by Christine Sine
It’s only the beginning of October and the Cascades and Olympics already have a fresh coat of snow, the wind is whipping up and the rain has definitely returned. Outside my office window there is already a beautiful display of red and gold and I am tempted to get out and collect some leaves to decorate our dining room table with.
I love this changing of the seasons and once again I wanted to incorporate it in a special way into my spiritual observances and those of our community. I wanted to relax and have some fun and invite you to join e once again. Reading this article about the consequences of loss of play in our lives made me realize how important it is for all of us to incorporate fun, playful activities into our spiritual lives whenever possible. Writing The Gift of Wonder and engaging in some of the exercises I discuss throughout the book has similarly encouraged me.
A couple of years ago our community members all painted leaves an autumn spiritual practice. It was such fun practice that I plan to do it again this year. It is also a great way to give thanks for the changing seasons and richness that they bring to our lives. So wanted to remind you of the process too and so thought you would appreciate me reposting this.
SUPPLIES
Autumn leaves
Paint pens
Mod Podge Water Based Sealer – I like this high gloss one. It makes the leaves look shiny and they last for a good couple of months.
I had fun collecting a bunch of different shapes and different colours, delighted as I did so at how awesome it was to notice something I had not noticed for a long time. The different shapes and sizes, the vibrant, and sometimes fading colours of autumn, the poignant reminder that all things have a season, was life giving. Some of the leaves I immediately sealed with Mod Podge water based sealer, but most of them I pressed for a couple of days and then laid them out with my paint pens for everyone to admire and then decorate.
I suggested people reflect on the question In the changing seasons what am I hoping for? It was good to both acknowledge the change that is rapidly approaching as we enter the festive season and talk about our hopes and expectations. Just expressing these out loud can help make them a reality.
Leaf painting is not as popular as rock painting, but there are a lot of people out there giving it a go so I printed out some examples from Pinterest, to inspire us. I was amazed at both the creativity that emerged and the inspiration for the future that was expressed.
The nice thing about this is that you don’t need to wait for autumn. Those of you in the southern hemisphere could devise a similar exercise with emerging spring leaves. Or you might like to do a leaf rubbing in your journal while you sit quietly and reflect on your leaf. There are a huge range of possibilities, all of them fun!
One person drew a pattern of concentric circles on her leaves, expressing her desire to become more centred over the coming months. Another copied some of the colourful patterns in the photos I provided, finding relaxation and rest in the calm of the exercise. Another drew a picture of their hopes for their family on one side of a leaf and of their desires for their ministry on the other. I painted along the leaf skeletons, some with lines others with dots, feeling as I did so that my hopes and expectations for the coming season are not fully formed.
At the end we coated our leaves in Mod Podge water based sealer. It brought back the vibrancy of the colours and kept the leaves a little more flexible than the acrylic sealer did. I laid my leaves out on the dining room tableland they lasted well through Thanksgiving, providing me with a reminder of my need to continue thinking about my hopes and expectations for this season.
What is your Response?
What are your hopes and expectations for the coming festive season? Is there a fun, creative and reflective exercise that you could plan over the next few days that would help you to think about these? Is there something you could do to help you focus on your hopes and expectations for the future?
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by Christine Sine
This week I began my gratitude scavenger hunt. Yes I know I am a bit early for the “Season of Gratitude” that I talked about but I don’t think that we can ever express too much gratitude.
What Am I Grateful For In My Life?
So this week I started with “What am I grateful for in my life”. My original plan was to fill up a page in my new gratitude journal with items I am grateful for. The trouble is that there are so many that I think I will have the whole book full before I am done. And I didn’t even need to go on much of a scavenger hunt.
I started with general aspects of my life – resilience, health, faith, talents, achievements, love of nature, risk taking and many more soon filled the first page.
Then I moved on to memories – such a special area of gratitude, so many memories from my childhood, my days at university, on the Anastasis, through 28 years of marriage. I am so grateful for the many blessings in my life.
Next I thought about my relationship with Tom – again I am overwhelmed with gratitude – for love that has grown, for hospitality shared, for joy in each other and for the delight of adventuring together, retreating together, doing ministry together and laugh together at the antics of our silly dog Goldie to name but a few.
