by Catherine Lawton,
Claude Monet Graystaks
Grainstacks Snow Effect
Nature Doesn’t Lie
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by Christine Sine
I have an extensive collection of heart-shaped rocks and other heart-shaped objects. Some were gifted, a few purchased, but the majority I picked up on beaches, pebbled pathways and even in scrap heaps. They are everywhere, these heart-shaped reminders of a God who loves us unconditionally. Even my tomatoes sometimes come in the shape of a heart.
Heart shaped tomato
The unfortunate thing is that I never noticed heart-shaped objects until a friend, who began collecting similar objects years ago, pointed them out to me. She encouraged me to look intentionally for such objects and suddenly my eyes opened wide to God’s displays of love hidden all around us.
As I reflected on this last week I realized that the evidence of God’s love is everywhere present, not just in the heart-shaped rocks we pick up, but in our friends and neighbours, in the generosity of strangers, in the selfless sacrifices of those who care for the marginalized and in the dedication of those who work to overcome injustice and to preserve the earth…. and we often don’t notice because we don’t look around us with intentionality.
So this week I set out to record the heart-shaped evidence of God’s love around me. I prepared myself by reading 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 here from NIV translation.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails.
Then I asked myself: Where have I seen patience, kindness, humility, lack of envy and boasting, concern for others, rejoicing in the truth, trust, protecting the vulnerable, hope and perseverance this week? I was amazed at how that stack of heart-shaped acts and attitudes piled up around me. The person at the store who helped me with a heavy load, the friends who helped me pick and process apples, my husband making dinner so that I had more time for processing, the understanding doctors and nurses helping me to negotiate my health challenges, the organizations at our church’s Rainwise Garden Fair passionate about reducing water pollution and flooding, the pastors of small churches in East Harlem , planted in their neighbourhoods for 30+ years and still committed to seeing the transforming presence of God in their congregations. What a heartwarming exercise to try and list these and recognize how extensive the evidence of God’s love is all around me. Eventually I ran out of time, but I walked away with a warm glow inside still feeling that my list only scratched the surface.
Next I read 1 John 4:7-12 which I think is beautifully expressed in The Passion Translation:
Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. 8 The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.[a]9 The light of God’s love shined within us[b] when he sent his matchless[c] Son into the world so that we might live through him.[d]10 This is love:[e] He loved us long before we loved him. It was his love, not ours. He proved it by sending his Son to be the pleasing sacrificial offering to take away our sins.[f]
11 Delightfully loved ones, if he loved us with such tremendous love, then “loving one another” should be our way of life! 12 No one has ever gazed[g] upon the fullness of God’s splendor.[h] But if we love one another, God makes his permanent home in us, and we make our permanent home in him, and his love is brought to its full expression in us.
Loving one another should be our way of life! Easier said than done, but when we remind ourselves frequently of the expressions of God’s love around us we are more likely to move in the direction of expressing love in and through our lives, which makes it easier to ask the next question – Where did I express God’s love in my concern for others and for God’s creation this week? Where did I fail to express love? This last list seems to be the longest of all, unfortunately, but I continue to work on it!
My reflection on my heart-shaped rocks culminated, at least for the time being, in the writing of the poem below. Perhaps you would like to join me in this exercise. Walk around your garden, neighbourhood park or a rocky beach. Collect all the heart-shaped objects you can. Bring them home and reflect on the unexpected places you have seen God’s love this week.
God we thank you
For the wonder of your love,
For in it is hidden the wonder of who you are.
Wherever generosity is shared,
Your love is proclaimed.
Wherever compassion is expressed,
Your love is at its root.
Wherever forgiveness breaks forth
Your love gives it birth.
Your love never stops loving,
It is ever patient and kind,
A safe place to shelter from fear and anger and violence.
Let it find a permanent home in us
and become our way of life.
Love pouring from you to us,
from us to you
and out into the world you love.
