Dank dark, down and delving
Devilling into the depths
Maybe here we shall find refuge
Away from the sun’s burning light.
Do not remain content with
Just under the surface of things
For here is where the seedlings sprout
And the good nuts crack
No! Do not stay here for pity’s sake
But work your way, writhe and bellow
Puff and blow, strive and muster
Further and further away from that
Damnable light that will
Change everything!
Stay the same, stay the same,
Keep things as they are.
If it aint broke don’t fix it.
I’m fine.
Really. Leave me alone.
I am happy here in the cold, rocky heart
Of the chasm, the abyss where not one chink
Of that blasted light can reach me.
What’s that you say?
The sun is in the soil?
Caught between the rocks?
Soaked into every molecule?
Full of nutrients and goodness?
A living water table?
Trickling through everything?
Light-infested world!
Where then shall we go?
* * * *
If it is the destiny of everything
To be bathed in light, as seems
To be the truth making itself known
In every crevice, each dark corner
Where the presence of shadow
Is only temporary, merely fleeting –
A curtain that must part to make way
For the pouring down and shining through –
Then, we may as well give up the game
Lay down the arms, lift hands up waving white,
Surrendering temporal to eternal
Ego to glorious Eternal- Self-in-God
Mask to imperfect smile, unchecked tears,
And step aside,
To let the divine pour.
© Keren Dibbens-Wyatt 2015
Today’s video is not really a Christmas song but I have been listening to it this morning and have been profoundly impacted by both the lyrics and the images. It is very much in keeping with our theme Lean Towards the Light. In this season of Advent may we remember that Christ is indeed our guiding light.
Welcoming the Light – photo from Pixabay
by Joy Lenton
Our souls unfurl like flowers to the sun, warmed by the healing benediction of its welcoming rays.
Our eyes cannot tolerate gazing long at such brazen brightness but we appreciate the way heat seeps into our skin like a sweet embrace.
We yearn for the reassurance of holy radiance, the comfort of Presence which sun represents.
And on cold, wintry days our senses fight against diminishing hours of daylight and encroaching darkness.
We watch morning rise slow and sun stretch like an arthritic-limbed lady flexing hesitant fingers toward a new day.
Witness her glow reflected in sparkle of snow and twinkling ice etching unique patterns on the ground.
Our spirits lift to see a darkening world made pure-white.
Our hearts lean toward the light of Advent as we reflect on Light Himself shining in our darkness.
So we light a candle to remind ourselves again of why Jesus came.
Watch it flicker and grow steady, just as our faith flourishes strong when rooted in the reality of His coming.
We meditate on wonder wrapped up in life’s seemingly mundane moments.
Here lies holy Mystery. Here lies a joy-gift to the human race.
Here lies our history invaded and pervaded by His story of grace.
How to put words to the way the Word Himself has come to abide among us?
It’s not easy for finite minds to fathom the Incarnate Christ.
The poem below arose from an attempt to sit with these thoughts a while, to contemplate their magnitude.
candle – welcoming the Light photo by Joy Lenton
Welcoming Jesus…
We imagine you as helpless babe, held tight, warmly at rest
in human arms against the chill of Bethlehem’s night
Cocooned from the world’s gaze, your light’s fiery
rays lie concealed within folds of swaddled cloth
But your birth signals our new birth to come as the only
Way we can return to our heavenly Home
Your lungs cry out Life in abundance, fullness
now given to restore us to heaven’s wholeness
You battled your way into an earthly frame
to bring us freedom, respite from guilt and shame
Heaven came down as Mary bore you in blood, sweat and tears,
no doubt feeling the strain of those achingly silent years
when no discernible heavenly voice was heard
and hearts were hungry for a holy word
Then joy breaking through in exultant angelic
song as you broke through to where we belong
Light streamed into our darkness deep, Hope of
years rose strong from earth’s dust and ashes heap
Deceptively, outwardly mild and meek, you hold the strength
of the universe in your voice, the call of creation in your soul
the power of change for our hearts as you seek
to transform, redeem and make us whole
Blinding Light of ages blazes from your eyes,
causing men to avert their guilty faces
Because your gaze penetrates barriers we erect
within as your piercing sight sears our sin
And you see into the depths of our despair
with a tenderness at once unknown and rare
There is wisdom in the words you speak and
discernment into every heart you meet
You are diviner and divider, eternal
provider and bringer of peace
You are Alpha and Omega, beginning
and ending where all wars will cease
You are Truth and abundant Life revealing
You are open Word and hidden treasure concealing
You are Love beyond all human knowing
Our deepest need that keeps on growing
©JoyLenton2015
“Godspace gives me a place to connect with like-minded people all over the world; an online space allowing me the freedom to communicate deep spiritual truths which I hope feed our readers while satisfying my own need to share the wonders of our faith. I am so grateful to Christine and Mustard Seed Associates for creating this beautiful garden in which seedling writers like myself can begin to bloom.” (Keren Dibbens-Wyatt)
Many of us have found a renewed intimacy in prayer and a sustained enthusiasm for spiritual formation through Mustard Seed Associates and Godspace. Thank you for being part of our community. We are profoundly grateful for God’s work in the lives of people around the world.
