Do not work for the food that perishes,
but for the food that endures for eternal life
                   —John 6.27


The mouth of my heart waters for junk food,
the greed of my hands grasp at nothings.
Whatever I think I’m hungry for
shifts, persists, but does not feed me.
My true hunger is not outward but inward.

Beloved, I am really only hungry for you.
My lips are always having affairs.
My lust is hunger for you—only in another’s flesh.
My greed is for your presence in possessions.
My pride, your love hidden in people’s opinions.
But the true food isn’t there.
It’s only in you.

Give me wisdom to question my desires,
and to open myself to the inward grace
I seek in the outward thing.

Deepen my hunger for you, Beloved,
and spread the feast

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

July 28, 2021

Pilgrim, seek not some lasting feeling
of the presence of God.
If it comes it will be mysterious, and deep,
but brief, like the flight of the great blue heron,
opening his six-foot angelic wingspan
with the sound of fire, the color of mystery,
fluid and generous, like a priest blessing us—
and then gone.
It’s not the wings, but the flight you want.
To have it, you can’t keep it.
Let the wings open in your heart
even when you can’t see them.

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

July 27, 2021

Eternal One,
give me a single heart, to love you constantly,
and an undivided eye, to see you in all things,
to see the whole of things, not just what I want to see,
to see the infinite in the small
and the sacred in the mundane,
the light in things and the eternal in the particular.
Give me an undivided eye to see
this and not-this in one, light and dark inside each other,
Being gleaming at the center of all seeming.
May the eye of love be the lamp of my body
and fill me with light by the loveliness of my seeing.
Give me the eye to see the holy in every person,
your love that makes this world what it is,
the beauty flowering before it flowers,
your hope for this world before it appears.
Let its unfolding be the vision with which,
with an undivided eye, I see all things.

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

July 26, 2021

         So David sent messengers to get Bathsheba,
         and she came to him, and he lay with her.
                   —2 Samuel 11.4


Let a cry of anguish go up
for those who have been brutalized,
whose trauma is hidden behind sedate words.

May the Holy Breath name
with tenderness and honor
those who have suffered rape and abuse.

Let a spirit of repentance lead us
to confess this crucifixion,
trust betrayed and power abused.

May a song of blessing arise
for those whose pain is belittled,
whose story is silenced.

Let the voice of light speak clearly
the terrors veiled in our texts
and masked by our power.

May the word of truth come home,
and break us of our adoration
of our heroes and their evil secrets.

Let the people’s prayers hold gently
the pain that flows like blood
among those who have been violated.

May the love of God enfold you, Bathsheba,
and all your sisters,
with healing, mercy and grace.
Amen.

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

July 23, 2021

         They saw Jesus walking on the sea
         and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.
         But he said to them, “It is I; do not be afraid.”
         Then they wanted to take him into the boat,
         and immediately the boat reached the land
         toward which they were going.
                   —John 6.19-21


The point is not that Jesus “walks on water”
(whatever that means).
He walks on difficulty. Walks through trouble.
He walks, even, over impossibility.

Where he walks is not a little lake, not a great ocean,
but the world, where the Beloved
will not, even in your direst storms,
be remote, but will be there,
walking over it to you, serene, present,
no matter where you are.
It will never be hard for love to get to you.

The point is not miraculous teleportation.
It is that love will get you where you need to go.
When you awake, even terrified,
to the reality that the Beloved is with you,
you are where you were going.

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

July 22, 2021

         Jesus took the loaves,
         and when he had given thanks,
         he distributed them to those who were seated;
         so also the fish, as much as they wanted
                   —John 6.11


He handed it out,
miraculously multiplying a handful of bread
into enough for five thousand,
miraculously multiplying a handful of time
to be present one at a time
for all five thousand.
As much as they wanted.

He stands before you,
looks into your eyes,
says your name,
and hands you this moment
blessed, and given to you.

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

July 21, 2021

         There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.
But what are they among so many people?
                   —John 6.9


You can’t do math on God.

The power of your gifts
is multiplied by a mystery.

Unmeasurable,
always too small,
they are more than adequate,
with enough left over
for everyone (all twelve tribes).

This is a parable of the whole world.

Take, bless, and give.

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

July 20, 2021

By the beauty of God’s love for you,
your inner being is continually strengthened in love.
The body of God’s love in this world
is alive in you.
You are being rooted and grounded in love.

Trust that God is at work
powerfully within you,
and will accomplish abundantly far more
than all you can ask or imagine.


[Ephesians 3.16-17, 20]

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

July 19, 2021

Child of earth, may you find within you
the humility of the grass,
the wisdom of the river,
patience of the mountain,
the generosity of the trees.

May you see with eyes of gratitude
the peace of the sunrise within you,
the beauty of the blossoming earth,
the joy of the bird on the wing.

May the fresh breeze of hope bless you,
the earth’s steadfastness sustain you,
and the mystery of all living things enfold you.

May each moment of your life be a new day dawning,
and the sun and moon and stars
dance around you
and in you
every day of your life.

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

You have been treated like an Outsider
by people who thought of themselves as Insiders—
though that was nothing but human discrimination.
You know what it’s like to feel distant from God,
aliens to the community of the Beloved,
with no confidence that God is there for you—
nothing to root your hope in.
But Jesus has no Outsiders:
in Christ’s self-giving love we’re all brought in.
Christ is our peace.
In the embodiment of God’s love
both “insiders” and “outsiders” are in.
Christ has broken down the dividing wall between us,
the cruel illusion that we are different.
Love has no requirements, no merit, no deserving,
so there aren’t different categories—just the beloved.

Christ’s self-giving love, that we see on the cross,
isn’t just for some people,
but for everybody, all of us together,
reconciling us all to God and making us all one Body.
What died on the cross was the notion
that some people are better than others.
Love establishes peace
between those who think they’re insiders and outsiders.
We all breathe the same Spirit that is God.
So you are not strangers or aliens,
but members of the family of the Beloved,
members of the household of God,
which is built on the foundation of ancestors before us
who lived in love and faith,
with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone.
In Christ we all are joined together in an organic whole,
growing into God’s holy temple, God’s home—
so God lives in us.

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

July 15, 2021