They asked him, “Lord, is this the time
         when you will restore sovereignty to Israel?”
         He replied, “It is not for you to know…
         But you will receive power
         when the Holy Spirit has come upon you;
         and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
         in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
                  —Acts 1.6-8

Is this the time we will re-open?
Now will our political party dominate?
When will we return to normal?
Can we be safe, and privileged, and in power?

No. You can bear witness
to the power of love.
It is not for you to know the future,
or to be ascendant or in power,
or to control things.
It is for you to be a witness to love
even when things are not restored.
This is not second best: it is true power,
whose waves ripple through the world.

The center of the universe is not on the throne.
It is in your heart.

Receive love.
Trust the power.
Bear witness.

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

May 22, 2020

Grace and Peace to you.                  
In the woods the trees
clap their little babyhands of green.
On the hillside they try on pink and mauve;
soon they will trade them for green.
Birdsongs fall like rain among the trees.
A couple of geese fly over singing,
spinning their long web
across the continent of the morning.
The marsh, swollen all March and April,
begins to breathe out,
its grasses green and another green,
and the bushes more greens.
I walk among them silent,
the world’s troubles in the pocket of my mind.
They are not uncaring,
even the little lump of toad
who may be watching me
and may be ignoring me.
Though they do not recognize
those woes in my pocket
they extend their blessing.
They invite me in,
me and all my kin,
where they belong to a greater Yes
that is also, if we will have it, ours.

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

May 21, 2020

          Two people in white robes stood by them.
         and said, “People of Galilee,
         why do you stand looking up toward heaven? “
                 —Acts 1.10-11

There are those times
when you have lost what you loved,
when you gaze up into the empty box of the sky
and the emptiness comes down around you
like a blanket, a bell,
and your gaze can’t pierce
the thick silence inside the bell.

Even the deepest faith doesn’t round off
this world’s sharp edges, its losses and traumas.
Holiness often lives in the blank of sorrow,
the empty chair.
It’s all right to stand there and gaze.

Before the wind begins to shift,
before the bright strangers speak.
they know. They hand us a tissue.

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

May 20, 2020

          I will ask God, who will give you another Advocate,
         to be with you forever.
                  —John 14.16

The word in Greek is Paraclete, a legal advocate.
We often think of (and get nervous about) God as our Judge—
but God is really our defense attorney.

When you face your trials
the Holy Spirit is the one who is by your side—
on your side, working for your sake, pro bono.

The Holy Spirit is the one who believes in you,
in your goodness and worth, and defends you
against that hanging judge in your head.

Your defense attorney will never turn into a prosecutor
of you or anybody else. Her only job
is to set you free and give you justice.

Trust her. When she asks you to tell the truth, do.
When she says something in Latin you don’t understand,
she’s really making things better for you.

She’s not getting you off any hook—
the charges were imaginary anyway.
But she will call upon you to bear witness.

The Holy Spirit will defend you.
She has the jury in your head in the palm of her hand.
She wins every case. She loves her work.

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

May 19, 2020

We stand and look up at stars—so few of them,
just the ones we can see,
                                    and we feel so small.

Waves come in from the sea, so far away,
                                             so far.

Ancestors keep walking away from us,
further and further into the past.

Every once in a awhile the person next to you
                           drops.

We can’t help but think of eternity,
a twelve-mile beach we walk and walk and walk,
the stone ribs of a mountain we can only touch
one hand-width at a time.

We get lost standing in our back yard speculating,
a little afraid, a little abashed, while underfoot 
          the dandelions
keep flowering and flowering,
and the bumblebees attend.

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

May 18, 2020

         Breathe deeply
         these words of Jesus.

“If you love me,
you will let my love flow through you.

My deep desire, which God shares,
is to give you a Companion,
to be with you forever.

You are part of me:
because I live,
you also live.

In love
I am in God,
and you are in me,
and I in you.”
                  —from John 14.15-20

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

May 15, 2020

                                 
Beloved,
you are the gravity that holds me.
         May your desire keep me.
                  I rest in you.

You are the sun rising in me.
         Your light awaken me.
                  I open myself to you.

You are the dawn that greets me.
         Draw me into this day.
                  I wait for you.

You are the sky in my lungs.
         Your breadth open me.
                  I breathe deeply of you.

You are the river of my veins.
         Your love flow in me.
                  I surrender to you.

You are the sea of my birthing
and my welcoming grave.
         In your blessing I belong.
                  I am at peace in you.

Beloved, you are life itself,
and the very Being of what is.
         My life is gratitude and wonder.
                  My living is my Amen.

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

May 14, 2020

In a room no one has seen
you sit, Beloved, gazing
at the beauty you have created,
your own image,
all around you,
like no other
but you,
and it gives you delight.

Oh, to trust
for longer than this breath
I carry it inside me,
confident within all doing
to be
what no one sees
but you.

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

May 13, 2020

As I think about retiring I imagine freedom.
I also imagine the cost. I imagine what I will leave behind,
like the Hebrews when they escaped from Egypt,
what they carried and what they left behind,
how both could be a burden,
how even freedom begins in loss.

The addict coming clean is no different,
the sinner laying down the sweet sin,
the child outgrowing those childish, selfish ways.
Gaining always begins in letting go.

And I think of you and what you will gain and lose,
how moving into the next leg of the journey is a departure,
what shore you will never see again,
what courage is required to surrender to delight,
how the dancers of joy wear little bells of grief

and how the music of people becoming free
with its minor chords and passing dissonances
is so beautiful. And I would like for us all
to be hollowed out like flutes
for the breath of God.

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

May 12, 2020

The road ahead is furrowed.
The way is wrinkled and rumpled,
scattered with debris.

The road ahead our ancestors walked.
The ruins change but the path
is the same.

Walk gently. Walk for the sake of others,
knowing One walks beside you.
Even the unknown path has been walked before.

All its wanderings, its unknowings,
all its lines and open spaces, the road ahead
is the palm of God’s hand.

Walk in peace, knowing every step,
even wrong ones as you find the way,
is always blessed, always accompanied,

always the journey home.

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

May 11, 2020