By Ana Lisa de Jong —
Are you waiting in the blue?
Is blue the colour of your heart.
Or blue the light that
falls upon your path.
Is blue the weight
that sits upon your frame.
Or blue the echo to resonate
within your chest.
Is blue the hue that covers you like snow,
or clouds carrying rain.
Is blue the light that envelops you,
or in the pain that pushes at your chest.
Remember blue is another colour with which
you are held close.
Loss lengthening like shadows in the longest night,
is always the underside of life lived to its full.
Until its treasure all consumed for now,
is wrung out like rain washed clothes.
Then blue is the light that covers you,
while what is waiting in the wings takes some unseen shape.
Grows ready like the burning sun to come round,
and burn through the vestiges of what remains.
Blue, the space between the old and new,
is the gentle pallbearer of your pain,
whose job is done when life
restored enters in,
to lift the covering edge
and do its alchemy of love,
absorbing the blue
in its rainbow hues.
Yes, are you walking blue?
Has blue become the weight in your step.
Grief that knows its season
will recede back, to greet the sun.
And if not yet,
then be assured of shortening nights to come.
By Lilly Lewin
Consider being a magi, a wiseman or woman, a wise counselor in 2020.
Imagine it! Picture yourself.
You are extremely smart, in fact you were in the top five in your class. A scholar! You are interested in everything, learning all that you can.
You spend hours reading and searching on line for information on a variety of subject. Friends, family, leaders come and ask you for advice and for help on their projects.
You want to know things. You are interested. You are inquisitive. You are always aware and available for new stuff to come along! You aren’t afraid to to search for new things. You aren’t afraid to go wherever you need to go to get the info you need!
After months of searching and reading and paying attention, you notice on line that things start coming together. Many things seem to point to a special event getting ready to happen in a distant city.
You get so excited taht you tell your friends! They start watching for the signs too!
Finally, when the evidence for this special event is so great that you just can’t miss it…you tell your family you have to leave, you have to go! You don’t know how long you will be gone. You don’t know when you will be back. You DO know that someone very special is about to arrive! And you want to be a part of it!
You pack your bags with special gifts. You and your friends leave to seek this special one who has been announced in all the signs!
You leave your home, your family, all that is familiar to you…
to Follow the Star
to Seek the King of Kings…Emmanuel. God with us!
ARE YOU READY?
by Lilly Lewin
How will you follow Jesus, The Star, in 2020? What does it mean for you to follow the Star? What does following The Star look like for you?
What do you need to leave behind in order to follow The Star in the New Year? What is holding you back from going on the journey?
What friends do you need to invite, or take with you to help you follow The Star? Pray for them to join you.
What gifts do you want to bring with you to give away in 2020?
The Magi didn’t know exactly where they were going…they stopped and asked for directions. What things help you stay on the right path? What do you need this New Year to help you stay on the path?
How can you see this New Year as an adventure in Following the Star? Draw a picture, write a story, create a collage, curate a playlist of songs, find a star, or get outside and look at the stars nightly to help you imagine the Journey and Follow the Star in 2020. Which one will you choose?
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Ah, when the heart is too deeply grieved
sometimes the light is too bright a thing.
The hurt animal seeks a dark habitat to
hide.
Perhaps its safety that is perceived
in the half light.
Perhaps it is the same as wearing black
in mourning,
in that once there was apportioned a time to
rightly grieve.
Now, even grief is a thing,
we must examine in the shade.
The light can’t be tarnished by a people
casting shadows.
Ah, but when the heart is deeply grieved,
light comes gently.
At, first a sliver through the curtains
left a chink or two open.
And then, once we can bear it,
a sun beam cast upon the floor.
When we see the light will only shine
where we can receive it,
we will trust the way
it can illuminate our path.
The light with tender knowing
will not show us much up front,
So that we might just see our way
to the turn in the road.
Yes, all the garish light bearers
have long missed the point.
The light dawns slowly,
as sun traversing the hill.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 2020
By Denise Moore —
It’s hard to believe but not only are we starting a new year, we are stepping into a new decade! For me, 2019 was a blur and I seemed to watch it fly by no matter how hard I tried to Be Still. I’m not particularly fond of New Year’s resolutions; they are just another chance for failure. New beginnings, however, are a whole other story. They are an opportunity to begin again, to live into my true created self. New beginnings aren’t as much about my actions as they are about how I perceive myself. I can be made anew and move toward the person I was created to be.
I’m lucky. I have known from the age of nine that my purpose in life is to love. It’s no wonder then that when I discovered St. Therese of Lisieux who wrote, “Then overcome by joy, I cried, ‘Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love,’” I was enamored. Even though there was a Little Flower church in the community that I lived for many years, I only recently learned about her. Born Marie-Therese Martin on January 2, 1873, St. Therese is best known as the Little Flower and known for her “little way.”
