Saturday, September 15, 2018
Open Prayer
Today’s Reflection
PART OF LEARNING to pray continually is to stay open in prayer. Sometimes after we say amen, we check off prayer on our to-do list and shut down the conversation. But God has invited us — called us — to pray without ceasing, to keep the conversation going all day, every day. The hymn “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” is absolutely correct: “What a privilege to carry every thing to God in prayer!”
– Jenny Youngman
Scrambled Starts
Scrambled Starts
Friday, September 14, 2018
Radical Humility
Today’s Reflection
FOR ME, the spiritual journey is not about growing more certain about the world, but rather about embracing more and more the mystery at the heart of everything and living into the great questions of life. In a world where so many people are so very certain about the nature of things, especially in religious circles about who God includes and excludes, I believe unknowing calls us to a radical humility.
– Weavings, May/June/July 2015
Thursday, September 13, 2018
Posted: 12 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT
Today’s Reflection
I GAZE out the window at the oak tree my children and grandchildren used to climb.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.
–
Voices of Aging
Voices of Aging
Comfort Me, God
Today’s Reflection
I GAZE out the window at the oak tree my children and grandchildren used to climb.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.
Now that I am alone, the memories of this house comfort me.
I wish I could roll back the clock to an earlier time when laughter and music filled these rooms, but I can’t.
On days when I feel sad and lonely, I find comfort in the familiarity of home. My home.
The kitchen window overlooks the crape myrtle that blooms every spring.
The squeaky screen door announces a neighbor’s arrival.
The workshop smells of oil and wood shavings.
My family members think it is time for me to move, but I cannot imagine my life compressed into a single-room apartment.
I have tried to digest their concerns—
I need more help; I can no longer live safely on my own; I am alone; my home is too expensive to maintain.
I know they mean well, but the idea of moving brings anxiety and fear.
O Lord, I don’t know what to do.
How can I leave the place that brings so much joy to what time I have left?
Comfort me, God, and give me direction.
–
Voices of Aging
From page 53 of Voices of Aging: Adult Children and AginVoices of Aging
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
The Upper Room
Today’s Reflection
TIME (or rather, the lack of it) is a great source of worry for many. For some reason, you may have the idea that there isn’t enough time to go around. Twenty-four hours in a day are too few to do what needs to be done. Twenty-five or even twenty-six hours would do the trick. Perhaps you wish for a forty-day month!
Where did we get the idea that time is a finite commodity? The psalmist says, “A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night” (Ps. 90:4). God’s time is an infinite quantity. Time is a divine gift — limitless and beyond counting. How does that thought change your perspective on time? Are you suddenly feeling less rushed and harried?
When all is said and done, the only time you really have is this moment. The past moment is gone; the future moment is yet to come. A lot can happen between this moment and the next: a phone call could change your life; a heart attack could take it away. You have only this moment to concern you. If you’re feeling anxious about time, take this moment and pray that God will give you the time you need to do what needs to be done. Time is God’s gift, and when you become mindful of this gift, you’ll be surprised to find that the time you need is suddenly there. It’s as if the clock is slowed down or that the minutes stretch out before you, limitless and abundant.
– Patricia Wilson
Freedom from Worry
Freedom from Worry
Monday, September 10, 2018
Today’s Reflection
Posted: 09 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT
– Excerpt is from “Standing Firm” by Parker J. Palmer
Hope |
Saturday, September 8, 2018
Sound of Silence
Posted: 07 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT
Today’s ReflectionWE NEED TO FIND times and places of silence because every day our ears are bombarded with noise; it’s everywhere! From the moment we awaken in the morning until our head hits the pillow at night, we are assulted by noise — traffic, leaf blowers, Muzak. Restaurants too can be filled with the buzz of waiters dropping glasses, children crying, and people who speak exceptionally loudly. These references to external noise do not touch the noise within, which may be louder than the noise on the street. Those around us cannot hear our inner voices, but we hear them, and they take their toll on our creativity, productivity, and peace.In this cacophony of noise, there is one sound that we rarely hear: the sound of silence. A world without things going on would be awful, and when things go on noise is inevitable; as a consequence, we must search for pockets of silence to find respite. Daily those of us who treasure silence engage in a war on noise and, unfortunately, we lose many battles. Why is that? Are we bored with life? Bored with ourselves? Must we be distracted every minute of the day? In this turbulence we need to find a place of silence where we can receive new strength and discover the Reality that waits for us beyond the noise and distractions of life. What a difference it would make if we could for once stop to explore the depth of silence within us.
– Ben C. Johnson and Paul H. Lang
Time Away |
Friday, September 7, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
What Are We Forming ?
Today’s Reflection
FORMATION COMES as a function of time, practice, and symbol. Some families are forming sports fans. Some are spending lots of time outside hiking and biking, practicing habits of recycling. We form our families by the ways we spend our time, our regular habits, and the symbols that repeat themselves on our clothing and refrigerator magnets.
