Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

  “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God,
and not receive the bad?”
—Job 2.10

How is it that within days we’re anticipating our son’s wedding, full of joy and blessing, and at the same time holding for dear life onto my sister who suddenly has cancer? Who pressed these two strange worlds to dance with each other? Sometimes it seems life pulls us in opposite directions at once, as if two gods have thrown us joy and sorrow, for us to find our way between the two. How different it appears our various realities are.

But there are not multiple realities, or kinds of life, or gods. Life is One, flowing from the One Source. It’s all gift. There is only blessing. It is an illusion, the craziness of thanking God for this blessing and begging God to avert that curse, as if God is tragically unfaithful—and sadly bipolar. You can miss your life judging it instead of receiving it, trying to pick and choose which parts of life are good or bad, which to accept or resist.

God is not so divided. God is all Love, not partly. God is all Life, one galaxy of stars and darkness, a Spring that gushes blessing, and from it flows a mixed and wondrous mystery that sometimes pleases and sometimes frightens us, but is always blessed and holy and radiant with God’s presence. Dread and happiness, rage and sorrow— these are not the world, but merely our reactions. The world is one gift, with deep beauty, sharp edges and infinite love. We are given the whole thing.

The good news is, God does not excuse herself from our suffering. The Risen Lord holds this whole tender, mangled world in shining hands with holes in them. It connects us to ask for God to bless the newlywed or the sick, but God is not waiting. God is already blessing both, already cradling both in pure, unalloyed grace. We pray, not to tell God what to do, but to open ourselves to what God is already doing. We pray until both getting married and getting sick belong to life. We pray until we are overwhelmed by the one vast love that is so much greater than our fears or desires that it transforms them, becoming all of who we are, transfiguring our very flesh. We pray until we know the One Love that dwarfs all love and loss, all joy and sickness, all life and even death, until we are filled with its life-giving life. We pray until all things are taken up in hope, and it heals us beyond our knowing

Death dances at the wedding. The happy couple welcome him; he toasts their long and hardy bliss. The blushing bride, the sorrowful mother, the man in prison, the running child: we are one, our lives are one. Unseen for now, the One Blessing transforms us all, our graves, and all the flowers on them opening to the sun. This I know: we shall all dance together, in joy.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

 

The leaves are turning now,
turning the color of the sun, the color of joy,
the color of letting go without regret.

It will turn cold,
and some here in the north will go inside.
But for my desert friends it’s cooler now,
and now they can go out,
while for my friends Down Under, now it’s spring;
the earth is turning green.

Life keeps turning; what for one is toward
for another is away.

The colors of death are also beautiful.

Trees turn in their gradual dance
toward winter, the season of hope,
toward the muted color of branches stripped
and patient, the color of steadfastness
that endures all loss, outlives mere pleasantries,
trusts beyond all passing dark
this autumn’s unseen spring.

My wife and I look for autumn decorations
for our son’s October wedding,
a promise of long love amid falling leaves,
as the sister I love lies beneath a metal tree
dripping chemo through a tube.

The turning leaves, they glow so briefly.

The edge is at the center.
We keep turning.
Every moment gives way.

Whichever way we spin the ball,
the other side is turning, too.
The healing tear, the coveted surrender,
we are bathed in our prayers for one another.

The vow we turn toward, each one of us,
is faithfulness, whichever way we turn,

all of us, in our own places,
turning toward the light.

 

 

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.

The Beloved says:

Be at peace;
I am the strongest thing in you.

Over your dark, formless waters I brood;
in your void I speak my Word.
You are my river and I am your flowing;
you are my water and I am your sea.

I am the spark from nerve to nerve;
the drumming of your heart.
I am your blood’s dark alchemy
creating life, this moment, life.

In the night I am your nest;
in the storm, your steadfast earth.
In the raging waters I am your breath;
in your death I am your life.

I am the First thing in you,
and I will be in you
when the rest of you is gone.
When your bones are shadows
and your sinews wind
a hundred years from now
I will still be in your place,
rejoicing.

Nothing is deeper than my desire for you;
nor stronger than your belonging in me.
I am your Realm, and your power, and your glory.
Be at peace.

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.

         Everyone will be salted
                  with fire.
         Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness,
                  how can you season it?
         Have salt in yourselves,
                  and be at peace with one another.”
—Mark 9.49-50

 

Lord, I pray for salt,
for sea-strength of faith,
the sinew of my trust,
and a spicy compassion.

Change me by your salt in me;
saturate my soul with grace.
Burn me up in mercy.

Grant me the courage of an old salt,
hardy resolve,
and the fire of devotion.

May I bring out the best in others,
defend what is tender,
and serve as a currency of peace.

Salt your world with me, O Lord,
according to your wisdom,
to your delight.

 

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.

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
—James 5.13-16

Prayer is powerful, but not like the supposed power of Uri Geller who claimed to bend spoons by pure mental influence. The power of prayer is not in us, or in our prayer. It is in God. So we don’t “pray hard.” We pray soft. We pray not as a tool, but a gift, not a demand, but an awareness. Prayer is not a crowbar for our will, even if our hopes are righteous and worthy, but immersion in God’s grace. We open ourselves to God, the loving indwelling Presence, who prays in us. We give our desires to the Creator, whose infinite power creates the world anew, including us and those for whom we pray. God’s loving, healing presence takes over us, and our lives become more fully and wholly for God’ sake alone. There is power in that which may or may not have the outcome I want, but it makes this world heaven.

Loving One,
I give you my heart
and all its longings:
heal my sister…
bring peace on earth…
protect the children…
give me wisdom….

I rest in you,
who create in me.
Your hope breathes in me;
your love becomes mine;
your desire possesses me—
for my sister’s life…
for the world’s healing…
for the eyes of my heart….

