I'll Have The Curry.

You Have Called Us to the Mending O holy one, Knower and searcher of every human heart The One from whom no secrets are hidden, Your spirit is ever present, unveiling the unloving and unholy within in us Give us the courage to face our brokenness,  to admit when we are wrong, To make amends when we hurt one another,  Refusing to let pride and ego dictate our relationships  and noticing when it does  when we encounter injustice or pain or suffering or hunger or loneliness Convict us when we say “not my problem” Stir in our hearts the courage to get uncomfortable  To call an old friend To visit a loved one in a nursing home To have lunch with someone we disagree with To say I’m sorry Because….you are working within us to mend this broken world Of injustice, of suffering, of hunger, of loneliness. It starts within our hearts, our words, our feet, our hands But you say…. Such big tasks for these small hands Can my heart handle much m...

In the Foundations of Faith: Christian Spiritual Practices Sunday school class, we’ve been exploring different spiritual practices that help us connect to God.   Throughout the 12 weeks of the class, we will explore solitude, lectio divina, honoring the body, centering prayer, experiencing beauty, the Examen, discernment, worship, and sabbath.   With each different practice, we will engage a different way to experience God with the expectation that one or two of the practices will inevitably fit for each of us. (I know I am absolutely terrible at sabbath…which may mean God is calling me to investigate how I can incorporate sabbath into my spiritual life). For some of us, these spiritual practices are brand new.  They might feel uncomfortable because they require us to step outside of how we’ve always experienced God. For others, these practices are already part of our daily connection to God. Regardless of our experience, we’ve found a safe space to ponder what it means...

  In the rear view there are winding roads  Wide as far as the eye can see Clear sky, smooth asphalt, no speed limit Nothing slowing us down The top is down Wind whipping our hair into a tangle Pure joy and exhilaration Always toward a promise of …something  In the rear view there are winding roads  Twisted and jagged across root exposed earth Threatening punctured tires and bloody heels Forcing us off our desired paths Questioning our journey, we never stopped.  Too much was at stake. Curiosity kept us moving forward  Always toward a promise of…something Seekers of truth, Of the promises of God when she says I am with you,  Look how far you’ve come Down roads of sorrow, of pain, of uncertainty You didn’t know where you were going,  Yet you followed anyways Always toward a promise of…something.  Our pathway to the manger  is illuminated now, bright star exposing the thorns and temptations that slow us do...

As a young teenager, I was deeply shaped by what it meant to have a   “personal relationship with Jesus.” I heard it talked about all the time, in every sermon and every Bible study, in every youth group message. I learned that the way to know God was through a “quiet time” where one devoted themself to studying scripture, searching for the sin in their life, asking for forgiveness, and repeating daily. This pattern was engrained in my mind and became the only allowable way to know Jesus. There wasn’t a lot of room for creativity in discovering God because anything outside of the prescription felt sacrilegious, or had potential to lead me astray into something “evil.”   It’s interesting the deep impact those teachings had on me in those formative years. While seminary stretched my imagination for encountering God, I still found myself stuck in a loop of guilt for not doing a daily quiet time as I had learned in my primitive Christian formation in youth group. I clearly remem...