By Ana Lisa de Jong —
Everything’s a search for beauty,
for meaning.
Rounding the garden.
Marking the days and the turning seasons.
Drawing circles, making patterns,
ensuring continuity.
Joining gaps, filling in spaces,
that stretch out bare as empty canvases.
Each moment defined
where it eclipses the next.
Days drawn in sketches,
taking on substance in experience.
Hindsight making equations, and
drawing conclusions in significance.
From this we make a life
and determine the value of it.
The circles we draw, the patterns we make,
all depending on our own artistry.
What if beauty had no meaning,
but its own existence?
And each moment was taken and celebrated,
as a singular event that won’t repeat.
Would we see the pattern take shape
without our forcing it?
Like a flower opening, or the dawn rising,
we might remember that some things happen without our efforts.
Beauty
for beauty’s sake.
Moments that carry their own hues,
rather than those we’ve attributed.
Spaces that stretch out in empty brilliance
until the light catches.
And we see all the colours merging
one into the other.
Yes, beautiful moments
that make a life.
Perfectly adequate in themselves,
but which surprise in their continuity.
Both a gift, and a given,
this blessed life that we live in.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
December 2017
By Jeannie Kendall —
As I write this, the “old” year, in this hemisphere at least, has a short time left to run. Preparations will be at hand in a myriad of way in different households. It can be yet another excuse to party and overeat, not wanting yet for the celebrations of Christmas to be ended. Some will have the alcohol ready, but for numerous reasons: some the sociable desire to share this moment with others, others to anaesthetise the pain of the past year or the fear of the one ahead… still more to disguise the inherent loneliness they feel whether in isolation or a crowd. For a few the stroke of midnight will pass almost unnoticed, in sleep or apathy or even a reaction from mild annoyance to genuine distress at the noise of the now customary fireworks. For those employed, it may herald another day away from what may be a daily grind or a genuinely fulfilling joy: a day when the tyranny of the alarm clock may not bring its shrill note to disturb the bliss of sleep.
Yet for most at least, there is an acknowledgement of a new year, despite its artifice… it is, after all, just the creation of another number. We take the opportunity to bid good riddance to a year that was grimly tragic or to regret with melancholy the end of one full of promise. A few make resolutions they will actually keep, or use the opportunity to take stock and at least dream about changes. Somehow we believe that a new year can wipe out the past, despite the fact we carry all we have been and done into the new year, in memory if not in repercussions.
Perhaps this longing points to a deeper desire….to really clean the slate and find a new start. To be free from the shackles of guilt, the tentacles of disappointment in ourselves which drag us drowning in a morass of self-despair as we fail again to live up to our expectations of ourselves, or the (often falsely assumed) expectations of others.
A longing, in fact, for exactly what God offers. Fresh start. No conditions. Not just one day, but 365. Good news, whatever the date.
by Christine Sine
Happy new year and welcome to a year filled with incredible potential. We have enjoyed the excitement of fireworks and New Year parties. All of us have hopes and expectations for the months that lie ahead. It is not hard for me to believe this will be a wonderful year. The sun is shining, and I am looking out my office window at the beautiful snow covered Olympic mountains. Yet by the end of summer the snow will be gone and the hope and promise they offered may be gone too.
I have already shared ideas on how to make resolutions that stick and suggested you go on retreat to refocus as Tom and I will do next week.
Retreats are not just important for us as individuals, they are also important for us as an organization. Taking a retreat with your staff or ministry team is something I highly encourage at this season. Over the years, our MSA staff retreats have totally reshaped the ways we function as an organization. They led us to develop a rule of life, helped us to reimagine ourselves as a community that discerns together the will of God for our organization and pointed us towards the discernment process we used each week in our team meetings. I still recommend this to organizations who are looking for a more organic way of operating.
The process I outline below, which is adapted from one I have shared before, – what I call taking a spiritual audit is one that you might like to take alone, with your spouse as well as for leadership enrichment. Take out your journal, find some alone time, sit prayerfully in the presence of God and get to work.
Look back over the last year:
Consolations: What are you most grateful for over the last year? What has been life gaining and deepened your sense of connection to God and God’s purposes for you? How could you strengthen these aspects of your life?
Desolations: What has been your greatest struggle? What has been life draining and made you lose that sense of intimacy with God and your confidence in God’s purposes for you? How is God speaking to you through this?
What have been the major pressures in your life and ministry? Where do you think the pressure comes? What are the underlying causes? What is one thing you could do in this next year to relieve some of this pressure?
How do the above impact your spiritual well being? Write down the positive and negative impacts of the consolations, desolations and pressures on your life and ministry. Share them with a spouse, friend, or spiritual advisor. Prayerfully consider ways you could harness this impact so that your heart could be broken open to new possibilities for a better future.
What is one new practice you could initiate in response to your last year? How could you incorporate this into your spiritual disciplines to maximize the life giving nature of these forces?
Look back at your spiritual life:
How has God spoken to you over this last year? Reflect on what God has said to you through prayer, scripture, the hospitality, generosity or needs and words of others, through your work and other activities. Look back through your journal. Talk to your significant other or to a good friend. What do they notice in your life that may be the promptings of God?
