Offering some loaves and fishes...

I've been reading through a compilation of Henri Nouwen's thoughts on Spiritual Direction in a book of that same title. In one of his chapters, he speaks of the importance of writing as a spiritual exercise/discipline to help us "discover what lives in us." Here are some of his thoughts:

"For me, to find God in the word often requires writing. Spiritual writing has a very important place in spiritual formation. Even so, writing is often the source of great pain and anxiety. It is remarkable how hard it is to sit down quietly and trust our own creativity...even after many years of writing, I experience real fear when I face the empty page. Why am I so afraid?

"The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey of which we do not know the final destination. Thus, writing requires a great act of trust. We have to say to ourselves: 'I do not yet know what I carry in my heart, but I trust that it will emerge as I write.'

"Writing is like giving away the few loaves and fishes we have, trusting that they will multiply in the giving. Once we dare to 'give away' on paper [or electronic blog] the few thoughts that come to us, we start discovering how much is hidden underneath these thoughts and thus we gradually come in touch with our own riches and resources" (99).

As I have journeyed with Jesus over the past several months, I've encountered spaces and places within my soul that are new to me. The newness presents both a thrill and a threat...and often as I've shared with others what I'm experiencing (mostly a deep unraveling of much of what I thought was important) I get cockeyed looks of concern or meddling formulaic fixes for my seemingly off-kiltered gait. I had one person ask me, "How do you want us to pray specifically for you in the weird place you are in?" As if I wasn't already feeling like a freak - I am tempted to feel out of place: too serious, or arrogant, or perhaps verging on, dare I say, heresy.

So, Henri has challenged me...dared me.

The blank page scares me. Sharing the blank page scares me even more. But do I believe that the few loaves and fishes that I'm stumbling upon - wondering how in the hell they will ever feed me - will somehow, when distributed via the hands of God, more than adequately feed 5000? I am dared to believe, but help my disbelief.

In the Biblical story (Matt 14:15-21) people ate as much as they wanted. It wasn't necessarily measured out equally nor fairly. People took what they wanted. Ate what they wanted. Until they were satisfied. There was no judgment or constraint on how much or little anyone took. At the end of the day the disciples aren't bummed because "So-and-So" didn't get his fair share or that Mrs. Farmer ate more than her fair share and pocketed some rolls. Their job was to distribute the goods. There was no "comment form" to register anonymous complaints. As far as we know, there were none because everyone ate until they were satisfied.

I am sheepish to offer/distribute what I've been given - to open myself up for critique, to be vulnerable, asking questions that I think I "should" know the answers to by now - especially as a career "religious" person. Or to ask questions that will likely make too many waves and/or draw too much attention to me or to those questions that we just don't ask in church. I prefer to wrestle in obscurity. Yet I feel invited, and compelled, to offer the doubt-riddled, inadequate loaves and fishes reflections (actually mostly questions)...about ministry, loneliness, spiritual union with God, women in ministry, spiritual direction, shame, inner healing - all without concern of who eats, how much they eat, if they criticize me for not offering steak and lobster instead and for not cooking their fish to perfection (ha - I don't even like seafood, raw or cooked!). How God multiplies, satisfies and/or unnerves people ... well, that is Her job. (I know - I offered that pesky gender pronoun on purpose...)

Join me on this pilgrimage if you'd like ...please. I am running across too many people who feel alone in the struggle. So, ask your questions with me... offer your loaves and fishes with me...and we'll see how God might just feed us and lead us to discover who we are and what is alive in us, and who we are being invited to become. May we come to discover and live more in touch with the lavish, fully satisfying riches and resources of God in the ordinariness of our daily questions.

 

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Easter Wednesday - April 27, 2011 

A Meditation from Henri Nouwen

Two of the disciples of Jesus were on their way to a village called Emmaus... Jesus himself came up and walked by their side; but something prevented them from recognizing him... But while he was with them at table he took bread and said the blessing; ...and their eyes were opened and the recognized him. ...They said to each other 'did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us...?'. (Luke 24)  

The resurrection stories reveal the always-present tension between coming and leaving, intimacy and distance, holding and letting go, at-homeness and mission, presence and absence. We face that tension every day. It puts us on the journey to the full realization of the promise given to us.

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Jesus can find us in our dead ends...

Just as Jesus found the disciples fishing after his resurrection, 

Jesus comes to us in our dead ends. Jesus can find us, 

even when we’ve tucked ourselves away, in a secluded spot — 

feeling ordinary and empty.  

