Embodying God's Presence

 

Today, I share one of my favorite prayers with you ~

 

Slow Me Down 

Slow me down, Lord!                                                      
Ease the pounding of my heart
By the quieting of my mind.
Steady my harried pace
With a vision of the eternal reach of time.

Give me,
Amidst the confusions of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves
With the soothing music 
Of the singing streams
That live in my memory.

Help me to know
The magical power of sleep,
Teach me the art
Of taking minute vacations 
Of slowing down
To look at a flower;
To chat with an old friend 
Or make a new one;
To pet a dog;
To watch a spider build a web;
To smile at a child;
Or to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day
That the race is not always won by the swift;
That there is more to life 
Than increasing its speed.

Let me look upward
Into the branches of the towering oak
And know that it grew great and strong
Because it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down, Lord,
And inspire me to send my roots deep
Into the soil of life's enduring values
That I may grow toward the stars
Of our greater destiny.

- Offered by Dave Johnson and Kyra Shahid; Written by Orin L. Crain

Embodying God's Presence Part 3

 

This week we are hold the twin truths that you are God’s beloved and our deep desire to belong.  We have tried to practice this of wearing out skin out in the world among other humans.

How is that going?

My guess is that you’ve probably had some moments when you were able to embrace and embody both truths.  And there were sometimes when it was a swing and miss.  Remember that a good batting average in baseball is 3 out of 10 times.  Remember that in baseball errors are a part of the game.

There is no magical formula that makes this easy. There are no rules or simple steps.  And there is an abundance of opportunities to practice this every day. Continue to open your mind, imagination, heart, and whole life to God who shows up in your life and in the life of every person you encounter today.

Prayer: God, You are still at work in me and around me, help me be patient and kind and loving to my self and my neighbor, for Your love is what fuels and feeds my life every day.  Amen.

Embodying God's Presence Part 2

 

Yesterday, we held two twin truths together ~ one ~ you long to be who God made you to be and who you are becoming.  And ~ two ~ you long to belong to a community where you can show up as yourself.  When these two are in harmony, our lives feel full.  But, when there is tension between these two, it causes our hearts to ache and souls to break and we want to resolve that tension as quickly as possible.  This tension is part of life from the beginning, many of us pick up in childhood that it isn’t okay to show up as we authentically are.  We are told by our parents that, “Boys don’t cry” or “Girls aren’t as good at math.”  Neither of which are true. We are told by our teachers if we are good at a subject. We are told by our friends whether our clothing is stylish enough. We are told by our church whether our faith is strong or orderly. We are told by the voices around us that if we use this new brand of toothpaste all the world will fall at our feet.

Even when I say in a morning meditation that you, as you are right now, are crafted and loved into being in God’s image, I get that those words barely may cut through the words you heard in the past and the noise of the present.  When so many point out what is imperfect and incorrect in us, we long to belong.

On top of this, we are hyperaware that we may get kicked out of the tribe.  If we don’t nod our head or vote in a certain way or show up or say the right words we may just be put out the curb.  There is still our ancestral DNA where when you got booted from the tribe that met you might be lunch for a lion in the bush over there.

We return to the question; how can we be our unique self and connect communally to others?

Today, I invite you to take time to notice and name moments when you felt you had let go of a part of you so that you could fit in.  To use Paul’s words from chapter 12 of 1 Corinthians ~ when has your hand said to your eye, “You are no longer need.”  This is metaphorical language here.  When have you said, “I will just go along to get along.”  Or I won’t say anything because I don’t want to rock the boat.  Let be clear that this could be in our families, church, or community.  Hold these words for the truth they continue to show us in such a time as this.

Prayer: God, You craft me in Your image.  Yet, sometimes there is so much about me and we I want to change.  Help me live the truth that I am accepted and affirmed with Your affection and so is that person I will see when I go to the store today. Amen.

Embodying God's Presence

 

As we continue to let the words of Paul inform and inspire our lives this summer, this week I want to turn toward and tune into the words about being the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12.  Remember, Paul is writing to a church where conflict was on the agenda of every meeting ~ sounds like a wonderful place to be – sign me up, I think sarcastically!  Part of the problem was (and maybe still is), people want to rate and rank everything.  There remains this competition to score points on an imaginary scoreboard of life.  People at the First Church of Corinth wanted to know that their casserole was the blue ribbon best at the potluck; that their leadership was so Christ-soaked it was as if Jesus himself was right there; that their sermons knocked it out of the park every single week (that last one might be a bit too close for comfort.  Gulp!).

Paul wants to remind the Corinthians that there is no “I” in church.  (Thank you to every sports movie ever for that cliché).  Built and baked into the human condition is this deep desire both to be seen as unique and to be accepted/affirmed/belong.  We long to be who God crafts us to be individually and we long to be in community.  Therein is an honest tension.  We long to belong and we long to be our authentic accepted self.  There are times those two are not as compatible or easily put together as we want them to be.  This isn’t easily resolved or solved.  There is no answer in the back of the book of life to help us figure out how to navigate the “me” and “we” of life. 

