The Zombie Within - A Prayer for Release

Lord,
I desire to be at peace.  I desire freedom from anger, freedom from hatred, freedom from death, pain and darkness.  I desire fullness of love and abundant mercy to flow out of me like a wellspring of living water.  Dear Lord, I want to be whole.

I want to be able to give from an infinite wellspring of life and abundance.  This sort of giving is only possible through intimate communion with You.

But You are not all I desire.

Hide & Seek for Zombies

The kiddo I nanny loves to search for bugs.  In the big rock pile in their backyard, the child picks up a rock, looks underneath to see what's there, and then marks the rock with a piece of chalk.  When a bug is found, the child laughs and does a special dance in celebration of the life that was discovered.  The child's joy is contagious!

What distinguishes the living from the living dead?  Certainly there are a lot of things.  The distinguishing mark that I'd like to focus on today is the difference between following and seeking.

One of the sad trends in the American Christian church across the denominations is a lethargy in worship and missiology.  We tend to focus on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as though it were the only thing that Jesus meant when He said, "follow me".

One of my dear friends this weekend, at a Unitarian Universalist fellowship, gave a homily on Proverbs 8.  This being one of my favorite passages (particularly as it relates to John 1) and she, being a very dear friend, I was eager to hear what she had to say.  The main focus of her message was the same as Wisdom's call to Her followers: "seek and you will find".  My friend encouraged her fellowship to seek after Wisdom, to be on the look-out for this thing called "God" and to ask lots of questions.  We who were listening were encouraged to not be complacent in our spirituality, to rise up and discover something new about ourselves, to allow ourselves to be challenged and to grow in unexpected ways through this spiritual, playful game of hide-and-seek with a jovial, loving Creator.

Engaging the Hands, Heart and Brain

Dear ones,

This week through the end of July I am prayerfully journeying through a discernment vacation.  I appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I engage my senses, my heart and my mind in conversation with the Spirit of God.  Today's post will be brief, and may be the only one for the next week, but I shall return with focus and intensity following my time away.

"Crashing Waves" - Photo by Trista Wynne

Over the past weekend, my soul-sister and I traveled to the Washington coast where we spent several days and evenings reconnecting with the realm of the eternal.  Sometimes we all need to simply stop, and to allow the Spirit to whisper.  Sometimes She sings a gorgeous melody.  At other times, we hear nothing at all, but we know the Presence of God is near.