At the age of nine, Therese first asked permission to join Lisieux’s Carmelite Convent. Her motivations were to do something great for God and for others. She actually thought of herself as the next Joan of Arc; she believed that she was “born for glory.” It wasn’t until six years later, however (and only after a bold request to Pope Leo XIII), that she entered the convent at age fifteen. Soon she realized that she was not meant for greatness (at least not the way the world sees greatness) so she would have to accomplish her great acts for God with simple, ordinary acts of love and charity toward others. In her biography Story of A Soul she wrote, “How shall I show my love is proved by deeds? Well – the little child will strew flowers…she will embalm the Divine Throne with their fragrance, will sing with silvery voice the canticle of love. Yes, my Beloved, it is thus that my life’s brief day shall be spent before Thee. No other means have I of proving my love than to strew flowers; that is, to let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look, not a word, to avail of the very least actions and do them for Love. I wish to suffer for Love’s sake and for Love’s sake even to rejoice; thus shall I strew flowers. Not one shall I find without shedding its petals for Thee…and then I will sing, I will always sing, even if I must gather my roses in the very midst of thorns – and the longer and sharper the thorns the sweeter shall be my song.” And that is how she lived never overlooking an opportunity to love.
A couple of years after entering the convent, and after much internal struggling she volunteered to assist Sister St. Pierre, a pain stricken, difficult older nun. Sister St. Pierre needed extra time and help getting from the choir area to dinner. Therese knew the older sister was difficult to please but felt called to help. She patiently, slowly walked alongside her elder trying her best to offer dignity as she held the older nuns belt in case she tripped. Her fears were soon realized when Sister St. Pierre told the eager young Therese, “I was right when I said you were too young to help me!” Therese just smiled and continued her gentle way. Later, the older nun admitted that it was Therese’s smile that had won her approval. Therese’s life was characterized by little events done with great love. She always looked for an opportunity to do an extra little gesture for someone with a smile and love in her heart. “I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbours’ defects–not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.”
As I reflect on the coming decade, I want to enter each day and each relationship with the heart of The Little Way. I want to be intentional to do the things I do each and every day with the greatest love. I want to pause and remember so I can look past the things that bother me and see in my neighbor their value and worth. I want to walk into this decade with eyes open to the reality of God around me and the expectation that seemingly insignificant events can have profound spiritual impact and transformation. I want to practice St. Therese of Lisieux’s Little Way.
A church in Normandy which was bombed in WW2 and which now has the walls made out of glass
by Carol Dixon.
Give us the vision
for the coming years,
as we look to the future –
to overcome our fears,
and boldly take a stand
as we seek to make each land,
a kingdom fit for you.
Give us the vision
for the church, your bride,
to be pure, strong and holy –
to overcome our pride,
and humbly understand
we receive with open hand,
the pow-er from you.
Give us the vision
for our exploited earth
as we watch our planet suffering,
and see the peoples’ hurt;
spur us on at your command
until each and every land
gives glory to you. ©Carol Dixon 1988
(altd 1998)*
By Lynne Baab–
“Hope is being able to see there is light despite all of the darkness.”—Desmond Tutu
I want to tell you about my decade-long journey of trying to figure out what hope is and how to choose it.
In 2010, I had a weird physical ailment. My left foot was cold all the time, and my energy was low. Over the course of the year, my foot got colder and my energy dropped lower. In the second half of the year, I cut back my work hours and began medical testing. The medical testing dragged on for many months, and the neurologist I was seeing couldn’t find anything wrong.
On March 5, 2011, some elders from church came over to pray for me. Within days, my energy started coming back and my foot stopped being cold. This was the only medical miracle I have ever personally experienced. What a gift.
I was very grateful for God’s miraculous healing, but I was numb and a bit raw from months of not feeling well. It was as if all of my sense of hope was stripped away. So I decided to focus on hope for the remainder of the year.
I bought myself a ring with anchors on it. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19). I wore the ring throughout 2011, and when I looked at it, I pondered what exactly hope is. I began noticing the word “hope” all over the place, in poems, hymns and people’s spoken and written words. Emily Dickinson’s words about hope are often quoted:
Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all.
In those months of recovery from my mysterious illness, there was nothing with feathers perching on my soul. I just couldn’t get a hold of hope.
The months went by, the numbness and rawness receded, and slowly but surely I began to feel some flickers of hope again. I kept thinking about a praise song, “In Christ alone, my hope is found,” and a line in an old hymn (a hymn that I never liked), “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” By the end of 2011, I decided that my hope is in Christ, and that’s really all I can say about it.
However, I wondered if I was still a little bit hope impaired, so I kept wearing the ring with anchors on it. I read words like these of Desmond Tutu: “I am a prisoner of hope. Yes, many awful things happen in the world. But many good things have happened and are happening.” I found myself wondering what it would be like to feel like a prisoner of hope.
watercolor by Dave Baab
A few years later I was still pondering what exactly hope is. I was also feeling a fair amount of hopelessness because of so many painful things happening around the world. I decided to do a survey of the 165 verses in the Bible about hope. I learned that Bishop Tutu’s words about being a “prisoner of hope” are a quotation from Zechariah 9:12. I found that rooting my sense of hope simply in Christ has biblical precedent. The psalmist writes, “You, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth” (Psalm 71:5). Paul calls Jesus “our hope” in 1 Timothy 1:1.
