identities – Jackson Community Church

Reflections on Lent 2: Genesis 17 & Mark 8: names, identities, life, self.

By jacksonnhccPosted on February 20, 2018Posted in Home, Justice & Activism, Weekly MeditationsTagged "Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start" O, "Losing Myself to Find Myself", "Who Do Men Say That I Am?", Alan Brehm, ames H. Cone, and Joy, Anne Lamott, Billy Graham, Brian Doyle, Bruce Epperly, Center for Action and Contemplation, Credo, Cullen Murphy, Dave Barnhart, David Lose, Following the Path: The Search for a Life of Passion, Fr Richard Rohr, G.K.Chesterton, identities, In the Meantime, Joan Chittister, John R.W. Stott, Jurgen Moltmann, life, martin luther king jr, Nadia Bolz-Weber, ohn Adams, Oscar A. Romero, Patheos, patheos.com, Pulpit Fiction., Purpose, Reflections on Lent 2: Genesis 17 & Mark 8: names, Robb Mc Coy and Eric Fistler, Romano Guardini, rumi, self., Sermon on Losing Your Life, Sr Joan Chittister, The Adams-Jefferson Letters:, The Atlantic.com, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, The Oprah Magazine, The Violence of Love, Theology of Hope, Thich Nhat Hanh, Waking Dreamer, Walt Whitman, William H. Willimon

Themes in Lenten readings from Genesis 17 and Mark 8 about claiming names, embracing new life, and transforming identity. Meditations on ideas such as “Taking up the cross” and “losing life to gain it.”

I celebrate myself, and sing myself,

And what I assume you shall assume,

For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
— Song of Myself, Walt Whitman

Soul, if you want to learn secrets,
your heart must forget about shame  and dignity.
You are God’s lover,  yet you worry what people are saying.
― Jalaluddin Mevlana Rumi

Giving Up a Life, a Self, an Identity: Themes from Mark 8

Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your anger, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness. ― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and LiberationWe begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be. The only problem is that there is also so much other stuff, typically fixations with how people perceive us, how to get more of the things that we think will make us happy, and with keeping our weight down. So the real issue is how do we gently stop being who we aren’t? … Here’s how I became myself: mess, failure, mistakes, disappointments, and extensive reading; limbo, indecision, setbacks, addiction, public embarrassment, and endless conversations with my best women friends; the loss of people without whom I could not live, the loss of pets that left me reeling, dizzying betrayals but much greater loyalty, and overall, choosing as my motto William Blake’s line that we are here to learn to endure the beams of love. — Anne Lamott, “Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start” O, The Oprah Magazine

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