The lesson which life repeats and constantly enforces is look under foot. You are always nearer the divine and true sources of your power than you think. The lure of the distant and difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are. Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world."
- John Burroughs
Let me bend that quote to another direction as well. As I looked at the Sunday gospel lesson from John 3, I considered those familiar words of being “born again or “born from above”, as well as John 3:16, a verse that I memorized at a vacation bible school before I was 10 years old. Has it become old hat? Am I tempted to discard it and look to more distant sources of wisdom? Or do I need to look "under foot" and the nearness of this source?
I was recently part of some conversation that invited me to think of when I am “passionate about my faith” or what it means to have “an evangelistic heart.” As I prepare to to preach about these well worn words in John 3;16, I rediscovered how passionate I am in them.
For God so loved the world! And to tell the story of Jesus as that divine gift and truth....to invite people into this believing relationship...that is abundant, unending, and transcends death. It is a new beginning, in a new generative source! Born again..and from beyond myself, and from within...the wind /breath of the Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity right where we are in the ground of our gospel.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Lenten Post Prayerful Life Listening
The circumstances of our lives are another medium of God’s communication with us. God opens some doors and closes others.... Through the wisdom of our bodies, God tells us to slow down or reorder our priorities. The happy coincidences and frustrating impasses of daily life are laden with messages. Patient listening and the grace of the Spirit are the decoding devices of prayer. It is a good habit to ask, What is God saying to me in this situation? Listening to our lives is part of prayer.
- Marjorie J. Thompson
Soul Feast
- Marjorie J. Thompson
Soul Feast
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Color Purple Lenten Post
Last night I was showing Beth my latest Goodwill purchase of a nice new sweater but I wanted to know what color it is. ‘Is this brown or is it green?”
“It’s gray’ she said.
“Are you sure?”
I got it closer to her and into a better light. “Gray” she said again. "It comes across as a charcoal gray.”
‘But I’ve been wearing it with brown pants” I said.
“Well, that’s ok.”
The problem is my color confusion. Most of the time I get all the primary bold colors right, its just the shades and blends that throw me off, and even then I've learned how to compensate and guess. I can figure out what most colors are supposed to be. And I keep my color wardrobe pretty simple. When Beth met me I had a closet full of identical blue jeans or khaki pants and plain blue shirts that were easy to mix and match. When my son,Nick, was first learning his colors, he was convinced that I could learn my colors too. One day he got the color flash cards out just so he could teach me.
But the question I consider is this: How does my color perception or interpretation match up with yours?
Is the kind of blue or green that I see , the same as yours?. And how many times do I just plain get it wrong and my brown or green, to the rest of the world is actually gray?
The Lenten spin is this. If I am guessing and seeing the world though my own color perception, I wonder how many ways, that happens in my psychological, social , and spiritual perceptions?
We even talk about how a certain mind set or attitude or a history , can “color our perception.”
Some times the only way for me to find out how my perception lines up with another, is to simply ask. “What color is this? What do you see?" And even then, it still might be just a relative, comparable use, of a descriptive word. Can I really see what you see?
Lent is time to check out realities with each other. We need conversation, community, confession., to see the colors of life. Scripture, tradition, reason and experience are part of the color conversations
By the way , the color for Lent is purple; a color meant to symbolize penance and royal dignity; of suffering and of sovereignty. I think it is a color that I see. But what does that mean, or look like to you?
“It’s gray’ she said.
“Are you sure?”
I got it closer to her and into a better light. “Gray” she said again. "It comes across as a charcoal gray.”
‘But I’ve been wearing it with brown pants” I said.
“Well, that’s ok.”
The problem is my color confusion. Most of the time I get all the primary bold colors right, its just the shades and blends that throw me off, and even then I've learned how to compensate and guess. I can figure out what most colors are supposed to be. And I keep my color wardrobe pretty simple. When Beth met me I had a closet full of identical blue jeans or khaki pants and plain blue shirts that were easy to mix and match. When my son,Nick, was first learning his colors, he was convinced that I could learn my colors too. One day he got the color flash cards out just so he could teach me.
But the question I consider is this: How does my color perception or interpretation match up with yours?
Is the kind of blue or green that I see , the same as yours?. And how many times do I just plain get it wrong and my brown or green, to the rest of the world is actually gray?
The Lenten spin is this. If I am guessing and seeing the world though my own color perception, I wonder how many ways, that happens in my psychological, social , and spiritual perceptions?
We even talk about how a certain mind set or attitude or a history , can “color our perception.”
Some times the only way for me to find out how my perception lines up with another, is to simply ask. “What color is this? What do you see?" And even then, it still might be just a relative, comparable use, of a descriptive word. Can I really see what you see?
Lent is time to check out realities with each other. We need conversation, community, confession., to see the colors of life. Scripture, tradition, reason and experience are part of the color conversations
By the way , the color for Lent is purple; a color meant to symbolize penance and royal dignity; of suffering and of sovereignty. I think it is a color that I see. But what does that mean, or look like to you?
Thursday, February 14, 2008
An Ounce of Love Lenten Post for Feb 14th
"Beware you be not swallowed up in books!
An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge"
John Wesley
And maybe you can get a Valentines Day message out of that as well!
An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge"
John Wesley
And maybe you can get a Valentines Day message out of that as well!
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Wednesday Feb. 13th Lenten Post
Little hopes, small visions, dreams not dared
efforts weak, thoughts confused, soul threadbare.
This is how we come to You
so lift us up, with heavens height
Enlarge our view, make bold our sight
This is why we come to You,
Christ who gives, Lenten, lengthening
growing Light.
Tuesday February 12th Lenten Post
PRAYER
Send us, O Lord, as your messengers, to hearts without homes, to lives without love, and to a multitude without direction.
Send us to children whom no one has blessed, to the hungry whom no one has fed, to the fallen whom no one has raised, to the desolate whom no one has consoled.
Light your fire on the altar of our hearts so that others may receive its warmth. Let your light shine through our souls so that others may see the path before them. Keep our compassion and discernment ready, our will fervent and alive, our hands reaching to help our brothers and sisters in their time of need. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Adapted from the closing prayer at the first National Convocation of Deaconesses, 1951
Send us, O Lord, as your messengers, to hearts without homes, to lives without love, and to a multitude without direction.
Send us to children whom no one has blessed, to the hungry whom no one has fed, to the fallen whom no one has raised, to the desolate whom no one has consoled.
Light your fire on the altar of our hearts so that others may receive its warmth. Let your light shine through our souls so that others may see the path before them. Keep our compassion and discernment ready, our will fervent and alive, our hands reaching to help our brothers and sisters in their time of need. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
- Adapted from the closing prayer at the first National Convocation of Deaconesses, 1951
Monday Feb 11th Lenten post.
I will be gone on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday so I am posting ahead.
The Lenten journey is on. Keep going.
"I am being driven forward
Into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper,
The air colder and sharper.
A wind from my unknown goal
Stirs the strings Of expectation.
Still the question:
Shall I ever get there?
There where life resounds,
A clear pure note
In the silence.
-- Dag Hammarskjold, Markings.
The Lenten journey is on. Keep going.
"I am being driven forward
Into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper,
The air colder and sharper.
A wind from my unknown goal
Stirs the strings Of expectation.
Still the question:
Shall I ever get there?
There where life resounds,
A clear pure note
In the silence.
-- Dag Hammarskjold, Markings.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
