Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? you are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us... And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-Nelson Mandela
"I am entirely of King Edmund's opinion," said Reepicheep, "as far as concerns the ship's company in general. Bu I myself will sit at this table till sunrise."
"Why on earth?" said Eustace.
"Because," said the Mouse, "this is a very great adventure, and no danger seems to me so great as that of knowing when I get back to Narnia that I left a mystery behind me through fear."
-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Sunday, May 5, 2013
All the World's a Stage
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
-William Shakespeare
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts.
-William Shakespeare
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Orphans, Kingdoms by Brooke Fraser
In me, in you
Orphans, kingdoms
Wide eyes and paper crowns
Time will hold us,
Time erode us
We're wrinkling children now
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
In me, in you
Things, explorers
Babes with codes of arms
A world inside us
A feast, a harvest
Each soul a sun, a star
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die
We will look our Maker in the eye
Raise a flagon and drink to your health
Who is he that can conquer himself?
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
Orphans, kingdoms
Wide eyes and paper crowns
Time will hold us,
Time erode us
We're wrinkling children now
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
In me, in you
Things, explorers
Babes with codes of arms
A world inside us
A feast, a harvest
Each soul a sun, a star
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die
We will look our Maker in the eye
Raise a flagon and drink to your health
Who is he that can conquer himself?
We are wandering where the wild wind blows
We are happy here 'cause the wild wind knows
What we are
Orphans, kingdoms
Old Pine
Hot sand on toes,
cold sand in sleeping bags,
I've come to know that memories
Were the best things you ever had
The summer shone beat down bony backs
So far from home where the ocean stood
Down dust and pine cone tracks
We slept like dogs down by the fire side
Awoke to the fog all around us
The boom of summer time
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning.
Hot sand on toes,
cold sand in sleeping bags,
I've come tot know the friends around you
Are all you'll always ahve
Smoke in my lungs,
or the echoed stone
Careless and young,
free as the birds that fly
With weightless souls now
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning
We grow, grow, steady as the morning
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, steady as the flowers
we grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still
cold sand in sleeping bags,
I've come to know that memories
Were the best things you ever had
The summer shone beat down bony backs
So far from home where the ocean stood
Down dust and pine cone tracks
We slept like dogs down by the fire side
Awoke to the fog all around us
The boom of summer time
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning.
Hot sand on toes,
cold sand in sleeping bags,
I've come tot know the friends around you
Are all you'll always ahve
Smoke in my lungs,
or the echoed stone
Careless and young,
free as the birds that fly
With weightless souls now
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning
We grow, grow, steady as the morning
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, steady as the flowers
we grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still
My Work
To do the work I am given to do, I am going to need to do some homework. I am going to need to do some thinking and wondering and studying about my gifts and my talents. I am going to need to be sure that what I do with my hands actually comes from and nurtures my heart. I am going to have to examine its effects upon others and how it fits into the kingdom that has already come. And I am going to have to be clear about why I am doing it and my hopes and my dreams.
-Living Prayer by Robert Benson
We skip down the hallways of our youth, you and I, stopping now and then to catch our breath. And every now and then we catch something else. A glimpse of the future. Our future. A glimpse we caught when we came across a window suddenly flung open in front of us, its gossamer curtains lifted by the breeze redolent with the future, filling our lungs with refreshing air and our heart with hopeful dreams.
At that window we hear something like somebody calling our name, only in a language we can't quite understand, so we don't recognize who it is who is calling us or to where we are being called.
But we recognize the name
Even in a foreign language, names translate closely to the original. Whoever is calling us is calling us by our true name. Whispering to us a secret. Telling us who we are. And showing us what we will be doing with our lives if only we have eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the faith to follow.
-Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire
-Living Prayer by Robert Benson
We skip down the hallways of our youth, you and I, stopping now and then to catch our breath. And every now and then we catch something else. A glimpse of the future. Our future. A glimpse we caught when we came across a window suddenly flung open in front of us, its gossamer curtains lifted by the breeze redolent with the future, filling our lungs with refreshing air and our heart with hopeful dreams.
At that window we hear something like somebody calling our name, only in a language we can't quite understand, so we don't recognize who it is who is calling us or to where we are being called.
