Category: Reflections

           “Come to me, all you that are weary
           and are carrying heavy burdens,
           and I will give you rest.
           Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
           for I am gentle and humble in heart,
           and you will find rest for your souls.
           for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
                           —Matthew 11.28-30

Jesus, this is my cry of faith in you,
not that you are the Son of God,
but that you invite me into your love.

Not that you are great and mighty,
but that you are there,
there for me, in love.

That in my weariness you are present,
not to ask me to believe,
but to help carry the load.

That I may be yoked with you,
side by side, breathing together,
your and my life and burdens shared.

That I may learn from you,
from your humble gentleness,
that that might be my burden, too.

That I may lay down every burden
but to love, and, yoked with you,
to know that labor as delight.

That I am called not to strive heroically,
but to come alongside,
and to find rest for my soul.

Beloved, with you even the greatest suffering
for the sake of love is an easy yoke,
and my burden is light, pure light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           I do not understand my own actions.
           For I do not do what I want,
           but I do the very thing I hate.
                           —Romans 7.15

Sin isn’t easy to pin down,
hard to catch in the act.
Usually too late.

Unknown fears, regrets wounds and hungers
lurch around on the bicycle of my heart.
I’ll lose control. I’ll crash.

I believe delusions. I flee imaginary monsters.
I don’t know what gets into me.
I don’t know how I mess up.

My heart walks with a limp.
Its compass is off, its eyesight is crooked.
I try to do the right thing, the wrong way.

In the battle between good and evil
I’m on the right side
but I keep scoring for the other team

I’m a mess. Is there hope?
Should I blame myself, shame myself,
should I just give up?

No, says the Beloved, come with me.
There is no battle, no score.
There is only my goodness. It swallows you.

I forgive all your faults,
and know why you have them,
and offer not judgment, but healing

I believe in the heart within your heart
which doesn’t perform, but simply is,
and in that pure being we are at peace.

Come to me, you who are burdened by your sin,
and take upon you my yoke of grace,
and find rest for your soul.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I just returned from a nephew’s wedding
to a woman from Nepal. Amazing.
I now have dozens of new relatives
all over the world. A miracle.
How did I acquire this new family?
By two people’s love for each other.

Your love has power beyond your knowing.
Your faithfulness creates a real thing,
a living organism greater than you can see.
The flowing of your love
enables the flowing of much more love.

You are given; you are received.
You belong. You are related.

Imagine a world
in which we regarded one another, even strangers,
with the love of kin.
As our nine year old grandson said,
“I kind of think we’re all related—
you know, from Adam and Eve…”

Let your love and faithfulness
weave a miracle,
making strangers into family,
extending to the ends of the earth.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Imagine the light of Creation
had been taken and broken into little bits,
wrapped in some kind of skin
and hidden deep in caves
in far polar regions, deep underground.
For centuries people sought the light,
suspected it, told stories,
even unseen it was their hope.

The sea moved sometimes as if
the light were at the bottom of it,
but it wasn’t there.

This is not a myth; it is all literally true,
only the caves are closer,
much closer.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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God bless our country
with humility and wisdom,
to hear your voice
not in triumph over others
but in love for one another,
for all who, for every reason,
find themselves upon this land.
May our patriotism be care for all,
not just for one family or place or kind.
Give us courage to face injustice,
to resist the powers that diminish life,
to repent of hate, and heal oppression,
for the sake of liberty and justice for all.
Bless us with prosperity of gratitude,
freedom of love and abundance of generosity.
For the land and water that so richly provide for us
we give thanks and pray for healing and renewal.
Bless us all that we may truly belong to the land,
to one another, and to you,
in a spirit of unity, gratitude and joy.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           Whoever gives even a cup of cold water
           to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—
           truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.
                           —Matthew 10.42

We forget how thirsty we all are
for hope and gratitude.
Don’t pass up an opportunity today
to offer a cup to one of the little ones
(who of course are angels in disguise):
to encourage, to appreciate, to give thanks
to the one checking your groceries,
or delivering your mail,
or doing their best to be a decent person.
Notice how offering a cup of grace
quenches your own longing, too.
God is thirsty for our love for each other
and every little cup is a delight
that satisfies us all.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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            God tested Abraham.
            and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”
            God said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love,
            and go to the land of Moriah,
            and offer him there as a burnt offering
            on one of the mountains that I shall show you.”
            So Abraham went…
                           —Genesis 22.1-3

God, I confess
I ask others to be my sacrifice.
What I have been given to tend,
and those I have been given to love,
I have used.
Without thought I have ascribed it to you,
as if it is how you have arranged the world.
I have abused my power and privilege,
and neglected how my benefit
has caused others to suffer.
I have justified it in your name.

I repent.
Hold my hand. Stay my knife.
Open my eyes.
Give me grace to unbind my Isaac,

to set free what I have intended to use,
to renounce my entitlement
to comfort that costs others.
God, I myself am Isaac,
bound by my own self-serving.
May my selfishness be my sacrifice.
Unbind me, and set me free.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,
           and whoever welcomes me
           welcomes the one who sent me.
                           —Matthew 10.40


Our souls speak to each other.
         When your heart goes out to another
                  it is your soul seeking God.

God is love; in every act of love
         God is present
                  and our soul leaps up.

When someone receives you with joy
         they are thirsting for the love you bear
                  that is not yours but God’s.

When someone rejects you, forgive them.
         Something unknown in them
                  is afraid of love.

What you do matters. But it’s not about you.
         It’s God people seek and avoid.
                  Be a cup of cold water for the thirsty.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth;
                      I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
           For I have come to set a man against his father,
                      and a woman against her mother…”
                           —Matthew 10.34-35

If you follow love
some people, even dear, want your loyalty
elsewhere.
You leave the lane,
you silence cheerleaders,
arouse cynics.
You travel uncharted routes,
following indecipherable markings
on your heart.
Even in the city there are no maps.
People stare at your compass
as if it’s wrong.
Hurt at the uncloaking of cherished lies,
they haul out swords, to cut you off.
Do not believe their divisions and departures.
The love you follow,
though it set them against you,
makes you one.
You are more deeply connected
than they can imagine:
surrounded, accompanied, held.
Yes, Beloved, even faced with swords
the Companion stands beside you;
even through the wastelands
we are with you.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I dreamt in a green meadow
I held my life
the all of it a small nut
a pretty stone
all me not anything else
at the vague edges of my dream
monsters lurked or maybe fears
someone could take this away
I could lose this
then what would there be
what would I be
I held on in winds and torrents
in my dream I dreamt them
storms of grabbing hands
I still had it
but couldn’t see the stone
in my aching hand
under layers of earth
the iron of my hand
a hard shiny shell
then a new dread
it reached up for me

I threw it
and my hand as well I think

and then
empty at ease
the meadow was mine
the forest the sky was mine
was me
hands running leaping like deer
living wind
an opening
a joy

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