“How are you?” is a good question
to connect with someone’s inner experience.
Make sure you ask it of yourself.

Take it seriously, and also leave it behind.
You live in a world that is bigger than you,
greater than how you’re doing.

Once you’ve asked it,
ask what God is doing.
It will take more thought,

more wonder, more trust.
It might take a whole day watching
to begin to see.

Even amid gloom and disaster,
in the face of injustice and suffering,
God is doing something.

What? Wonder. Look. Be curious.
Spend your day like this
and how you’re doing will change.

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

August 5, 2020

“If it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
—Matthew 14.28

When you’re afraid of the storm,
when wind and waves and weariness bully you,
you want your Savior.
You want to hear that comforting voice.

But don’t be fooled by relaxing easement.
Sometimes the Sovereign of Heaven and Heart
won’t becalm you, won’t hasten you to paradise,
but will make you say, “Have me join you.”
And if it is truly the One, you will.
The Beloved will draw you out
of the Boat of Assurance.
You will step into the deep unknown—
and you will sink. You will plunge
into the dark chaos, the sea formless and void.
You will be immersed in the baptismal drowning—

Jesus holding your hand no matter how deep you go.
And only then will you be raised—
delivered from the womb of the sea—
new and wet and infant, breathing in
with renewed passion this cherished life,
this miraculous new belonging.
And the storm outside will vanish within
the calm within.

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

August 4, 2020

Serene One,
when the wind is against me, battering,
it is you who walk on the sea of my troubles.

When I am panicked
you are the one who says “Do not be afraid.
It is I.”

On the waves of my heart you stand firm
and calm them, not with magic
but your presence. “It is I.”

Not escaping them, nor after they are stilled,
but still raging, you invite me into the waves
of suffering and injustice.

I do not calm them. I stand firm,
not by my ability, but by hanging on to you
even when, as I shall be, I am sinking.

It is you who hold me up,
you who are steady in my fear,
you who heal the turbulence.

Over the waters of chaos,
even before ”Let there be light,” you said,
“It is I.”

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

August 3, 2020

Alone, unwary, unwarned,
in shadows I flail, I slip,
I falter, I fail, I mangle my life,
I fall, I can’t get a grip at all.
Some mystery, some strife-tangled
arms and legs have a hold on me.
What am I fighting, what battle,
this pitch? Is it myself?
My demons, my errors at last?
Is it outer or inner, this struggle,
this foe? I don’t know.
But I wrestle, panicked, weary,
anxious, something gripping me—
no, someone—
no, You:
my midnight terror, fierce
companion, arm in arm, face to face,
chest to chest I feel your heart
beating, beating,
I feel you breathing down my neck,
breathing,
breathing
In me.

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

July 31, 2020

           Jacob was left alone;
           and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
                                 —Genesis 32.24

We trust a dark God
who seizes us in lonely places,
who comes to us in travail,
who births us only in great labor.
Faith is no mere greeting card but a wrestling,
an awful confronting of both doubt and assumption,
a tangling with what is in which neither can prevail.
The Mysterious One uses barred holds,
offers invisible becomings.
There is no struggle in which
blessing is not enfolded in the mystery.
There is no tribulation in which
God is not reworking the clay.
Limping, we become a new person with a new name.

Therefore the prayer of the faithful
is not that things go well,
but always and only this:“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

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

July 30, 2020

They are living paradox,
lullaby singers
with flaming swords,

not always comforting,
with terrifying reassurances,
balm that disturbs,

singing a song of truth
in front of armies,
hope amidst tragedy.

We like them up in the sky,
away, fictional,
because, after all,

they wake us
to what is more real
than we sometimes can bear,

and if you
come too close
you catch fire.

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

July 29, 2020

        Taking the five loaves and the two fish,
he looked up to heaven,
and blessed and broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples.
—Matthew 14.19

You are taken,
removed from this world and its pulls and pushes,
delivered into one not of their choosing or yours,
another belonging.

You are blessed,
loved hot enough to change your chemistry,
the original light echoing in you from the beginning,
divine delight around which the galaxy of you formed,
ember of love glowing at the center of your fire
no matter what you or others do.

You are broken,
your finish, your frame, your hold, all of it.
Even your brokenness is taken up and broken
until there are enough cracks for the light to shine through.

You are given,
pure gift, treasured in the giving,
offered without price, nor expectation of return,
to the city whose hands are open, and also closed.
Received or not, God enters the world.

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

July 28, 2020

                 A meditation on Matthew 14.12-21

They went and told Jesus that John had been beheaded.
All of what is about to happen
is in a context of violence, oppression, trauma, and fear.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

When Jesus heard this, he withdrew… but the crowds followed him.
The Spirit helps us balance service and solitude.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

Seeing the crowd, he had compassion for them and cured their sick.
Despite people’s anxiety Jesus acts only out of compassion.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

The disciples said, “Send them to buy food.”
But he said, “You give them something to eat.”
We always face what we don’t have. It is not relevant.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
What if the power, the grace, is within you?
What if your small offering is enough?
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

He took the loaves, blessed and broke them.
Jesus does not internalize the world’s violence or the disciple’s anxiety.
His response to evil and trauma is blessing.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

He gave them to the disciples.
Before you act, your gift is taken out of the world’s hands,
brought into Christ’s care,
blessed and broken (you do not know the infinite grace of this blessing),
and only then given back to you to give.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

The disciples gave them to the crowds.
All that you have is placed in your hands for the sake of the world.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

All five thousand ate and were filled, with twelve baskets left over.
There is enough grace to spare for the tribes of Israel.
Soon there will be seven baskets, enough for all Creation (Mt.15.37).
Expand your hope.
[…Holy One, grant me your peace…]

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

July 27, 2020

Nothing can separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus the Beloved.
—Romans 8.39

You can’t separate the music from the song.
You can’t have earth without its gravity.
There is no electricity without positive and negative,
giver and receiver.

Van Gogh’s painting is about sunflowers
and also about how van Gogh sees sunflowers
and also a painting of van Gogh.
Rough sketch or finished painting, it’s pure van Gogh.

You are part of God’s love as much as God is.
Nothing beyond or within you,
no death or suffering or sin
or even your distrust of this can change that.

Root in this. Let it be your song.
Your gravity.
What you receive and give.
Pure van God.

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

July 24, 2020

         All things work together for good
for those who love God,
who are called according to God’s purpose.
For those whom God foreknew
God also predestined to be conformed
to the image of God’s Beloved.
—Romans 8.28-29

This is who we are: particles of the light that is God.
This is our purpose, our destiny.
God intends this for everyone before we are created
(God foreknew us), and so all of us—
everyone, not just some special class,
is predestined to be an image of God’s love:
called, justified and glorified.

This doesn’t mean everything works out OK
for God’s favorite people.
It means when we align ourselves with God’s love
we are in harmony with the infinite force for good
that is in all things.
The universe is for us, not against us.
Even in our failure or suffering
God’s purpose advances through us.

The world and its rewards and punishments
knows nothing of this.
Your calling is to give them a hint.
The infinite delight of God works in all things
to help you do this.
Even if you fail,
glory is your destiny.

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

July 23, 2020