Unfolding Light – Page 41 – Daily Reflections and Worship Resources

No condemnation

           There is no condemnation
           for those who are in Christ Jesus.
           For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
           has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
                           —Romans 8.1-2

My knees are going bad, but I don’t blame them.
If a part of my body has a hard time
I don’t condemn it; I care especially for it.
I don’t judge it for being susceptible
to age or hardship or injury or disease.
Since we are all members of Christ’s Body—
parts of the living organism of God’s embodied love—
God does not condemn us,
no matter how badly we fail.
God only blesses us.
We may imagine rules and requirements,
formulas and expectations governing
how we may avoid sin and impress God,
but they are “laws” which only alienate us from God.
They isolate us as if we are not part of God.
But God’s love sets us free from that illusion.
God’s law is that since you are part of God
you are blessed, and never condemned,
and the purpose of your life is to live out that blessing.
And if you fail,
you are blessed.
There is no escaping that law.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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A sower went out to sow

A sower went out to sow….
—Matthew 13.3

A person set out to live her life
and she tried to get things right
but some things she got wrong.
Some were good ideas but they went badly.
Sometimes she had good intentions
but they got choked out
by her doubts and fears and bad habits.
Sometimes she did good things
but they didn’t make any difference,
or they went unnoticed.
Sometimes she was misunderstood and ignored
and she wondered if her life mattered at all.
But she kept trying.
And the seeds of her trying bore fruit,
some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Flesh and Spirit

           To set the mind on the flesh is death,
           but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
           You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit.
                           —Romans 8.6, 9

No, there’s nothing wrong with having a body,
or physical pleasure,
nothing bad about sex or chocolate.
Flesh and spirit are not enemies, or even opposites.
They need each other.

Appearances delude us into thinking
we are our flesh and no more than that:
separate beings defined by our bodies
like lonely asteroids isolated in empty space.
I think I am this thing, this body bag of flesh,
and you are a different thing altogether.
But no, in fact we’re all part of One Thing,
all separate fingers of the same hand,
distinct (in the flesh) but connected (in the Spirit)—
all members of one living organism
Paul calls the Body of Christ.
To be limited to my flesh alone is death,
as it would be for any of my organs.
But to “set the mind on the Spirit” is to stay connected,
to be aware that by the grace of God’s one Spirit
I’m part of The One, the Body of Christ,
the embodied love of God.
Each of the organs of the body (our life in the flesh)
is precious, essential and beautiful,
but only as it is connected with the others
(our life in the Spirit):
interdependent in mutual love and service,
in gratitude and delight.
To float in the loneliness of an imagined outer space
is selfishness and struggle and anxiety and death.
To be in harmony with love, one with The One,
is life and peace.

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

           “Come to me, all you that are weary
           and are carrying heavy burdens,
           and I will give you rest.
           Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
           for I am gentle and humble in heart,
           and you will find rest for your souls.
           for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
                           —Matthew 11.28-30

Jesus, this is my cry of faith in you,
not that you are the Son of God,
but that you invite me into your love.

Not that you are great and mighty,
but that you are there,
there for me, in love.

That in my weariness you are present,
not to ask me to believe,
but to help carry the load.

That I may be yoked with you,
side by side, breathing together,
your and my life and burdens shared.

That I may learn from you,
from your humble gentleness,
that that might be my burden, too.

That I may lay down every burden
but to love, and, yoked with you,
to know that labor as delight.

That I am called not to strive heroically,
but to come alongside,
and to find rest for my soul.

Beloved, with you even the greatest suffering
for the sake of love is an easy yoke,
and my burden is light, pure light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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I’m a mess

           I do not understand my own actions.
           For I do not do what I want,
           but I do the very thing I hate.
                           —Romans 7.15

Sin isn’t easy to pin down,
hard to catch in the act.
Usually too late.

Unknown fears, regrets wounds and hungers
lurch around on the bicycle of my heart.
I’ll lose control. I’ll crash.

I believe delusions. I flee imaginary monsters.
I don’t know what gets into me.
I don’t know how I mess up.

My heart walks with a limp.
Its compass is off, its eyesight is crooked.
I try to do the right thing, the wrong way.

In the battle between good and evil
I’m on the right side
but I keep scoring for the other team

I’m a mess. Is there hope?
Should I blame myself, shame myself,
should I just give up?

No, says the Beloved, come with me.
There is no battle, no score.
There is only my goodness. It swallows you.

I forgive all your faults,
and know why you have them,
and offer not judgment, but healing

I believe in the heart within your heart
which doesn’t perform, but simply is,
and in that pure being we are at peace.

Come to me, you who are burdened by your sin,
and take upon you my yoke of grace,
and find rest for your soul.

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

I just returned from a nephew’s wedding
to a woman from Nepal. Amazing.
I now have dozens of new relatives
all over the world. A miracle.
How did I acquire this new family?
By two people’s love for each other.

