Darkness

Pay close attention:

Other senses come alive,

And show you the way.

 (Photo: Amazon lily pad at Longwood Gardens Nightscape, October 7, 2016)

Open

I

A tightly closed bud

Bursts forth in an explosion.

Radiant colors!

II

Hushed notes crescendo, 

Rising, exquisite climax,

Sensual, sublime.

III. 

In opening - joy,

Vulnerable, yet beautiful -

Reveals God's glory.

(Photo: Tyler Arboretum on Earth Day 2016)

Afraid

What is this dis-ease,

This gnawing feeling in my gut?

These unsettled times

Do not be afraid.

Do I believe the angels?

Trust God is with us?

Take away my fear.

Help me put my trust in you

And breathe in your peace.

(Photo: Ridley Creek State Park)

Live

I lift off the ground.

Abandoning everything 
That has restrained me.

To trust and let go,
To fly on the breath of God,
Is scary, thrilling.

I ride on the Wind
Not knowing where it takes me,
Feeling so alive.

(photo: St. Pete Beach FL, February 2017)

Go

This is my memory.

I am standing by the back door of our old farmhouse with my parents who are getting ready to go somewhere and one of them says, "Let's go!" My brothers get their coats on and bound out the back door while I'm still standing there, whining, "Do I have to go?"

This didn't happen just once. There were many times my parents invited me to go somewhere with them and I would grumble, "Do I have to go?" When I was made to go, I have to admit (but never admitted to them) that I was glad I went. But,there were occasions when my parents left me off the hook and I could stay behind. However, when everyone returned, I heard all about their adventures and many times regretted the fact that I didn't join them. 

"Do I have to go?"

What I need to remember today is that wherever I go God is with me. Sometimes God calls me to take risks or try something new and while my impulse may be to plead, "Do I have to go?" I know that God will be there ahead of me, with me. That is a great comfort and gives me courage to go places I might not otherwise go.

Vespers Prayer

(I probably wrote about this prayer last year; but, it is a favorite of mine from Vespers).

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending...

    Are you calling to us, God? To what are you calling us? The future is uncertain, the church as we know it is radically changing right before our very eyes. What new thing are you breathing life into? 

...by paths as yet untrodden... 

    No one has taken a road quite like this before. How will we get there if there is no path?

...through perils unknown...

    Dangers. There will be danger. Anger. Failure. Defeat. They all could be waiting for us. It is hard not to be afraid...

...Give us faith to go out with good courage....

   But, there it is. Faith. Faith is the net that supports us, the arms that surround us, the eyes that point the way.

...not knowing where we go....

    Trusting. Leaning on God's promises. Where will we go?

...but only that your hand is leading us...

    Yes! Your hand, God. Leading. Lifting us up when we fall. Pulling us along when we falter. Guiding us along the way.

...and your love supporting us...

    Most importantly - that love - YOUR love, Lord. Perfect love.

...through Jesus Christ our Lord...

    (Who has been through this before on the road to Calvary.)

Amen

    Resurrection comes at last!

Do Not Be Afraid

Today, my older son boarded a plane and headed to Bogotà, Colombia for a ten day vacation to stay with a friend he met while working at a local amusement park this past summer. I have never met this friend. I have never met his family. I only know what I have heard about Bogotà over the past several years. And I also know what I read on the state department's website about conditions in Colombia. I could rattle off a list of warnings that I found on the website - and I did rattle them off to my son - as he made his plans to go. Here are just a few gems:

• Watch out in the airport. Pick pocketers are looking for passports - especially at Christmas...

•  "Violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas as well as large cities..."

• DO NOT take a cab. If you do, only take the cabs that are located in this particular area....

• Be careful what you wear; people have had jewelry ripped off from around their necks...

• US government officials and their families are only allowed to travel to major cities by air..."they may not travel by road outside urban areas at night..."

I could list about a half dozen more things.

My son just looked at me as though I were crazy. But, I told him, it is important to be aware of these things so that he can be wise.

Fear - What an interesting creature that is. It prevents us from meeting new people, from having conversations with members of the Tea Party and/or participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement, from seeing another person unlike ourselves as a child of God.

During the Bush years, fear was always at our doorstep and it made me angry that we were made to feel frightened. I fought this tooth and nail. Our conversations around the dinner table often addressed this problem. We saw people in our country giving up their rights just to be "safe." We discussed the fact that God is with us no matter what happens - and that means we can live with less fear in our lives.

I did a search of the phrase, "Do not be afraid" in the Oremus Bible Browser and discovered that these words appear 67 times in the Bible. The fact that these words are spoken so frequently in the Bible says something about our human condition. In the Old Testament, it's mostly God  and the prophets who issue this command, although the angels, Moses, Joseph and others say these words as well. Angels and Jesus are the primary ones speaking these words in the New Testament. Sixty-seven times! Imagine that!

It is Advent and I hear the story of Joseph and young, pregnant Mary. In Matthew, an angel appears to Joseph and tells him "do not be afraid." When Mary learns the news of her pregnancy, it is an angel who shares this news with her in Luke, starting with these same words. An angel appears to Zechariah as well to let him know that Elizabeth will have a child, too. Again, the angel's greeting begins with the words, "do not be afraid."

