Scripps Sundays

   Oh God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.  Soothe my tiredness; quiet my fretfulness; curb my aimlessness; relieve my compulsiveness; let me be easy for a moment. O Lord, release me from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly; from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip, that I may be open to receiving what you give, to risking something genuinely new, to learning something refreshingly different. Forgive me for claiming so much for myself that I leave no room for gratitude; for confusing exercises in self-importance with acceptance of self-worth; for complaining so much of my burdens that I become a burden; for competing against others so insidiously that I stifle celebrating them and receiving your blessing through their gifts. O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me. Amen. Ted Loder,   Guerillas of Grace  

This year, instead of on Patriot's Day in April as is the usual day, 20,000 runners gathered to run the epic Boston Marthon on Monday, October 11th. This poem was posted below and I loved it so much.  Our niece ran the Boston Marathon yesterday, her ninth marathon; her fourth in Boston. The marathon is like unto the Realm of God. Everybody cheers for everybody. No teams, no sides, no winners and losers. (One person wins; the other 30,000 just run.) Andrea wasn’t trying to win; she was just running— though she ran an alarmingly steady eight-and-a-half-minute mile. One year she nearly collapsed from dehydration, staggered into the medical tent at mile 22, and eventually was able to walk the rest of the course. Yesterday I tracked her, passing the tent, running on. At the finish line some people raise their arms as if they’ve won. Some kiss the ground as if returning from Mars. They have indeed won. Every day people around you are bearing unseen burdens, overcoming invisible challenge...

  O Extravagant God,  in this ripening, red-tinged autumn, waken in me a sense of joy in just being alive, joy for nothing in general except everything in particular; joy in sun and rain mating with earth to birth a harvest; joy in soft light through shyly disrobing trees; joy in the acolyte moon setting halos around processing clouds; joy in the beating of a thousand wings mysteriously knowing which way is warm; joy in wagging tails and kids' smiles and in this spunky old city; joy in the taste of bread and wine, the smell of dawn, a touch, a song, a presence; joy in having what I cannot live without- other people to hold and cry and laugh with; joy in love, in you; and that all at first and last is grace. -Ted Loder,  Guerillas of Grace 

  This verse was the one that our neighborhood group meditated on for our Lectio time on Friday morning, and I know it has been one that you and I have talked about through the years.  As I heard you talk today about productivity, I thought of this verse along with this challenge below that I read this summer in the book The Gifts of Imperfection:  "Take 5 minutes today to create a list naming the ingredients for joy and meaning.  Make a list of the specific conditions that are in place when everything feels good in your life.  Then check that list against your to-do list and your to-accomplish list.  How does this give you perspective?"  -Brene Brown May these bring encouragement and challenge as you spend your days this week...  Counting down the days until we get to see you! 

I heard a podcast today where Jan Richardson was being interviewed and read this blessing below called "Blessing the Body", and she also quoted Barbara Brown Taylor who  said something along the lines that at some point every now and then, you've just got to take off all your clothes and stand in front of the mirror and say, "This is God’s address." (I dug up the real quote from the book below).  Blessing The Body This blessing takes one look at you and all it can say is holy. Holy hands. Holy face. Holy feet. Holy everything in between. Holy even in pain. Holy even when weary. In brokenness, holy. In shame, holy still. Holy in delight. Holy in distress. Holy when being born. Holy when we lay it down at the hour of our death. So, friend, open your eyes (holy eyes). For one moment see what this blessing sees, this blessing that knows how you have been formed and knit together in wonder and in love. Welcome this blessing that folds its hands in prayer when it meet...