By Shelby Hofer. She is a full time stay at home mom to two little ninja-pirates, a part time missionary to Switzerland, and a full time lover of Jesus. When she’s not being yelled at for trying to pee alone, she enjoys coffee, talking and listening to people’s stories. —
Right now feeding my baby looks eerily like that scene from Jurassic Park where the T-Rex has just gotten out of his fence, and they are in the cars and trying not to move because if they do they’ll attract his attention and get eaten!! Yeah, that’s my life right now. My littlest pirate ninja has been such a pain in the ### when it comes to taking her bottle lately that when she FINALLY starts to eat, it’s like, “Nobody move! On pain of death!” Because the second we twitch our noses, she immediately starts crying and won’t eat again. Ugh.
Sometimes, after a whole day of trying to get both of my little pirates to eat, and repeating myself about a hundred thousand million times, and listening to my toddler repeat HIMSELF a hundred thousand million times, and making 3 meals, and cleaning, and working, and trying to stay relatively clean (by “clean” I mean, that you can’t actually smell me from 4 feet away) I just want to scream at the first person who sneezes when I’m trying to feed the baby. And scream at my toddler for not. Eating. His. Food. That he totally loved yesterday. And scream at my hubby for unloading the dishwasher. (what?)
It’s nice to have my hubby around for accountability, in that it would be way more embarrassing to be caught in the act of losing my $#*% and that helps me to hold it together until bedtime. Though it’s something that I battle, pretty much daily. Being a mom is hard. Because we are everything to everyone in our family, all day, every day. And then we try to be a good friend, and a good daughter, and a good wife, not necessarily in that order. And we try to parent out of our marriage, but how do you do that when you are flinging past each other all week just trying to keep afloat? Oh yeah, still working on that one.
Everyone says, “This too shall pass”, and I kind of want to punch them in the face sometimes. Yes, I know it shall pass, but it sucks crazy right now. And it’s hard. And it’s painful. And it’s messy. And it’s uncomfortable. But this is my life. And lately I’m trying to focus on finding the joy.
Joy is not happiness. You can have joy and NOT be happy. Joy is the bright spots in the midst of the craziness. Joy is the moment when my toddler says “please”. Joy is the days when I feel like a rock star because I’ve done 3 loads of laundry AND put them away. Joy is the moments when you get a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel.
So hang in there, mama. Sometimes the T-Rex bites your hand off, and sometimes you get to pet it and it gives you a lovely snuggle. Those are the joy moments. And while we don’t always have the energy to choose joy, we can practice looking for it.
1 Thessalonians 2:19-20 “For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.”
In the next few months at Godpsace, we desire to be sharing the ‘joy spots’ of God’s new kingdom in your life, neighbourhoods and churches that expresses the joy of God’s kingdom breaking into ours. What are some of these little ‘spots’ in your life that you see every day? Here is a reflection by Talitha Fraser —
I walk home from the restaurant and it rains. Hard. After a long, sticky, humid day, the wild water is a welcome relief – cleansing, cooling, sparkling. It feels made just for me this moment: that sky, those lights, these puddles. I grin conspiratorially with anyone I meet. Fancy all those looking down and running to get out of the wet, those looking out not thinking to leave their house and relish in the beauty of this. Familiar sights are made fresh by this new light, washed with mist and rain – it is a marvel and so many are missing it. You have to be present to the moment that you’re in. I am present to this one and it is a present to me. It was pretty life-giving – drenched by more than just rain.
By Shelby Selvedge —
I recently have spent some time learning more about labyrinths and the purpose behind them. I was asked to draw a labyrinth and it prompted me to want to know more about it in hopes it would inspire my drawing, it did. What stuck with me is the process of releasing or focusing on something on the way toward the center, gaining insight or revelation in the center, and then bringing that back to the rest of your life.
This process reminds me of how I experience God through nature. God speaks through nature, his creation. This is a prominate way he speaks to me. When I am stressed, have a decision to make, a hurt to process, or an idea I want to explore I often seek out time amongst the trees, by a lake, in the mountains, or on the beach. Hiking or walking in nature is the most frequent way I delve into nature. It is like walking a living labyrinth.
I have an intention, something on my mind, as I embark on my walk, hike, or climb. I release it to the wind, the trees, let it out in my footsteps, and feel it flow around my body and out with my breath. Whether I end up at the top of a mountain, by a water fall, or around the lake before heading home, something always flows back in and gives my thirsty soul life. For me it can be a feeling, an idea, or resolution, or even simply God’s peace. On my way home I carry what I received in my interaction with nature, the living labyrinth, and bring it back to my more routine moments.
