…from gratitude, we become more present to the wonder of being alive in this amazing living world, to the many gifts we receive, to the beauty we appreciate. Yet the very act of looking at what we love and value in our world brings with it an awareness of the vast violation under way, the despoliation and unraveling. From gratitude we naturally flow to honoring our pain for the world.
Tracks
On the heels of humility comes the wonder of God.
Small change, small wonders — these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life. It’s a workable economy
Life is surpassingly interesting, revealing, and awe provoking when we show up for it wholeheartedly and pay attention to the particulars.
The older we get, the more extraordinary life becomes — and the more amazing our capacity to experience its fullness.
We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub, but the spoke of the revolving wheel. In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender. God is the center toward which all forces tend.
Morning Prayer June 3, 2012
Bold-hearted Spirit of Wonder take me past the edge of my comfort zone that I may give more generously, love more courageously, dance more zestfully, and welcome neighbor and stranger more joyfully day by day. Invited to grow through each challenge I meet, may I risk faithfully in community and by myself to be a bearer of hope and a lamp of love. Amen.
Yes, I Exist
I awoke to claims of my non-existence earlier today. I am not sure how I managed that, since liberal christians are not supposed to exist, but then the Holy is merciful and amazing that way, bigger than we can, and often do, imagine.
How people can be tossed out of the single body of Love continues to amaze me. But then, living in amazement is part of my spiritual practice. This life is so full of wonders. The Holy is awesome. Every day, even without contributing to reasons to amaze, we can meet and dance in wonderment and mystery.
From that dance with wonderment, our spirits are renewed, strengthened for compassion, open in generosity and loving-kindness, full of courage for what is needful.
Religious people can and do disagree on how to live faithfully. But that does not mean we deny each others’ existences. Denying existence makes it so much easier to deny other things, like humanity, finding ways to be good neighbors, discovering how to work together for a common good, meeting with wonder and awe the ways that we know and are touched by the Holy.
Love calls us to something risky and astounding: to humbly work together with all our differences, all our gifts, all our wisdom, and all our unknowing.
As christians - liberal, moderate, free, progressive, conservative, and every other label we can imagine - turn toward Easter, we will see lots of divisions in how we celebrate, how we observe, what practices we take on and even if we take them on (yes, not all christians observe Lent, and the Eastern and Western Christian calendars differ on when that is).
We need all the mercy and steadfast love we can muster as we follow the way, in all our amazing diversity, of the One that is Love.
We need all the mercy and steadfast love we can create, with Holy help and with our neighbors of every faith and no faith in particular, to tend the suffering, to bring hope where it is hard to find, and to grow in wonder and in love right here and right now.
Awe for Gratitude
In the linked Tapestry of Faith session, children are invited to create a gratitude list, to name the people they are grateful for. This is a splendid practice, as it connects us to people we can take for granted. If our list is short, then perhaps we have more to do in reaching out and being a reason for others to be grateful, growing new relationships. If our list is long, then we have many reasons to be thankful.
A follow-up activity I enjoy: focus on one person on your list and write down why you’re thankful for them. If writing is difficult, tell a story, sing your reasons as a song, record some spoken word or signed messages and then share it with that person. If the person you’re grateful for has passed on, share the stories of why with another friend, family member, or spiritual companion.
All kinds of marvelous things go on. I don’t see how anyone who has looked, and seen, can do and ought say, ‘where I stand, wherever I stand, I am on holy ground.’
