Here is this week’s contemplative service with music in the spirit of Taize. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers. And don’t forget that St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle holds a live Taize style service every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 5pm
By Tom Sine author on 2020s Foresight: Three Vital Practices for Thriving in a Decade of Accelerating Change
Prepping for Covid Next & Flu Next
Many of us are grateful that the Pandemic has slowed down a bit as we head into the cooler months. However, a number of publications tell us winter may be waiting to hammer us with yet another new strain of Covid and two more virulent versions of the flu so it is essential we get our booster shots for Covid and booster shots for the flu. We dare not let down our guard as winter rapidly approaches.
Assessing the Impact of Covid Pandemic Past
It is also essential that people of faith join psychologists who are assessing the impact that Covid has already had on people all over the planet in the last two and a half years. “At Talkspace, a platform that offers therapy online, the number of individual active users rose 60 percent from March 2020 to a year later” (Living in a Pandemic May Have Changed People’s Personalities, Christine Chung, NYT, October 24, 2022).
Psychologists and Christian leaders are urging us to wake up to the personal and psychological impacts this long pandemic journey has already had on many of us. They point out that even if we may not have contracted Covid, we have still been hammered by the stress of this long pandemic as well as the impact on loved ones and those in our communities.
Join Those Recovering From Covid Pandemic Past
We encourage all people of faith, including those who have not contracted Covid yet, to assess how you and your family and friends have been changed by living during these very stressful Pandemic Times.
As we rapidly approach winter 2022, we urge small groups in communities of faith all over the planet to join those in Godspace in prepping for winter 2022 by getting your booster shots for the new strains of Covid and your flu shots too. Then join those who are determined to recover from the impact of the first wave of the Covid Pandemic Past!
Step 1. Analyze the negative impact of living in Pandemic Times has had on your lives.
Step 2. Create new innovative ways to take your life back in 2023 and beyond, enabling you to not only reduce the stress but also create a new rhythms of life. Take time to be present with God and create new ways to reach out to our struggling neighbors locally and globally.
Step 3. Reflect on creative ways, as followers of Jesus, to grow your spiritual lives and share how we have been impacted by living in these pandemic times in your personal life and your relationships.
I am a big fan of Generation Next. Pastors know that a growing number of this generation doesn’t affiliate with churches. However few pastors know that Gen Next is the “Good News Generation” because a higher percentage of this generation is concerned about environmental, racial and economic justice than older generations. A high percentage of them also want to invest their lives in serious change making.
Researchshows that Covid has already had a concerning psychological impact on the under 30. “The pandemic itself was a ‘hell of an experiment’, said Dr. Clore, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, theorizing that it may have been the restructuring of routines instead of overall stress that reshapes people’s personalities” (Living in a Pandemic, 2022).
Some people coped with the new stress, exhaustion, frustration of the period by finding a new outlet. “People want to connect and process together and we were not able to do that…People felt really lost because of that”. One of the major impacts on the long Covid season that no one anticipated is that many people under 30 experienced a “disrupted maturity”. Angelina Sutton at Florida State found that that individuals under 30 ”exhibited the sharpest drops conscientiousness and agreeableness”(Living in a Pandemic, 2022). The last thing any of us want to see is Covid undermining the concerns and change making aspirations of this generation.
This provides a unique opportunity not only for churches, but for Christian colleges and important ministries like Intervarsity Christian Fellowship as well to provide counseling to Gen Next to recover from the current Pandemic so they are able to pursue their strong desire to be serious change makers in the turbulent 2020s and beyond.
Are you ready to rekindle the WONDER of the season? Join Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin in this virtual retreat as they walk you through practical and fun activities focused on Advent Wonder. Sign up for 180 days of access to work through enriching discussions and engaging exercises at your own pace. Or give it as a gift! If you have purchased courses from us before or plan on purchasing in bulk, email us for a discount code.
I am a great book lover. I was an English major in college and a language arts teacher once upon a time. I am always looking for books that inspire me. I love it when I discover other people who are book lovers too! Thanks to my work, I have a lot of friends who don’t just love books, they also WRITE THEM! (Like Christine!)
