post and photos by Carol Dixon, (The Abbey Gardens, Tresco)
When my husband Donald & I were on holiday in the Scilly Isles in July this year for our belated ‘Golden Wedding holiday’ (a year late due to the Covid pandemic) we visited the beautiful tropical Abbey Gardens on Tresco, in the Scilly Isles, just off the coast of Cornwall in the UK. It was something we had wanted to do for a long time. It is certainly a Garden for all Continents with the Mediterranean Garden, The Eastern Garden, and South Seas Garden with palm trees and other exotic plants but it is also a Garden for all Seasons with its evergreens and fir trees that seem to reach the sky.
Dorothy Frances Gurney wrote: ‘You are never closer to God’s heart than in a garden.’
THE Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light unfurled.
So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.
And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.
The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.
For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease. © Dorothy Frances Gurney
Gardens are places where it is easy to draw close to God. Margaret Silf in her book ‘Landscapes of Prayer’ speaks of the seasons of our heart in a section entitled, The Garden:
What, I wonder, does a. garden mean for you? Summer days enjoying the scent of new-mown grass and the fragrance of the flowers? Birdsong? Vegetables and herbs that travel only the distance between your kitchen garden and your table? Or maybe hard work, an aching back, an invincible army of weeds? It is good to remember that God is in all of these aspects of your heart’s garden, and that prayer is to be found in the labour as well as in the love, in the heart’s aching as well as in the heart’s desire?
Your heart is a garden, the place you go to meet God in prayer, and the place where God meets you, to help you tend the sacredness you share. There will be weeds there, for sure, and maybe brambles and thorns. No human heart is without these. Sometimes, perhaps, it will be good to uproot them, so that they don’t spread any further. And at other times it may be good to leave them and remember that sometimes a “weed” is just a flower we didn’t plant, which refuses to submit to our control. There will be desires and yearnings in our garden, striving for the light, like enormous sunflowers, or insinuating themselves into our dreams, like rambling roses. There will be blossoms of pure joy, and other plants that may harbour thorns, stings, or poisonous intentions, like nettles and nightshade.
You will have to work at your garden, if it is to remain a sacred space. You will need to cultivate your heart’s prayer, by watering it regularly with your focused attention, pruning back anything that is growing out of control, turning over the soil as you reflect on your own life and relationships. But you will have help. The birds will serenade you as you toil and will eat the pests that threaten your plants. The bees will pollinate your flowers for you and the worms will ventilate your soil. They all remind us that the garden does not belong to us, but we belong to the garden. We are not in sole charge of anything, not even of ourselves, but we are living cells in the body of all creation, living in mutual inter-dependency with all inhabitants of planet Earth.
A good garden gives life to many creatures as well as to its gardener. In what ways does your heart, your life, give life and nourishment to others? What herbs, such as sincerity or gentleness, grow in your heart and add their special flavour to the feast of life? Does anything you find there threaten to spoil the feast for others? Sarcastic tongues, for example, or spiteful gestures? What gifts bear fruit in your life and bring joy to others? Is there anything in the way you relate to others that threatens to overwhelm them with impatience or intolerance and choke the channels of love? And a garden is a place of loving companionship. Who shares the sacred space of your heart’s garden? How lovingly do you share the space of others when they invite you to enter their holy ground?
A TIME FOR TENDING
Take a little while in a quiet space tending to the garden of your heart
- How is the weather in your garden this morning? Is it sunny or foggy, bright or overcast in the core of your being today?
- What season is it? Do you feel full of energy, or heavy in the grip of winter? Is new life burgeoning in you & springing up, or are things dying away? What is making you feel more alive? What is tending to deaden you?
- What blossoms do you want to show, grown from the seeds of love God has planted in your heart? What fruits or gifts from your life would you want to offer to God, to share with others?
- Are there any weeds you would like him to deal with? Does anything need pruning, and can you ask for the courage to let God do what needs to be done?
- Are you content to let God be the Gardener, or are you trying to do it all yourself?
Try describing the garden of your heart, either in words or images to the Gardener in the silence you share, and perhaps also to a trusted friend.” [© Margaret Silf 2011]
Imagine yourself sitting on a seat in a garden. Perhaps there is a pool near you with dancing dragonflies and goldfish flashing to the surface from time to time. As you soak up the peace and beauty of the place, ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind people and situations you know to be in need of God’s healing love.