Its not a one time event but rather one I do frequently. It never looks the same either. Sometimes it’s a grouling climb to the summit of a mountain pushing every fiber of my being, other times a walk around Greenlake, or sitting quietly in a forest. It doesn’t matter the type of way I choose to interact with nature but my intention and mindset behind it.
What ways do you interact with nature as a living labyrinth?
Do you see God revealed in nature?
How can we mindfully enter nature as if it were a labyrinth: releasing, receiving, and returning?
It is a week since Easter Sunday and we have just celebrated Earth Day and Good Seed Sunday. Here in the Pacific NW we are watching the emergence of new life as trees burst into bloom and perennials burst fresh from the ground. . I have put away lenten images and redecorated my sacred space with images of new life and resurrection to match the joy of the season.
It seems however that in many ways resurrection has passed us by. We are back to life as usual. Just as the disciples returned to their nets, unsure what to do with the rumours of Jesus reappearance, we are unsure what do with resurrection in our own lives.
These pivotal days of our faith seem to make little difference in the way we live. Why I wonder? Why aren’t we transformed by the resurrection?
Living Into the Resurrection Seems so Overwhelming for Us.
Perhaps it’s because living into the resurrection seems so overwhelming for us. We think we need to dash off to be a missionary in some other part of the world. Or we need to give up the job we love to work with the homeless in the inner city. Or we need to sell all our possessions to live with the poor.
Yet that is not what resurrection is all about. This is a season of light and joy and believe it or not, light and joy don’t take spectacle to live out. Jesus did such mundane everyday things in the days of his reappearance and looked so ordinary that his disciples didn’t always recognize him.
What is your response?
What are the joy spots in your life that speak of resurrection living? Take time to reflect on your life and how it has been changed by your relationship with Christ. What are the daily, weekly and seasonal activities that you feel most represent the joy of resurrection living. How could you express that joy in this resurrection season?
The risen Jesus seemed like a very ordinary person. If we were in charge of his PR campaign there would have been neon signs in the sky, interviews on CNN, audiences with world leaders. Approaching this Jesus would have been impossible, and following in his footsteps totally unimaginable. But that was not how Jesus came.
- He came to Mary as a gardener not as a king. He was so ordinary that she did not recognize him at first, after all who really looks closely at the servant who tends the gardens?
- He made breakfast on the beach for his friends. Again it took them a while to recognize him. And it needed a bit of a miracle – 153 large fish weighing down their nets – for them to truly see who he was. Perhaps their eyes skimmed past him because of the ordinariness of how he looked and how he acted.
- He came as a stranger and walked for a whole day explaining the scriptures to a couple of his disciples before they recognized him. A stranger who walked rather than riding in a carriage is hardly a king, let alone the risen son of God.
- He comes to the disciples, afraid and hiding behind closed doors. He let them touch him, calmed their fears and sent them out to change the world.
Resurrection living is not complicated. It is about ordinary people doing ordinary things just as Jesus did – simple acts of hospitality, companionship to the fearful, talking to strangers. These were the things that brought the joy of resurrection living into the lives of those early disciples.
What is your response?
How could you more effectively live into the resurrection at this season? Are there situations in which you could offer breakfast to your colleagues or friends? Or perhaps you could take some kids out for a hike, talk to them about their life concerns and answer their questions. Or maybe their are strangers at church whom you could ask out for a cup of coffee and a chat. The possibilities are endless. How could you practice the joy of resurrection living today?
By Lilly Lewin
So why is it that little kids get to have all the fun in church?
This is a question I often ask in my experiential worship workshops. It’s rhetorical, but I really wonder why we think that kids are the only ones who need to have crayons and paper in a worship gathering. The church I grew up in was the kind that had offering envelopes and welcome cards in the pews, along with the little golf pencils that fit into holes especially made for them. During worship, I would draw pictures on every card and envelope in my area of the pew. As I got bigger and could write, I would draw pictures and often write notes to the pastor and put them into the offering plate. Having been on church staff I know the church secretary probably was not happy about my artistic enthusiasm!
