Reflections on being seen and supported (or not) by family and community as you come home changed, or as you embark on a journey, a mission, a life’s adventure
And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of it…all of it is completely worth it. ― Nadia Bolz-Weber
The prophet is the eye of the people. ― Lailah Gifty Akita
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. — Matsuo Basho
What is a Man / Woman who does not try and make the World Better? ― ‘Kingdom of Heaven ‘ the movie
Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin,
and in their own house. — Gospels of Mark & Luke, Bible
It’s kind of spooky when you are caught talking to God everybody thinks you’re nuts. They used to call you a prophet. ― Paul Zindel
SONGS about COMING HOME:
- Coming Home by Keith Urban (country): https://youtu.be/_jgTWSZ5Tmg
- Coming Home by Diddy ft Skylar Grey (pop/rap – note: some swearing): https://youtu.be/k-ImCpNqbJw
- Ho Hey by The Lumineers (pop): https://youtu.be/zvCBSSwgtg4
- Everyday People performed by students and ft. Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, Keb’ Mo’ (rock): https://youtu.be/-g4UWvcZn5U
- Come On Home by Indigo Girls (country pop): https://youtu.be/fzsxYkTzdY4
- Coming Home Pt II by Skylar Grey (pop): https://youtu.be/k84QxVJd0tI
- Come Back Home by Lauren Daigle & Petey Martin (pop/Christian): https://youtu.be/1HIF9Mg5Y-I
- Castle on the Hill by Ed Sheeran (pop): https://youtu.be/K0ibBPhiaG0
- Every Night by Imagine Dragons (pop): https://youtu.be/kuijhOvKyYg
- Everyday People by Sly & Family Stone (rock): https://youtu.be/YUUhDoCx8zc
- Light Up the Sky by The Afters (pop): https://youtu.be/8LQH6UDi15s
- Take Me Home by Cash Cash ft Bebe Rexha (pop): https://youtu.be/HZ_J6T9XBOI
- Take Me Home by Jess Glynne (pop): https://youtu.be/2ebfSItB0oM
- Coming Home by Gwyneth Paltrow (country): https://youtu.be/DzGxnRz_Ldg
- Finally Home by Mercy Me (Christian): https://youtu.be/rlxFee1mRtE
- Coming Home by Leon Bridges (rock): https://youtu.be/MTrKkqE9p1o
- Consider Me by Allen Stone (rock/pop): https://youtu.be/dhX7ZJS3shE
- Coming Home by Housefires ft Nate Moore (Christian): https://youtu.be/UbZzfXzi2Eg
- Perfect Symphony by Ed Sheeran ft Andrea Bocelli (pop): https://youtu.be/eiDiKwbGfIY
- Coming Home by Kaiser Chiefs (rock): https://youtu.be/MPipMQvKgKk
- Coming Home by Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors (country): https://youtu.be/xqjr4uOFH4A
- Mama, I’m Coming Home by Ozzie Osbourne (rock): https://youtu.be/K0siYUjV9UM
- There Won’t Be Many Coming Home by Roy Orbison (country): https://youtu.be/YT-tFOXdwSI
- Coming Home by Tom Jones (pop/rock ballad): https://youtu.be/7IsuYfEXXlk
- Coming Home by Sheppard (pop): https://youtu.be/LyxFt9ecT28
- Coming Home by Honne ft. Niki (pop): https://youtu.be/9MNQHxX-NE0
- Til I Found You by Jeremy Loops (pop): https://youtu.be/Cb5TOFmLJnM
- Will the Circle Be Unbroken by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band/Johnny Cash/Ricky Skaggs (country Gospel): https://youtu.be/7bRJLkNqNXI
- Coming Home by Shawna Edwards (Christian): https://youtu.be/w1-xRLmEwNQ
So where are you from? What are the places, the people, the experiences that formed your path? What holds your roots? How does where you’re from help you understand who you are? How does it enable you to make a way for the one who comes in this and every season? — Jan Richardson
Where to Go with “Where I’m From” — George Ella Lyon (more info: http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html)
… you can also see it as a corridor of doors opening onto further knowledge and other kinds of writing. The key is to let yourself explore these rooms. Don’t rush to decide what kind of writing you’re going to do or to revise or finish a piece. Let your goal be the writing itself. Learn to let it lead you. … Look for these elements … and see where else they might take you:
- a place could open into a piece of descriptive writing or a scene from memory.
- your parents’ work could open into a memory of going with them, helping, being in the way. Could be a remembered dialogue between your parents about work. Could be a poem made from a litany of tools they used.
- an important event could open into freewriting all the memories of that experience, then writing it as a scene, with description and dialogue. It’s also possible to let the description become setting and directions and let the dialogue turn into a play.
- food could open into a scene at the table, a character sketch of the person who prepared the food, a litany of different experiences with it, a process essay of how to make it.
- music could take you to a scene where the music is playing; could provide you the chance to interleave the words of the song and words you might have said (or a narrative of what you were thinking and feeling at the time the song was first important to you (“Where I’m Singing From”).
- something someone said to you could open into a scene or a poem which captures that moment; could be what you wanted to say back but never did.
- a significant object could open into a sensory exploration of the object-what it felt, sounded, smelled, looked, and tasted like; then where it came from, what happened to it, a memory of your connection with it. Is there a secret or a longing connected with this object? A message? If you could go back to yourself when this object was important to you, what would you ask, tell, or give yourself?
Remember, you are the expert on you. No one else sees the world as you do; no one else has your material to draw on. You don’t have to know where to begin. Just start. Let it flow. Trust the work to find its own form.
Where I’m From — George Ella Lyon
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I’m from fudge and eyeglasses,
from Imogene and Alafair.
I’m from the know-it-alls
and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I’m from He restoreth my soul
with a cottonball lamb
and ten verses I can say myself.
I’m from Artemus and Billie’s Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments–
snapped before I budded —
leaf-fall from the family tree.
Where I’m From — Jan Richardson
I am from orange groves
and old Florida,
from a house my parents built
in a field my grandfather gave them.
Black-eyed Susans grew there in the spring,
so thick we played hide and seek
simply by kneeling among them.
I am from a town
with more cows than people,
from Judy and from Joe,
from generations that have grown up
in one place.
I am from peanut butter and
honey sandwiches every morning,
from my grandmothers’ kitchens,
from Thanksgiving feasts in the
community park,
from Christmas Eves in the
white painted church
among the pine trees.
