Ukraine

It is heartbreaking and frustrating to watch what is happening in the Ukraine right now.  It is hard to even imagine what it is like to have soldiers and planes come and attack people in their daily lives.  The people - both Russian and Ukranian - are at the mercy of decisions made by the people who are their leaders.  They bear the brunt of the consequences.

And we, from our perch in the United States, from the comfort of our homes- watch and pray.  Like everyone, I feel concerned and helpless and do not know what I can possibly do.  Except pray.

And so I do.  This morning and throughout the day.  I pray for peace and protection and God's vision and will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Holy and Gracious God

We pray for the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia; for their countries and their leaders.

We pray for all those who are afraid; that your everlasting arms hold them in this time of great fear.

We pray for all those who have the power over life and death; that they will choose for all people life, and life in all its fullness.

We pray for those who choose war; that they will remember that you direct your people to turn our swords into ploughshares and seek for peace.

We pray for leaders on the world stage; that they are inspired by the wisdom and courage of Christ.

Above all, Lord, today we pray for peace for Ukraine.

And we ask this in the name of your blessed Son.

Lord have mercy.

Amen

Valentines Day

What I know about this day is that it is often fraught.  Those who have no special person in their life feel alone and those who do often have too high expectations of how love will be expressed.  But it can be a day just to let people know that you love them.

i have dropped off valentines for granddaughters yesterday and remember the fun of being a 2nd grader - like Maggie - and giving and receiving valentines.  

For the first time in four years I do have a valentine.  I am now three months dating a very sweet man who will cook me dinner tonight and be kind and caring to me.  It is both strange and wonderful after decades with Chuck to find someone new and very different from Chuck, who was - one of a kind.  

A friend sent me this blessing from Jan Richardson today  It contains a quote by Thoreau

"There is no remember for love but to love more."  I have learned  that broken hearts do heal and are able to love again.  It is a miracle and a blessing. 

Blessing for the Brokenhearted

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.

Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.

Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—

as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,

as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,

as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.

—Jan Richardson

Concurrent

This is a word that I think about all the time - concurrent.  The dictionary definition is:

"existing, happening, or done at the same time"

This morning as I watch the news I hear about a blizzard on the east coast and two feet of snow in some places.  And here in Ohio it is cold and there is snow on the ground but no snow coming today.  And no staying in and no shoveling.  I talked to Melanie in Tucson yesterday and a completely different weather pattern as she gets to sit outside and take walks end enjoy blue skies.  Concurrent.

My mentor in Bowling was Vonnie Schall who  endured the sorrow of losing a teenage son.  I remember that she shared  about driving to the funeral and passing the golf course and seeing people enjoying the game.  And her thought was - how could that be when her whole world was destroyed?  Concurrent

I think this is one of the challenges of life - that we go through the ups and downs in different ways and different times.  Being aware of the sadness of others can affect our times of joy and celebration.  And our times of happiness and comfort can sometimes limit our awareness of  the pain of others.  

Yesterday I had a beautiful day of working at home and then playing pickleball with my daughter and other friends.  I feel so grateful to be able to continue to move my body as I live into these seventies. I had contact with all my daughters and just felt a  general sense of appreciation.

At the same time, I learn about the sudden death of a twenty year old and prepare to officiate a funeral for an eighty year old.  To watch the news is to be aware of not only omicron deaths and blizzards but also potential war in Ukraine.  It is all concurrent.  

Somehow this morning I think of the poem by Rumi called The Guesthouse.  It starts like this: This being human is a guest house.  Every morning a new arrival."  I think some of these arrivals come because we are affected by each other as good things and bad things are happening  to ourselves and others concurrently.

​

The Guest House

​

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

​

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

​

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

​

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

​

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

 

 I know that it is easy to concentrate only on the positive emotions and experiences - but our relationship - our kinship - with others means that no matter how good things may be for us in this moment we need to see and pray for and serve those who are suffering. .

This being human is a guest house - and a struggle at times - and an adventure always

.  I live in wonder and gratitude.

We do not know how

I listened to "Pray as you Go" this morning and it featured one of my favorite texts - about the sower who sows the seeds

"The kingdom of  God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how."

It just makes me realize how often I want to know HOW and WHEN! My life - and I think our lives - is spent sowing seeds in so many ways.  We are starting projects, building relationships, creating communities, and growing families.  It is all a form of sowing seeds of something that is in process.

I think about the Bible studies I do at church.  I have been leading two groups for a year and a half and essentially sowing seeds of love and learning.  And with both groups I can see that there is growth in our Biblical knowledge but also in our growing intimacy and comfort with the vulnerability that makes these kinds of groups special.  

This morning I am working on both a sermon for Sunday and a funeral message for tomorrow.  I sit here and "sow seeds" - putting thoughts and words together and hoping that they are going to be helpful and comforting (funeral) and compelling (sermon).  I will walk away soon and go play pickleball and trust that in the meantime, God is doing something with me and with this work so that the seed will "sprout and grow" or the project will come to a sense of completion.  I live my life trusting that when I do my part - that God will - with God's unseen presence - guide me.  