~Bonnie Gray 

Read John 21 then Selah: Pause and consider this:

• What are your seeming "dead ends"?

• In what ways are you tucking yourself away - secluding yourself for protection?

• In what ways are you feeling ordinary and empty?

Take 3-5 minutes to ask God, "Lord, will you give me your perspective on these places of "stuckness" and "emptiness" in me. How do you feel now, as you emerge from opening your heart to God in this space?

 www.mysoulrefresh.com

Befriending our inner enemies...Henri Nouwen

Befriending Our Inner Enemies

"How do we befriend our inner enemies lust and anger? By listening to what they are saying. They say, "I have some unfulfilled needs" and "Who really loves me?" Instead of pushing our lust and anger away as unwelcome guests, we can recognize that our anxious, driven hearts need some healing. Our restlessness calls us to look for the true inner rest where lust and anger can be converted into a deeper way of loving.

There is a lot of unruly energy in lust and anger! When that energy can be directed toward loving well, [and letting ourselves be loved] we can transform not only ourselves but even those who might otherwise become the victims of our anger and lust. This takes patience, but it is possible." ~ Henri Nouwen

• Take five minutes today to"listen" to your lusts (not just sexual, but strivings for power, attention, pity, material security, time to yourself...etc) and your anger (toward self, God, others...toward your inability to do more, or do better...)
• What unfulfilled needs to these reveal?
• In what ways do these make you feel unlovable or unloved?
• Acknowledge honestly your restlessness and imperfection in the presence of the One who delights in you. Can you let yourself be loved by God in the midst of your restlessness? Why or why not?
• Take a few deep breaths and speak honestly to God whatever is welling in your heart.

 
www.mysoulrefresh.com

Maybe then I will believe in your God...

The site was an encamped caravan. The desert wanderer and a much beleaguered rabbi who had made the mistake of engaging this bedouin tramp in a religious discussion.

"How can you not believe in God?" exclaimed the Rabbi. "Look at all there is around you."

"I did not say I do not believe in God, but only that there is no evidence of him. I say to you, if he does exist, he does not work hard at letting us know it. There is even less evidence that he cares for us."

"But the Scripture says...," sputtered the rabbi.

"The Scripture! Forget what is written. If there is a God, then let him come down here where we are. Let him live in this filthy place where we live. Let him smell the stink, let him feel the poverty, let him know pain, let him see the hunger...let him feel the hunger. Let him know what it is to eke out an existence in the wretched poverty. Let him see a friend die, feel the agony of loss, the unfairness of death. Let him know what it is to watch a little child die and see him taken from his mother's arms for burial. Let him see our diseases, the twisted feet, the sockets of blind eyes. Let this God of yours be hated, jeered, cheated, robbed! Let him lose everything he owns at the hands of the wicked. Let him be dragged before a court of law, as was I. Let him discover firsthand how unjust justice really is!"

The bedouin's vehemence grew as he continued. "And sin! He is so interested in whether or not I sin - let him feel my temptation. Let him experience my weaknesses. Then let us see how he feels about all the rules and commands he has put on me - rules I cannot live up to, yet if I do not live up to them," the bedouin snarled, "he will not like me anymore!"

"Let him feel what I feel, here in this miserable aching, decaying body of mine! And then, let him die! Yes, let him die the way I will probably die, like most wanderers die, out here alone. Homeless, uncared for, forsaken, forgotten! If he wants to impress me, let him become like me. Then maybe I will believe in your God...but not until then!"
~Gene Edwards in The Birth (An awesome view of Christ's birth from the perspective of angels looking down upon and participating in the scenes)

May you believe more deeply in the One who felt our temptations...  experienced our weaknesses...Who smells the stink, poverty, and pains of this world.

To Him be all glory! And may peace reign in your heart...because you know a God who knows...

Merry Christmas!

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Labor pains

 Christmas Eve...within 24 hours, Mary, you will give birth to the Most High. What was said of your life has and will come to pass...the Promise (not just to you, but from the beginning of time) was true and is now being fulfilled.


Amazing...

But perhaps that doesn't alleviate your discomfort in these moments...

