Gray Days

The promise of Easter, new beginnings, and resurrection is around the corner; or maybe it is already here if we listen and watch.

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Give Me Twenty!

Is Love and Forgiveness the answer to our anger? Can we name our anger and work with it in constructive and not destructive ways?

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Held

We are all beloved children of God, forgiven and restored by Grace. May we hold each other in this Truth.

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Wild Horses

No one can escape life unwounded; it is the human condition. Do pain and suffering make us more loving, more compassionate, and more forgiving? Or does suffering make us more bitter, angrier?

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Hawks and Chants

Do we see signs from God or the Spirit? Or are there just nice coincidences? We often pray, “Come, Holy Spirit,” but what does that mean?

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When Doves Coo

How aware are we of God’s divine presence in our lives? Can we see the divine in the ordinary as well as the extraordinary?

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Wrestle Mania

“You are my beloved son/daughter. You are forgiven. I love you. Go and love who I love. Forgive who I forgive.”

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Extremism

What do we carry? Do we believe in the power of God’s love to change our lives and the world? Or do we believe in the power of hate and violence?

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All Circumstances?

For wisdom and laughter shared, thank you. For community and good food, thank you. For the gift of hope, thank you. For love everlasting we give thanks to you God.

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Broken

Our brokenness is what needs to be accepted in order to restore our human condition to a healed state.

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The Glue

To live in the Spirit is to stay connected, to live in a relationship “grounded in love” and reverence.

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Drink Deeply

Does living water cleanse us of debris—worry, fear, and anxiety—and does living water fill us with hope, awe, and wonder at the same time?

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Rumors of Love

We need Grace to rewire our minds from fear of the other to love of the other. We need to learn to build bridges and not walls that separate us.

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Happy Meals

Do we see ourselves as recipients of amazing grace or do we believe we have earned everything? How do we respond to grace freely given?

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A Pergola

What does it mean for us to see one another and the world with the eyes of Christ? Who is welcome and who is not welcome in the church? Who is in and who is out?

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Out of Thin Air

When the world says go faster and make more noise, our Creator says be still, be silent. We hear God’s wisdom in a “light silent sound” (1 Kings 19:12)

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Christmas in July

As we let go of our fears and grow slowly, we learn that lightness and darkness, sadness and joy, grief and peace, night and day, inner peace and outer conflict, and hope and despair move together quite often.

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Empty Cups

Are we in a position to judge? To punish? Can we hold ourselves and others responsible and be merciful at the same time?

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Home Sweet Home

“We need sacred places to which we can return when life overwhelms us, and we need to be still and turn inward.”

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The Divine Feminine

Who are the people in our lives who have manifested the love, joy, peace, and grace of God? Who has revealed the feminine face of God to us?

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Water Stirring

May the “wind from God sweep over us” (see Genesis 1:2) and through us as we walk through the gardens of our lives.

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Will You Wash My Feet?

Isn’t the Divine Presence here, there, and everywhere? In our communion liturgy we say, “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” So where do we see the Living Christ?

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Tweets and Chirps

May the living waters flow through us, may we consider the birds of the air, may we be still and know God, may we leave our tombs with “fear and great joy.”

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A Desert Tortoise

So, they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Jesus, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” ~ John 12:13-15

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Warm Summer Rain

Love is an open door, a stream of possibilities. When every bone in our body says, “I can’t do this anymore.” Love says, “Yes, you can.”

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Color Blind

Is it possible for us to live in child-like wonder and awe? Can we live in a state of mystery, curiosity, and wild abandon?

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Pinto Bean

To repent is to change our mind, our way of thinking and living. Are we willing to change? Do we want to change? What changes would give us more peace, more joy, and more love in our lives?

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Moving Along the Table

As Nouwen profoundly writes, “The question is not how to avoid loss and make it not happen, but how to choose it as a passage, as an exodus to greater life and freedom.”

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Standing as One

Let’s sink into our past, good and bad, and learn, heal, and grow from it. May we be new creations rooted in God’s radical love and grace for all.

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Praying Like Tom Bean

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

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Hold My Hand

The big generous hearts of our youth can turn into cynical adult hearts. Which heart do we feed or cultivate?

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Four Days or Five Days

By the Grace of God, with humble and contrite hearts, may we move from judgment, anger, and moral smugness towards others, to hearts of empathy and greater understanding

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Lost Treasure

When we go deep into our hearts, beneath our fears, our anxiety, and our insecurities, we discover that God’s heart is our heart. There is Love.

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Changing the Calendar

How intentional are we about our need to rest and replenish our souls? As we make our new year’s resolutions, will we create time and space to simply be?

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Broken Hearts and Hope

It is difficult to keep hope alive when the walls crumble down around us and our communities, and child-like innocence easily fades into adult cynicism and despair.

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Going Home

“More than anything else, we long for home. Our deep ache for intimacy, security, and comfort is, in the end, a longing for home, nothing more. We are forever restlessly searching for someone or something to take us home.”

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Stolen Cars

What does it mean to walk in faith when we have been violated by someone? Can I say the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”? Can I say this prayer with any authenticity if I don’t practice it?

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Take a Zero

“Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something—anything—is better than doing nothing. Because we do not rest, we lose our way.”

