“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you...” - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18
Easter greetings!
The Word of Life Community spent the 40 Days meditating on the Holy Spirit, and the third meditation in a series had a focus on thanksgiving. As I studied the 1 Thessalonians passage, I was struck by how nearly every letter that Paul writes begins with a genuine note, a sizable portion, of affirmation and thanksgiving. I sat down, and I started reading the opening portion of every letter he wrote, and I was blown away by this disciple's ability to see the good and to have genuine expressed affection for all those whom he was serving and, often, writing to exhort to a greater degree of holiness.
I thought, wow, what might it be like if every email, text message, phone call, conversation, and letter that I, that we, wrote began with at least some kind of genuine note of thanksgiving and brotherly affection. What transformative power this cultural and Godly practice of frequent thanksgiving might stir among people today!
Try this: a friend once challenged me, when discouraged, to pray an alphabet of thanksgiving - begin with 'A' and thank God for something that begins with 'A,' then 'B,' and so forth until I find myself genuinely grateful and joyful once more. I'm not sure if I have ever reached 'Z' but I think I have gotten close! I continue to use this practical tool today.
Paul's gifting for affirmation, or his discipline of seeing and acknowledging his brethren's and his flocks' goodness, allowed him to see more clearly God's hand in their lives and to see their character with true clarity, discerned and inspired by the Holy Spirit. I imagine that this allowed him to exhort in love, made him an effective evangelist, and allowed him to live his life in this world with hope.
Many times, even daily, I am brought into broken places, broken lives, and how necessary I have found it to live more in thanksgiving and hope. I have found that continual thanksgiving and a "strengths-based" mindset (what we talk about in classes - very helpful) have born a steelier kind of hope and joy than I have previously experienced. Praise the Lord!
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Friday, April 6, 2012
A good day and Good Friday
Good Friday:
I attended a communion service at St. Aloysius in Detroit: www.stalsdetroit.com
-> very inspiring. takeaway from the sermon: until we enter into our own fears of abandonment, death, and loneliness, we will not be free to go out and seek those who have been abandoned, are dying, and are alone. Jesus Christ came for us, to free us from our fears!
I read the poem "Broken Vessels" at the YouCharist event at Real Church's Courage Coffee, a coffee house in downtown Hamtramck: http://www.hope4detroit.com
-> stories of young people moving to Hamtramck for mission, families hearing a call from the Lord to move to Detroit
-> really good coffee!
-> art.music.words.witness.videos.worship.prayers for Detroit.prayers for young people to give their lives to Jesus.fun.friends.strangers.laughter.brothers and sisters in God's family.surrender.beauty.the Cross.power.Holy Spirit.Gospel.hope.transformation.change.
God is moving in the city of Detroit, in His beautiful sons and daughters who are there. What a great Good Friday!
I attended a communion service at St. Aloysius in Detroit: www.stalsdetroit.com
-> very inspiring. takeaway from the sermon: until we enter into our own fears of abandonment, death, and loneliness, we will not be free to go out and seek those who have been abandoned, are dying, and are alone. Jesus Christ came for us, to free us from our fears!
I read the poem "Broken Vessels" at the YouCharist event at Real Church's Courage Coffee, a coffee house in downtown Hamtramck: http://www.hope4detroit.com
-> stories of young people moving to Hamtramck for mission, families hearing a call from the Lord to move to Detroit
-> really good coffee!
-> art.music.words.witness.videos.worship.prayers for Detroit.prayers for young people to give their lives to Jesus.fun.friends.strangers.laughter.brothers and sisters in God's family.surrender.beauty.the Cross.power.Holy Spirit.Gospel.hope.transformation.change.
God is moving in the city of Detroit, in His beautiful sons and daughters who are there. What a great Good Friday!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
True Pain and True Joy
Recently, I was walking alongside a beautiful, still lake, and I asked the Lord, "What needs to happen between us between now and Easter? Is there anything you'd like me to do, to offer up, to repent for?" The answer I received, "Lynne, there is nothing I want you to do for me, and there is nothing to be done."
Nothing to be done. It's the line a loved one of a sick or hospitalized relative may dread hearing most.
One thing that we do during the 40 Days is take extra time to consider Jesus Christ's passion, his suffering and sacrifice of his life for us. But what does that mean? In the Lord's response to me, I heard Him say, "My pain? Consider your own."
Sometimes, in my flesh, there is nothing more painful for me that to sit by and watch Him do everything - bring everything into existence, bring me into existence, appear as both man and God, live for me, die for me, and rise again, all for me and the rest of humanity. The pain is contained in my own helplessness and lack of role in the fundamental work of salvation. Dying to self-reliance and pride is painful - truly painful.
But faith in Him can transform this pain into the greatest joy. He can give us the courage and humility to receive His love.
