encouragement

Today’s Word: Fog

Steve · October 21, 2013 · 2 Comments

The fog begins to clear on Rice Lake. SJG photo

I woke up yesterday morning on Rice Lake near Whitewater, Wisconsin. Just down the hill from the house I knew there was a beautiful lake with a handful of tiny islands dotting the distant shore. I knew the trees on that far side offered a mosaic of greens, yellows, reds and oranges. I knew fish were jumping and that ducks and geese were still coming and going, slowly making their way south. But I knew all those things from memory and faith in the unseen, for a white veil of fog had fallen in the early morning on the world outside the window and I couldn’t see a thing.

My view from the window yesterday is an apt metaphor for our lives of faith, for “we walk by faith and not by sight” as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians (5:7). How often — perhaps especially when we’re facing difficulties, stress or sickness — do we feel as if we’re cautiously and haltingly trudging through life blinded by a fog of unknowing? There’s no way to go it alone, no way to safely wander and explore, knowing that we might take a tumble down a nearby hill or off a waiting cliff. Our lives of faith don’t call for foolish bravado; they call for childlike trust, holding the hand of the one who calls us by name and leads us into the fog, who knows every nook and cranny of our lives like the back of his hand.

Ask yourself in silence: When was the last time you felt you were walking in a fog? Could you find God’s hand in the midst of the mist?

Today I ask for special prayers for reader Dotty Z’s husband, Joe, who is suffering in multiple ways right now, including cancer and heart disease. God knows who and where he is, so tonight offer up a prayer for peace and healing. Dotty writes: “If someone out there would just say one little prayer, God will walk us through the tough days ahead. We are praying there will be something to help his weak heart. The tests — echo and stress —were not good but I pray there is enough left to have stints or meds to strengthen the muscle. Stay well and let’s all pray for each other every day…”

Today’s Word: Creative

Steve · October 13, 2013 · 2 Comments

jenny — My daughter, Jenny, creating some music with friends Phil Cooper, left, and Gerry Kasper. SJG photo.

When we create art — at whatever level of expertise and of whatever kind — we reflect the work of the Creator, the One who put that creative spark in our gut. I have friends who create music, paintings, photography, quilts, poetry, plays, novels and many other types of work that would just remain ideas if not for the effort and commitment they put into their art and the inspiration that comes from somewhere deep within them. For the creative arts may be “inspired,” but if the idea never comes to life and no one experiences it, then what good is it? It’s like walking through an art museum or gallery and thinking, “I could have done that!” Well maybe so, but you didn’t. Someone else had the idea and took the leap.

love — "All You Need is Love," acrylic and paper on canvas by Steve Givens.

The creative arts, at least for many of us who profess a Creator God, are acts of faith. When we dare to create, when we “step out the boat,” we move from safety and comfort into an area of uncertainty, for when we begin to create we don’t always know where we are going to end up. The poem begins with a single word or line. The song with a note. The painting with a sketch or with putting brush to canvas. So it’s easy enough to talk ourselves out of creating because we think we’re not talented or creative enough. But our call as artists and people of faith is not to artistic perfection but to genuine and authentic response to the call. We are called to find some glimmer of truth and beauty in the world around us — to capture the movement and color of God — and respond, to reflect that back to those around us. Not everyone finds God in the same way. As artists and creative people, our vocation is to gently lead those who view or read or hear our art to look a little closer at the world around them and see for themselves that something beautiful, loving and eternal is waiting their notice.

Ask yourself in silence: What could I create today? How can I turn a creative gesture into both prayer for myself and a guidepost to God for others?

Today’s Word: Bridge

Steve · September 21, 2013 · 1 Comment

Bridges — whether a short footbridge over a small creek or a majestic span across a treacherous bay — get us to places we cannot get on our own or at least not without extraordinary human effort. Without the footbridge, we run and jump across the creek, hoping we reach the other side without getting a little dirty. With it, we take a few effortless steps while perhaps stopping halfway across to view the trickling water below. Without the bridge across the bay, we plunge into the cold water and sink or swim while praying the sharks are off on vacation somewhere in warmer waters. With the bridge, it’s a quick drive and maybe a few bucks at the tollbooth.

