You call, and so often,
amid the bustle of our day,
we’re distracted
and fail to hear your voice.
You knock, but our lives
are untidy, unprepared,
and so we pretend
we never heard the sound.
Forgive us, Lord,
who look to you for guidance,
but only on our terms,
– when we call you –
and so often your need of us
is in the ‘now’ of our busy-ness,
which can be ‘inconvenient’.
Forgive us, Lord,
may the door of our hearts
be open, and our ears attuned
for that unexpected call.
by Lilly Lewin
I often don’t know what I am going to paint when I buy a canvas. So at art class this week I was working on one painting and while it was drying, I primed another canvas and contemplated what I might paint on it. I covered the canvas with a loose layer of my favorite blue color and I decided that I wanted to paint the Ryman Auditorium on the canvas. The Ryman was and is the home of the Grand Ole Opry here in Nashville. It’s a landmark. It’s known as “The Mother Church of Country Music.” It was originally built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 to be a spiritual hub for the city. So the Mother Church of Country Music, started out as a real church.
That led me to think that this canvas needed more than paint. Rather than just painting a picture of the building, I decided that a mixed media art piece would be better! I have a zip lock bag filled with pieces of paper, and clippings that I can use for collage and I just happened to have some song sheets left over from an Easter service. These weren’t just printed words, but were copies of old hymns. Perfect! I will cover the canvas with the music! Great idea, but I was having trouble getting the hymns to stick to the canvas. I was using the wonder craft of Modge Podge but it was not drying well and some of the hymns were tearing. One of my classmates walked by and said ‘well it usually helps if you let it dry in between layers.”
WOW! Light bulb moment! Or as Oprah says “ A HAH “moment. This is such a metaphor for my life!
I don’t like to wait for things to dry.
I don’t like to wait.
I want to make things work fast, and often I take short cuts.
Most people measure things, I just eyeball them. Some people sketch out something first, I tend to dive in and see what happens.
This can be both a gift and a curse. When the picture I’ve hung is crooked or the frame has to be returned to the store because it wasn’t the right size.
But I digress, this lesson from God was about my inability to be patient, my inability to wait and be in the process.
In my very human view, God is always slow. God’s timing tends to be much later than mine.
I often say that God is always late. But this is because I cannot see the way God is at work and because I am so in a hurry!
There was a book in the 80’s called “I Gave God Time”
I used to say that “I gave God a deadline!”
And it’s so true! I tend to give God deadlines rather than being willing to wait, rather than enjoying the journey or the process.
Ugh! This seems to be a cultural thing too. Especially now that we all hold smart phones and have instant access to the world.
Why is it that we want everything now?
We live in such an instant society. We don’t know how to wait.
We have lost the art of slowness.
We have lost the art of process.
I think this is why so many people are going back to crafts and making things, and why slow cooking and back yard farming are growing among people in their 20’s. It’s reclaiming the process rather than the instant!
We tend to avoid slowness and avoid process because it gives us time for reflection.
Process and slowness, waiting, rather running ahead, allow us time to think and if we have time to think this often gets scary.
We tend to get busy so we don’t have to think.
We run ahead because we cannot see the next steps and we don’t trust that God has a plan.
How are you with letting things dry?
How are you doing with being in the process of things?
Are you running ahead today?
Or are you willing to wait for the hymns to dry?
The “a ha” of the of the hymns not drying…
I need to pause, I need to stop, and i need to be present to the process.
I need to be present to the waiting.
I need to trust that my Creator sees the finished product and knows what I long for.
And I need to remember that God has the pieces in hand and actually has the next steps ready if I will just wait.
What are you longing for in your life?
What are you waiting for?
What things are you impatient about right now?
Are you willing to pause and be in the process? Are you willing to be willing?
God, help me remember that you hold the pieces of my life in your hand. Help me remember that you have not forgotten me. Help me remember that you have the next steps ready if I will just wait and be still. help me to let the hymns dry! AMEN
freerangeworship
I had hung up my harp
but my God still demands a song.
How can I draw a note I asked
my heart within grown cold.
I have weighed justice and mercy
until mercy has hardly registered,
and bitterness become a weight
that kept me counting my losses.
But we are asked to hold all things lightly.
Despair and hope can both draw notes
in hands that recognise the qualities
of height and depth, light and dark needed to make music.
Have you hung up your harp?
Will you take it up again with me?
Together we can extract the gold
we can yet mine from sorrow.
