Matthew 5:1-12 Desperation. Jesus can see the desperation in the eyes of the crowd, their longing, their bleeding heart, their frantic need for transformation, so Jesus climbs up the mountainside with his group of newbie disciples and begins to teach. The first words that tumble out of Jesus’ mouth are words of blessing, proclaiming these weeping, yearning, hopeful, tender people […]
Matthew 4:12-23 “Just do the next right thing.” This is what Glennon Doyle Melton tells herself as she sits on the bathroom floor. I have mentioned Glennon previously. Glennon is an author and blogger who tells the story about her addiction to food, alcohol and drugs. One day, in the midst of her struggle, she finds herself sitting on the bathroom floor with a positive pregnancy test. Her hands shaking; Glennon says of the moment: “I am empty, alone, addicted – and yet still invited.”[i] Glennon balks at the invitation, saying she doesn’t “know how to be a sober person or how to be a mother, or how to be a friend.” [ii] So what does she do? She promises herself that she will show up even if she is scared and just do the next right thing even when she is shaking. So, right there on the bathroom floor, Glennon says yes, yes to motherhood, yes to sobriety, yes to the idea that there is a God, that that God is trying to speak to her, love her, and invite her back to life. Glennon decides to believe in a God who would believe in a person like her. Glennon acts immediately. She doesn’t say, one day I will be a friend, or a sober person, or even a believer in God; she says I will practice being those things right now. Immediately. That’s the word that jumps out […]
Matthew 2:1-15 Mary and Joseph had created a home for Jesus. They had hung up their equivalent of curtains and settled in. They took Jesus to synagogue on the Sabbath and watched in wonder as Jesus ran around Joseph’s workshop and squirmed in Mary’s arms. Then life took a detour. It started when these strange astrologers showed up at Mary […]
For this Ash Wednesday altarscape, I obtained shiny and gauzy purple material from a local fabric store and layered the gauzy fabric over the shiny one. I used books and hymnals underneath the fabric to create a height differential. After Ash Wednesday, I switched out the candles for a Lenten look, which I achieved by placing sticks in two glass vases […]
The trouble with the mind is that it sees like a bird but walks like a man. And things at the surface move fast, needing to be gathered. While things at center move slow, needing to be perceived. What I mean is if you want to see the many birds, you can gather them in a cage and wonder why […]
“Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don’t open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” -Rumi Let the beauty we love be what we do. As the news blares on about […]
