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Litany on the Perfect Timing of God

Steve · May 8, 2024 · 1 Comment

I was talking on the phone last week to my friend Dave in Texas, a retired hospital chaplain and now deacon and pastor of visitation at a Methodist Church. As “men of a certain age,” we have lots in common and were reflecting on those times in our lives when, despite all odds and seeming reason, God just seemed to show up when we needed Him most.

We both thought and said that same phrase at almost the same time: “And then God showed up.” And I thought to myself, there have certainly been a long list of those divine occurrences in my life and in the lives of those around me; I could make a list, maybe even a litany of sorts. And here you go:

I was feeling powerless and small…and then God showed up.
I was on the edge looking into the abyss…and then God showed up.
I had no idea which way to turn…and then God showed up.
I didn’t believe my life had purpose or meaning…and then God showed up.
I was alone and on my own…and then God showed up.
I ached all over and saw no end in sight…and then God showed up.
I was up against a wall…and then God showed up.
I couldn’t find true love anywhere…and then God showed up.
I had been abused and unloved…and then God showed up.
I was confused and unsure of myself…and then God showed up.
I didn’t have the right words…and then God showed up.
I didn’t have the courage…and then God showed up.
I thought life would never get any better…and then God showed up.
I had no hope…and then God showed up.
I was uncertain if God was even real…and then God showed up.
I was sure that God wasn’t real…and then God showed up.
I was in so much pain…and then God showed up.
I was in so much trouble…and then God showed up.
I needed peace of mind and heart and soul…and then God showed up.
I needed a friend…and then God showed up.
I needed a savior…and then God showed up.
I needed you…and you showed up.
Amen and amen.

What could you add to this list?

A Post-Thanksgiving Call to Awareness and Gratitude

Steve · November 26, 2022 · 2 Comments

Dear friends,

On this ordinary day just a few days past the American holiday of Thanksgiving, I write to share a reminder (in words and in the video below) that faith requires an ongoing commitment to this idea of Thanksgiving — to awareness and living with our eyes wide open to our blessings. Above all, to gratitude.

We are called to recognize the holy when God puts it right before our eyes. It should be our life’s work to pay attention. I’m reminded of the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning:

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

God says to us: “Listen carefully. Become more aware of the world around you, of the people and circumstances and challenges that I place in your lives. I will meet you there in these ordinary things and then I will make the ordinary extraordinary for you. I will change you.”

Below is new video (created yesterday) of an older song by me and my colleague Phil Cooper. Enjoy.

A Week of Reverence

Steve · November 5, 2022 · 3 Comments

I am slowly making my way through Larry Warner’s book, “Journey with Jesus,” yet another modern (and insightful) take on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. This past week, the theme was “reverence,” and over and over I was praying for the grace to be in awe of God. Here are a few thoughts from my journal…

— Yesterday I walked the wooded path that loops around Mallard Lake near my home. I was still contemplating the theme from the previous week in the book, which was “praise.” Surrounded by the wonder of creation, sometimes there are just no words to express even that praise to the Creator. I guess that’s the purpose of awe. Sometimes we just need to stand in awe and allow the silence of our thoughts to do the work of praise.

The changing and falling leaves. The turtle sunning itself midstream on a log. A big re-headed pileated woodpecker constantly on the move, flitting tree to tree as if just trying to stay ahead of me. Is that you, God? Slow down. My response is to stop and take it all in. What I felt was God’s extravagance. I know these are all just natural, biological things with lives and rhythms of their own. They are common and ordinary. And yet if we stop and pay attention, they hold a glimpse of the Creator and the divine ongoing work of creation — all seemingly for my enjoyment in that moment.

— Inspired by 1 Chronicles 16: 23-25

The Earth, and everything in it, sings to God.
Intones God’s glory and action.
Fills us with awe.
The splendor of the Earth announces and presents God to us.
Nature sings in harmony:
“You think this is so great? You should see who made us!”
We are called to shift our gaze from the created to the Creator.
When we do, a whole new world opens up.
We enter in as if entering a temple, for surely we are.
So bring yourself as a gift before the altar of fallen tree and exposed rock
Stand still in your awe and feel yourself tremble.
Listen to the Earth and take up the song:
Water rippling over rocks.
The whisper of grass and grain.
Trees reaching high in near-silent psalms of praise.
My own mouth breathing out.
My small voice sings.

