Unfolding Light

             Jesus said, “Come and see.”
                                —John 1.39


Holy One, You who Are,
open my eyes to see what is.
To look again,
as if for the first time.
I set aside speculation and beliefs,
and draw near to the world to see,
to notice what I notice.

Help me see with clarity your grace.
Help me see with courage
what is wounded and hurtful.
Help me see with faith the work of your hand.
Help me see with confidence
your presence here.

I do not ask to see the road ahead,
but only the next step.
I do not seek signs and secret messages.
I only wish to see.


_____________
Breath prayer:
                          To see . . . with your eyes

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Jesus turned and said to them,
             “What are you looking for?” They said to him,
             “Rabbi, where are you staying?” —John 1.38


Two questions intertwine.
    What are you looking for:
What do you seek?
What do you care about?
Where are you headed?

   Where are you staying:
Where are you at?
What do you stand on?
What are you at home in?

The answers intertwine.
The world you want
is the one you create.
How you live
becomes the world.



_______________
         Weather Report

Emerging,
as energy created
in 8 billion vortexes
coalesces into a system
that moves around us all.
Expect showers of blessing.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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A great armored machine gnaws toward us
on cruel tractor treads, venting fumes
of sorrow and dread, a friendly logo
of terror painted on its side,
boasting invincibility.

We stand in its path, naked and fragile.
But not helpless. Not afraid.
We don’t await heroic intervention.
Our flesh is Word made flesh.

We love courageously.
We tell truth. Make noise. Sing lustily.
We give wildly. Take every hand extended.
We impede the wheels. We don’t stop.
Our joy is disturbing, our peace unsettling,
our confidence reorienting.

We live every day as an outburst of hope.
Every day we rise.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Behold the Lamb of God
             who takes away the sin of the world!
                        —John 1.29

We wander in a desert of disconnection,
our voices wrestled to the ground
by the silence of a ghastly solitude.

We believe our aloneness. We fear it.
We clamber atop it, and everyone else’s,
climbing a mound of bones, a ladder of grief.


O Tender One, you name and forgive
our worst mistakes, lay a divine, wounded hand
on the loneliest part of us, and find us in each other.

You stay beside us till we know we’re not alone,
but held, adored, belonging.
You receive our hate, yet evoke our love.

O gentle Lamb, you undo our exile and its fear,
and we are saved. We are free.
We are here.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Dread of the future is sometimes justified—
but be wary: it wants to kidnap the present.

Sometimes fear is grief anticipated.
You can’t enjoy your friend, fearing their leaving.

Grief is love made powerless,
left with nowhere to fly.

But love is in you, not its object,
still strong and winged, and wise to the air.

Your fear can tell you what you love,
and those wings lift you —

not stacked, afraid of toppling,
but aloft, and present to the winds.

You are not captive to your fear.
You carry it, like a costly treasure.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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O Broken-Hearted One,
       we cry out to you.
Our anguish overspills all speech,
       our outrage escapes our words.
Yet you hear, for it is your own cry;
      the pain and the sorrow are yours.

The powerful worship idols
       of violence and lies.
They defy you in their golden palaces
       and murder you in the streets before us.
We long for the justice you promise,
       we yearn for the peace you offer us.

Enfold us in your righteousness,
       so we are not swallowed up in their evil.
Do not let our outrage become mere rage,
       do not let our resolve become resentment.
Still our hearts with your steady peace,
       steel our nerve with your serene wisdom.

As we breathe the fumes of cruelty,
       may our hearts be clear and merciful.
As shadows engulf us,
       may we still be your light.
In a time of despair,
       may we be alive with hope.
May we resist what is hurtful
       and disrupt it with gentleness.

O Slain and Risen One,
       fill us with your blessing,
send us with your love,
       and accompany us with your courage.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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             Jesus came be baptized.
             John said, “I need to be baptized by you,
             and do you come to me?”
             But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now,
             for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
                        —Matthew 3.13-15

John’s was a baptism of repentance.
People ask, Wasn’t Jesus perfect? Did he need to repent?
No, Jesus was not perfect. He was human.
He embodied God’s love
in a real, regular, imperfect, human life.
Even if he were perfect he would need to repent,
which means to turn to God—
because we always need to turn to God.
Righteousness doesn’t mean perfection.
It means being in tune with God.
To repent is to listen and tune up.
To look again as if for the first time.
To keep balancing the bicycle.
To take a new breath.
To wake up to this moment,
and this one…
Repentance is not correcting the past,
but becoming present.
Sometimes it feels like waking up;
sometimes like dying and starting over.
Often like falling in love again.

Breath prayer:
                           Return . . . to love

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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              Where is the child who has been born a king?
                               —Matthew 2.2

Of course they didn’t find him in the usual places,
in the splendid, among the powerful, the successful.

Imagine the wonders they had to ignore
to finally find the wonder they had overlooked.

The holy one is among the unexpected—
I mean the unworthy, the undeserving.

Perhaps in their own tenacity the Magi found him;
perhaps in their defiance of Herod.

For those who are seeking the holy
the light of divine love shines in each of us.

Who knows by what act of your love
someone may set their compass?

We offer our gifts, we defy oppression,
and so lead the world to a revealing,

each of us, if we choose,
a star luminous with love.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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         They left for their own country by another road.
                  —Matthew 2.12

Life is one different road
      after another.

Even now, on the twelfth day of Christmas,
       it’s not too late to be changed.

God is seldom on the road we planned
      but one we were forced into.

Jesus’ miracles and parables are other roads;
      grace is always a detour.

Holy One, give me faith to let go, to turn,
      to see grace where there was none.

Give me faith to be nudged, and to trust.
      Give me the courage of new roads.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
Listen to the audio recording:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04 — 1.5MB)

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