Month: July 2024

I have made my requests.
I have uttered my opinions
and stated my desires.
Now I silence myself
and reach out to You.
I reach out to your love,
your passion for the universe,
your delight in me.
I reach out to be part
of the grace-filled unfolding
of the world, of life, living.
I open myself to your infinite grace
that pours into me,
that flows around me.
I am part of the whirling of galaxies,
the searching of roots,
the labor of beetles,
generosity in the streets,
the offering of love.
I reach out to give and receive
all care, all delight,
all forgiveness, all healing.
I open the ears of my soul
to hear your Word, murmured.
I open the arms of my heart
and allow what comes.
I reach out, and I wait.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              “Come away to a deserted place
             all by yourselves and rest a while.”

                            —Mark 6.31

Let go of what you need to do, what you have to do,
what you’re supposed to do. Let go.

All you do, all you accomplish, even the most life-giving,
is only a shadow of who you are.

Allow a deeper calling to have you,
a greater life to possess you.

Go to a deserted place all by yourself,
a place which is not a place but a time,

a time of spaciousness with lots of room
for the silence to open wide, where you can listen.

Spend time in that place inside yourself,
a place of solitude, where you are solely a soul.

Let an infinite delight create you again;
infinite love flow through you.

Let God’s primary joy, that you are,
become your primary joy.

Be at peace in that peace. Give it time.
Give it time. Let that be enough.

Then go out into the world,
a faithful steward of your holy being.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Heat hugs you, holds you close, too close,
your face in its armpits,
presses with dense weight,
as at the bottom of a hot ocean,
clamps you with huge crab claws.
What you think of is escape.

God says,
“Even 93 million miles away,
I am always this close.”

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Fear begets violence.
Blame becomes assault.

Projecting our fear of harm,
we harm others.
To keep our place in the world
we try to remove others.
But it never works:
attempting to destroy each other
we only damage the world.

To “form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, and insure domestic Tranquility,”
our first agreement has to be
to live together.
To accept the other, regardless of how vile.
To live, even side by side,
with those we fear and blame and revile.

For they are here;
the only way to be without them
is to be without life.

Our first agreement and our highest goal
is not how we shall win,
but how we shall live together.
For either we live together
or we do not live.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You are a comet
zooming off through your space
and you think you’re alone,
just you,
remote, untethered,
out in your own private darkness…

but the gravity of God never loses you,
and even at unimaginable distances
pulls you back around.

The energy of our flight
is the dance of our freedom
and our belonging.

How attentively
God is always gathering us,
making of all of us little sparks
one thing.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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It is as if God were a mountain
and people came in glee
and chipped off little pieces
and took them home, happy
that they could possess
a piece of the real thing,
sitting on their mantle, maybe,
among their memorabilia,
or in their hand,
without any sense
of its hugeness,
or the effort of climbing,
or what it might be like
to be so small,
to be held,
to stand on its shoulder
and see the world.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Herod had immunity.
He could behead people;
his friends would let him,
his enemies powerless.
A dictator has immunity.
He will not use it for noble purposes.

We do not have immunity
from the consequences of our choices.
We will pay the price
for our bold, decisive action.

We are not immune to the suffering of the world.
If one suffers, all suffer together with them.
To follow Jesus is to renounce immunity.

Jesus did not say,
“Take up your lawn chair and follow me.”

Our trust is not that we will be treated well,
but that even in our weakness and vulnerability,
even in failure and suffering,
grace will prevail.
For even in all its evil and cruelty
this world is not immune
to love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I’m sitting on my porch reading the Bible.
A tiny bug, smaller than the letter i,
crawls across the page, its feet treading
on the name of God, the deeds of Christ,
its microscopic feelers touching
again and again the cries of the poor,
the prayers of the desperate and the faithful,
uncomprehending, unsuspecting
the vastness, the mystery, the grace,
crawling over the face of God.

You and I both, bug.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           In Mark 6 John the Baptizer criticizes Herod 
           for marrying his own sister in law,
           who, of course, resents John. 
           Herod’s daughter pleases him with a dance.
           He offers her whatever she asks. Mom says, “John’s head.”
           Herod complies.

It has all the sordid ingredients of a sinister thriller.
Power. Bitterness. Shame.
A whistleblower jailed.
Family dysfunction. Politics.
Wine, women and debauchery. Violence.
And a sexy dance number.

Doesn’t sound like a very good Bible story, does it? 
But this is not a detour from the gospel;
this is the context of the gospel.
This is the realm where the mercy of God works,
where courageous faith in God’s grace
meets the crass violence of this world.
This is where the gentle followers of Jesus
work their love and courage. 

We wish we lived in a peaceful world
with small problems.
But the world gives selfishness and fear great power,
and they kill people.
People do what they know is wrong 
till they don’t know any more, and they do harm.
And we live among them—not by default,
but precisely because they need us, 
and we have been given to them.
This word needs humility, generosity and grace.
For every Herod it needs a thousand Christs. 
To this, for this, we are sent. 
In the end, grace shall prevail. 
But be aware, it will be hard in the meantime. 

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes 
Unfolding Light
 www.unfoldinglight.net
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Because the purple clover
and the tiny sweat bee
appreciate each other
life goes on.

Your contribution to the world
doesn’t have to be
a great or small accomplishment.
It is enough—
it is glory—
for you to offer
mindfulness and gratitude.

You pollinate the world
with your attention.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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