Blessings — Page 4

Longing for Home: An Advent Journey, 2016 — Day Five

December 1, 2016 By Diana

Psalm 72
Isaiah 4:2-6
Acts 1:12-17

Acts 1:12-17

Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away.When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, as well as his brothers.

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd numbered about one hundred twenty persons) and said,“Friends, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit through David foretold concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus—for he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.”

Advent is about the coming of God to humankind and there are three Advents that we celebrate during this season. The first is probably the one you count on at this time of the year, when Jesus was born to a dirt-poor couple in a borrowed barn in a back-of-beyond small town. The second ‘coming’ we remember during these days is the one that is yet to be, when Jesus will return as King and the earth will be made new. The third is, I suppose, a bit less dramatic than the other two, but it is the one that we live each and every day. The third coming of God is what you and I experience in the here and now, when the Holy Spirit works in our midst, when the church is being the truest church she can be, when the evidence of the Spirit’s work is seen in our goodness, kindness, gentleness, patience, self-control, faithfulness, peace, joy and love.

Today’s passage is a good reminder of that third coming, I think. This band of believers has just seen their friend, their risen Lord, rise up to heaven. They are gathering to remember, to pray, to stay close. And Peter reminds them that Judas, too, was one of them. Soon this little band will draw lots for someone to take Judas’s place, doing what they can to be ready for whatever comes next. But right now, they’re trying to listen to God, to remember what Jesus taught them, and to take the next step forward in faith. And that is what we all must do, isn’t it? Listen, remember, move. That’s how we celebrate the coming of God to humankind — quietly, carefully, boldly.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Filed Under: Advent, An Advent Journey, biblical reflection, Blessings, Christmas, church year, daily devo

Longing for Home: An Advent Journey, 2016 — Day Four

November 30, 2016 By Diana

Psalm 124
Isaiah 54:1-10
Matthew 24:23-25

Psalm 124: A Song of Ascents. Of David.

¹If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
—let Israel now say—
²if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
³then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
⁴then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
⁵then over us would have gone
the raging waters.

⁶Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth.
⁷We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.

⁸Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

Have you noticed that the Psalm reading has been this same one for the last three days? Tomorrow it will switch for the last three days of this first Advent week as we move toward the second Sunday. But before we leave it, I wanted to sit with it for a few minutes. I encourage you to do that, too.

That opening line is one of my favorites in all of scripture, one that I’ve found myself saying over and over again as I’ve lived this life of mine. There are definitely days, even seasons, — when it doesn’t feel like the Lord is on my side! And yet, in the long view — especially looking backwards — I know this to be the most steadfast truth of my life. I haven’t had to deal with ‘enemies’ in the sense that the psalmist means, but I have surely felt flooded by life, overwhelmed by circumstances, threatened by illness and I’ve walked through difficult deaths with a moderately long list of friends and family. So I do know the truth of verse 8 as well as verse 1 — my help is in the name of the Lord. And I am grateful.

Filed Under: Advent, An Advent Journey, biblical reflection, Blessings, Christmas, church year, daily devo

Longing for Home: An Advent Journey, 2016 — Day Three

November 29, 2016 By Diana

Psalm 124
Genesis 9:1-17
Hebrews 11:32-40

As I gathered together this year’s readings for Advent, I noticed that there are several about covenants, those special ‘agreements’ God made with people that are scattered throughout the Old Testament and then grandly fulfilled with the coming of Jesus. Today’s Genesis reading contains the agreement God made with Noah, once he and his family were released from their long siege of forced isolation on that strange boat.

Covenant agreements are always initiated by God and overflow with God’s promise of presence and blessing. But this one is unique. Why? Because God very deliberately makes promises not only to Noah and his family, but to all of creation:

“I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

The rainbow is set in the sky as a reminder to God to keep those promises, and three more times, God repeats this phrase: “my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” THREE times. Do you think maybe it might be important?

