Advent Daily Devotional: WEEK of HOPE – DAY 3 -Tue, Nov 30
O hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night? — Jeremiah 14:8
Why is light given to one who cannot see the way,
whom God has fenced in? For my sighing comes likemy bread,
and my groanings are poured out like water. — Job 3: 23-24
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Shining a light doesn’t always mean dispelling the difficult truths it reveals. When building resilience, which feeds hope, researchers state that many people begin with an optimistic or idealized worldview. For instance, many folks originally believe that the world is safe, the world is good, and good things will happen for good people.
Often experiences of trauma, challenge, or loss dismantle such an overly-idealistic worldview. Lee Daniel Kravetz writes, “This can feel terrifying and painful, but it’s healthy to accept a new, more realistic perspective. The world is safe—but also unsafe. Good things happen to good people—but bad things do too. I am a good person—but that doesn’t protect me from trauma.” When you shine a light, and then examine what you discover there, and allow it to reframe your perspective, this may become a strength. Now you have created the framework that allows you to discover how you can be a change-maker.
Knowing what you’re facing or undertaking, you also know what needs to adapt or change. Thus you can begin to imagine and plan for how to create that transformation. Jane Goodall, who collaborated with Douglas Adams on The Book of Hope, states, “Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”
One light can become the spark that starts a revolution. — Rev Gail
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You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope. — Thomas Merton
As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.— Mary Anne Radmacher
Themes of listening for a holy call filled with passion and purpose from Book of 1 Samuel.
Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind. ― Madeleine L’Engle, Swiftly Tilting Planet
human, your plight, in waking, is to choose from the words
that even now sleep on your tongue, and to know that tangled
among them and terribly new is the sentence that could change your life.
3 Questions for Discerning Your Calling
(excerpt)— Jordan Raynor, Relevant Magazine
… entrepreneurs and creatives … tended to ask three excellent questions when discerning God’s calling on their lives:
- What am I passionate about?
- What gifts has God given me?
- Where do I have the greatest opportunity to love others?
It’s these three questions which will help you discern where God has called you to expend your energies …
Reflections on Earth Day
Learn More
- Creation Justice Ministries Earth Day resources
- Pope Francis encyclical on environment and human ecology Laudato Si
Of the Earth
The good man is the friend of all living things. —Gandhi
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together … all things connect. —Chief Seattle
Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs, — To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress its music. —Percy Bysshe Shelley
The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations. —John Paul II
What’s the use of a fine house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on. —Henry David Thoreau
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead
One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken. —Leo Tolstoy
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty. —John Ruskin
You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of a difference you want to make. —Jane Goodall
The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil … the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings. — Gerard Manley Hopkins
Walking in Beauty:
Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony
In beauty I walk
With beauty before me I walk
With beauty behind me I walk
With beauty above me I walk
With beauty around me I walk
It has become beauty again …
Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.
In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.
With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful…