Reflections – Page 359 – Unfolding Light

Masks

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you;
bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.
— Luke 6. 27-28

Be compassionate for those who have learned
by hard and hurtful experience
to mask their fear with anger,
whose meanness is really loneliness,
whose arrogance is actually insecurity,
whose hard heartedness is the only safe place
they know where to hide their terrible wound.
Be kind to those who do not know how to be kind,
for most likely no one has shown them kindness.
Forgive those who seem always to be fighting,
for it may be the only way they know how
to reach out and touch someone.
Be gentle with those who yell at you,
for they’re only trying to show you what hurts.
Be kind to the ungrateful and the selfish,
for only thus will you know
how deeply and freely God loves you.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________
Copyright (c)Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Of your love

Divine Love,
of your love
all day long I am unfolding the letter,
of your love
all day long I am uncovering the treasure,
all day long I am unclasping the chest,
all day long I am welcoming the courier,
I am approaching the door,
I am tipping the vessel.
Of your love all day long
I am feeling the hands,
I am removing the clothes,
I am hearing the song,
I am falling into the heart,
slipping into the inside.
Of your love
all day long
there is always yet more.
Of your love
all day long
may I be mindful and rejoice.

_______________________________
Copyright (c) Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Flood me

Infinite, Loving Presence,
this day, in all light and darkness,
flow into me through my eyes.
In every sound and silence I hear,
fill me through my ears.
In everything I touch,
and everything I release,
flood me through my hands.
May the infinite presence of your Spirit
pour into me in every breath.
With every mysterious beat of my heart
and all my words and thoughts and deeds,
by your gentle grace, may your love
flow into this open world
this day through me.

_______________________________

Groundhog Day

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Today is Groundhog Day, when a groundhog emerging from its burrow will predict whether there will be six more weeks of winter. I’m sure it’s a reliable way to predict the future. Well, OK, maybe not. I bet the groundhog is not contemplating the future, but simply coming out of his burrow.

But in his honor, consider the movie “Groundhog Day.” In it a TV reporter is sent unwillingly, resentfully, in fact, to cover the ceremony in Punxatwney, PA. The whole time he wishes he were somewhere else. The next day he wakes up and it’s Groundhog Day all over again. Indeed, he keeps repeating the same day over and over, Groundhog Day after Groundhog Day. He goes through a series of responses: he gets goofy and does things he normally wouldn’t, knowing there will be no consequences. He does various terrible deeds, even getting himself killed, knowing he’ll wake up again the next day and start all over. He takes piano lessons. He does good deeds. He flirts with the woman he’s attracted to. But he’s always yearning to get out of Groundhog Day, and he never does. Day after day, it’s still the very same Feb. 2. Day after day, he wishes he were elsewhere. But eventually he comes to a point when he forgets himself and becomes entirely present, perfectly satisfied with the present moment—and finally he breaks free and re-enters the real world.

It’s simple: be present. We so easily get caught up in rehashing the past, worrying about the future, wishing things were otherwise, being elsewhere. Ironically the more we wish things were otherwise, the more stuck we are. It’s only when we accept What Is that we are set free. We can only move into an actual future from the real present.

Today let the groundhog predict the future. You stay in the present. Live it while it’s here. It won’t come again. The present moment is all you have: if you don’t live in it, you don’t have anything. Accept what is. It’s good enough. Let this whole day be the one, unrepeatable gift that it is. May it be a blessed one.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Paper boat

How amazing that you have chosen
the thin paper boat of my life
in which to cross this sea,

a little sheet folded in certain shape
to make a cupped-hands dish,
the printing running this way and that.

Somehow over the wind-raked expanse
and through the stomping surf
this weightless little scrap arrives

and you step out and smile and say,
“Thank you. I’m so glad to be here.”
and I look around the gentle shore and wonder:

how the heck do you do that?

__________________
Copyright (c) Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com

Absolute love

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you… and you will be children of the Most High; for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Mother is merciful.
— Luke 6. 27-28, 35-36

God, I am your beloved,
whom you love absolutely and perfectly.
No matter how good or bad I am , you love me wholly.
Help me to trust in your love,
your perfect, absolute, infinite love for me,
to trust that no matter what happens
I know that I am beloved.
Help me to love with your love,
love that is absolute and not conditional.
Give me the courage to love, the wisdom,
the freedom, the strength of heart.
Help me to surrender every desire but to love,
every wish to judge, to punish, to prevail.

God, I hold before you those whom I find it hard to bless.
They are your beloved, too, no matter what. Bless them.
Grant them healing, forgiveness and wholeness of life.
May the blessing you shower upon them
be the blessing you grant to me.
Amen.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

Wind

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and peace to you.

In the relentless wind
the people on the street stagger
to keep from crashing into each other.

We look most of the time like strangers,
like we’re ignoring each other,
as if we have nothing to do with each other,

but actually our lowered heads
and preoccupied gazes, our silences
and fastidious avoidances

are how we lurch and resist
the powerful wind howling within us, given,
that bends us with irresistible love

toward each other.

____________________

Weather Report

Overwhelming,
as the entire atmospheric condition
of our relatedness sweeps through us.
Invisible connection will prevail,
despite scattered areas of resistance.

Deep blessings,
Pastor Steve

One body

Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

Now you are the body of Christ
and individually members of it.
— 1 Corinthians 12.27

We are not separate things, but all parts of one living Being.
We are no more separate than the fingers on a hand,
the notes in a chord, the words in a sentence,
the flavors in a gourmet dish, the cells in a body.
We are part of one another; we are each other in different ways.
There is one body, and we are all it.

We serve the poor because they are us.
We love the stranger because in them we know ourselves.
We side with the oppressed because they hold our wisdom.
We honor those who are different because they complete us.
We respect those who horrify us, for they are within us.
We bring the Other to our table: it is theirs, for we are theirs.
We include them in our compassion, for we include them.

The Christ that is in you is not separate from the Christ
in the unclean and lepers and drug addicts and terrorists.
Your choosing may be different, but the Spirit is One.
You are not the One, but you are in the One.

This is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that in all there is One.
There is One of us, and the oneness, the One, is Holy.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

_______________________________

What the doctor heard

You sit on the paper rolled out on the doctor’s bench.
With her stethoscope she listens at your back.
She pauses, stills, leans closer.
She comes around and listens at the front.
Her eyes widen.
She sits, staring into the distance.
“What did you hear?” you ask. She is silent.
“The voice of God,”
she says, and returns to her silence.

______________________

Weather Report

Partially spoken today
with periods of clearing,
as the Word, in its continual flow,
at times condenses around
and within us.
Fifty percent chance of participation.

Burdens

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

I shake mounded snow from the branches
I walk beneath, and they rise
from their burden of beauty, but most
in these woods are happy to bow
under the weight of the blessing
bestowed upon them in darkness
and brilliant now in the morning.
The sun will quietly bear
its bundle among the branches
that waited all through the night,
until, embraced in its beams,
they are patiently, softly unbound
and rise up into the light.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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