Teresa of Avila – Quote of the Week

Although I have often abandoned you, O Lord, you have never abandoned me.  Your hand of love is always outstretched towards me, even when I stubbornly look the other way. And your gentle voice constantly calls me, even when I obstinately refuse to listen…

What a good friend you are, Lord! You are so patient, willing to wait as long as necessary for me to turn to you. You rejoice at the times when I love you, but you do not hold against me the times when I ignore you. Your patience is beyond my understanding. Even when I pray, my mind fills with worldly concerns and vain daydreams. Yet you are happy if I give only a single second of honest prayer, turning that second into a seed of love.



Oh Lord, I enjoy your friendship so much, why is it not possible for me to think of you constantly?

Teresa of Avila

Secret to Longevity: Friendship

Want a long healthy life?

Researchers at Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gathered data from 148 studies on health outcomes and social relationships. They looked at every paper on this subject they could find. Their research ended up including more than 300,000 people. 

What did they find? People with poor social connections had on average 50% higher odds of death in the study's follow-up period (an average of 7.5 years) than people with more robust social ties.

Friends keep you healthy.

God created community to help us thrive in our health in all areas: physical, emotionally and spiritual.  I would add social health too.

When I was in graduate school, drained physically and mentally from balancing work, parenting, and school, I resolved to do one action over summer break in all the dimensions of health to revive my spirit.  Physically, I walked at least three times a week.  Mentally I escaped the world of serious non-fiction and enjoyed good fictional stories. Spiritually, I journaled and carved out some time of silence and solitude with God.

Socially, I took the time to sit on the porch with friends, relaxing, talking, and just being together.

All these actions gave me the drive to finish that final year of school and I know the social interaction with friends was a key. 

Too often we spent more time on to-do’s and duties, and not on intentionally growing friendships. I can live, exist, without friends but this study shows and my heart tells me – life is longer, healthier and happier with company of friends.

A few interesting quotes about friendship:

A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely. Pam Brown

In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Albert Schweitzer

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship. William Blake

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. Henri Nouwen

How do you nurture friendship?  How does friendship nurture you?

Living Deliberately

My friend, Candy, went skydiving last week. Yes that's Candy in the photo. She posted her adventure on Facebook (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXLjJSybrtQ)  and I laughed as I watched it – she never stopped smiling.  She embraced life, took the challenge, and literally let go.

   Candy lives deliberately – experiencing each day. She didn’t let fear or excuses stop her from achieving a deep desire in her heart. Now I am not going skydiving and am not recommending it either, but doesn’t it make you wonder what has been on your bucket list too long and needs attention?  What God given yearning is buried in your heart under the clutter of everyday chores and other people’s demands?

     Henry David Thoreau lived deliberately. He rose every morning with the intention to absorb very crumb of the day.  He wrote, “I want to live deep and suck all the marrow out of life…to know it by experience.”

     I think most of us walk around half asleep or even worse half dead. We get caught up with our never-ending to do lists and trapped into shallow living.

     I don’t think God gave us a numbing, boring life but a real, vibrant, energizing life. I want to taste that, experience that, to be fully alive.

     So now what?  I am going to pray about this observation this week – remain open to what the Lord is teaching me about living deliberately. What do I need to let go off – like Candy had to do in skydiving – in order to embrace the dreams God planted within me?  I plan to revisit some of my deepest desires and intentionally open one of them – yet this summer.

Join me?

God is Enough – Lectio Divina

"And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:19 (NIV)

God will meet all my needs.

All I need.

Everything.

I don’t need to look elsewhere.

God is enough.

I don’t need worldly distractions.

I don’t need comfort foods.

I need God and God alone.

God is enough.

Not just any god

MY God.

My God is enough.

I cling to this promise and belief, Lord, in my walk.  You are enough.

Abraham said in Genesis, "The name of our God is JEHOVAH-JIREH, the Lord will see and the Lord will provide."

Jehovah-Jireh, I place my trust and love in You.  You are enough.

Quote of the Week

“If God sees that my spiritual life will be furthered by giving me the things for which I ask, then He will give them, but that is not the end of prayer. The end of prayer is that I come to know God Himself.”  

O. Chambers

Living in the Future or in the Present

I live in the future.  I am a planner, organizer, to- doer of the highest regard.

This realization hit me once again this past weekend. Walking into Barnes and Noble, just to look around, I saw them –2011 calendars  

Like an eagle diving to snatch its prey, I raced over to the display.  So many bright colors and varying formats before me. I felt like a child drooling over all the possibilities at Toys R Us or an addict finding just the right fix. I even held in my hand one calendar dated 2011 and 2012 – two year of planning. I had to buy one.  In fact, I bought two.

My husband just shook his head at me. “There is still half of 2010 left you know.”

He is right.  I think I can somehow control the future when I have dates and notations for boundaries.  How sad to miss the present gifts surrounding us being too busy looking ahead.

