Category: Reflections

         God chose us in Christ
         before the foundation of the world
         to be holy and blameless before God in love.
                   —Ephesians 1.4

God, you have chosen me
to be holy and blameless in love.
I don’t know what holds me back.
Some of it I can name, but some is hidden.
Help me see the fears that restrain me…
the guilt that burdens me…
the inadequacy that haunts me…
the expectations that entangle me…
the attachments that chain me…
Help me to see them and to trust
that you sent me free from them.
No reason, no means, no demands—
you simply set me free,
with no purpose other than that I be free,
free to be holy and blameless in love.
I am free. Help me to trust.

Breath prayer:
Free … to love

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

July 9, 2021

In Mark 6 the author tells us Jesus sends out his disciples to preach and heal— but suddenly in the middle of the story, as Mark likes to do, he stops and tells another story, about Herod killing John the Baptist: a sordid tale of power, seduction, intrigue, depravity, violence—the works. Then the disciples come home and Jesus says, “Let’s go away to a quiet place.” What’s with the mental whiplash, cutting between the two very different scenes?

Well, they’re not different scenes. Mark is not just portraying Herod’s awfulness. He’s reminding us of the brokenness of the world we serve. We carry our gospel of healing, reconciliation, justice, gentleness and joy into a world of fear, greed, racism, militarism, cannibalistic capitalism, violence and dehumanization. The tragic danger of Herod’s court is right where we’re sent to preach the good news. Mark is just being realistic.

Everything in Mark is a prelude to the cross and resurrection, because everything in life is. The difficulties, the injustices, the tragedies we face, are not barriers. They’re the road. They’re the setting for the good news. And even with all that evil the news is still good. The cross is how resurrection begins.

So, dearly beloved, go out there. At times it will be rough and nasty. But you carry with you the light of God, and the darkness cannot overcome it. Heal the broken and proclaim the good news. And then, come home, and go with Jesus to a quiet place, and rest.

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

July 8, 2021

         As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David,
         Michal daughter of Saul looked out of the window,
         and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord;
         and she despised him in her heart.
                   —2 Samuel 6.16

She’s his wife. One of them. Ah, family.
When people hanker to “get back to the Biblical family”
you know they’ve never read the book.
Cain and Abel… Abraham and his “sister” Sarah… Jacob and Esau…
Joseph and his brothers… Tamar and incestuous Amnon…
Solomon and his 700 concubines… and David and… well, everybody.

David is complicated. A hero and also a scoundrel.
Poet, musician, lover of God who dances in praise with all his might…
and rapist, murderer, schemer, self-server extraordinaire.
A good king whose platform sometimes seems to be “Hold my beer.”
The people who love him, including his family, hate him:
Saul assaults him…Michal spurns him… Absalom revolts against him.

How do you love somebody—especially in your family—
who’s both great and awful, lovable and despicable?
Well according to the honesty of the author of Samuel,
you just love them. You live with them, within limits.
You honor their gifts, and call them on their BS.
Sometimes you help them pick up pieces, sometimes you leave it to them.
But you don’t save them from themselves. You stay honest.
You figure out your choices, and theirs, and make yours.
And you remember we’re all equally beautiful and messed up.

In the Bible, the family is not some lovely tableau of niceness.
Family is where you work out your shit.
Not your family’s but your own.
Family is where you practice coming to a place where you can live.
And since we’re all family, it’s practice we all need.
Fortunately, the head of our family is the one sane, loving one,
the God we call Parent, the Christ we call Brother,
the Holy Spirit who holds us all together, no matter what.
For that, it’s worth dancing with all your might.
Who cares what your ex thinks?

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

July 7, 2021

I sit by the pond of prayer.
My prayers are duck decoys
floating on the pond.
If I sit still long enough
a little flock of God will come,
the real thing,
and settle beside them on the pond.
I don’t have to pray.
Just put out my decoys,
and sit still and wait
for the ducks to come.

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

July 6, 2021

You are destined to be loved
passionately, tenderly, forever
by one you will never meet.

You are fated to be famous
in another world,
not the one you live in.

It is written that you shall be powerful,
and your power will shake the world
at such frequency of vibrations
that only the saints will suspect a thing.

Before you were conceived you were endowed
with gifts that shine like stars in the daytime,
unseen and brilliant.

You have been predestined
to enter the realm of heaven
long before you realize it—
in fact, dear one,
long ago,
bearer of light,
long ago.

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

July 5, 2021

Jesus, you sent your disciples out
to heal and to cast out demons.
I am not here aimlessly:
you have sent me.
By your spirit in me help me today
to be a healing presence,
to trust the power you give me
to resist evil, injustice and oppression,
to counter the demons in this world
and set people free.
With love and courage
I am on your mission
of grace and mercy.
In all things, by your Spirit,
keep me on task.
Amen.

[ Mark 6.7-13]

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

July 2, 2021

Beloved, you open your door to me
and I come in.

You do not compel but invite me
as with the smell of a flowering tree

into this silence where silence can be heard,
a darkness where stars can shine,

where what you have been saying into me
can be said out of me

where I can be born again
back into my bright, breathing life.

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

July 1, 2021

Lost in a strange city,
I can’t find my place
even at my own table,
I am dreaming.
I am home.

There is a way that is looking for me.
There is a song just remembering me.
There are hands that hold me,
waiting for the time to let go.

Though I can’t see it
there is my place. I am in it.

My eyes are so closed, so closed.
My hand is always on the garden gate.
It says my name.

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

June 30, 2021

Holy One, envelop me,
fill me, become me.

Move in me.
Move me.

May I see as you are.
May I be as you mean.

May I reach as you touch.
May I release as you forgive.

May I sing as you joy.
May I live as you love.

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

June 29, 2021

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you
         I will boast of my weaknesses,
         so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
                   —2 Corinthians 12.9

In a world that worships strength and success
abandon them both.
On the days you feel weak and ineffective
remember Jesus was a flop in Nazareth.
But he stayed true.

He failed in court,
was condemned and executed,
with no flaming sword, no light saber,
no gunships.
But he stayed loving.

You are only a vessel of the miracle,
not the producer.
The glory of God, infinite love,
flows through you.
Let it.

Child of God,
that is all that is asked of you.
The rest, infinite,
is up to grace.

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

June 28, 2021