Praise be to Him, for there is nothing to be done; He has done all.
Nothing to be done. It's the line a loved one of a sick or hospitalized relative may dread hearing most.
One thing that we do during the 40 Days is take extra time to consider Jesus Christ's passion, his suffering and sacrifice of his life for us. But what does that mean? In the Lord's response to me, I heard Him say, "My pain? Consider your own."
Sometimes, in my flesh, there is nothing more painful for me that to sit by and watch Him do everything - bring everything into existence, bring me into existence, appear as both man and God, live for me, die for me, and rise again, all for me and the rest of humanity. The pain is contained in my own helplessness and lack of role in the fundamental work of salvation. Dying to self-reliance and pride is painful - truly painful.
But faith in Him can transform this pain into the greatest joy. He can give us the courage and humility to receive His love.
Praise be to Him, for there is nothing to be done; He has done all.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
New poem re: redemption!
New work, a few weeks old.
City Bird
I. Detroit Bird
From street to street
deep within the alley,
a single, fractured brick,
cradles the delicate, shallow nest,
it lays open, waiting, breakable.
What makes a home a home?
my nest-less, long heart walks
damp night streets,
searching for that sparrow’s song,
bright tune: let me find you
singing in the night,
gentle sound, you still the quaking,
hungry, roaring of my fears –
they often know no bounds.
Sweet bird, nesting, resting
in the street beneath its hymn
I curl my body, womb:
every note says, ‘Hush now,
not one falls without My knowing.’
II. Dublin Bird*
In Dublin, on June 16, 1904,
Leopold Bloom grips his cane
more tightly than his life;
Bloom carries the boy Stephen Dedalus
home in his armory arms
because he loves him.
When Bloom loosens his grip on the cane,
I imagine he turns his life over to God;
through his loosening,
I have seen myself,
lost in God’s love for me.
Breathe in, breathe out –
deep, from the diaphragm: what do you feel?
the sparrow’s song rushing with the breeze
over your summer tan, feathers everywhere,
wings do not mean that she will fall,
she will play, she will fly.
III. Hope Bird
.
.
.
fly
for shall
Wait
you
for shall
Walk you
Run
---
There were some formatting issues, and I couldn't paste in the last stanza (though it reads all right without it - the last stanza is, I think, a very nice coda). If you want the full poem, let me know, and I'll send it along.
*Stanzas 4 and 5 reference Ulysses by James Joyce. The scene highlighted in this poem is in "Circe" - Chapter 15. The important thing to know: Leopold Bloom and Stephen are both searching, wrestling with their problems and the meaning of their lives - Bloom is a father, Stephen a son, and their lives intersect, and Bloom is a kind of father to Stephen. Bloom loosening the grip on his cane is like the image we sometimes use when we talk about "letting go of our grip on the steering wheel" of our lives.
City Bird
I. Detroit Bird
From street to street
deep within the alley,
a single, fractured brick,
cradles the delicate, shallow nest,
it lays open, waiting, breakable.
What makes a home a home?
my nest-less, long heart walks
damp night streets,
searching for that sparrow’s song,
bright tune: let me find you
singing in the night,
gentle sound, you still the quaking,
hungry, roaring of my fears –
they often know no bounds.
Sweet bird, nesting, resting
in the street beneath its hymn
I curl my body, womb:
every note says, ‘Hush now,
not one falls without My knowing.’
II. Dublin Bird*
In Dublin, on June 16, 1904,
Leopold Bloom grips his cane
more tightly than his life;
Bloom carries the boy Stephen Dedalus
home in his armory arms
because he loves him.
When Bloom loosens his grip on the cane,
I imagine he turns his life over to God;
through his loosening,
I have seen myself,
lost in God’s love for me.
Breathe in, breathe out –
deep, from the diaphragm: what do you feel?
the sparrow’s song rushing with the breeze
over your summer tan, feathers everywhere,
wings do not mean that she will fall,
she will play, she will fly.
III. Hope Bird
.
.
.
fly
for shall
Wait
you
for shall
Walk you
Run
---
There were some formatting issues, and I couldn't paste in the last stanza (though it reads all right without it - the last stanza is, I think, a very nice coda). If you want the full poem, let me know, and I'll send it along.
*Stanzas 4 and 5 reference Ulysses by James Joyce. The scene highlighted in this poem is in "Circe" - Chapter 15. The important thing to know: Leopold Bloom and Stephen are both searching, wrestling with their problems and the meaning of their lives - Bloom is a father, Stephen a son, and their lives intersect, and Bloom is a kind of father to Stephen. Bloom loosening the grip on his cane is like the image we sometimes use when we talk about "letting go of our grip on the steering wheel" of our lives.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
a prayer i try to pray daily and often
Come put your light in me;
Come let me be your light.