I have been reflecting about my reaction of joy and excitement over next year’s calendar.  At first I chastised myself for being so future oriented and not embracing the present moment, but now realize that hey, that is how God wired me. I accept that and to be truthful, appreciate that organization is a God-given ability.  When I live out of my strengths, I do feel energy, passion and aliveness.

But I also know I miss part of life when I don’t also embrace the present moment.

Dale Carnegie said, “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living.  We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon - instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.”

Can’t I do both?  Continue to enjoy the promises of the future while not forgetting the joy of the present?  What do you think?

God’s Delightful Creativity in the Deep Sea

Behold the work of the Lord.

Newscasts last week carried this story:

“Remote-controlled cameras sent down to depths of more than 4,500 feet in the Coral Sea, northeast of the northern Australian city of Cairns, have brought back unprecedented views of six-gilled sharks, giant oil fish, swarms of crustaceans and nautiluses that have been compared to "living fossils."

The photographs fascinated me. Just think we had no idea these creatures even existed until the camera captured them. God created their brilliant colors, symmetrical bumps and flowing tentacles and set them free to dance just for Him these last million years or so. Now He is sharing them with us, His deep sea delights.

When the photos appeared on the television screen, their beauty drew my attention.  I abruptly stopped everything else and said, “Only God could have made something so wildly imaginative as these fish.” 

The photographs haunted me. With the renewed effort to be green and the tragedy with the oil spill in the gulf, these photographs also stirred within me a deepening appreciation of the delicate balance for all life.

Behold – a neat word meaning to gaze lovingly and tenderly.  To give our full attention to soak in every detail. To humbly recognize Who is the real power behind the wonder of every creature, every circumstance, every moment in our lives. 

Perhaps as we grow spiritually, we need to become better beholders, to fully take in the glimpses of divine grace that surround us.

God the Creator – Lectio Divina

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Isaiah 40:28 (NIV)

 The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

Creator

Maker

Originator

Artist Extraordinaire

Fashioner of puffy clouds, crawling bugs, and long necked giraffes

Builder

Composer

Architect

Designer of every detail from beginning to end

Inventor

Author

Molder of masterpieces and shaper of souls

Lord you are the genesis, the source of all creativity

Lord you are the spark of all eternity.

Praise you for being the source, the fountain, and the seed of vitality.

You are Creator.

Lighten my Heart, Lord – Light as a Feather

    Ma'at, the Egyptian goddess of justice, truth and order, was always depicted wearing a white ostrich feather in her hair. The Egyptians believed that when they died they would enter the underworld or the Hall of the Dead where Ma’at would weigh their hearts against the weight of a feather to determine the worthiness of his or her soul.

     If the heart was free from the impurities of sin, and therefore lighter than the feather, then the dead person could enter the eternal afterlife. A heart could be made light as a feather by lifetime of kind deeds, love and care for the needed.

    Makes the expression – “lighten up”- take on new meaning, doesn’t it?

    My heart has been heavy lately – full of hurts, anger, and resentments. Reading this story reminded me it was time to lighten up my heart.  Time to replace my negative emotions for more Christlike characteristics of kindness, gentleness, and love. 

     Being able to find an image to describe a problem or situation I face helps me let go and become more open to where the Spirit is leading me. I think visualizing a concern or even a joy creates a concrete and tangible symbol instead of feeling lost in the foggy aftermath of churning emotions.  Imagery can be a powerful spiritual discipline.

     Hildegard of Bingen wrote, “Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God.”

  May I live each day with a light heart responding only to God’s breath.

  

God Bends Down to Hold the Ordinary

My one-year-old granddaughter, Kyla, has been here the past three days as her parents help put on a new roof on our house.  My duties while they lifted, hammered, and sweated in the hot summer sun?  Babysit!!

Now being a good grandma I have a collection of fun and developmental correct toys and lots of books for her. Yet what was her favorite activity?  Playing in the backyard with stones.

I was fascinated watching her.  She looked intently at the ordinary river rocks, spied just the one she wanted and gingerly picked it up like it was the most precious stone on earth. She held it tenderly in her hands, murmur baby talk as if she knew somehow the rock would recognize the words, then lay it gently down. 

I have stepped on these rocks in my back yard for a number of years and never once took the time to notice the individual colors, shapes and differences. I wonder what other everyday miracles I miss. One year old Kyla reminded me, this old grandma, that paying attention is a powerful spiritual discipline.

God reaches down into the mucky mess of this world and picks up an unremarkable, ordinary human being.  He holds that person tenderly and whispers His love in a language we may not fully understand, but somehow know. I believe He holds each of us this way every day, every moment. Watching Kyla, I saw God.

Seeing the world through the eyes of a one year old and experiencing the presence of God surprisingly blessed my day. 

Resting In God – Lectio Divina – July 11, 2010

 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

Weary and burdened.  Yes Lord that is how I feel this week. 

Weary from too much whirlwind traveling and demanding busyness.

Burdened by consuming shifting emotions that swing wildly from deep heartbreaking hurts to indescribable joy.

I read once that we are like sheep and need to remember sheep are not burden carrying animals.