I am from the dictionary we kept
by the dinner table
where we ate words like food,
from hours and days in libraries,
from miles of books.
I am from the path they have made.
I am from solitude and silence,
from the monks and mystics who lived
between the choir and the cell,
from the scribes bent over their books,
from parchment and paint,
from ancient ink and from gold
that turned pages into lamps,
into light.
I am from women less quiet,
women of the shout and the stomp,
testifying wherever they could make
their voices heard.
I am from Miriam and Mary and Magdalena
and from women unknown and unnamed,
women who carried their prayers
not in books
but in their blood
and in their bones,
women who passed down the sacred stories
from body to body.
I am from them,
listening for their voices,
aching to hear,
to tell, to cry out,
to make a way for those
yet to come.
Longing for Prophets — Shirley Kaufman
Not for their ice-pick eyes,
their weeping willow hair,
and their clenched fists beating at heaven.
Not for their warnings, predictions
of doom. But what they promised.
I don’t care if their beards
are mildewed, and the ladders
are broken. Let them go on
picking the wormy fruit. Let the one
with the yoke around his neck
climb out of the cistern.
Let them come down from the heights
in their radiant despair
like the Sankei Juko dancers descending
on ropes, down from these hills
to the earth of their first existence.
Let them follow the track
we’ve cut on the sides of mountains
into the desert, and stumble again
through the great rift, littered
with bones and the walls of cities.
Let them sift through the ashes
with their burned hands. Let them
tell us what will come after.
How do you make room for those who challenge you to remember who God created you to be? What kind of holy space might God be wanting to create in your life? In you? Blessings to you as you discern where to extend a welcome, and where to receive one. — Jan Richardson
Advice to a Prophet — Richard Wilbur
When you come, as you soon must, to the streets of our city, Mad-eyed from stating the obvious,Not proclaiming our fall but begging usIn God’s name to have self-pity, Spare us all word of the weapons, their force and range, The long numbers that rocket the mind;Our slow, unreckoning hearts will be left behind, Unable to fear what is too strange. Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race. How should we dream of this place without us?—The sun mere fire, the leaves untroubled about us, A stone look on the stone’s face? Speak of the world’s own change. Though we cannot conceive Of an undreamt thing, we know to our costHow the dreamt cloud crumbles, the vines are blackened by frost, How the view alters. We could believe, If you told us so, that the white-tailed deer will slip Into perfect shade, grown perfectly shy,The lark avoid the reaches of our eye,The jack-pine lose its knuckled grip On the cold ledge, and every torrent burnAs Xanthus once, its gliding troutStunned in a twinkling. What should we be without The dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return, These things in which we have seen ourselves and spoken? Ask us, prophet, how we shall callOur natures forth when that live tongue is allDispelled, that glass obscured or broken In which we have said the rose of our love and the clean Horse of our courage, in which beheldThe singing locust of the soul unshelled,And all we mean or wish to mean. Ask us, ask us whether with the worldless rose Our hearts shall fail us; come demanding Whether there shall be lofty or long standing When the bronze annals of the oak-tree close.
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Three Travellers Tell Their Dreams — Rumi
Three devout men of different religions fall in together
by chance traveling. They stop
at a caravanserai* where the host brings as a gift a sweet
dessert, some taste of God’s
nearness. This is how people out in the country serve
strangers. The Jew and
the Christian are full, but the Muslim has been fasting all
day. The two say, “Lets
save it for tomorrow.” The one, “No. Let’s save self-denial
for tomorrow!” “You want it
all for yourself!” “Divide it into three parts, and each can
do as he wants.” “Ah,
but Mohammad said not to share.” “That was about dividing
yourself between sensuality
and soul. You must belong to the one or the other.” But finally
for some reason, he gives in,
“I’ll do it your way.” They refrain from tasting. They sleep,
and then wake and dress themselves
to begin morning devotions. Christian, Jew, Muslim, shaman,
Zoroastrian, stone, ground,
mountain, river, each has a secret way of being with the
mystery, unique and not to be
judged. This subject never ends! Three friends in a grand
morning mood. “Let us tell
what dreams we had last night; whoever has had the deepest
dreams, gets the halvah**.”
Agreed. The Jewish man begins the wanderings of his soul.
“Moses met me on the road;
I followed him to Sinai: an opening door, light within
light. Mount Sinai and Moses and
I merged in an exploding splendor, the unity of the prophets!”
This is a true dream. Many
Jews have such. Then the Christian sighs, “Christ took me
in his arms to the fourth
heaven, a pure vast region… I cannot say…” His also
deep. The Muslim, “Muhammad came
and told me where you two had gone. ‘You wretch!’ he said,
‘You’ve been left behind! You
may as well get up and eat something.'” “Noooo!” laugh the
Christian and the Jew. “How
could I disobey such glory? Would you not do as Moses and
Jesus suggest?” “You’re right,”
they say. “Yours is the truest dream, because it had immediate
effect in your waking life.”
What matters is how quickly you do what your soul directs.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* caravanserai: an inn surrounding a court in eastern countries where caravans rest at night
** halvah: a flaky confection of crushed sesame seeds in a base of syrup (as of honey)
Silent Prophet — Carl Dennis
It’s the last day, but I’m keeping the news to myself.If yesterday it made sense for letter carriersTo carry letters from door to door,The job still ought to be worth doing.Why tell what I know and risk a walkout?Let firefighters race to the last fire.Let platoons of police set up their last linesSo the factions that come to the demonstrationDo battle only in words and gestures. The day is different, but only for me,Knowing as I do that it offers the last chanceFor a cautious investor to resist his nature enoughTo back a grocery in a battered district,And the last chance for the would-be grocersTo open a bottle of good champagneIn the kitchen of the friend who’s led themThrough the small-print maze of the application.And now they’re toasting the months to comeScheduled to move the project alongFrom drawing blueprints to cutting ribbons.Shall I tell them their expectations are dreamsIf the dreams impart to the day contour and substance? Though silent, I’m rooting for them to let the dayExpand to include the days to be denied them.And I hope that the friend who’s pouringA final round in his kitchen isn’t disturbedAs his small apartment fills with the soundOf squeaking from across the hall, though yesterdayHe banged on his neighbor’s door for quiet.It’s his last chance to endorse a womanBent on learning from scratch to play the viola,To respect her for finding an hour a day for practice,As if raising two sons aloneAnd teaching civics at a high schoolNot renowned for civility weren’t enough. Should I sit on a stone and lamentThat the day is her last if it still contains,Scrolled up within it, the years she’ll needTo master the art of voicing feelingsNot now expressed, at home or in class,About the distance between the worldShe’d like to inhabit and the world she does? Some other prophet, convinced the futureDepends on the flow of time to give it substance,May decide to speak out. I’m keeping silentAs one of her sons sits at his deskDividing a page into reasons for leaving homeAnd reasons for staying. Now on this last dayIt seems that home is best defined as any regionOn earth that has much to teach him,And now as the region fit to receive the mostOf whatever he’ll have to offerAfter he learns where his talents lie.
