Olympic mountain view
It is the beginning of a new year 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. We eagerly make resolutions about what to eat, when to pray and how to live, knowing that most of these will be discarded before the month is out. Sitting here looking out my office window at the beautiful snow covered Olympic mountains, it is not hard for me to believe that this year holds incredible new possibilities. But I know that by the end of summer the snow will be gone and the hope and promise they offered may be gone too. So how do we make resolutions that stick?
For Tom and I, our refocusing prayer retreats which we take every three months are an important part of our yearly rhythm which helps keep us on the path we believe God wants us to follow. The end of year retreat we have just returned from was no exception.
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 would 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 use each week in our team meetings. As you can imagine, how we prepare for the new year is a common theme for me at this time of the year. Next week I will share some of the insights I have gained from reading Parker Palmer’s book A Hidden Wholeness but today wanted to repost a revised version of the spiritual audit I have used for years to help me rethink my spiritual journey.
Look back over the last week or month
- Consolations: what has life gaining and deepened your sense of connection to God?
- Desolations: what has been life draining and made you lose that sense of intimacy with God?
- How is God speaking to you through this?
- What are the major pressures in your life? Where do you think the pressure comes from and what are the underlying causes?
- How do these affect your spiritual well being?
- In what ways could they be harnessed so that your heart could be broken open to new possibilities for a better future?
- What daily and weekly events set the rhythm for your life? Which of these contribute to your spiritual well being and which distract from it?
How well are you maintaining your spiritual life:
- What gives you joy in your spiritual journey at present?
- Where do you sense God is currently at work in your transformation? What would give God the most opportunity to continue that work?
- What do you do on a regular basis to nurture your spiritual life?
- What are the major distractions that interfere with regular spiritual disciplines?
How has God spoken to you in the last week:
- through prayer
- through scripture
- through the needs of others
- through the words of others
- through other means
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?
You may also like to revisit some of the other posts I have written in past years that address some of these issues.
Leading Spiritually – A Series on Leading with Discernment
Welcoming the New Year – What Do We Expect?
Tools for Prayer – Moving Beyond Chronic Randomness to Intentionality
Good Samaritan by He Qi
Today on the liturgical calendar, is the day we celebrate the circumcision of Christ. Since our cultures are more squeamish than were those of our ancestors, modern calendars usually list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Just like every Jewish boy, Jesus as circumcised and formally named on the eighth day of his life, and so, one week after Christmas, while we are still celebrating the wonder and the joy of the Saviour who came to dwell amongst us, we celebrate this occasion In Jesus day, a name was far more important than it tends to be today. Introducing a person just about gave you their whole genealogy and sometimes even reflected their personality.
As a celebration of then naming of Jesus why not get together with a group of friends for a party maybe not today but after those New Year hangovers have settled. This could be a good way to shake off those post Christmas blues. Bring a name book with you. Look up the names of each person in your group and discuss their meanings. Get each person to share the story of why they were given that name. Then ask the question: In what ways does your name reflect the call that God has placed on your life? Some of you may like to consider a new name that reflects what you believe is God’s call on your life. One friend of mine changed his name from Bill to Will because he felt it better reflected his desire to use his life “doing the will of God.”
Next spend time discussing the names of Jesus. Get each person to write down the names that they remember as being applied to Jesus in the Scriptures. You might like to have a competition to see who can think of the most names. Or you could write a poem or song that reflects these names. End your time with a discussion about how you could represent these different aspects of who Jesus can be to those who live around you.
Names matter. What we call Jesus matters. If we see him as Lord it can imply a distant and unapproachable God who is unconcerned for human suffering. If we call him servant, we see him down in the dirty places of our world and we want to join him. I have written about this previously in the post: Sometimes I want to Call God Mother. Think about it for a few minutes and then listen to this powerful 5 minute sermon by Rev SM Lockridge entitled That’s My King.
Or you might like to use this liturgy to reflect on:
Thank you for making this year the best ever on Godspace. The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 260,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 5 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
Click here to see the complete report.
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God as this new year dawns,
May we take time to see the newness you are giving birth to.
May we not be blinded by the darkness that consumes our world.
Or consumed by the fear that paralyzes our actions.
May we remember,
That out of winter’s darkness you bring forth light,
That out of winter’s death you give birth to new life.
May we remember,
That which has been dormant will spring to life,
That which has been pruned will sprout new strength.
May we remember,
You are the light by which we see,
You are the fountain that gives us life.