Christine Sine 2021 (Inspired by I Corinthians 13 and 1 John 4)
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A contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:
“Bring Your Peace,” “Kyrie,” and “Shepherd Song” are original compositions. Words and music by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“Nothing Can Ever” and “Within our Darkest Night (Dans Nos Obscurites)” are songs from the ecumenical monastic community in Taize, France. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
Photos and writing by June Friesen,
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. (Definition from Wikipedia)
When I heard about this celebration this year (sadly I had not heard of it before) I immediately went online to find out the historical meaning of this day. I do not know if I had really never heard of it before, or if I had heard the words but really never thought about it–merely ‘heard’ the words.
Growing up I was very familiar with the Indigenous people in various ways. I remember them coming to our farm and selling my father wooden fence posts. He taught me that they were always of good wood and they made especially sturdy fencing corners. I also was gifted with many of the items above, which were mostly made by the Navaho nation in the early 1950s.
As I have pondered these thoughts these past couple of weeks, many thoughts have gone through my mind. I have some very special friends among the Indigenous peoples, especially here in Arizona with whom I have shared various experiences. I have been privileged to worship in their churches, attend their revival/camp meetings on their lands, and sleep and eat in their homes with them. I have many specials friends among these people. So, I became very curious as to this special day and I have to admit that as I now understand it, I will embrace it fully. Let us look at a couple of Scriptures, as I was once again reminded of these verses:
John 3:16 16 For here is the way God loved the world—he gave his only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life.
(The Passion Translation)
Romans 1:14-17 14 Love obligates me to preach to everyone, to those who are among the elite and those who are among the outcasts, to those who are wise and educated as well as to those who are foolish and unlearned. 15 This is why I am so excited about coming to preach the wonderful message of Jesus to you in Rome! 16 I refuse to be ashamed of the wonderful message of God’s liberating power unleashed in us through Christ! For I am thrilled to preach that everyone who believes is saved—the Jew first, and then people everywhere! 17 This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness—a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. (The Passion Translation)
A song that comes to mind from my earliest childhood Sunday School days is this:
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; Red, brown, yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight; Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
When I got a little older a Sunday School teacher added a verse:
“Jesus died for all the children, all the children of the world; Red, brown, yellow, black and white, all are precious in His sight; Jesus died for all the children of the world.”
As a child, my spirit was sensitive to anyone who looked different than I did. Yet I remember so clearly how I really believed in my little ‘child’s heart and mind’ that every one of us all over the world mattered to God. In the photos above you will see some very special treasures of mine. One dates all the way back to when I was three years old and my aunt brought me a little jacket with weaving on it from one of the Indigenous tribes in New Mexico. She continued to add to that collection over the years as she would come to visit us. I treasured all of these and still do.
So how can we show respect and honor to these people around our nation? In my experience, it is in accepting them as individuals just as you and I. I remember fondly sitting with a number of women, some of them quite elderly, in one of my visits to their tribal land/nation. Some of them knew little to no English yet we were able to visit and learn about each other. They were eager to share with me their creative abilities, especially in their weavings. I learned about their great respect for the creation/world around us, especially water. Oftentimes their communities struggled for water, especially when the rainfall was minimal. Water was used in the home but never disposed of down the drain. Rather it was carried outdoors to the farm animals, especially the chickens.
I learned how to worship God with great enthusiasm. It did not matter so much if the tune(s) and/or harmony were perfect; what mattered was the opportunity to praise God because they had come to know that they were created by Him and loved by Him, even though life was not always easy. I have learned they have been taken advantage of by Caucasian people. For some, this has caused a continual struggle, yet they desire to still one day be respected among all people/by all people. I have shared with them through the loss of a family member in death. In knowing the faith walk of the person we were all assured of the person’s presence in heaven with God the Father of all humanity.
This is a day of new possibilities and possibly new beginnings for some–if not all of us. I know that it is for me. I knew many things about the Indigenous peoples, but now I know even more. I now want to embrace a day to honor them, especially for their resilience, their continued perseverance, and their forgiveness–as well as their great contributions to this country over time. This is an opportunity for all of us to show appreciation to this people group by thanking them for the things they contribute to our society, the arts that they share with us for sale, as well as embracing them as fellow believers.
Today I close with a prayer:
Father in heaven, today we celebrate and honor a group of people who have often felt marginalized in our society. Forgive us for where we have not always recognized and included them in our lives as You did and do. Help us begin today to embrace them as Your children created and loved by You just as we are. In Jesus’ name, amen and amen.