I have a new friend here in Nashville who I want to introduce you to today. BONNIE SMITH WHITEHOUSE is an English professor at Belmont University here in town. She is a kindred spirit! Bonnie’s work, Afoot and Lighthearted – A Journal For Mindful Walking was the book I recommended in the Gifts of a SACRED SUMMER kit/curriculum to help us engage God outside in nature!
AFOOT AND LIGHTHEARTED
I so love it when I find an author who combines their love of God, nature, wonder and experiential practice all in one place!
Bonnie has a new book, Seasons of Wonder – Making the Ordinary Sacred, that comes out this month just in time for advent and holiday shopping. I got mine in the mail yesterday and I am so excited to have a new devotional for ADVENT and one to use as the new year begins! This isn’t just an ordinary devotional. It’s one you can use on your own, with your small group or with your family and friends. It has activities to do together, like making your own pilgrimage walking stick! And for December, reading one of my all time favorites The Best Christmas Pageant Ever out loud. Reading this book has been a Christmas tradition in our family for years so I love that it’s one of Bonnie’s favorites too! Since we are still in November (thankfully!) the theme is POINT TO LOVE. I know that we all can use the reminder from the quote that begins the chapter:
Love is what carries you, for it is always there, even in the dark, or most in the dark. but shining out at times like gold stitches in a piece of embroidery.
– Wendell Berry
POINT TO LOVE
In these crazy times, as the days shorten and darken, we need to look for those gold stitches of love in our lives. I think Bonnie’s new book, SEASONS OF WONDER is a great way to help us do just that!
Already using !
PS, this book is a great addition to your PRACTICE OF WONDER…If you haven’t already, check out Christine Sine’s book The Gift of Wonder- Creative Practices for Delighting in God.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate we receive a small amount for purchases made through the links above. Thank you for supporting Godspacelight in this way.
Next Facebook Live!
Join Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin for a conversation about Celtic Advent and their own practices for the season on Wednesday, November 9th at 9 am PT. Happening live in the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook – but if you can’t catch the live discussion, you can catch up later on YouTube!
As we move closer to the end of the year and the Advent season, the calendar can fill up fast! There are several exciting events coming up at Godspace as well – take a look below for dates and more information.
Facebook Live with Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin
The next Facebook Live is on November 9th, 2022 at 9 am PST (check my timezone). These sessions are free to join if you are part of the Godspace Light Facebook Community Group. Join Lilly and Christine a lively discussion of Celtic Advent and how they celebrate the season.
If you cannot join us live, look for the recording on Christine Sine’s YouTube channel.
Special Facebook Live with Graham Kerr!
We will have a special Facebook Live on Thursday November 17th at 9 am PST (check my timezone) to launch the Godspace Community Cookbook! The cookbook contains recipes and stories from those in our community, and we are thrilled to show the final product to the Godspace community for the first time. Join Graham Kerr and Christine Sine as they introduce the cookbook and share their own experiences with cooking and hospitality.
If you cannot join us live, look for the recording on Christine Sine’s YouTube channel.
Advent Quiet Day
Feeling overwhelmed by the busyness of the holiday season?
Advent is a little longer than usual this year and many of us are also looking for quiet pauses during the season. Join Christine Sine on Saturday, December 3rd for Advent Quiet Day, a morning of scripture reading and quiet reflection that will be for many of us a much needed oasis of quiet in the midst of a chaotic season. This retreat will be LIVE via Zoom from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm PT (check my timezone) but if you are booked already, you can sign up to watch the recording at your convenience after. Standard registration is $39.99, or there are economic hardship/scholarship options as well – sign up HERE!
Epiphany Day: Save the Date
Advent is so busy that this year, the joint retreat with Lilly Lewin and Christine Sine will be later in the season. Save the date for January 7th, when they will host a day-long Epiphany retreat. They will talk about some fun practices for Epiphany as well as reflect on how to prepare for the coming year.
Did you know? Godspace has many resources available for the season of Autumn and the season of Thanksgiving! From harvest helps and reflections, holiday guides, an online retreat, litanies/liturgies, prayers, and more – check it out on our Seasons & Blessings page!
