Category: Reflections

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  
Practice gratitude.
For the Gift, the Mystery,
the Presence, give thanks.
For the marvel of Creation
and your belonging,
gravity’s eros and time
writings its music in you,
practice gratitude.
For love you have received,
known and unknown,
the river that never runs dry,
let your heart overflow.
For the wonder of your flesh,
your body’s working and its wisdom,
for sight and touch,
for taste and tune,
give thanks.
In tragedy, hilarity,
when struggling or confused,
let gratitude flow out from you.
In grief give thanks for what was treasured.
In pain rejoice for heart and nerve.
In darkness be already grateful
for what will one day be disclosed.
In each affront there is a blessing,
every disappointment hides a gift;
say “Thank you” and seek the grace.
Even our woes are part of the great Gift,
the mystery of Life.
In every moment we are held,
accompanied and blessed.
Practice gratitude.

O Generous One,
You Who Are,
for you
and for your giving of yourself
I flow with gratitude.

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  
Dead leaves crackle and shout their praise,
shake their shakers and noisemakers,
applauding in gratitude
for all the green that has gone,
all the life, the breathing in and out,
the shade, the birds sheltered
and bugs fed, air cleansed,
the nations healed, the earth renewed.

Give thanks
for the gifts offered, the things we leave,
the mistakes made, the afternoons spent.
Give thanks for the nights
when even the leaves rested.

Give thanks for ourselves, finely veined,
the chewed edges of grief, love given,
our letting go and arriving.
Kick the leaves.
It was good, it was good.

Give thanks for the welcoming earth,
receiving life and death with open arms,
making of our words and hands
a compost for others.
Give thanks that it all settles
into the dark, into the moist mystery,
already, under scumbling clouds
devoted to the green rising.

Kick up for joy the heart’s dry husk,
this blessed sackcloth, future’s bones,
the peace of doing without,
this rustling flesh, this loss.

The white oak, the red oak, the hickory,
the maple, the beech, the ash, all praise,
the grasses, the dry grasses praise.

         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         Christ is above all rule and authority
                  and power and dominion.
                           —Ephesians 1.21

O Love, be my Sovereign.
Rule my world. Control my life.
I subject my freedom
to your absolute mercy.

I pledge my allegiance
to your dynasty of justice,
the tyranny of your grace,
your mercy that will not be overthrown.

Exercise dominion
over all my rules and powers,
my fears and attachments,
my grasping ambition.

O Love, direct my life,
every moment, every choice,
the leanings of my heart,
the secret movements of my will.

I live to serve you,
in trust and gratitude
to carry out your will
in all I do and say and intend.

O Love, I am your loyal subject.
Overpower my defenses;
do with me what you will.
O Love, reign entirely in me.

         
         

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         God raised Christ from the dead
         and seated Christ at God’s right hand in the heavenly places,
         far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.
                  —Ephesians 1.20-21

Tradition claims the Prince of Love
is ruler of the universe,
that forgiveness is above every power,
that grace overwhelms every dominion.

Skeptics demur. But what else sustains,
what else is worth it?
What but love bore Christ along,
and fueled his touch, his speech,
his dying breath? And what but grace
could make and use his rising?
If you’ve a better god, choose boldly.
Make sure it’s big enough for your whole life,
worth ruling you like your death.

In this world of seas and stars,
of music and the intricacies of your flesh,
of sundogs and tree frogs and memory,
of tragedy and the way its children survive,
even chaos is a feeble, flimsy thing,
and selfishness a bridge to nowhere.

I’ve seen sixty-one years
of a crazy world and all its wonders,
my dying and rebirth, forgiveness,
and what holds me in the wind.
The little candle in the darkness was love,
the strength that bore me was love,
my only failures a failure to love.
It’s the warp my life is woofed upon,
the only sense that everything makes,
the only reason that everything is.

You can have your randomness;
the old mosaics have it right:
even in the storm of chaos, the roar of evil,
love is the Lord of heaven and earth,
its teacher my sovereign, my truth.
It’s the little swaying bridge I’ll take
over the foaming, thundering chasm.

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

      
         Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food,
         or thirsty and gave you something to drink?
         And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you,
         or naked and gave you clothing?
         When was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?
                  —Matthew 25.37-39

God of mercy,
         give me eyes to see your face.

God of mercy,
         give me ears to hear your cry.

God of mercy,
         give me hands to reach out to you.

God of mercy,
         give me a heart to know your presence.

God of mercy,
         give me mercy.
         that I may draw near to you.

         
         

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

      
         Whatever you did to the least of these
                  you did to me.
                           —Matthew 25.40

This is not a simile.
         The poor are not an allegory.
                  God is the poor.

God is not observing them, but in them,
         the lonely and the rejected.
                  God takes the lowest place.

God is the powerless one,
         the misunderstood one,
                  the crucified one.

Under the bridge,
         in the nursing home,
                  in solitary,

this is the throne of the Sovereign,
         the Ruler of the universe:
                  the cross.

Until you see the glory of the divine
         in the street gang, the wheelchair,
                  the power of the heavens in the lifer,

you do not believe.
         Don’t go elsewhere to worship in ease.
                  Bow down, and serve, and know.
         

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  

The tree is almost bare now;
only a handful of yellow leaves remain.

The sun hugs branches
it hasn’t seen for a long time.

I am not yet so open
in my prayer.

A woodpecker works the bare limbs
and I am given hope to go on.

________________________
Weather Report

Clear
as a low pressure front
pushes desires and regrets
downwind
and the world before us appears,
glorious in detail, present
and divine.

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  
God is climbing a long hill in you,
bearing the load, walking the distance.

The little sunrise of wonder in you
is God awakening to a blessing.

The strength you have is God
taking in a breath, ready for this.

God bears this grief,
walks the winding path, each step.

This journey is God walking in you,
holding your head up.

The silence is God praying in you.
Your cry is God crying out.

The energy of the universe
unfolds in this way.

The presence of God disappears
into the world and reappears in you.

God walking this road, shedding these tears,
becomes your life.

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
      
         
                  

You are not some little cent
that God has buried in the earth
to save in fear or greed.
You are a coin of greatest worth
that God has spent in joy
for those in need,
that God, delighted, gave
to someone dear,
or lent and lends again
at no interest, freely,
sent into the great economy of love.

I wonder now:

         how will God

                  spend you

                           today?

         
         
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 unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

      
         
                  
Today I pray for veterans,
for those whose lives we’ve used
to fight our wars,
whose blood we’ve spent
to have our way.
They bear our wounds
and the weight of our fear.
They are the lambs we sacrifice
to the gods of our Empire.
Lord have mercy.

For those who have been in hell
I pray that their bodies be mended,
their memories healed,
their souls restored.

I pray for veterans of all nations
who served their country,
risked their lives
and did their best.

I pray for mothers of soldiers,
for children of war,
for all who suffer from the violence of nations.

I pray for those who work for peace,
who risk and suffer in the work of justice,
for reconciliation and life.

I pray for the veterans of all my little wars,
those I have used or wounded
or fought in the name of my little gods.

In the name of the Prince of Peace
I pray for peace,
for Armistice
among all.
Amen.

         
         

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

To receive Unfolding Light as a daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com