That was back in the dark ages before coloring sheets and kid’s bulletins were even thought about. Today we have those, and even kid’s worship bags with goodies that help kids stay quiet during the service, and sometimes they are even related to the theme of the sermon. But those of us who are “big people” now, we are invited to just sit and listen. What about those of us who are not auditory learners? What about those of us who need to do something while we listen so we can remember? Just because we grow up doesn’t mean we grow out of our learning style! And most of us are not auditory learners!
I am on a mission to see that everyone gets to do art during worship if they so desire. This started several years ago when I was a part of a congregation that had a kid’s table in the back for children to use during the service. It had lots of colored paper and baskets filled with crayons and markers! That gave me a brilliant idea! Let’s make an adult art table! In that particular church, there were rows of chairs in the front of the sanctuary and then round tables in the back. So I started bringing art supplies and paper and putting them on the back tables. Then I would sit back at one of the tables and draw in response to the sermon. I used to be a copious note taker, but it’s much more natural for me to draw a picture in response to the sermon and/or the singing worship rather than just take notes. There was a young man in the congregation who was an artist by profession, and my humble art supplies encouraged him and gave him permission to bring his own sketchpad and supplies to draw with during worship.
We really do need to give people permission to express themselves in worship beyond singing! We need to say it constantly, not just once. It can take many months before people really believe that it’s ok, even encouraged. I honestly didn’t embrace my artistic self in church until the last few years. After leading workshops on art in worship, I finally gave myself permission to BE an artist in worship. Now I bring my sketchbook, colored pencils or crayons to church, and draw both in response to the singing worship and to the sermon. Sometimes I use words and pictures and these help me remember the message. Recently I set up an art station at a church here in Nashville and the pastor said, “why don’t we get clip boards and hand them out to people who want to draw?” A fantastic idea. So we bought a bunch of colored pencils (Crayola are inexpensive and have great color) and some inexpensive clipboards and I handed them out as people came into the church like one might hand out bulletins. I’d ask, “would you like to draw during church?” This surprised some people but made others excited. Some would leave their doodles on the clipboards, some took them home, some drew amazing pictures in response to the sermon and would bring them for me to see. I started posting my worship drawings on my instagram feed with the hashtag #artinworship and #sermonsketching so other people could catch the idea that they too could draw, create art, in worship.
Regardless of your church flavor you can start putting art supplies in the pews or have a basket of clipboards with colored pencils attached in the foyer or narthex and have someone invite people to use them. An actual, real person needs to hand them out and invite people “to play.” Also if you have room in your worship space you can set up an art table with other art supplies and invite people to use them during worship. And remember, it definitely matters if you have the invitation from whoever is up front. We need to give everyone permission to express themselves in worship beyond singing and encourage the artists among us to share their gifts.
find me on instagram @lillylewin and at freerangeworship.com
by Christine Sine
This is my favourite Earth Day prayer and one I like to reuse each year.
I also have a few books I love to revisit at this time to remind myself of why I need to take my call to care for creation seriously.
It is impossible for me to list all the books that make good reading for Earth day or for our concern for creation from a faith perspective. Here are a few that I have read in the last couple of years that I recommend:
Creation Care, Ecology and Climate Change
- Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Debra Rienstra explores how Christine spirituality and practice must adapt to life on a climate-altered planet.
- Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World by Lisa Wells. Her book “introducing trailblazers and outliers from across the globe who have found radically new ways to live and reconnect to the Earth in the face of climate change.”
- Worshipping in Season: Ecology and Christ Through the Liturgical Year by Joseph E. Bush Jr. “Following the liturgical calendar and maintaining a Christocentric emphasis, Jospeh E. Bush Jr. aligns earthly seasons with the liturgy and suggest readings, songs, and other acts of worship to amplify an ecologically informed Christology.”
- Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee is a collection of essays on our relationship to the environment and the sacred nature of creation.
Creativity, Contemplation and Gardening
- Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening by Vigen Guroian. A delightful collection of garden meditations from an Orthodox Christian perspective.
- Gardens for the Soul by Pamela Woods. A beautifully illustrated book that provides great insights on designing outdoor spaces using ancient symbols, healing plants and Feng shui.
- Rooted in the Spirit: Exploring Inspirational Gardens by Maureen Gilmer. This is another beautifully illustrated and very practical book that helps you link your gardening to spirituality.
- Cultivating Sacred Space – Gardening for the Soul by Elizabeth Murray. This book invites us into sacred gardens at every season giving inspiration and ideas for our own sacred spaces.