All images and writing by Kate Kennington Steer
Last time I wrote:
[Story] telling [is] an integral part of Justice, making it about recognition and release, celebration and gratitude. Each telling is unique: God’s created world, and peoples, is infinitely, wondrously varied. If the stories of trees and stones are revelatory gospels where Spirit can be read; how much more so might the Spirit pour out, in loud acclamation, from the stories of precious people who currently do not know how to make their voice, their story, their gospel, be heard? … Is offering encouragement to others, urging them to tell their story, an act of justice? Is that small invitation, “tell me about it, show me how it is for you”, only applicable in the end for those with the means (financial, social, educational, emotional, physical, technical etc) to provide themselves with a way to connect to that ultimate citizen-broadcast medium: the world-wide-web? Surely not.
(If you missed the post, you can read it here).
So, now I find I am asking this question: who will carry out this deeply radical act? Who will make time to hear one person’s story today? Isn’t encouraging someone, especially someone who is without whatever means/medium they need to tell their story, to make their story heard a deeply political act? For story-telling is a dangerous act: sharing stories might be how we heal the world. One act of encouragement sparks another, which sparks another, and so on. Such a chain reaction sounds very like how the Kingdom might be built, doesn’t it?
As for my ‘work’, it is rapidly becoming apparent to me that each painting might be an opportunity. Each painting may be an ‘entertaining strangers unaware’ moment; what if an angel disguised as a painting is just waiting to bless the onlooker and to enter into a dialogue with them, releasing them to tell their story in their turn? Blessing one person might be the encouragement they need to tell their story, and hearing that story might be how we heal the world.
Is this so fanciful? Isn’t this exactly what the work of Spirit might do to build kingdom…?
Each story is a guest, just as each body is a guest. So, in that spirit of encouragement, here is a little more of my story:
Since May I have been trying to create a gratitude project around a ‘big’ birthday. I want to raise money for and also to raise the profile of a small charity with a massive impact: creativeresponsearts.org.
Creative Response, working across one small, English county offers a safe haven to those who due to mental health issues, learning difficulties, or physical impairments are in need of finding a place to be. The charity aims to provide a place where ‘vulnerable adults’ might express themselves, to provide a place to receive release and the beginning of healing for old wounds, to provide a place to receive relief, a place where people might know that in this one safe haven they are recognised, heard and seen. Creative Response welcomes each participant and each arts worker beside them, enabling them gradually to be seen in all the splendour of who they are – in fact, as who we all are: as beautiful, precious, wounded, healing souls.
Creative Response has (literally) been a life-saving organisation for me over the last twelve years. Yet I recognise that gaining access to, let alone receiving such precious support is all too often an issue of justice. It is subject to the whims of governments and the prevailing fashion in spending priorities, or postcode lotteries, inaccessible spaces, tech poverty, immigration policies, gender barriers, age limits, NGO aid camps, clean water and sanitation, lack of trained specialist personnel, mental health prejudices, racial prejudices, and gender barriers (to name just a few).
God forgive us, for the list of injustices we inflict on one another in this world is endless, and should be heart-rending. We should grieve for and with all those who feel isolated, misunderstood, abandoned, overlooked, vulnerable and unseen. Yet alongside our righteous anger, our communal lament, there is also a vital need for communal enthusing.
Enthusing one another is surely about sharing our hope; it is about flexing our rejoicing muscles daily. It is about sharing our deep gratitude for what we have been given.
How can I summon up enough energy to be enthusiastic enough, to encourage another person to tell their story? Can I be enthusiastic about listening? Can I be enthusiastic about telling my own testimony of gratitude? Can my enthusiasm be the release valve which encourages one other person to look for hope around them? Can my own determination to keep looking with paintbrush or camera in hand be the means of releasing one other person from what binds them and keeps them silent? Can my paltry offerings really be made by the Spirit into the means of showing one other person how to pause, how to see where they might find their hope, most especially when all else feels at its most desolate?
This is my passion, and my passionate prayer. I can do none of it under my own steam. With the power of the I AM behind me? All is possible. So let me encourage you to be encouragers: pausing to look for the possible. Share your own ways and means of threading a thriving belief in hope through all that is unjust and without peace in our world. With your own story of thanksgiving heart-rooted deep within, may you begin encouraging the ones around you whom no one has bothered to encourage before.
We all need the Wholeness of God…this resource includes reflections and activities for coping and thriving during the COVID-19 challenges in search of shalom as well as hope for restoration during and after this period of social distancing.