It is hard to believe that 2015 is almost over, and what an incredible year it has been here at Godspace. Over 400,000 visits, 100,000 Facebook shares, 1,000 downloads of free goodies and countless use of prayers, liturgies and reflections in worship, and personal meditation. We now have 35 regular contributors from 7 different countries and expect to continue adding to this in the coming year.
We are delighted at how many have shared photos and reflections as part of the MSA Advent photo challenge and are encouraged by how many have purchased prayer cards to provide a new rhythm for their spiritual lives. We appreciate those who participated in the MSA process of spiritual reflection, group discernment and creativity enabling us to apply it in diverse situations as varied as rethinking a local church to reorganizing a denominational mission organization. And we are encouraged by those who used the questions posed on Godspace to grapple with their own faith issues.
Thank you to the many readers who encouraged and supported us through the vandalism at our Mustard Seed Village site and prayed for us as we discerned God’s way forward. “Thank you for the creative ways in which you modeled hope and forgiveness following the $15,000 in vandalism to the Mustard Seed village.” commented MSA supporter Tom Balke recently. “I was deeply impacted by the way you transformed the broken window shards into symbols of forgiveness and new beginnings.”
As we look ahead to 2016, we believe that the reflections, prayers and resources provided on Godspace will be richer than ever. This has now become the official blog for Mustard Seed Associates which will enable us to continue expanding the resources available. We hope it will also provide new ways for all of us to interact with the material and participate in the Mustard Seed Associates community.
Celebrate with us in 2016 and help us provide much needed discipleship and worship materials. Your end of year gift of $50 $100, $500 or $1,000 will make it possible for us to launch our expanded MSA resource center on the web to help churches, mission organizations and individuals reimagine themselves for a new context.
Your monthly support of $25, $50 or $100 in the coming year will also enable us to produce a rich array of resources for our center of imagination and innovation.
If you have benefitted in any way from Godspace’s resources, we ask you to prayerfully consider helping us expand this ministry so that others may also benefit. Your gift this December will make it possible for us to grow our online resources. 2015 tax receipts will be provided for all U.S. gifts contributed by December 31st. You can also make your year-end gift online here.
[themify_button style=”small orange rounded” link=”https://godspacelight.com/donate” text=”454378″ target=”_blank” ]Donate Today[/themify_button]
Please consider an end of year donation.
I heard the storm in the night. It had been raining constantly for several days, and God topped off this deluge with a magnificent storm, that shook the oak trees beside my window, lit up the drawn curtains with flashes of lightening, and kept my eyes open into the night with the rolls of thunder. This morning when I awoke, I walked outside onto the deck in brilliant sunshine, and the trees, covered in new spring leaves, the still river in the distance, and the very light itself, looked washed clean. I said to God, ‘the whole earth looks new in your light!’, and He led me to this passage:
When Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he left Judea and returned home to Nazareth in Galilee; but soon he moved to Capernaum, beside the Lake of Galilee, close to Zebulun and Naphtali. This fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy:
“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, beside the lake, and the countryside beyond the Jordan River, and Upper Galilee where so many foreigners live—there the people who sat in darkness have seen a great Light; they sat in the land of death, and the Light broke through upon them.”
Matthew 12:16
Standing in the light this morning I also felt the lifting of a burden I had been carrying a very long time, sometimes lightly, while other times it crushed me. ‘Was this a message Lord? How the storms wash our eyes clear and give us a fresh new perspective. That there is purpose in the rain, and the wind. The trees lose the branches that were ready to fall, the earth is given new much needed nourishment, and the sunlight becomes a gift we would not have valued without its absence.’