- Everyday Sanctuary A Workbook for Designing a Sacred Garden Space by Jessi Bloom. This is an informative workbook that helps you design sacred space in the garden.
- Landscapes of Prayer by Margaret Silf. A beautiful book of prayer reflections exploring 9 different natural landscapes
- Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for A Modern World by John O’Donohue. A treasure that celebrates the beauty and mystery of everyday things.
- Reclaiming the Wild Soul: How Earth’s Landscapes Restore Us to Wholeness by Mary Reynolds Thompson. A journey into five great landscapes of our world that reconnects us to a rich source of wisdom, healing and wholeness.
- All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss. Twenty five meditations reflecting on how wild animals adapt when darkness descends.
- Morning Altars by Day Schildkret. The best process I have found for contemplative practice with nature.
- Earth Our Original Monastery by Christine Valters Painter.
- Farming While Black by Leah Penniman. Not explicitly Christian, but makes connections between racial and environmental justice/reconciliation.
Food, Faith and the Spirituality of Gardening
- Food and Faith A Theology Of Eating by Norman Wirzba. This is my favorite go to resource about creation, food and eating.
- Making Peace With the Land: God’s Call To Reconcile With Creation by Fred Bahnson and Norman Wirzba. A great introduction to our responsibility for the earth God has given us.
- Introducing Evangelical Ecotheology by Daniel Brunner, Jennifer Butler and A.J. Swoboda. A great resource that is biblically rooted and historically informed. It enables us to deepen our witness on behalf of creation.
- A Climate of Hope: Church and Mission in a warming world by Claire Dawson and Dr Mick Pope. A well thought out Australian perspective on climate change and our Christian responsibility. Lots of good stories from Australia and abroad.
- Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling and Community by Leah Kostamo. I love this little book. Easy to read with lots of delightful stories. Leah works with A Rocha Canada.
- Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth edited by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee. Broad collection of essays from many faith traditions.
- Keeping God’s Earth: The Global Environment in Biblical Perspective edited by Noah J Toly and Daniel I. Block.
- Soil and Sacrament: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith by Fred Bahnson.
- God’s Good Earth: Praise and Prayer for Creation by Anne and Jeffrey Rowthorn. A great collection of liturgies and prayers for creation.
- Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine S White. This is a timeless classic. Written in 1958, it is a refreshing collection of essays about gardening, writing and the inspiration we receive.
- Bringing It to the Table: On Farming and Food by Wendell Berry. Another classic from one of my favourite authors challenging us to become more conscious of the lives of those who produce our food and the world from which our food comes.
- Wendell Berry and the Given Life by Ragan Sutterfield. A collection of essays that provides a beautiful look into Wendell Berry’s life that illustrate the vision, path and practice of this wonderful man.
- The Green Good News: Christ’s Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life by T. Wilson Dickinson. A fresh look at the gospels which shows how Christ incarnates and teaches a vision for sustainable life.
- The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture by Christopher Shein. A great beginners guide to permaculture.
- To Garden with God by Christine Sine. A collection of reflections on faith and gardening. I am amazed at the ways that people have used this book to help them connect their faith and their time in the garden.
~Special thank you to Leah Schade for providing many of the links above in her Lenten Devotional book, For the Beauty of the Earth. The Mustard Seed House has been reading it together as a community during this Lent season and have really enjoyed researching the environmental stewardship groups that are highlighted in this book.~
Don’t see a book that you recommend? Comment below to share with us!
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~ Goodfellow
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By Ana Lisa de Jong—
Everything is thank you
if you look carefully.
The trees that lose their leaves
still raise their limbs.
The earth farewells the sun,
and moves around again.
Those we love draw tears and smiles from us
in unison.
Everything is grace,
and begins again.
We know this because each new day
speaks of redemption.
Because Peter denied his friend
and was forgiven.
Because the sleep that restores us,
in a small way reflects the resurrection.
Each small death, brings life,
and each gift of surrender, is an offering.
A down payment
for the new day coming.
For every Friday is followed
by a Sunday.
And every empty grave
formerly held something.
Yes everything is thank you
if you look carefully.
Everything in nature, love and life
reveals the resurrection.
He who bore our sin, pain and grief
lives again.
And our cross, so hard to bear
we find lifts us to heaven.
Yes everything that happens we can thank him.
For we know our story lives in his,
without an ending.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
April 2017
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