by Rodney Marsh
“… coming into the full light of Reality, of falling away from illusion, a great silence emerges from the centre. We feel ourselves engulfed in the eternal silence of God.” John Main The Present Christ (NY Crossroad 1991 pp74-76)
In August 2023 a friend and I set off to walk part of the Bibbulmun Track (Western Australia) between Dwellingup and Bailingup (12 days, 200km). The winter weather was typical for South Western Australia. Chilly nights (2-5oC) and days when the air was still, silent and cool (about 15-18oC – perfect walking weather). My walking partner and I had agreed that, whilst walking, we would maintain a ‘monastic’ silence using only ‘considered’ or ‘necessary’ speech. This silence was also held by the bush. There were, mostly, no bird sounds, except for the dawn chorus, and no wind to rustle the leaves and disturb the silence. The silence of the Jarrah/Marri forest was a precious gift. To my recollection the only natural sounds we heard were created by the Murray river and the occasional noisy screeching of red-tailed black cockatoos, either adults feeding on Marri nuts or their nestlings noisily demanding food. Fortunately, when the fierce wind and driving rain of winter storm fronts arrived, it was night, and we were ensconced in our warm, dry sleeping bags in the safety of the trekking huts.
Stillness and silence have been, literally, vital to me since I started practising Christian meditation, about fifteen years ago, and, no matter what the season, I have developed the habit of being silent and still surrounded by the generosity of the natural world. I have learned that nature heals and restores my spirit though attention, presence and silence. My walking partner and I didn’t realise it at the time, but during the extended silence of our walk, Peace had nestled in our hearts – for Peace, like Hope, is also ‘a thing with feathers’, and, in our hearts the bird of Peace had ‘sung the tune – without the words’ (apologies to Emily Dickinson). The silence around us had nurtured a stillness and silence within us.
We had spent about five days in ‘silent nature’, separated from the ugliness of the ubiquitous noises of the man-made machines with which we have surrounded ourselves in the modern world. This artificial cacophony to which we daily subject ourselves may have become ‘normalised’, but it is degrading our humanity. As we walked, the silent bush was daily healing our agitated and corroded spirits. Twice, in the course of our walk, the aural infection and corruption of our humanness became apparent to us – machine noises interrupted the silence and wounded our spirits in a profound, visceral way. The first was when we heard the distant, intermittent, howls and screeches of a massive conveyor belt that carried bauxite ore from the mine to the mill. We heard the sounds first in the overnight hut, but it was many kilometres before we sighted, and then had to walk through the legs of, the monstrous machine. The second disturbance arose for us, when, after the days of silence, we approached the Coalfields Highway. The roars and groans of the trucks and cars labouring up or speeding down the hill gradually became louder. And the bird of Peace in our breasts took flight! These machine noises precipitated an inner agitation and anxiety. Surely the groans and moans of a dying world!
Aesthetes have always struggled to define or capture the connection they sense between beauty and truth. On the other hand, when we emerged from the silence there a definite and undeniable link between noise and ugliness. This noise-ugliness link does not prove there is a connection between truth and beauty, but it continues to persuade me that it is necessary to take a less travelled road to stillness and silence to experience the beautiful, good and true. The best explanation for our experience of the peace of silence is that Reality is constantly being created from a living flow of love. Creation is sourced in love fulfils itself in love and returns to love. And we humans, each one of us, are a unique part of this flow of life. We can know this Reality through experience because we were created to be part of it. An inner silence, stillness and peace is necessary to experience Reality as a flow from love, in love and to love, and it takes the experience of inner silence for each of us to recognise and play our own part in this flow of life. In God’s world, then the groans and moans we hear and also know through personal experience, are of a new world being born in us and through us.
So, to restore my spirit, I will continue my twice daily practice of 30 minutes silent, still, openness to Reality. Like walking, and all that we do, silence and stillness is an embodied practice. The Psalmist knew how: still yourself, experience the silence and know (experience in the embodied sense) your own reality (I am) and you will discover that you are “in Christ” and “Christ is in you” (experience your own self in God and God in all things). You can use the words of Psalm 46:10 to practise being present to Presence.
