Inspiration...

For the changes taking place as I begin my journey at Spring Arbor...and the changes I feel pressing inside, yet to be manifest....This is "For a New Beginning"...from John O'Donohue's book of blessings:

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

Awakening your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.


This can warm the hearts of most people, I am sure. I hope it is as embracing for you as it has been for me.

From the IJM...

Dateline NBC this evening will feature a special update on IJM undercover work in Svay Pak, Cambodia that resulted in the rescue of 37 girls. The Dateline NBC story, entitled “Children for Sale,” originally aired in January 2004 and has received significant airtime as well as two Emmy awards.
Tonight’s update will include a new interview with Gary Haugen as well as interviews with several of the young girls rescued by IJM in the original raids.

9pm EDT/PDTDateline NBC
Please watch and spread the word to friends who may be new to IJM!

Gratefully– International Justice Mission


P.S. Feel free to visit www.ijm.org/presscenter for previous Dateline NBC footage along with recent IJM media coverage. For more information surrounding the Svay Pak operation, please read Terrify No More by Gary Haugen.

I complete Christ?!

Further thoughts on the Incarnation....

Mom and I are (working on) memorizing the first chapter of Colossians. We were going over the verses on our walk yesterday morning (or was it the day before?), up to verse 23. Then we read ahead to get an idea of where we'd be going next.....and discovered this:

" I am now rejoicing in my suffereings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (v. 24)

Completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions????????? This is saying, in other words, that Christ's suffering on the cross is incomplete...and we have what it takes to complete it?
And in John 15.....there's a vine and a branch. Apart from the vine, the branch dies - but can a vine bear much fruit without the branch?

If I weren't reading it directing out of my Bible, I might call this heresy! But I am...and it's not.

I (can) complete Christ...the Incarnation. God - almighty creator and ruler of the universe, omnipotent, omnipresent (and all the other "omni's"!) - needs me. Not because he is weak, incompetent, or otherwise incapable...but because this is how he chooses to love me. By involving me in this mystery of the Incarnation - even making me indispensable to the "project"!

Can this be true.....or am I having delusions of grandeur?

Christians or Theists?

The mystery, the reality of the incarnation is what defines us as Christians. Bring Christ to the world around us, seeing Christ in all things....this is what we are to be about. If its not about this, we are only theists, believing in a God who is aloof and "out there." A Christian life is an incarnational life. Richard Rohr says that either we see Christ in all things....or we see him in nothing.

God...with skin.

Ronald Rolheiser, in The Holy Longing, explores what he calls the "under understood" mystery of the incarnation:

"The incarnation is not a thirty-three year experiment by God in history, a one-shot, physical incursion into our lives. The incarnation began with Jesus and it has never stopped. The ascension of Jesus did not end, not fundamentally change, the incarnation. God's physical body is still among us. God is still present, as physical and as ready today, as God was in the historical Jesus. God still has skin, human skin, and physically walks on this earch just as Jesus did (The Holy Longing, p 79)."

This physical body is us. You and me. Here on this planet...We are the Body of Christ.

What are the practical effects of this incarnation on our spirituality?
(Note: A theist is a person who believes in God; a Christian is one who believes in a God who is incarnate. Thus a theist would not be much affected practically by the incarnation; a Christian is defined by it.)
I am sure the practical implications are countless....Rolheiser names eight....and I've only read the first one: how we should pray. If we am the continued incarnation of the Christ spirit, and we pray through Jesus Christ (or in his name), "not only God in heaven is being petitioned and asked to act. We are also charging ourselves, as part of the Body of Christ, with some responsibility for answering the prayer. To pray as a Christian demands concrete involvement in trying to bring about what is pleaded for in the prayer (p 83)."

We are to be God with skin to the people around us. We pray for people and situations...but we do not leave it at that. We look for very real ways to be part of the answer to our own prayer.

Make sense?

This brings to mind a recent "experiment" Mom and I did in Kidz Church a few weeks ago. We were starting on our compassion ("social justice tradition") series....and sat everyone, including ourselves, in a big circle. Everyone was given a card that said, "This week I will pray every day for _____. S/he has asked that I pray for __________." Everyone wrote the name of the person on their right in the first blank; that person's request in the second. Mom was being prayed for by an 8-year-old girl, fairly new to the group but very attentive. She promised to pray every day that Mom would have new ideas for her artwork. Later that week, we held our mid-week gathering out at the Cedar Creek picnic area/campground. This little girl came with her mother....and brought a big, thick book of great art ideas and gave it to Mom.
She had been praying....and she became part of the answer to her own prayer. This is how the incarnation brings life to our prayers.

Mind-Body....Silence

Matthew Sanford was paralyzed from the chest down in a car accident when he was 13 years old. In the twenty-something years following, he has learned a lot about the mind-body relationship and the silence there waiting to be discovered. Krista Tippet (Speaking of Faith) interviewed Sanford last fall; I've now listened through this interview...3 times? It makes a lot of sense to me...and touches something on a deeper level. I'm not sure what exactly. Here's the page from SPF's website...

The Body's Grace: Matthew Sanford's Story

I just ordered his memoir yesterday...Waking: A Memoir of Trauma and Transcendence.