What rhythm do you move to? I love John O’Donohue’s line May your life keep in rhythm to eternal breath. What daily, weekly and yearly events set the rhythm for your life? In what ways do these enhance your spiritual well being? In what ways do they distract you from achieving your full spiritual potential?
What gives you joy in your spiritual journey? Make a list of those aspects of your life that make you eager to get out of bed in the morning and face the day’s routines. Which of these give you a joyful sense of God’s presence with you throughout the day? In what ways could you enhance these aspects of your life?
Where do you sense God is currently at work in your transformation? In what areas of your life do you feel you are becoming more Christlike? What would give God the most opportunity to continue that work?
What do you do on a regular basis to nurture your spiritual life? Looking back over your consolations and desolations from the last year, what has made you feel close to God? What regular practices would nurture that closeness? What are the major distractions that interfere with regular spiritual disciplines?
Now prayerfully consider what God has said to you through this process. Read back over what you wrote in your journal. What most stands out for you as you read. Reflect on it. Spend some time in silence listening to the still small voice of God.
Now its time to look ahead.
What changes is God prompting you to make in order to further your spiritual growth:
- In your daily or weekly commitments and rhythms?
- In your spiritual routines?
How will you ensure that these changes are adhered to?
- What is one new practice you would like to institute to help maintain your new resolutions?
- What is one relationship you could nurture to provide accountability and encouragement as you walk this journey?
This is the second post I have written on preparation for the new year. You might also like to check out Making New Years Resolutions as a Spiritual Discipline.
by Christine Sine
Its that time of the year when we all resolve to be better people, look after ourselves more or just plain commit to do things we have not had time for last year. Most of us know that the resolutions we make will not be kept. By Valentine’s day we have forgotten, discarded or just plain ignored them.
Resolutions that stick must be incorporated into our spiritual disciplines.
First they should be made prayerfully, in a place of deep listening where we open ourselves to the spirit of God to speak into our lives and steer our course for the coming year. Regular evaluation in a place of deep listening is essential if we really want to take our resolutions seriously.
This year I have developed what I call the S.M.A.R.T.E.R. system (adapted from the SMART system I shared a few years ago)
collage – Joyce Withrow
Be Specific: Don’t say “I want to deepen my prayer life” but rather “I want to prayer 10 minutes more each day.” A prayer journal like collage journaling suggested by Jenneth Grazier, or my Lenten journal from a few years ago might help with this.
Make it Measurable: Intangible goals are impossible to track. When you reach the 5 minutes a day for 5 day goal in prayer celebrate it. Go on a retreat. When you reach your 10 minutes of prayer for 10 days celebrate with a party.
Make it Attainable: Is your goal within your ability to fulfill it? I cringe when people tell me about their goals to save the world or to transform the city in which they live – all within a 3 month period and without any training or expertise. More attainable goals might be – get involved in a local mission organization; increase my giving to charities by 50%. Take a course in city organization or social entrepreneurship or evangelism. These are attainable goals whose accomplishment gives great satisfaction.
Make it Realistic: Develop a plan for attaining your goals and enlist help in achieving them. Setting down tangible and measurable action steps that will keep you on track is extremely important. This helps us weigh the possibilities against the commitments we already have and makes us more aware of the time and resource commitments our goals demand. Enlisting help can often be a great reality check as our friends say “Have you thought of…?” or “When will you….? Paying close attention to their advice is an important part of the process.
Develop a Timetable. As the article I read this morning suggested: Timeliness adds urgency and reinforces accountability. This too is extremely important though we need to balance our timetables with the flexibility to change and adapt. 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. Willingness to negotiate obstacles gives us a sense of how determined we are to change our old habits.
Many resolutions require breaking with old, ingrained behaviors or attitudes. It takes time to transform habits and emotional reactions. So don’t give up because you ate a piece of cake or missed some gym time or snapped at a coworker or sibling. Genuine and lasting change does not come easily and it does not come overnight. It happens one day at a time, with a series of sustained, practical actions. If you are willing to be smart about pursuing your goal, you can be successful.
Plan times to evaluate your progress. Part of what we need to incorporate in our timetables is a process of evaluation. As I mentioned above, Tom and I go on regular retreats to refocus our lives and check in on how well we are keeping to what we sense is God’s purpose for us. Part of what we do is prayerfully look back at the goals we have set and talk about how well we are moving toward those goals. We listen to see if God would redirect or reform those resolutions and then develop a plan of action for the next few months to move us closer towards attaining those goals. In other words maintaining our resolutions has become an important and serious part of our spiritual disciplines.
Make sure you Remember. Most people I know who make new year’s resolutions do nothing to remind themselves of their resolutions. You might like to write them on a piece of paper, create a colourful meme like I did a couple of years ago or write a prayer that you place in the front of your bible and read the list each morning as part of your spiritual discipline. Or you might like to share with your small group or book club members and as them to keep you accountable.