There is a Zen story about a student who felt he hadn’t really received the deepest essence of his master’s teaching, and so he went to question him. His master replied, “On your way here, did you see the cypress in the courtyard?” Perhaps the student was not yet very mindful. The master was saying that if, on the way to see our teacher, we go past a cypress tree or a beautiful plum tree in blossom and we don’t really see it, then when we arrive in front of our teacher, we won’t see our teacher either. We shouldn’t miss any opportunity to really see our cypress tree. There are wonders of life we walk past every day, and yet we haven’t truly seen them. What is the cypress tree on the path you take to work every day? If you cannot even see the tree, how can you see your loved ones? How can you see God”? — Thich Nhat Hanh
WHO ARE PROPHETS?
I stand here before you not as a prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people. — Nelson Mandela
My religion is kindness. This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. — Dalai Lama
I’m a storyteller, not a prophet. I’m just interested in a good story. —David Eddings
Never once did Jesus scan the room for the best example of holy living and send that person out to tell others about him. He always sent stumblers and sinners. I find that comforting. ― Nadia Bolz-Weber
A writer is not a prophet, is not a philosopher; he’s just someone who is witness to what is around him. And so writing is a way to… it’s the best way to testify, to be a witness. — J. M. G. Le Clezio
I think that modern medicine has become like a prophet offering a life free of pain. It is nonsense. The only thing I know that truly heals people is unconditional love. ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
The poor are always prophetic. As true prophets always point out, they reveal God’s design. That is why we should take time to listen to them. And that means staying near them, because they speak quietly and infrequently; they are afraid to speak out, they lack confidence in themselves because they have been broken and oppressed. But if we listen to them, they will bring us back to the essential. ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know them to be speaking not of themselves who utter these priceless words in a state of unconsciousness, but that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us. ― Socrates
Holiness is the union we experience with one another and with God. Holiness is when more than one become one, when what is fractured is made whole. Singing in harmony. Breastfeeding a baby. Collective bargaining. Dancing. Admitting our pain to someone, and hearing them say, “Me too.” Holiness happens when we are integrated as physical, spiritual, sexual, emotional, and political beings. Holiness is the song that has always been sung, perhaps even the sound that was first spoken when God said, “Let there be light. ― Nadia Bolz-Weber
Being the soothsayer of the tribe is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. ― Anthon St. Maarten
You do not need any preacher or prophet to learn about God. The teaching is spread on the trees and the mountains, on the stars and the river, on the Sun and the moon. The ultimate teaching is written in your heart. You just need to wake up and see. ― Banani Ray
In solitude and when fatigued, one is after all inclined to take oneself for a prophet. ― Albert Camus
In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. — Book of Joel & Book of Acts, Bible
Maybe I am a prophet. I really hope one day there will come Confucius, Muhammad, Buddha and Christ to see me. And we will sit at a table, taking tea and eating some brownies. — Alejandro Jodorowsky
Maybe that’s the way to tell the dangerous men from the good ones. A dreamer of the day is dangerous when he believes that others are less: less than their own best selves and certainly less than he is. They exist to follow and flatter him, and to serve his purposes.
A true prophet, I suppose, is like a good parent. A true prophet sees others, not himself. He helps them define their own half-formed dreams, and puts himself at their service. He is not diminished as they become more. He offers courage in one hand and generosity in the other. ― Mary Doria Russell
The word “preacher” comes from an old French word, predicateur, which means prophet. And what is the purpose of a prophet except to find meaning in trouble? ― Marilynne Robinson
If one has the answers to all the questions – that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself. The great leaders of the people of God, like Moses, have always left room for doubt. You must leave room for the Lord, not for our certainties; we must be humble. — Pope Francis
Learn the lesson that, if you are to do the work of a prophet, what you want is not a sceptre, but a hoe. The prophet does not rise to reign, but to root out the weeds. — St Bernard
It is better for a leader to make a mistake in forgiving than to make it in punishing. ― Joel Hayward
God is in every particle in the Universe. No religion, no prophet can make division on it. ― Amit Ray
Prophets will say things others will not say. God touches the prophet’s mouth. When God touches a person’s mouth, He puts power and authority in their words. ― John Eckhardt
… is the writer a prophet or priest – does he show the truth or serve the truth?…― John Geddes
Another way of judging the value of a prophet’s religious experience, therefore, would be to examine the type of manhood that he has created, and the cultural world that has sprung out of the spirit of his message. — Muhammad Iqbal
Prophets do not bring new truth. Revelation is simply a revealing of what is already true and bringing it to bear upon our heart and soul. Revelation is based upon insight into the written Word of God, not into visions and dreams and prophecies. These other things are simply tools for expressing the Word, they are not the Word; no more than the water hose is water, it simply delivers the water. ― Chip Brogden
Our Prophet was a radical too- he fought against the injustices of his community and challenged the feudal order of his society, so they called him a radical. So what? We should be proud of that! — Abu Bakar Bashir
The Prophet Muhammad himself sought to erase any distinctions between the message he taught and that taught by Jesus, who he called God’s ‘spirit and word.’ — Ibrahim Hooper
How many more Christs, Buddhas, Tolstoys, Kings, Naskars have to rise, for humanity to have the revelation that, humanism is the greatest form of religiousness that any conscientious being can ever have! ― Abhijit Naskar
On my journey from the fantastical to the practical, spirituality has gone from being a mystical experience to something very ordinary and a daily experience. Many don’t want this, instead they prefer spiritual grandeur, and I believe that is what keeps enlightenment at bay. We want big revelations of complexity that validates our perceptions of the divine. What a let down it was to Moses when God spoke through a burning bush! But that is exactly the simplicity of it all. Our spiritual life is our ordinary life and it is very grounded in every day experience. For me, it is the daily practice of kindness, mindfulness, happiness, and peace. ― Alaric Hutchinson
