some things to meditate on…

“Action with and for those who suffer is the concrete expression of the compassionate life and the final criterion of being a Christian.  Such acts do not stand beside the moments of prayer and worship but are themselves such moments.”

- Donald P. McNeil, Douglas A. Morrison, Henri J. M. Nouwen,  Compassion

“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us.  This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.  If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it, but instead turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love?  It disappears.  And you made it disappear.  Let’s not just talk about love.  Let’s practice real love.  This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality.”

- St. John, (1 John 3:16-19)

a Lenten prayer

Great Friend,
I’m not yet up to the total make-over.
Help me proceed, as Italians say,
lentamente, slowly.

- William J. O’Malley

something to meditate on

mystery of mysteries,
truth of all truths,
finder of the lost,

here i am.
unriddle me.

- Steven James, Story

a prayer

Almighty Father, maker of Heaven and Earth, set up your kingdom in our midst.  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on us sinners.  Holy Spirit, Breath of the Living God, renew us and all the world.

- N.T. Wright

the soft glow [brighter]

Tonight is the longest night, when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator and daylight hours are at their shortest.  After tonight the days will get increasingly longer and brighter.

Almost every culture in the ancient world celebrated this return of the light as the time to herald in new life and hope for better days…even at the moment when winter is at its darkest and coldest.  So it makes sense that the early Christian church chose this time of year to celebrate the advent of Jesus the Messiah, the bringer of light and life and hope.

Some of you have heard me mention how unappealing winter is for me: the things that I really seem to connect with and come alive in are covered by snow during this season.  Something inside seems to retreat to the depths of who I am.  
Slumbering.  
Brooding. 
Waiting. 

And I’ve found this is sort of a good thing, a healthy type of rhythm for me each year.  Because the moment the snow falls, I begin anticipating the day when it will melt, when ‘the great white death’ dissipates and is swallowed up by the ground, giving way to new life and possibility.  It’s not an idle waiting, but a working expectation as I prepare myself and my surroundings for what can and will need to be done when Spring arrives.  And when bulbs do burst forth from the ground and birds return from the tropics and fish fry begin to swim in the streams, it all becomes that much more vibrant and exciting.  I find myself opening up again with all of creation, just in time for us to begin celebrating the New Creation that began with Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.

Life is a series of tides, high and low.  It’s a succession of seasons and varying nights and days.  Like the moon, sometimes we find ourselves waxing and sometimes we find ourselves waning.

So this all begs the question: is there any sort of “winter waiting” you’re experiencing right now?  Is there a place in life you want to be — or maybe even a ‘you’ that you want to be — that you aren’t yet?  In what ways does it feel so far away?  And in what ways does it sometimes feel so close?

As always, if you’re comfortable feel free to share.  If not, feel free to e-mail me or even just spend some time thinking about it within the quiet of your own mind.

something to meditate on…

Brother Lawrence was a seventeenth-century French monk who spent the latter part of his life practicing the presence of God (he spent most of his day preparing meals and cleaning dishes in the abbey kitchen).  After he died, his journals and personal writings were found and, later, published.  Here is a small excerpt worth pondering:

“The holiest, most common, most necessary practice in the spiritual life is the presence of God, that is to take delight in and become accustomed to his divine company, speaking humbly and talking lovingly with Him at every moment, without rule or system….  We must continually work hard so that each of our actions is a way of carrying on little conversations with God, not in any carefully prepared way but as it comes from the purity and simplicity of the heart.”

something to meditate on…

You’re raising the dead in me.

- Switchfoot, 24

something to meditate on

That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

something to meditate on

“According to the early Christians, the church doesn’t exist in order to provide a place where people can pursue their private spiritual agendas and develop their own spiritual potential. Nor does it exist in order to provide a safe haven in which people can hide from the wicked world and ensure that they themselves arrive safely at an otherworldly destination. Private spiritual growth and ultimate salvation come rather as the byproducts of the main, central, overarching purpose for which God has called and is calling us. The purpose is clearly stated in various places in the New Testament: that through the church God will announce to the wider world that he is indeed its wise, loving, and just creator: that through Jesus he has defeated the powers that corrupt and enslave it; and that by his Spirit he is at work to heal and renew it.”

-N.T. Wright

something to meditate on

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice,
     for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy….
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called
     children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of justice,
     for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:6-7, 9-10