Be still
Be still and know
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know
Be still
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
by Lilly Lewin
It’s the end of a month and the beginning of a new one this weekend. In my old neck of the woods, Napa Valley California, it’s harvest season. Living in Napa Valley in the middle of a vineyard for four years taught me a lot about wine and even more about why God refers to vineyards and grapevines so often in scripture. I learned how much care goes into a vineyard and how much work goes into making a vine grow good fruit. I learned that they will cut off ” good fruit” during the growing season in order to get the better fruit to grow. That’s been a great metaphor for me. Sometimes I need to say NO to what is a good thing, good fruit, in order to get to do or enjoy the BEST fruit.
In Matthew 21: 33-46 Jesus gives us a parable about a vineyard and a some workers who reject the care and ownership of the vineyard. READ the Passage in a couple of translations.
Matthew 21:33-46 The Message
33-34 “Here’s another story. Listen closely. There was once a man, a wealthy farmer, who planted a vineyard. He fenced it, dug a winepress, put up a watchtower, then turned it over to the farmhands and went off on a trip. When it was time to harvest the grapes, he sent his servants back to collect his profits.
35-37 “The farmhands grabbed the first servant and beat him up. The next one they murdered. They threw stones at the third but he got away. The owner tried again, sending more servants. They got the same treatment. The owner was at the end of his rope. He decided to send his son. ‘Surely,’ he thought, ‘they will respect my son.’
38-39 “But when the farmhands saw the son arrive, they rubbed their hands in greed. ‘This is the heir! Let’s kill him and have it all for ourselves.’ They grabbed him, threw him out, and killed him.
40 “Now, when the owner of the vineyard arrives home from his trip, what do you think he will do to the farmhands?”
41 “He’ll kill them—a rotten bunch, and good riddance,” they answered. “Then he’ll assign the vineyard to farmhands who will hand over the profits when it’s time.”
42-44 Jesus said, “Right—and you can read it for yourselves in your Bibles:
The stone the masons threw out is now the cornerstone. This is God’s work; we rub our eyes, we can hardly believe it!
“This is the way it is with you. God’s kingdom will be taken back from you and handed over to a people who will live out a kingdom life. Whoever stumbles on this Stone gets shattered; whoever the Stone falls on gets smashed.”
45-46 When the religious leaders heard this story, they knew it was aimed at them. They wanted to arrest Jesus and put him in jail, but, intimidated by public opinion, they held back. Most people held him to be a prophet of God.GRAPE HARVEST1
What is God’s Word for you today?
What is the Holy Spirit speaking to you about today?
What do you notice that you haven’t noticed before?
What questions come up for you from this passage?
Where are you today? Are you feeling like the land owner, the tenants, or the ones sent to the vineyard?
Are you protecting the vineyard, are you planting, harvesting, or do you feel like you’d like to tear things down for good or for ill?
Are you feeling rooted or uprooted today? Do you want harvest? Need deeper roots? Talk to Jesus about where you are.
How has Jesus been your cornerstone lately? How can you allow Jesus to be your cornerstone in the weeks ahead?
“There’s a beautiful Jewish midrash that goes like this: Even when God exiles Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, saying to them as they go, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” the three words left ringing in their ears contain a hidden seed of hope, a promise of blessing: “you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Likewise, for all of us, a “change of mind” is always possible; the road back to the vineyard is always open. God’s love and faithfulness are steadfast, as “God with Us” proclaims — and so despite our worries, our quarreling, our testing of God and each other, in the end God will quench our thirst with surprising, living water: refreshment springing up from what looks like nothing but dry rock, resurrection from a tomb in Jerusalem, new life in the valley of the shadow of death.” THE SALT PROJECT
GRAB SOME GRAPES or a GLASS OF WINE TO PRAY WITH TODAY:
Taste and See that the Lord is Good!
Jesus you provide the space, the vineyard to grow good grapes in us. You plant good things FOR each of us, IN each of us!
Jesus you long for relationship! To have us ABIDE in you. You long to help us grow deep roots and produce good fruit.
You put a watch tower and a wall of protection around us so we can grow.
Allow Jesus to dig up the soil and to prune the vine that is you.
