Swiftly Tilting Planet – Jackson Community Church

Reflections on being heard & listening: themes from Hebrews

By jacksonnhccPosted on October 18, 2018Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged ― Madeleine L'Engle, Anne Lamott, Colin Kaepernick, Ernest Shackleton, Joan D. Chittister, John C. Maxwell, madeline brewer, Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, maya angelou, maya angelous, meghan markle, mother teresa of calcutta, ralph waldo emerson, Ray Bradbury, Richard Rohr, Robert Kennedy, rumi, Simon Sinek, simon sinker, Soren Kierkegaard, Stephen R. Covey, Swiftly Tilting Planet, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, The Illuminated Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, William Lloyd Garrison, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily

Do you feel heard? Seen? Recognized? Beloved?

Here are Rev Barbara Brown Taylor’s thoughts on the Love who insists one being Present and bears Witness to our lives:

“I use the word “sacred” to describe something that grounds me in this world and opens me up to another world all at the same time. Oceans usually do it, especially in the middle of summer storms. The kindness of strangers does it. Getting sick does it, especially if I am so sick that I cannot do anything for myself. Being present at the birth of a new human being does it, and so does being between the sheets with someone I love. I could go on. I use the words “holy” and “divine” to describe the same phenomena. They almost involve the sense that there is a Witness to my life, a Consciousness that is for me in the best situations but also in the worst, where this Sacredness is working around the clock to make life out of death for me and every other living thing.”

We had seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that Nature renders.
We had reached the naked soul of man.
— Ernest Shackleton

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens.
Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying,
but also something wonderful happens to me.
I’m grateful that I’m heard.
— Maya Angelou

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi

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Themes of listening for a holy call filled with passion and purpose from Book of 1 Samuel.

By jacksonnhccPosted on May 31, 2018Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged 1 Samuel, Active Listening, Annie Dillard, Beyonce, call, calling, Colin Powell, Dorothy Sayers, Ellen Davis, Émile Zola, Ernest Hemingway, Fran Lebowitz, God, Jacqueline Novogratz, Jane Goodall, Jordan Raynor, Krista Tippett, Leo Buscaglia, Lord, Madeleine L'Engle, Marie Howe, mindtools.com, Mothere Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, Oswald Chambers, passion, prophet, Purpose, Relevant Magazine, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sally Sheffield, Sarah Dessen, Simon Sinek, Simone Weil, skillsyouneed.com, Stephen Covey, Stephen King, Swiftly Tilting Planet, Vincent van Gogh, Zeno of Citium

Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind. ― Madeleine L’Engle, Swiftly Tilting Planet

The Meadow (excerpt) — Marie Howe

Bedeviled,
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 …

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