by Tom Sine
“Resolutions That Are Good for the Soul” is a very encouraging read by Rev. Tish Harrison Warren published in the New York Times on January 4, 2023. She begins: “I love the intentionality and the thoughtfulness required to make a resolution.” She explains that she is personally drawn to resolutions that “provide the grace to try new things.” Warren contests that “The point of resolutions shouldn’t be to add another task to our busy lives…The point is that renewal is always possible, and with grace we can all try new things:we can continue to grow and change.”
Rev. Tish Harrison Warren invited a few other authors to join her in this commentary about creating resolutions for this new year. I will also include two of my favorites.
Begin the day reading about faith
“I am going to use New Year’s to try and bring the practice of beginning the day with a physical book about faith into my everyday life.”
Eboo Patel, founder and president of Interfaith America
Confront your sorrow.
“I love how ‘courage’ derives from the Latin word for ‘heart’. In the coming year, I want to courageously acknowledge specific ways in which my heart has been broken – by people, by racism, bu institutions and even by God- so that I can pursue the healing I need. If we want to be agents of healing to our hurting world, we must courageously and continuously pursue the healing of our own hearts.”
Rev. Michelle T. Sanchez, author of “Color-Courageous Discipleship” and “God’s Beloved Community“
I would like to suggest some other resolutions followers of Jesus might consider. In 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change, I pointed out that one of the most serious blind spots in many of our churches is that most of us tend to operate like “it will always be the 90s”. As a consequence, most of our churches and those we serve locally and globally tend to get hammered by change more than they should!
I also point out that urban planers and environmental planners are trained to not only anticipate new waves of change but aggressively research innovative ways to respond before the waves of change before they fully arrive. 2020s Foresight is designed as a study book to enable groups in churches to become more foresightful and more innovative.
Christianity Today reports the recent waves of change from the first waves of Covid have been devastating for many churches. According to the Barna group, one in three practicing Christians stopped attending church during COVID; and regular church attendance dropped “from 34% in 2019 to 28% in 2021” (Here’s Who Stopped Going to Church During the Pandemic, Wang & Elhage, 2023). Church leaders need to not only be concerned about declining numbers in our churches. We also need to share the extent to which our declining attendance is impacting volunteering and giving in our churches. How can we empower our neighbors locally and globally, many of whom will continue to hammered by new waves of covid as well as accelerating waves of climate change in 2023 and beyond?
I invite you to consider adopting some new years resolutions like:
Resolving in 2023 to attend a church where you feel safe.
Christine and I attend Seattle Mennonite where they voted to to maintain a mask policy to significantly reducing the risk of contracting covid as well as provide a video option. As a consequence this church has experienced very little decline in attendance and outreach..
Resolving in 2023 to increase the giving of our time and resources to significantly increase the well being of families both locally and globally as our vulnerable neighbors face daunting new challenges.
Resolving in 2023 to carve out time to be present to God in daily reflection on Scripture and prayer in increasingly turbulent tomorrows.
Resolving in 2023 to join innovative leaders in our churches who are learning to anticipate and creatively respond to the new waves coming our way in 2023 and beyond.. We have the opportunity to join those who are creatng innovative ways to both be a difference and make a difference.
For those who are interested I am available by Zoom or in person to enable those in your community to learn new ways to both anticipate and creatively respond to new waves of change that reflect the ways of Jesus. Contact me Tom Sine twsine@gmail.com
We begin a NEW SEASON of the church year today! It’s Epiphany! We celebrate the Light, Jesus, coming into all the World, for ALL THE WORLD, for EVERYONE!!! This Saturday, January 7th is Orthodox Christmas. I love both because we can keep the celebration going longer and we can retell the story of God with us again. This is especially good for those of us who felt like December 25th got here much too quickly this year or if you missed the celebration due to weather and travel messiness. So Happy Christmas and Happy Epiphany!
I love new beginnings! But I believe that before we can go forward, we need to look back and consider where we’ve been. This helps us notice what God has been up to in our life and encourages us to pay attention going forward. Below is a meditation you can do on your own, or with your family, church community or small group. I’ve included a PDF at the end that includes several photos of doors to use to consider what door you might need for the year ahead. At thinplace house church this week, we began our time together with a lectio divina listening to Revelation 3: 18-22 in three translations
“Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors!
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.”