ALL creatures matter to God. Isn’t that remarkable? We humans so easily place our species at the center of everything, don’t we? Yet in this Old Testament covenant, God intentionally includes all the things on earth that breathe. And if God values these creatures, maybe we should too? I think a biblically mandated argument for conservation and environmental protection can be made from passages like this one. What do you think?

Filed Under: Advent, An Advent Journey, Beauty, biblical reflection, Blessings, daily devo

Longing for Home: An Advent Journey – 2016 — Day Two

November 28, 2016 By Diana

Psalm 124
Genesis 8:1-19
Romans 6:1-11

For a whole lotta years, I collected Noah’s Ark memorabilia. Friends and family gave me a wild variety of artifacts and collectibles: wall hangings, stitcheries, figurines, greeting cards, even an adorable waste basket. And all of it decorated my offices at both of the churches where I served on the pastoral staff.

And then one week, I drew the straw to preach on that text in Genesis — and I was overwhelmed by the terror of it all. All of my cute things no longer seemed quite so cute. Yes, I kept a few, and use them now in my home office. I had too many sentimental attachments for me to divest fully. But these days, I don’t feel the same way about that story at all. This is not really a story for children, is it? It is a story about the horrors of sin and the darkness of evil, when human beings make choice after choice to invite that evil into their hearts and then live out of darkness rather than light. And it’s about God’s exhaustion with all of us, about God’s disappointment with his creatures.

Ouch.

Thankfully, it is also a story of redemption, rebirth, and promises kept. It is also a story about God’s bow in the sky. It is also a precursor for the ultimate story of redemption that our season of Advent marks out for us. It serves as a pointer to Jesus, a reminder from pre-historic times that God seeks us out, that God welcomes us to begin again, that God wishes for us to flourish.

That’s the part we need to tell our children, right?

Filed Under: Advent, An Advent Journey, Beauty, Blessings, Christmas, church year, daily devo

31 Days of Paying Attention — Day Sixteen

October 16, 2016 By Diana

We have a small fishing industry here in Santa Barbara. I love to see their small boats sitting just off shore during the various seasons of the year — lobster, crab, salmon. halibut, even sea cucumbers!

They look tiny against the horizon, don’t they?

This one was checking traps last week — you can see the trap markers to the left of the picture.

Working boats and pleasure craft share our marina space and each type brings its own unique kind of beauty to our waterfront. I love to watch a graceful sloop or a sturdy looking catamaran sail by. But it is the working boats my eye is drawn to most often. Some of those boats have been part of the story of our town for decades, holding deliciousness in their freezers and hard working men and women at their helm.

Fishing is work. Yes, it is often pleasurable. But it is work, first and foremost. And somehow the phrasing of today’s quote from St. Paul of the Cross stirs in me a deep reminder of that truth. To fish in the sea of Christ’s sorrow is work, plain and not-so-simple. It does not come naturally to us to reflect on sad things, to step into another’s suffering and see what nourishment we might find there. But oh! It is good work. And necessary work.

Once again, the key word in this quote is ‘love.’ If we can firmly hold onto that powerful truth, everything changes. Christ willingly stepped into that sea of suffering because of divine love — divine love for human persons. This is the kind of ‘atonement theory’ that resonates with me at the deepest level: for God so loved the world. This is the bedrock truth of our faith and taking time to fish in these good waters is one of the healthiest and most life-giving things we can do.

Filed Under: 31 Day Blogging Challenge, Aging, Beauty, Blessings, death, God's gifts, Lament, Living the Questions, Paying Attention, personal journey

Credo — for SheLoves, October 2016

October 15, 2016 By Diana

When I saw the topic for this month — ConfessionTime — I must admit that my heart sank a little. Most of what I write is, in one way or another, a confession of who I am, what I think, how I’m feeling. I don’t have any deep, dark secrets that must be brought into the light at this stage of my life — the dirty linen has pretty much been hung out there for anyone to see. I’ve written here and elsewhere about my struggles with food and weight, my mixed emotions on this journey through dementia with my mother, my wrestling through the powerful grip of anxiety in my life and the fact that though my 50-year marriage is good, solid, rich and wonderful — it is far from perfect. Somehow, admitting that I frequently play one too many games of solitaire or Block Puzzle or that I occasionally binge watch British murder mysteries didn’t quite seem interesting enough for 800-1000 words!