• The discomfort of riding a donkey while 9 months pregnant...
• The discomfort of being away from family and familiar, "homey" environments...
• The discomfort of your water breaking, contractions starting, and watching your betrothed run frantically from door to door trying to find a place for you to have this baby...
• The discomfort of laying on prickly straw...
• Painful contractions coming ever closer together...
• The discomfort of looking at Joseph's helpless face...and the stench of the stable making your already nauseous stomach intolerable...
• The discomfort of delivery without drugs, or doctors, or sterile environments...
• The oddity of holding a seemingly helpless and vulnerable God, made flesh as a newborn, in your arms...

 My discomforts seem hardly to compare.

Did you scream in pain? Were you cognizant that God was being born into the world? In the midst of the excruciating discomforts of your current reality, did you have second guesses about saying "Yes" to this audacious request to bear the Son of God? Did you look at the vulnerable little baby and ponder, "How is this the Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?" To what degree were you aware of the immensity of this moment?

Thank you Mary.

Thank you for saying yes. Thank you for consenting to Loving God's request. Thank you for being obedient despite the discomforts of all you endured - not just physically in delivering a child, but in all the scandals, naysayers and pointing "shame on you" fingers you endured.

Two millenia later, I feel loved by you, strengthened by your example, encouraged to hold fast in my own reality of discomforts - real or perceived. What is the "more" that is transpiring in the midst of what feels painful? Lord, what are you birthing in and through me and my life? Will I say yes? I want to say "yes!"

"All we could ever imagine, could ever hope for He is. He is the wise royal Counselor who fills us with wonder, who holds the tangled storylines of history and will one day bring true understanding between all individuals and nations. He is the God of Might, whose power can accomplish any and every task His holiness demands. His power we need not fear for He is also the Father Eternal who is tenderness itself and who is ever motivated by His everlasting love for His children. Finally, He is Prince of Peace whose first coming has already transformed society but whose second coming will forever establish justice and righteousness. Al this and infinitely more, alive in an impoverished baby in a barn.

"That is what Christmas means - to find in a place where you would least expect to find anything you want, everything you could ever want."
~Michael Card, in The Promise: A Celebration of Christ's Birth

 For reFlection:

• In the midst of your Christmas preparations and celebrations, are you encountering discomforts?
• What are you "wishing for" as you celebrate Christmas tonight and tomorrow? I.e. What is the "Everything you could ever want?" 
• How might you find the "more" God might be birthing in and through you even in the midst of your discomforts?

 www.mysoulrefresh.com

We have so little to do with Christmas...

"Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace."

~John Wesley

"Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we - with our power, generosity, competence and capabilities - had little to do with God's work in Jesus. God wanted to do something for us so strange, so utterly beyond the bounds of human imagination, so foreign to human projection, that God had to resort to angels, pregnant virgins and stars in the sky to get it done. We didn't think of it, understand it, or approve it. All we could do in Bethlehem was receive it. A gift from God we hardly even knew.

"It's tough to be on the receiving end of love, God's or anybody else's. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts... This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn't need, which transform us into people we don't necessarily want to be. With our advanced degrees, armies, government programs, material comforts and self-fulfillment techniques, we assume that religion is about giving a little of our power in order to confirm to ourselves that we are indeed as self-sufficient as we claim.

"Then this stranger comes to us, blesses us with a gift, and calls us to see ourselves as we are - empty-handed recipients of a gracious God who, rather than leave us to our own devices, gave us a baby."
~William Willimon in Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

 For reFlection:

• Do you see your life as a gift or a possession? What might the differences be lived out?
• In what ways do you find it easier to give than receive?
• Our inability to receive can often be a symptom of our need to protect or defend ourselves in order to remain in control vs. be vulnerable. Protected people cannot be transformed. Vulnerable people can. The gist of Christianity IS transformation...in what ways do you wish to be transformed?
• How might you let yourself be loved by receiving over these next few days?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

When Christmas becomes a burden...

Beautiful words from Ann Voskamp...

"Christ the Babe comes in Christmas as Christ the Savior comes on the Cross — seeking only our embrace.
What if I laid down efforts and expectations, perfectionism and performance, and simply waited with arms and heart and eyes wide open?"

Christmas cannot be bought. Christmas cannot be created. Christmas cannot be made by hand. Christmas can only be found.

Enjoy the full reflection here, linger with her words, her photos, her invitations...