After listening to the passage, we considered the doors and what Jesus is I have always loved doors! So I take photos of them when I travel. You might start a collection of doors in your neighborhood or on your adventures in the new year to remind you of the God who opens doors!
OPENING THE DOOR
MEDITATION
OPENING THE DOOR to the NEW YEAR
Crossing the threshold into what God has in store for You!
Consider this past year .
Where have you been?
How was your journey?
Was it a season of open doors or closed doors?
Was it a season of slammed doors or one of doors opened in invitation?
Talk to Jesus about this. Take some time.
What kind of door represents your last year?
Closed Doors?
Open Doors?
As you approach and cross the threshold, and as you open the door to the New Year, what do you need to leave behind?
What do you need to drop?
What do you need to drop or leave behind so you can follow more closely to Jesus?
Author CS Lewis says that you cannot receive the new gifts God wants to give you if your hands are filled with too many packages.
Are you carrying too many packages today?
What packages do you need to drop or let go of? Talk to God about this.
Allow Jesus to show you what you need to put down and what you need to let go of in order to move through the new door of the New Year.
Are you carrying too many packages?
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT OUT THESE PDFS of DOORS
DOORS A PDF.. DOORS B PDF DOORS C PDF
What is God’s Invitation?
Which door inspires you?
What is the invitation?
Which door is being opened for you?
What Is Jesus inviting you to in the New Year?
Choose a door from the PDFs
You might cut out the door and carry it with you to consider how you can open the door to Jesus this year.
Watch for NEW DOORS
As you open doors in your house, going in and out, or opening closet doors or doors at a shop/store…consider the doors Jesus is opening for you. Consider and ask Jesus to open new doors of creativity, hope, inspiration, joy, compassion for you in the New Year! Watch for NEW DOORS!
I will give him the key to the house of David–the highest position in the royal court. When he opens doors, no one will be able to close them; when he closes doors, no one will be able to open them. Isaiah 22:22
Dear Godspace community,
The Following the Star retreat with Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine is only a few days away but there is still time to sign up.
Here are three reasons to attend:
- Resolutions usually fail in the first month of a new year, but intentions can stay with us throughout the year. This will be part of the focus of this retreat.
- We need creative prompts like Lilly and Christine provide to stir our imaginations and help us discern the path ahead. God often speaks through this type of exercise.
- We need a community of like minded people who help us to shape our dreams and hopes for the future. Through interaction with both Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine as well as other retreat participants, you will find the community you need to make this happen.
Please register here and join us online January 7th for this fun retreat. Hope you can join us!
O God, you trace my journeys and my resting-places and are acquainted with all my ways.Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, but you, O God, know it altogether.You press upon me behind and before and lay your hand upon me.Where can I go then from your Spirit; where can I flee from your presence?Even there your hand will lead me and your right hand hold me fast.– The Saint Helena Psalter Version
Following The Star Into the New Year
In January we celebrate Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. Like them, many of us feel we are on a long journey following a star that is sometimes bright and shining, sometimes completely hidden yet still guiding us towards Christ. 2022 taught us important lessons that will shape the coming year. We sense God wants to do something new in our lives and we want to follow in the right direction.
Join Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine online Saturday, January 7th 2023 from 9:30 am PT to 12:30pm PT as they help us reflect on the past year and take time to hope, dream and pray for the year ahead. We will engage in some fun practices like chalking the door and interact with each other in ways that strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship.
by Ron Friesen
Have you ever seen a large jar of water with some lemons floating in it? I see it most often in local restaurants in Arizona. I learned this is called “lemon-infused water.” I have since learned that you can order “Cucumber-infused Lemonade” and “Pricky Pear-Infused Lemonade.”
Thinking about infused beverages reminded me of a verse in the Bible: “27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27 NIV).
“Christ in you.” (Pause and reflect – CHRIST……IN……..Me…..)
CHRIST in you. This Christ who is living in us is the Christ who is indwelt with the all the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 1:19), a fullness that has existed from eternity past and will continue to exist into the eternal future. Most importantly, it is a fullness that exists in us right now, an Eternal Now existence and experience.
Christ is IN us. The Christ IN us is ‘the hope of glory.” It is tempting to think of this hope as purely a future hope fulfilled at the final resurrection of our bodies. Some Bible scholars suggest this understanding of the hope of glory. What if we thought of living a life filled with all the potentiality that exists in the fulness of God in us? Many Christians call this “the Spirit-filled life.” If the fullness of the Godhead exists in the Christ who is in us, then, accepting the truth that the Spirit of God resides in us is a good start to thinking about Christ IN us.