If Prophets and Messengers are the closest to godliness as any human is capable of being, and yet even they fail, how the f*ck can anyone, less than perfect, be so arrogant as to expect they will do better than a Prophet, or Messenger of G-D. ― Alejandro Carbajal Estrada
I don’t want to pretend to be a prophet or a saint. I’m very conscious of my limitations. I know my flaws. — Norman Finkelstein
Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are today overrun with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the Church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the Wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God.― A.W. Tozer
COMMENTARY about JESUS PREACHING in SYNAGOGUE & BEING REJECTED in HOMETOWN
Prophets are not “guided and limited by in-group loyalties.” — Robert Tannehill
Preachers beware. This is what happens when you get the gospel right. — Will Willimon
After Jesus reads from Isaiah 61 he declares that they are fulfilled “today.” This is a remarkable claim since the passage in Isaiah is associated with the year of Jubilee – the time when the slaves would be set free and land returned to the original owner. N. T. Wright regularly points out that this prophetic text alludes to Lev. 25:8-12 and would have been understood as a reference to a new age of release and forgiveness for the nation (Simply Jesus, 75, for example). — Phillips Long
[Year of the Lord’s Favor]: This phrase is clearly reflective of the year of Jubilee, the year when all debts were to be forgiven, slaves were to be emancipated (Lev. 25:8-17), and the oppressed captives were to be given their freedom.This year was to occur once every fifty years, but it was seldom honored. Jesus proclaimed that this year was symbolic of Him because He is the one who forgives debts and gives freedom to humanity. That was absolutely stunning! It is noteworthy that the English words sins and debts are both translated from the Aramaic word hoba. Therefore, when Jesus speaks of sinners He is also speaks of debtors; when He speaks of the forgiveness of sins He also speaks of speaks of the forgiveness of moral and spiritual debts. — Bill Heinrich
Luke takes notice of Jewish practices, as when Jesus stood to read the Scriptures and the audience always stood to listen. This tradition is still practiced today. Following the reading from the Torah was a reading from the Prophets, which, in this case, was from the Book of Isaiah. It was the cultural norm that, after He finished reading, He sat down to preach a sermon. What has been preserved by Luke most certainly is only a small segment of a much larger sermon presented by Jesus.
… The tradition was that men of the congregation would take turns reading Scripture in the worship service, unless there was a visiting guest, then he was given the honor to lead the service. The readings from the scrolls were continued from week to week and, in any three year cycle the entire Hebrew Bible was read. That, in itself, was a difficult task to accomplish since there were no chapter and verse divisions. Furthermore, there were no vowels and all the letters were run together.It is normally assumed that Jesus simply selected a text from Isaiah, read it, and applied it to Himself. Clearly, this was not the case. At the point where the reader of the previous Sabbath ended, that was the beginning point for the reader the following week. The miracle lies in the fact that Jesus did not select the text, but His reading was the continuation from the reading of the previous Sabbath. This was hardly a coincidence, but a miracle by a divine appointment. One would hardly notice a miracle had occurred unless the order of synagogue worship was known. The custom of the day was as follows:
- The congregation would recite the Shema (Deut. 6:4), which was a short prayer. At the end, there was a moment of thoughtful silence which was when the worshipers “folded up the Shema.”
- A prayer followed.
- There was a reading from the Law (Parashah),
- There was a reading from the Prophets (Haphtarah).
- The reader would then give an explanation and life application to each reading.
— Bill Heinrich
Jesus didn’t come to bring vengeance, he came to close the book on vengeance. Jesus announced the Jubilee good news of pardon, amnesty, liberation, and restoration…but not vengeance. Jesus doesn’t bless revenge, he blesses mercy, and teaches that the mercy we show to our enemies is the mercy that will be shown to us… Does this mean there’s no divine judgment? Of course not. Certainly there is divine judgment, but it is a judgment based in God’s love and commitment to restoration. The restorative judgment of God gives no warrant to a schadenfreudeyearning to see harm inflicted on others. Jesus has closed the book on that kind of lust for vengeance. — Brian Zahnd
Even though we remember that Jubilee never fully reasserts the complete fairness and equality God desires, we look for places where justice is lacking, and places where efforts are underway to create more equity. When we see those efforts, we celebrate them. When we are able, we emulate them. When is it Jubilee? We’ll never see it. But we can access the ideal, just as the ancients did, by celebrating it, moving toward it, and dreaming of justice. — Melissa Bane Sevier
Jesus then provides two examples, well-known in Israel, of the prophet coming to the aid of outsiders: the Zarephath widow and Elijah, and Elisha and Namaan the Syrian (1 Kgs 17:8-24, 2 Kings 5: 1-19). In both cases, a prophet came to the aid of a gentile when there were people similarly in need in Israel. Luke probably means us to see an additional contrast: The widow was on the margins of society and undoubtedly poor. Naaman, on the other hand, was powerful–the commander of Syria’s army–but suffered from leprosy. In citing these two examples, not only is Jesus further identifying with the role of prophet–indeed, two of Israel’s greatest, Elijah and Elisha–but also telling his hometown people that they don’t get special treatment. — John Petty
Jesus edited out vengeance, and this gives us a key to how Jesus read the Old Testament. And lest we think that Jesus’ omission of “the day of vengeance” was simply an oversight or meaningless, consider what Jesus says to the hometown crowd in the synagogue following his edited reading of Isaiah. Jesus recalls the stories of the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the leper — Gentiles who instead of receiving vengeance from God, received provision and healing. Jesus is announcing the arrival of the Lord’s favor, but he is emphasizing that it is for everybody…even for Sidonians and Syrians, even for Israel’s enemies! Jesus is making clear that in bringing the Jubilee of God he is bringing it for everybody! — Brian Zahnd