And hope can rise from the ashes of today
to make a brand new song.
Together we can draw meaning from all
that befalls us, good or ill.
We have stilled our hearts,
but God can thaw the fingers which refuse to bend.
Until they move again,
as dancers on the strings,
of harps, which because of hope we have taken down.
Because hope, unlike anything else we encounter
springs eternal in our souls;
that we might each, always have a song.
By Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
September 2017
By Jenneth Graser ––
Your mercy spreads like waves
relentless over the faintness of my soul.
How long, Oh Lord, is the question
that rises from deep within.
Because it is only while I am alive
that I can be the expression of
your love and light into the world.
Deliver me by the mercy that keeps on
coming.
Deliver me, by your mercy that alone
can save.
I receive no comfort from my futile efforts.
I cannot continue in groaning or tears.
All evil, flee, all darkness go!
For you, Oh Lord have risen upon me
and you have heard my every cry.
You receive and hear the prayers
I offer.
All darkness will turn back and return
to the place from which it comes.
It will turn back from the threshold of the door.
Your mercy will comfort me.
Your acceptance will soothe and re-create
my soul.
Your discipline will not consume me for
I am the Father’s pleasure
and you have borne me into true delight.
Your enjoyment is upon me with
the soakings of mercy, filling, my every
broken place with your love.
Amen.
by Christine Sine
This afternoon I have been reflecting on the growing anger and conflict in our world and especially here in the U.S. Anger towards the racism that seems to be growing and towards the NFL players and others who are responding with defiant protest. Anger at the lack of responsiveness to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico. Anger and animosity towards those who want to reform the health care bill in a way that would leave millions without coverage.
It is so easy in the midst to join the anger and become part of the violence. Yet God calls us to be messengers of love not hate and the response of love begins not with an outward act but with and inward attitude that fuels our souls with both the power and the persistence to respond as God would respond. I love this post from The Plough with its excerpts from Eberhard Arnold, a German theologian during World War 1.
God wants to give our inward life an indestructible harmony that will work outward in mighty melodies of love. The power that comes from gathering our inner energy is a power for taking action. When our individual hearts are gathered in this way, we will join together as a gathered people – a people whose active work makes God’s reign manifest as justice, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). (Read the entire article here)
We all need melodies of love that overflows in action, action that responds to the injustices of our times with action that transforms lives and communities.
The experience of God is love (1 John 4:8) – love that overcomes everything that opposes it. Love is the energy of the new creation, the spirit of God’s coming reign, the sole element in the new world he is building (1 Cor. 13:13), and the herald of a new era. It is the organic strength of unity, the shaping of a new humanity. This love becomes reality in the church of Jesus Christ, through its unity (Eph. 2:14–22). (Read more)
Prayerfully read through this article and consider your own response. How do you equip yourself with the inner resources needed to respond in appropriate outward ways? What are you doing to be God’s loving presence in this hurting world?
This month is bee awareness month in New Zealand. Here is wonderful post and video from Katherine Hempel —
My husband has been a beekeeper for over 30 years. When we were first married he took me out into the bee-yard to do some cleanup. As he removed frames and blew out some boxes, thousands of bees began to swarm around my head. I giggled. I think that was the day he decided I could stay.
Phil explained that our bees didn’t sting me because I remained peaceful around the colonies and did not smell of fear.
One of the first lessons I learned from the hive was maintain your peace.
There is something about the hum of a bee-yard that generates a meditative response. The soothing sound of tens of thousands of God’s most industrious ecologists at work is mesmerizing and, for me, one of the fastest ways to enter a contemplative state.
How does this community generate such an effect? How can we learn from them?
The world of hive exists in perfect unity. Bees do not compete with one another. There is no caste system. They have a mission given them by their Creator and they take it seriously. They know their purpose and their every living moment is spent fulfilling that. There is no such thing as superiority. What would happen if we did the same?
The Drones, the only males produced in the colony, have but one purpose. Theirs is to mate with the queen and die. They give their life for the continuance of the colony. Sacrifice for the greater good is important.
Within the hive, each member of this community understands that the very existence of their world depends upon cooperation. Worker bees must keep the hive neat and tidy so that the queen and larvae remain healthy and thrive. Guard bees are constantly on the lookout for any threats and woe betide the visitor who dares disrupt the harmony of their kingdom. Whether a janitor or one charged with the protection of others, each of us have been given a special gift to serve. One is not greater than the other. We need to play nice.