But we recognize the name
Even in a foreign language, names translate closely to the original. Whoever is calling us is calling us by our true name. Whispering to us a secret. Telling us who we are. And showing us what we will be doing with our lives if only we have eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the faith to follow.
-Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire
The Garden
In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.
-James 1:21 (MSG)
The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
-Isaiah 58:11
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of the briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.
-Isaiah 55:12-13
The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
-Isaiah 51:3
Father,
Allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart. Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus. Amen.
You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so. You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops. You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture, and the hillsides blossom with joy.
-Psalm 65:9-12
When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, "I will now be good and move mountains by my acts of faith." No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit doeth the work, not you: you merely water it. Do you not see the comfort there is in that? I can tell you in a primer language that a very gentle, calm, unemotional, selfless, and patient attitude toward your spiritual growth is essential- such as all old gardeners know. They know that patience, hoeing, watering, and certain order, a quiet rhythm, bring a heavenly beauty.
-Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
I find you there in all these things
I care for like a brother.
A seed, you nestle in the smallest of them,
and in the huge ones spread yourself hugely.
Such is the amazing play of powers:
they give themselves so willingly,
swelling in the roots, thinning as the trunks rise,
and in the high leaves, resurrection.
-Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of the unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these can not spring up anywhere except in the good soil of liberty and desire.
The mind that is the prisoner of its own pleasure and the will that is the captive of its own desire cannot accept the seeds of a higher pleasure and a supernatural desire.
For how can I receive the seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and opposite desire? God will not plant His liberty in me because I am a prisoner and I do not even desire to be free. I love my captivity and I lock myself in the desire for things that i hate, and I have hardened my heart against true love.
-Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
He said I caught the point of the third soil right on the head! It was full of weeds and thorns...I guess he meant that often our lives are strangled by things that don't matter ultimately- he often referred to people who dwelt in this state of mind as "nit-pickers!" He felt that more people lost the joy of their faith in God because of pet attitudes of nonsense! That always strangles life and love....
.... He kept tantalizing me to try to find the deepest lesson of the parable...it finally hit me: All the soils were in the same field! He slapped my knee and threw his head back with a hearty laugh.... My life is a blend of many responses to God- busy in solid service but like a hustling cook sometimes hungry over a full kettle...living in a shallow artificial faith at times...overly concerned at times with things that don't matter ultimately...and-like now- warm and fertile soil, productive, responsive to his bidding.
-The Gospel According to Norton by Grady Nutt
Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you- you of little faith!
-Luke 12-27-28
-James 1:21 (MSG)
The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
-Isaiah 58:11
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of the briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.
-Isaiah 55:12-13
The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.
-Isaiah 51:3
Father,
Allow the soil of my soul to be a place that is fertile and receptive to all that you desire to plant in my heart. Tend it carefully and nurture all that has sprung up in me that is of you; that I may be a garden of your delight. Through Jesus. Amen.
You take care of the earth and water it, making it rich and fertile. The river of God has plenty of water; it provides a bountiful harvest of grain, for you have ordered it so. You drench the plowed ground with rain, melting the clods and leveling the ridges. You soften the earth with showers and bless its abundant crops. You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance. The grasslands of the wilderness become a lush pasture, and the hillsides blossom with joy.
-Psalm 65:9-12
When you meditate or abide in your quiet times of communion, you do not charge in and do something, like saying, "I will now be good and move mountains by my acts of faith." No, you water your garden, knowing that these ideas are growing into a heavenly garden; the indwelling spirit doeth the work, not you: you merely water it. Do you not see the comfort there is in that? I can tell you in a primer language that a very gentle, calm, unemotional, selfless, and patient attitude toward your spiritual growth is essential- such as all old gardeners know. They know that patience, hoeing, watering, and certain order, a quiet rhythm, bring a heavenly beauty.
-Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
I find you there in all these things
I care for like a brother.
A seed, you nestle in the smallest of them,
and in the huge ones spread yourself hugely.
Such is the amazing play of powers:
they give themselves so willingly,
swelling in the roots, thinning as the trunks rise,
and in the high leaves, resurrection.
-Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of the unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them: for such seeds as these can not spring up anywhere except in the good soil of liberty and desire.
The mind that is the prisoner of its own pleasure and the will that is the captive of its own desire cannot accept the seeds of a higher pleasure and a supernatural desire.