Inspired by Blessed Mother Teresa and the words our Lord spoke to her as she delved deeper into His call on her life. See Come Be My Light.
The order of the two lines is important. Unless He, the Light of the World, is in alive in us, we cannot be a light to others.
We are called to be like lamps; we hold the flame, we are transparent, and the flame burns brightly, is the center of attention. We are transparent, but in holding Jesus in our hearts and letting him exist there deeply, we draw others closer to the flame, to the one true light, Jesus Christ. We can bear Jesus to the world.
But first, we must pray that He come and be pleased to dwell within us, more and more.
Come let me be your light.
Inspired by Blessed Mother Teresa and the words our Lord spoke to her as she delved deeper into His call on her life. See Come Be My Light.
The order of the two lines is important. Unless He, the Light of the World, is in alive in us, we cannot be a light to others.
We are called to be like lamps; we hold the flame, we are transparent, and the flame burns brightly, is the center of attention. We are transparent, but in holding Jesus in our hearts and letting him exist there deeply, we draw others closer to the flame, to the one true light, Jesus Christ. We can bear Jesus to the world.
But first, we must pray that He come and be pleased to dwell within us, more and more.
Monday, February 27, 2012
A Sure Investment
If I knew of one unfailing stock that I could invest in, would I not invest all of my assets, cash, credit, everything? Yes, I would.
The economy: It's in national media, it's affecting our friends' and families' lives, it's affecting our lives. Lots of people are talking about it.
So back to the image of the stock market: If I knew of one, just one, sure stock option, I would invest everything I had (which, being a social work student following a season of mission work, eh, is not much in the world's eyes but it's okay :) ). Last semester I wrote a research paper about the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and as I studied the Great Depression, all the theories and arguments about its causes and effects, who was in office in what position where and the environment of Wall Street in the early 20th century, this reality, straightforward and simple, became clear to me:
A singular cause of the Great Depression was greed.
I do not mean to oversimplify the catastrophic and multi-factorial social issues of poverty and the Great Depression, but I have to observe that perhaps one cause of the Great Depression was not so much "corporate greed" as it was just plain old human greed, the kind of selfishness that has always existed since the Fall, as Richard J. Foster observes in a great book I recommend entitled The Freedom of Simplicity.
We are not that much holier and better, if at all, than those who were "responsible" for the stock market crash in 1929. Several books and articles I found blamed stock traders and investment bankers and industrialism itself openly for the crash and depression. But the truth is that the whole country was caught up in a kind of Corinthian-esque lavish lifestyle. To blame a few people or a single economic reality for a corporate ("corporate" meaning "done by or characteristic of a group of individuals acting together") social problem of material gluttony and endemic self-sufficiency - falls short because that narrative does contain the full truth.
In many areas of our lives, I think Christians can make an almost full investment. As long as we as Christians, or if not, us nice and good people, invest in the right direction, we cut ourselves a break. Or maybe as long as we're not in a leadership position that carries with it overt trappings of power and prestige, we cut ourselves a break. We forget - I forget every day, several times a day - that God made us for greatness and in His eyes, each of us is a leader and made in His image.
So to where do we turn? Where is the sure investment to be found? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one sure bet. His promise is something I can fully invest in, without doubt, without a backup plan. His promise may not be fully fulfilled, but I can accept it from Him on good credit. While we are in this world, we will have to hedge our bets, utilized a kind of this-age shrewdness, as we navigate a world in which evil and sin exist. We will have to make due with having one solid plan and then having back up plans, options B and C.
But: in prayer, we are free to have just one Plan A - because that is what Jesus Christ has come to be for us. And we actually do harm to ourselves and others when we keep other options open and fail to fully invest in the Lord. Today, in this age, if we have multiple bank accounts, for example, if we spread our assets, some might call us "wise." In the world, having two bank accounts or two credit cards, does no harm to us. But in the Kingdom of Heaven, this attitude of hedging our bets does real damage, and splitting the odds is not a good thing.
And because we have to live this way in the world, this is precisely why we need to keep investing fully in God. We need a haven from that necessity.
Do you know the feeling of sinking into a comfortable armchair? The Lord says, "Come, sink into me. Sink into my love."
So: lest we fill our lives with choruses of "prudence" that beneath their veneer can often actually amount to nothing more than variations on self-sufficiency and doubt in God's faithfulness, let us return to Him. Come, let us return to Him, as Hosea and this season of Lent encourage us to do. It's quite simple, and it'll all work out, if we live in the freedom of simplicity.
And let us pray for the world, particularly for those who are in poverty, that is, without basic necessities. But perhaps most of all, let's pray for those who are in poverty because they still hunger for the reality of God's imperishable and fiery love for them; and I am one of "them."
Thank you, Lord Jesus;
Come, Lord Jesus.