One of my favourite songs that my children learned when they were at school is ‘When God made the garden of creation’.
When God made the Garden of Creation
He filled it full of his Love.
When God made the Garden of Creation
He saw that it was good.
There’s room for you
And room for me
And room for everyone,
For God is a Father who loves his children
And gives them a place in the sun.
When God made the Garden of Creation
He filled it full of his Love.
When God made us Stewards of Creation
He gave us his Vision to share
When God made us Stewards of Creation
Our burdens he wanted to bear.
He cares for you,
He cares for me,
He cares for all in need;
For God is a Father who loves his children
No matter what colour or creed.
When God made us Stewards of Creation
He gave us his Vision to share.
© Paul Booth (1931-1995)
A blessing: May God the Creator fill your days with abundant blessings,
May Christ the Living Water refresh you each morning with love,
May the Holy Spirit dance through the garden of your life
sprinkling joy and hope and peace as you go on your way;
and the blessing of God the three in one be with you now & always. Amen.
by Carol Dixon
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by Christine Sine,
This morning I turned on the kitchen lights when I got up. It’s the first time since summer began. We are still looking forward to the warm days and abundant harvests for August and September, but the shortening days are my first warning that the seasons are about to change. It reminds me of when I worked in Jamaica. One of the common road signs read You Have Been Warned. It didn’t tell you whether there was a sharp curve or a pothole ahead, you just knew that it was time to be alert and keep your eyes open for change.
Change is the most constant aspect of our world. Seasons change, lives change, the world changes, and our faith changes. I am a hot weather person and hate to think that summer may be on its way out. In my lazy enjoyment of summer beauty and relaxation, it is easy to bury my head in the sand and forget. It’s easy to ignore the changes and procrastinate on my preparations for the new season. I don’t want to be a killjoy either. I want to enjoy the rest of the summer to its full. But I do need to be alert to the signs that autumn and winter are on their way and change is coming. Being alert means I can plan well to both embrace and accept change without fear or regret. It is for all these reasons that we have chosen Gearing Up for a New Season as the Godspace theme for the next couple of months.
Change is in the air, notice it, embrace it, and don’t regret it seems like a good mantra for August!
What Needs to Fall Away?
The most obvious autumn change is the transformation of leaves from green to red and yellow – a bright flurry of breathtaking colour before the leaves fall stripping the trees to their bare bones.
“What needs to fall away in my life as I look towards the next season?”, I wonder. It’s hard to let go of summer. I love the warmth, the riot of colourful blossoms, the beauty, the fragrance, and the delightful sounds of bees and birds. I love the harvesting of tomatoes, squash, and summer greens. Yet as Ecclesiastes reminds us, “To everything there is a season.” Letting go and allowing what needs to fall away to pass without regret is important if we are to embrace the new that God has for us.
Autumn arrangement
What needs to be planted for future growth?
August is often our hottest month in Seattle, and prime time for vacations and for harvesting tomatoes and squash, but it is also time to plant for fall and winter harvests. However, what I plant is very different from my spring garden. I don’t plant tomatoes and squash that need heat to mature. I plant spinach, Asian greens, broccoli, and root crops that I know will enjoy the cooler weather and mature quickly before the frost. I also plant overwintering crops that can get a good start now then sit dormant through the coldest months before maturing early in spring next year.
I am also reminded that autumn is the best time to plant new shrubs and trees. Over the winter they may look barren and lifeless above ground, but deep down their roots will grow, reaching towards life-giving water that sustains them during next year’s dry summer months. Without this root, growth and future harvest will be small and spindly.
I need the same responsibility in planting for growth and harvest in my body, soul, and spirit. What new practices can I plant now that will enrich the upcoming seasons? How do I plan for autumn and winter soul-harvests in the Northern hemisphere – fast-growing, cool-loving greens and root crops whose sweetness is enhanced by the first winter frost? Or in the Southern Hemisphere for the longer harvest season of spring and summer?
It’s all about planning! And that planning needs to be both responsible and realistic just like my garden planning. If you are heading into autumn and winter as we are, it is good to remember that just as garden growth slows as the weather cools, so does the pace of our bodies and spirits. Our bodies need more rest. Maybe the lead-up to Christmas is not meant to be the hectic and exhausting season we have made it into.
