Holy One,
It’s hard for me to be honest with people,
and therefore hard to be honest with myself,
about myself—who I really am—
because I’m afraid of it,
afraid of this dark, rotten part of me,
afraid that there is some judgment it incurs.
But your judgment is light
and I am light, all light:
even the dark rotten parts
are made of light
by your grace
and they are all part of my being transformed
by your grace
from light into light.

Let your light shine in me.

Christ is the light of the world.
I am the light of the world.
Christ is the light of the world.

Let your light shine in me.

         
         

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify.          
                  —Luke 21.9-13

Horror and anguish, casually voted on
and brought to the floor,
electricity to the bone,
blood on pavement and stainless steel,
grains of rice stashed in Wall Street banks,
water for the few, AIDS for the many,
used laborers, wrong color, hustled off in darkness
and more brought in,
the nervous sweat of the addict,
the crimes he’ll commit for the shaking needle
of oil, seas rising and raging, while
people build their beach houses….

It is not fantasy. It is the difficulty.
To not be shaped by terror.
To live differently than those about you.
To stand up to The Way It Is.

Do not be shaped by terror.
I will be in you,
my gentleness strengthening you,
my hope sharpening the sword
of your willingness. My peace
breathing in you.
In the fury, speak love,
and the world will change.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
       

  

         
         
Loving One,

I am the cloud of your mercy,
a thunderhead of your grace.

Fields are thirsty,
the river is dry.

Let it go,
let it go.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down…. This will give you an opportunity to testify.”
                  —Luke 21.5-6, 13

Let go of human things; hang onto God.

When sacred structures fall apart, then the Holy Presence will have to dwell in us ourselves.

When people can no longer find forgiveness in old systems, then the community of faith itself will have to bear forgiveness to them.

No single stone is sacred; they are all needed to make a temple. Stay connected.

When the world around you descends into darkness, you can still shine with light.

Don’t expect society to go your way, but don’t go with it. Bear witness to another Way.

The reason you were born, the the purpose for which God brought you into this world, is to bear God’s forgiving presence into a world that is desperate for it.
        
 
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

        
All your ideas about God are stones,
smooth and perfect.
All your words are stones,
round and smooth.

You can’t stack them up
into a statue of God.
Every prayer
is a pile of stones.

Throw them into the nearest lake.
Listen to the sound—kisplash!—
as they disappear into the holy water.

The last ripples expand,
growing all through you,
reaching your farthest shore.

God sits with you and watches
in silence, transfixed.

Later,
even if you’re not thinking about it,
the ripples are still widening in you.

Deep Blessings
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

For those whom we have asked
to bear the horror of our violence
we offer our prayers
of thanks for their willingness
to stand between us and our fears,
for forgiveness for having asked them,
of healing for the damage to their souls
by what they have done and seen,
for mercy for them who don’t know
how to carry the horror back to us,
how to shed the darkness
we have asked them to drink,
how to live among us, who are so willing
to sacrifice our children.

May we give others peace to bear, not fear,
healing to carry, not weapons,
and send them into blessing, not danger.

May we, too, have the courage to serve,
to risk, to give our lives in love
for the sake of our homeland,
which is the Kingdom of God,
the whole human family,
in the spirit of peace.
Amen.

         
         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         God is God not of the dead,
                  but of the living.
                           —Luke 20.38

God is God of the present moment,
         not the past.

Your sins were in the past;
         but God is in the present moment.

God does not stay in the past,
         remembering your sins:

God is in the present moment,
         loving you.

Forgiveness is letting go of the past
         and coming into the present.

Repent of your sin—let go of the past—
         and come into the present,

where you are a child of God,
         a child of resurrection.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         

I am a solitary bird         
                           on the wrong island.
The distance
                           unbearable,
the darkness
                           knotted up. 

How to place this cry
                           that is not my voice,
this reaching
                           not my hand,
this silence
                           not my emptiness?
                  

Ah, it is yours,
                           Beloved,
your ache,
                           your gift to me:
your empty space in me
                           missing me,                      

you who have
                           never left me,
who have held
                           the distance,
hurt bridging
                           the lonely gap,

you, my ache,
                           my island,
my sea,
                           my wing,
my home,
                           my Love.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

         
         

                  

Beloved,
you who hold the cosmos in your hand
and yet live within me,
I surrender myself to you.

I hand over my body to your use.
I place my desires in your hand.
I give over my will to your control.

Your breath fill me,
your nerve move me,
your love flow through me.

May I listen with the sun’s attentiveness,
love with the rain’s abandon,
endure with the earth’s patience.

May I be gathered up in your desire.
May I become one with your blessing.
May I disappear into your love.

Beloved,
my delight,
I am yours.

         
         

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
         
Pilgrim,
learn to love your failures,
your fruitless days,
your weak and barren prayers.
Every step in the wilderness,
even when you’re lost,
is a step on the journey
toward the Promised Land.

Every step, even the two forward
and one back
and one to the side,
going nowhere,
is blessed:
a step in the dance
your Lover has
with you.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com