To press the fruit and to make NEW WINE.
Remember that GOOD WINE takes time! It’s not rushed, it’s not hurried. It’s nurtured by the wine maker.
Good WINE is ART…it’s flavor, taste, time and place.
TASTE and see that the LORD IS GOOD and you are GOD’S GOOD and PERFECT CREATION!
AMEN
LISTEN
by Karen Wilk
Creator delights in
Long-necked giraffes
…..Huge elephants
Flamingoes turning pink
…..from eating too much shrimp
Intoxicating lily-of-the-valley, lilacs perfume
The sound of honking geese in a V vroom
A hard-shelled turtle, a white long eared rabbit,
A rainbow, a newborn, a thunderstorm
And me?
Creator delights in
Ants marching in a line
Hummingbirds in flight
The neighbour cat exploring
The puppy slipping through the hedge
The chipmunk sitting on the ledge
Bees buzzing, butterflies soaring
Herbs in the garden
Beans in a row
My pink polka dot plant
Our children, laughing, as they go
Unique, gifted, benign beauty,
Earth, sky, rain proffering
Like our neighbours offering…
…..…..Openness, hospitality
…..…..Friendliness and generosity
Creator, YOU DELIGHT IN
Not because of, if or when
Every all are Your delight!
…..Precious, priceless in Your sight
…..…..Cherished, treasured meant for flight!
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
curated by The Rev. Elaine Breckenridge
Today is September 23, the Autumn Equinox and the first day of Fall. It is a cool and rainy day where I am. As I opened some of my favorite prayers and poetry to mark the occasion, I decided to put together “A Ritual to Welcome Autumn” that some of you might care to pray and use with your communities. May the changing seasons bless you wherever you are.
A Ritual to Welcome Autumn
For this ritual, a six-inch piece of string or twine may be used by participants. Space for sitting and standing is desired. Leadership and readings may be shared among those gathered. Bold print indicates communal response.
Participants may gather, standing in front of an open door or window.
Leader:
Welcome, Autumn, arms full of summer’s blessings,
carrying the seeds of life for next year’s planting.
Come, enter our homes with your golden wisdom;
be our guest and share our tables.
Welcome, Old Wise One,
May we be your students in the school of gratitude.
Guide us in reflecting upon the summer now gone,
that we might give thanks for all its many gifts.
…..–Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim by Edward Hays
Blessed are you autumn, your harvesting time has come. Blessed are you, autumn season of unpredictability.
You inspire us to be flexible to learn from your shifting moods.
Blessed are you, autumn season of surrender.
You teach us the wisdom of letting go as you draw us into new ways of life.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
The door or window may be closed and people may be seated.
A Reading from the Gospel of John
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. [John 12:20-26]
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s People.
People: Thanks be to God.
A Reflection on the Gospel Reading
Autumn is a wondrous metaphor for the transformation that takes place in the human heart each season. It is easy to read the human story in these autumn pages between summer and winter. Autumn calls us in from the summer playground and asks significant questions about our own harvest. What in our lives needs to fall away like autumn leaves so another life waiting in the wings can have its turn to live?
Autumn speaks of connection and yearning, wisdom and aging, transformation and surrender, emerging shadows, and most of all, mystery. This is the season that touches our longing for home, for completion. We are invited to let go, to yield…. yes, to die. We are encouraged to let things move in our lives. Let them flow on into some new life form just as the earth is modeling these changes for us.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s People.
People: Thanks be to God.
A Ritual of Letting Go
The ritual is best done in silence with time provided for quiet reflection.
Ask yourself the following:
1. …..What old habits, patterns, and way of being no longer serve you and your relationships?
2. …..What things from the past adversely affect your family or your community’s well-being and would best be forgiven and forgotten?
3. …..What does our planet need less of to make it healthier?
Take the piece of string and make three knots in it, one for each concern. As you make each knot, visualize each situation clearly, and imagine every aspect of it being firmly bound into the knot. Bury the knotted cord in the ground and let it rot away.
……– Kindling The Celtic Spirit by Mara Freeman
Participants then stand for the prayers that follow.