Ice crystals on buds
What new buds have been formed that need to be protected?
Several years ago, I was astounded to discover that the buds containing next year’s blossoms and leaves form in the autumn then wait patiently until the spring to green and grow. It is so easy to want to force new buds into bloom, like in a hothouse. And sometimes we can produce spectacular blooms in this way. However, I have also discovered that plants that are forced into bloom too soon will probably never recover. The blooms will be a one-time spectacular display.
What are the spiritual equivalents of perennials that need the winter to send down deep roots, I wonder? Perhaps it’s time to think about a new contemplative garden or one of our quarterly retreats, or designing a new spiritual practice. It’s time to get these practices on the calendar now before life gets too busy.
Last year in our small community, we painted leaves and decorated them as autumn began. I placed mine on the dining room table as a daily reminder of the changes of the season. I am looking forward to doing that again this year. It was a wonderful way for me to mark the changing seasons, a reminder that change is indeed in the air.
What are markers of change in your life? Is there a word, a phrase, an image, or perhaps something like my leaves that can act as markers of change for you? How could you display these as reminders of the changing seasons?
Take some time after you have identified your marker to pray and determine the next steps for this season. Prayerfully read through the prayer at the beginning of this post. Here in the northern hemisphere, we are all heading into autumn. In the southern hemisphere, spring is just emerging. Wherever we are there is change in the air. Reflect on it, prepare for it and embrace it.
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A contemplative service with music in the style-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:
“L’ajuda Em Vindra (I Lift up my Eyes to the Hills),” “O You are Beyond All Things (O Toi L’au-dela de Tout),” and “Veni Sancte Spiritus” are songs from the ecumenical Taize community in France. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“Kyrie” and “Even in Sorrow” are original compositions by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Tom Sine,
“Six years ago, in Paris, the countries of the world committed themselves to avoiding the worst of that nightmare by eliminating net greenhouse-gas omissions quickly enough to hold the temperature rise below to 2C. Their progress towards that end remains woefully inadequate. Yet even if their efforts increase dramatically enough to meet the 2C goal, it would not stop forests from burning today; prairies would still dry out tomorrow, rivers break and mountain glaciers disappear.”
Cutting omissions is thus not enough. The world also urgently needs to invest in adapting to the changing climate. The good news is that adaptation makes political sense. People can clearly see the need for it”, said The Economist on July 24th, 2021.
As we begin to change seasons and gain a sense of engaging the horrific COVID pandemic, we need to join those doing battle with an even greater challenge of the accelerating global environmental crisis. Fifty-one years ago, while working at a community college in Hawaii, I was awakened on the first Earth Day by Dr. James Dator’s graphic description of the compelling environmental threat our planet would face if we didn’t reduce our rate of growth.
A group of 40 students was so moved by the presentation that they immediately secured 50 huge garbage bags and walked down to a motel located on the beach three blocks from the college. As I joined them, I saw where they were headed. There on the beach was a gigantic mountain of a week’s worth of garbage waiting for the incoming tide to take it away.
The student leader, Ron Kawamoto, explained that the motel had been doing this every week for years. He handed out the huge black bags and the students filled them with the mountain of garbage. Then they carried the 50 huge bags into the lobby which immediately brought the manager roaring out of his office demanding that the students put the garbage back on the beach for the ocean to dispose of.
To the surprise of the manager, the students refused to move. They were the first generation of young activists to stand up to those in authority to fight to sustain our endangered environment… but they would not be the last. By the way, as the evening approached on that first Earth Day, the manager gave in to the protestors and promised to hire a local garbage service. The students were, of course, delighted.
Today, some 50 years later, Gen Y & Z are mounting a crusade in response to the call to create a new sustainable future for themselves and their offspring. From Young Evangelicals for Climate Action to environmental action groups on many campuses, Gen Next is still leading the call to create a sustainable future.
The only research that most pastors seem to know from Pew Research who have predicted that these generations are not likely to affiliate with churches. However, few seem to know the good news about Gen Y & Z. Because they are the first digital generations, they are not only much more aware of issues of environmental, racial, and economic justice but a higher percentage of these two generations work for serious change-making.