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by Kathie Hempel,
At the time of my birth, my maternal grandmother was in the Ontario Hospital. In those days it was still labeled as the hospital for the mentally insane.
In the late ’40s and early ’50s in both the United States and Canada, wives could be placed in such institutions on their husbands’ signature alone. This resulted in many women being committed, lobotomized, and given shock treatments for no more than their husband’s weariness with the marriage. Were they not mentally unstable when they entered, they certainly had depression, anxiety, and trauma when they left.
American actress Glenn Close has said, “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.”
This is particularly true in the Christian community, where we can tend to quote scripture and feel we have answered the call to care. Scripture is helpful, but not for one in the throes of a panic or anxiety attack. “My peace I give you” does little to comfort or reassure one speaking to a portrait of Jesus on the Sunday School classroom wall, during a schizophrenic trance, believing he is Satan.
Ignoring the woman crying uncontrollably during the service or escorting her from the room does not impart God’s love. Some will even go as far as to say such as these don’t belong in church. Nor, they will say, does the addict hiding out in the bathroom, the man smelling of last night’s drink, or the woman whose depression had her seek solace in the arms of a married man.
Scriptures are wonderful to comfort and heal. However, in situations such as the above, we best first use them to correct our attitudes.
1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV): For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
Mental illness is not heart disease.
Matthew 7 (NIV): For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
World Mental Health Day 2021 is tomorrow. As Christians, we first pray. A good one to pray is the third step prayer used by those who practice 12 Step Programs, where they know they first must heal themselves and their relationships with others to be of benefit in this world.
“God, I offer myself to Thee – to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!”
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists nearly 300 different disorders and variants. Many sufferers fall into more than two or three categories. Over 970 million people worldwide have been diagnosed. Approximately 1 in 5 individuals in North America–26% of Americans 18 and older, 34% of Gen Z, 1 in 6 children–are diagnosed, and those are just the ones we know about. Among the unemployed, rates are as high as 79% – 90% in those who are not working due to a mental health issue.
Categories range from anxiety and other mood disorders to trauma-related disorders like PTSD, substance abuse disorders, eating disorders, and personality and psychotic disorders. Many people we meet during the day at our jobs, out shopping, in our book clubs, our churches, online groups, and our own homes are or should be diagnosed to get help. Some can’t because of the high cost of insurance. Some are obviously ill. Most are not.
Often, we don’t want to talk to them. We are capable of a “now, now; have a cup of tea” response. Yet they need our help.
Mental illness is not something we can ignore, nor control on our own. However, we can offer our ear in addition to our prayers for those so desperate not to be shunned. Some need simple practical help to fill out required paperwork, help to understand finances, or need an advocate so they can access the right help.
For ourselves, we need to pray for tolerance, patience, and the desire to serve those who suffer. And for the courage to speak when the ill one is us.
Hugh Prather, author of Notes to Myself, wrote, “My anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
As with many other life-threatening diseases, some will never recover. That does not mean we turn our backs.
Galatians 6:2 (ESV) requires that we “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Selah.
Join Christine and Lilly for the next session of Facebook Live on October 13th, 2021 at 9am PT. If you are not able to join live, you can check out the recording on YouTube later.
This year, Halloween falls on a Sunday. Which for me means we get to use all the flavors of the season as inspiration to pray! Jesus used things he saw along his way, like wildflowers, soil, and sparrows, so we can use things like Candy Corn and chocolate! Legend has it that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the Irish, so why not use Candy Corn at Halloween? Today we are praying with Halloween candy, and since chocolate is my love language, lots of chocolate prayers. These are just some ideas. See what they might spark in you and feel free to morph and change them.
I’d love to hear about how you use these. Have a chocolate today, or another favorite candy and Taste and see that the Lord is good!
HALLOWEEN CANDY PRAYERS:
Have a bowl of mixed Halloween candy, at least one piece for each person.
This meditation can be done with a group as a corporate prayer or as an individual prayer station.
