Scripps Sundays

a sleepy pika picture :) 

 I loved the Hebrews passage I shared with you last week so much that I am using it for Lectio again this week! 

 Anna, I'm sending this a few days early as I think it's worth chewing on all weekend long.... These are the things I wrote about from my spiritual direction time this week.  Take it for what it's worth-- I think some of this is meant for you.... 💛💛💛💛💛    May we come to this time to keep company with God and to learn how God’s Spirit relates to us and how our Spirit relates to God. As students of the Spirit, this is not academic knowledge we are pursuing; it’s experiential knowledge. It’s not about achieving an end to something more, but it’s for the purity of the relationship so it can be more grounded and deeper. May we keep moving deeper into grace and love. And when we catch ourselves moving away from it, we can stop, change course, and trust, putting aside the things that are weighing us down. We can get back in step with the Spirit with ZERO shame or condemnation when we fall down. We should not be surprised that we get tripped up.  For when we forg...

 

  Anne Lamott: “There are tools out there to help you do the healing from that existential shame that a lot of us carry- this involves love and telling the truth and some writing.” “My best friend died when I was 37. A few weeks before she died, we went shopping because I had this new boyfriend, and we were going to a Lucinda Williams concert and he wanted me to wear a cute dress and get dressed up. (I don’t have cute dresses – I dress like John Goodman). She was in a wig and a wheelchair, and I came out to model the dress for her and said, “Do you think this makes me look big in the hips?” And she looked at me so lovingly, “Annie, you don’t have that kind of time.” And it radicalized me.” “I needed community around me. I needed women who had done the healing around these things.” “It’s BIRD by BIRD.” Jenn Hatmaker: “I’m in the process of actively rejecting this line item, but I am in the messy fight.” Anne Lamott: “Every time we do the radical self-love on ourselves… eve...

I have three things to share with you today....  Some goodness today from Kate Bowler:  "Consider gratitude not as a solution to pain, but as a way of taking in what’s before us, brightening our days, even when this feels impossible to do.  So here’s a blessing for when gratitude feels hard to come by:  God, I am struggling to find my way toward gratitude. Help my heart find joy, for you know how much I need it. Come meet us in our needs that weigh so heavily upon us. Blessed are we who come to you just as we are, with our loneliness and loss, our scarcity and sorrow, and say God, there is just not enough. Though we’re not even supposed to say it today, there is just not enough to go on: not enough money to pay bills, not enough jobs, nor safety for those who have them, not enough wisdom to find solutions, not enough strength or comfort or connection. Things are just harder now. Blessed are we who say, God, could you come meet us here, in this place? This place of n...

  Lectio Reflections on Deuteronomy 33:12 12  About Benjamin he said: “Let the beloved of the  Lord  rest secure in him,      for he shields him all day long,      and the one the  Lord  loves rests between his shoulders.” (NIV)  12  Of Benjamin he said, “May the beloved of the  Lord   [ a ] dwell in safety by Him; He shields  and  covers him all the day long, And he dwells between His shoulders.”   (Amplified Bible)  12  Benjamin: “ God ’s beloved;      God ’s permanent residence. Encircled by  God  all day long, Encircled by  God  all day long,      within whom  God  is at home.” (The Message)     💛 💛 💛 💛 💛 Let us hear afresh that we are beloved. Beloved is always where we begin. [1] We are known and loved by God who made us. With this we ha...

a blessing for the body Blessed is the body that offers soft hugs on hard days. Whose curves fit our pets and our kids and our partners. Whose hands hold another alongside hospital beds and in nursing homes and at the altar and on the first day of school. Whose breasts nurse and legs run to chase littles and whose toes balance us on the earth. Whose wrinkles tell stories of laughs and tears and worries. Blessed are these imperfect, fragile bodies. This flesh and bone. These cells that sometimes duplicate for no reason whatsoever. This skin that is stitched together with scars and stretch marks and fine lines. Blessed is the body because it is a home. Not just for us, but for those who love us. And sometimes you just need to stand in front of the mirror and take off all your clothes, and remember that this body, your body, is God’s home address.  p.s. That last line is inspired by Barbara Brown Taylor, who always says it best. - Kate Bowler  And might I also remind you of this ...