God as this new year emerges,
May we give birth to that which honours you,
May we bring to life that which allows your goodness to shine,
May we give fresh expression to your eternal world,
And in the depths of our hearts may we cry,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Amen
Catalogues galore
I mentioned yesterday that the seed catalogues have started to arrive. This is a great time to curl up by the fire and drool over all those wonderful photos in the seed catalogues that in your saner moments you know won’t grow in your climate zone but which you just can’t resist when it is too cold to grow anything. This year I have done some research on who owns our seed companies and which we can trust to have organic non GM seed.
I always like to buy from those companies that specialize in heritage and organic seed like:
or those that are based in the local Washington area
I also cannot resist a couple of big company catalogues like the English classic Thompson and Morgan and Park Seeds which have products I can’t seem to find anywhere else.
Unfortunately I discovered recently that many of my favourite companies are owned by Monsanto or Mars.
Seeds of Change – I love their seeds but someone told me recently that they are owned by MARS incorporated, one of the largest food conglomerates in the world. So though Seeds of Change itself provides ethical seed, non GM products, its parent company has a different philosophy. As Tim Stanton who alerted me to this commented: They present themselves as a warm, inviting, environmentally conscious company, but Seeds of Change has a money-hungry corporate core. Tim goes on to say:
Even though Seeds of Change signed the safe seeds pledge (pledging to not sell genetically modified seed), Mars. Inc. spent almost 400k to defeat Prop 37 (which would have required the simple labeling of GM food so PEOPLE could make informed choices). Seeds of Change had been a New Mexico based company since the beginning (since it started out small and independent) but Mars uprooted it from original place of operations in New Mexico and moved it to Los Angeles, leaving almost their entire faithful New Mexico crew jobless. They even abandoned their warehouse cats in the process –
So if you want to get away from any seed company that is associated with Monsanto, here is a very helpful list that documents some of the companies owned by Monsanto who may be using GM food. Unfortunately I notice some of my other favourites (including ones listed above) are on the list. It also contains a list of those that sell safe seed even though they have not signed the safe seed pledge.
So you may also want to check out this link to where you can research seed companies that have signed the Safe Seed Pledge,
I would love to hear your comments on this. How do we decide which seeds to use? Should we be concerned about who owns the seed companies?
If you are like me, and you live in the Northern Hemisphere, now that Christmas is over, you are probably dying to get out into the garden even though here is snow on the ground. And the seed catalogues that start arriving the moment the Christmas frenzy is over certainly don’t help. So if you can’t get outside (or even if you can but just don’t want to go sloshing through the rain and mud, here are a couple of websites that you might like to check out to at least to give you the feel of being outside. They are great planning tools.
BBC’s Virtual Garden – it has a fun 3D function on the site and is free
Kitchen Garden Planner – part of the gardener’s supply website which is one of my favourite places to look for seed starter supplies and self watering pots. This is also free.
Better Homes and gardens also has this free planner – not so helpful for vegetables though.
Plangarden.com This website has some great hints for gardening on it. The garden design function costs $20/year
I really like the look of this garden planner that Mother Earth provides. It does cost $25/year after the first month’s free trial (which I am about to try) but it looks far better than the rather limited free versions above and I am always ready to pay for good advice.
Over the last few days there have been some beautiful prayers posted on the Light for the Journey Facebook page. I have also added the last of the Advent prayers which have not been posted yet. Enjoy
The light of the Christmas star to you.
The warmth of home and hearth to you.
The cheer and goodwill of friends to you.
The hope of childlike heart to you.
The joy of a thousand angels to you.
The love of the Son and God’s peace to you.
— Irish Blessing
You call us to be messengers
announcing the news
that your kingdom is here;
not in some faraway place
or heavenly space, but here
where we live and breathe
in the presence of Christ our King.
Here, where the sick are healed
and broken lives made whole,
Here, where your children serve
and love is shared with all.
Here, where you rule in power
and sin cannot control.
Here, where your people meet
responding to your call.
You call us to be messengers
announcing the news
that your kingdom is here
just waiting to be found!
This Advent-time
we remember Mary and Joseph,
giving thanks for their faithfulness,
courage and obedience,
stepping out into the unknown
in the strength of your Spirit,
playing their part
in the fulfilment of your plan
to bring your prodigal people
home again.
We pray that their example
might be the pattern of our lives,
that when your gentle whisper
breaks through the clamour of this world
and into our small corner,
we might be ready to listen,
and having listened, to act.
This Advent-time
we remember Mary and Joseph,
giving thanks for their faithfulness,
courage and obedience,
stepping out into the unknown
in the strength of your Spirit,
playing their part
in the fulfilment of your plan
to bring your prodigal people
home again.
We pray that their example
might be the pattern of our lives,
that when your gentle whisper
breaks through the clamour of this world
and into our small corner,
we might be ready to listen,
and having listened, to act.
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