Ramsay MacMullen has noted that one’s social pedigree would easily be known in the Greco-Roman world and that a description such as “carpenter” indicated lower class status [Roman Social Relations: 50 B.C. to A.D. 384]. At the back of his book he gives a “Lexicon of Snobbery” filled with terms used by literate and therefore upper-class Greco-Roman authors to indicate their prejudice against illiterate and therefore lower-class individuals. Among those terms is tekton, or “carpenter,” the same term used for Jesus in Mark 6:3 and for Joseph in Matthew 13:55. One should not, of course, ever presume that upper-class sneers dictated how the lower classes actually felt about themselves. But, in general, the great divide in the Greco-Roman world was between those who had to work with their hands and those who did not… If Jesus was a carpenter, therefore, he belonged to the Artisan class, that group pushed into the dangerous space between Peasants and Degradeds or Expendables… — John Dominic Crossan
Notice that they neither dispute that he has wisdom or that he performs mighty works; they are just dumbfounded that it comes from a hometown boy like Jesus. More than just a matter of familiarity breeding contempt, this comes from the ancient mentality that geographical and heredity origins determine who a person is and what his capacities will always be. They see Jesus as someone who is not merely exceeding expectations but rather is overreaching. — Juel
The refusal — or inability — of Jesus’ neighbors to accept his status confirms what the story has suggested thus far: the world’s standards of judgment appear to run headlong into God’s ways. Jesus does not measure up. The circumstances of his origin allow no way of accounting for the stories about him. His common beginnings do not fit the assessment that he is a prophet. The result is scandal and fear. The reaction of the people from his hometown also suggests that real insiders are not necessarily those who by birth or circumstance are closest to Jesus. In fact, those who ought to know best turn out to be the most incapable of insight.— Witherington
Reflections on preparing for a journey: themes from trials in the wilderness scripture
Not all those that wander are lost. — J.R.R. Tolkien
Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. — Anatole France Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. — Matsuo Basho
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
— Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To travel is to live. ― Hans Christian Andersen
Dream Big. Start Small. Act Now. — Robin Sharma
The most beautiful thing in the world is, of course, the world itself — Wallace Stevens
51. “Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road. — Jack Kerouac
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.— Marcel Proust
If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.— Lewis Carroll
Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled. — The Prophet Mohammed
SONGS about WILDERNESS:
- Wilderness by Taylor Davis (violin instrumental): https://youtu.be/2vxi9CWlTiw
- Songs of the Wilderness for Deep Sleep (natural sounds/songs): https://youtu.be/4OQ5gc7XiPc
- Man in the Wilderness by Styx (rock): https://youtu.be/WBRoQ91W1rk
- Touch of Wilderness by George Jones (country ballad): https://youtu.be/VBNXdfSCtbI
- Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop (rock/pop): https://youtu.be/def3ob2h-1s
- Something WIld by Andrew McMahon ft Lindsey Stirling (pop): https://youtu.be/ytMqO-WQpQ4
- I Saw God Today by George Strait (country): https://youtu.be/q06AvQF5NOw
- God of the Wilderness by SHaylee Simeone (Christian): https://youtu.be/-9wLDZ7PoSI
- Wilderness by Jeremy Camp (Christian): https://youtu.be/6QNvvIOEb2U
- Wilderness by Nick Jonas (pop): https://youtu.be/tzGSqR5vztk
- Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed (rock): https://youtu.be/oG6fayQBm9w
- Call of the Wild by Chris LeDoux (country): https://youtu.be/B4HKdCyJ1mY
- Pass It On by Alabama (country): https://youtu.be/iiHX2653XPE
- Wild Side by Motley Crue (rock): https://youtu.be/4Hihge6FFVw
- Wilderness by Brian May (rock): https://youtu.be/zytFyqAa0Ew
- The Wilderness by The Isaacs (Christian): https://youtu.be/2tRb1-g1xKA
- One Foot by Walk the Moon (pop): https://youtu.be/05v4nfUmBYI
- In the Wilderness by Michael Card (Christian): https://youtu.be/KOB8tk2RIdk
- Out of the Wilderness by The Be Good Tanyas (folk/bluegrass): https://youtu.be/gm33K8PCml4
- Table in the Wilderness by Russ Taff (Christian): https://youtu.be/GL-8QvktsS0
- Wilderness by Jon Bryant (ballad): https://youtu.be/hZ_O7-I1F7s
- Wild Child by The Doors (rock): https://youtu.be/YjRQxRREIqk
- A Voice in the Wilderness by Cliff Richard & The Shadows (rock): https://youtu.be/AWR6nf6oBmo
For Those Who Have Far to Travel
— Jan Richardson
If you could see the journey whole,
you might never undertake it,
might never dare the first step
that propels you from the place
you have known toward the place
you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road:
that we see it only by stages
as it opens before us,
as it comes into our keeping,
step by single step.
There is nothing for it
but to go, and by our going
take the vows the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to the next step;
to rely on more than the map;
to heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
to follow the star that only you will recognize;
to keep an open eye for the wonders that
attend the path; to press on
beyond distractions, beyond fatigue,
beyond what would tempt you
from the way.
There are vows that only you will know:
the secret promises for your particular path
and the new ones you will need to make
when the road is revealed
by turns you could not have foreseen.
Keep them, break them, make them again;
each promise becomes part of the path,
each choice creates the road
that will take you to the place
where at last you will kneel
to offer the gift most needed—
the gift that only you can give—
before turning to go home by
another way.
That Journeys Are Good — Rumi
If a fir tree had a foot or two like a turtle, or a wing,
Do you think it would just wait for the saw to enter?
You know the sun journeys all night under the earth;
If it didn’t, how could it throw up its flood of light in the east?
And salt water climbs with such marvelous swiftness to the sky.
If it didn’t, how would the cabbages be fed with the rain?
Have you thought of Joseph lately? Didn’t he leave his father in tears, going?
Didn’t he then learn how to understand dreams, and give away grain?
And you, if you have no feet to leave your country, go
Into yourself, become a ruby mine, open to the gifts of the sun.
You could travel from your outer man into your inner man.
By a journey of that sort earth became a place where you find gold.
So leave your complaints and self-pity and internalized death-energy.
Don’t you realize how many fruits have already
escaped out of sourness into sweetness?
A good source of sweetness is a teacher; mine is named Shams.
You know every fruit grows more handsome in the light of the sun.
JESUS in the WILDERNESS COMMENTARY
Throughout the scriptures, the wilderness represents a place of preparation, a place of waiting for God’s next move, a place of learning to trust in God’s mercy. For forty days and nights Jesus remains in the wilderness, without food, getting ready for what comes next. — Working Preacher
Like Jesus, we experience both The River and The Wilderness.