I give myself and all my energies
to your delight.
I give my mind to you…
I give my sister to you..
I give all peoples to you.
Creator of the universe, create in me.
Lover of all beings, fill me with your love,
and trust in your mercy and grace.
Great One, whose Oneness heals all things,
may I be a power for your delight,
for the healing of the world.

Beloved, be my love,
my hope,
my life.
Amen.

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.

 

As I write this I am looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. I am supposed to be concentrating at a training workshop, but I am looking out the window. No matter where I am I hear the sea waving at me. No matter what I do, the joyous sea flows in. Even in this room I am walking on the beach. I am standing on wet rocks watching the sunrise. I am baptized in the great depths.

I set to the work at hand, but the playful ocean pours in. A great wideness enters and opens inside me. No matter what I write it sounds like the chant of waves, it smells like salt air. No matter how carefully I take notes they are full of the cries of birds and the glimmer of sunlight on a ruffled sea. I close my eyes and waves keep leaping at my feet. Water swirls around the chairs, the speaker’s podium.

This is as it should be. No matter what we do, Spirit, the great Originating Sea, surrounds us, enfolds us, pours in and fills our lives. The great baptismal tide washes over us; the salt wind rushes in and out.

Prayer is opening the window, so that everything we do expands onto a broad shoreline, welcoming waves that have traveled far; every choice, every act smells of salt air and glimmers with the light of God on a ruffled world; and every word we speak rings with the cry of sea birds, sings of a wide and generous wind.

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.

 

Whatever word you hear today,
good or bad, relieving or disappointing,
God is in it.

 

Whatever news comes your way,
calming or frightening,
there is blessing tucked in its creases.
 
Whatever happens to you next,
welcome or unwelcome,
is bound up in God’s hope for you.
 

Whatever word you hear today
is only the net.
The fish is the one true word
spoken to you every day,
whispered in the quiet places,
hidden in the dark places,
the word the master of the universe
speaks beneath all other shouts:
repeats, despite your doubts:
“I love you, child. You’re mine.”

 
Beneath the world’s frantic cries,
the word persists.
“I love you. You are mine.”

 

         

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.

Last week, after 38 years of side-splitting music and beautiful, heart-warming satire as the Montana Logging and Ballet Company, we finally lost our brave struggle with optimism, so we sang one final concert and euthanized the group. The cool thing is that we got to sing at our own funeral.

Reflecting on 38 years of performing, we have lots of memories—in fact we remember them more clearly than the lines of our latest songs. We had plenty of adventures, honors, triumphs and worthy accomplishments. We sang some pretty good stuff, and created some pretty funny comedy. But what I’m most grateful for is the connecting we did. The four of us connected in the music, and in our hearts. We’ve stayed best friends. And we connected with the audiences. People laughed and cried and applauded and threw fruit (we ate a lot of fruit in the early years). But the best part is not that they cheered, but what they were cheering for: we connected with something in their hearts. We put to music something that they were already dreaming. They gave us as much loving energy as we gave them. There was some kind of bonding going on. I don’t think we created that connection. We tapped into something that was already there.

It’s always there. You don’t have to perform for thousands to touch it. You can always choose to connect with people’s hearts. Everybody is hungry for love and hope. Whatever you do in your life, you can touch that. You will likely never get a standing ovation. But if you live with love, if you do whatever you do in humble generosity, you connect with the love that binds us all. The people around you may never know it, but their world is better because of you. As Mother Teresa said, what matters is not doing great things, but doing simple things with great love.

Our strange quartet was lucky to receive the love we received, but the best gift was not the applause; it was connecting with people’s hearts, sharing our common longing for love and hope. Go do that, even silently, even in the privacy of your own prayers, and I know that a great auditorium of angels will burst into uproarious and sustained cheering, calling for an encore.

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 unfoldinglight5(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
As you read this I am flying across the country to perform in the last concert of the Montana Logging and Ballet Company. After performing music and comedy together as a quartet for 38 years, we’re retiring. (I guess it’s the opposite of a debut: an exbut? A World Postmiere? A swan song? A dodo song?) Anyway. We’ve sung all over the nation, played for Congress and vice presidents, worked with Bishop Tutu, been featured monthly on NPR… and Wednesday night it will all be over. So it goes.

Everything is passing. Seasons turn. Stories end. Vegetables rot. Businesses close. People retire. Loved ones die. Coupons expire. Students graduate. Seeds grow. We can drive ourselves nuts trying to cling to things, even as they slip away. Or we can stay lightly in the moment, attentive to what is, unattached, ready for the next moment as well, free to fully be in each moment as it passes. When we try to “make the moment last forever” we don’t actually experience the moment; we just experience our fear of its passing. Pay attention and be fully, lovingly present to what is, without trying to keep it or control it, and the passing things of this world will be more fully yours than if you froze them in time.

As I fly over the country, it passes smoothly beneath me. Nothing will turn it back; nor will anything turn back the losses of all those passing things in our lives. The point is not to stop the plane in mid-air. The point is to remember to look out the window.

________________

Weather report

Unrepeatable,
though the day will be of average temperature
and unremarkable light,
as the present moment
continually becomes itself.
________________

I’ll be off the rest of the week. I’ll see you again next Monday. Meanwhile, pay attention.
         
         
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

 
As first I loved you longingly, from far, desiring.

You pulled me from my sea of want.

In gratitude I clung to you, possessing.

You disappeared within my arms,
vanishing into my heart.

I loved you in remembrance,
seizing certainty.

Hidden deep beneath my breath, you filled me.
Still, you do.

I loved you easily, without a care.

Then glancing toward the inward garden once,
I saw you resting in your favorite place

and I forgot myself. My heart at last
went out to you, adoring, and delighting.

Now I simply love you.
Just for you.

 

__________________

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 

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