Nurse bees stay busy tending the next generation’s eggs and, when necessary, they are called upon for the important job of raising the next queen. Theirs is a sacred task and they treat it as such. The nurturing of the next generation cannot be taken for granted. We need give special care and attention the young. Theirs will be to continue the work we started. We need to teach them in the way they should go. We need to encourage them to be better than we have been.
The Scouts are not only tasked with searching out the best sources of pollen for the Gatherers, but could be called upon to find a new home when necessary. Communication is their forte. Without their infamous wiggle dance, by which they give other bees detailed directions to the next pollen field, a great deal of time would be wasted and wasting time is not something these efficient creatures care to indulge in. We need to learn to communicate clearly to one another. To communicate our love and our values has never been more important.
The diligence of the Gatherer bees, provides the nectar and pollen which is the lifeblood of the hive. Without their dedication to seeking out the best sources of this nectar and pollen, there would be no honey; no propolis, used in medicines for humans; no royal jelly to feed the eggs destined to royalty. We must constantly be seeking good spiritual nourishment for ourselves and to share with others. Garbage in/garbage out does not only apply to computer inputting.
Royalty here is no simple lay-back-and-be-waited-on existence. The queen spends her entire life, after her mating flight, laying eggs. She never stops for without her consistent, unwavering labor; there is no hive. Every other bee knows that inherent to their job description is: protect and serve the queen. When we serve in a position of leadership, we must always remember our job description is simple. Serve the community, set an example for others and allow them to do their best.
Life in the hive produces the peaceful hum not by its members kicking back and putting their feet up; but by continuous sacrifices. There are no individual bees demanding their rights. Just the steady melody of humble service at work.
by Christine Sine
Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
So says Alice in Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland. To a child like Alice, the world is an amazing place with miracles at every turn. We watch their expressions of awe and wonder with delight. The make us smile, they make us laugh but few of us take them seriously.
I have had to rethink that attitude since reading John Pridmore’s fascinating book Playing with Icons: The Spirituality of Recalled Childhood, in which he analyses a rich variety of people’s memories of their childhoods. He believes that our decline in capacity to notice the miracles around us as we grow older is a failure of the spirit as well as of the senses. He argues that by the time we become adults we have lost our child’s eye and no longer experience everyday objects with our senses or capture them in their true light because they have now become familiar and commonplace. It takes a rare event like a solar eclipse to stir within us the spirit touching awe and wonder kids experience every day.
Pridmore points out that when Jesus drives out the traders and money-changers in the temple, healing the blind and the lame, the authorities get angry but the children cheer because they alone can see the significance of the wonderful things he is doing. Jesus reminds the authorities that “out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise for yourself.(Matthew 21:14-16.)
Research indicates that experiencing these magical feelings also changes how we approach our lives. It can make us more satisfied, less self-involved, less likely to feel starved for time, more grateful and more likely to help others. Even brief experiences of awe, such as being amid beautiful tall trees, led people to feel less narcissistic and entitled and more attuned to the common humanity people share with one another.
Unfortunately the research also suggests that we are awe deprived. We spend more time at work and less outdoors. We are less inclined to attend art galleries, live music, theatre and museums. Even our children are having their arts and music programs dismantled and their unfettered outdoor time cut for more resume building activities. Not only are we suffering as a result, but our faith and our concern for others are suffering too. Some of the leading researchers looking at this subject believe that chronic awe deprivation has had a hand in a broad societal shift making us more individualistic, more self-focused, more materialistic and less connected to others. They say we need to actively seek out awe-inspiring moments in our every day lives.
What Is Your Response?
When was the last time you experienced a sense of wonder at the world around you or sat in awe at God’s greatness? Perhaps it is time to reenter the awe inspiring world of childhood where everything is a miracle. And perhaps it is time to rethink our spiritual practices to make this possible.
Watch the video below and then consider setting aside time each day this week to reflect on the miracles that the day has unveiled. Sit quietly in the presence of God and take some deep breaths in and out. Close your eyes and walk through the day reimagining everything you did.
Start with the dawning of the day and the miracle moment of the rising sun as it’s light touched the sky and illuminated your world. Think about the miracle of the flowers unfurling in your garden, and the bees and birds flitting from plant to plant. Look into the eyes of a child and remind yourself of the miracle of your own formation. As you sit in the presence of God what else comes to mind? Make a list of at least six things that suddenly are unveiled to you as miracles that you have taken for granted in the day that has passed. Offer a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God.
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