Who Has Made My Life Better?
Now I am stuck – my question “Who has made my life better?” has resulted in such a list of friends, family, mentors, and spiritual companions that my heart is overflowing.
Now its time to do a collage but how can I possibly put all this together? I can’t so I decided to cheat a little and put together a collage of photos from the last year – just a few of the people who make my life better in so many ways.
OK so this doesn’t really look like the list of suggested instructions for a scavenger hunt that I gave you last week but this is meant to be a focus on gratitude not on the scavenger hunt.
Have You Started Your Gratitude Season Yet?
So have you started your gratitude season yet? What have you thought about this week that you are grateful to God for?
Be Prepared for the Advent & Christmas this year!
Godspace friends, we are happy to announce that we have new products available for your spiritual journey during the upcoming Advent & Christmas season. We are currently pre-ordering for our new Advent Prayer Cards and Advent bundles. We are also offering many other free resources too. Our prayer is that these tools enrich your holiday season and help connect you and your family to God in a deeper way. Visit the Godspace Shop for more and below are links that we would love for you to check out! They also make for excellent gifts for your loved ones!
Advent Prayer Cards
This set of 12 cards will help you reflect on the Advent and Christmas story. They begin with Celtic Advent so there are 6 for Advent, 1 for Christmas Eve, 4 for the Christmas season and 1 for the Eve of Epiphany. For more details:
3 Sets of Prayer Cards » $25.99
Advent Bundles
Advent Bundle 1 includes the Advent Prayer Card Set and a copy of Waiting for the Light: An Advent Devotional.
Advent Bundle 1 » $22
Advent Bundle 2 package includes an Advent Prayer Card Set and a copy of A Journey Toward Home: Soul Travel from Advent to Lent.
Advent Bundle 2 » $22
by Christine Sine
We are about to leave behind our focus on What Does Your Soul Long to Do and move into a season of Gratitude. Last week I invited all of you to join me in a weekly gratitude scavenger hunt but I also wanted to provide a tool to help us both contemplate and prepare. As I have mentioned before finger labyrinths are great tools for problem solving, meditation and de-stressing. It is particularly fun when we make our own and then use them for meditation. I am increasingly using this exercise in workshops and events that I facilitate and thought that you might like to use it too.
If you don’t know what a finger labyrinth is read this post which gives a brief explanation and a simple meditation to practice with.
Finger Labyrinth Supplies
This supply list is for a group as I think this is a great group activity so get a few friends together and give it a go.
Backing board or clipboard sheets 8×11- 1 sheet for each person (card stock will work too but is not as sturdy)
If you want to make a really nice finger labyrinth then wooden board is a great alternative
Colored sand – preferably a choice of several colours. This one is nice because it is easy to sprinkle on the board. This is a lot of sand but it is great to use for other projects too. Yes I am brainstorming!!!
Lead pencils to draw the pattern with.
Rulers (I link to wooden ones to avoid the use of plastic as much as possible) and erasers to help trace or when you make mistakes with the pattern – one for each person is good.
Colored pencils or gel pens (I like the retractable ones because otherwise I loose the tops) to decorate with after the pattern is completed.
Creating your labyrinth
These instructions are adapted from https://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Labyrinth
Draw a 2” cross about an inch below the center of an 8×11” piece of card stock or backing board with a pencil. Add dots on all four corners of an imaginary 2” square. Press lightly so that it is easy to erase mistakes.
Connect the upper tip of the vertical line with the upper right dot using a curved line.
Using another curved line, connect the right tip of the horizontal line with the upper left dot. 
Connect the left tip of the horizontal line to the lower right dot using a bigger curved line.
Extend the vertical line on the bottom a further 1” and connect its tip on the lower left dot.
Carefully spread glue along the labyrinth path. You might like to do two lines if your “walking space” is wide.
Sprinkle colored sand over your labyrinth.
Allow to dry. Decorate around the labyrinth with colored pens or pencils if desired.
