Wednesday, April 27th
“For from God and through God and to God are all things.” Romans 8:36
In the middle of a discussion of Jurgen Moltmann’s theology, one of the students in my Christian ethics class yesterday blurted out, “God is in everything? Really? God is in rapists and murderers? People I don’t like? People who don’t like me?
She was outraged by that thought, as a Christian, as a seminarian, as a practicing attorney, as a woman, as an African-American, as a thoughtful person, as everything she is, and her outrage kept the rest of us quiet for a moment.
Panentheism, the conviction that God is in all things, inhabits all of creation, is easier to accept in the abstract, than in the hard, harsh reality of real life.
Then, someone began to sing quietly. “All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing, O praise ye! Alleluia! O brother sun with golden beam, O sister moon with silver gleam! O praise ye!”
If St. Francis could believe that all things, alive and dead, animate and inanimate, are capable of praising their creator, then I believe it too. And what makes us capable of praise, if not that tiny spark of our creator hidden–sometimes too well hidden!–in each of us?
Blessings,
K
Monday, April 25th
Wednesday, April 13
Resisting Lifelessness by K Karpen
‘Zombies in NY,’ an oil painting by Danielle Vasquez, one of the many talented members of the SPSA youth group, reminds me of my last subway ride. It was at the late end of rush hour, and everyone seemed beat. Numb. Dead, almost. Looking around my subway car, I felt I was surrounded by Zombies. Help!
Then, I realized I was one too.
There’s truth to that, of course. Life takes effort.
Life takes Spirit. Without it, it’s all too easy to slip into lifelessness.
That is how I’m using the rest of Lent. To resist lifelessness. To try for life.
Thursday, April 7
Drawing the Line by Julie Wityk
“But let your word ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’” Matthew 5:37
At my parents last weekend, I happened to pick up a magazine they had lying around and read an article about How to Succeed in Life. The author relayed how, as a teenager, he had made a personal commitment to God never to play his beloved basketball on a Sunday. So he was faced with a dilemma when his team made it to the championship game, and it was scheduled on a Sunday. He didn’t play, and came to see it as a turning point in his life. If he had played “just this once,” crossing that line one time, it would have been easier to do over and over in the years that followed. His lesson: It is easier to hold to your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98 percent of the time. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place.
I hate to say this was an “Aha!” moment for me, because it was far from triumphant. Too often than I like to admit, my ‘yes’ means ‘yes’ and my ‘no’ means ‘no,’ except when they mean ‘maybe.’ Sometimes I feel like a rat in a maze.
Jesus’ instructions are quite simple. Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one.
Lord, strengthen me in your Word
So that all my decisions, big and small,
are crystal clear to me and everyone who hears them. Amen.
Tuesday April 5
Easy Silence by Siobhan Sargent
When the calls and conversations
Accidents and accusations
Messages and misperceptions
Paralyze my mind
Busses, cars, and airplanes leaving
Burning fumes of gasoline
And everyone is running
And I come to find a refuge in the
Easy silence that you make for me
It’s okay when there’s nothing more to say to me
And the peaceful quiet you create for me
And the way you keep the world at bay for me
The way you keep the world at bay (Dixie Chicks)
There’s something about silence, a moment of quiet. After my ex and I split up it was hard for me to find comfort in silence. It was hard for me to find peace. The silence reminded me of her absence and the pain and grief that came with the loss of her daily presence in my life. I was sad, and lonely and the silence was nothing short of deafening.
As my wounds healed I began to understand silence very differently. It is not longer a source of pain or a reminder of my loneliness but is instead a moment to sit with God. I have found silence, and giving pause to create silent moments in my daily routine an opportunity for God to flood into my life, like opening the door to an old friend.
I’ve come to allow the silent spaces, those quiet moments to settle on my heart and my mind and out of it my soul continues to be renewed. Now the silence that surrounds me and keeps the world at bay for me are the moments that I look forward to spending time with my God, with an old and precious friend.
I love this song “Easy Silence,” and although it may not have been intended as a spiritual, it deepens my faith. I’m sharing this with you, in hopes that during this Lenten season you find easy silence.