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The Stormy Life

Jesus says, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Don’t be afraid in the storms. They are part of life. I will be with you.

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H2 O

May the Spirit continue to flow through us as we let the holy water shape and form us, so we may be one.

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What Are We Hungry For?

Jesus says, “Come and eat breakfast.” You are welcome at my table. “Come and eat.” With the invitation, Peter and the disciples know the Living Christ accepts, forgives, loves, and restores them. Fish and bread have never tasted better.

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Tent Patience

Patience trusts that the Spirit is working through the world, the church, and us for peace and unity. And patience is active not passive. We become the change we want to see.

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Four White Doves

What unbinds us and helps us let go of our pain and sorrow? Does grace slowly mend our broken hearts through tears? Through time? Through a listening ear?

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Aroma Therapy

Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me something to eat. I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”

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I Know that I Know?

With humility, we move from judging someone or a group to having empathy and compassion. We move from seeing in part to seeing more fully, the other person and ourselves.

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What Is Really Important?

Sadly, beliefs often exclude rather than include. Beliefs often make the circle smaller and smaller defining who is in and who is out, who is acceptable and who is not. Grounded in the love of Christ, may we make the circle wider and wider until no one is left standing outside it.

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The Church: Whole and Broken

The church is a dynamic family. If we are honest, all of us know how beautiful and how difficult family structures can be. Family can build us up, love us, and inspire us; and family can break us down and harm us deeply.

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Holding Hands

Christ calls us to make our circles wide and to stand in solidarity with all human beings. We have sacred moments where we stand as one in love and forgiveness.

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What God Has Made Clean

That is what God calls us to do—to see God’s creation and know that it is clean and beautiful—to see our fellow human beings and know that we are all created in God’s image.

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Mothers

We can have more empathy, compassion, and love for our mothers when we recognize the weight of life they had to shoulder.

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Breakfast Is Ready

At a sacred meal, we share our ideas, hopes and failures, new dreams and lost dreams at an inclusive table “flowing with milk and honey.”

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Life-Giving Breath

Jesus breathes on the disciples and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22). The Spirit is breath. His breath is their breath. Our breath is Christ’s breath.

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Is It Easter, Good Friday, or Both?

Sometimes Easter Joy creeps into our Good Fridays. It is good that Good Friday and Easter have their own days, but we can’t really separate them. They are not mutually exclusive events because you can’t have one without the other.

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In the Garden

A small, nondescript wooden sign says in block letters, “Please Visit Our Healing Garden.” Who can resist such an invitation?

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Letting Go of Control

We are not in control, but we can trust “that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

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Earthquakes, Truth, and Freedom

What is the Good News that we can lean into during our current instability and struggles? What can we lean into within our pain, our grief, our disbelief, our cracked foundations, and our shaky footing?

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Evening Glow

Have we ever feasted on the alpenglow? Have we seen the glory of light revealed? Have we had a “foretaste of glory divine”? Have we stood in the space between heaven and earth? Has light filled us with awe and wonder?

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The Gift of Tears

All of us will encounter grief and sorrow during our journey through life. Paradoxically, the more we love, the more we will grieve. We cannot avoid it or go around it though we try, but we must go through it.

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Seeing with New Eyes

Mature faith or contemplation “allows us to see the truth of things in their wholeness.” We see our own beauty and our flaws. We begin to recognize the complexity of the people and situations around us.

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Live in Love

When we fall in love, we walk lightly on the ground, and we hear the birds singing. We write poetry and sing songs. Falling in love is a Norman Rockwell painting in process. It is wonderful and so easy to fall into love, but it is quite another thing to stay in love. Can we stay in love with one another and God?

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Live in Joy

I imagine the shepherds soaked in the sudden, glorious starlight, and they knew that light was “good news of great joy for all people.” What is joy and can we live in joy?

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Live in Peace

Jesus, the child born in the manger, the Prince of Peace, grows up and embodies peace, creates peace, and shares peace. Blessed are the peacemakers he told us. Put your swords away.

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Live in Hope

We have moments when get frustrated, lose patience, and get irritated with one another. It’s part of life. But do we also experience moments that saturate us in the way of Christ’s peace and grace?

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Red Apples

The one God, creator of all, is not the God of one nation, one religion, one denomination, or one ethnicity. Christ is everywhere. This changes everything.

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Is Doing Nothing Enough Sometimes?

How often do we respond to anger with more anger? How often do we meet violence with more violence? Mary stands silently in love and compassion not resignation. How do we stand when we face sorrow, anger, or injustice?

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14 Medium Cokes Please

Do we practice giving thanks for things big and small? A blue sky, a golden leaf, the soft cool breeze, a friendly hello, our next breath, a hot meal, and a warm bed? A cold pop? Do we find hidden blessings in the struggles and difficulties in life? This is a challenge.

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Heart Matters

When our hearts are full, life is good and our “cup overflows.” Sometimes when sadness or grief overwhelm us, we might say, “My heart aches.” Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Matthew 22:37). The heart is prevalent in all aspects of our lives.

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Is Love a Yes and a No?

We cannot fit one more thing into our schedule, but the requests for our time and energy do not stop. Can we say no? Did Jesus ever say no to requests for his time, his gifts, and his energy?

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