Shining Spirit

For all who wake today with pain
both physical and spiritual,
may you be wrapped in the
warm blanket of Comforting Love

For all who in this day face
life changing decisions
may the doors of your mind be
open to Sacred Wisdom

For leaders of nations
in this trembling world
may you find Courage
to act for the welfare of all Creation

For those who fear others
because they are different by color or culture
may you see with Spiritual Eyes
the relatedness of all living beings

If all your efforts seem futile
and the meaning of life fades
may Clarity and Hope
rise within you

May the Spirit of unrelenting Love
walk beside you and
whisper to your heart
“You are loved
You are a priceless creation
You are never alone”

Hold tightly to Hope
Take one more step beyond the limit of your trust
Love in spite of…

The thought that occupies a lot of time and space in the minds of both clergy and laity is “Will the Church survive into the 21st century?”  Responses to that hard question are on both sides of the coin.  But whether there is agreement one way or the other, it seems that nobody has the blueprints of structure or function for the future.

Maybe blueprints are part of the problem.  Perhaps the fluidity of the future demands a flexibility that is just on the edge of our imaginations.  Edges are always scary.  Can imaginations be trusted?  Well, consider that imagination might be just another alias for Spirit.  Some people say that without holy imagination the future looks gloomy.  And they may be right.

I agree that “tall steeple” churches have served us well, at least into the 1950s.  But surely there are other ways to point us toward the Mystery of the universe, to lift our faces to see hope and the inherent value of creation.

I believe that form defines function.  An organizational mind organizes into structures and units.  I’m sure that serves corporations well, but I question that mentality in the evolving life of the Spiritual Body we have named church.  I don’t think the 21st century and beyond is going to welcome the form or its function that we know so well.  If we insist on replicating the form that satisfies us, then the function really won’t change. Voices that call for a new way of doing faith without regard for the issue of form are pointing us in the wrong direction.  I hope the church that emerges tomorrow will be daring in its imaginings about the “how” and the “what” of its evolving faith.

The universal Christ has been and will continue to be The Way, but the richness of that Way will be found when creativity and faith together produce the form and the functions that reach the inherent Spirit in all people.   To that end, I hope for clear minds, creative imaginations, tender hearts and fearless faith in women and men who trust and dare.  Trusting is the easy part.  It’s the daring that will tell the tale.

Come Sacred Imagination…come Inspiring Ingenuity.

Find some beauty in your day!

Can you imagine a Jackson Pollock
in all brown?  Or all of any single
color…you pick it.

Or books on the library shelf.
All one color, one size, same number
of pages, identical type size?

What if every bird sang the same song
and all jelly beans were pink?

This beautiful world is beautiful because
it shines through the many colors
of the rainbow.  Creation won’t abide
one color, one style, one shape.

The day of black and white talkies
is over, folks.
This is a technicolor world!
The gift of Creation.

I’m not sure which way the wind
will blow today, but it doesn’t matter.
I will stretch out on a friendly current and
ride into the NeverBefore, a place
uncharted, off the common map
where nothing is right
and nothing is wrong
and everything is possible.

Would you like to go, too?
No ticket required.
No plan allowed.
Just a willingness to discover and
the ability to say
“Wow!”

Today hard decisions are going to be made.
I may not make any, and maybe you won’t either.

But somebody will agonize over a decision about
divorce and breaking up a family.
And someone will tremble in fear about chemotherapy
and what that means.

And parents will lay in bed holding hands and wondering
where their 14-year-old child is at this time of the morning.
And a middle-aged woman will wonder how many more
days she can carry the shame of something that never
should have been done.

A 16-year-old boy will sit on his bed and look at a bottle
of pills on the bedside table and wonder what he’s done
to be so unloved.

There is more suffering around the corner and up the street
than you and I can imagine.  No one is exempt.  Seems like
everybody is about two steps away from an unbearable load.

While comfort won’t solve the problems, compassion doesn’t
cost anything except some time, and you’ve got some of that,
don’t you?

Today some folks we know are going to make some hard
decisions.  To the extent that we can, you and I ought to
be part of the equation as light and as love, in prayer
and in presence.

The load is a bit easier to carry and the hard decisions
a little less painful with a friend.

Hospitality takes many forms.
She sits on the porch to welcome friends
and strangers to the home.
But her expression never changes,
once bright flowers fade in the hot sun.
Where is the life, the genuineness?
The animation of Spirit?

Today, in all my contacts with people,
I will remember that a hospitable
spirit is one energized by
Spirit.

In my speaking and in my listening,
in my working and in my resting,
in the heat of conflict and the joy of cooperation,
in every turn in the road today,
animate me, Ever Present One.
Live in and through me.
May it be so.