Outdoor Retreat...

What timing! I leave for a (4) day retreat today and I am so looking forward to time alone in the beautiful Kentucky hills. This is the first time I will make this trek alone...and I will miss my usual companion. But leave it to Busted Halo to give me the opportunity to commune with nature in a whole new way...

A Virtual Outdoor Retreat! 

If you plan to spend any time out of doors, check it out!

The Garden....

My son took this picture of our vegetable garden over the weekend and it clearly shows we've been blessed  with an abundance of rain! It could be considered an inconvenience but I see it as a joyful excuse to walk barefoot in the mud!

To me, gardening is one of the most profound ways we have to worship . After all, His first act after completing creation was to set Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Each time a plant bursts through the soil, I experience the Resurrection first hand. The harvest provides a true reminder of God's grace and bounty.

If I am troubled, there is no better place to sort things out than on my knees in the garden. While I dig, weed or harvest I can also meditate and pray. Spending so much time in a position of supplication, it is easy to see God there in plants and in the soil. I can think of no better therapy.

Here in the garden, it is easy to anticipate God's promise for the future...as the seeds are planted, grow to maturity and give forth their fruit it is easy to believe that one day, all creation will be restored to what God intended it would be all along.

Keep it simple...

A Parable

There is a parable from India that describes 6 blind men feeling different parts of an elephant, a strange creature that none of them knows about.
The first man has his hands on the animal's thick side and declares "This creature is a wall!"
The second man feels all along one of the sharp, smooth tusks and declares, "No, it's a spear!"
The third touches the elephant's squirming trunk and says, "No! It's a giant snake!"
The fourth is feeling one of the animals thick, sturdy legs and says, "Not at all, this is a tree!"
The fifth runs his hands over the elephant's wide ear and says, "Nope! This is a fan!"
The sixth holds the beast's rough tail and pronounces, "You're all wrong, this is clearly a rope!"

How much of our lives do we spend seeing only that which is right in front of us? 

One of the greatest gifts I've ever received was from a friend who constantly reminded me to try and see the "big" picture. To find out and know all that I could before making an assumption. I don't always get it right, but the practice has saved me, more often than not, from reducing something as large and magnificent as an elephant to a rope or a fan! 

Teaching...

By all accounts, Jesus was a master teacher. Followers were drawn to Him by the magnetic power of His words which have been described as "short, precise, terrible and full of refreshment".

Jesus gave His most time honored and enduring lessons  spontaneously...right on the spot. Most were in response to a question raised, i.e.: "Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?" "Is it lawful to pay taxes to pagan authorities?" "What must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Just as He responded to questions, His responses were themselves often questions. Pushing the seeker to search His own mind and heart for the answers.

His use of parables served His purposes perfectly. Everyone loves a good story and His were able to hold the interest of farmers and fishermen and all in between. Most of those He spoke to were illiterate and the stories He told helped preserve the message for years to come.

After all, it is one thing to speak in lofty, abstract terms about the love of God  but it's quite another to tell of a man who lays down his life for his friends or of a father, heartsick with worry, scanning the horizon for a long lost son.

Although some of the images Jesus used in His teaching are confusing to us, after all, much has changed in the 2,000 years since He taught, with time and study (and the use of search engines on the internet), they can still speak to us today. One thing has never changed, most of us still love a good story!  

Who is God to you?

One of the most destructive mistakes in the growth of any relationship is to allow assumptions about a person's character to affect the personal discovery process. Sometimes it is a bad first impression that molds a false judgement. Sometimes it is stereotyping that kills the relationship before it can begin. The answer is, of course, to get to know someone personally.

In some cases a pile of misinformation, stereotypes and bad first impressions has to be worked through before a serious relationship can develop.
"I thought everyone who did that was..."
"He acted like that other guy and so..."
"Before we met I heard that she..."

One of the most popular God-stereotypes for religious people is the "Cosmic Policeman". This is the God who has a whistle in one hand and a large stick in the other. He only blows the whistle when we do something wrong, he dishes out our punishment with a whack from the happy stick of pain. To make things worse, the whistle, the pointing finger, and the whack are done in broad daylight so that everyone can see. The Cosmic Policeman gets his jollies by humiliating us in public. Occasionally, through the groveling and crying of "busted", he might show mercy, but it is probably just to induce a much-needed favor. He might even say, "There's going to be hell to pay if I catch you doing that again. I made you. I can make another one just like you!"

He can't really be like this, can He? If this were His true nature, what would it say about the meaning of life, the value of creation, the future of our world? How do you see God?
Pope-meets-Santa Claus?
Distant cloud of nothingness?
Carl Sagan's nemesis?
Omnipotent retiree?

Have you ever wondered where these stereotypes come from? First impressions? Secondhand information? Fairy tales? If we want to move closer to Him, we will have to kill these stereotypes and get to know the real Him, not the imagined Him. We will have to demand that He be all that God must really be.
Supernatural.
Endlessly wonderful.
The Lovely.
The Perfect.
Could He be God and be anything else? Then why settle for less?

Most of us have layers of stereotypes that we force God to wear. Wouldn't it be great if He could come to the party dressed as He really is? We might discover something beautiful behind the hearsay.

From "Enter the Worship Circle" by Ben Pasley

(In)dependence

Excellent article concerning (In)dependence Day...

We pride ourselves on our independence. We are a nation of pioneers, after all. And we live in a world, age, era, culture — call it what you will — that looks askance at any form of dependence, be it on family, government or the kindness of strangers. We look with pity on the post-collegiate twentysomethings living with their parents, praying to God that won’t be us. We turn our heads when the person in front of us at the grocery store pulls out food stamps. We nervously cross the street when we see someone begging for change. We can do it on our own. We don’t need help.

We are lying to ourselves.

Read the entire piece here...