I am trying to hear the angels speak to me in this moment, in my experience of Advent -  as my idealistic son wanders off into a strange country that he doesn't know. I smile to myself knowing that he must have taken our family conversations to heart. And oddly, I am thankful for that, even now as I struggle myself to not be fearful. My son is teaching me again, "do not be afraid." He makes me proud.

So for now, I will keep him in my prayers and give thanks to God that nothing separates us from the love of God; that we are all held in the palm of God's loving hand. And, I will try to think about how the parents of my son's friend must have felt when he came to the United States to work for the summer. I bet they were afraid as well. (I wonder what their state department said about travel to the states!)

As I wait for my son to come home, I will also pray for the day when we all can live without fear:

Come, Lord Jesus. Come!

Perspective

"The people quarreled with Moses and said, 'Give us water to drink.'" Exodus 17:2a

I think that since the first time I heard this story, I thought to myself, "Ah, those crazy Israelites! Always complaining; never quite trusting God. Don't they know any better? Why are they always complaining to Moses? They've been rescued, after all."

But, there are days now, when I look at this differently. After all, they are in the middle of their story, their journey and they don't know how it all ends for them. My perspective is different because I have the advantage - thousands of years later - of knowing the outcome. I think that if I were to be honest about it, if I were in their shoes, I would be complaining, too. I did some serious whining in my childhood. Just ask my parents. What makes me think I wouldn't whine if I were stuck in the desert without food and water?

Even now I experience days where my trust in God is not at 100% especially when I hear about natural disasters, or I see my son struggling to find his way in the world, or when I see my home congregation struggle, or when I see a friend dealing with illness. I want to complain to God about it all. It really is difficult to see where God is on the move in places like that.

Ultimately it's about the promise made in Christ Jesus - through his death and resurrection - and while things might look grim some days, I do know how all the stories will end. In the big picture, things will turn out all right. Thanks be to God!

One more thing, however. I do think that God is big enough to handle our complaints even when we can't handle situations on our own! It's good to know that God has such broad shoulders.

Help me LORD to put my trust in you - even when I cannot see where the future leads me.  Help me to remember you are already there, ahead of me - as you are with me now - and have been with me in the past.

Coattails

"I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eyes upon you." Psalm 32: 8

O, God

I feel as though I am riding
on the coattails of the Holy Spirit.
I feel that warm breath, the ru'ah
Blowing in my face and over me.
We are flying, flying forward.

The ride is both invigorating and uncertain.
Where are you taking me?
Where will I end up?
Will I be prepared?

God says, "I will instruct you and teach you
the way that you should go;
I will counsel you
With my eye upon you."

I need not fear, God
For you are in front of me.
You are like a parent
Squatting in front of a child
Who is learning to walk.

You encourage me
Watch and smile at each step I take
You cheer me on
And catch me when I stumble.

Signs

Last night Russell and I met with four senior high youth to talk about our upcoming Lutheran Youth Fellowship board meeting. As usual, we began our meeting with devotions. And, as usual, our conversations got sidetracked. Reading Psalm 27, some of us were struck by the last verse, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

We thought of Haitians waiting for help - and now the people of Chile - as a result of two very devastating earthquakes which happened within 46 days of the each other. What must waiting be like for them? What kind of courage is required of them?

This, however, boomeranged into a conversation of a different sort, launching into some rapid-fire statements about the end of the world - just look at what's happening in the world....The signs are there...earthquakes, tsunamis....And we've got the Mayan calendar to back it up...

...or not.

I wonder. Does every generation look to the future with despair and anxiety?

I know I did. When I was their age, Hal Lindsey predicted that the end of the world would occur in the 1980s in his book, "The Late, Great Planet Earth." There were some who believed that the world would end because of the tensions between the USSR and the USA and with the escalation of nuclear weapons. "The Day After" was a made-for-television movie that only raised the nation's anxieties about the end of the world. In 1985, a tidal wave killed 10,000 in Bangladesh. An earthquake killed 80,000 in Armenia in 1988.

Were these signs?

There have been doomsday prophets all through history. Take, for example, the Roman priest who, in the year 500, predicted the end of the earth based on the dimensions of Noah's ark. In the year 999, there was a lot of hysteria over the year 1000. People sold their goods to the poor. Many took a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was nuts! In 1973, David Berg predicted with the arrival of the Comet Kohoutek in 1973, that the world would end in 1974. There were many who thought the year 2000 would bring about chaos and the end times (remember Y2K?) These are just a few....and there hundreds of similar predictions.

The world is scary enough as it is without end-of-the-world prognosticators. Thank you very much.

Doomsday predictions aside, each generation does have its challenges. I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm concerned for the future of this generation. Climate change is a concern. The tensions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews are a concern. The economy is a concern.

Then again, I remember adults telling me when I was a teen how they were concerned for the future of my generation. War. Violence and unrest in our streets. Pollution.

There will always be challenges facing each generation. The question is, how do we deal with them?

This takes me back to Psalm 27 - and another verse we were moved by (verse 8), "'Come,' my heart says, 'seek [God's] face!' Your face, Lord, do I seek."

I would say to this generation and every generation: Look to God, seek God, not to prognosticators of the world's demise. Then, with courage (back to verse 14) address the real issues and concerns of our time. And, no matter what, trust in God, remembering that no matter what happens, nothing can separate you from God's love. Good news, indeed!