Walking a Finger Labyrinth – A Meditative Exercise
Walking a finger labyrinth not only de-stresses and relaxes you but when you walk it with your non-dominant hand it can also can help you solve problems. Is there a question you are struggling with? Is there a doubt about life or faith your brain refuses to ignore? Let’s experiment and see if the finger labyrinth can help you dig into the hidden wholeness in your soul and bring resolution:
Sit quietly with your finger labyrinth in your lap. Take a few breaths in and out until you feel at peace in your soul. Remind yourself of the story of Jesus calming the storm in Matthew 14:22-33. Imagine it raging around you and your desire to step outside the boat of convention and ask uncomfortable questions. Visualize Jesus coming towards you holding out his hands and saying “Don’t be afraid of your doubts and your questions. I am with you always.” Imagine you are Peter stepping out of the boat into unknown waters.
Recite this prayer or a similar prayer of welcome and receptivity: Walk with me Lord through all the twists and turns of life, walk with me when clouds obscure the way, when what seemed close is now so far away. Walk with me Lord until I trust in you, lead me to the center of your love.
Frame your question. Place a finger from your non-dominant hand at the entrance to the labyrinth. Prayerfully ask a question you are struggling with about life, faith or vocation. Invite the Holy Spirit of God to guide and instruct you on your journey.
Trace the circuit with your finger. Stay open to whatever presents itself: feelings, sensations, memories, ideas. Pause at any time to breathe, be with a thought or memory or just to relax into the labyrinth and the question stirring in your mind. At the center of the labyrinth, sense your connection to your own center and to God’s centering presence. Acknowledge the Holy Spirit, the heavenly counselor directing your thoughts and exploration. Relax, prayer, sing. Repeat your question.
Trace your way out, staying open to whatever comes to you. When your walk is done, place both hands on the labyrinth and sit quietly in the presence of God once more. Thank God for your questioning heart and for the enrichment it brings to your faith.
Trust your gut and the journey it takes you on. Believe in your creative impulses. Is there a solution to your question that surfaces? Write it down. How is God nudging you to respond? Write it down. You might like to write both your question and response around the labyrinth. Are there people you need to talk to? Get out your phone and make an appointment.
Finish with prayer. Offer a prayer of gratitude to God for the responses that have come to you and the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and change you.
This exercise is adapted from The Gift of Wonder. Intervarsity Press Downers Grove, Il 2019,) (90-91) Used with permission
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by Christine Sine
This has been a struggling week for me and part of that has been because of some of the responses to the climate crisis news we face. Greta Thunberg has called us to action and I hope that we will respond. Romans 8:18-25 has been my go to scripture as I grapple with this. I recommend reading it in The Passion Translation to give yourself a fresh perspective on these important verses. I find that when I am grappling with an issue as important as this that reading a new or different translation always helps me to discern what God is saying.
A couple of days ago I wrote this prayer to both spur me me on and to encourage me as consider the many possibilities of what God is asking me to do.
It’s time for action
I know it.
Our children know it.
And the earth cries out in pain.
Crisis, crisis, crisis.
Will you save me from the burning,
Protect me from the wind and storm,
From the silence
Of a million species
Dead before their time.
Creation groans
As though in childbirth.
Waiting, waiting, waiting.
It yearns for freedom from human sin.
The entire universe stands on tiptoe.
Will we fulfill its hope
And be Christ’s hands and feet of healing?
(c) Christine Sine September 2019.
However just as Romans leaves us with hope, I wanted to do the same – hope from those who are reaching out to make a difference and here are a couple of good news stories:
Mexico City Is Converting Highway Pillars to vertical gardens
Amazing Rooftop Panels of Microplants that Convert More CO2 Than a Single Tree.
by Lilly Lewin
The Gospel reading from last Sunday was Luke 16: 1-13. It’s a passage that most of us who use the lectionary would like to skip and sometimes do skip because it’s not cut and dry and doesn’t fit neatly into our “good and bad” view of life.
In The Message, Eugene Peterson translates verses 8-9
“Now here’s a surprise: The master praised the crooked manager! And why? Because he knew how to look after himself. Streetwise people are smarter in this regard than law-abiding citizens. They are on constant alert, looking for angles, surviving by their wits. I want you to be smart in the same way—but for what is right—using every adversity to stimulate you to creative survival, to concentrate your attention on the bare essentials, so you’ll live, really live, and not complacently just get by on good behavior.”