Paul draws on the image of a body.  He writes in chapter 12, ¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. ¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

There are many ways to take this passage.  First, we can look at our own lives.  Often there is a part of our body or life we wish/want to be different.  Remember back to January 1 of this year, if you made New Year’s Resolutions often those relate to our physical or emotional or mental or spiritual changes we want to make.  We often say, “New Year, New Me.”  The practice of wearing skin, of being human size, comes with a built-in color commentary in our minds that loves to point out all the places you could be just a bit better.  And if your own internal critic doesn’t do it, scrolling through social media will activate that part of our brain software almost every time.  Part of what I hear in the above words is the reminder to be human size.  I hear the affirmation that you, right now, are crafted and created in God’s image.

Savor this with me…re-read those last two sentences as many times as needed to let it sink in.

Remember, Paul is not writing to isolated individuals, but he is writing to a whole community and church.  We are connected to one another.  We are connected to people who are also hurting and hiding and trying to figure out life.  And sometimes the ache of life comes out as shame or blame or guilt or pull someone down to prop yourself up.  Happened in Corinth.  Happens in June of 2023. 

Today, I invite you to tell your inner critic/commentary, that you are created in God’s image.  And…so are the other people you meet today.  Come back tomorrow and we will dive deep into how this practice goes.

Friday Prayer

 

Guiding God, You are with us every second and step of the day.  You hold our hand when the road twists and turns like a rollercoaster.  You help us make meaning by authoring our story, connecting us, and reminding us that our first, middle, and last name is, “Beloved”.  When the wolves of today pay an unwelcome visit, give us courage.  When we struggle, open us to those who You send who share unconditional love.  When we stumble, pick us up.  When we feel joy, help us share this.  When there is a beautiful ordinariness, let that too speak of Your sacred presence.  Be with us and bless us to be a blessing.  Amen. 

What to do next??

 

So far this week, we have noted the twists and turns.  We have focused on the wolves (metaphorically) that challenged and changed us.  Yesterday, we added the layer of ABC (agency/belonging/calling or cause) as a window to make sense of our lives.  This week, I want to share one final thought from Feiler’s book.  He says there are actions we can take in our life right now.  He names these as:

 

Accept it ~ identify your emotions/thoughts/gut as one window to express what you are experiencing.

Mark it ~ ritualize the change through writing or painting or making something that symbolizes what is stirring within you.

Shed it ~ give up clinging for what was or controlling every last detail.

Create it ~ try new steps toward new ways ~ remembering that you didn’t arrive where you are overnight and won’t reach a destination in a single step.

Share it ~ seek wisdom from others, especially people who will listen to you.

Launch it ~ embrace and embody a new way of being, bravely move toward where God is nudging you.

Tell it ~ share what you are now experiencing that is different and distinct to others, this will help you continue to accept it~ and continue the cycle above. 

 

Feiler notes that in transition you will feel fear, sadness, shame, guilt, anger, and loneliness.  We often think, “Shouldn’t I be further along by now?!?”  As a runner, I know that my competition isn’t the person next to me in a race, but myself.  I know what pace or time I am aiming.  The person who passes me is running her own race.  And the point isn’t the medal at the finish line, those often gather dust in a drawer anyway.  The point is the process that begins with training, leading up to the excitement of starting the race, the challenge of midway through the race (when I wonder what was I thinking?!?), and finishing the race ~ even if I walk across the line.  May the words above help you today.  In the words of the Spiritual, “Guide my feet while I run this race, yes, my Lord! Guide my feet while I run this race, yes, my Lord! Guide my feet while I run this race, for I don’t want to run this race in vain!”  Feel free to sing this as a prayer today…and add the second verse, “Hold my hand, Lord, while I run this race”.  May these words be experienced in your life this day.  Amen. 

ABC of life

 

This week we are taking on the role of lifestorian inspired by a book by Bruce Feiler.  On Monday we began a life timeline.  On Tuesday we named the wolves that we still face or fear or fight in our lives.  But this is more than just data or facts because humans are meaning making machines.  We constantly try to connect the dots and form conclusions.  As we do this, we would be well to remember Paul’s insightful words about not knowing why he did what he did (see the Morning Meditations from the week of May 22).  Feiler talks about the ABC of meaning. 

A is for autonomy or agency ~ you author the story you tell yourself and can edit it;

B is for belonging or connections, family/friends matter in our stories, we are not isolated individuals or as Genesis 1 says, it is not good for a human to be alone;

C is for cause or calling or purpose, we long to know that we are making a difference.

Look back at your timeline (or spiral or twisty map that you’ve been working on).  Put an “A” where you made a choice.  For example, I can put an “A” next to attending Drake University, United Theological Seminary, and Luther Seminary.  I can put an “A” next to the prayerful decisions about which church I would serve.  I can put a “B” next to marrying my best friend, the birth of children or visits to see my dad and brother.  I can put a “B” next to my mom’s death.  I can put a “B” next to people in our church who bless me.  And I can put a “C” next to places where I feel God’s love freely flowing through me like writing these meditations or preaching or being out in creation.  Remember from a few weeks ago, Ronald Rolheiser quote, “A healthy soul must put some fire in our veins, keep us energized, vibrant, living with zest, and full of hope as we sense that life is, ultimately, beautiful, and worth living.” Where on your timeline does the fire burn brightly ~ and you let your light shine.  May pondering the ABC’s of your life open you to the beautiful story you and God are collaborating to compose right now..