The economy: It's in national media, it's affecting our friends' and families' lives, it's affecting our lives. Lots of people are talking about it.
So back to the image of the stock market: If I knew of one, just one, sure stock option, I would invest everything I had (which, being a social work student following a season of mission work, eh, is not much in the world's eyes but it's okay :) ). Last semester I wrote a research paper about the Great Depression and the Great Recession, and as I studied the Great Depression, all the theories and arguments about its causes and effects, who was in office in what position where and the environment of Wall Street in the early 20th century, this reality, straightforward and simple, became clear to me:
A singular cause of the Great Depression was greed.
I do not mean to oversimplify the catastrophic and multi-factorial social issues of poverty and the Great Depression, but I have to observe that perhaps one cause of the Great Depression was not so much "corporate greed" as it was just plain old human greed, the kind of selfishness that has always existed since the Fall, as Richard J. Foster observes in a great book I recommend entitled The Freedom of Simplicity.
We are not that much holier and better, if at all, than those who were "responsible" for the stock market crash in 1929. Several books and articles I found blamed stock traders and investment bankers and industrialism itself openly for the crash and depression. But the truth is that the whole country was caught up in a kind of Corinthian-esque lavish lifestyle. To blame a few people or a single economic reality for a corporate ("corporate" meaning "done by or characteristic of a group of individuals acting together") social problem of material gluttony and endemic self-sufficiency - falls short because that narrative does contain the full truth.
In many areas of our lives, I think Christians can make an almost full investment. As long as we as Christians, or if not, us nice and good people, invest in the right direction, we cut ourselves a break. Or maybe as long as we're not in a leadership position that carries with it overt trappings of power and prestige, we cut ourselves a break. We forget - I forget every day, several times a day - that God made us for greatness and in His eyes, each of us is a leader and made in His image.
So to where do we turn? Where is the sure investment to be found? In the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one sure bet. His promise is something I can fully invest in, without doubt, without a backup plan. His promise may not be fully fulfilled, but I can accept it from Him on good credit. While we are in this world, we will have to hedge our bets, utilized a kind of this-age shrewdness, as we navigate a world in which evil and sin exist. We will have to make due with having one solid plan and then having back up plans, options B and C.
But: in prayer, we are free to have just one Plan A - because that is what Jesus Christ has come to be for us. And we actually do harm to ourselves and others when we keep other options open and fail to fully invest in the Lord. Today, in this age, if we have multiple bank accounts, for example, if we spread our assets, some might call us "wise." In the world, having two bank accounts or two credit cards, does no harm to us. But in the Kingdom of Heaven, this attitude of hedging our bets does real damage, and splitting the odds is not a good thing.
And because we have to live this way in the world, this is precisely why we need to keep investing fully in God. We need a haven from that necessity.
Do you know the feeling of sinking into a comfortable armchair? The Lord says, "Come, sink into me. Sink into my love."
So: lest we fill our lives with choruses of "prudence" that beneath their veneer can often actually amount to nothing more than variations on self-sufficiency and doubt in God's faithfulness, let us return to Him. Come, let us return to Him, as Hosea and this season of Lent encourage us to do. It's quite simple, and it'll all work out, if we live in the freedom of simplicity.
And let us pray for the world, particularly for those who are in poverty, that is, without basic necessities. But perhaps most of all, let's pray for those who are in poverty because they still hunger for the reality of God's imperishable and fiery love for them; and I am one of "them."
Thank you, Lord Jesus;
Come, Lord Jesus.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
A Lenten Poem
Broken Vessels
written 2009, edited 2012
A broken vessel
lies scattered on the floor
light floods space
Light holds the pieces
in His hands, healing each
place where a shadow, a dark spot
suffocated each does not know
air and light, it does not
grow it does not heal.
Without light pieces
brokenness dripping
wasted perfume, disparate,
separate and stagnant;
these do not move, they forget
they fit together, they held
they are meant to hold.
Beloved still yet to be loved
in the chair across the room
sits, hands in lap, open:
in his tender compassion dawn
breaks upon us even as we
broken vessels wait.
Do you feel your sharp edges?
Do you rust with time?
My dear broken ones, broken: wait.
written 2009, edited 2012
A broken vessel
lies scattered on the floor
light floods space
Light holds the pieces
in His hands, healing each
place where a shadow, a dark spot
suffocated each does not know
air and light, it does not
grow it does not heal.
Without light pieces
brokenness dripping
wasted perfume, disparate,
separate and stagnant;
these do not move, they forget
they fit together, they held
they are meant to hold.
Beloved still yet to be loved
in the chair across the room
sits, hands in lap, open:
in his tender compassion dawn
breaks upon us even as we
broken vessels wait.
Do you feel your sharp edges?
Do you rust with time?
My dear broken ones, broken: wait.
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