEAR your story and celebrate the ways God is moving in your midst.  I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.  Ready?  Set?  Go!  With great love!

Friday Prayer

God of new days and holy ways; God of moments of sacred play; meet me in this moment I pray.  I need Your presence when I start to fray (and fret and sway); I need Your grace amid the fears and hurts that weigh; I need Your light to guide me when I stray. 

Enter in, awaken my soul, surround the words I say; allow Your presence to shine through me like a ray; give me moments to pause and safety from prey; the hurts I carry too long of betray; for there is another way to life rather than dismay; so grant me wisdom, courage, and love along this walkway; for your presence sweetens my life like a sorbet; that somehow, in some way, I might find serenity through this wordplay.  May the love of God dance and delight you in marvelous and mysterious way. 

 

I pray you continue to find ways to be open to our planting, watching, watering, waiting, harvesting, sorting, and resting God.  May the God who dances in our midst awaken you to join in the holy movement of today. Amen. 

 

Morning Meditation

 

Return with me this morning to the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...courage to change the things I can…and Wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as the pathway to peace. taking, as Christ did, this sinful (read: broken, bruised, gone astray) world as it is, not as I would have it. Trusting that God will make all things right if I surrender to God’s will. That I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with God forever in the next. Amen.  

 

This is the third time this week we have said this prayer.  Is there something new you heard?  A word that caught your attention or a phrase that unsettled you?  You can pray the same prayer every day for your whole life and never tire of it, because words create worlds each time we speak them.  Each time I say, “I love you” to my family, those words recreate a world.  Yes, the same words can be repetitive or go on autopilot.  Or words can fashion and form new things.  This is why gratitude is endless new each day.  Today I am thanking that I woke up.  I am breathing.  The sun is shining and a bird just whistled a tune.  The mystery that our bodies are constantly shedding skin, recreating/resurrecting, and we look in the mirror and we are able to still recognize ourselves!  The mystery of relationships.  The joy of laughter and music and love that fills our hearts.  The world is alive with God.  Do we notice?  Do we let the holy hovering in our lives get a word in edgewise?  This is the endless source of thanksgiving.

 

May the beauty of living the questions today so enliven your heart and soul, making all the difference.  Alleluia and Amen.

Widening Circle of Gratitude

 

 

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others ~ Cicero

 

As we enter the month of June, I invite you to reclaim gratitude as a source of the Sacred.  In many ways this builds upon the Easter Sunday invitation of completing the sentence, “I have seen the Lord…” every day.  This continues to build upon the invitation to examine and explore what is being caught in the net of your life.  When we only focus on what is missing, incomplete, not enough, the tangled/twist tears in the net of life, we will end up seeing only what is lacking.  We can end up seeing ourselves as missing, incomplete, and not enough.  In some ways it is a chicken and an egg issue.  Do we project our own feelings of “less than” on the world, finding more than enough evidence by just scanning the headlines?  Or does the daily encounter with the world, which is so hurting and full of harm, cause our souls to ache?  Or is it both?

 

Gratitude can be a prayer practice and posture to see deeper.  For those who already feel like your mind is raising objections to practicing thanksgiving, there is good science behind gratitude.  Go ahead, Google that…you will find scientific research that noticing and naming the good is healthy and healing.  The daily practice of finding “reasonably happy” is a holy way to live.  We need to be careful not to be tripped up or trapped by either/or thinking.  Even things that are amazing (example: ice cream) have a downside (ice cream headaches or extra calories if I eat too much).  But on a humid Florida day when I feel the cool refreshing Cookie Two-Step ice cream on the tip of my tongue ~ well I taste heaven while still on earth. 

 

For each of us to name and claim gratitude for the people and places that fill our hearts, even when it would be hard for us to give a rationale for why this person or place is so meaningful.  Why does preaching on Sunday morning make my soul sing?  Why does listening to “O Love” by Elaine Hagenberg bring joyful tears to my eyes?  Why does laughing feel like a holy act of rebellion in the world today?

 

Yes, I could answer those questions with more words.  OR I could invite you to join me in sharing your gratitudes and thanksgivings.  To do that, would fill me with gratitude and would be a way to see the Lord as we prepare for Pentecost this coming Sunday.  May you feel the singing swell of thanksgiving filling your hearts during these summer months.  Amen.