Friday Reflections, August 24, 2012

Today's reflection is a brief excerpt from Richard Rohr about silence, and it is moving me deeply.

Silence is the language of God, and the only language deep enough to absorb all the contradictions and failures that we are holding against ourselves. God loves us silently, because God has no case to make against us. Silent communion absorbs our self-hatred, as every lover knows.
(Richard Rohr -Adapted from Simplicity, p. 97)

Friday Reflections, August 10, 2012

Another challenging reflection from Henri Nouwen today:


A Window on Our Spiritual Lives

Even though our emotional and spiritual lives are distinct, they do influence one another profoundly.  Our feelings often give us a window on our spiritual journeys.  When we cannot let go of jealousy, we may wonder if we are in touch with the Spirit in us that cries out "Abba."  When we feel very peaceful and "centered," we may come to realise that this is a sign of our deep awareness of our belovedness.

Likewise our prayer lives, lived as faithful response to the presence of the Spirit within us, may open a window on our emotions, feelings, and passions and give us some indication of how to put them into the service of our long journey into the heart of God.

Friday Reflections, August 3, 2012

Today's reflection is once again from Henri Nouwen...


Bridging the Gap Between People

To become neighbours is to bridge the gap between people.  As long as there is distance between us and we cannot look in each other's eyes, all sorts of false ideas and images arise.  We give them names, make jokes about them, cover them with our prejudices, and avoid direct contact.  We think of them as enemies.  We forget that they love as we love, care for their children as we care for ours, become sick and die as we do.  We forget that they are our brothers and sisters and treat them as objects that can be destroyed at will.

Only when we have the courage to cross the street and look in one another's eyes can we see there that we are children of the same God and members of the same human family.

Friday Reflections, July 27, 2012

Today's reflection spoke to my tired and drained heart.  It's once again written by Henri Nouwen.


What We Feel Is Not Who We Are


Our emotional lives move up and down constantly.  Sometimes we experience great mood swings: from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos.  A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings.  Mostly we have little control over these changes.  It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.

Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life.  Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us.  As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are.  We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.

Friday Reflections, July 20, 2012

This week's reflection is once again from Henri Nouwen, and greatly moved me, speaking of experiences that I've had over the past several months and years.


Words That Create Community

The word is always a word for others.  Words need to be heard.  When we give words to what we are living, these words need to be received and responded to.  A speaker needs a listener.  A writer needs a reader.

When the flesh - the lived human experience - becomes word, community can develop.  When we say,  "Let me tell you what we saw.  Come and listen to what we did.  Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us.  Wait until you hear whom we met,"  we call people together and make our lives into lives for others.   The word brings us together and calls us into community.  When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people. 

Friday Reflections, July 13, 2012

This week's Friday reflection is from Henri Nouwen:


Spiritual Courage

Courage is connected with taking risks.  Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their lives by doing these things.  But none of these daredevil acts comes from the centre of our being.  They all come from the desire to test our physical limits and to become famous and popular.  

Spiritual courage is something completely different.  It is following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame and popularity.  It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives in order to gain eternal life.

Friday Reflections - July 6, 2012

We studied this passage at house church last night, and it stands out to me, bringing conviction as I consider some areas of my own life and relationships right now. I'd love to hear if something from this passage stands out to you today.

Romans 14:1, 22-23 (The Message)

1 Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with—even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

22-23 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others. You're fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you're not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you're out of line. If the way you live isn't consistent with what you believe, then it's wrong.

Friday Reflections, June 29, 2012

Today I want to share with you a chapter from Romans, in The Message.  There's so much in this chapter, and it has been challenging me this week, but particularly yesterday and last night as I prepared for and led an examination/meditation on this chapter at house church.  I was and am so caught by the fresh life that God's Spirit has breathed into this chapter for me, through Eugene Peterson's translation, and I knew I wanted to share it with you here today.

I'd love to hear if portions of it stand out to you, or speak to your heart as well.


