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Spiritual Direction
Do you wish for someone to listen to you and to listen with you to God? Someone who will help you discern God’s presence and his invitation to you in the midst of your questions, struggles, or doubts? Spiritual direction is a ministry of listening to and accompanying another person as they seek to be attentive to God. It’s a time and place to explore questions, doubts, desires, dreams, and struggles in the context of listening for God’s invitation. Christian spiritual direction is biblically grounded and is Trinitarian in focus– recognizing that we are invited into loving relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It can be…
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Listening and Hearing
I’m at our daughter’s home meeting our newest granddaughter, Sylvia, and helping out with her and two-year-old William this week, which means not much downtime, but lots of laughter with a toddler and sweet snuggles with a newborn. Our wonderful son-in-law, Howard, wanted to be sure I got some of the alone time I need, so he hung a hammock chair in the woodland garden he has been making in their woods, and I spent some time sketching there this afternoon. As I sketched a couple of trees, I enjoyed the sound of many birds ringing through the dense woods. Mostly what I heard were the nearly continuous, loud singing…
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Holy Week Musings in Words and Pictures
I’ve been pondering the events of the final week before Jesus was crucified, what we call Holy Week, mulling over the words from the four gospels and sketching some of the scenes. The book He Was One of Us, by Rien Poortvliet, a Dutch artist whose work I find inspiring, is a beautiful and poignant presentation in Poortvliet’s words and sketches of the humanity of Jesus throughout his life on earth. I find that Poortvliet’s sketches help me realize more deeply the truth that Jesus was fully man as well as fully God, and therefore felt emotional and physical pain as we do. And that leads me to ponder how…
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Sabbath- a Cathedral in Time
Sabbath– the word takes me gently by the hand and leads me away–away from the clutter of a half-done to-do list; away from the clamorous “musts” and “shoulds” of phone calls, emails, and other social demands; away from the guilt-tinged drive to make myself better; even away from the internal pressure to make the most of my “free” time. As I step away from the things that hem me in, my breath comes deeper and slower, my shoulders relax and I stand straighter, no longer pressed down. My soul simultaneously sits quietly and dances exuberantly, sings with joy and listens for a still small voice. I’ve heard the Sabbath described…
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Out of the mouths of babes
I’m in Texas spending time with our son Nathaniel and his family and getting to know our newest grandchild, Mary. I’m loving the sweetness of holding a newborn snuggled in my arms, as well as the enthusiasm, boundless energy, and creativity of Mary’s three older siblings. But my heart is also heavy with concern for dear friends back home and their family members who are battling Covid right now, and for two other friends who are hospitalized with very serious heart issues. This morning I was sitting with Paul, Elizabeth, and Samuel while they were eating breakfast, and at one point, was silently praying for our friends and feeling the…
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Apple of God’s Eye
I decided to do something different this week; rather than daily prayer suggestions, I sketched what jumped out at me from my psalm reading yesterday morning. I’ve been meditating on these verses, and sketching slows me down and helps me visualize something from Scripture in a way that makes it stick in my mind more clearly and for longer. I may do more of this sort of prayer in the coming weeks. This week I’m sharing my sketching meditation on Psalm 17:6-8. If anyone reading this would also like to sketch it, I would love to see your sketches, if you’d like to share them. I call on you, O…
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Broken but Thriving
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Sketching as Prayer
Yesterday we had our Spring Sketching as Prayer retreat at church, and it was a very refreshing day for me. While I enjoyed doing the retreat via Zoom in January, and it was great to see people from all across the United States and even one person in England, it was much more relaxing for me to lead a retreat locally. Not having to keep much technology in mind allowed me to really relax and experience the day as a retreat for myself as well. It’s interesting that, although I very much need and appreciate time alone at home, it sometimes seems that “solitude” with other people can be powerful…
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Off Kilter
I’ve been taking a few days of retreat-at-home time. Stephen has been away, so with time alone at home, I figured I’d have some refreshing time of solitude and silence. It’s been good in many ways, but I haven’t managed to settle my mind as much as I had hoped. It just seems there are so many good ways to occupy my mind or spend my time, and it can be hard to quiet myself, even when I manage to avoid the phone and computer. One day I decided to sit quietly and sketch the pin oak that’s growing in our yard. I’m fascinated by its downward growing lower limbs…
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Barabbas
Today is Good Friday, a dark day in history when Jesus was condemned and crucified. So why is it called “Good”? If we look at that day from the perspective of Barabbas, it was indeed a good day, an unexpectedly good day. Barabbas was a criminal condemned to die, a terrorist or some other sort of violent criminal. Roman prisons were harsh places, and death sentences were carried out cruelly. Barabbas could have been dragged from his prison cell at any time to be flogged to the point of being horribly flayed, after which he would be crucified—an especially slow and torturous form of execution. He probably wasn’t having any…