Steve

Treasure in Jars of Clay: New Family Lenten Devotional

Steve · January 21, 2020 · 1 Comment

My wife, Sue, and I are pleased to announce the “birth” of a new co-creation. ‘Treasure in Jars of Clay’ is an ecumenical, 40-day family walk with Jesus through the holy season of Lent. At the center of this journey is a large jar (or maybe a bowl) around which your family can gather each day over the six weeks of lent for prayerful reflection and the chance to share with each other. Included in each time of prayer is one or two minutes of silence guided by this question: What is Jesus saying to you today?

The jar is a container into which you will place visible signs of your prayers, concerns, requests, and offerings. Anything relatively small can go into the jar, including written prayers to God, requests for forgiveness, coins (as an offering to be given away at the end of Lent), even a leaf or a small rock you might find while on a walk.

At the end of Lent, the jar can be placed somewhere in your home as a permanent reminder of your family’s commitment to a life of prayer and faith. Or, as another option, the contents of the jar can be burned as a ritual sign of your prayers rising like incense to God. Exactly what you do with your jar and its contents is up to you!

A Shadow of My Present Self

Steve · January 13, 2020 · 3 Comments

Steve Shadow 2 — Shadow of My Present Self, January 2020. SJG photo.

An image and memory from a recent walk, a poem of reflection and shadow for a mid-winter day…

A Shadow of My Present Self

Walking through the woods near the lake
at the end of a warm winter’s day
the sun so near the horizon
that it sends its golden carpet unfurling
recklessly across the earth,
I catch myself walking beside me.

A shadow thrown
in black-on-orange-on-oak-brown,
A temporary photograph
reminding me who I am at that moment.

Wandering, quiet, willing to be surprised.
Trying hard to see and be aware.
A child, after all these 60 years,
of the source of light
shining in and through and around me.

The Real Journey is Interior

Steve · January 5, 2020 · 12 Comments

In September 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War and following the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the Trappist monk and author Thomas Merton wrote in a circular letter to a group of friends these thoughts on life’s journey:

“Our real journey in life is interior; it is a matter of growth, deepening, and of an even greater surrender to the creative action of love and grace in our hearts. Never was it more necessary for us to respond to that action.”

I was eight in 1968, barely aware of all that was going on in the world beyond the St. Louis Cardinals’ run for a repeat World Series championship. This week I turn 60. It’s one of those “big birthdays” that causes you to slow down, reflect on the past and consider what’s left of life.

My wife, Sue, threw a heck of a party for me on Friday night with some family and friends. She filled nine poster boards with photos from various periods of my life and set out copies of some of my books and music projects. Friends and colleagues from these different stages of my life got to see (and no doubt laugh) at the old pictures of me — the runt-sized boy in North St. Louis, the skinny high school basketball player, the heavily bearded young adult with a new bride, the new parent trying to figure it all out without an instruction manual, the expat in England with permed hair, the university magazine editor and administrator, the guy with the chemo-induced thinning hair, the traveler, the husband, the father, the grandfather. Me with all my musical friends and bands over the years. Me with friends I rarely, if ever, see anymore, and me with those who have been nearly constant companions for decades.

Waiting for Christmas with Bright Eyes

Steve · December 20, 2019 · 4 Comments

When author Toni Morrison was once asked how she became a great writer, she responded, “I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room where my father was sitting, his eyes would light up. That is why I am a great writer.We become healthy and “great” in our lives because people important to us love us so much that we can see it in their eyes. The sparkle in their eyes and the smile on their lips tell us we are loved, we are accepted, we are valued, no matter what the rest of the world says. That’s a great lesson in parenting and, as we of the Christian faith approach the celebration of Christmas, having “bright eyes” is also a wonderful parable of faith.

This Christmas: Gathering in the Holy Light of One Another

Steve · December 16, 2019 · 2 Comments

When I was a young teenager — maybe 14, 15, 16 years old — I created my own Christmas ritual. In my small upstairs bedroom in our working-class neighborhood of North St. Louis, I created an altar, of sorts. A table by the lone window of my room held a candle, a plastic manger scene, a small Christmas tree and a King James Bible opened to the Nativity story from Luke’s gospel. On Christmas Eve, after everyone else had gone to sleep, I would light my candle, peer into the manger, and read Luke’s account of the coming of Jesus into the world. Something within me wanted to be there.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.