And here's the video interview:

Matthew Sanford Interview from Speaking of Faith on Vimeo.

Desire

Ronald Rolheiser, in The Holy Longing, says that all of creation is driven by desire. That desire is the driving force behind all of life's happenings. Desire. And our "spirituality" is what we do with that desire - how we channel it.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight; in all your ways acknowledge him..."

This is all about directing/channeling desire God-ward. It would be helpful, then (and perhaps critical), to entertain the ongoing question:
What desire is driving me in this very moment?
What drives a beetle to scritch across the patio and puch through the grass to some mystery destination (have you ever wondered where they go?)? What drives a bird to weave a nest? We can dismiss this as mere instinct...but isn't it really some form of desire? What drives my dogs to to get excited and crazy when they think it's time to go for a walk? Desire. What drives a child to clean his/her bedroom (even under compulsion)? Desire. Why am I here right now, writing this? Desire.

Majesty

[maj-uh-stee] noun. regal, lofty, stately dignity; imposing character; grandeur; supreme greatness and authority; sovereignty; from the latin root magnus, meaning large.

"The Lord is King, with majesty enthroned..." ~in Psalm 93

"The Lord is great and worthy of praise, to be feared above all gods..." ~in Psalm 96

"It was the Lord who made the heavens, His are majesty and state and power and splendor in His holy place..." ~in Psalm 96

"Be still and know that I am God, supreme among the nations, supreme in all the earth..." ~in Psalm 46

The bigness and astounding, unfathomable beauty of this being who has always existed and will never cease existing - this should stike up in my heart a deep awe...deep desire to obey...deep realization of His goodness and mercy and love. That he is goodness itself. He is mercy and love. His presence is found - or can be found - in every object, time place, situation. I can see him there...if I will only lay aside my anxious fretting and constant efforts to manage all of life. Be still and know that I am God.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart...This is a God who can be trusted. So obviously. So deeply. But sometimes - most times - it's as though I am saying, "I don't know how well I can trust you. Prove yourself to me!"

What utter silliness. Thoughtless, shallow conlcusions. Deeply embedded pride.

And yet he loves me...giving further evidence of His majesty.

It's easy.

Yesterday was non-stop at the theater. Oof. We're doing free "family shows" this summer, so that's bringing in a lot of people...in addition to the normal summer crowds. We'd get cleaned up after one set for the normal show times and it would be time for another family show....finished that and folks started showing up for the next normal show...and on and on. There was one point when I really lost focus - but a large part of the day I was somehow (call it grace) able to continue turning scripture over in mouth and mind. Proverbs 3:5-6 has been my "mantra" of late. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight; In all your ways ackowledge him and he will make straight your paths.
Going upstairs between sets to thread and start the movies gave me regular opportunities to have some alone time...short, focused bursts of meditation! As I was restocking the concession counter (about two-thirds through the shift), the words came to me:
Barbara, it's easy. Much easier than you think. Just trust. It's simple. Just let it go, whatever "it" is, and trust me.

It's easy. Why do I complicate it?

Lessons from the garden...

I had the day off at both jobs....so I stayed home most of the day and got to work with Dad in our 50'x50' garden. It's beautiful! He's worked so hard on it since before school was even out (he teaches 4th grade on the Mescalero Apache reservation). We're gonna have more squash, melons, peas, onions, and potatoes than we'll know what to do with!

Anyway...so I spent some time pulling weeds today. We're trying to grow it all organically, so no weed-killer allowed - which means that we spend plenty of time pulling the sneaky little things up! Some of them were actually quite pretty...green topped leaves with red-purple undersides.

As I pecked at the damp soil with my mud-crusted fingers, getting as many of the little ones as I could....I thought about two things:

1)Weeds, no matter how big or small, consume space and nutrients needed by the garden plants. If the garden is to bear fruit as the gardener intends, the plants must have room to grow and adaquate nutrients. The weeds must be pulled. What in my life needs to be weeded out?

2)Dad has set up a system of soaker hoses until we can afford to put in drip irrigation. One thing is certain.....weeds love to grow right underneath the hose. It's wet and protected, I guess....and that's where I found most of them. You can't say, "Oh! Weeds like water....so we'll stop watering the garden!" The garden would die. The water is necessary...thus the hoses are necessary. But when weeding, it's good to check underneath the hose often and well....pull the weeds while they're still small.

There are good things set in place in my life - disciplines, routines. But it's important to look under the surface of these things - to check for little things that might be growing that could be harmful in the future. Pride, fear, and works-based salvation (a very sneaky weed, that one)...things like that. This requires attention...time....care...and lots of grace.

The happening...

Well, with (now...starting today!) two part-time jobs, church work, house work, and occasional graphic design jobs....I've been going non-stop. Except for my quiet times in the mornings and my fairly relazed evenings. And there are moments of quiet throughout the day - if not in my circumstances, then at least in my heart.

From this morning's meditation:
In God alone be at rest, O my soul. There is no rest to be found in others' approval. There is no rest to be found in productivity...accomplishments...a "perfect" schedule...money...an "attractive" body...In God alone.

In God alone be at rest, O my soul.

O my soul.

In God alone be at rest.

At rest.

In God alone be...be. Be.

In God alone...alone. Alone.

In God.