I urge Christian leaders to shift their attention from attempting to help fill your pews as churches re-open. Instead, get to know the Gen Y & Z members and ask them how they want to join those working for a sustainable environment… while we still have time as well as working for racial and economic justice in these increasingly troubled times.
In 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, Dwight Friesen and I invite readers to join Christians who are taking these rapidly changing times seriously by joining environmental innovators in:
- Anticipating the incoming waves of change so that we have lead time to create new response;
- Broadly research the most innovative ways to respond;
- Select those innovative responses that most effectively engage the new challenges… and most fully reflect the ways of Jesus.
Email us and let us know how you and the young innovators you work with are working with others to create a sustainable environment and a just society. We will post some of your responses.
This post was originally posted on newchangemakers.com
Photo by I Have No Authority – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87437954
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by Lilly Lewin,
When I was a teenager, I found God outside in nature. I loved retreats, camp, and just being in nature by taking a walk. I often tell the story of sitting in the balcony at my church growing up and watching the wind blow the trees outside and thinking, “ I wonder what God is up to out there?”, because I wasn’t really seeing Jesus inside! Maybe you too experience the presence of Jesus more out in nature than you do in a building. Maybe it’s time to take church outside!
This weekend, take yourself, and /or your family on a PARABLE WALK… allow Jesus to speak to you through what you see along the way. Begin by reading a psalm together or just the verse below… What do you notice? What do you hear?
Take time to listen, to look, to be surprised! Ask Jesus to speak to you!
What is Jesus inviting you to notice?
What is Jesus saying to you through the bark of a tree… or a color that you notice?
What are my wounds… scars that are healing?
You can take a walk and also take time to just sit still and breathe in the beauty of a place. Allow the Holy Spirit to fill you anew as the wind blows over you!
Let God hold your Hand
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:16-19
How can I be more rooted in love?
PARABLE WALK: download this practice at freerangeworship.com
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by Lucinda Smith,
Do you think it’s truly possible to find real contentment, despite what is going on in our lives? Do you believe that, as followers of Jesus, we can live in a place where the traumas and troubles, the chaos and confusion of life, both corporate and personal, do not steal from us our joy and our peace? And is there such a ‘place’ where this rest runs so deeply, that it is more powerful than that which threatens to destabilize and rock our worlds?
I am challenged by what the apostle Paul says here in Philippians 4:11-12 (NIV).
…’I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want…’
We can translate this into our own 21st-century situations and language – potentially, we might long to be able to say, “I know what it is to be in work, and I know what it is to be unemployed. I know what loss and disappointment feel like, but also joy and fulfillment.” Or perhaps, “I know what it is like to live with shattered dreams, and I know what it is to have a longing fulfilled. I know that whether my relationships are in tatters or whether we are thriving, whether I am sick or whether I am well – with or without Covid restrictions – I have found the secret of being content.”
So… what is this secret? My goodness… if it were truly possible to live with this measure of contentment, then why oh why, isn’t the whole world talking about this!? Surely, we do want to know. I think we all really yearn to be able to navigate life with its uncertainties and unpredictabilities, in such a way that NOTHING derails us.
Knowing God – no, I mean really knowing God, must be the key – not knowing about Him, not just attending church every week, not even performing miracles. These are not THE secret to deep contentment.
For me, this contentment that Paul talks about arises from a place of belonging and vulnerability, from knowing I’m heard and cared for, and I am safe – when I know that I’m accepted as I am, and when I don’t have to prove anything to anyone, I find peace and rest – contentment. Intimacy with our heavenly Father.
Paul goes on, in verse 13, revealing his precious secret, “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” This word, endunamounti (ἐνδυναμοῦντι) in the Greek, in this context, means to be empowered. Empowered to make the right choice. Empowered to focus on truth, to reject the lies, to worship God when it’s the last thing we want to do. Empowered to love when it’s easier to hate, to believe in the face of another’s doubt, to keep going when we are tired and worn down. E M P O W E R E D!
The key lies in the nature of the One who does the empowering. Who is He and is He for us or against us, kind or cruel, merciful or critical and demanding? Let’s ensure that the correct and Biblical image of our Abba Father is the one in our heads, and not a twisted, misconstrued version.
For all our doubts, and uncertainties about the character of God, it is He, who defines Himself as LOVE. It is this love that empowers us and holds us and keeps us in the storm, that at last, we may too, one day, come to confess to having found the secret of being content.
