Daily Reflections and Worship Resources
Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
You are the salt of the earth;
but if salt has lost its saltiness
how could it be resalted?
—Matthew 5.13
Infinite Lover,
may I be seasoning for the earth today,
dissolving into your world,
drawing out its flavor,
bringing you delight.
Amen.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn.
—Isaiah 58.6-8
Happy are those who fear the Lord. They have distributed freely, they have given to the poor. They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright.
—Psalm 112. 9, 4
“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see by the light of your good works and give glory to your LIfe-Giver in heaven.
—Matthew 5.14, 16
Every act of justice,
every act of compassion or mercy
is a light, a star in the night of this world.
You may think your efforts small and meaningless.
You may think they make no difference.
But go out and look up at the stars.
Which one should not have reached out in love?
Which one should never have bothered
to act in courage and compassion?
None of them rids the night of its darkness.
Yet God walks out and looks at them all
and smiles.
They all shine until they are swept up
in the great light
of the One who dawns among us.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
Earth is playing with us.
City quieted by heaps of silence,
no one out but plows
moaning up and down the roads,
pickups lurching in and out of driveways,
back and forth
like peasant women grinding meal,
like the rabbi at prayer,
and shovelers lost
in little blizzards of their own making.
Snow up over your knees
is dang hard to walk in.
Half a day shot shoveling,
raking the roof, digging out the mailbox.
Fingers numb. Sore back. Snow down
my neck. Nose feels brittle. Why
do I love this so?
Perhaps that I am flesh,
weak, warm-blooded and in need
of a way being made,
a little white canyon through this heaven,
that I’m an earthling
and not the other way around,
that maybe paradise itself
is not without struggle,
that I wouldn’t be happy
without Another’s hand so, deft, upon me,
without being once in a while hemmed in,
defeated, even hurt a little
by this much beauty,
this much presence, this much
swirling, heaping, drifting mystery.
Up the street, two little kids
slide on their backs down the pyramid
at the end of their driveway.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see by the light of your good works and give glory to the Life-Giver, who radiates in all things.
— Matthew 5. 14-16
Jesus does not say you should be light, or that somewhere in your shadows there is some light, but that you are light. It’s who you are, what you’re made of. One aspect of our meditation is to sit with this mystery: that your being is light, and that that light is God in you. The self that you bring into the world each day is radiant with the Beloved, and echoes with the original Word: “Let there be light.”
As you go through your daily life, to “let your light shine before others” you don’t have to do some saintly thing, any more than that candle has to do anything other than be itself. All you need to do is be true to that light of God that is you. Sometimes rather than asking which path is morally correct, we are better led by asking which path is more true to the Light within us. Do not be afraid to shine your light; since it is divine, it is always exactly what is needed. And do not despair that your light is inadequate, for the task of your life which God has given you is simply to light up the world where you are.
Next time you’re out at night look up at the tiniest star, give thanks that it shines as God has created it to, making the night more beautiful, and pray that you too might shine with the light of the Heavenly Lover, the light that is who you are.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
May February bless you
with the patience of its trees,
the audacity of its birds,
with the welcome fire of its sun,
the exuberance of its storms.
God’s blessings be a warm blanket
and gentle words,
the mystery of shadows
and the promise of change
this February.
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Copyright © Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net