Tag: faith

Words in Sentences

Psalm 80 for the Modern Person

by ErinLeave a Comment on Psalm 80 for the Modern Person

I found Psalm 80 to be so applicable when you feel stuck in a relationship situation. The poetry in it when you read it several times is wildly symbolic to how we must listen to our needs of our body & spirit to navigate trying situations. And how recognizing your desire for something different is part of the change you crave. Soli Deo Gloria.

Listen,

To the voice that guides me to choose rest & hydration, that leads me alongside others who value rest & hydration & other good things,

You are spiritual in nature. In between the creation of music & music itself, in the blend of harmony.

You, spiritual voice that guides us to choose good things for our bodies, you are a light.

We all have access to you. You give perspective.

Come present now and help us all see. (v. 1,2)

selah

To wake up clear headed, to feel able & willing – this is what will mark a shift in my perspective. This is what we all need.

To smile, like a sunflower smiling at the sun.

To feel clear, able & willing, to smile from the heart – that is how I want to feel when I wake up. This will make a difference.

The rut I am in feels long. I know it will pass but this? This is brutal.

My body has taken in grief.

All of my relationships and my experiences within them point me to some aspect of this cycle I am in.

Shift my perspective so I wake fresh with a clear mind. Bring my eyes open through the beauty of the natural world so I can feel strong in my spirit and generous with kindness. (v. 3-7)

selah

The character of people & circumstances flourish and mature in the pattern of nature: rooting, transforming through seasons, branching out, producing fruit. (v. 8-11)

Since this can be seen as truth, so must it be true we can be taken advantage of, we can be wiped out… conditions can cause us to wilt.

Why? Because it is natural? Natural to end? To go to compost?

So this could be it for me, for the relationship, for the situation, for the job. This could be the end. (v. 12-14)

Yet, I am writing this because my spirit is alive and desiring growth and relationship.

It feels anointed, my suffering feels directional – strengthen me in this. (v. 15-17)

So, again, please –

Divine perspective, clear trustworthy voice, you – the radical shift that comes in day to day miracles & awe inspiring wonder –

Hold me with your left hand’s counsel & protect me with the power of your right,

I am committed to understanding.

I will trust your presence.

I will recognize the present compared to the past and I will remain present in relationship to the future.

Warm my heart, teach me gentleness – so I can be clear with the most precise good thought. (v. 18-19)

Words in Sentences

On Peace

by Erin1 Comment on On Peace

It’s Sunday morning and I’m outside by a fire in some great midwestern Feb sun, a hoodie and with a jelly jar of 2019 (our engagement year) Washington red wine.

David is walking up with some dry firewood I had stashed in my vintage (2006?) Honda from a workshop I taught back in the fall. I am breathing deep and reflecting – a lot – on Kindness, its relationship to Peace and how often we are required to call these forward because there is more LOVE in our life.

That’s right. I believe as Love increases in your life, there is a shift in how much Peace you experience.

Think about getting a puppy. More Love, less Peace. It makes sense.

Just as I write this, I notice the warm body of my blonde boy dog, Thor. Gorgeous dog, honestly who is now getting pets and ear strokes from David. Also enjoying the casual sunshine on a winter morning, we all know spring is a thing and are happy to see the world turning its way.

I believe as God gives you more Love through people and through dogs, the shift in how much Peace the external world gives you is not to make you question the Love or its meaning but to draw you inward. For what more is the spirit of Peace than the breath? The balance of alternate nostril breathing, the purification of breath of fire, the immediate effects of more oxygen in the brain from simple 3 part or 6 count inhales. I mean. Peace, I think, has always been meant to come from within.

I like to say I don’t know what I am doing with my life and I tend towards the struggle of “what’s the point and purpose” but I know how it feels to stumble upon freeing spiritual perspective and if there is one thing I can offer the world, it would be – at minimum – a sample of the truth in my life that is making navigation easier. Note: It’s not making hard things easier, it’s making the navigation of life easier. Hard things will always be hard.

My reflections this morning started as noticing how self love is God’s love and morphed into how inner peace is God’s Peace. I read Psalm 13 and replaced “Lord” with Peace and broke down the words to feel applicable: “How long, Peace – will you forget me forever? How long will you hide what you look like these days (face) from me?”

What does Peace look like these days?

There is an American Spiritual Song that references Peace “like a river” – Peace as changeable, fluid, evolving. But yet, always in the same direction – always headed for it’s bigger place. Able to carry, able to be explored. Peace can look like anything.

For me, a big part of my spiritual life is noticing how my faith in something bigger than me that gives me purpose requires me to grow and change. I think of the whole process like a plant. A little tender plant brought home from the nursery and how – no matter how long I have been gardening – I always brace myself for that first heavy rain or forceful wind. Astonished the next morning how the plant seems a little stronger because of what it weathered.

Its first full day in blazing sun where it looks parched and in desperate need of water, to then drink and seem to have grown an inch.

What are you taking in? Through your body, your senses, your heart? And how is the heat of it? The force of it? Changing you?

That growth, seems to be, an internal process based on what the plant takes in from the outside.

So what does Peace look like for you today?

And how can you use that breath – that fire – that sunshine – that ease to allow the internal processes to take in the elements of life and transform your heart?

Just keep figuring yourself out, honestly. Is all you can do.
Words in Sentences

About Easter

by Erin2 Comments on About Easter

The more I have come to live, the more I have come to realize that in waves of doubt or despair – literally equal in that moment – are hope and celebration.

The church has failed so many people and Easter really is simply undoubtedly a celebration of spring, light after darkness, new life and the mystery of creation… the joy you feel when the green of your hostas or ferns, the yellow of your tulips or lillies straight up usher in the first real day of winter being over.

These are undebatable truths. These can be communally celebrated, witnessed and experienced.

But about Easter.

I am an Easter person. And it’s not because I was raised on lyrics like “veiled in flesh the Godhead see” or “Christ the Lord has RISEN TODAY – ALLELUIA”. Which built an understanding of a savior and my need to be saved.

And though I am suspicious to believe I am Easter person because I have experienced ruach – spirit – pranayama in the humbly low brass tones of // crown him with many crowns – the lamb upon the throne // and how (even in this very moment) I am moved to tears thinking of how love is bigger than me, love requires faith, and so LOVE must be DIVINE. Holy. Recognition worthy. Eyes closed feel it worthy, divine. I know it’s not just that.

No. I think deep in my bones I am an Easter person because I know moments in my life where I have experienced a different, more peaceful or positive, emotion after a terribly anxious, fearful one have been moments where I have sacrificed, let the bad guys have their way while keeping my belief, or where I held the hand of a dying woman to then witness the peace of her dead body; her spirit obviously not there.

Maybe religious Easter coincided with seeing Christ energy in the sun, the green, the grass. Or feeling the open hearts of those experiencing beautify after thunder, darkness and silence. Maybe we should all scale it back out of headlined beliefs and generational religion and feel what we know to be true: the natural cycle of new life coming after death.

I am an Easter person. A finder and lover of the silver lining. A collector of rocks, an exchanger of peace, an encourager of hope.

A lover of green ferns.

A celebrator of the faithfulness of the rising sun and moon.