For reFlection:

• How are you "finding" Christmas vs. making it happen? 
• What difference might discovery make in your celebrations?
• How might you seek to embrace (or be embraced) by the gift of God this week?
• What do you need to lay down to open your eyes and arms to God's gifts?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

What we choose changes us

"Mary was not the only one who chose to leave the life she had thought would be hers. In choosing Mary and her child, in welcoming the Word into his life, Joseph had his own threshold to cross, his own radical yes to say to God. Perhaps on the night of Jesus’ birth, Joseph lifted up a father’s Magnificat in syllables lost to us; perhaps, in a shelter far from home, he wove them into a lullaby for his chosen child.
What are you choosing this day? In your waking, in your dreaming, how are you listening for and attending to the messages and the invitations that are waiting for you?"

A Prayer for Choosing

What we choose
changes us.

Who we love
transforms us.

How we create
remakes us.

Where we live
reshapes us.

So in all our choosing,
O God, make us wise;

in all our loving,
O Christ, make us bold;

in all our creating,
O Spirit, give us courage;

in all our living
may we become whole.

Jan L. Richardson - original post here.

What places in your life need a radical yes? Transformation? Greater intimacy and courage?

Pray this prayer between now and Christmas morning...and pay attention to what might be reshaped, emboldened, given courage, wholeness, fresh wisdom...

Peace...shalom...wholeness...wellness...courageous settledness to you and yours!

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Another outlandish request...

Joseph, I know that you are an upright man, a good guy. As good as they come. And you have every right to stone Mary, your intended bride, because of her seemed infidelity.

How did that feel? What dreams were shattered? What issues of your manhood were devastated? What hopes were dashed? I wonder if your stomach felt nauseous or if your fists were perpetually tensed or if you caught yourself exhaling deep sighs of stress?

What advice were you getting from others? Did their words help you or hinder you?

Rather than retaliate, you decided to kindly divorce her quietly...without making a scene, without you coming out as the hero, the "good guy" the one who would deserve the town's pity in every little gossipy conversation. You were far from a narcissist - no manipulation, no grandiose gestures, no passive aggressive self-promotion. How much did you just want this to go away...and maybe, maybe one day you could move on. Maybe.

And then came angel in the dream. "Don't be afraid to marry Mary...this is not what it looks like. This is outside the box. Yes, it's outlandish. But so is my love for humanity. Joseph, son of David, in the lineage of the intended Messiah...I am choosing you..."

To say this is outlandish is equivalent to asking a Jewish holocaust survivor to forgive Hitler. It is an impossible task. One that is not required...unless the Outlandish One, who so loved the world He sent His one and only Son to be born of a virgin, in utter poverty, to live and be crucified for the sins of the world, unless that One steps in and extends an invitation to mimic such outlandish behavior...

"Joseph woke up and did exactly as the angel commanded..."

He didn't say, "Was that just a dream? Maybe I ate too much lamb last night and..." He didn't second guess. He woke up and did exactly as the angel commanded: Married Mary, did not have sex with Mary (now there's a miracle!) until after the birth of Jesus -  and named his son Jesus. Just as he was commanded.

Where was the "peace" in this already humiliating scene made more scandalous?

Imagine if Joseph would have made a pro/con chart to make his decision....if left to his own, would he have made his decision on what felt "peaceful"?

For reflection:

• What are some outlandish requests that you've received from God? How did that feel?
• What feels "outlandish" to you currently...is there a situation you are trying to "figure out." How might you invite God into that decision?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Fourth Sunday in Advent...Peace

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. 

I do not give to you as the world gives. 

Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."

~Jesus (John 14.27)

 Jesus speaks parting words to his beloved disciples. Similar to the words throughout the Christmas story...Jesus invites them toward trust, which always the gateway to peace. Essentially Jesus is saying, "Regardless of what this all looks and feels like (i.e. it really doesn't make any logical sense and seems messy),  you do not need to be afraid."

Oh, into how many of my messy, seemingly unpeaceful life situations do I need to receive these words?

Jesus does not give like the world gives...

His giving isn't commercialized nor advertised (except often so poorly by our own lives or tacky church signage) and especially not discounted. There are no coupons - except maybe the one that says, "Free." (There is no fine print on that coupon either.)

His giving is neither manipulative nor monopolizing - there are not strings attached. No hidden fees, no obligations.

His giving costs nothing but our opening our hearts to receive.

He gives what we all long for:

Peace: wholeness/wellness/settledness.

I love how Eugene Peterson translates this in The Message:

I'm leaving you well and whole. 

That's my parting gift to you. 

Peace. 

I don't leave you the way you're used to being left—

feeling abandoned, bereft. 

So don't be upset. Don't be distraught. 