Christ is US. When we think about a God-infused life we might think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who worked among those dying on the streets of her city. Or we might think of E. Stanley Jones, the Methodist missionary in India who courageously led Bible Studies under the watchful eyes of secret service agents of the British government. He remarked that the Gospel was so dangerous that its proclamation had to be supervised! Or we might think of the courageous Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church who, after the invasion of his country, said, “I’m not a military strategist or politician, but I assure you if we pray, if we trust in the Lord, if we look at the example of martyrs of the past and these days, we will find the answers to keep moving forward.” In the United States, there are many courageously going to our streets to feed and care for the homeless. One of them is my friend, Terri, who while dealing with a husband with brain cancer, went out each morning with her truck filled with food, blanket and clothes provide for those living under bridges and in drainage ditches. Though Terri’s husband died recently, she continues to go out each morning with her heart filled with the Christ who is in her and her truck filled with supplies.
Reading these examples, we might say, “I am no Mother Teresa or E. Stanley Jones, Archbishop Borys Gudziak or Terri.” These people only come to our attention because they faithfully lived God-infused lives which draws our attention. Each was faithful to the small task before them filled with the knowledge of “Christ in me is the hope of glory.” Their lives remind us that God always equips the called to whatever task before them. If promotion comes or recognition is received, it is only because God promotes and God honors.
You may be the widow carrying for a disabled child, the single father raising four children, the recovering drug addict who continues to battle with the scars left by years of addiction, the teenager who struggles with an abusive living situation, the businessperson who is watching their income decrease as costs rise and customers need to make careful choices as inflation causes them to review how they spend their money. Whoever we are and wherever we are, we can demonstrate that the God-infused life is the “Christ-in-me, the hope of glory” is a present-day reality.
What will our God-infused life look like in 2023?
Writing by Ronald Friesen © 2022 and photos by June Friesen
Following The Star Into the New Year
In January we celebrate Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. Like them, many of us feel we are on a long journey following a star that is sometimes bright and shining, sometimes completely hidden yet still guiding us towards Christ. 2022 taught us important lessons that will shape the coming year. We sense God wants to do something new in our lives and we want to follow in the right direction.
Join Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine online Saturday, January 7th 2023 from 9:30 am PT to 12:30pm PT as they help us reflect on the past year and take time to hope, dream and pray for the year ahead. We will engage in some fun practices like chalking the door and interact with each other in ways that strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship.
Rainer Maria Rilke – The Book of Hours
by June Friesen
As I have been preparing myself for the ending of 2022 I have contemplated the things I have done, the memories I have made that I treasure, and the memories made that I may not treasure so much. In recent times it is hard sometimes to believe all the things one has experienced as real. It can also be rather daunting to think about the things that may be in the future. When Jesus was with His disciples He no doubt realized that He had a very brief time to impart to them Who He really was and what it was that He was really going to do for the benefit of all of humanity. I contemplated what it might be that many if not most of us would like to embrace and hold close in the year ahead of us. And I was reminded of the words of Jesus in John 14 as He was preparing the disciples for the time when He would no longer be visibly with them. I begin with verse 23 as for me it really describes our world today.
John 14:24-27 23-24 “Because a loveless world,” said Jesus, “is a sightless world. If anyone loves me, he will carefully keep my word and my Father will love him—we’ll move right into the neighborhood! Not loving me means not keeping my words. The message you are hearing isn’t mine. It’s the message of the Father who sent me.
25-27 “I’m telling you these things while I’m still living with you. The Friend, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send at my request, will make everything plain to you. He will remind you of all the things I have told you. I’m leaving you well and whole. That’s my parting gift to you. Peace. I don’t leave you the way you’re used to being left—feeling abandoned, bereft. So don’t be upset. Don’t be distraught.
Yes, Jesus realized that the disciples would no doubt be rather puzzled, bereft and fearful the moment His physical presence would no longer be with them – there would only be a spiritual presence, the kind that you and I have in today’s world. So He assured them they would not be altogether alone but rather His spiritual presence would continue with them through the Holy Spirit. That Spirit is also the Spirit that lives here in this atmosphere, around us and within us trying to reassure us that God cares and He is what we need to know real love, joy and peace. So for you and I today I offer these words which kind of share the struggle we may find at times in our spirits. I will give a gift/exercise at the end that will allow God to endue you with a fresh presence of His Spirit.
