Psalm – Beguine Again

Feb92016 by a quiet walkNo Comments

Ash Wednesday Meditation – Prayerful Tuesday

Ash Wednesday, Change, Christianity, courage, Failing, faith, Fear, forgiveness, God, Hebrew Scripture, Lent/Ash Wednesday, prayer, Psalm, repentance and fasting, Scripture, spiritual practice, Uncategorized

“Therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job: 42:6 “You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.” Psalm 51:6 Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Growing up in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) tradition I knew about Ash Wednesday but the community I worshiped in didn’t celebrate it. It wasn’t until I was an adult, and living in California, that I really understood that having a smudge of ashes on my forehead meant repentance. Repentance is not just saying sorry, it means examining my past behavior and then changing what I do in the world, turning my actions around to behave as the faithful follower of Jesus I wish to be. And unless I begin the process of change, or at least try to repen...

Psalms of Lament and Hope – Prayerful Tuesday

"Life" Issues, anger, Broken Heart, Change, Comfort, comforter, Compassion, conflict, courage, death, doubt, entering into suffering, faith, faithfulness, Fear, Friendship, Fundamentalism, generosity, gift, God, Grace, Grief, Guns, hate, Healing, Hebrew Scripture, Holy Mystery, Hope, hunger, in memory of, Intecessory Prayer, justice, kindness, Lament, memories, mercy, news, overwhelmed, peace, peace and justice, prayer, Psalm, sadness, Scripture, sorrow, spiritual growth, spiritual practice, terrorism, Uncategorized, violence

The only gift I have to offer this week is my sorrow for Paris, Beirut, Syria, Iraq, and all of us. So I offer the Psalms I go to when I am in the midst of sorrow and pain. May your hearts be comforted by the words of the psalmist and may your find solace knowing others cry with you. Psalm 36:1-4 (MSG) A David Psalm 1-4 The God-rebel tunes in to sedition— all ears, eager to sin. He has no regard for God, he stands insolent before him. He has smooth-talked himself into believing That his evil will never be noticed. Words gutter from his mouth, dishwater dirty. Can’t remember when he did anything decent. Every time he goes to bed, he fathers another evil plot. When he’s loose on the streets, nobody’s safe. He plays with fire and doesn’t care who gets burned. Psalm 42 (NRSV) 1As a deer l...

Shepherd Me, O God – Prayerful Tuesday

anger, Blessings, Change, Chanting, Comfort, comforter, Compassion, conflict, courage, Creation, Creator, entering into suffering, faith, faithfulness, Fear, forgiveness, generosity, Grace, Gratitude, Grief, hate, Holy Mystery, Hope, inner peace, Joy, kindness, mercy, news, Pain and Suffering, peace, Poetry, prayer, Psalm, remembrance, Rest, Shepherds, spiritual practice, Stillness, Uncategorized, violence

Psalm 23:1-3 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul.*He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. In the last several months I have been struggling to find the calm midst the shootings in Umpqua, the deaths of those fighting wild fires, more shootings (at least one a week), floods, earthquakes, and all of the other disasters that seem to be all that is ever reported by news media. I know I will not find any meaning in any of these crises, so, I am looking for a way through the noise and pain I hear, read about, and feel within. Yesterday I found my still point when I happened upon the following poem written by grandfather: Commentary on the 23rd Psalm “In pastures green?” Not alway...