At The River, whatever that represents for us, we are surrounded by community and given new life and called beloved. God is near. And it’s beautiful. And we need it. But it’s not the whole picture.
Yet it can feel as though we treat Christianity, or being “spiritual” as a Wilderness avoidance program. As though finding oneself in the Wilderness is a failure. I know for myself, when I’m struggling with depression or I am in a period of hardship where nothing seems to be working, then I find that I label that time as “bad”. Or more often than not I’m ashamed because after 20 years of sobriety and a seminary degree, shouldn’t I really have it all together? So clearly I must be doing something wrong. Sometimes that’s true but sometimes … it’s just the wilderness. And I can promise you this. As much as I need to hear that I’m beloved and be surrounded by community and be made new, and we all need that, but as much as I need that, I never gained any wisdom from things going really well at The River. Because The River might fill the heart and that’s important, but it’s The Wilderness that brings wisdom.
I mean, I’d love it if spiritual wisdom was distributed in the Personal Growth section at Barnes and Noble but that’s just not the way it goes. It’s always been found in The Wilderness. Because if we look at the order of things – at The River Jesus is baptized and called God’s beloved, (before he even does anything cool or enlightened or special by the way) after which he’s cast into The Wilderness for a good long while. And it’s only THEN that he begins teaching and healing. See, Jesus doesn’t begin teaching and healing until after he’s gone through 40 days of Satan, wild beasts and angels. So why do I think my Wilderness to be a personal failure if Jesus’ Wilderness gave him what was needed to heal and to teach? …
I think maybe because some of us have been taught a rather anemic view of God. That God is only found at The River times in life – only found in the moments of renewal and elation and blessedness. In other words, God is only close to us when we feel close to God. But that’s not true. Your feelings about God have precious little to do with God’s actual nearness to you. Because Sometimes God’s nearness to us is also found in the way that God creates wisdom out of our wilderness experiences. God’s nearness to us, is just as real in the blessings of The River as it is in the struggles of The Wilderness. And Oprah would kill me for saying this, but how we feel doesn’t really matter. Not in this case…
Maybe tonight you are struggling with depression, or unemployment or divorce or addiction. Maybe you are in The Wilderness of wild beasts and angels. But the wisdom is coming. And after that, The River so that your heart might again be filled. That’s the life of the baptized. The River, then The Wilderness, then The River. In other words, this whole thing has always been about daily death and resurrection. — Nadia Bolz-Weber, full article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/01/wild-beasts-and-sheet-cake-a-sermon-for-baptism-of-our-lord/
Can we let God be God for us? If we face down our demons, can we trust that God will hold us?
It may be helpful to consider Jesus in the wilderness as a coming of age story or coming into your own story that most people face. All around the world there are ceremonies and traditions young people in particular undertake to move into adulthood. Jewish young people have bar or bat mitzvahs and Christian young people have Confirmation. In Latino cultures, young women celebrate their Quinceanera. Some Inuits go out into the wilderness with their fathers when they’re 11 or 12 to test their hunting skills and get acclimated to the arctic weather. The Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania have a number of initiations young men most undergo before they become warriors in the tribe. …
Human beings are meaning-makers. We tell stories and have rituals that help us mark important moments, moments when we move from one part of our lives into another. Perhaps this wilderness story is about Jesus moving from those safe and beautiful waters of baptism in the Jordan River to encounter the harsh realities of the world in the wilderness. Knowing that not everyone was going to believe he’s God’s Son, some people would want him to use his power and influence for their own purposes, and some people would want him to test God or be the Messiah they wanted him to be. All of this going against God naming Jesus and claiming Jesus as God’s own. All of this going against God being the One who tells us who we all are—beloved people of God. So that’s one way to consider Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness—that it’s about Jesus coming into his own. …
The other understanding we can glean from Jesus tempted in the wilderness is that the wilderness environment is not unique to Jesus in the least. We will have times when we are there too. Not necessarily physically speaking, but in a spiritual wilderness. The wilderness by definition is an uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. The wilderness is wild and natural—where few people live. In our spiritual lives, the wilderness is when we feel pretty isolated from one another and perhaps even from ourselves and from God. Though perhaps the wilderness provides the landscape for us to do some profound spiritual wrestling with God.…
In the end, when we’re in the wilderness, we can trust that God is with us, and that we are not alone. We can trust that we belong to God and that God has named us and claimed us as God’s own. We can trust that evil never gets the last word, and that love wins—always has and always will. Let us keep trust in our hearts as we journey with Jesus in the wilderness. — Mary James
…. If in Christ we have been tempted, in Him we overcome the devil. Do you think only of Christ’s temptations and fail to think of his victory? See yourself as tempted in Him, and see yourself as victorious in Him. He could have kept the devil from himself, but if He were not tempted He couldn’t teach you how to triumph over temptation. — St Augustine
ABOUT JOURNEYS
Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. – Jane Kenyon.
And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself? — Rumi
A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.— Tim Cahill
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. — St Augustine
Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow..— Anita Desai
All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.― Martin Buber
Journeys bring power and love back into you. If you can’t go somewhere, move in the passageways of the self. They are like shafts of light, always changing, and you change when you explore them. — Rumi
I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way. — Carl Sagan
The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.— G.K. Chesterton
Do not follow where a path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. — John A. Shedd
When you come to a fork in the road, take it. — Yogi Berra
If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet. — Rachel Wolchin
All you’ve got to do is decide to go and the hardest part is over. — Tony Wheeler
You don’t choose the day you enter the world and you don’t choose the day you leave. It’s what you do in between that makes all the difference. — Anita Septimus
Wilderness— Carl Sandburg
There is a wolf in me . . .
fangs pointed for tearing gashes . . .
a red tongue for raw meat . . .
and the hot lapping of blood—
I keep this wolf because the wilderness
gave it to me and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fox in me . . . a silver-gray fox . . .
I sniff and guess . . .
I pick things out of the wind and air . . .
I nose in the dark night and
take sleepers and eat them
and hide the feathers . . .
I circle and loop and double-cross. There is a hog in me . . . a snout and a belly . . . a
machinery for eating and grunting . . .
a machinery for sleeping satisfied in the sun—
I got this too from the wilderness
and the wilderness will not let it go. There is a fish in me . . .
I know I came from salt-blue water-gates . . .
I scurried with shoals of herring . . .
I blew waterspouts with porpoises . . .
before land was . . . before the water went down . .