Your love has power beyond your knowing.
Your faithfulness creates a real thing,
a living organism greater than you can see.
The flowing of your love
enables the flowing of much more love.

You are given; you are received.
You belong. You are related.

Imagine a world
in which we regarded one another, even strangers,
with the love of kin.
As our nine year old grandson said,
“I kind of think we’re all related—
you know, from Adam and Eve…”

Let your love and faithfulness
weave a miracle,
making strangers into family,
extending to the ends of the earth.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Deep in caves

Imagine the light of Creation
had been taken and broken into little bits,
wrapped in some kind of skin
and hidden deep in caves
in far polar regions, deep underground.
For centuries people sought the light,
suspected it, told stories,
even unseen it was their hope.

The sea moved sometimes as if
the light were at the bottom of it,
but it wasn’t there.

This is not a myth; it is all literally true,
only the caves are closer,
much closer.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Prayer for our country

God bless our country
with humility and wisdom,
to hear your voice
not in triumph over others
but in love for one another,
for all who, for every reason,
find themselves upon this land.
May our patriotism be care for all,
not just for one family or place or kind.
Give us courage to face injustice,
to resist the powers that diminish life,
to repent of hate, and heal oppression,
for the sake of liberty and justice for all.
Bless us with prosperity of gratitude,
freedom of love and abundance of generosity.
For the land and water that so richly provide for us
we give thanks and pray for healing and renewal.
Bless us all that we may truly belong to the land,
to one another, and to you,
in a spirit of unity, gratitude and joy.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Psalm 139

A paraphrase

1.
Holy One, you know me from inside me.
          You know me in my doing
          and in my pure Being.
                     My thoughts are transparent to you.

You are my travels and changes,
          and what in me simply is, unchanging.
                    You have shared every step, every breath.

Before my mouth forms a word,
           before my mind forms the thought,
                     you see it, you feel it, you know it.

You enclose me, my atmosphere, my body;
           you precede me, and I echo in you.
                     I live inside your embrace.

This is too wonderful for me to comprehend.
           There’s no way I can take it all in.

                               •
7.
Where can I go that is not You?
           Where are you not present?

In the place of wonder and glory, there you are.
           In the place of abandonment and despair,
                     there you are.

If I try to be free of you
           and flee far away from you,
even there you accompany me;
           you hold me in your arms.

If I hide inside myself,
           buried in depression, wholly lost,
you see right through, clear as day:
           in you everything is translucent.

                               •
13.
My mother, my womb, my artist,
           you handcrafted my soul and my cells—
                     wonder! awe! Gratitude!
Grandmother, you knitted me so thoughtfully,
           every stitch a prayer.
The way you made me, I am your praise,
           your masterpiece,
                     the work of your genius.

You intended me,
           you created my inner being,
                     intricately wove me in the depths of the earth.

                               •
16.
You see clearly
           what is only yet becoming in me.
Your love already has a hold
           on all that will ever become of me
                     before it unfolds.

I want to be continually mindful
           of your wonderfulness in all things.
Your thoughts are beyond mine:
           rational thought can’t behold you:
                     only wonder.
Beyond all thoughts and words
          you are simply present.

                               •
19
O Love, set me free from what is not love.
          May I love that which sets me free.

Free me from all bitterness,
           my desire to control,
                     my desire to get my own way.
Purify my love, O Love,
           and my courage to stay faithful
                     in the face of resistance.

Examine me, O Truth, and know me from inside.
           Expose my true thoughts.
Confront everything that strangles my love
                     and set me free to live in the Way of Life.

Psalm 19

A paraphrase

Creation sings the glory of God;
            the galaxies utter their prayers daily.
Each day is a word of God’s story;
             each night discloses the truth.
Oh, they don’t talk with words,
             their only language is silence.
But their message saturates the world,
             and sings out to the edge of the universe.

God has set the sun at home in this world,
             and every day it comes to marry us,
             comes to dance with vigor and grace.
It comes to our world from another,
             and fills the earth with its light,
no one is left out
             from its divine, life-giving warmth.

God’s love is all that we need;
             it restarts our hearts.
God’s wisdom is as sure as gravity;
             it sustains even the unwise.
God’s ways are pure beauty,
             delighting the soul.
God’s desire allures us,
             enlightens our eyes.

Live in wonder and awe and you become holy;
             you slip into the eternal.
The voice of God is What Is;
             pay attention and you truly live.
Throw away money for this kind of wisdom,
             even what you actually need.
Abandon all your loves for this Love,
             your favorite things, your most precious.

God, your love portrays me better than I;
             when I listen I become myself.
But who can see themselves clearly?
             Save me from my hidden faults.
Cut me loose from my attachment to myself.
             Set me free from my fears.
Help me live as a servant to life,
             not hurting or destroying.

God, may all my thoughts and words and actions
             be in harmony with your delight—
my Lifeboat, my Lover,
             my Life.