Reflection for June 23, 2010

Psalm 139

O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;
are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue

You know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and

wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.

If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.

Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?

I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Reflection for June 16, 2010

Holy as a Day is Spent

Holy is the dish and drain

The soap and sink, and the cup and plate

Warm wool socks, the cold white tile

Showerheads and good dry towels

And frying eggs sound like psalms

With bits of salt measured in my palm

It’s all a part of a sacrament

As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the busy street

And cars that boom with passion’s beat

And the checkout girl counting change

The hands that shook my hands today

And hymns of geese fly overhead

And spread their wings like their parents did.

Blessed be the dog, that runs in her sleep

To chase some wild, elusive thing

Holy is the familiar room

The quiet moments in the afternoon

And folding sheets like folding hands

To pray as only laundry can

I’m letting go of all I fear

Like autumn leaves made of earth and air.

For the summer came and the summer went

As holy as the day is spent

Holy is the place I stand

To give whatever small good I can

The empty page, the open book

Redemption everywhere I look

Unknowingly we slow our pace

In the shade of unexpected grace

And with grateful smiles and sad lament

As holy as the day is spent

And morning light sings “Providence”

As holy as a day is spent

-Carrie Newcomer

(From the CD: A Gathering of Spirits)

Reflection for June 9, 2010

In a game of cards or tennis there may come a moment when you

see you cannot possibly win. The same can happen with your hope

of a happy marriage or a brilliant career. Can you go on playing still,

with no expectation of a win? Play not for the victory, though you have

to strive for that, but for the game itself. Playing is a form of worship.

John Donne and George Herbert were ambitious men. Both hoped

to serve the state in some high capacity. Both were disappointed.

Both became clergymen. A cynic might conclude that they had settled

for a second best. But can a second best turn out better than the first?

Can defeat be met in such a way that it yields a greater prize than victory?

Most of us are destined to failure, which is a form of suffering. How to

use our suffering, how to turn the lead of our defeat into the gold of

something else, is the object of religious alchemy. Not the only one, but

one that most of us are interested in.

Sydney Carter, Dance in the Dark

Reflection for June 2, 2010

Good Judgement comes from Experience;

Experience comes from Bad Judgement

Reflection for May 26, 2010

THE RHYTHM OF EACH

I think each comfort we manage—

each holding in the night, each opening

of a wound, each closing of a wound, each

pulling of a splinter or razored word, each

fever sponged, each clear thing given

to someone in greater need—each

passes on the kindness we’ve known.

For the human sea is made of waves

that mount and merge till the way a

nurse rocks a child is the way that child

all grown rocks the wounded, and how

the wounded, allowed to go on, rock

strangers who in their pain

don’t seem so strange.

Eventually, the rhythm of kindness

is how we pray and suffer by turns,

and if someone were to watch us

from inside the lake of time, they

wouldn’t be able to tell if we are

dying or being born.

Mark Nepo

poet laureate of Bread for the Journey

Reflection for May 19, 2010

Musing On the Seen & Unseen

Martha D. Peterson

March 18, 2010

Recently I had time to kill while waiting for a doctor’s appointment, so I bought a coke at the hospital lunchroom and decided to sit outside in the sun. Hovering above me was a fruit tree in full bloom. The white fluffy blossoms rested against a pure blue sky, causing me to think there was a message for me in this beautiful tableau of Nature.

Then the words came...” The seen comes from the unseen.”

Immediately I started to ponder...Where do the roots, blossoms, bark come from? I know the DNA has the plan, but what about the substance, where does that come from...to form leaves, blossoms, bark ...and all the seen objects ...and...babies...and planets. I could go on and on. The answer is: all that appears comes from the invisible. Then Bible verses started pouring through my mind. It’s all in the Bible, the Book of wisdom.

Einstein could only take his numbers so far, then arrived at the wonder of the Invisible which he acknowledged as God.

Here are the verses to ponder upon:

Hebrews 11:1, 3 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen....the worlds were formed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Isaiah 44:2 and Isaiah 49:5 Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb...

Isaiah 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Genesis 1:3:26 And God said, Let there be...and there was... light, firmament, waters, grass,stars, moon, fruit trees, creatures in the seas and sky, and Man, created in His own image and likeness.

Psalm 139:15, 16. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet thee was none of them.

Ecclesiastes 11:5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet...

see also I Corinthians 2:9 eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Matthew 15:13. Every plant , which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

John 1:3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

It seems that the intangibles, Faith, Truth, Love the Word, have the power to bring forth whatever is needed. Those blossoms came forth from the vast Invisible Substance. Isn’t it wonderful!

So let the mind of Christ be active in you to learn the mysteries of Life.

Reflection for May 12, 2010

The Master sees things
as they are,
without trying to control them.
She lets them go
their own way,
and resides
at the center of the circle.

Lao-Tzu. Tao-te-Ching

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Music from the CD 'Unwind'