Romans 12

Place Your Life Before God

1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

4-6 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

7-8 If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

9-10 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

11-13 Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

14-16 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

17-19 Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

20-21 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Friday Reflection - June 22, 2012

This week I'm so in need of this reminder and this challenge from The Message:

Matthew 11:28-30 (The Message)


"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Friday Reflections - June 15, 2012

Today's reflection is written by Richard Rohr and struck me as deeply true and profound when it arrived in my inbox yesterday.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic he writes about.


EUCHARIST AS TOUCHSTONE

Christ is the bread, awaiting hunger. 
~ St. Augustine


Eucharist is presence encountering presence—mutuality, vulnerability. There is nothing to prove, to protect, or to sell. It feels so empty, naked, and harmless, that all you can do is be present.


The Eucharist is telling us that God is the food and all we have to do is provide the hunger. Somehow we have to make sure that each day we are hungry, that there’s room inside of us for another presence. If you are filled with your own opinions, ideas, righteousness, superiority, or sufficiency, you are a world unto yourself and there is no room for “another.” Despite all our attempts to define who is worthy and who is not worthy to receive communion, our only ticket or prerequisite for coming to Eucharist is hunger. And most often sinners are much more hungry than the “saints.”


Adapted from Eucharist as Touchstone


Prayer:
Eucharisteo. I give thanks.

Friday Reflections, June 1, 2012

Today's reflection comes from Richard Rohr, and arrived in my inbox this past Sunday, Pentecost.  I so appreciated the reminder that Pentecost is for every day, not just a semi-ignored festival of once a year, and wanted to share this reflection with you today.


THE SPIRIT
Sunday, May 27, 2012 
Pentecost Sunday


On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After He said this, He showed them His hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. And He said to them again, “Peace be with you!”
~ John 20:19-21


We still wait behind closed doors; fifty days (“Pente-cost”), fifty years, five hundred years, we are always waiting and hoping, but not really expecting. It is the day we are always waiting for but never prepared for, the day of the great outpouring of fire-laden love, the day that ties all other days together. Pentecost is actually every day, if we expect it; but, not surprisingly, this is the greatest forgotten major festival of the entire church year.  Most come to church expecting no new outpouring, or maybe not even remembering an old one.


Yet it is Pentecost, the day of the great gathering in and the great sending out. The Holy Spirit must get tired of waiting for us, always hiding behind our closed doors.


Prayer:
Break through my closed door, O God.


Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, day 205, p. 192

Friday Reflections, May 25, 2012

Today's Friday Reflection is again from Henri Nouwen, and builds nicely on the thoughts that I shared yesterday about feeling creatively and personally dry and stuck.  I'm hoping to carve out time in Scripture and other spiritual books this weekend that will let the Incarnation birth in a fresh way in me again.


To Let the Word Become Flesh 


Spiritual reading is food for our souls.  As we slowly let the words of the Bible or any spiritual book enter into our minds and descend into our hearts, we become different people.  The Word gradually becomes flesh in us and thus transforms our whole beings.  Thus spiritual reading is a continuing incarnation of the divine Word within us.  In and through Jesus, the Christ, God became flesh long ago.  In and through our reading of God's Word and our reflection on it, God becomes flesh in us now and thus makes us into living Christs for today.


Let's keep reading God's Word with love and great reverence.

Friday Reflections, May 18, 2012

I'm back to Henri Nouwen again this week, talking about our tendency to live with a scarcity mentality.


The Temptation to Hoard 


As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say:  "There's not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency," or "There's not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I'd better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it" or "There's not enough love to give to everybody, so I'd better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me."   This is a scarcity mentality.  It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won't have enough to survive.  The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

Friday Reflections, May 11, 2012

Today's post comes again from Henri Nouwen, and struck me as appropriate this week as I talk about stories - stories about grief, and about journeying with my body.  It reminded me of how important each one of our stories is, and encouraged me as I continue to write mine out in this space.  I hope it encourages each of you as well.


Making Our Lives Available to Others

One of the arguments we often use for not writing is this:   "I have nothing original to say.  Whatever I might say, someone else has already said it, and better than I will ever be able to."  This, however, is not a good argument for not writing.  Each human person is unique and original, and nobody has lived what we have lived.  Furthermore, what we have lived, we have lived not just for ourselves but for others as well.  Writing can be a very creative and invigorating way to make our lives available to ourselves and to others.

