I leave with the family tomorrow to head to the mountains for a week or so; we are headed to Massanutten Resort. My extended family is all gathering there to enjoy a time together, should be an enjoyable time (golfing, swimming, hiking, skateboarding for the kids, cooking out and other fun).

For me - I would much rather go to the mountains than the beach - so I am looking forward to it!

I am taking the following books for hopefully some relaxing vacation reading.

Thomas Keating’s Manifesting God

Miroslav Volf’s Free of Charge

and a constant companion…

Eugene Peterson’s The Jesus Way

I don’t know how much or if I will be posting between now and next Friday - but hopefully some pics of the mountains will fill this place. May we enjoy the moments of our days!

Psalm 90
A prayer of Moses the man of God.

Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.

May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.

Peace!

O Lord open our lips, and we shall declare Your praise.

Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Opening Prayer The United Methodist Hymnal 1989 p. 6)

As summer approaches (culturally it is here - with Memorial Day behind us, school ending and AC’s humming all around) I return every year to meditate on the season of heat. With the earth rotating so that the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun - we have longer periods of sunlight, hotter temperatures and unpredictable storms. Growing up in Florida I have come to enjoy the changing of the seasons (in Florida there is one season - hot - okay two: hot and HOTTER & Humid). And it has taken me some time to “warm back up” to Summer. In the past few years I really have come to appreciate the warming of our days (It is still probably my least favorite season - but I appreciate it none-the-less).

With Summer we see the explosion of color - the grass and trees find the greenest of green and the flowers bloom with vibrant yellows, “radish-y” reds, plum-like purples and fiery oranges and every shade in-between. It seems to happen so quickly - one day you plant this tiny plant and it seems overnight what once was so fragile and on the edge of life has blossomed into a vibrant and vital flowering factory. It never ceases to amaze me. Now - I don’t go wild at my home. We are no burgeoning plant nursery or anything - but we plant a few annuals and try to keep up with a simple, tidy garden or two - but the bit we do does me good. It forces me outside. I am connected to soil, air, and water; pulling me from the artificial and controlled environment of my plaster and plastic world. It calls me to the now of watering, weeding, tending and noticing that is essential even in elementary gardening. It reminds me of God: The Gardner, the One who causes growth, the Creator, the Sustainer, and in a mysterious way - Life itself.

The seasons. Summer. Heat, light, sweat, thunder storms, wind, laughter, bright colors and nights full of stars - don’t miss it huddling next to the Air Conditioner, grumping about electric bills and the price of gas to take a vacation to the beach. Get outside your own four walls and put your toes in the soil and water a daisy. I have found getting outside in the summer time is not only fun, but it is good for our insides, as well.

“a long loving gaze at the real…”

photo credit from Mike Raether.com

Maybe it is just me. Probably.

I have noticed that I am more enamored or more drawn to the “prescriptions” or commands of scripture than to the promises or to the declarations. I think it may be a result of my penchant to act or “do something.” Maybe you can relate to this, as well.

Think about the great command (or the sh’ma as found in Deuteronomy 6).

The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12.29-30)

When you think about this statement do you hear the declaration or the command. (I hear some of you, “both!”) But I wonder when we think of the “great commandment” as it is called - what do we do with God’s declaration, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”

Another example that we probably know by heart, the great commission.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18-20)

Again what are our ears drawn to - the declaration or the command; the prescription or the promise? I know we should be attentive to both, but where is our awareness greater? In my honest moments when I reflect on both of these passages, I hear the commands. I hear my duty. I hear my obligations. I hear the imperatives over the indicatives. I wonder in my reaction to act without really hearing the surrounding truths what am I missing?

Am I turning this vital faith into a human endeavor? Am I doing my own little thing oblivious to what God is up to in our world? Am I focusing on me rather than on Thee? Am I practicing a kind of deism, inattentive to the nearness and presence of God?

May I not glance past God’s promises and declarations - may I learn to like Mary ponder these statements and live out God’s commands in light of them. For if I “do” the commands - am I loving, if I am failing to listen for the one true God? Do I find myself so enamored or so focused on “making disciples” that I miss the presence of God in my midst (walking right by the figurative burning bushes around me)?

“If we take seriously the word of the risen Christ, ‘Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time’ (Matthew 28:20), we should expect that He will be actively present in our lives. If our faith is alive and luminous we will be alert to moments, events, and occasions when the power of resurrection is brought to bear on our lives. Self-absorbed and inattentive, we fail to notice the subtle ways in which Jesus is snagging our attention.” [Brennan Manning in Abba’s Child p. 99-100]

A couple of weekends ago I had the opportunity to spend some time in a quiet spiritual retreat. It was a much needed and great opportunity. I spent a good portion of my time watching birds and sitting on a porch (when I wasn’t facilitating a couple of sessions).

My awareness of God and my time listening was pretty keen - which shocked me!

I held on to four words from my time… they were:

ALL
Will
Be
Well

The four words heard at four separate times made a pretty cool phrase.

Pretty amazing.

I am/was encouraged.

Do you get those crazy questions or thoughts that won’t let you go? They just keep rolling around in your mind - hitting you when you least expect it or hounding you when all you want to do is “veg-out?” Those mosquitoes on the mind just keep buzzing and buzzing in a threatening kind of way. I have had one of those suckers poking about my mind and heart the past couple of days - don’t know where it came from or when it will leave cause the question gets too close to “what it’s all about.” It is a question that I think right now I can’t answer the way I “should.” The answer is too revealing and disappointing.

I wish I could just smack this mosquito and put an end to this buzzing in my head.

The question:
Am I living from a posture or position of willfulness or willingness?

[Willfulness being a posture of stiff-armed distance that projects, “I am in control here;” and willingness is the position of the Gethsemane prayer, “not my will, but Thine be done.”]

The statement above is one I actually recall asking. I have thought it more often than I’d like along the Way as well. It is what motivated me to post the pictures in the previous post.

When you have been walking after God for 20+ years or far less for that matter - we can begin to think that merely accumulating years accounts for the growth of our soul. We know cognitively that this is false, but we can still believe it on other levels. So when the Mystery of the Universe comes in with a cosmic pruning shear or a chain saw and begins to lop off years of accumulated “growth” - it seems a fair question…

Is God killing me? Or keeping me?

Pruning and reshaping can sound pastoral and even “pretty” but as we go through the process we begin to see it as the great spiritual writer and mystic and poet St. John of the Cross states it, “the dark night of the soul.” We see it in light of the pain and desperation of Elijah’s flight to the desert. We begin to emote with our Lord in Gethsemane. And we begin to see beyond the burning hearts to the desperation and hopelessness of the pilgrims who couldn’t even recognize their Messiah and Master before them on the Emmaus road.

And if you have ever spent a sleepless night tossing and turning you know how LONG a night can last.

In these times of pruning and shaping the Spring time offers some hope. My faith can stop shaping me into question marks and for a moment I can rest and take hope in the buds and new life emerging around me.

So today I choose to say, the Potter prunes and reforms that I might in time reflect the Glory of my Maker even more.

In the beginning O God
You shaped my soul and set its weave
You formed my body
and gave it breath.
Renew me this day
in the image of your love.
O great God, grant me your light
O great God, grant me your grace
O great God, grant me your joy this day.
And let me be made pure
in the well of your health.
(prayer by J. Philip Newell from Celtic Prayers from Iona)

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15. 1-5 NLT)

happy earth day.

Made me smile.
Made me wonder.
Made me pray along with her.

Hope it helps you smile, wonder and pray, as well.