— I have an overwhelming sense of awe of the presence of God in my life, this God who just keeps showing up in the simple and ordinary, in my work, in those who surround me, in the everyday miracles of nature.

— Inspired by From Revelation 4:6-11

In unimaginable beauty, I find myself before the throne,
Radiant, as if all light comes from that one place.
As if.
Speechless, unsure of myself,
And yet words tumble out of mystery and doubt:
Holy.
You are holy.
You have always been, and are, and will be.
Worthy.
You are worthy
To receive my little psalms of praise
My nods of reverence.

What is your song of reverence today?

Advent Retreat 2022: Cultivating a Listening Heart

Steve · November 1, 2022 · 1 Comment

For my friends in the Greater St. Louis area,

I wanted to let you know about an advent retreat coming up soon, December 9-11, in case you’re interested in a quiet weekend away on the banks of the beautiful and meandering Meramec River in the northern reaches of the Ozarks — one of my favorite places on Earth.

Except for the COVID year in 2020, I’ve been presenting this annual advent retreat with my friends Fr. Tom Santen and Lucia Signorelli every year since 2015. Join us this year for “Cultivating a Listening Heart” at the Marianist Retreat Center in Eureka, just outside St. Louis.

You deserve a weekend away. More information and registration at the link below.

https://marianistretreat.com/events/advent-retreat-2022/?fbclid=IwAR2viM0mMtHp4Y1bGM_dbXOnWfgeqWuPYHXK2e-W1mD0yuTdYWg3sclcBPE

Resting in Creation and in Love

Steve · July 20, 2022 · 3 Comments

A few weeks ago, Sue and I drove up the California coast from San Jose all the way up into Oregon. Along the way, we stood and walked and rested in the glory of God’s creation. The first half day of driving, north of San Francisco, it seemed like we were pulling into every single scenic view parking lot we encountered on the Pacific Coast Highway. We were so struck with the beauty of waves crashing into rock, so reminded of the power and dominion of the Creator.

Further north, we stopped the car on the side of a road that cut through Redwood National and State Parks. We got out, stretched our legs and looked up (and up and up) staring in utter amazement at the height and breadth and glory of these organisms that have stood witness to more than a thousand years of history and growth. We walked a hiking trail among them for several hours, slowly and resolutely and gratefully treading ground that felt ancient and holy, as is every acre of this planet.

After crossing into Oregon and hugging the coast for a few days, we headed east to visit the natural and incredible beauty of Crater Lake, which I had only seen in books and magazines. Nothing prepared us for our first glimpse, walking up a small incline from a parking lot, for the perfectly pristine and almost unreal blue of the lake, formed by a collapsed volcano 7,700 years ago. Later, we sat above another rise by the lake, resting in creation and amazed by the silence, the color, the grandeur of it all.

Over and over, we couldn’t help but sense the divine presence of our still-creating Creator. To those who do not believe in the role of a Creator, all I can say is that I see no other way, no reason or purpose for the beauty of it all without the moving and loving hand of “something else” bringing light, life and order. In the beginning (and in the end), everything in me screams, “there must be something else.” And I will rest in that.

In the beginning, God. That’s all.
Then standing, his smile wide with promise
the Creator begins the ritual building
the story we now repeat around the fire
not a wild and violent tale
but a gentle voice and hand
urging and molding all into life and light.

The ritual revealed form and purpose:
no mere architect
but artist and lover
a child playing in the dirt
creating love in his mind and finding it good
breathing his own breath into it
walking with this new life
in the cool and breezy part of the day
when the great light lowers itself into dry land.

Not content with just creating
the Creator decides to love those to whom he gave dominion
searches us out when we hide
sews garments to cover our shame.
And we live in this abundance of love still.
Today, whether restless or satisfied,
we rest in it, still.