Self-control

             …exercise self-control…
                              
—1 Corinthians 9.25

If I ever have another dog
I will name it Ego.

Keep it on a short leash.
Teach it to sit. Stay.

Not to bark at strangers,
chase every squirrel.

Train it to obey, not react,
out of loyalty, not hunger,

how not to jump in the fray,
add to the noise.

Not to mirror another’s energy,
but hold its own.

Teach it the patient wait,
the watching eye,

to be the gentle guide,
not the leash-jerker.

Well, I’ll not have another dog,
but I do have a critter within,

that I’m learning to teach.
Good boy. Good boy.

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

February 10, 2021

Published
Categorized as Reflections

Choose

       A leper came to him begging him,
        and kneeling he said to him,
        “If you choose, you can make me clean.”
        Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand
        and touched him, and said to him,
        “I do choose. Be made clean!”

                                — Mark 1.40-41

God, there is much in me that needs healing.
But sometimes I can’t bring myself to choose
to be changed.
Please, O Healing One, choose for me.
You have the power I don’t have
to make me whole, and to choose it.
Heal my body; heal my soul; heal my will;
make me able to choose.
For this I trust: that you do choose
my blessing, my belovedness, my life.
You do choose, and you make me whole.
In trust and gratitude I offer myself to you.
Amen.

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

February 8, 2021

Go on

         When they found him, they said to him,
          “Everyone is searching for you.”
          He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns,
          so that I may proclaim the message there also;
          for that is what I came out to do.”
                                                  —Mark 10.37-38

Rest is good, and rootedness is a blessing.
But beware the grasping nest.
Beware of the familiar, the comfortable, the trap.

Follow him. Go on.
Perhaps to other towns and villages,
or rooted in one faithful place,

but beyond your comfort,
past that familiar wall,
the frontier at an edge of an unknown,

further into another’s heart
or within.
The place where you don’t know what to do.

Serve beyond your security. 
Dare to be alien, a beginner.
Have to trust.

Even in the world unknown
you are known.
Even afar, you are at home.

So go.
You are not alone,
you are following.

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

February 5, 2021

Deserted place

In the morning, while it was still very dark,
he got up and went out to a deserted place,
and there he prayed. 
And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 
—Mark 1.35-36

Go there.
Place of quiet darkness.

Sacred hiddenness.
Where you will be unfound.

Solely soul.
Simply flesh.

Be wide open as the deserted sky
Disappear in the blackness.

Let your self be there.
There, let your self be.

Let your self be found
by the One

waiting for you
to come

into the silence,
emptiness,

darkness
of God.

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

February 4, 2021

A healing

He came and took her by the hand
and lifted her up.
Then the fever left her,
and she began to serve them.
—Mark 1.31

What is not well in you?
What hurts?
What is weak?

There is a presence there,
not a What: a Who,
with wisdom and gifts.

The Beloved has heard.
Knows what ails. 
Comes to you. 

Reaches out to the spirit
within your affliction.
Touches her.

Takes your broken hand.
Raises you up,
whole in your weakness.

In your brokenness you rise,
graced, your gifts set free,
and serve. 

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

February 3, 2021

God the laborer

Praise the Holy One, who is gracious,
who builds up the city,
who gathers the outcasts of Israel.
who heals the brokenhearted,
and binds up their wounds,
who gives to the animals their food,
and to the young ravens when they cry.
—Psalm 147.1-3, 9

Praise God the construction worker,
who builds up the city.
Praise God the social worker,
who heals the brokenhearted.
Praise God the nurse,
who binds up our wounds.
Praise God the migrant farm worker
who gives us our food,
the grocery worker,
who fills our table with goodness.
Praise the Holy One, the essential worker,
who is gracious!
Praise your God, O people!
Give thanks and praise!

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

February 2, 2021

Butterfly effect

I write these words
they come from somewhere
they go out I don’t know where

you read them
and they go in
you don’t know where

and they nudge some others
and they go out
you don’t know where

it’s happening a billion places
all the time endlessly
changing the world we don’t know how

the little bit of water in the stream
nudges the next and the next
and the ocean is filled

mind
the little bits
you nudge along

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

February 1, 2021

Earth sees us

Earth sees us
struggling

not with malice
but Creation’s empathy

for all is one
in the ecology of God

The sea for a moment
grows sorrowful and kind
 
ocean combing the continent’s hair
sky weeping gently

forests murmuring their ancient chant
breeze whispering to us

There is a way
We will go with you

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

January 29, 2021

Convulsed

       The unclean spirit,
           convulsing him and crying with a loud voice,
           came out of him.
                                 —Mark 1.26

The demons don’t leave easily.
Reasons to hang on, with teeth.

The DT”s. Withdrawal.
Grief at the familiar’s grave.

Privilege aggrieved.
Riots. Insurrection.

“What have you to do with us?
Leave us alone. Don’t change things.”

God, give me the courage
to let you change me,

even if the demons shriek on their way out,
even if I am convulsed.

Though healing will be wrenching
let us be healed.

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

January 28, 2021

Mending

          The spirit cried out,
           “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
           Have you come to destroy us?
           I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
                                 —Mark 1.24

Yes, he has.
The forces of evil know
Jesus is out for nothing less
than a loving, healing assault
on the power of evil itself.
Every healing by Jesus is a cosmic act,
an insurrection against the Empire of fear and death.

Jesus looks into you,
hears the demons that steal your voice,
and sees in you the universe
and its longing for healing.
And that is what he heals.
He speaks to what is deep within,
a word that is a bit
of the mending of the world.

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

January 27, 2021

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