For reflection:

• In what areas of your life do you need wellness or wholeness?
• Are there any places where you feel abandoned or bereft?
• What would it look like to invite Jesus into that space?
• He gives not as the world gives...so we are to receive not as the world receives...what might that receiving look like in your current reality?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

 

The long slow journey...

If
as Herod
we fill our lives with things
and again with things,
if we consider ourselves so important
that we must fill every moment of our lives
with action,
when will we have time
to make the long, slow journey
across the desert
as did the Magi?
Or sit and watch the stars
as did the shepherds?
Or brood over the coming of a child
as did Mary?
For each one of us
there is a desert to travel.
A star to discover.
And a being within ourselves to bring to life.

~Unknown - poem shared in class by my teacher.

For reflection:

• Have you ever taken a long, slow journey? What was that like?
• When you reached the end, was it worth it?
• Which word or phrase caught your attention?
• Ask the Lord, "How does this connect to my life/circumstances?"
• What might you be longing to discover, watch, enjoy in life? How do "things" and "filling every moment of our lives with action" interfere with your longing?
• Ask the Lord, "Lord, what are you inviting me toward?" Listen in and pay attention to how you feel about God's invitation.

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Try to not cry...

Releasing a deep, deep joy...

 

In the midst of all the "preparations" for Christmas, the ones besides preparing room in my heart for Him, I am far too easily overwhelmed, sidetracked and find myself slipping down into a subtle malaise.While busily preparing for Christmas, I am missing the whole point of it...and certainly the joy of it. If I unjoyfully decorate, wrap gifts and am frustrated with the joyful and attentive, but dreadfully slow, checkout clerk then something's not quite right.

I'm saddened by how easily this happens - how much more I long to be meaningfully and joyfully present to each moment of my day. To treasure the moments...to practice what I preach.

So yesterday, I caught myself spinning down, down, downward ... and this was especially so after coming home from a multi-day media free retreat and being slammed by emails, unpaid bills, and Christmas planning.

I started sinking...until...

I put on some music and just started dancing!

That's right - not even Christmas music! There was a little Chris Tomlin, Bruce Hornsby and Gungor. And guess what...joy returned.
Joy spilled over!
Joy in my soul seemed to be released as I moved my body!

So today, take five minutes. Put on your favorite "feel good" music and move! Invite the whole family to frolic together...to let loose...and see if just maybe moving your body will release a deep joy in your soul.

Maybe intend to start each day between now and Christmas with a little dance...see if that makes any difference in your day. Let me know what happens!

Joy to the world...and heaven and nature sing...and dance...and frolic...


www.mysoulrefresh.com

Outbursts...

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

What has been your most recent "outburst"? I think mine was on the freeway...some idiot...well, you know...


But seriously -

What is so deeply embedded in you that it bursts out in joyful celebration?

When was the last time you burst out in anything - was it joy, or rage, or excitement of a touchdown at a football game? The things that burst out of us expose what is in our hearts. The things that irrepressibly come forth from us divulge, whether we like it or not, what we love.

As you enter this day - pay attention to your desire to have joy in your life. How might you cultivate this life of bursting with joy?

Isaac Watts, the author of the famed Christmas carol, Joy to the World, gives us a clue:

Let every heart prepare Him room.
Let every heart prepare Him
Let every heart prepare
Let every heart
Let every
Let

Which means you have a choice to open your heart...to prepare your heart...to receive His coming...and to burst out with a joyful song, dance or "oh yeah!" when He comes to make His blessings known.


During Advent God does the coming...everyday...our job is to do the "letting" the "receiving" the "preparing." What is one small way the Lord might be inviting you to do that today?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Joy in preparing

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

In the past few days have you found unhurried space to prepare room in your heart for Him?

Or has it seemed that you've had to send God off to the stable because of busyness, distractions, and being overwhelmed with all the Christmas preparations?

Is there a connection between preparing room and bearing joy? If so, could we conversely posit that lack of joy is directly related to lack of preparing room in your heart for the One who is the Source, Means and End of Joy?

I'm just wondering...


What things in the past have helped you prepare room in your heart for God? Take a moment of silence now and ask God, "Lord, in what ways might I prepare room for you today?"


Joy.
JoY.
JOY

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Joy in receiving....

