Category: Reflections

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         Love your enemies
                  and pray for those who persecute you.
         If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
                  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
                           —Matthew 5.44, 46

We’re afraid to be nonviolent partly because we can’t be sure of the outcome. We’re afraid we’ll pray for our enemies and they’ll still be our enemies. Maybe. But here’s the miracle: the power of love is such that the act itself is the result, no matter what happens next. The oppressor is not likely to be freely choosing his evil. He’s probably at the mercy of fear and bitterness and loneliness, unable to break free, unable to chose compassion, unable even to see his injustice. He’s just doing what “tax collectors” do. But when we act in love, we we are freely choosing. (We get the upper hand: we’re more free than the oppressor!) Our freedom, not his bondage, determines how we live. We have set ourselves free. That’s no small outcome.

Moreover, when we choose to love our enemy we create an alternative world. When someone is cruel, we create a world of kindness anyway, and invite them to choose to enter it. That world of grace and compassion exists whether or not they choose to enter it. It has power. Love creates a gravitational field that changes how everything in it behaves, even if no one can see it.

Jesus’ teaching is no wimpy excuse for passivity. It’s a call to live with the courage to make our own choices, to trust in the power of our own fully realized being, to refuse to let another person—especially one who’s in bondage to fear—determine our way of living. When we make our own choices we create a new world. When we make those choices in love, we open a door for others into that world. We change the outcomes that are possible. Indeed, when we love our enemy all of reality is changed.

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 have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
                  —Matthew 5.38-44

Teach me your way, O Lord,
          and I will observe it to the end.
Lead me in the path you show me,
          for I delight in it.
                  —Psalm 119.33, 35

Jesus’ teaching seems so hard, so impractical, so unreasonable, so unlikely to work. We’re pretty sure we’re smarter than him on this. We come up with all sort of reasons why we couldn’t, shouldn’t actually do this stuff. We resist it with all our heart and soul and strength and mind. Of course we don’t know what we’re talking about, since we’ve never actually lived it.

The point of Jesus’ teaching is not to find reasonable ways to avoid it; it’s to practice it, to learn from it, to follow in his footsteps. Of course we’ll not be good at it; we’ll get it wrong, fumble and make huge mistakes. Of course we’ll get hurt. And of course—of course—it will not work. We won’t convert our enemies or purify our souls. We’ll make fools of ourselves and lose a lot.

But we will follow in the way God leads us, the way of nonviolent love. And in our following, however feebly and awkwardly, grace will happen. Our lives will become God’s. Blessing will happen, someone will get loved, and the Gospel will be proclaimed. Even when it “doesn’t work,” God’s will is done, God’s delight fulfilled.

Don’t try to outsmart God; don’t judge Jesus’ wisdom; don’t calculate outcomes. Don’t run away. Don’t seek excuses to go the way of the world. Seek the faith to go the way of Christ, the courage that comes from surrendering your self-envelopment and trusting in God. Just be quiet and try it.

Offer your resistance to God. Open your heart to God’s leading and trust that there is blessing in it. Pray continually:
          Teach me your way, O Lord,
                    and I will observe it to the end.
          Lead me in the path you show me,
                    for I delight in it.

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

         
         Love your enemies
         and pray for those who persecute you.
                  —Matthew 5.44

Heavenly Lover,
I confess I don’t want to love.
I want to protect my fear, my hurt and anger.
I want to fix, to control, to be right,
to unload my pain onto another.

When I am this way,
so self-absorbed, so sure of my right,
I abandon your love and work against you.
I become your enemy.

And yet you love me.
No being right, no winning,
just the cross,
just your love.

May your love absorb my pain and fear;
may your love become my love.
May I actually love my enemy,
love them as your beloved,
wounded and precious as I am.
Let me see myself in them,
broken and afraid and tangled in faults,
and truly love them,
with love undiluted by fear or self-concern,
but only wonder and thanksgiving,
and desire that they be well and whole.
May I love my enemy as myself.

By your love in me, let me love.