For how can I receive the seeds of freedom if I am in love with slavery and how can I cherish the desire of God if I am filled with another and opposite desire? God will not plant His liberty in me because I am a prisoner and I do not even desire to be free. I love my captivity and I lock myself in the desire for things that i hate, and I have hardened my heart against true love.
-Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton
He said I caught the point of the third soil right on the head! It was full of weeds and thorns...I guess he meant that often our lives are strangled by things that don't matter ultimately- he often referred to people who dwelt in this state of mind as "nit-pickers!" He felt that more people lost the joy of their faith in God because of pet attitudes of nonsense! That always strangles life and love....
.... He kept tantalizing me to try to find the deepest lesson of the parable...it finally hit me: All the soils were in the same field! He slapped my knee and threw his head back with a hearty laugh.... My life is a blend of many responses to God- busy in solid service but like a hustling cook sometimes hungry over a full kettle...living in a shallow artificial faith at times...overly concerned at times with things that don't matter ultimately...and-like now- warm and fertile soil, productive, responsive to his bidding.
-The Gospel According to Norton by Grady Nutt
Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you- you of little faith!
-Luke 12-27-28
Come and Stay a While- Shalom & Wholeness
Few words in all of the Old Testament are as rich as the Hebrew word shalom. As a matter of fact, the translations of this one little word are varied and numerous- trying in vain to capture the fullness of the idea it is meant to communicate. The most common translation we have for the word is peace, but that does not seem to go far enough. Therefore, it is also translated prosperity, tranquility, well-being, safety, and security. Maybe the best word we have in the English language, however, that even comes close to capturing the true essence of shalom is the word wholeness. Because at its core shalom is about experiencing the creation intent of God. Shalom is life as God intended it to be- life before sin and brokenness. Shalom is finding our way back into the garden where we were created to enjoy and experience God in His fullness as we "walk with HIm in the cool of the day." It is what our souls are really and truly longing for- deep communion and connection and intimacy with our God.
-Jim Branch
The biblical word that most fully expresses this theological understanding of community is shalom, sometimes translated from the Hebrew as "peace." Shalom is an all-encomapssing word covering all the many relationships of life and expression a vision of what the Israelites conceived of as the ideal of what life was intended by God to be. In describing shalom, commentators use words as "wholeness," "totality," "the untrammeled, free growth of the soul in conjunction with others," or "harmonious community." Or as a report of the World Council of Churches puts it: "Shalom is a social happening, an event in interpersonal relations." The report continues, "The goal towards which God is working, i.e., the ultimate end of his mission, is the establishment of the shalom, and this involves the realization of the full potentialities of all creation, and the ultimate reconciliation and unity in Christ.
-Mutual Ministry by James C. Fenhagen
Shalom...gathers all aspects of wholeness that result from God's will being completed in us. It is the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates with eternal life. Every time Jesus healed, forgave or called someone, we have a demonstration of shalom.
-A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson
Shalom is a peace that not only recalls all the pieces of one's life but sees how the parts fit together in a unified and glorious whole. Shalom involves rest and gratitude; it provides a balance and harmony where all things seem right.
-The Healing Path by Dan Allender
The Christian journey is a journey in wholeness. It is what we might call an adventure in spiritual growth. To talk about spiritual growth, however, is to talk about all of life. Spiritual growth involves not only the way we "pray" but the way we "play." It is concerned with harmony, the person is nourished by the Spirit of God. Harmony emerges when our work, maintenance, play, and freesense are held together in realistic balance.
-Mutual Ministry by James C. Fenhagen.
The witness and vision of John's Gospel call us to enter more deeply into that mystery of the union between the living Jesus and the believer. We share the shalom, that vibrant word of peace and wholeness spoken in the locked room on Resurrection night. Our empty nets are filled from the lake; the fire and food are prepared for us on the beach. Our inner healing moves to a deeper place, and Jesus Christ gives us the mandate: "Feed my sheep."
-Feed My Shepherd by Flora Slosson Wuellner
Every summer, I go to the Boundary Waters, a million acres of pristine wilderness along the Minnesota-Ontario border. My first trip, years ago, was a vacation, pure and simle. But as I returned time and again to that elemental world of water, rock, woods, and sky, my vacation began to feel more like a pilgrimage to me- an annual trek to holy ground driven by spiritual need. Douglas Wood's mediation on the jack pine, a tree native to that part of the world, names what I go up north seeking: images of how life looks when it is lived with integrity.