Last Wednesday during a Godspace Facebook Live event, Lisa Sands Scandrette and Mark Scandrette shared about their recent pilgrimage experiences in Europe. Lisa walked St Cuthberts Way in Northumbria and then attended the Shetland Island Wool Festival, while Mark walked the Camino de Santiago in Portugal. Both had wonderful experiences and insight into pilgrimage and their own travels. Their pilgrimage blessings follow:
Lisa’s Pilgrimage Prayer
May you connect deeply with this place as you journey.
May those who come before you inspire you to continue their best work and longings.
May you know strength and agency in your body–your legs, your hands, your mind, your heart.
May spaciousness fill your heart, soul and mind.
May God be in every step, every creature, every piece of wool that runs through your fingers.
May you hear God’s invitational whisper each day in wind, waves, the jubilations of birds.
May you recognize the face of God in your fellow travelers–hosts, passers by, new friends.
May your hands be open to give and receive the abundance this day offers.
May you create quiet to sit, to settle, to notice, to reflect, to contemplate.
May you see, hear, taste, touch, smell–experience the hospitality of God at each turn.
May you find companionship with yourself, emerging stronger, more beautiful, more truly you.
May you have courage to explore your curiosity and engage in the new and unknown.
May you clothe yourself in beauty.
May you revel in the connection of co-creation, mindful of the thread that leads you back to the source of all things.
Mark’s Pilgrim Prayer
Watch the sunrise
Walk in the light of the Divine
Want love, joy, peace, mercy and justice.
Seek wisdom
Tell the truth
Create beauty
Love courageously
Watch the sun set
Die to the small separated self
Eat and drink,
laugh and cry
Listen and tell stories with a grateful, undivided heart
Sleep in peace
Dream of a new world
Awaken to eternal life
The full recording of their conversation with Christine on Wednesday can be found below or on here on Christine’s YouTube channel.
Feeling overwhelmed this holiday season? Make space for a moment of peace on December 3rd for Advent Quiet Day. Join Christine Sine for a morning of scripture reading and quiet reflection to pause and reflect during the busy Advent season. This retreat will be LIVE via zoom from 9:30 am PT to 12:30 pm PT. Click here for more details or to sign up!
As you know October and November form my gratitude season and each year I work to intentionally create gratitude practices that draw me into the presence of God and remind me of the many blessings in my life. I created my gratitude garden a few weeks ago and it provides a great focus for my morning reflections, but as American Thanksgiving approaches I find myself seeking for something more. More than anything I need practices that make me feel a little more intentional about this season of thanksgiving.
Gratitude pumpkin
On Friday evening we painted gratitude pumpkins with our community members. I originally planned to paint leaves. Unfortunately autumn was so slow in coming this year that I couldn’t gather enough leaves to paint. Hence the gratitude pumpkins. It was a fun evening with some serious reflection on gratitude as well. Part of what it made me realize is that I often need fun to ignite my gratitude.
Painting gratitude pumpkins
Another practice I reinstituted this year is a gratitude scavenger hunt. This is adapted from the exercise at the end of the gratitude chapter in The Gift of Wonder. I will focus on a new arena of my life every few days and will hunt for new items that I am grateful for. I think it this a great preparation for the end of the year and our celebration of Christmas. Will you join me and celebrate this important season together?
Here is what I invite you to do.
What Will You Need?
Get yourself a gratitude journal. I like an 8 x 11 1/2 sketch book like this Wirebound, Pentalic Sketch Book, or if you want to do something a little more special, permanent, and decorative you might like to try this Vintage Hardcover Three-Ring Binder .
Get a stack of Post it notes or small cards to label what you are grateful for.
Gather some decorative pens, pencils or crayons. I love paint pens which I think are perfect for the vintage hardcover binder but colored markers will also work and are cheaper. Be aware that they might bleed through sketch pad pages though. The paint pens seem expensive up front but I use them for painting rocks, leaves, and wood so they are lots of fun to have around and seem to last for years. Make sure you get ones that are not water based. I learned by experience that the colours in these run when you spray them with Mod podge or similar acrylic glue.
Gather some magazines and photos that will help you make a collage of your weekly gratitudes.
Get a glue stick. If you like to do craft projects or have a kid who does you probably already have this around the house. Otherwise get the cheapest one you can find as you will only need a little or if you belong to a buy nothing group see if someone has one they no longer need.