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told.  We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them.

Friday Reflections, May 4, 2012

Today's reflection is once again from Henri Nouwen, and reminds me of how valuable it is to ask questions, and not spend all of our time in answers, but to really honor the questions.


Question from Above

What are spiritual questions?  They are questions from above.  Most questions people ask of Jesus are questions from below, such as the question about which of  a woman's seven husbands she will be married to in the resurrection.   Jesus does not answer this question because it comes from a legalistic mind-set.  It is a question from below.

Often Jesus  responds by changing this question.  In the case of the woman with seven husbands he says, "At the resurrection men and women do not marry - have you never read what God himself said to you:  'I am God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?'  He is God not of the dead but of the living" (Matthew 22:23-30).

We have to keep looking for the spiritual question if we want spiritual answers.

Friday Reflections, April 27, 2012

Today's reflection is once again from Henri Nouwen, and is a reminder to me of why I continually pursue a life of healing and freedom.


Freedom Attracts 

When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not.  Freedom attracts wherever it appears.  A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell.  Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us.  But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.


Where true inner freedom is, there is God.  And where God is, there we want to be.

Friday Reflections - April 20, 2012

I don't have any quotes for you today, just the knowledge that I'm quietly recognizing that 24 years ago today, I knelt on the dark brown shag carpet, next to the itchy brown loveseat in my parents' living room at the time, and invited Jesus "into my heart".

My life changed that day.

It changes still.

Jesus does that, it seems.

He's gentle, not forceful, but he brings change.

Sometimes the change doesn't feel gentle.  Sometimes the change isn't gentle.

Sometimes gentle and forceful aren't mutually exclusive.

My walk with Jesus for the last 24 years has been like that, and today I'm stopping to acknowledge that moment when the changes began in earnest.  The moment when joy was mine in fullness for the first time.

I'm thank that fullness of joy can still be mine today.

Friday Reflections - April 13, 2012

This meditation from Henri Nouwen landed in my inbox earlier this week.  After a semester of wandering through questions about leadership, group work, and conflict, it struck me as carrying deep truth that I need to ponder moving forward.


Authority and Obedience 

Authority and obedience can never be divided, with some people having all the authority while others only have to obey.  This separation causes authoritarian behaviour on the one side and doormat behaviour on the other.  It perverts authority as well as obedience.  A person with great authority who has nobody to be obedient to is in great spiritual danger.  A very obedient person who has no authority over anyone is equally in danger.

Jesus spoke with great authority, but his whole life was complete obedience to his Father, and Jesus, who said to his Father, "Let it be as you, not I, would have it" (Matthew 26:39), has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (see Matthew 28:18).   Let us ask ourselves:  Do we live our authority in obedience and do we live our obedience with authority?

Friday Reflections, April 6, 2012 (Good Friday)

Normally on Good Friday I focus exclusively on the cross.  This year, however, more than ever I feel the longing for resurrection, and quite simply couldn't resist sharing this video with you today.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to watch and listen, and to allow your heart to feel the impact of this day, and the anticipation of Sunday.

Friday Reflections, March 30, 2012

Today's reflection struck me deeply earlier in the week.  It was written by Richard Rohr, and deals with suffering.


SUFFERING


When I was young, I wanted to suffer for God. I pictured myself being the great and glorious martyr somewhere. There's something so romantic about laying down your life for something great. I guess many young people might see themselves that way, but now I know it was mostly ego, but sort of good ego at that stage.


There is nothing glorious about any actual moment of suffering—when you're in the midst of it. You swear it's meaningless. You swear it has nothing to do with goodness or holiness or God—or you.


The very essence of any experience of trial is that you want to get out of it. A lack of purpose, of meaning—is the precise suffering of suffering! When you find a pattern in your suffering, a direction, you can accept it and go with it. The great suffering, the suffering of Jesus, is when that pattern is not immediately given. The soul can live without success, but it cannot live without meaning.


Adapted from Radical Grace: Daily Meditations, p. 86, day 94