Thomas Merton claimed that "there is in all things... a hidden wholeness."... up north, in the wilderness, I sense the wholeness "hidden in all things." It is the taste of wild berries, the scent of sun-baked pine, the sight of the Northern Lights, the sound of water lapping the shore, signs of a bedrock integrity that is eternal and beyond all doubt. And when I return to a human world that is transient and riddled with disbelief, I have new eyes for the wholeness hidden in me and my kind and anew heart for loving even our imperfections.
In fact, the wilderness constantly reminds me that wholeness is not about perfection. On July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane-force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary waters. A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return. And yet on each visit since, I have been astonished to see how nature uses devastation to stimulate new growth, slowly but persistently healing her own wounds.
Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness- mine, yours, ours- need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life.
-A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer
-Jim Branch
The biblical word that most fully expresses this theological understanding of community is shalom, sometimes translated from the Hebrew as "peace." Shalom is an all-encomapssing word covering all the many relationships of life and expression a vision of what the Israelites conceived of as the ideal of what life was intended by God to be. In describing shalom, commentators use words as "wholeness," "totality," "the untrammeled, free growth of the soul in conjunction with others," or "harmonious community." Or as a report of the World Council of Churches puts it: "Shalom is a social happening, an event in interpersonal relations." The report continues, "The goal towards which God is working, i.e., the ultimate end of his mission, is the establishment of the shalom, and this involves the realization of the full potentialities of all creation, and the ultimate reconciliation and unity in Christ.
-Mutual Ministry by James C. Fenhagen
Shalom...gathers all aspects of wholeness that result from God's will being completed in us. It is the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates with eternal life. Every time Jesus healed, forgave or called someone, we have a demonstration of shalom.
-A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson
Shalom is a peace that not only recalls all the pieces of one's life but sees how the parts fit together in a unified and glorious whole. Shalom involves rest and gratitude; it provides a balance and harmony where all things seem right.
-The Healing Path by Dan Allender
The Christian journey is a journey in wholeness. It is what we might call an adventure in spiritual growth. To talk about spiritual growth, however, is to talk about all of life. Spiritual growth involves not only the way we "pray" but the way we "play." It is concerned with harmony, the person is nourished by the Spirit of God. Harmony emerges when our work, maintenance, play, and freesense are held together in realistic balance.
-Mutual Ministry by James C. Fenhagen.
The witness and vision of John's Gospel call us to enter more deeply into that mystery of the union between the living Jesus and the believer. We share the shalom, that vibrant word of peace and wholeness spoken in the locked room on Resurrection night. Our empty nets are filled from the lake; the fire and food are prepared for us on the beach. Our inner healing moves to a deeper place, and Jesus Christ gives us the mandate: "Feed my sheep."
-Feed My Shepherd by Flora Slosson Wuellner
Every summer, I go to the Boundary Waters, a million acres of pristine wilderness along the Minnesota-Ontario border. My first trip, years ago, was a vacation, pure and simle. But as I returned time and again to that elemental world of water, rock, woods, and sky, my vacation began to feel more like a pilgrimage to me- an annual trek to holy ground driven by spiritual need. Douglas Wood's mediation on the jack pine, a tree native to that part of the world, names what I go up north seeking: images of how life looks when it is lived with integrity.
Thomas Merton claimed that "there is in all things... a hidden wholeness."... up north, in the wilderness, I sense the wholeness "hidden in all things." It is the taste of wild berries, the scent of sun-baked pine, the sight of the Northern Lights, the sound of water lapping the shore, signs of a bedrock integrity that is eternal and beyond all doubt. And when I return to a human world that is transient and riddled with disbelief, I have new eyes for the wholeness hidden in me and my kind and anew heart for loving even our imperfections.
In fact, the wilderness constantly reminds me that wholeness is not about perfection. On July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane-force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary waters. A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return. And yet on each visit since, I have been astonished to see how nature uses devastation to stimulate new growth, slowly but persistently healing her own wounds.
Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness- mine, yours, ours- need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life.
-A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer
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