Author: Steve

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
My son stood up and said “I do,”
his lovely friend, too, said “I do,”
and now I do as well.
His love and hers enlarge my own.
I now have someone new to love,
to claim, adore and stand beside,
to be there for no matter what.
With love he brought her in
as I alone could not have done,
and changed our family
making it more deep and spacious,
wide and rich and lovely.

Without our work or will, but as pure gift,
my wife and I now have more kids,
and so, more love, and so more world,
more hope, more life, more joy.

Maybe this is what the Teacher meant,
whom we call brother, bringing in
those others— sisters now, and brothers,
though we had never chosen them—
now all one family in this world,
devoted with no lesser loyalty
to strangers than to one’s only child.
The more of them we have to love
because we’re family,
the more this life resembles heaven.

Like God, we stand beside the world
in love and say “I do.”

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Our son was married this weekend. It was an outdoor wedding on a farm, and the weather reports had been sketchy, so rain was a constant thought as we prepared. Sure enough, as we hung paper lanterns in the reception tent on Friday it poured. Little streams ran across the brick floor; it was too wet to set the lanterns down. And it kept on pouring, one thing and another. After the rain it poured wind. Then it poured sunshine. Then a bald eagle soared over the clearing, and a perfect storm of blessing began. We held the rehearsal in the meadow, where autumn colors poured from the trees.

The day of the wedding we were continually showered—but not with rain. Drenched in the warm autumn sun, flooded with color and life, we were showered with beauty. Dan and Jill dripped with loveliness and confident gratitude. Of course they were gorgeous. They were baptized by immersion in love and joy. They poured their hearts out to one another. Friends and family showered them with blessing. The prayers and good will of those who couldn’t be there washed over them. All Creation wrapped its arms around them with tears of joy. And they knew it. They trusted the great outpouring of love. They pledged their faithfulness to each other and entered the great river of faithful love that flows from God into all the world and changed everything. And all of us waded in and splashed each other with that joyous, life-giving water. The blessing was not just for them. It was poured out on all of us. For a moment you could just stand there in the meadow and notice how lovely we are, and how beloved. It poured, all right.

Sometimes the clouds fool us. Sometimes the sun breaks through and we see clearly how blessed we are. That’s the promise of God’s marriage to us. No matter what’s out there, someone thinks you’re lovely, and is grateful that you’re here, and blesses you. It’s all about blessing. Deep, abundant, free-flowing blessing. Let it pour.

_________________
Weather Report

Loveliness,
descending from the highest levels
and condensing in each person,
increasing throughout this whole
Day of Creation,
with not at all isolated showers
of joy.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
This weekend our son is getting married. As Pastors, Beth and I have performed hundreds of weddings, but as parents we’re rookies. This one will be outside, on a farm in New Jersey. Maybe it will rain. Showers are possible. But even if it’s a downpour, it will be lovely: even if his tux is soaked and she falls in the mud and the goats eat her flowers and the cake is soggy and the tent collapses and the band sneaks off to the barn and eats all the food and the cows get out, he will still say “I do,” she will say “I do,” and the pastors will say “Amen.” That’s what’s going to happen. The rest is pictures.

Of course we hope for nicer pictures than all that. But the point is that this is a celebration of Dan and Jill’s loving faithfulness, not the weather.

Loving faithfulness is always what it’s all about. Reality itself is an expression of God’s love. “All things came into being through the Word.” The good news is repeated over and over: “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” Some people think God is objective about us, undecided, a bit distant, and could condemn us or ignore us. But our Heavenly Lover has made a Covenant with us, a promise of unconditional love, regardless of the weather around us or within us. God isn’t waiting till we die to decide whether to be with us forever. God’s goodness isn’t dependent on ours. God is in love with all Creation, and wholly devoted. Life is the Beloved’s marriage to us. The whole world is God’s wedding ring, given in steadfast love and fidelity. Every sunrise is wedding music. Every breath is God’s “I do.”

We hope for all sorts of smaller blessings—good weather, good food, good hair, good health, good feelings, good parking. But deep down you know how minor those things are. Our deepest hope is for God’s good love, God’s unfailing presence. And that’s a done deal. A promise. None of life’s uncertainties can change that—the delights and disasters, the marvels, the suffering—none of it changes The Absolute: that God loves us like crazy, will be faithful to us forever, will give us everything God owns and do anything to be with us, will die for us; and that even suffering and death will not part us, but bring us closer. We are God’s. God holds us close. And what God has brought together, no one can break apart. That’s the good news—this weekend, and to the end of time.

_________________
Weather Report

Unconditional love,
despite variable conditions:
faithful, steady love and grace,
with a chance of scattered showers
of fear, sorrow, hilarity, tragedy,
exuberance and hail.
One hundred percent chance
of divine presence.
This is not a prediction.
It’s a fact.

         •

         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

        Job said, “I cry to you and you do not answer me;
                I stand, and you merely look at me.”

        Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
        “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
                Tell me, if you have understanding.
        Who determined its measurements—
                surely you know!
        Or who stretched the line upon it?
                On what were its bases sunk?
        Who laid its cornerstone
                when the morning stars sang together
                and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
        Or who shut in the sea with doors
                when it burst out from the womb?”
                          —Job. 30.20, 38.4-8

We want answers.

God gives us presence,
but not answers.
Loving attention, gazing at us from within,
faithful companionship,
walking with us through this amazing Creation,
all of it fashioned in a love and wisdom
that we can’t comprehend,
with wild art and crazy beauty
and boundless love–
this Creation that holds us and births us
and cherishes us even in our mortal unravelings,
offers us delights in its steady hands,
even in our tragedies–
reverence that ours can’t even imitate,
purpose that the human mind can’t read
any better than the poetry of the time before time,
forgiveness, mercy and delight–
but not answers.