Like jumping across the creek or swimming in shark-infested waters, getting through life purely on our own power is certainly possible. People do it all the time. But our faith in a compassionate and knowing God offers us a bridge over troubled waters, someone to stand in the gap for us when we find ourselves at the end of a path with no way forward. As we stand looking over this sudden expanse in our life — whether a minor gap or a major plunge — we know somewhere deep that we have choices.

Unwilling or incapable of asking for help, we must either turn back at this point or risk the cold and dangerous waters far below, not knowing if we’ll survive the jump, the deep water or the lingering dark shapes circling and waiting. Or we can take that first step out into thin air, secure in our faith in the bridge builder, confident that our footfall will find solid ground and a way across to the other side. This is our faith, that we keep walking, even when we cannot at first see the way.

Ask yourself in silence: Where do I need a bridge in my life right now? Do I have the faith to ask for it?

Today’s Word: Watching

Steve · September 7, 2013 · Leave a Comment

Watching for the Other. SJG photo

“Vocatus Atque Non Vocatus Deus Aderit.” (“Bidden or not bidden, God is present.”)
– Dutch theologian, humanist and priest Desiderius Erasmus

What does it say about us that we spend our lives looking for something that cannot be seen? How many times have I said or written, “watch for the movement of God in your life?” Some might think it means I’m a little off my rocker, or perhaps that I’m well intentioned but, of course, dead wrong. Foolish. Sadly mistaken. In some ways, I guess I can see their point. I might be wrong, after all. Perhaps there is no God to be found. No God to be seen or present in our lives.

So why waste my breath or blog space talking about all this God stuff and God’s movement in our lives? Because I can fathom no other way of living a loving, creative life. Because this “God,” this “other” keeps showing up in my life and in the lives of those around me. Because — rooted in divine love and the example of Christ — we choose to live lives of faith, hope and love, lives that take us beyond ourselves and embed us in the love and grace of the unmoved mover and the giver of life. We choose life in Christ, we choose belief in God, because we know it to be true by our own experiences. We know it somewhere deep.

God is not just a good idea, created by humans to indulge and comfort us. Neither is God “out there.” God — bidden or not bidden — is here and now, and if we are watchful we will catch glimpses of the Other as we walk and work through life. So we slow down, we pay attention, and we wait for those fleeting, sacred glances that sustain.

Ask yourself in silence: Do I watch for God in my life? When did I last see God?

Today’s Word: Seed

Steve · September 2, 2013 · Leave a Comment

harvest — Ferguson Farmer's Market, St. Louis. SJG photo.

My father used to grow vegetables from seed. Beginning in the dead of winter, he would plant seeds (some purchased from the Burpee catalog, some gathered from last year’s harvest) in small containers in our basement, lit and warmed from above by fluorescent lights. By spring, the plants were big enough to be replanted in our backyard garden. This was my first lesson in patience and growth. If we want to see the fruit (and vegetables) of our lives, we have to plant the seeds and wait. Or we have to care for the seeds that someone else has planted.

In his book, A Search for Solitude, Thomas Merton wrote: “Every moment and every event of man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of invisible and visible winged seeds, so the stream of time brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and are lost, because men are not prepared to receive them…”

God plants these “spiritual seeds” in our lives every day. They are the seeds that may grow into an abundant harvest — a cornucopia of increased prayer, spiritual wisdom, service to others and other fruits of the spirit. These seeds land on us each day, looking for fertile soil that has been prepared by our participation in prayer, worship, scripture and sacraments. Our part in all of this is one of awareness and perception. For being aware that the people and opportunities that enter our lives very well may be gifts and seeds from God, we are better prepared to respond and nurture these seeds into fruitfulness.

Ask yourself in silence: What seeds have settled into my life today? What seemingly insignificant and barely visible moments and people may be calling me to increased faith and prayer? What happened to me today?