. before Noah . . . before the first chapter of Genesis. There is a baboon in me . . .
clambering-clawed . . . dog-faced . . .
yawping a galoot’s hunger . . .
hairy under the armpits . . .
here are the hawk-eyed hankering men . . .
here are the blonde and blue-eyed women . . .
here they hide curled asleep waiting . . .
ready to snarl and kill . . . ready to sing and give milk . . .
waiting—I keep the baboon because the wilderness says so. There is an eagle in me and a mockingbird . . .
and the eagle flies among the Rocky Mountains
of my dreams and fights among the Sierra crags of what I want . . .
and the mockingbird warbles in the early forenoon
before the dew is gone, warbles in the underbrush of my Chattanoogas of hope,
gushes over the blue Ozark foothills of my wishes—
And I got the eagle and the mockingbird from the wilderness.
O, I got a zoo, I got a menagerie, inside my ribs,
under my bony head, under my red-valve heart—
and I got something else: it is a man-child heart, a woman-child heart: it is a father and mother and lover: it came from God-Knows-Where: it is going to God-Knows-Where—For I am the keeper of the zoo: I say yes and no: I sing and kill and work: I am a pal of the world: I came from the wilderness.
Reflections on starting journeys: themes from baptismal scripture
If you can’t fly, then run,
if you can’t run, then walk,
if you can’t walk, then crawl,
but by all means keep moving.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
BELOVED IS WHERE WE BEGIN — Jan Richardson
If you would enter / into the wilderness,
do not begin / without a blessing.
Do not leave
without hearing / who you are:
Beloved, named by the One
who has traveled this path / before you.
Do not go / without letting it echo
in your ears, / and if you find
it is hard / to let it into your heart,
do not despair. / That is what
this journey is for.
I cannot promise / this blessing will free you
from danger, from fear,
from hungeror thirst,
from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night.
But I can tell you that on this path there will be help.
I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.
I can tell you that you will know
the strange graces that come to our aid
only on a road / such as this,
that fly to meet us
bearing comfort and strength,
that come alongside us / for no other cause
than to lean themselves / toward our ear
and with their / curious insistence / whisper our name:
Beloved.
Beloved.
Beloved.
SONGS about STARTING a JOURNEY
- Don’t Stop Believin‘ by Jounrey (pop): https://youtu.be/1k8craCGpgs
- Ghost / I Keep Going to the River by Ellie Henderson (pop): https://youtu.be/tA8AfQaUnXM
- My Fight Song by Rachel Platten (pop): https://youtu.be/xo1VInw-SKc
- The Journey by IFC Worship (Christiian): https://youtu.be/Uawxvj6nUPU
- Hard Love by Just Can’t Breathe (pop) :https://youtu.be/IDWhCaDgd3Y
- Will You Let Me Be Your Servant? piano : https://youtu.be/O-bFuqEiIKw
- Control by Zoe Wees (pop); https://youtu.be/VghvmL0G144
- Someday by OneRepublic (pop): https://youtu.be/vNfgVjZF8_4
- I’m No Longer a Slave to Fear by Zaxch Williams: https://youtu.be/bDnA_coA168
- Start of Something Good by Daughtry (country): :https://youtu.be/WKsyxZWQ_g0
- Start of Something New by Disne (musical): https://youtu.be/gP8xwlUbzE4
- At the Beginning by Anastasia animated film (musical): https://youtu.be/EgqXg9qPefE
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute,
Whatever you can do, or dream you can—begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, magic in it;
Only engage,—and then the mind grows heated;
Begin!—and then the work will be completed.
—Goethe
It’s just as well, my pitcher shattered
I’m free of all that hauling water!
The burden on my head is gone….
A single well, Kabira
And water-bearers many!
Pots of every shape and size
But the water always One.
— ‘Bhala Hua Meri Gagri Phooti’ –song of Kabir.
translated by Rabindranath Tagore 1915, 55-56
Blessing the Baptism — Jan Richardson
As if we could call you
anything other than
beloved
and blessed
drenched as we are
in our love for you
washed as we are
by our delight in you
born anew as we are
by the grace that flows
from the heart of the one
who bore you to us.
STARTING a JOURNEY
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.– Lao Tzu
To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. – Søren Kierkegaard
The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. – Tony Robbins
The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning. – Oprah Winfrey
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle
Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson
Tell me, O Swan, your ancient tale.
From what land do you come, O Swan ?
to what shore will you fly ?
Where would you take your rest, O Swan, and what do you seek ?
Even this morning, O Swan, awake, arise follow me !
There is a land where no doubt nor sorrow have rule: where the terror of Death is no more.
There the woods of spring are a-bloom, and the fragrant scent “He is I” is born on the wind:
There the bee of the heart is deeply immersed and desires no other joy.
— Poems of Kabir, translated by Rabindranath Tagore 1915, 55-56
COMMENTARY on BAPTISM
So I hope in this baptismal life ahead of you that when you encounter water – this most common of substances which surrounds land and comprises our bodies…I hope when you drink it in; when you dive deep in a pool of it; when you wade in a stream of it; that even when you wash dishes with it; I hope that you are reminded of the promise of life eternal: a promise that life with God is as close to you as water and bread and wine and human bodies. Because to be Christian is to know that the eternal is always contained in the present. — Nadia Bolz-Weber
Water figures in many of Jyoti’s paintings, as too in biblical imagery: the waters that were ‘the face of the deep’ before creation; the waters of the flood, over which the rainbow shone, sign of God’s covenant of peace with all creation; the waters of the Red Sea parting to liberate the fleeing slaves, the ‘children of Israel’; the ‘water of life’ with which Jesus identified himself, both with the alienated woman at the well and during debate in the temple; the waters of baptism – that of Jesus and of those who accept his way. — Jyoti Sahi Art Ashram
Jesus has become part with the waters. His character is innately like that of water. … water seeks out the lowest place. Or, as [St] Francis says in his Hymn to Creation, the waters are humble – they offer life to others and for others – and in themselves are clear, like light. — Jyoti Sahi Art Ashram
Reflections on being lost and being where you belong
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
— JRR Tolkien
Here every bird and fish knew its course. Every tree had its own place upon this earth. Only man had lost his way. ― Margaret Craven
We’re not lost. We’re just headed somewhere different.