Prayers to the Four Directions
Leader:
As we give thanks for the summer now past, help us to surrender to the letting go embodied in this season.
May we turn to embrace the mysterious gifts of autumn.
We turn to face East.
Great Spirit of the East,
We stand before the place of the rising sun,
knowing the time to let go has arrived.
The chill of this seasonal change
challenges our hopeful dreams.
A persistent voice in us nudges
our tough hold on inner security.
Bless us with the rays of your love
as we struggle with our desires and needs.
May this season give us hope for the days ahead.
We turn to face South.
Great Spirit of the South,
We turn to you with nostalgic awareness.
Summer’s flowers are gasping goodbye.
Baskets of abundance sigh with farewell.
Now comes the season of diminishment.
The rays of the sun are more distant
and the vibrant greens are turning gray.
Now arrives the time of surrender.
May your love settle quietly in us like the hush of the first fog and frost.
We turn to face West.
Great Spirit of the West
We bow to the place of goodbye,
where the sun slides below the horizon.
We stand in the presence of the ancestors
whose wisdom invites us further.
As they learned from their transitions,
so will we look to the teachings of this time.
As we fall into the embrace of emptiness, help us to trust in emerging new life.
We turn to face North.
Great Spirit of the North,
the land is stripped of what was strong.
The long months of waiting soon begin.
We move toward a vigil of emptiness.
Keep alive the memory of the harvested seeds
while autumn stretches frosty fingers
around the corners of our watchful heart.
Bless us as we enter the lengthy darkness with the strong arms of your love.
…..–The Circle of Life, Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr
A New Zealand Lord’s Prayer
Leader: Let us pray together,
All: Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:
The hallowing of your name echo through the universe!
The way of your justice be followed
by the peoples of the World!
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings!
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom
sustain our hope and come on earth.
With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.
For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and forever. Amen.
…..—A New Zealand Prayer Book
The Blessing
Leader: May we be open to God’s blessing as we pray together,
May the arm of God be about us,
the way of Christ guide us,
the strength of the Spirit support us,
this day and always. Amen.
Let us bless the Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver.
Thanks be to God.
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
It seems as though autumn arrived with a vengeance in Seattle over the weekend. The rains came, the temperature dropped and leaves now look more red and gold than green. I know Saturday was the equinox, that day when the sun hovers briefly over the Equator giving us an equal time of night and day no matter where we are in the world. This transition time is a busy season with much to ponder as we navigate the transitions, here in the north to autumn and in the Southern Hemisphere to spring.
Here in Seattle, we have officially moved into autumn, this season of letting go, of harvest, but also of planting and sending down roots. Did you know that we like to plant shrubs in the autumn because then their roots have time to grow down deep over the winter? Autumn is the season when God scatters seed, abundantly, generously, almost indiscriminately, allowing it to burrow into the ground for a winter’s rest before it germinates and grows in the spring. I love this juxtaposition. Even as we let go of what is dying we plant the seeds that give us hope for the future and send down the roots that will sustain us through coming seasons of dryness and struggle.
I feel my Meditation Monday: Made in the Image, Growing into the Likeness of God is very appropriate for this transition season. Writing it was a little like taking a spiritual audit as I asked myself “What does it mean for me to grow into the likeness of God?” As I focus on the changes that autumn brings I also find myself asking “What do I need to let go of, what do I need to harvest and what do I need to plant in order to continue growing into the likeness of God?” I stand on our back step, take a few deep breaths in and out savor the fragrance of the rain and ponder these questions.
I love reading the daily posts on godspacelight. They often provide an invitation to go deeper into God each day. Karen Wilk’s beautiful poem Fire provides much food for thought and reflection as she weaves together both the comforting, arm aspects of fire and destructive and violent potential. In Freerange Friday: A Gift From The Beginning, guest writer Anya Almgren talks about Godly Play and the creation story. I spent a lot of time reflecting on her quote from Jerome W. Berryman “What is the biggest gift you have ever received? Did you know that there are some presents so big that nobody notices them? They are so huge that they are hard to see. They are so hard to see that the only way to know that they are there is to go clear back to the beginning, or maybe a little before the beginning.” Alex Tang in Eternal Echoes, talks about forgetfulness and the spiritual discipline of spiritual recollection. As he comments: Perhaps this “gift of forgetfulness” is a divine reminder of our utter dependence on God. It’s a humbling realisation, prompting us to lean not on our own understanding but to seek God continually. Last Wednesday, encouraged by my own recounting of the abundance with which God has blessed us in the garden, I wrote a second article for the week Seven Ideas for Coping With Abundance. Surprisingly abundance is often more challenging to cope with than scarcity maybe partly because it calls us beyond individuality to community.