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

Do you find it easy or difficult to receive? We often quote that it is more blessed (and so we think spiritual) to give than to receive, but I think it's easier to give than to receive. I like being generous. I love to see others blessed. But when I am on the receiving end I feel humbled...and sometimes guilty, and sometimes obligated. Many times I squirm...because either I feel undeserving or feign underserving. There have been times when I had no intention to give a gift to someone, but after they gave something to me, I ran out to pick something out for them.

Why can't I just receive - fully - with gratitude and without obligation to return the favor?
I do this poorly on a human level so when the God of the universe comes in to lavish His love and delight and care on me...oh my...I stand in the way of what I most want - to let myself be loved utterly.

Leonard Sweet says, "My inability to receive is the greatest disability I have."

How are you as a receiver (and might also say as a lover, for a lover must learn to gracefully dance in the giving and receiving of love)?

And how might joy - true and lasting joy - be connected to learning how to be a good receiver? In other words, how might joy be the natural, irrepressibley by-product of our simply stopping in the midst of the ordinary to "receive" all that a moment has to offer us?

The bottom line gist of Christianity is receiving: "For it is by grace (unearned, unmerited pardon) that you are saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one can boast." Eph 3. 8-9

unearned...not of yourselves...a gift...not a result of works...no one can boast...

How might you become a better "receiver" this Christmas? Will you let others step in to help serve your needs - even if they do it imperfectly? Will you be more present to the moments and linger in the beauty of even the simplest tastes, sights, sounds and smells of Christmas?

www.mysoulrefresh.com

Third Sunday in Advent...Joy

Joy to the world, the Lord is come...

let earth receive her King
Let every heart, prepare Him room...

Joy because God has come.

Not just in a past event...He is ever coming...intimately acquainted with our everyday lives (Psalm 139). David pens, "Surely goodness and mercy will follow me (pursue me) all the days of my life." (Ps. 23:6) and Solomon declares that God's mercies are new EVERY morning. (Lamentations 3: 22-23).

Do you sense that God is aware of the joys and concerns of your life? Are you aware that He comes every morning with new mercies? Do you believe He is pursuing you? Do you want to be caught by His loving pursuit? (And what is your immediate response to that question...pay attention to your body, your breathing, your desires...what is happening?)
Or perhaps you have experienced a time when you were "caught" by God's love and mercy: What was that like? What did you discover about yourself and God?

This consider prayerfully starting each morning,

"Lord, I want to be caught by your love. 

Will you unexpectedly delight me

and make me aware of Your intimate pursuit of me."

And keep your eyes pealed...He likes to show up in unexpected places...sorta like a baby in a feeding trough.


www.mysoulrefresh.com

Stop to worship amid the "ordinary" of your day...

What I love about this video is the unexpectancy...amid the flurry of a fastfood court at a noisy mall in breaks joy and truth and power!

Look for how God might "come" to you in unexpected ways today!

www.mysoulrefresh.com
sister blog: www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com

Celebrate Small at Advent...

Acorns turn into oak trees. Embryos become President. Love starts with hello. Life starts with a breath. All small, like Bethlehem.
Small things don’t always turn into big things, but big things always start out small. Lean into small, celebrate small. And in the words of a wise friend and counselor, don’t despise the days of small beginnings. ~ Emily Freeman

Hundreds of years before the census of Caesar Augustus and the birth of Christ...the prophet Micah wrote this:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, 

out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, 

whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

–Micah 5:2

A small edict - a census form - required Mary and Joseph to travel to Bethlehem. Bethlehem...the least and easily overlooked of all the clans of Judah, the humble birthplace for Messiah. A feeding trough in a stable - an uncomely home for a newborn King. A poor carpenter from Nazareth, an unlikely daddy to raise the Son of God. An unwed mother - a scandalous choice to bear the Savior of the world. Disreputable Shepherds - unlikely first witnesses to God incarnating into the world.


For reflection:

• Sit with the Lord today and ask Him, "What are the small things - the overlooked things - that you'd like me to pay attention to?"
• Reflect on someone you love and how that love story began (sort of that "You had me at hello moment...). How might you create a small, loving gesture to someone today - a smile to a storeclerk, holding the door for the elderly, calling someone who God has brought to your heart?)
• How might you celebrate the "small" things of your day today - (saying "no" to that 2nd helping, saying "yes" to extended time with your child even when the laundry didn't get finished, taking 10 minutes at lunch to walk around the block and breathe in fresh air)?

UnhurryUp™ and celebrate the small things of Advent

www.mysoulrefresh.com
and the new sisterblog to mysoulrefresh = www.mybodyrefresh.blogspot.com