― Emily X.R. Pan
We all seek for lost things within us. ― Toba Beta
Remember your name. Do not lose hope —what you seek will be found. ― Neil Gaiman
SONGS about BEING LOST and BEING WHERE YOU BELONG:
- Lost by Dermot Kennedy (Celtic): https://youtu.be/oK9wqtAwnoE
- See You Again by Whiz Khalifa (pop/rap): https://youtu.be/RgKAFK5djSk
- Hard Days by Brantley Gilbert (country): https://youtu.be/5A3pPJuAH7s
- Fix You by Coldplay (pop/blues): https://youtu.be/aK3TROzVRiE
- Somewhere I Belong by Linkin Park (rock/rap): https://youtu.be/4ZI8AC4AR5A
- Lost by Maroon 5 (pop): https://youtu.be/U05fwua9-D4
- Lost Are Found by Hillsong Worship (Christian): https://youtu.be/ywdaLbIjGaQ
- It’s You I’ve Been Looking For by Lewis Brice (country): https://youtu.be/LS6UTbxAiS0
- Home by Gabrielle Aplin (pop): https://youtu.be/8mVbdjec0pA
- I Lost Myself by Munn (pop): https://youtu.be/QbNEIQvgIdg
- Goodbye by NF (pop): https://youtu.be/EDw_d2_HKcA
- Lost & Lonely by Aaron Lewis (country): https://youtu.be/t5THbA_MLLc
- Lost Without You by Nightcore (pop): https://youtu.be/JRVZVMsUROo
BLESSING — Jan Richardson
You hardly knew
how hungry you were
to be gathered in,
to receive the welcome
that invited you to enter
entirely…
Tentative steps
became settling in…
You began to breathe again…
You learned to sing.
But the deal with this blessing
is that it will not leave you alone,
will not let you linger…
this blessing
will ask you to leave,
not because it has tired of you
but because it desires for you
to become the sanctuary
that you have found…
I Want to Thank the Wind Blows — Alli Warren
Sound of the rain so I knowthere’s constraintsound of the trainso I know commercehas not come to a standstillnow they raise the barriernow they set it back in place What coats the bottomof the surface of the soundwhen the swifts come inwhen the clerks come homewho will bathe the childrenwho will bake the bread when the luff is tightwhen the mainsheetstarts the boat underway whatever you do don’tlet the tongue slipfrom its moorings what’s that song?love lift us up where we belong I ate the pilland the pill was real
I Belong Here — Ray Gonzalez
There is no act of forgiveness,only the redeeming light onthe shoulders dancing intall weeds, cigarettes goneand the girls slapping free. The tortilla cart burns againstthe wall because Jesus calledmy brother who was acquiredby whistling gangs of menunder the hanging arch. There can be no night withoutthe wind on shoulders exhaustedby games and messages my brotherlost between the darkness andthe bridge into Juarez, Mexico, where no crows caw becausethe buildings are torn andflashlights are narrow intheir beaming stumble,my thoughts the last oneson this side of the river, my sudden happiness hiddenin celestial light without beingappalled at what I see, my earsto the ground listening to weedsoverrun by boys who can’t spelland are waiting for me withoutknowing pilgrims are on the border. Whatever kills them spares methe journey to beg for purityamong unspoken Spanisheveryone fears in their greed.The group doesn’t know it iswhat the river stones teach,though I can’t speak of them because faith is prehistoric andmy brother is pursued by duststorms that erase his footprintsacross the back roads where heloses his language of need.
ON BEING LOST
Lost is a lovely place to find yourself. ― Michael Faudet
Maybe family were the people who came looking for you when you were lost. ― Vikki Wakefield
I’m not sure this is a world I belong in anymore. I’m not sure that I want to wake up. ― Gayle Forman
In this world, it is too common for people to search for someone to lose themselves in. But I am already lost. I will look for someone to find myself in. ― C. JoyBell C
If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong. ― Masaru Emoto
Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost. ― Erol Ozan
Getting lost is just another way of saying ‘going exploring. ― Justina Chen Headley
I realise now that I wanted to disappear. To get so lost that nobody ever found me. To go so far away that I’d never be able to make my way home again. ― Jessica Warman
I Think it is lost…..but nothing is ever lost nor can be lost .
The body sluggish, aged, cold, the ember left from earlier fires
shall duly flame again. ― Walt Whitman
First I lost my heart. Then I lost my mind. ― Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
Slowly, with many lost days, I come back to life. ― Suzanne Collins
Sometimes I feel like I don’t belong anywhere, & it’s gonna take so long for me to get to somewhere, Sometimes I feel so heavy hearted, but I can’t explain cuz I’m so guarded. But that’s a lonely road to travel, and a heavy load to bear. And it’s a long, long way to heaven but I gotta get there
Can you send an angel
Can you send me an angel…to guide me?
― Alicia Keys
APPLY WITHIN — Suzy Kassem
You once told me
You wanted to find
Yourself in the world –
And I told you to
First apply within,
To discover the world
within you.
You once told me
You wanted to save
The world from all its wars –
And I told you to
First save yourself
From the world,
And all the wars
You put yourself
Through.
Advent Daily Devotional: BIRTHDAY of CHRIST: Day 28-Sat, Dec 25-Christmas Day
… It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them. — Isaiah 63:9
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. — James 1:17
The Lord is God, and he has given us light. — Psalm 118:27
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Light the final, fifth candle. Doing so, welcome Emmanuel—God with Us— into the world and into your life.
Godself is the holy source of love and light. Yet each person bears that light on behalf of the One who lived among humans, died as a human, and returned beyond death itself to meet you where you are on your own journey. Across centuries, your spiritual ancestors have taught that your hands and feet, your heart and mind, your acts and words embody and reflect the life of Christ.
In this imperfect, impermanent way, you carry holy light within you. Perhaps, by itself, your light is small in scale. Yet it changes the darkness and creates a point of focus and transformation. Then your singular light connects with others, multiplying its energy and effect.
The final candle you light on Christmas Day is an echo of the first and eternal light from which all other lights take their meaning and power. Thus God’s gift of love, reborn into the world, renewed in your heart, reawakened in your community, changes the world one light and one life at a time: beginning with you. Let it burn! — Rev Gail
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Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re worthy.
Agape makes them worthy by the strength and power of its love.
Agape doesn’t love somebody because they’re beautiful.
Agape loves in such a way that it makes them beautiful.
— Rob Bell
… the light is all. — Ralph Waldo Emerson