And then it hit me: there is another way to define the word ‘confession.’ There is such a thing as a confession of faith, and I remembered that I have one, written down — a piece that is always a work in process. Each of us who tries to follow in the footsteps of Jesus has one of these — there is a ‘list’ somewhere inside us of what it is we truly believe, what we stake our life on. This is mine:

I believe . . .

in God the Father Almighty,

God who is bigger than anything I can think or imagine; God who is small enough to become a human embryo; God who lives forever in community as three Persons,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I believe . . .

that all truth is God’s truth; that nothing science can discover makes God any less than who God is; that human creatures were designed to reflect the glory, intelligence, compassion, creativity, beauty, tenderness, and strength of this Great God and that we are invited to partner with God in the life-giving, freedom-granting, sin-forgiving, brokenness-healing good, good work that is the Kingdom call of the church.

I believe . . .

that the grace of God is grander than anything we know, broader than any idea we can conceive, wider than any ocean ever seen, and fully beyond our ability to comprehend. This means that anyone and everyone is welcome, that anyone and everyone is loved, that anyone and everyone is offered abundant, forever LIFE.

I believe . . .

PLEASE come on over to SheLoves and join the conversation. I’d love to know what things would be included in your own personal confession/credo! Just click right here!

Filed Under: Baptism, biblical reflection, Blessings, Confession, Encouragement, SheLoves

31 Days of Paying Attention — Day Thirteen

October 13, 2016 By Diana

This was the veranda just down the hall from my room at Mater Dolorosa. During the night before this picture was taken, we were pleasantly surprised by a small rainstorm, something we have been sorely lacking for over five years now. When the sun came out that morning, it was glorious! Look at the shadow pattern created by the lattice work at the top of the porch. Remarkable.

I happen to love shadows. I’m not a big fan of a completely sunless day, unless it happens to be raining. So after the murkiness of the previous afternoon, I was delighted to see blue sky, fluffy white clouds, and clearly marked shadows everywhere I looked.

There is something powerful about contrasts, I think. They help us see things more clearly, bring added color to our view, even help show us where to go — and where not to go. Sometimes they can be disorienting, and some shadows are darker than I might wish! But overall, I am a fan. As is true for any metaphor, this one can be stretched beyond believability. No one goes through life looking for the darker places. But . . . they show up anyhow, don’t they. So why not pray for eyes to see what those ‘shadows’ might have for us to learn? Sometimes that learning won’t happen while we’re in the shadow’s shade, but only after we’ve stepped out of it and can look at the mark it leaves behind us. And some ‘lessons’ won’t be found this side of heaven, either.

But I wonder today — might it help us to hang onto the beauty of shade and light in pictures like the one above? If we could somehow imprint that loveliness on our mind’s eye, maybe it could help to steer us through some of the more shadowy events in our lives, offering hope that shadows always give way to light at some point. What do you think?

Filed Under: 31 Day Blogging Challenge, Beauty, Blessings, Creation, Encouragement, God's gifts, Paying Attention

31 Days of Paying Attention — Day Twelve

October 12, 2016 By Diana

Even though it came in the midst of a month of retreats and over-commitment, I signed up for a poetry workshop a few weeks ago. You need to understand that I am a lover of poetry, but not a writer of it. In point of fact, I find it terrifying and more than a little bit intimidating. But this small workshop was offered at our beautiful Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and was led by a favorite person, Dr. Paul Willis, Professor of Literature at Westmont College. So I gulped, and sent in my registration. We met in the beautiful library and quickly learned that we were going to spend 90 minutes together. During that time, we would hear a variety of poems, talk a bit about what we heard and then spend time practicing poetic thinking as we wandered the beautiful natural setting surrounding the museum.