During our lectio divina on Sunday, the phrase that stuck out to me was
“So you will live, really live, and not just get by on good behavior”
I have practiced lectio for many years, and I always find that I have more questions from a text than answers. The questions were: What does it mean to REALLY LIVE? What doe REALLY LIVING mean to me? What does it look like?
I don’t want to just get by on good behavior. I lived a lot of my life that way, as a performance based oldest child and as a performer, people pleasing, Christian.
So what does REALLY LIVING Look like? For Me:
Enjoying each day as a gift!
Trusting that GOD can and does provide for me.
Being Generous. Living in Generosity.
Helping others rather than Helping myself.
REST! Not busyness.
Reflecting LIGHT not darkness in the world. (in my words, my actions, my social media etc)
Seeing God’s ABUNDANCE rather than living in NOT ENOUGH!
Enjoying BEAUTY in the world.
NOTICING small things.
Helping others EXPERIENCE more of Jesus.
REALLY LIVING rather than fearing to live.
NOT WASTING TIME or MY GIFTS.
Realizing and Remembering that each day is a Gift.
I want to Live the Gift…The Journey, the Adventure, and the Pilgrimage of Life with Jesus!
Most importantly, TO REALLY LIVE, REALLY LIVING, involves seeing myself as
LOVED BY GOD!
Living as LOVED and BELOVED of GOD, not as as SLAVE.
I want to receive this LOVE! And help others receive it too!
So what about you?
What does REAL LIVING, REALLY LIVING, look like for you?
Take some time to consider it.
Talk to Jesus about it.
Sit with the questions.
Journal or draw a picture. Maybe even create a collage of what REAL LIVING looks like with Jesus.
What does it mean to me to REALLY LIVE, Not to just get by on good behavior?
Know that you are GREATLY LOVED just as you are today!
Receive that GIFT!
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
By Barbie Perks —
My first reaction was: what a strange idea for a theme! But it is something I have been mulling over in my mind ever since I first read about it. Some thoughts have moved in and out of my mind over the last couple of weeks, one or two have remained constant and I have been forced out of my comfort zone to consider them.
Connection – this has been a constant longing for some time now. Distance from loved ones, both physical and emotional, brings a feeling of dis-connection that is hard to live with. Sometimes the force behind the distancing of oneself in relationships is a drive to self-protect from an abusive situation; it becomes a necessary tool that enables healing of body and spirit. Whatever the reason, the loss is very real and results in a soul that is troubled, and remains ill at ease until the matter is resolved. David speaks of this condition often in various psalms. (Ps 31:9 Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and body with grief; Ps 19:28 My soul is weary with sorrow..)
Security – in our current work and political situations, life changes rapidly for many of us and it is hard to hold on to the things that make up the framework of our existence. This is when my soul looks to the Lord for security – the one unalterable fact of life for me is that God does not change. He remains the same faithful God He has always been. So whenever life throws a curve-ball at me, I can rest in the knowledge that God is there for me. (Ps 23:3 he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Ps 42:1 As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.)
Bitterness – a strange thought to entertain, I know, and not many would happily acknowledge that there are times in our lives when our soul grows bitter, but this is when I know I have to learn to look deeper at the roots and causes of the particular bitterness that flavours my life sometimes. God is always faithful to reveal to me what I need to do to overcome it. Job is an example of a person who found his life and soul very bitter during his trials and he acknowledged it and was not chastised for his feelings. (Job 7:11 “Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Job 10:1 I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.)
Hope – is very difficult to define and explain to someone who does not think the same as I do. But in everything I am convinced that the only way to live victoriously is to live in hope. My soul longs for the victory that is still to come, and I know deep down that no matter what life throws at me, my hope is sure. (Hebrews 6:19a We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.)
Two songs have been meaningful to me during these couple of weeks, I give you the links in case you may find them helpful too.
Let your living water flow – the visuals of this video help in meditating and immersing oneself in the living waters – very cleansing to the soul!!
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Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
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