JOHN 5:30-44

³⁰“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

³¹“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³²There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. Continue reading Lenten Reflection: Let Your Light Shine →

This response was sent from Carmen to Jennifer, after Carmen read Jennifer’s Lenten Reflection last Wednesday.

This story really struck home with me.

More than a decade ago, my now-deceased brother, Curtis, and I had a conversation about this same situation after he had just given a panhandler $5.

“Lil Curt” felt it was his responsibility to share what God had blessed him with and not to judge; it was the receiver’s choice to do right with Curt’s gift.

Ever since then, I always have a $5 bill (and fruit) in my car tray that I share with folks asking for help.  I always ask them to say a prayer for me.

I have always gotten a “thank you, God bless you”  in return, and a warm feeling knowing my brother is smiling down at me from above knowing that he continues to teach his Big sister how to love unconditionally.

-Carm

For a child who didn’t spend much time in church, Lent was always about what my friends were giving up. Giving up chocolate. Giving up candy. Giving up cussing. Giving up rock ‘n roll. I didn’t get it, but I knew it had something to do with sacrifice.

Now I spend a lot of time in church, but I admit that I still don’t have a full grasp on Lent. Yet I am grateful for these 40 days that remind me to be attentive to the pushes and pulls in my life that diminish me and my relationships with God, the people around me, and yes, even the people I don’t want around me.

So I’ve decided to give up something for Lent.  Continue reading Lenten Reflection: A New Thing →

Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ -John 8.12

“Cows make me happy”

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Greeneville,TN. welcoming springtime on the farm. While we were driving up the gravel road to the main house, Amos looked into the valley below and unprompted said, “Mama, cows make me happy.” A wide grin spread across his face and his voice, though full of unencumbered joy, was at the same time pregnant with reverence for this most beloved animal.

Lent is a season in which we focus on our spiritual blindness. It also reminds us, as I was reminded in a recent sermon, that “we do not have to be the person that we have become.”

Faith is a process of sanctification–the process of ever-becoming holy, which both free from all things human is at its most naked, purely human. Amos, most often my greatest teacher, in his one impassioned declaration, reminded me it is possible that the Lenten journey can extend beyond the grey of the wilderness. It is possible that joy can be.

That which keeps me from joy is my spiritual blindness. Gratitude, which through occurrences-either conscious or unconscious leads me to the deepest peace, helps me traverse the wilderness of realization. Lent is about seeing. Sometimes with sight there is necessary sorrow and sometimes there is joy akin to a small child seeing a cow.

Peace,

Hope

“I was naked and you clothed me.” Matthew 25.36

There are seasons in my life of emotional, psychological  and spiritual vulnerability. Times when I am experiencing  what C.S. Lewis called: “God’s severe mercy.” False gods die. False selves are exposed. False motivations revealed. I am naked.

This psychological nakedness is mysterious and inscrutable because it can’t be seen. I may seem to be functioning at a very high level, fulfilling all my obligations and meeting my responsibilities while within me everything seems to be in ruins, a spiritual wasteland. The only thing that can clothe this nakedness is love–Christ’s love –and the unconditional acceptance of a community like Beloved. That has been my experience since I arrived  at Beloved last summer. This community has clothed me. And though the clothes are not fancy, just wash and wear, that suites me just fine. I’ll come as I am and be eternally grateful.

-Palmer

“Rejoice in hope…rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep. Romans 12:12,15

It easy to find ways to love people when their lives are desperate, but how do you love people when their lives are going along pretty well? A good place to start is to pay attention to them.

When you care for people, you join them in what they are experiencing. If they are happy because their child is doing well in school, you join them in their happiness. If they are worried because their child is acting sullen and alienated, you join them in their worry. You rejoice with those who rejoice, and you weep with those who weep.

We need this counsel because sometimes we seem instinctively to do the opposite. When an acquaintance seems to be unusually happy, we remind her that life is serious and a lot of people in our world are suffering. When a family member seems to be unusually sad, we urge him to cheer up and rejoice in the Lord. These are not loving actions.

We have to be careful about this counsel. We shouldn’t rejoice with the criminal who is happy that he is getting away with selling drugs to kids, and we shouldn’t weep with the senior adult who is experiencing clinical depression but won’t see a doctor or take medicine. We rejoice with those who are rejoicing appropriately and weep with those who are weeping appropriately.

God does this, I think. It’s pretty easy to think of God as sharing in our sadness. It’s a little trickier to think of God as sharing in our happiness. But God does rejoice with us. God is interested in happiness.

In fact, God’s intention is that in the end the happiness will be the whole story. Jesus said he will judge all the nations. We know he will do it right. He will fix the mess. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do. As we do it, we can live with the hope that in the end Jesus will fix things. And we rejoice in this hope. We refuse to settle for too little. We hope for it all. It’s going to be all right, thank God.

-Fisher Humphreys

IN GOD ALONE IS MY SOUL AT REST

I remember discovering as a child that I could float on my back if I got in water that was over my head. What a relief when I got tired of swimming just to turn over and rest on my back. I still need to rest when I get in the deep waters of life.

I am grateful that Lent comes along every year so I can get relief from the world’s pressures. I get to go for six weeks to another plane of existence, that of the spirit. There someone waits to hold me up. My Father knows and accepts me just as I am, a relief from the judging physical world.

During the Season of Lent I will take some quiet moments to pray every morning before rising: 
“My soul finds rest in God alone…
He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” 
(Psalm 62)

And I will refresh myself at regular intervals during the day with this psalm.

-Marianne Dreyspring