The Godspacelight blog is not the only place where you can interact with the Godspace writing community and find nurture for your soul. In the Godspacelight Community group on Facebook. I often post additional articles of interest I read during the week, June Friesen writes a daily reflection, Alex Tang contributes regularly from his sub stack account, Bob Tribe writes weekly book reviews and Judith Greenfield contributes beautiful contemplative posts from St Martin In The Field. If you are not already a part of this group, I heartily recommend that you join it.
In the upcoming weeks there are lots of important celebrations to make sure you have on your calendars, not the least of these being our celebration of St Francis of Assisi and the Blessing of the Animals that often accompanies this occasion. Halloween and All Saints Day may be a little further away but it is certainly time to consider some responsible and creative ways to approach these. Check out Resources for a Green, Fair Trade and Ethical Halloween and Getting Ready for All Saints Day. And let us know if you have other suggestions for these celebrations.
Another important event coming up in the next few weeks is our Season of Gratitude retreat on October 14th. Gratitude is an incredibly important spiritual practice yet it is one that most of us neglect. What could we transform from unpleasant to enjoyable by a change in attitude? How do we approach the world with gratitude and delight at all times? How do we find joy in the midst of the most challenging situations? These are some of the questions we grapple with as we look ahead to the changing seasons. This promises to be an exciting and fun time of reflection, creativity and discussion. I hope you will join us. https://godspacelight.com/event/a-season-of-gratitude-virtual-retreat/
The seasons are changing,
The dark of winter approaches.
I love the light and its summer brightness,
It illumines my path in a chaotic world.
But I willingly embrace the dark,
For it shows me the stars and the moon.
It grows my roots,
Deep into the soil,
Anchoring my life.
New insights, new awareness,
In the midst of struggle,
Resistance and turmoil give way,
To the spirit of life.
Many blessings
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
by Christine Sine
Last week I read a fascinating article The Image and the Likeness by Justin Coutts of New Eden Ministry. He contends that we are made in the image of God, infused with a seed of the divine presence but that we must then grow into the likeness, the character of God. I was particularly struck by his reminder that the human story begins in goodness. All of creation is proclaimed good, but humanity is not only good but “very good”. He then goes on the quote from the Irish monk Columbanus:
“Moses wrote in the Law, ‘God made man in his own image and likeness.’ Consider, I beg you, the weight of these words: God, the all-powerful, invisible, unfathomable, ineffable, and unsearchable, when making man of clay, ennobled him with the dignity of his image. What does the human race have in common with God? What does earth have in common with spirit? For God is spirit. It is a great honour that God bestowed on men and women the image of his eternity and likeness to his own character.”
As I read this I was overwhelmed by both the responsibility and the wonder of who we are. I am not quite sure what it meant to Columbanus to be made in the image of eternity, but I am intrigued by the thought that we are created to grow into the likeness of God’s character. I love Coutts belief that we are not created complete:
To grow into the likeness of God’s character is the completion of our creation. God has left our creation incomplete on purpose so that we may grow and learn. A new baby is a potential and not a finished product. This incompleteness is a blessing which allows us to not only receive goodness but also bestow it. When we grow into kindness we become like God but when we turn away from kindness we do violence to our own souls.