I found numerous verses that imply that hope is a choice. We choose where we will set our hope.
“We have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people” (1 Timothy 4:10).
“Set all your hope on the grace that Jesus Christ will bring you when he is revealed” (1 Peter 1.13).
“In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11, 12).
Several psalms link hope with God’s love and God’s word:
Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love. . . .
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you. Psalm 33: 18, 22
My soul languishes for your salvation;
I hope in your word. . . .
You are my hiding-place and my shield;
I hope in your word (Psalm 119: 81, 114)
The Bible has a lot more to say about hope. I love Colossians 1, a chapter that mentions hope three times.
Since 2011, while I’ve been pondering hope, I think I’ve done one thing wrong and one thing right. I have felt like something is wrong with me because I still feel hopeless more often than I want to. I regret that self-criticism. But even with moments of hopelessness, I have definitely tried to live in God’s love, faithful to God’s word. From the scriptures I looked up, it sounds like I have been setting my hope on God, without naming my actions that way.
So many of the Christian spiritual practices described on the Godspace blog help us to live in God’s love, faithful to God’s word, which I have come to believe is the foundation – perhaps even the essence – of hoping in God.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). As we enter 2020, a new year and a new decade, I definitely want to join with other Christians in affirming “our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people” (1 Timothy 4:10).
by Christine Sine
I don’t need to tell you that 2019 is almost over. In fact in Australia and New Zealand it is almost upon us. We all love the fireworks at this time of the year. I know I can’t wait for the display over Sydney Harbour. But that is something I see only once a year. The rest of the year is serious business.
Like most of us this is the time of year when I like to look both back and forward as I do what I can to move my life in the right direction in the coming year.
I have already read through my spiritual audit, and reflected on past thoughts about New Year’s Resolutions as Spiritual Practice. I have even read through all my new year’s prayers as well as those contributed by others to Godspace. Yes I have been a very busy girl in the last couple of days! ow I find a couple of questions, interestingly from Advent in Narnia coming to the forefront of my mind:
What do I feel I ought to do in 2020 and What do I feel I want to do?
Interestingly these 2 questions have arisen at a time when I am struggling with similar questions as to what to write about on Godspace. “I ought to be writing about Holy Name Day, ” which is what New Year’s Day coincides with on the liturgical calendar. However I feel I want to write about what starting off the new year on the right foot.
So the question I end up with is “How do I find the balance between what I ought to do and what I want to do? And it is a balance. All of us constantly war with the pull of “ought to” or “must do” on one side and the pull of “want to” on the other. How we find the balance I think, depends on how well we listen to the voices around us – the outer voices of those wise and respected counsellors and friends that surround us, and the inner voices of the knowledge in our heads and and the emotions in our hearts. Probably the most helpful advice for me came from what was said in our sermon yesterday “Look inward for the new things that are being birthed. ” So that is what I am doing – I am spending time in contemplation and reflection. I am looking inward for the new things that are being birthed, though that does also involve looking outward because what happens outside – in our lives, our families, our communities and our world all impact the inner things that are being birthed.
What we do in the coming year will involve a lot of compromise. For some of us it will involve a lot of struggle and unexpected turns. So building on the New Year posts I have done in the past, my advice is :
- Make 2 lists – one of those things you ought to do and the other of those things you want to do.
- Circle the non negotiable – what MUST be done in the next year (or the next month).
- Strike out the impossible. Dreams are often unrealistic.
- Hone your navigating skills. Know how to steer, know how to follow the current and know how to catch the wind. As I mentioned previously: There is no such thing as failure. Setbacks are merely obstacles to be navigated around. In the process we often discover a totally new and transformative path that God has for us. It is good to have dreams and hopes for the future but it is good too to know how to navigate the setbacks and obstacles that prevent those dreams coming into being. My life experience has taught me that God often does have another plan for my life other than what I imagined.
- Be prepared to reinterpret your dreams. Part of what the journey of my life has taught me is that it is often necessary to reinterpret where God wants me to go and how God wants me to get there. For example I assumed that when I trained as a medical doctor I would be in family practice for all of my life but that was not the way that God led me. My life in Mercy Ships, then as director of Mustard Seed Associates and now as an author and blogger have all been unexpected steps in my journey. Each step has opened up new areas of understanding for me and has enriched my relationship to God far more than I could ever have imagined.
- God is faithful but God is not predictable. This is probably the greatest and hardest lesson of my life. I can make plans each year, and I think it is important to do so, but I need to allow the spirit to lead me along unexpected and unpredictable paths. Accepting that is liberating.
May God richly bless you as you too prepare for the year ahead.
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