Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

My prayer is that you will vote
in love, not in fear,

that those who govern
will act in love, not fear,

and that you will make every choice,
large or small,
every day, all your life,
not in fear, but in love,

for this alone can heal the world,

and I believe it shall.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
 
For the saints of all the ages
who have baked the bread of faith
and allured us with the aroma,
we sing praise.
 
For the saints in our own lives
who, finding their way through the dark
became our light,
we give thanks.
 
For the unseen saints in this world
who hold it up with their prayers,
whose hope and labor save us
without our ever knowing,
we cry glory.
 
For the suffering saints
who are our only hope in this world,
who languish in prisons and slums,
reservations and townships,
who labor in fear,
who are trafficked and tortured,
who die of hunger even as we pray,
we ask blessing.
 
May we all be made holy
in wonder and gratitude
and steadfast loving kindness
toward all that lives.
 
 
 
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved, 
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
When you shelter beneath an 80 mile an hour wind,
and see it flatten great trees
and fill a city with the sea,
you feel small.
When you watch a drought erase a farm,
when you stand a quarter mile from a forest fire
and feel its heat,
when the sky clears and you see stars,
you feel small.
 
As small as you are in the storm,
the storm is smaller, so much tinier
than the love of God,
the infinite tender mercy.
The whole universe is small
in the hurricane of God.
 
 
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
 
__________________     
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and peace to you.

Everything is slow today.  Trees are down, roads are impassable, bridges are flooded, businesses are closed, power is out.  But everybody knows and is patient with it all.  A big tree came down in our yard, taking out power lines, phone, the works. (I’m writing from church.) The tree crew came and happily cut up and removed the tree and moved on to the neighbors.  

It’s not so bad, living by candlelight.  We’ll be without power for a few days, I bet.  But how can I complain? Others have been flooded out, homes destroyed, livelihoods damaged.  We all have different lives.  For some people today means no work; for others, more work.  For some people yesterday was a frightening disaster; for others, a lovely, calm evening.  In many places people will greet each other this morning with a casual “Hi.”  But in some places, even with strangers, they’ll ask, “Are you OK? Do you have what you need?” There will be offers of food and water, extra rooms and showers. 

In trying times what is usually secret is exposed: we are all vulnerable and needy and anyone you meet is likely to be facing challenges that you don’t know about.  The only way to go through life is the way we go through disasters: with compassion, patience and mindfulness.  Imagine if we always asked “How are you?” with the same concern we have after a disaster.  Imagine if we always treated people as if they deserved the respect and sensitivity of someone recovering from a difficulty—or, for that matter, someone celebrating a great joy.  We wouldn’t baby each other, but we wouldn’t ignore each other, either.  

In all our lives, as different as they are, it turns out that the one universal thing that is always needed, and always powerful, is simple kindness.  You may not be walking through visible wreckage, but never doubt that others are.  Just be mindful. 

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

The power we lost for a few days
was nothing.
The tree we lost, a trifle.
And yet they were great gifts,
greatly to be treasured,
greatly to be praised.

There are those who still have no power,
or food or water,
or house.

A young friend lost her husband Tuesday,
far from the hurricane.

Whatever you take for granted
is already lost in the storm.

Be grateful for everything.
The sun. A toaster.
Hold out your hand and look at it.
Be amazed and grateful.
Tell the people you love
that you love them.

Every day, thank somebody for something.

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Here comes Hurricane Sandy, which looks to be a wicked storm. We might feel a little like Job, nobly enduring the undeserved suffering of a natural disaster with courage, dignity and resourcefulness. But we ought also to feel a little humbled by facing the hidden consequences of our own choices. Certainly, we didn’t cause the hurricane, nor does God “send” weather as punishment. But maybe we contributed to making this storm as bad as it is. Recent increases in the intensity of storms, droughts and other weather patterns are due in part to global climate change, which is partly our own fault. Hurricane Sandy might not have been so bad if it hadn’t been for us and our greenhouse gasses. Like war and pollution and economic crisis, we’ve brought this on ourselves.

Now this observation might make you feel even more small and helpless than the storm itself does. But what I’m saying is that your choices have a greater impact than you can see. All these large patterns are the result of lots of small decisions. If your choices contribute to global carbon imbalance or economic collapse, they can contribute to global healing, too. It’s hard to imagine that your kindness can change the world, but it can and it does. If you can make a hurricane worse, you can also make a society better.

In the next days not many people will do anything heroic that will make a huge difference in the history of the world. But many people will do small things to help each other make it through the storm. And those small things can add up to a world of blessing. That is God’s promise, and our choice.

If you don’t hear from me tomorrow, it just means that our power is out. No big deal. Love your neighbor anyway.
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Beloved, my heart pours into yours,
         and every word I say is your praise.
You are the song, and I am your singing.
         You are the hope of a heart stripped bare.
Our lives are a love song to you;
         our love is your glory let loose.

I opened myself to you
         and you received me.
         You came between me and my fear.
I wonder, with grateful awareness:
         how you radiate in me!
Mindful of you,
         I am free from shame.

My smallest voice cried out
         and you heard from within.
In my deepest trouble
         you held me.
The arms of your presence enfold me;
         they make my world.

O Beloved, all that I taste or see
         is your goodness.
Living in you
         is deep joy.

         
         

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

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With the eyes of my heart enlightened,
seeing with your love and wisdom,
         I want to see.

The eye a lamp for my body,
filling me with light,
         I want to see.

Attentive to your presence,
aware of your grace,
         I want to see.

Your glory in others,
your hope in the present moment,
         I want to see.

Your Word is a lamp for my feet.
Show me your path, O Lord;
         I want to see.

All that shines with the light
of what is unseen,
         I want to see.

Awaken me to what is.
Open the eyes of my love.
         Lord, I want to see.
         I want to walk in the light.

         
         

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
As Jesus and his disciples and a large crowd were leaving Jericho, Bartimaeus son of Timaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the roadside. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many sternly ordered him to be quiet, but he cried out even more loudly, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stood still and said, “Call him here.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart; get up, he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man said to him, “My teacher, let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way.
         —Mark 10.46-52

Beside the way where others rush so madly, stop.
         •

Allow that you cannot see all that you need to see.
         •

Call out the Beloved’s name, boldly, and with reverence.
         •

Many voices will try to silence or discourage you. Practice ignoring them.
         •

Trust the Beloved to listen.
         •

Throw off your cloak and run to the Beloved, who awaits you.
         •

Listen: the humble servant looks into your eyes and asks,
“What do you want me to do for you?”
         •

Wait. Stay with the question, with the questioner.
         •

Let an answer come from deep within.
And a deeper one.
         •

Even in the waiting, your hope has made you well.
         •

Notice how you go a new way.
         •
         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
My son stood up and said “I do,”
his lovely friend, too, said “I do,”
and now I do as well.
His love and hers enlarge my own.
I now have someone new to love,
to claim, adore and stand beside,
to be there for no matter what.
With love he brought her in
as I alone could not have done,
and changed our family
making it more deep and spacious,
wide and rich and lovely.

Without our work or will, but as pure gift,
my wife and I now have more kids,
and so, more love, and so more world,
more hope, more life, more joy.

Maybe this is what the Teacher meant,
whom we call brother, bringing in
those others— sisters now, and brothers,
though we had never chosen them—
now all one family in this world,
devoted with no lesser loyalty
to strangers than to one’s only child.
The more of them we have to love
because we’re family,
the more this life resembles heaven.

Like God, we stand beside the world
in love and say “I do.”

         
         
Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com