What Will You Do?
Read through the chapter on cultivating gratitude in The Gift of Wonder. I have just re-read this in preparation for my own season of gratitude and I hope you don’t mind me tooting my horn a little but I really do think it is an excellent start to our gratitude season.
Set aside time once a week for your gratitude reflection. This is the scavenger hunt part. Over the next few weeks we will work through the different parts of your life hunting for and in some cases uncovering the things you are grateful for. Quickly write each item on a post it note.
Write in your journal. In large letters at the top of a fresh page write Ten things I am grateful for in my… (prompts to follow). Make your list, writing each item in a different color and follow it with a sentence that describes what your life would be like without that item. You might like to break this up through the week and do 2 items for each day of the week.
Set aside another block of time for your creative exercise. You might like to create a collage, write a prayer, create a wreath or write a song.
Sunday is my gratitude day. I usually block off half an hour or more to think about what I am grateful for, but for the next couple of months I plan to spend more time on both the gratitude gathering exercise and the recording exercise. I am not sure how this will work with my busy travel schedule over this time period but I am sure that I can make something work.
Weekly Prompts
Some of the prompts are fairly generic and can be used every week so choose from these and then apply the specific prompts below. Or if other ideas come to mind use those instead (and share them with us for future gratitude seasons).
- Name someone that makes your life better.
- Name something you are particularly proud of.
- What makes you laugh?
- What are you grateful for that you would like to share with someone else?
- What is something unique that you are grateful for?
- Find something that makes you feel safe.
- Find something that makes a beautiful sound.
- What is something unusual you are grateful for?
- Name one beautiful thing you are grateful for.
- What recent lesson are you grateful for?
Week 1 – Gratitude for your life.
- Name an experience from your life you are particularly proud of.
- What or who has made you want to laugh this week?
- What is one talent you are grateful for?
- What is one thing about your body you are grateful for?
Week 2 – Gratitude for your family.
- Name your favourite childhood memory.
- Name a special attribute of a family member you are grateful for.
- One thing you recently learnt about a family member that you are grateful for.
- One way God has blessed your family that you are grateful for.
Week 3 – Gratitude for your friends.
- Name one friend who makes you laugh.
- One thing you have learned from friends that makes you feel special.
- One way your friends have helped you grow.
- Name the friends who have stuck with you through good times and bad.
Week 4 – Gratitude for your home.
- Describe something that smells amazing.
- Think of something you used today that you tend to take for granted that you are grateful for.
- One thing that represents your culture that you are grateful for.
- One thing with words on it that you are grateful for.
Week 5 – Gratitude for your workplace.
- Name one person who makes you smile.
- One aspect of your work you are particularly grateful for.
- Name one lesson you learned this week that you are grateful for.
- Name one characteristic of your workplace you are grateful for.
Week 6 – Gratitude for your community.
- Name one of your neighbors you are grateful for.
- Describe one aspect of your community you are grateful for.
- What is your favourite community site that you are grateful for.
- What is one thing about your community that makes you feel strong.
Week 7 – Gratitude for your place of worship.
- What is one thing about your place of worship that you are grateful for?
- What is one thing about your faith community that encourages you?
- Name one place in your place of worship that makes you feel close to God?
- Name one thing in your place of worship that shows a vibrant color you love.
Week 8 – Gratitude for nature.
- What is one of your favourite beautiful places?
- What is one particularly good taste for you.
- What about the current season are you grateful for?
- What place in nature of gives you rest?
Once you have written your lists take time to reflect on what you have written. Allow the Holy Spirit to reach deep into your soul and bring a response. Decorate your list. Create a collage from appropriate magazine images and photos. Write a prayer or a song. Paint a picture. Whatever rises up within you, DO IT.
P.S. You might also like to check out Ten Tips for Expressing Gratitude.
NOTE: As an Amazon Associate I receive a small amount for purchases made through appropriate links. Thank you for supporting Godspace in this way.
It’s almost time to get those jingle bells ringing – let Godspace be a resource to you as you prepare! We offer many devotionals, gifts, prayer cards, free downloads, retreats, and more. Check it out in our shop under the category of Advent! You will also find many resources for Celtic Advent, traditional Advent, and Christmas under our resource page Advent, Christmas, New Years & Epiphany
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!