Category: Reflections

         “This is indeed the delight of God,
         that all who see the Beloved and believe in that one
         may have eternal life;
         and I will raise them up on the last day.”
                   —John 6.40

When you see
love made real in this world
you come to trust it,
and receive it as a gift,
which brings with it life, deep life,
life that can’t be taken from you,
life that is eternal.
Connected so intimately
with Love and the Source of all Love,
you are raised by Love
beyond all grief and trouble,
beyond pain and death,
raised not by your faith or anything of yours,
but raised by the Beloved’s delight in you,
raised by Love’s love for you.
The end of all life is delight.

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

August 5, 2021

Dearly Beloved,

         “I am the bread of life.
         Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
         and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.“
                   —John 6.35

What does it mean to come to Jesus?
Maybe more than that moment of belief.
Maybe the coming is longer than one aisle.
Maybe it’s a lifetime of listening
to his inside-out invitations,
wrestling with his parables that wrestle you
to the floor over and over,
watching him love the unlovely from up close,
finding him in the unexpected,
among your enemies, among the unacceptable.
Maybe it’s just eating bread with him,
just sitting with him at the table, simply being there.
Maybe it’s receiving the bread in his hand,
receiving encouragement, hope, healing,
actually receiving divine love actually offered.

Maybe it’s not the arriving at all but the coming:
the turning, and turning again;
the walk, away from otherwise;
the seeking, the asking, the openness,
the reaching out with an open hand
(offering help or asking?),
the reaching that feeds our hunger,
never to stop reaching out,

even into the mystery

reaching out.

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

August 4, 2021

Gaze at the page
of the book of the world
any page
they’re all blank
great thick book
the one among them all
plentiful as the sands

gaze at the silent page
the ink is not invisible
but exactly the same color as the page
every word in every language
imagined and unimagined
more plentiful than stars
is written there

wait for the words to emerge
when they do memorize them

meanwhile
memorize the empty page
memorize the gazing
memorize the waiting

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

August 2, 2021

         “I am the bread of life.
         Whoever comes to me will never be hungry,
         and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.“
                   —John 6.35

Not the secret of life but the bread.
Not the belief, but the loaf,
gathered from sun-drawn wheat,
ground in the suffering mill,
baked and given by real hands,
nourishing, now, in its willingness
to be taken, broken, eaten.
See its grainy skin, feel its heft,
smell its warmth.
This is not bread you think about.
This is bread you take into yourself,
that feeds your soul.

Let him be that real.
Enjoy.

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

August 3, 2021

         You desire truth in the inward being;
         therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
                                    — Psalm 51. 6


When there is trouble there are always people to blame.
But I pray for the wisdom to look at myself—
not with blame, but curiosity.
What is my part in this?
What am I overlooking or denying?

King David sustained his denial until Nathan shattered it.
My evil may not be as monstrous, my lie as thick.
But—have I desired something other than people’s wellbeing?
What fear keeps me from seeking truth in the inward being?
Am I hiding from myself some attachment I can’t let go of,
that causes hurt?
Can I let it go, and let the light in?

God, you desire truth in the inward being.
Help me see, and honor the truth, and turn toward wholeness,
trusting that there, in my secret heart
beneath all shame and brokenness
is your grace.

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

July 30, 2021

         The gifts God gave were that some would be apostles,
         some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
         to equip the saints for the work of ministry,
         for building up the body of Christ
                   —Ephesians 4.11-12

And some would be listeners, and some good humorists,
some lovers of babies, some survivors, some singers.
Some are hopers, some healers , some encouragers.
Some are  dreamers, some organizers, some workers.
No two sets of gifts are alike. None are inferior.
All are for building up, not tearing down,
all for the whole body, not themselves.
And no one is without. To be is to be gifted.

They are not talents, skills, privileges or obligations.
They are gifts. To be received. To be given.

Listen, believer, for the echo of your own calling,
the song of your own gifts. Listen, and follow.
Listen for the voice of one another’s gifts,
for everyone you meet is gifted.

We equip one another for love.

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

July 29, 2021

         Do not work for the food that perishes,
but for the food that endures for eternal life
                   —John 6.27


The mouth of my heart waters for junk food,
the greed of my hands grasp at nothings.
Whatever I think I’m hungry for
shifts, persists, but does not feed me.
My true hunger is not outward but inward.

Beloved, I am really only hungry for you.
My lips are always having affairs.
My lust is hunger for you—only in another’s flesh.
My greed is for your presence in possessions.
My pride, your love hidden in people’s opinions.
But the true food isn’t there.
It’s only in you.

Give me wisdom to question my desires,
and to open myself to the inward grace
I seek in the outward thing.

Deepen my hunger for you, Beloved,
and spread the feast

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

July 28, 2021

Pilgrim, seek not some lasting feeling
of the presence of God.
If it comes it will be mysterious, and deep,
but brief, like the flight of the great blue heron,
opening his six-foot angelic wingspan
with the sound of fire, the color of mystery,
fluid and generous, like a priest blessing us—
and then gone.
It’s not the wings, but the flight you want.
To have it, you can’t keep it.
Let the wings open in your heart
even when you can’t see them.

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

July 27, 2021

Eternal One,
give me a single heart, to love you constantly,
and an undivided eye, to see you in all things,
to see the whole of things, not just what I want to see,
to see the infinite in the small
and the sacred in the mundane,
the light in things and the eternal in the particular.
Give me an undivided eye to see
this and not-this in one, light and dark inside each other,
Being gleaming at the center of all seeming.
May the eye of love be the lamp of my body
and fill me with light by the loveliness of my seeing.
Give me the eye to see the holy in every person,
your love that makes this world what it is,
the beauty flowering before it flowers,
your hope for this world before it appears.
Let its unfolding be the vision with which,
with an undivided eye, I see all things.

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

July 26, 2021

         So David sent messengers to get Bathsheba,
         and she came to him, and he lay with her.
                   —2 Samuel 11.4


Let a cry of anguish go up
for those who have been brutalized,
whose trauma is hidden behind sedate words.

May the Holy Breath name
with tenderness and honor
those who have suffered rape and abuse.

Let a spirit of repentance lead us
to confess this crucifixion,
trust betrayed and power abused.

May a song of blessing arise
for those whose pain is belittled,
whose story is silenced.

Let the voice of light speak clearly
the terrors veiled in our texts
and masked by our power.

May the word of truth come home,
and break us of our adoration
of our heroes and their evil secrets.

Let the people’s prayers hold gently
the pain that flows like blood
among those who have been violated.

May the love of God enfold you, Bathsheba,
and all your sisters,
with healing, mercy and grace.
Amen.

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

July 23, 2021