sacred

Today’s Word: Barefootin’

Steve · August 30, 2013 · Leave a Comment

feet — Barefootin' on Captiva. SJG photo

One of the things I like best about beach vacations is the ability to spend huge swaths of my day barefooted. When I allow myself to think about retirement and the possibility of months at a time without shoes, a big grin spreads across my face and I must look goofy to anyone around me. Oh, well, a big part of paradise for me is no shoes. I think it has something to do with having a more direct connection with the earth. My feet on soft grass or, better yet, with sand between my toes, the waves gently washing over my feet as I walk along the beach. It’s the connection, unencumbered by leather and rubber soles.

It’s an attitude of linking and bonding that has something to teach us about our approach to God, I think. For when we try to approach God encumbered with the stuff of life, the going can be a little tough. It can be hard to find God with our iPhone attached to our ear or the stock market ticker running through our heads. God help us all if the much-ballyhooed computer screen eyeglasses ever become popular. When that happens, some people will never unplug themselves again. And that’s exactly what we need to do. We need to take time to unplug from the stimuli of our lives, to take off our shoes and approach God as if the very ground we walk upon is holy.

Gifts from the sea. SJG photo.

Ask yourself in silence: What are the “shoes” in my life that keep me from making a direct and full connection with God?

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: Signs

Steve · August 11, 2013 · 4 Comments

Signs, whether informational or directional, are really just stand-ins — symbols — for real things. The street sign is not the street. The stop sign is not the law. The map is not the journey. And yet, we need these signs to help us get around, understand where we are and where we want to go, and keep us safe. We’d be pretty lost and confused in a world without signs.

Henri Nouwen once wrote: “We, as followers of Jesus, are sent into this world to be visible signs of God’s unconditional love. Thus we are not first of all judged by what we say but by what we live.” So like it or not, aware or not, we are all walking signs. We are symbols that either proclaim the unconditional love of God or tell the world that we’re all on our own and there’s no hope for joy, life or anything beyond our small little lives. Either way, we’re signs. Spiritual sandwich boards. So what are we saying and where do we point?

Ask yourself in silence: What signals am I sending out to the world? Do my actions and my words point to God and invite others to a life of faith or do they leave others wondering what it is I stand for?

Today’s Word: Marrow

Steve · July 27, 2013 · 6 Comments

votive — Votive candle at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, outside Sedona, Arizona. SJG photo.

When we say we sense something in the marrow of our bones, we mean that we sense some truth deep down inside us, at the very core of our being. And although we say this in a metaphorical and perhaps even metaphysical sense, there’s some physical truth involved in the saying. As someone who has had my bone marrow tapped a couple of times (a wonderful experience…) I know what the doctors found there. They found my stem cells, those building blocks of who I am, telltale signs of what makes me, me.

Those of us who feel called to lives of faith sense that call deep down at our centers in a way that is even more profound and meaningful than the biological material that makes us who we are. We sense a quiet voice that beckons us toward a presence that has been named God for us, a divine light that both urges us to serve others and invites us into communion. That’s what we feel, in the marrow of our bones, and so we respond.

Ask yourself in silence: What do I sense in the marrow of my bones? What is at the very core of my being?

With thanks to my wife, Sue, and our good friends, John & Karen and Larry & Dianne, for this “word of the day challenge” and for good conversation and lots of laughter around the table last night. These kinds of evenings remind me of all that is important in life. Yet another thing I can sense in the marrow of my bones.

Today’s Word: Beloved

Steve · July 14, 2013 · 6 Comments

Today my first grandson, Noah Joseph Givens, was baptized. He was, of course, surrounded by everyone who loves him — his parents, godparents, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends he doesn’t know he has yet. These are all people who will love and support him for the rest of their lives. Noah is, indeed, beloved.

A baptism is a blessing in the trust sense of the word. Take Jesus’ own baptism, for instance. He comes out of the water of the River Jordan and a voice from heaven says, “you are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you.” (Mark 1:11) This, Henri Nouwen once wrote, “was the blessing that sustained Jesus during his life. Whatever happened to him — praise or blame — he clung to his blessing; he always remembered that he was the favorite child of God.”

No voice came from heaven today, but certainly the blessing flowed. Noah, like all of us, is a favored child of God — God’s beloved. No doubt he will be sustained by this day in many ways over the coming years. Like us all, he will be — perhaps unknowingly — nudged and beckoned by a gentle spirit to follow an ancient way that leads to renewed life. All because he is beloved.

Ask yourself in silence: Do I try to live the baptismal promises that others made for me? Am I willing to believe that I am beloved and live my life in response to that love?