I don’t usually post multiple times (except when I am having fun with prayers!) but I wanted to make you aware of this special opportunity before the early bird tickets are all gone.
March 29-31st, 2019 I will be in Austin Tx for The New Story Festival. This is my first official speaking engagement after my new book The Gift of Wonder is released. I will facilitate a 90 minute workshop around the topic of my book. I would love it if you can join me. And here’s the deal – sign up using my special code NSF1187 and you will get a special $20 discount and I will get $40 towards my travel expenses. So NSF1187 for a special deal. But hurry the Early Bird Special ends in a few days.
Presenters and performers like Nadia Bolz-Weber, Rev. angel Kyodo williams, Charles Eisenstein, Over the Rhine, Carrie Rodriguez, Brian McLaren, Amparo Garcia-Crow, and so many more will be there at the New Story Festival, March 29-31, 2019, in Austin, Texas!
Early Bird Tickets Fly Away on Dec. 31st!
We just wanted to give you this quick reminder that Early Bird Tickets are available right now for just $179, and that this special deal ends on Monday, December 31st. Purchase your tickets for the New Story Festival now for the lowest available price. Don’t forget to use the special code NSF1187 so that everyone knows you are one of my friends!!!
Hope that you can join me – and bring your friends too!!!
I love this Christmas poem by Madeleine L’Engle. It is a perfect one to reflect on as we continue our walk either through Advent or through the 12 days of Christmas and prepare our hearts for the new year. You might also like to check out one of my favourite Christmas books by Madeleine L”Engle The Glorious Impossible with wonderful frescos from the Scrovegni Chapel by Giotto
First Coming
By Madeleine L’Engle
He did not wait till the world was ready,
till men and nations were at peace
He came when the Heavens were unsteady
and prisoners cried out for release.
He did not wait for the perfect time.
He came when the need was deep and great.
He dined with sinners in all their grime,
turned water into wine. He did not wait
till hearts were pure. In joy he came
to a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
He came, and his Light would not go out.
He came to a world which did not mesh,
to heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made Flesh
the Maker of the stars was born.
We cannot wait till the world is sane
to raise our songs with joyful voice,
for to share our grief, to touch our pain,
He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!
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Thank you for helping make 2018 such a successful year for us on Godspace. For many of you Godspace has become the go to place for daily devotions and church resources. Our 30 authors from 5 countries have worked hard to provide you with reflections, poetry and liturgies from a variety of perspectives and you have responded with many encouraging remarks, expressions of thanks, and support.
We appreciate those who tell us how much they enjoy our regular features – Meditation Monday and Freerange Friday. Others delight in the rich array of poetic offerings and the resources we make available for church services and other gatherings.
I am amazed that over 600 of you have downloaded our free resources with Advent in a Jar and our Maundy Thursday Agape Liturgy being the most popular. Dozens more have emailed me about the prayers and liturgies they use in meetings and services. Godspace is increasingly known as more than a blog. It is an important resource center.
In spite of a struggling beginning to the year, we have had over 250,000 visitors. We have worked hard to revitalize Godspace after a rather traumatic transition that left us without a lot of our photos and broken links to resources. I am so grateful that with the help of our new web team coordinated by Julie Bonn Blank and Hilary Horn’s assistance and graphic design skills, we have not only been able to repair many of these links but also give our resources a fresh new appearance.
3 Ways You Can Help Us
As we head into 2019 I think we can make Godspace better than ever with more resources for you and your church. Here is how you can help:
- Spread the word about Godspace. Continue to use Godspace resources. Give us feedback and let us know what new resources would be most beneficial to you. Let your friends know about our website and how they could benefit from what we make available. Encourage them to sign up on our mailing list or Facebook page.
- Show your appreciation. Email us when you use a resource in church or other gatherings. Use #godspacelight when sharing articles. Tag our authors to let them know you appreciate their writing!
- Contribute to the work of Godspace. Each time you purchase a Godspace resource, like our popular prayer cardsyou help us thrive as a ministry. Some of you may also have noticed that we recently became an Amazon Associate. This means that each time you use a Godspace link to purchase on Amazon we receive a small amount for your purchase. So we hope that you will use the Godspace links in this way.
May you continue to grow towards the light of Christ and deepen your relationship with the One who came to renew, restore and make all things new.
Merry Christmas to all of you, to your families and to your church communities.
God bless,
Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
As I prepare for the new year and my intended focus “Let God’s newness emerge” I am constantly looking for prayers I can use regularly to keep my focus on God and God’s purposes for me. Today’s prayer, which I understand Mother Theresa used every day is a beautiful prayer from the 19th century Catholic theologian John Henry Newman.
The line that particularly held my attention and which I have spent time reflecting on this morning is “be in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul.” What I wonder do I need to commit to in the new year so that others are able to sense God’s presence in my soul at all times? I think it is a question that all of us should ponder at this season.
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in
contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others; The light, O Jesus will be
all from You; none of it will be mine;
It will be you shining on others through me. (John Henry Newman.)