Remember that younger students are much more concrete in their thinking so this probably works better with high school age and beyond, but don’t be afraid to try it with younger students just give them more examples and guidance of what you are going for, since they don’t all think in metaphor/comparisons yet. If you are doing this prayer activity with a group, be aware of any nut allergies and have an alternative choice or avoid the nuts completely.
The candy choices will also be determined by where you live. So think about the varieties that can be used for prayer! I was just thinking about how much better the UK Kit Kat bars are than ours here in the States!
Example candy:
Small Hershey bars, Kit Kat bars, M&Ms, Mounds, regular Skittles, sour Skittles, Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll pops, mini Snickers, Mars, etc.
PRAYER 1: Praying with a Piece of Candy
One idea is to have each person in the group choose a piece of candy out of a mixed bowl of candy.
Another way to go is to have everyone have the same type of candy and do a prayer with that particular candy.
Example 1: Praying with Kit Kat Bars.
Pass out a Kit Kat bar to each person. Hold the Kit Kat in your hand and consider how you are sharing your life right now. Ask God to show you. Ask: “Who can you share with or who is God inviting you to share more of yourself with by serving or giving?” Take time to pray about this.
How do you share your gifts with others? With whom do you need to break off a piece of the Kit Kat bar and share? How is God inviting you to share your life with other people? Talk to God about this.
Give participants time to reflect between each question, or have the questions written out and have participants write their responses and then after a given time invite people to share their thoughts with the group.
Example 2: Pick out a piece of Halloween candy.
Consider how your life is going right now, how is your life like that piece of candy?
Consider the flavors, the textures of that piece of candy.
Ask God to show you.
Hershey bar (or plain chocolate bar):
Is life feeling plain, not very exciting, like a plain chocolate bar?
Or maybe it’s feeling nutty? Like a bar with almonds like an Almond Joy?
Talk to God about this.
Kit Kat:
Are you sharing your life, like your real self, who you are with anyone?
Like sharing a Kit Kat bar?
With whom would you like to share your life? Your time?
How would you like to serve or give to others? Talk to God about this.
Skittles:
Is your life an adventure like different flavors of Skittles?
How would you like to add more flavor or more color to your world, to your life?
Talk to God about this. Ask God to begin to show you the adventure ahead of you.
What color or flavor represents your life right now?
Other: Caramel/Taffy/Tootsie Roll
Is life hard? Perhaps life is rather hard to endure like a chewy Tootsie Roll…or does it have the potential for adventure and unknown like a Tootsie Roll pop?
What things are you chewing on right now? What questions or problems are you facing? Talk to God about this. Ask God for help.
Maybe life is colorful like a handful of M&M’s with lots of great things going on. Talk to God about this. What are some of the great things that you’ve experienced lately? What are you thankful for? Take some time and thank God for these things.
Snickers ETC.
Some candy combines lots of flavor and textures together. Like Reeses or Snickers.
Consider your week. What things have you experienced? How have you seen God in these things? What are the good things? What are the bad things? What are the plain boring things, and the sweet and sour things that occur all week long? God is present in all of them. Take some time and consider your week. Where did you see God? Talk to God about your life.
Take some time…consider, think about your life.
Where have you seen God at work even in the plain and boring parts?
Even in the sour parts of your life? Thank God for being there in all aspects of your life.
Eat your candy and thank Jesus for all that he is up to in your life and all the wonderful flavors in our world.
Digging Deeper this week: Consider the justice issues around Halloween treats. What about people without candy? Or about the people who produce the chocolate for your favorite treat? Where does the candy come from and who is producing the chocolate? We can all be more aware of areas of pain and suffering caused by the mass production of chocolate and sugar. And we can consider buying fair trade chocolates as a part of our justice practice.
PRAYER 2: Have example candy types/mini candy bars displayed, empty candy wrappers, pieces of chocolate to taste.
Look at and think about the candy on the table.
Now consider your life with God, your relationship, your journey with Jesus.
Which candy reflects your life with Jesus?
Your life with God…Is it good and rich like your favorite candy bar?
Or maybe your life with God is like an empty candy wrapper with nothing inside.
Is it plain and boring like a plain candy bar?
Or maybe it is rich like dark chocolate?