The Gift of Peace
Peace?
What is this thing that you are talking about?
Peace – you tell me that there is to be a quietness?
Where is it that you find this quietness?
Certainly it is no where in this world –
Look at all the loneliness –
Look at all the sadness –
See all the tear-stained faces –
Never mind the tears still rolling down many faces.
Look at all the chaos –
Look at all the confusion –
See the people running to and fro –
Wondering where they should go.
Look at all the frustration –
Look at all the franticness –
People crashing and clashing –
People dashing and bashing.
Look at all the running
Hither and thither
Here and there
Directionless it seems.
Sirens are wailing from time to time –
Fighter planes practice flights overhead –
Crisis noises arising when one least expects it –
Oh Lord – I ask, “Where is peace?”
Certainly this world seems to be lacking
Peacefulness in many avenues –
So is it really possible to actually
Embrace and/or create some peace.
Or is it that peace is defined differently
By God and humanity –
Does God have one definition in His plan
And humanity has yet to truly know His plan.
The struggle of peace –
The confusion of peace –
The presence of peace –
The gift of peace – ……
The struggle of peace in this world is for sure real
As everywhere one looks even outside one’s own door
There is pain of all kinds –
Someone has lost a loved one, a job, or their ability to care for themselves,
There is pain of all kinds –
Loneliness, dementia, terminal illness, and more –
Yes, the pain faced in this world is real.
Someone has lost their home –
Shelter for themselves and family is impossible
As their paycheck or social security does not meet the bills.
Another has lost their health
And is unable to care for their daily needs –
Where does one go as all facilities are so expensive –
And so they wander the streets in a daze.
Another has lost a loved one tragically –
Doesn’t really want to live another day –
Painful sobs rack their body
As the tears seem to flow unceasingly.
So I ask – where oh where is this gift of peace?
And- how do you define this gift of peace?
And if our definitions are different –
How is it possible that we can both have peace?
Let me share a few thoughts on peace –
Peaceful is the night when all is quiet
The stars are twinkling
The moon is shining
And one can hear their own heart beat.
Peaceful is the night when there is safety –
No sirens or loud crashes –
No screams or clashes of voices –
Peace is in caring so others are not hurt and broken.
Peaceful is the night when there is
No growling empty stomachs –
No forlorn and empty eyes staring –
Peace is seeking to find help for the needy.
Peace is the night when there is sharing –
Reaching out a hand to comfort –
Reaching out to dry a tear –
Embracing another with a warm, peaceful embrace.
Yes, peace is definitely an almost forgotten gift in the world today –
There is so much clamor for the things that this world offers at this time –
The gifts, the parties, the gatherings, the festivities and so much more
And in the hearts of most the peace is often obscured and sadly in many even forgotten.
In the moment right now – what are you thinking?
Where do you find yourself?
Centered on yourself and what is important to you today?
Or will you be focused on others to help them have a better day?
Today I offer to you an opportunity to make a choice –
Yes, I am going to encourage each of us to take a moment or two
To ponder and maybe even realize that peace has somehow
Gone away in the craziness – or at least gotten lost for the moment.
Take a moment right now –
Sit down or just relax standing where you are –
Breathe and feel the breath enter your body –
Stop – hold that breath
And imagine it coursing through your lungs
And out into your arms and legs
And into your fingers and toes –
Now – it has nurtured your body once more with life energy.
Now – exhale slowly –
Imagine the air returning from your fingertips and toes –
Through your feet and your hands
Into your legs and your arms
Back into your lungs and out into the world –
And in that moment say
“God grant peace to all”
Amen.
(repeat this exercise as often as needed throughout your day, week and/or year)
All writing and photos by June Friesen. Scriptures is from The Message Translation.
Following The Star Into the New Year
In January we celebrate Epiphany and the coming of the Magi to visit Jesus. Like them, many of us feel we are on a long journey following a star that is sometimes bright and shining, sometimes completely hidden yet still guiding us towards Christ. 2022 taught us important lessons that will shape the coming year. We sense God wants to do something new in our lives and we want to follow in the right direction.
Join Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine online Saturday, January 7th 2023 from 9:30 am PT to 12:30pm PT as they help us reflect on the past year and take time to hope, dream and pray for the year ahead. We will engage in some fun practices like chalking the door and interact with each other in ways that strengthen our faith and draw us closer to God.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship.
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