Paul introduced us to a wonderful and practical way to pay attention. We were divided into groups of 4-5 people and told to wander the grounds for about 20 minutes, led by one member of our group at a time — in complete silence — to some slice of creation selected by that person for us to observe for a few minutes. Then, we were to write out a metaphor in poetic form about what we were seeing. That much ‘poetry’ I was willing to try!

Of course, I grabbed my camera for our silent walk. There were four people in my group and throughout this month, I’ll be interspersing both the picture and the words that came to me on that Saturday afternoon, with a bit of commentary, just for fun. Our first ‘leader’ was a young man, a recent graduate of Westmont, who fairly quickly took our quartet over to this bushy shrub. Not a lot to look at, you might think. But we each came up with something. It was such fun to read them all — just within our group of four — at the end of the workshop. Here’s mine . . .

a 4-sided star
brightens the
dark-hued stem,
waiting its turn
to darken
and fall

It’s hard to see from this photo that the leaves were in quartets on this shrub. I noticed that almost all my metaphors circled around a common refrain of transition/change/aging. Hmmm. . . wonder why that might be?

I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise and heartily recommend it as a practical way to practice paying attention. Give it a try and let me know how you like it!

Filed Under: 31 Day Blogging Challenge, Beauty, Blessings, Creation, Encouragement, God's gifts, hope, Paying Attention, Poetry

31 Days of Paying Attention — Day Eleven

October 11, 2016 By Diana

That Catholic retreat center I visited in southern California had several lovely sets of stairs hidden here and there. This one led up to a central fountain area, with benches and small grassy areas. I am drawn to tiles of all kinds, and find the repeating — though slightly different — pattern on these steps restful and lovely to look at. Yellow, blue, white, terra cotta offer a soft palette to the eye. Repeated geometric patterns are also soothing, lovely without being intrusive in any way.

I focussed my camera on the steps alone this year, trying to pay more attention than usual to the craftsmanship, the subtle gradations in color, evidences of wear and tear. Our small group of spiritual directors was last in this place about 18 months ago, and on that trip I took these pictures. Hunting for them as I began to lay out this month’s posts, I remembered more clearly the setting for the stairs I focussed on this year. Can you see how lovely it all looks?

As we reflected a few days ago, sometimes you need to change your perspective, your point of view, in order to see something new. So I offer these earlier photos as a way to underscore that powerful truth. The steps alone are intriguing, colorful, beautifully crafted. But seen in their larger setting? They become spectacular, beckoning the visitor to climb, climb, climb.

And if you choose to climb, this restful spot awaits. A curving bench, under the hanging branches of bright green tree.

And the refreshing music of water gently dropping into a pond.

Paying attention can lead us in so much beauty!

Filed Under: 31 Day Blogging Challenge, Beauty, Blessings, Creativity, God's gifts, Paying Attention

31 Days of Paying Attention — Day Ten

October 10, 2016 By Diana

Yes!! Love IS ingenious! When we are living out of a place of love, creativity soars, diversity is welcome, old truths take on fresh new meanings. I love this small line of text, maybe because it is surprising. “Ingenious” is not an adjective often applied to the noun “love,” but somehow it is perfect, don’t you think?

Jesus was a person of surprises. Teaching the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, touching lepers, welcoming children — even telling us to be like children if we truly wish to know God. He told stories, he did not pontificate. He was not afraid of truth-telling, but as Eugene Peterson so beautifully used Emily Dickenson’s gorgeous line, “Tell the truth, but tell it slant. . . ,” Jesus always told that truth sideways, upending expectations and astonishing listeners.

Do we astonish others regularly? Do we do so out of that centered place of living loved and living love? I do believe this is the only way forward out of any morass in which we might find ourselves.

Love-centered ingenuity! I love it!

And this surprising oasis-like fountain surround by palm trees at the base of the San Gabriel mountains is a picture of what it can look like. A beauty spot, right there atop a middle-class suburb, inviting one and all to stop a while, to pay attention, to savor the ingenious love of the creator, given expression by the willing hands and hearts of human artisans.