__________________
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.
         
         
                  
In mounds of snow, and snow still falling,
the train’s light threads through
the thickly woven air,
its own little world.
The old Gregorian horn,
burrowing through muffling trees,
is so thin and solitary, so far away,
the muezzin’s voice,
wrapped in a long scarf of silence,
barely calling out over the field.
But the souls bundled within
are no less precious,
traveling with the Beloved,
their hopes no less keen,
their prayers
no less clearly heard.

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

Beloved,
my darling,

you are more
messed up than you think,

but you are mine
and I love you
forever.

Love,
God

________________________
Weather Report

Warmth
tempering even the coldest day,
despite periods of loneliness or difficulty,
and a high degree of Presence.
Winds of varying strength,
highly saturated, that are always,
always,
the breath of the Beloved.

         

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.
         
         You have heard it said, “You shall not murder,”
         but I say to you that if you insult a brother or sister,
         you will be liable.
         So when you are offering your gift at the altar,
         if you remember
         that your brother or sister has something against you,
         leave your gift there before the altar and go;
         first be reconciled to your brother or sister,
         and then come and offer your gift.
                  —Matthew 5.21-24

The law of God
is not a gate you make it through,
not a finish line you attain.
It is the road toward relationships
of healing, blessing and justice.

The law of God
is not a target you can hit or miss.
It is the bow that shoots you
toward perfect love.

The law of God
is a metaphor
for awe
which you wonder about out loud
until you become
a metaphor for love.

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.

         
         I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
         Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.
                  —Deuteronomy 30.19

It’s not a game show with two doors,
a test with a right and a wrong answer.
There’s no reward or punishment.
It’s life, and we have to choose it,
embrace life or ignore it, receive it or not,
choose to give life or to diminish life,
to extend blessing or curse.
Life is not the reward for picking the right answer;
it’s the thing that itself is worth picking.

Your life is part of all of Life.
Choose to be a part of it instead of being separate.
Choose all of Life, not just your own little lifelet.

The choices are seldom two, right or wrong.
They are manifold, a thicket of tangled roots,
a thousand ways to harm a neighbor,
bless a stranger, set someone free.

When you see life, any life, notice it. Bow to it.
When you have the chance to enrich a life, choose that.
When someone has hurt you, give blessing, not curse.

Where there is injustice, anything that diminishes life,
choose what gives life instead.
It will not always be easy to live out that choice.
But the choosing will make you strong.

The life that is given to you, freely and without limit—
choose it, or you’ll miss it entirely.

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.
         
            
I love watching Olympic athletes do the amazing things they do. (I’m glad they’re doing it so we don’t have to.) It’s inspiring to see someone do something they’re really good at. But prayer is different. There’s no such thing as being “good it it.” There’s just doing it. Just being there with God. God doesn’t need us to be “good” at it. God just wants us to be there.

When we pray our minds wander, we have selfish thoughts, we fall asleep. And then we return. That’s all right; it’s all a part of prayer. It is true that some aspects of prayer become easier with practice, and over time our prayer takes us deeper and deeper. It is true that a life of disciplined prayer has a different quality than a life of haphazard inattentiveness to the sacred. But when we’re praying, there’s nothing to be “good at.” We’re just there paying attention.

Maybe the best model for our prayer lives at the Olympics is not the ice dancers who have such artistic grace, or the skiers and snowboarders who have such ridiculous midair courage, or the speed skaters with such power, but the audience. In prayer we just sit and watch God be graceful and powerful and wholly present in us and in the world, and we are in awe. And for God, that’s perfect.

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

Holy One,
I am your meadow,

filling up
with your snow,

becoming
more full,

more lovely,

more silent.

__________________
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.

An ordinary day, nothing special,
no big events planned, nothing on the calendar,
not going anywhere, doing anything.

Resist the temptation to think of it as dull.
Renounce the desire to be entertained.
This is a day you are needed:

to be attentive, to listen deeply,
to give God some loving company,
to extend loving mercy to the world.

Enter the monastery of your life.
Let the whole day be prayer and praise,
a meditation on the presence of God.

Let every ordinary thing you do,
the meeting, lunch, and the dishes,
be an act of devotion, of becoming light.

Let this day be holy, a gift from God,
and be deeply present to every bit.
Thank God that this grace is the usual thing.

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.