So this little lamb comes to You seeking Your arms of comfort and rest.

I need Your strength to renew my spirit so I can continue to live as You called me.

Your rest is the place I dwell and release my heavy burdens and unwind my weariness. 

What Does God Look Like?

How do you see God?  Judy Cannato wrote in her newsletter last week, “Healthy spiritual growth is normally characterized by the evolution of images of God. Often spiritual directors ask directees to recall how their picture of the divine has changed over the decades.”

What does God look like when you visualize him?  Or her?  The book, The Shack, shocked some people’s image of God when the author portrayed God as a black woman. 

When I was younger God was a tall old man with long white beard sitting off in the distance. As my spiritual walk continued, God often was a more of a companion, friend, gentle guide and encourager nurturing me slowly to grow closer to him.

Last year I noticed my image of God moved away, like he was once again sitting in the corner, not close.  My spiritual director encouraged me to reflect on this movement: did He move or did I?  To be honest, I kept Him at arm’s length for a while during a dry spiritual period and it was only after returning to quiet meditative prayer did I feel close once again to God.  Naming the image helped me feel reconnected with the sacred.

I invite you to reflect on your own images of God and to examine whether they empower or impede you.  Your image of God is a powerful influence on your spiritual walk even when you don’t realize it. Nellie Morton wrote, "Concepts can be corrected and changed, not so images. They must be shattered or exorcised."   Strong words, aren’t they?

How do you see God and how has that changes on your spiritual journey?

Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Prayer of Relinquishment

How do you pray?  Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath.  So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms.  Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.

Reading Catherine Marshall when I was younger was the first time I read about the Prayer of Relinquishment.  The dictionary tells me that when I relinquish something, like a possession or a right, I give it up. I surrender it.

Catherine Marshall wrote, “…God was trying to teach me something important about prayer. Gradually I saw that a demanding spirit, with self-will as its rudder, blocks prayer….God absolutely refuses to violate our free will; that therefore, unless self-will is voluntarily given up, even God cannot move to answer prayer.”

Image of this prayer is the garden of Gethsemane with Jesus, surrendering His all with the words, “Not my will but yours be done.” Or remember the old Nestea commercial with the man falling into the refreshing swimming pool? – when we relinquish we fall into the arms of God, trusting Him completely.

Letting go and yielding our will to God is a continual process and one we don’t do without difficulty. We like to stay in control (or fool ourselves in thinking we have control) and fear if we give up everything to God – what will He ask us to do?

Into God’s hands we surrender our ego, our will, and our entire self. We release all that we cling to and wait in hope and trust.  Always hope!

Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.


Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all. 


Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.

I wish no more than this, O Lord. 


Into your hands I commend my soul;


I offer it to you with all the love of my heart, for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself, to surrender myself into your hands, without reserve, and with boundless confidence, for you are my Father. 
Charles de Foucald

Celebrating Weddings – Lectio Divina

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10 (NIV)

Today is my son, Brian’s, wedding day.  He is marrying a marvelous young woman – Mandy. I am thankful and celebrating today! I delight greatly in the Lord!

Apache Wedding Blessing

Now you will feel no rain


For each of you will be shelter to the other.


Now each of you will feel no cold


For each of you will be warmth to the other. 


Now there is no loneliness for you


For each of you will be companion to the other.

Now you are two persons


But there is one life before you.


Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness


And may your days be good and long upon the earth.

I love you both – May God drench you with many, many happy days and surround you with His love.

Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Intercessory Prayer

How do you pray?  Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath.  So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms.  Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.

Praying for others is both an honor and responsibility many Christian take seriously. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about this type of prayer, “Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day.”

Intercession on behalf of a fellow human being is a way of loving the other.

“Prayers of intercession specifically ask God to intercede in the world. We ask in the midst of tragedies involving thousands of people or in times of struggle and disease in the life of an individual, family or community. We are asking for God's help. Sometimes we are specific in our prayers as we ask for jobs, or healing, or an end to pain. Other times we may simply ask for God to be present in the midst of the situation, letting the divine love and comfort be experienced by those who struggle. And often we cry out that we do not know how to pray for we do not have the wisdom to know what is needed.”  Jane Vennard

Some intercessory prayers are general: “Lord I pray for those forgotten or those suffering in such and such country.” Or they can be specific:  “Lord draw Tom closer to you and give him strength to get through this difficult time.”

Often I simply say, “Lord you know best what she needs today.  Help her know your love.”

Jane Vennard teaches about another form of intercessory prayer is called "arrow prayers." It is like holding a bow, pulling the string back, and letting the arrow fly. This form is spontaneous — the times that prayers for others are pulled right out of me, such as hearing an ambulance siren, or passing a homeless person, or reading of a tragedy in the newspaper.

Sunday’s newspaper contains photos of 8-10 people wanted for various crimes. I pause and lift each of them up by name. I often wondered if I am the only one to pray for them.

“The purest form of love is given with no expectation of return. Measured by this standard, earnest prayer for others is a magnificent act of love.”  David Hubbard

How do you pray for others?