I wrote this in my journal today: 

 We do what we can and wait and see - Trust and see

These are the limitation of the sower - we do not know how the seed sprouts and grows - but we trust that it will  

I think this is called faith.

May the God of FAITH be with you,

sending you miracles and teaching you to expect them.

May God show you things that can be seen only in the darkness.

May your faith see you through the unknowns in your life,

calling you to trust the unseed presence of God in them.

May your faith serve as a beacon to light the way for other  pilgrims on the way.

May the blessing of FAITH be upon you.\

From BLESSING UPON BLESSING

 

Preparing for Church

In your light I learn how to love

in your beauty, how to make poems

 

You dance inside my chest

where no one sees you.

 

But sometimes I do,

and that sight becomes this art.. 

 

I leave soon to go to church.  And I share this poem by the Sufi mystic and poet Jalaluddin Rumi.  

I am drawn to the line "You dance inside my chest where no one sees you."  As I prepare myself for worship I sit in wonder and hope that  God is "dancing" inside me and guiding me this morning.  

I am the associate minister of engagement which says everything.  I am not the one who is in charge and my task is help all of us to engage the divine as well as the community.  This  morning I will pray in the services and welcome   those who come to worship.  

It is so easy for church to become routine and almost too familiar.  But my prayer for today is that we all might respond to the one who dances within us and engage in the art of loving each other.

That's all.

God' s Voice

Today in "Pray as you Go" is the Saturday examen - a chance to look back prayerfully at activities and prayer and discern where you have experienced God.

It has been a week of transition as I have moved from isolation in covid to re-entering the activites of my life that bring me joy.  And so I have experienced the blessing of Bible study, staff meetings, dinner out with a dear friend, and pickleball.  What a difference a week makes.

Yet, as I look at my journal and reflect back on the week I find myself always writing the same words - learning to trust, let go, surrender and live. 

There is no question that God speaks to me through the activities and people in my life.  I also continue to find meaning and wisdom through prayer, silence and reading. 

I have been slowly making my way through Rumi: The Book of Love translated by Coleman Barks.  His writings speak to my soul as I find myself embracing the gifts of this abundant and often enchanted life/

Here is one of his poems to reminds me of our limited vision of all that God is doing.

The Road Home
by Rumi º

An ant hurries along a threshing floor with its wheat grain,
moving between huge stacks

of wheat, not knowing the abundance all around. It thinks its
one grain is all there is to

love. So we choose a tiny seed to be devoted to. This body,
one path or one teacher. Look

wider and farther. The essence of every human being can see,
and what that essence-eye takes

in, the being becomes. Saturn. Solomon! The ocean pours
through a jar, and you might say it

swims inside the fish! The mystery gives peace to your
longing and makes the road home home.

 

ReOrientation

It was in reading Praying the Psalms by Walter Brueggeman that I first encountered the understanding of the seasons that we all go through in our lives.  He says that we will find ourselves in one of three places:

- the place of orientation where everything makes sense.  It is comfortable and predictable.

 - the place of disorientation - in which we feel we have sunk into a pit or found ourselves in unfamiliar and difficult terrain.  There is emotional pain and anxiety

- the place of reorientation as we are aware that God has lifted us out and we are in a new place of amazement and gratitude.

After almost two weeks of living in my home waiting for covid to go away I feel like I am back in that place of reorientation.  During that time I was definitely in disorientation - impatient, worried, concerned.

Yesterday I went back to work and it was as if the light was shining on me and I could see the many blessings of life at Gender Road Christian Church.  There is nothing like being away from your "normal life" to realize how special it is to be in relationship with others who are working together for God.

What I  know to be true is that all of us go through all of these phases throughout our lives.  As a church we continue to be in "disorientation" of a sort because of the pandemic.  We keep wondering about when to meet in person and when to zoom, about when to bring back the choir again, what to do about communion, etc etc.  I hear people talking about the "new normal" but we are not there yet - because we are still in disorientation. And have to wait in the discomfort of not knowing.

I am just happy to be through the covid journey of wondering how serious it is and when I am going to stop coughing and when I am no longer contagious.  To be back yesterday, working at the church put me in my happy place in a new way - grateful for the opportunity to use my gifts and to be with people I have grown to love.

One thing you know when you lived seven decades - that whatever place you are in will not last.  "This too shall pass" and I certainly want to savor the goodness and the blessing of reorientation for as long as I can.

Here is a prayer that reflects ME

May the RENEWING God be with you,recreating, enlivening, filling you with Gods worn life.

As you claim this life, cherish it and allow it to grow,

and celebrate it with "thank you" forever etched upon your heart.

With love may you call others to be renewed and refreshed.

May the blessing of the RENEWING God be upon you.