Today's Word

Today’s Word: Lunacy

Steve · August 1, 2019 · Leave a Comment

_MG_9631 — Detail from Stations of the Cross, White House Retreat, St. Louis, Missouri. SJG photo.

In his book “Peculiar Treasures,” Frederick Buechner calls the story of Jesus and Zaccheus in Luke’s gospel, “the best and oldest joke in the world,” and it’s always been one of my favorites.

Chief among those reasons is a short little ditty of a song that I (and so many others who grew up in Protestant traditions) learned as children:

Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the savior passed that way he looked up in the tree,
AND HE SAID: “Zaccheus, you come down!” (at this we shook our little pointer fingers)
“For I’m going to your house today. For I’m going to your house today.”

I loved the song for its simple melody (If you know it, it’s now stuck in your head for the rest of the day. You’re welcome.) and for its simple hand motions that helped us learn it and bring the story alive in our young hearts. At the time, I think it resonated because I was always short for my age and always quick to climb the plum tree in my backyard in North St. Louis to get a better view of my surroundings. I could relate.

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Today’s Word: Acceptance

Steve · July 30, 2019 · 6 Comments

Free Hugs. Ferguson Farmers Market, Ferguson, Mo. SJG photo.

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is to let it rain.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I awoke the other morning with every intention of getting an early walk in around a local lake before the heat of St. Louis summer kicked into high gear. Alas, as I came into consciousness, I heard the pounding of rain on the roof and deck outside my window, the steady drum of thunder somewhere off in the distance. Dang. The best laid plans of mice and men and all that…

There are two ways to respond when life gives us rain when all we want to do is get out in the world and walk. We can pound our pillows in exasperation, pull the covers over our heads and go back to sleep. Or we can get out of bed, thank God for gift of his gentle and good rain, and see what else he has for us to do.

Today’s Word: Dazzled

Steve · July 18, 2019 · 2 Comments

Dazzled 2 — "Dazzled," calligraphy by Jenny Givens Deffenbaugh

“In my deepest wound I found you, Lord, and it dazzled me.” St. Augustine

I write a lot, I realize, about this idea of “finding God.” A good deal of the time, this discovery comes down to seeing the divine in the beauty of the world around us, in the kindnesses of strangers and friends, in the sacred burning bush moments of everyday life. And, to be honest, that’s all pretty easy stuff, as long as we’re willing to sit still, be quiet for a while, and recall these moments of God that happen every day, like clockwork, whether or not we deign to pay attention. But good for us for paying attention. Keep at it, for it’s the beginning of all prayer.

But then along comes St. Augustine, reminding us that he found God not in some eye-widening sunset, not in some breathtaking act of charity, not in some simple moment of prayer, kneeling in his cell or chapel, although certainly he must have found God in those places and moments, just like the rest of us. He found God — and was “dazzled” by God — in his deepest wound.

Today’s Word: Wonder

Steve · October 30, 2017 · 18 Comments

saguaro — Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, Arizona. SJG photo.

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” – Socrates

When the heroine of E.B. White’s classic children’s novel “Charlotte’s Web” first writes “SOME PIG” in her web in an attempt to save her friend Wilbur’s life, she was creating more than a PR campaign. She was creating wonder. She was making everyone who saw her web stop in their tracks, stand back, scratch their heads, and try to contemplate something they couldn’t fathom. That seems like a pretty good way to go through life.

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Today’s Word: Gasp

Steve · July 23, 2017 · 8 Comments

Springfield (Mo) Botanical Garden. SJG photo.

“You were within, but I was without. You were with me, but I was not with you. So you called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness, you flared, blazed, and banished my blindness, you lavished your fragrance, and I gasped.” – St. Augustine, Confessions

I am up early this morning sitting on the back porch because, well, I can. Yesterday the St. Louis area was hit with a record 108 degrees, and the ever-present St. Louis humidity made it feel somewhere up around 113. Not fit for man or beast. It was hard to catch my breath and find good oxygen. Perhaps I need to evolve some gills to better snatch the oxygen out of the air. Yet I know this will pass, as this morning it already has…for a while at least.

Heatwaves, snowstorms and other extremes of nature have a way of getting our attention. They smack us across the face and remind us of the power, majesty and unpredictability of the earth. They recall for us of the continuing cycles of nature, of the gentle spinning and revolving of the earth around its axis and around the sun, taking us into and out of our days, nights, seasons and years. If we think we’re in control, we need to stop and think again. We’re along for the ride.

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