Category: Reflections

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         When they looked around,
         they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
                  —Mark 9.8

Sometimes you forget to think,
to analyze and compartmentalize,
and instead you just gaze,
and finally you really see,
see the glory hidden in the ordinary,
the light in the stone,
the angelic being
in the person next to you.

Maybe righteousness
is not moral perfection
but seeing clearly,
with the delight and wonder
with which God sees,
seeing with eyes for holiness,
seeing the divine in people
and treating them so.

Maybe faith
is not certitude
but seeing what is truly before you,
seeing the bud in the bud,
the child in the child,
and remembering
even when you do not see.

Maybe enlightenment
is not understanding
but seeing the light
as if for the first time.

Maybe wisdom
is not knowing
but looking.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at)gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  
You sleep in sheets of snow,
blankets of snow, pillows of snow,
deep and cold,
until you are still
and your body turns white
and the wind moans
over your icy grave,
the song of the earth
over the silent earth.

And then in the morning
you are raised like the sun,
yellow and warm
and miraculous,
the splendor of heaven
beaming out from you
over the blue and white fields
with their birds, astonished,
who are no more entitled than you
to this radiant breach.

______________________
Weather Report

Light, unwarranted,
falling through the darkness.
Expect closures
of business as usual as citizens
deal with the accumulation
of resurrection.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at)gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
Walk past people sealed in their houses,
silence piled up on their roofs,
into the palimpsest of the woods,
thigh deep in the smoothness,
the substance of silence,
the weight of the light.
Snow in the trees, beneath the trees,
branches bowed with the bulk of heaven.
In the open field the white
spreads like a calm sea.
The brook admits you;
beneath you know you are walking on her back.
At the far end of the frozen marsh
stand among the falling constellations
until it is possible
to belong in the cold and quiet,
to be erased and redrawn,
to be a flake in this drift of silence,
blanketed by the softly falling presence,
covered in God.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight(at)gmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         Jesus said, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
                  —Mark 1.38-39

The Empire of God has no headquarters,
nor will there be a Final Battle.
God’s desire is more than saving selected souls:
it is the healing of the nations,
the mending of the whole world.
But there is no Situation Room
from which this campaign is directed.
The Spirit of healing and compassion,
the work of redemption and justice
is done in every little village and town.
Every heart is the center of the movement.
Every life, every act—your life, this day—
is where Christ works.
It is for this that you were born;
“that is what you came out to do.”
You don’t need to do great miracles.
The world is transformed in very small bits,
village by village, one moment at a time.
You are the message.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

        In the morning, while it was still very dark,
        he got up and went out to a deserted place,
        and there he prayed.
                  —Mark 1.35

Very dark.
In mystery. Not a puzzle but
the presence beyond our minds.
The infinite gathers around you.
This is where prayers speak to each other
like stars in the dark sky
though we do not hear them.
Our prayers become us in the night.

A deserted place.
Solitude, where you are a soul,
nothing else. None to judge,
to interpret you, to revise.
You are in God
as the silence is in the night sky,
the deep silence in your heart
heard as clear as a white moon.
We are all alone together.

Our prayers move beyond us.
In the openness,
like an eye in the dark,
not a feeling—too dark for that—
a presence beneath.
In the silence, the space between,
no words, not an answer…
a yes.

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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever,
         and they told him about her at once.
         He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.
         Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
                  —Mark 1.30-31

How straight the energy flows
through his healing hand,
through her hand reaching out to him,
to her hands serving them.

How smoothly God draws us
into this dance, taking our hand:
Yes, you are broken,
yes, I seek you,
Yes, you are needed,
you have gifts to offer.

We who are barely mended
are one with the little man
with holes in his hands:
we are his hands now,
our wounds his wounds in us.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com

Beloved,
this day, whatever I have to do—
a driveway to shovel free of snow,
a desert to cross,
a deathbed to attend,
a sorrow to bear, a joy to share,
papers on a desk—
I do it with you,
one moment at a time,
each step, each tick, each page
a moment with you,
a petal of your presence,
your hand on my hand,
your breath in my breath,
this my holiness, to be here
without the need
of certain feelings or outcomes
or demands of the moment,
but only you in the moment.

         
         

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  
Inside this little hut
you made with your hands
of sticks and straw
are taped up pictures
of great cathedrals
and rules to live by.

Outside
the horizon lies with you,
the vast, intimate air
breathes you in,
someone walks
toward you.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com

      
         There was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
                  —Mark 1.23-27

Yes, he has come to destroy them.
Demonic forces that wreck people:
do not doubt that he has come
to cast them out, all of them,
not merely to touch individuals
but to disarm evil itself,
to reclaim the cosmos.
Demonic spirits of injustice
that dehumanize,
that possess people,
that bind us and blind us
with hate and diminishment of others,
with hard heartedness and violence,
demons of fear and self-protection—
he has come to do away with them.
He is not afraid of the loud voices,
the convulsions they will incite.
He has called all his beloved
to share in the baptism of his power.
He comes with authority.
For this love has the power, yes,
to overcome evil.

O Mighty One, Loving One,
O Capable Hand, O Willing Heart,
cast out my demons,
my fear and inadequacy,
and fill me with your Spirit instead,
the power to resist evil,
to set free from the grip of the demonic
what is human, what is fragile and beautiful,
what is yours.
         
         

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         “A new teaching—with authority!”
                  —Mark 1.27

         Authorization
God, you give me authority to heal,
to confront evil, to reveal your grace.
I embrace the role you give me.

         Expertise
Jesus’ knew what he was talking about,
and his acts and words harmonized.
May I live out your true delight.

         Power
You gave Jesus power to resist evil,
power to effect change.
I accept the power you give me.

         Authenticity
Jesus didn’t teach a list of beliefs,
but gave of himself.
Help me to be authentic and present.

         Authoring
Jesus wrote a new story in people’s lives.
Use me to me create anew,
to write a new page in the story of your love.

By your Spirit in me
help me be
your living, authentic teaching.
         
        

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight3(at)hotmail.com