Today's Word

Today’s Word: Story

Steve · August 27, 2013 · 3 Comments

While I hesitate to speak for others and try to never say, “we all” do or say something, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, “I think we all have a story to tell.” We may not all want to share it publicly or write it down for posterity, but nevertheless there’s this story — this ache, perhaps — inside all of us that is just waiting to come out. Last year, I spent a few months as a volunteer for a local hospice organization, where my only job was to ask people to tell me their stories. Some folks told me they had no story to tell and sat silently until I primed the pump by asking a few questions. Then I just had to sit back and listen.

This power of the word within us is a mysterious and sacred thing, for the stories of our lives are the histories of the movement of God in us over the course of time. To tell these stories of “God within us” is akin to proclaiming the word of God. To listen to another is an act of love and a sign of community, a “holy listening” that tells the other that they are a child of God whose life and story are sacred, distinct and worthy of our time and respect. To listen to another is to give purpose and meaning to their life. The power of our story lies in our place in God’s creation — we are creatures of the Creator and thus capable and called to create our own stories.

Ask yourself in silence: Am I willing to try and find God in the people around me by listening to their stories? Do I respect the stories of those around me as I respect the Word of God?

Today’s Word: Stuff

Steve · August 26, 2013 · 2 Comments

square — Times Square Stuff, New York, New York. SJG photo

We all have stuff. And when I say “stuff,” I mean material possessions as well as all the other “stuff” that fills our lives, like work, meetings, kids’ soccer games, family obligations, hobbies, whatever. Stuff. Lots of it. And there’s nothing wrong with most of these things in and of themselves until they start demanding more attention than is physically, mentally and spiritually healthy to give them. It’s all okay until, as songwriter Rich Mullins sang in his song If I Stand, “the stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the giver of all good things.”

And that’s the problem, of course. Stuff just won’t let us be. Stuff asks us to pay attention. And perhaps most dangerously, stuff demands more stuff. So it’s up to us how we view our stuff. We can see it all as our “just rewards,” the stuff we earn through hard work, the stuff that must be protected from others’ greedy hands at all costs. Or we can see our stuff for what it really is – a gift from “the giver of all good things,” objects and opportunities that at their best can enable us to live full, rich lives in response to God’s call and in service to those around us.

Ask yourself in silence: How do I view my stuff and what do I do with it? Does any of my stuff compete with my allegiance to God?

Today’s Word: Journey

Steve · August 25, 2013 · Leave a Comment

For me, the best descriptor of a life of faith has always been “journey.” Like a great road trip along a classic highway like California 1, what happens and what we see along the way of faith is as important as the paradise we discover at the end. So while we’re all shooting for heaven, we have a responsibility (and a privilege) to use the journey to build the kingdom for others and draw ourselves closer to God along the way. Whether we’re cradle Christians or newer to the faith, the journey to and with God is what makes us who we are.

We don’t become Christians in one brief, emotional moment. Neither do we become “complete” in a sacramental instant, however important and meaningful that may be. We are loved by God from our moment of conception, but the journey home to God — our life of faith and family — is the legacy we leave to all those we eventually leave behind. When we arrive home with God at the end of our lives, we will claim our treasure and inheritance as children and heirs of God. But the journey along the way will stand as witness and testimony to the life we have lived and the lives we have touched.

Ask yourself in silence: Where am I in my journey to God? If I died tonight, what would the legacy of my journey be? What do I need to change in my life?

Today’s Word: Vocation

Steve · August 24, 2013 · 4 Comments

Historic schoolhouse, West Branch, Iowa. SJG photo.

“Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the world’s greatest need.”
– Frederick Buechner

The word vocation has, unfortunately, become all too familiar. We use it synonymously to mean, “what we do for a living.” And while that might be true, it only tells part of the story. The word comes from the Latin meaning “call” or “summons.” Thus, our vocations are not just what we do but what we are summoned to do. Summoned by whom? That’s up to the listener.

As people of faith, we hold to the idea that this call comes from God and reflects God’s desire and will for our lives. It is one of our great responsibilities to prayerfully discern our call and then respond. Importantly, it’s good to remember that we are perhaps called to different things at different times over the course of our lives. What we are called to in later life may be quite different from the call we responded to (or didn’t respond to…) when we were much younger.

Like any call, the answer to our vocation question can be found by listening. We need to listen to ourselves and trust our hearts. We need to listen to those who know us best. And we need to listen to that still, small voice that whispers (and hardly ever shouts): “Follow me, I’ve got something for you to do.”

Ask yourself in silence: To what are you sensing a call? Has there been a call you ignored because it seemed inconvenient? Do you have a passion that meets a great need in the world?

Today’s Word: Rise

Steve · August 21, 2013 · 10 Comments

Last weekend while on retreat, I took a walk along the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill near the river. While walking, I noticed dozens of railroad tie spikes just lying loose between the rails, and I wondered why they were there and where they all came from. Then I noticed that some of the spikes that were still “in place” were in varying stages of rising, so to speak, of being loosed, no doubt by years of pressure and vibration from passing trains. In short, they seemed to be freeing themselves. Free at last.

And I wondered: Can we, too, free ourselves from the holes and the tight places into which we have been driven? Can we be liberated from those people and circumstances that have perhaps left deep and painful marks on our lives and on our psyches? Can we repair the damage of past hurt?

We can, but we can’t do it alone. Like a railroad tie spike, we work our way free from our damaged pasts by responding to the vibrations and movements of an outside force. When we open ourselves to the movement of God in our lives and let go of aching parts of our past, we rise above the pressure and the rawness of these wounds and allow ourselves to rise, slowly and surely, to freedom and new life. We rise because God moves us toward freedom. We rise because we allow God to work on us, to inch us ever forward in faith and trust. Free at last.

Ask yourself in silence: From what in my past do I need to be freed? What piece of my history needs healing? What if I were to respond to the movement of God in my life? What would change?