It’s not too late to learn more about summer practices and connecting with God through summer symbols and experiences! Check out Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin’s Making Time for a Sacred Summer Online Retreat. This course allows you 180 days of access for only $24.99!
post and photos by June Friesen,
How often have you sat by a beautiful lake and pondered – ‘I sure wish life was so beautiful’. The water is clear and the waves are lapping gently on the shore. The bushes, the trees, the grass are a brilliant and luscious green. You observe the occasional butterfly, lizard, duck, and/or bird who seem to be at peace with their surroundings. But ever so quickly somehow your mind wanders back to another picture – from another place that seems to resonate more readily to the place where you actually find yourself, particularly at this moment. I call this the parable of ‘The Murky Pond.’ One begins to see all the negatives in the beautiful lake – look at the dead weeds and reeds; look at the broken tree branches; look at the sludge, the moss, the webs, the occasional bug flies by and life seems rather dull and stagnant – maybe even kind of smelly if one gets too close.
II Corinthians 1:9-11 (The Message)
Paul writes to the Corinthians:
“It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.”
As I sat with these words I imagined Paul’s discouragement, his brokenness…. I am not sure just what his experience had been just before or in the present moment of these feelings but given all of the injustices he faced, imprisonments, beatings, sitting in stocks, public humiliations, etc. And even as I am writing this, I think of what it must have been like to have been sitting in the dungeons of the prisons – was it or could it have been like being in a murky, muddy, smelly pond? Were some of the thoughts going through his mind like – will I ever see the real sea or rivers again? Let us never forget that Paul, while he was a great evangelist for the cause of Christianity, he still was human. In fact, remember that in the beginning of Christianity he was one who would have been responsible for doing to others exactly what he was facing now. Yet, Paul reminds us here of the importance of trusting God even in these situations as well as being thankful that we have others who will pray for us in the struggles that we are facing.
The Murky Pond
What is this that I see here?
Ugh, it is yucky looking,
It is smelly and looks so gross,
What beauty can there be in anything so ugly?
What usefulness can there be in such muck?
If someone falls in there –
Will they disappear?
Will there ever be hope of survival?
It certainly is the picture of dying –
Soon death will come –
And all that will remain will be hard, cracked soil.
But then –
I stop and I ponder this murky pond –
I even took this photo –
And then it was that I noticed –
There was life here –
And it was not only the life that was not far from the water edge –
No there was actually life active in and above the murkiness –
And not only was there life but soon I noticed there was beautiful life –
Several dragonflies no doubt had found a home here –
And to them it was beautiful, it was safe,
Yes, the murky pond held a safe place for them as well as food and drink.
You see, there were still branches across the pond,
There were little minute insects on the surface of the pond,
There was foliage at the edges… yes, there was hope
And they were embracing it to the fullest in the moment.
And as I pondered this at the edge of this pond –
I could not help but think of some recent moments in my own life
Where it seemed as if I was living by a murky pond,
Rather than by the edge of a beautiful lush pond or lake
With beautiful life all about for me to enjoy.
I thought about what had helped me get to the lush spaces of my life,
Those times I allowed my spirit to be nurtured with the reign of the Spirit,
And now what had allowed me to get to the murky places of my life,
And I began to realize it probably was because of a spiritual drought.
What is it that has caused this spiritual drought within me?
Have I shut off the rain clouds of the Spirit with my attitudes?
Have I allowed my spirit to slowly wither, until it is near death…
And in my spirit’s parched state it is also
All murky and muddy – stale and stinky –
And not only are others aware of this –
But God is and He is beginning to slowly break through from within –
His Spirit within is a like a wellspring –
And gently I feel it nudging from within –
And I am beginning to feel refreshment arise–
Ah… I kind of like this breath of freshness –
Ah… God please come and rain with Your Spirit upon me once again –
Let me feel that cleansing and refreshing rain –
Please come and flood me with cleansing and healing –
Making me whole and alive once again.
Let it be that in this new life I will also be the place where others can find life, healing and refreshment –
Let it be that You will flow forth from within me in power like never before –
And may healing begin for many for the glory and honor of your kingdom –
Amen and amen.
June Friesen 7/20/21
(All photos and writings are by June Friesen)
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