Yet choosing to form our children spiritually seems more intimidating, more difficult and abstract. For many parents, spiritual formation sounds like a burden, an impossibility, a task for which they feel unqualified. But the same practices that form a die-hard Hoosier or a politically astute child — family time, regular practice, and concrete symbols — can convey Christian tradition and spirituality to our children with equal joy and lasting effect. As we engage in spiritually forming one another, family members spend time together with God, develop spiritual practices, and incorporate Christian symbols into our lives.
– Kara Lassen Oliver
Passing It On
Passing It On
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Posted: 04 Sep 2018 10:01 PM PDT
Today’s Reflection
RECONCILIATION IS NOT a hasty process, proclaiming peace where there is no peace, ignoring injustice and human suffering. Reconciliation is intimately connected with justice, with right relations. As Christians, we must restore the work of reconciliation from the periphery to the center of the life and witness of the church where it belongs. My dream is that every church becomes a neighborhood reconciliation center.
– Thomas Porter
The Spirit and Art of Conflict Transformation |
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Upper Room
Today’s Reflection
SWAMI DESCRIBED the modern-day Hindu guru as God’s grace — not a ploy for men and women to be worshiped and elevated above others. God cares for us enough to bestow mercy on us by showing us how best to serve. Grace has been bestowed on someone who is more advanced and who can now show us the way,” Swami explained. “We shouldn’t envy someone whom we perceive to be more advanced at living like Christ than we are. Instead, we should feel joy that God cares enough to send that person to show us what to do.”
I hadn’t thought about God appointing gurus to help us figure out this mess of a life. But that is exactly what Jesus was: the ultimate guru and the ultimate grace. And that’s precisely what the hometown gurus I’d known — the dear followers of Jesus — had done for me.
A real guru, like Christ, will always point to God. The saints I’d known in my childhood and adolescence embodied God’s grace — and accurately represented God by that grace.
– J. Dana Trent
Saffron Cross
Saffron Cross
Friday, August 31, 2018
Reflectuin
I ONCE WORKED with a church lay leader who had an annoying habit: He was perpetually positive. He wasn’t just happy or encouraging. He saw a bright spot no matter what, even when I didn’t always want to see one.
When I shared some tale of woe about matters in the church, he would listen and softly reply, “Ain’t it gonna be wonderful to see how the Lord works through all this? It wasn’t so much a question as a declaration. Count it every time. No matter how bad the tale, “Ain’t it gonna be wonderful. . . .” At times I could have gagged him! There’s a positive, and then there’s Pollyanna. I wanted someone who would climb down in the pit with me and agree that it’s dark and awful, rather than tell me how bright it is at the top. This man, however, didn’t linger long in unwanted places.
One day I got a call that his wife had received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. She had only a few months to live. I raced over to the house. After a lengthy visit we prayed together. There was no avoidance of reality. There was clear recognition of what this diagnosis meant. He walked me to the car. Before I got in, he turned to hug me and with tears rolling down his face said, “Ain’t it gonna be wonderful to see how the Lord works through all this?”
This true journeyman of faith lived as a pilgrim. He didn’t deny life’s challenges. He understood that no place in this life is permanent. We just have stopping places, not staying places.
– Rob Fuquay
The God We Can Know
The God We Can Know
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
Monday, August 27, 2018
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Saturday, August 18, 2018
HOW CAN WE turn the other cheek, responding out of power rather than force in ordinary encounters with those who may be opposing us? If someone makes an insulting remark we usually react in one of four ways:
(1) instantly retaliating, returning insult for insult;
(2) launching into defensive explanations;
(3) falling silent and brooding; or
(4) deflecting the hurt by making a joke out of it.
(1) instantly retaliating, returning insult for insult;
(2) launching into defensive explanations;
(3) falling silent and brooding; or
(4) deflecting the hurt by making a joke out of it.
But if we can take a moment to breathe slowly and deeply and then respond from God’s power, we can look the offender in the face and say quietly and firmly, “I wonder if you really meant that in the way it sounded. If so, it’s time we talk about the real issues.”
If someone turns aside a serious conversation with flippant, inappropriate remarks, instead of giving a weak laugh or responding irritably, we can turn the other cheek of empowered dignity, turn our full attention to the joker, and say thoughtfully, “Is there something about this conversation that makes you uncomfortable? Let’s look at this together.”
If at our workplace or at home someone gives a sharp, cutting criticism, we can meet it directly, saying, “The way you are saying this is hurtful, but I’m trying to hear the real gist of your criticism. I think I might learn something from your point if we can talk about it in another way.”
This way of responding (and I have a long way to go learning it!) rises from our own sense of worth, combined with willingness to learn and grow. It is not submission, nor is it aggression or defensiveness.
– Flora Slosson Wuellner
Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey
Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey
Monday, August 13, 2018
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Sunday, June 24, 2018
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