Maybe life is rocky, you know, filled with nuts. Or hard to chew because of the nougat and caramel.
Is your life with Jesus tasting sour like sour Skittles or sweet like M&Ms?
TALK TO GOD about this. Tell God where you are and then tell Jesus where you’d like to be on your journey with Him.
Take a piece of chocolate. You can use chocolate chips rather than small candy bars depending upon the size of your group.
Eat the Candy. TASTE and SEE that the Lord is GOOD.
Jesus longs to be in relationship with you.
You just have to open the door to your life and ask Jesus to come in.
EAT the chocolate as a symbol of your willingness to start a relationship or get back on track in your relationship with Jesus.
PRAYER 3: Box of Chocolates
You will need a box of chocolates and an empty box. You could show the clip from the movie “Forest Gump.”
In the movie “Forest Gump,” Tom Hank’s character says “life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. “ Consider your life and compare it to a box of chocolates.
Maybe the pieces of candy that you have tried out of the box have been gross, maybe you were expecting a piece filled with rich chocolate and you got a piece of slimy fruit filling instead. Or, you were expecting plain and got nuts instead.
TALK TO GOD ABOUT THE BAD pieces of chocolate, the bad pieces, the negative pieces of your life, both in the past and going on now.
God’s not afraid of your feelings. God wants to hear you. God is listening.
Thank God for both the good things and the yucky things happening in your life right now.
Ask Jesus to show you where he is and what he is up to in your life.
TAKE the TIME TO LISTEN to Jesus.
Maybe you’ve felt like an empty box of chocolates rather than a full box.
Talk to JESUS about this.
Ask Jesus to fill your life with new things and show you what he is up to in weeks ahead.
When you see a candy box, and candy bars in the store, Let them remind you that God is filling your box with GOOD THINGS. Let the Candy box remind you that God is at work in your life. Know that God is working and filling your life with God’s love!
YOU are not an empty box, you are not flavorless, YOU ARE CREATED, HAND CRAFTED by the Master Craftsman!
God created you to be God’s favorite.
Taste and See that God is Good!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
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by Emily Huff,
This is what our kids have to deal with having a mom who is a teacher.
Our family assignment every year around Thanksgiving is to write a letter about what we are grateful for and to share these letters around the table. While there might be some eyes that roll when I remind them of this exercise each year, I am convinced that this is such good work for us all to build these muscles and to practice giving thanks together. The notebook where we keep all these letters from years past also serves as a pretty sweet time capsule (as we started it in 1995), and we get some good laughs looking back through different reflections, drawings, and handwriting through the years.
Thanksgiving Letters
Our Thanksgiving Notebook
Notebook Page
When we have celebrated Thanksgiving at other family’s houses, we would not ask everyone to participate, and just the four of us in our immediate family would write letters and read them together later over the holiday weekend.
Over the last few years when we have hosted Thanksgiving at our house, we have invited those gathered with us to write a letter if they wanted to (making sure they understood that there was no pressure) to read around our table after our Thanksgiving feast.
1996 Letter
2012 Reading of the Thanksgiving Letter
2012 Letter
This 2012 letter was from our son Taylor when he was 7 years old. I love that he added Legos after he realized that was not on his original list. 🙂
2012 Anna’s Letter at age 10
2017 Thanksgiving Reading
2017 Thanksgiving Reading
A few years ago, we invited a friend to join us for Thanksgiving during her sophomore year in college to be her home away from home, and we invited her to write a letter. I pulled out our notebook of Thanksgiving letters and was able to show her three letters from 1998 when we spent Thanksgiving with her and her family when she was just 2 1/2 years old. We were able to reminisce and read letters from her parents and see the list of things she had dictated to her mom 17 years ago. What a treat to have her add another one to our notebook so many years later! Milk and sunshine made the list back in ’98 so she made sure to put them on her list that year too. 🙂
This world dishes out plenty of things that can weigh us down so I believe it’s essential to carve out intentional time to focus on the good gifts we have been given and to cultivate gratitude together.
Join Christine and Lilly for the next session of Facebook Live on October 13th, 2021 at 9am PT. If you are not able to join live, you can check out the recording on YouTube later.
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