Coutts words encouraged me to do a spiritual audit. What are the characteristics of God that I most want to grow into? What do I think it means for me to grow into the likeness of God? This has been my focus over the last few days. Not surprisingly 1 Corinthians 13 came to mind as I feel that this is one of the most beautiful statements of the character of God. So I read it several times, slowly, while asking myself “What are the characteristics of God that I feel God is encouraging me to grow into?:
Love is patient; love is kind. Love isn’t envious, doesn’t boast, brag, or strut about. There’s no arrogance in love; 5 it’s never rude, crude, or indecent—it’s not self-absorbed. Love isn’t easily upset. Love doesn’t tally wrongs 6 or celebrate injustice; but truth—yes, truth—is love’s delight! 7 Love puts up with anything and everything that comes along; it trusts, hopes, and endures no matter what. (From Voice Translation)
Loving, just, patient, a lover of truth, hopeful, kind, trusting God, these are the characteristics that I want to reach out and grab hold of. Then my mind moved to other characteristics God is developing in me, ones that I have worked hard to cultivate in my life over the last 30 years in particular. I think these too are essential aspects of the character of God:
Creativity – I did not grow up thinking of myself as a particularly creative person, but God keeps unveiling new places of creative expression in my life. It is an exciting journey of exploration and discovery, of joy and wonder that continues to draw me closer to my loving God. I have discovered my love for rock painting, poetry writing, contemplative garden making and many other creative gifts God planted in my soul and nourished until I allowed them to be revealed.
Compassion – this is not always an easy one to grow into, especially in the world in which we live in which climate change disasters, and the prevalence of war often leave us with a fatigue and resignation towards those who are victims of abuse, injustice and disaster. Maintaining not only an attitude of compassion, but to be willing to reach out with compassionate care to those who are in need of comfort, support and assistance is not easy.
Generosity – I see this as one of the central characteristics of God, one that I continue to learn as I harvest the abundance in the garden each year. God’s economy is one of abundance and generosity – enough for our own needs and an abundance to share. The more generous I am towards others the more God seems to lavish on us to share.
Hospitality – Our God is a hospitable God and invites us to be hospitable too. We see it in the wild produce that grows around us for us to pick – here in the Pacific NW blackberries, salmonberries, elderberries, mushrooms and much more. And God’s invitation to hospitality is not just for us to reach out to people we know, but to strangers and even to creation. God encourages us to welcome all the creatures of this good and beautiful creation through learning to live more sustainably and make room and comfortable habitats for all creatures.
Contemplation and silence – these gifts from God seem to go hand in hand. I love the story of 1 Kings 19 where Elijah is in a cave when God passes by. The Eternal One is not found in the wind or the storm or the earthquake but in the sound of sheer silence or as The Voice calls it a gentle quiet voice in the midst of a calm breeze. Learning to grow into the God who is found in silence and gentle quiet voices continues to be one of the biggest challenges of my spiritual life.
I think my list of Godly characteristics I want to acquire could go on and on. I relish the idea of spending my life growing into the likeness of God. It is a joy, a delight and a huge privilege and responsibility. What do you think? What Godly characteristics do you want to cultivate in your life in order to grow into the likeness of God?
By Karen Wilk
Fire has been in the news a lot these last few months – it has been so destructive and cruel, Yet, in contrast to its devastation, summer also provided many of us the opportunity to enjoy its warmth and flame with friends and neighbours at home or out camping. This poem is an invitation to consider these contradictions.
Fire
Fire
Comfort, warmth
Security, light
A circle of grace in the night
But
In the wild
Fire screaming like a child
Terror, havoc, violent flames
Blazes forests, homes it claims
……….Destroying torching
……….……….everything
Smoke clouding, sky filling,
Time to evacuate, fear instilling
Dear God how could a good thing
Be so bad, so debilitating
Charcoal, black, what could cook,
Soothe, light, draw in
……….is snooked
……….……….In soot
But I love a campfire
With my neighbours, never tire
Sun goes down, starry night we admire
When we’re ‘lucky’ –blessed by an owl
Northern lights, a conversation going deep
We’re together, in the flicker, twilight sweeps
In this we learn, in this we might
Discover that
……….we all can
Burn bright with warming light
……….Or be cruel, and destroy what’s right.
Join Christine Sine on October 14 or watch the recording later. October and November, the season between Canadian Thanksgiving and American Thanksgiving, is gratitude season on Godspacelight. Christine Sine will encourage you to enter into the practice of gratitude in this interactive retreat that will help us enter this season of gratitude with joy and delight in our hearts.
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