So for a little advice on how to make S.M.A.R.T.E.R. goals this year, let me finish with some good thoughts from the apostle Paul in Hebrews 12:1-3 (NLT)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. (from Biblegateway.com)
By Lynne Baab —
A year is ending. A new year begins tomorrow. Newspapers and magazines are full of ideas for New Year’s resolutions, and how to keep them.
I wish more people wrote and talked about how to look back on the past year in a way that is fruitful and helpful. As a way to do that, I want to propose a prayer of examen for the whole year.
Examen is an ancient prayer form that focuses on identifying where God was present and where we resisted God. The prayer has four movements, which I’ll describe below. In many monastic settings, monks and nuns prayed the prayer of examen every night, looking back over the day.
The person who taught me examen called it “a gentle, unforced noticing.” I’m going to suggest numerous questions to reflect on. Please engage with these questions in an gentle, unforced way. Let the questions help you see God’s hand in your life and your response to God.
- Examen of Consciousness. Begin by thinking back over your year. What good things happened? Where did you see God’s hand in the good things? What aspects of the good things were clearly gifts from God?
What hard things happened? In what ways did God help you in the hard things? What good outcomes can you identify from the hard things?
Think back on the early months of the year. What were you praying for in those months? What answers did you see later in the year?
Use the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23 to look back at the year. In what moments did you experience love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control in yourself or in those who you love?
- Response to the Examen of Consciousness. In whatever way works for you, spend some time responding to God’s presence in your life in 2017. You may want to thank God verbally for the ways God was present in the year. You may want to imagine yourself turning to Jesus and smiling at him. You may want to sing a song or hymn.
- Examen of Conscience. Listen to your conscience to help identify the ways you resisted God this past year. Do you have clear instances when you know God was calling you to do something and you didn’t do it? Can you see times when you did something you know didn’t please God?
Go back to the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness or self-control – and ponder instances when the Holy Spirit may have been nudging you in the direction of one of those fruits, and you chose to do things your way.
Imagine that Jesus was walking beside you all year. What moments during the year would you have felt embarrassed or ashamed to have Jesus close by?
- Response to the Examen of Conscience. In whatever feels comfortable to you, bring those moments of resistance to God. You may want to ask God for forgiveness for the times you did not respond in obedience or love. You may want to read one of the penitential psalms as a way to bring these thoughts to God. Try Psalm 32, 51 or 130. You may want to say to yourself: “Whenever we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us” (based on 1 John 1:9).
Examen is a lovely prayer to do on our own or with others. If you have a spiritual partner – a friend, spouse, prayer partner – or a small group with whom you share honestly, consider working through the questions above with that person or group.
We rob ourselves of joy and peace when we forget to look back at the past and identify the places God was present. We rob ourselves of joy and peace when we neglect to confess our shortcomings and bask in God’s forgiveness of all our sins.
Opening the Door to the New Year!
Crossing the threshold into what God has in store.
Consider this past year,
Where have you been?
How was your journey?
Was it a season of OPEN DOORS or CLOSED DOORS?
Was it a season of slammed doors, or doors opened in invitation?
Look around you. Consider the doors you can see.
What kind of Door represents your last year?
What kind of Door represents the year ahead?
Consider the Door into the New Year:
Is the door squeaky?
Is it creaky?
Is it hard to open?
Is it locked and do you have the key?
Or maybe you need a new key?
Is it a new door?
Are there windows in the door or is it totally solid?
When you look inside, is there a room filled with light, warm and inviting, or do you
feel the space inside is dark and filled with unknown obstacles?
As you approach and cross the threshold and open the door to the New Year,
What do you need to leave behind?
What do you need to drop? Last week we talked about the fact that we cannot receive new gifts from God if our hands are full. CS Lewis says, “if our hands are full of too many packages, we cannot receive any new gifts.”
Are you carrying too many packages?
What packages do you need to drop?
Talk to God about this.
Allow God to show you what you need to put down, what you need to let go of in order to move through the new door.
Spend some time with God and ask God to show you what door you are in front of and how you need to walk into the New Year.
Take time to ask the questions “How do I need God to open doors for me in the New Year?”
And “What doors do I need God to close for me this next year? “ Pray and talk to God about this.
Take some time consider the doors. Those behind and those ahead.
You might choose to Draw or Journal about the door and be real with Jesus as you write/create. You might look through photos of doors to find a door that represents the door of the New Year to you. Print it out and carry it with you and allow Jesus to show you new things and open new doors.
And consider how you can open the door more to Jesus in the New Year!
JESUS SAYS:
Revelation 3:20The Message (MSG)
20-21 “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!
Revelation 3:20New International Version (NIV)
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
Revelation 3:20New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.
freerangeworship.comhttps://www.freerangeworship.com/
by Christine Sine
As I look back on this last year and some of the pain and suffering it has unfolded it is hard to hold onto hope. But as I think of the new year that is coming, and the new possibilities it holds I am filled with hope.
As I await this new year, I have been meditating on a beautiful children’s book that was given to me this Christmas A Child’s Garden: A Story of Hope. It is a delightful, hope giving story of destruction and regeneration, of death giving way to life. May you too look forward with the hope of renewal and regrowth out of death and destruction.
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