“…and the light broke through upon them”. Ahh what beautiful words, what an incredible promise.
A poem I had written a few days earlier:
I believe, it is
the wounded things that are
the most beautiful.
And that we break open to the light,
because nothing is meant to remain inside.
Sorrow is but a well of understanding.
Chaos but a path to new revelation.
Pain a pearl that shows us where it hurts,
so that the light may trace
the ache to its source.
I believe, it is
that the weak receive
the strength they truly need.
As dependence brings us
to a full and deep surrender.
Shame is but a robe we must discard.
Guilt, another’s pain breaking our hearts.
Remorse, a path to redeem our tortured selves.
And as weakness girds our prayers with heavenly power,
the light reveals the darkness as a fraud.
And so I believe it is,
when love breaks in.
In order to get us in the mood for the real meaning of Christmas, over the next couple of weeks I will post some of my favourite carols and Christmas songs that encourage us to lean towards the light of Christ. If you have songs to suggest please mention them in the comments below.
Wherever we have fixed our hearts
whatever it is to which we have given them,
will determine the way we experience
all that is happening to us now.
Indeed, it is stability of heart, not stability of place,
that is the real monastic gift.Stability of heart –
commitment to the life of the soul,
faithfulness to the community,
perseverance in the search for God –
is the mooring that holds us fast
when the night of the soul is at its deepest dark,
and the noontime sun sears the spirit. (160, 161)
These words from Joan Chittister’s book The Monastery of the Heart, riveted my attention during my recent spiritual retreat time. Stability of heart, or as I interpreted it stability of purpose – keeping our pursuit of God and care for neighbour as our central focus is what really matters.
It is more than thirty years since God established my calling statement To be a voice for the voiceless and bring glimpses of God’s shalom world into peoples’ lives. The way it is lived out has changed over the years but the central purpose of my calling has always remained the same.
What is your response?
What have you fixed your heart on? Do you have a calling statement that affirms your commitment to God and neighbour, a sentence or phrase that gives you a sense of stability of purpose? Write it down. If you don’t have a statement, write down a scripture verse or sentence that most strongly expresses your desire to pursue God and care for your neighbours.
Sit quietly in a position of prayer, and recite your sentence several times. Read it aloud, doodle around it. Allow God to speak to your heart. Remind yourself of the ways this sense of call has provided stability of heart and purpose for you in the past. Are there new things that God is wanting to give birth to as we approach this season of new life?
Basilica of Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy- The Three Wise Men, photo by Nina Aldin Thune
The Magi followed the star that they saw in the East with a very clear purpose – the desire to find the Christ child, the new born infant who would become king of the Jews, and worship him. (Matthew 2) Through long months of gruelling travel they determinedly moved towards their goal. First they came to Jerusalem and it seems that in this city in which everyone thought the glory of God would shine most brightly, their guiding light disappeared. Perhaps they were momentarily distracted by the glittering city and the welcoming rulers. Or maybe they momentarily lost sight of their true purpose.
However, in their hearts they knew that this was not their destination. As they left the city:
The star they had first seen in the East reappeared—a miracle that, of course, overjoyed and enraptured the wise men. The star led them to the house where Jesus lay; and as soon as the wise men arrived, they saw Him with His mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped Him. (Matthew 2:10,11)
Sometimes God’s guiding star leads all of us into unexpected places, away from the bright lights of Jerusalem and on to the backwater, humble town of Bethlehem.
As we lean into the light of God and journey towards Bethlehem it is important to remind ourselves of God’s purposes for our lives. I encourage you to take time to reaffirm and reimagine what that means for you at this point in your life.
What is your response?
Has the light of God’s shining star dimmed for you? Have you allowed yourself to be distracted by the bright city lights? Sit quietly with your calling statement in front of you and once more allow God to speak to you. Watch the video below. Are there ways in which God is asking you to once more follow the star?
As an Amazon Associate, I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links.
Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
When referencing or quoting Godspace Light, please be sure to include the Author (Christine Sine unless otherwise noted), the Title of the article or resource, the Source link where appropriate, and ©Godspacelight.com. Thank you!