Beyond all suffering and pleasure,
reason and meaning,
our desperate clutch at making sense,
the love God gives us
doesn’t need to become any less
than perfect mystery.

No answer,
just God.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         The Human one came not to be served
         but to serve.
                  —Mark 10.45

You who seek the Almighty
high above you
and are disappointed,

whom you must serve
and please, and makes you
nervous in your failure,

look beneath
for the Humble One,
your servant,

who makes no demands,
displays no power,
but makes your life possible,

endures the dirtiest jobs for you,
bears the most brutal burdens,
covers the darkest shame,

offers you the cup of life,
makes your soul shine,
loyal, submits to you,

waits for you
attentively
inside your breath.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

.       “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own,
.       and give the money to the poor,
.       and you will have treasure in heaven;
.       then come, follow me.”
.                —Mark 10.22

 

The one thing you lack is whatever you need to let go of.

Once you have unclenched your fists from your money
there is your health and your family,
your faith, your assurance, your feeling good.
The Beloved waits for you, while you are encumbered
with whatever you’d rather have than God.

The one thing is to go beyond your fear.
Whatever you are afraid to let go of
is what stands between you and coming to God
with open arms and empty hands,
trusting that what you’ve lost you will receive
a hundredfold in this age,
and in the age to come eternal life.

Take off that bulky coat of fear.
Allow yourself to come to a place
where what you treasure is paltry
compared to what you receive.

Thread the needle.
Let go of everything, now, in this moment.
In the perfect poverty of prayer
walk away from it all to God,
poor and naked, alone and without recourse.
Utterly needy and dependent, fall helplessly
into God’s waiting arms,
where you will receive,
Beloved,
you will receive.

 

 

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

 
Heavenly Lover, Holy One,
you who are the dearness of the world,
and the dearness of my soul,

you are here, and I am in you;
this moment flows from your heart
like light from the sun.

I am the speaking of your Word,
this world is the singing of your song,
each moment the blossoming of your love.

I give you my mindfulness and all my heart,
that this moment, and all this day
I may be lovingly present to you.

Every sound calls me to prayer;
every silence is your speaking.
Clothed in all eternity, you are here.

I am the meadow where you play.
Each word and deed is your window
out of me onto the world.

You sing in me, and my living is my listening.
I live in harmony with your grace,
your light unfolding in me.

 

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Before God no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.
—Hebrews 4.12-13

The “piercing” is not violent assault, but skillful surgery, perfect knowledge of what is inside us; the “dividing” is not cutting us apart but discerning, distinguishing between what is eternal and what is passing, what is true and what is false. The Word is God knowing us deeply. God’s Word is the act of paying attention, more like listening than speaking. The Word of God is a presence—indeed, a person— who knows you, who understands what moves you, who feels your reality form within you.

The Word knows the difference between what is truly you and what is false, imposed, and needing to be removed. God’s knowing presence, God’s judging, is not cruel, not against you (you’re still thinking of that sword). God looks on you only with reverence and love. God sees you, with the eyes of “mercy and grace,” of one who can “sympathize with our weakness… who in every respect has been tested as we are” (v. 16, 15). God’s Word is the living presence that loves you from the inside out.

I think of my sister’s cancer. She needs (and receives) from God a love that knows her true self, that treasures her soul, her absolute being—and who sees clearly and exactly what is false and life-diminishing in her, what is not really “her,” and needs to be removed. To have life and have it abundantly, she needs a listening Word that pays attention, a discerning Word that knows what it’s doing, a sharp Word that can cut out the killing stuff from her and set the rest free.

The living and active Word listens you you deeply. Let that Presence pierce you. Let that Listening lay bare the intentions of your heart, so that you can see yourself clearly, as God sees you. Let that Love sink deep to the marrow of your fears, the bone of your desires, not to cut you up, but to see what does not give you life and free you from it, so that you become more truly and wholly yourself, for the sake of your lovely, precious, holy life.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

 

The word of God is living and active.
—Hebrews 4.12

 

Not a written down thing,
a carved somewhere thing,
an already told you thing.

More like a murmur that God
is still saying, still making up,
that you’re only now hearing,

if you’re listening now,
this moment, for what
God is saying to you, in you,

maybe a kind of word,
an idea you can name,
a feeling you can have,

but more likely like nerves waking,
a beauty rising in you,
a touch, a nudge, a look,

a moving in you like your unborn
kicking, like falling
in love, a certain way

of adoring you that God has.
A kiss, and the still moment
that follows. What God most wants

you to know just now, like
“Let there be light,” only more
like “Let there be you.”

Listen. God is only just now,
in this stillness,
speaking.

 

 

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

 

 

The tribes in you that thrived
before the others came and colonized,
the songs, the dances and the people
dancing them weren’t perfect, not at all:
they stole and fought and failed.
The histories they told that others buried,
the stories in the languages they banned,
the songs that someone other
than the prairies silenced
weren’t ones the others
should have traded for their own,
but they were true.
The fenceless land that spoke to them
was not some gilded Eden,
any more than they were those
the movies said they were.
It’s not that it was better,
though much of it was better,
but this: that it was yours,
and it was silenced.
That still the speaking land is there
beneath your paving and your walls,
a whole, great, vibrant people,
singing still, and dancing,
telling stories in your land.
That you don’t have to sell this island
one more time.
Walk this path and listen for them,
weeping, maybe, just at first,
along that trail of tears,
but singing, too, still singing,
dancing life in one great circle
in a song that all the armies in the world
can never conquer, never have.

 

 

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com