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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…
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Sketching as Prayer
God made me an artist, and when I neglect my art, I neglect one of the primary ways God designed me to worship him and be in communion with him. I find that when I sketch, more than when I focus on a finished painting or drawing, I tend to unconsciously move into an awareness of God’s presence and into a sense of wonder. Sketching is, for me, a way of simply being with God. God made me an artist. I need to do my art in some way or another, or I feel as though my soul is drying up. Sketching is a way I do that without being…
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Praying with Trees
I become fidgety when I have to sit still in meetings, even in meetings I generally enjoy, even in prayer meetings. So, even though I very much appreciated the privilege of gathering with other believers in prayer, I found myself becoming distracted and antsy when everyone else was quietly focused and sitting still. I just couldn’t sit so still for long, and that caused my mind to wander to my walk with my dog in the sunshine that afternoon, the interesting bird at my feeder, a phone call with a friend, my next meal, and so on… One rainy November day I was walking in the woods with a friend…
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Visio Divina
Viso Divina is similar to Lectio Divina, but instead of reading and meditating on Scripture, one observes and meditates on something visual, perhaps an image or something in nature. (For those new to the term lectio divina, it is a form of Scripture reading in which we slowly read, meditate or reflect on, pray, and then contemplate a Bible passage or story so that we hear in it what God wants us to hear and then take that forward into our own life, rather than interpreting it with our own agenda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lectio_Divina) Step 1: Gazing and seeing deeply Ask God to open your mind and heart to his presence with…
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Sketching as Prayer Retreat–January 30, 2021
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God,But only he who sees takes off his shoes;The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”Elizabeth Barrett Browning While we aren’t plucking blackberries at this time of year, many of us are sitting around, either because it’s winter and we’re not outside as much, or because we’re sticking close to home due the the pandemic raging around us. And despite social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, earth is still “crammed with heaven,” with every common bush “afire with God.” So, too, every aspect of creation bears marks of its Creator, signs pointing to the ongoing presence, stability and love of God, who is…