For those that wonder why I post so many prayers like this, and why poetry is such an important part of Godspace I suggest you read this article: Why Reading Poetry Is Good For Your Brain Evidently poetry helps us reflect and is good for our memory and cognitive health. No wonder there is a resurgence of interest in poetry. No wonder so many of us still love to recite poems we learned as kids and no wonder a growing number of us like to write poetry.
What kind of poetry do you love to listen to, recite or write?
The day after Christmas is a letdown for many of us. Perhaps we are despondent for simple reasons – we didn’t get what we wanted, we ate too much, the day passed too quickly. Others lament the loss of loved ones and the aching loneliness it brought to the Christmas season. Some lament the political struggles of the last year and the growing chaos of our world. Others lament the overwhelming impact of climate change.
Whatever saddens this day after Christmas for you, read through this poem by Ana Lisa De Jong and be refreshed.
Many blessings
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.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
December 2018
Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness,
send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.
To you we say, “Come Lord Jesus!”
Tom and I wish you and yours a blessed Advent, a Joyous Christmas and a new year filled with hope. Join us in this invitation issued by Walter Brueggemann to sing a song of hope in troubled times.
Sing to the Lord a New Song
“Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains.” Isaiah 42:10-11
Can you imagine writing this poem and singing this song in exile? Can you imagine defying the empire by sketching out this daring alternative? Can you dare to sing this song under the nose of Babylonian soldiers, about a new reality that counters the empire? Think of it, new reality conjured in worship, by the choir, inviting to new courage, new faith, new energy, new obedience, new joy.
The new song is a protest. The new song is also a bold assertion, innocently declaring that the God of the gospel has plans and purposes and a will to reorder the world, to bring wholeness and health to the blind, the poor, the needy, to the nations os fearful and to the entire creation now so under killing assault. The song asserts God’s future against our present tense.
It is no wonder, once the singing begins, that all creation sings and dances and claps with us. The whole creation sings about God’s new world. Heaven and nature sing and earth repeats a loud amen. We sing the song, even in exile, then we live the new reality. The Babylonians can not stop us, because the song is true and more powerful that the tearfulness of the world. The exiles are indeed on their way— rejoicing.”
Celebrating Abundance, Second Monday of Advent, Walter Brueggemann December 10, 2018
Celebrate with Us
We are celebrating a growing chorus of voices on Godspace during this season of Advent. Thirty voices from 9 different countries herald the very good news, for a time like this, that not only a child is born, but hope is come anew.
Gift of Wonder
We also celebrate the news that on March 26 InterVarsity Press will release Christine’s new book, The Gift of Wonder. This book offers readers the opportunity to view this gift of wonder and hope through the eyes of children. I can’t imagine a better way to begin 2019 than entering into the wonder of our young.
We celebrate our delightful pup Goldie, now 18 months old and a joy to our lives. However she has developed a concerning addiction to socks, shoes, plastic and Tom’s cough lozenges. She even managed to dissect the remote control to our Christmas candles a few days ago.
We celebrate what Mustard Seed Associates, now renamed Circlewood (www.circlewood.online) is becoming under the able leadership of James Amadon. We are excited by James passionate belief that care for the earth is meant to be integrated into God’s redemptive mission. We look forward to seeing how this is lived out through the development of the property on Camano Island as a program center for education and leadership.
We celebrate the small community at the Mustard Seed House – Hilary and Trevor with their 2 kids Ephraim and Abram upstairs, us on the middle floor, Dan and Lisa in the basement apartment and Luke in the monk cell. We share meals together, have great conversations and continue to garden together. As a result we had one of the most successful vegetable growing seasons of many years.
Tom and Christine speaking in Pennsylvania
We celebrate continuing opportunities to share our passion and concerns for a new generation. We are just back from being with Jill Young and a new generation of Christian College leaders at the Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania. We enjoyed the opportunity to speak at the annual banquet of Protestant Campus Ministry and were impressed that virtually all these young are Christians completing educational programs to become chaplains, work with hearing impaired or educate the next generation. However we are concerned at how few Christians over 40 realize how much more expensive it is for this generation to launch.
Several students have school debt of over $80,000 for a public college education. They will also spend considerably more on housing as they launch their lives than their parents or grandparents typically spent. As we race into the 2020s we urge all parents and grandparents to start savings programs as soon as possible not only for your own children but other children of promise so they have every possibility of launching their lives to be agents of compassion and hope.
Also consider renting rooms in your home for students of promise at significantly reduced rates to help them launch. Let’s all find ways to help Gen Next launch particularly those that are committed to investing their lives in having an impact in a world that needs a little hope. Let’s be God’s messengers of hope for Gen Next
We would love to hear what you and your church are doing to help those in Gen Next, who want to use their lives to make a difference in our troubled world in the 2020s, launch their lives.
We would also love to hear what brings rejoicing to your life and to your loved ones in this season of anticipation. We would love to hear what you are celebrating.
Tom and I and all of us at the Mustard Seed House, ask you to keep us in your prayers in troubled times.
Tom, Christine & Goldie
Mustard Seed House Community
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