Author Archives: karbly

Meet God in the Wilderness, Part 2
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. -Luke 4:1-2

Lenten Reflection Questions:

• When have you been “led by the Spirit in wilderness”?
• The story of Jesus in the wilderness immediately precedes his missional proclamation in Luke 4:18-19. Read the text below and the text above. How do you think Jesus’ time being “tested” in the wilderness clarified his sense of call to mission?

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
    and recovery of sight to the blind,
        to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. -Luke 4:18-19

Prayer Phrase

Are we moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One?

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Meet God in the Wilderness
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin, Spiritual Formation Ministries

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. -Luke 4:1-2

The church’s future is related directly to our willingness to go where the Spirit is calling us to go. -Stephen M. Veazey, “Time to Act!”

When one of us says, “Look, there\’s nothing out there,” what we are really saying is, “I cannot see.” -Terry Tempest Williams, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert, p. 69

Did you know there are over 2,000 plant species and 700 animal species in the Mojave Desert? Encounters with this seemingly barren desert wilderness might have you guessing otherwise. The conditions can be harsh. The habitat is exposed. But sit atop a rock for a while and you may be surprised at what you see. What at first appears uninhabitable is actually teeming with life that knows how to be sustained in precisely these conditions.

It certainly feels like a desert time for many individuals and communities of faith. Much has gone dry in us. There is a strong urge in the desert moments of our lives to avoid this uncomfortable spiritual terrain for the lush green of familiar experience and cool water plentiful for quenching our thirst. And yet, here we are. However much we may wish for a return to what was, we cannot be other than where we are right now. The wisdom of the spiritual journey would even say to us-growth comes from moving through what is actually happening, not trying to evade it.

If we look at our history, we can notice a pattern. Every time our spiritual ancestors were in the wilderness, it felt hard, there can be no doubt; but it was always a precursor to some infusion of clarity, integrity, hope, calling that changed their trajectory and deepened their faith. We, too, can wander and lament about what appears to be sparse conditions, or we can choose to see what is here and imagine what thriving even in these conditions might look like.

In fact, some of our ancestors chose the desert, on purpose, as the place to live their spiritual callings. The desert mothers and fathers in fourth-century Egypt moved to the desert when Christianity became the religion of the empire. They were concerned that something essential and transformative might be lost as Christians got more comfortable. They moved into “cells” and lived disciplined lives of radical simplicity. Craving the substance of this simple way, crowds of people began to move into the desert to join them. This was the birthplace of early monasticism and most contemplative prayer forms (including centering prayer and lectio divina) that are still shaping us today.

John Moses writes, “The desert is a place of truth, where men and women can find the truth about God and the truth about themselves. The immensity of the desert removes the pretensions of life. The barrenness of the desert prepares the way for the things that can only be accomplished by God” (The Desert: An Anthology for Lent, pp. 15-16). What way is being prepared in you, in us, in these wilderness times? We have too often confused comfort and success with God’s presence. God is wherever we are, even here, even in the places we never thought we would be. God is waiting to meet us in this wilderness.

Maybe this is a time to hunker down in your “cell” and embrace a simpler way for a while, to get to know the rhythms of a new landscape, to breathe relief in what is being naturally uncluttered and uncrowded. Perhaps this is an opportunity to reclaim the essence of our Christhood, to recover that something essential that often gets lost in the busyness of church and life as usual. What if this is actually what people are spiritually hungry for?

Did you know there are over 2,000 plant species and 700 animal species in the Mojave Desert? What else may be thriving in unexpected places that we are just now learning to see?

Prayer Phrase

Are we moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One?

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Strength in Vulnerability
Scott Murphy, First Presidency

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. -Matthew 4:1-2

If you are like me, there are times in the busyness of life when I would like to skip over the season of Lent and get right to the joyful celebration of Easter. The journey between Lent and Easter requires something of us that is not always easy or comfortable.

Our theme this first Sunday in Lent highlights what I’m suggesting-Strength in Vulnerability. Being vulnerable is not an attribute most people strive to achieve. Vulnerability requires a willingness to let down our guard and to be open to see life-our life-in different ways. Yet, being vulnerable, as uncomfortable as it may be, is precisely what we need to explore the kind of new life God is inviting us to experience. This is what we encounter in the story of Jesus’ time in the wilderness.

At the heart of this story, the Gospel writer encourages us to see the human side of Jesus and his willingness to be vulnerable. Jesus does not achieve this by seizing power for himself, by testing or negotiating with God, or by finding an easier way to skip the cross and jump right to Easter morning. This story is about what Jesus discovered when he was willing to be vulnerable to the divine love that journeyed with him.

This is why we need this time of Lent. There is no skipping the journey to jump immediately to Easter. The new life that awaits us takes on deeper meaning when we are willing to be vulnerable in our own “wilderness-time” of self-examination and reflection.

May your Lenten journey be filled with new discoveries of life as you choose to be vulnerable in your own wilderness. There you will discover the person God is calling you to be and find the strength to live out that calling.

Prayer Phrase

Are we moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One?

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Discover What Is Enough
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin of Independence, MO, USA

And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably and to render to every [person] according to that which [he or she] is…due. -Mosiah 2:24, adapted

During Lent, we will share a story to dwell on throughout the week with questions for reflection. This slow, repeated practice of sacred reading and reflection is an invitation to simplicity and deepening during the Lenten season.

The poet Wendell Berry proclaims, “What we need is here.” This is my Lenten prayer this year. I am going to take a break from being on my way to somewhere better and rest a while in an unknown land. Appreciating where I am for what it is, I echo Berry’s invitation, “…and we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.”

Sit for a while in this wilderness place and join me. Take in the expansive view and let your soul settle in. Rest your gaze into what is unfamiliar and find delight in unexpected beauty. Notice the creatures, plants, flowers that call this place home. Ask yourself what you really need. Take delight in discovering what is enough. Find life in the Lenten wilderness.

Lenten Reflection Questions:

1. What do you really need? What is enough?
2. What surprising life is waiting to be discovered even in unknown or unfamiliar spiritual territory?

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

The Sacred in the Unfamiliar
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin of Independence, MO, USA

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace-
    in peace because they trust in you. -Isaiah 26:3

During Lent, we will share a story to dwell on throughout the week with questions for reflection. This slow, repeated practice of sacred reading and reflection is an invitation to simplicity and deepening during the Lenten season.

We are quick to resist what we do not know, but there are gifts to discover here. We remember that the season of Lent is a critical formational opportunity to be steeped in the wisdom, depth, and integrity of Jesus that leads to new life. We try to bypass the wilderness places in our spiritual journey to get to the “good parts” like resurrection, but good things happen here, too! The Israelites receive enough manna for each day, the prophet Isaiah envisions a desert in full bloom, and after Jesus resists the temptations, he is comforted and cared for.

What if this Lent we rested for a while in this wilderness place to take a look around and appreciate what is here? What if we stopped trying to get through the wilderness to somewhere else and began to recognize the sacred abundance in unfamiliar places? What if being formed in the rhythm of Christ isn’t just about enduring the parts of the journey we’d rather avoid, but entering them deeply with an open and willing heart? Moving toward Jesus, the peaceful one, entails following him through the whole journey of transformation-and discovering in what we resist the deepest invitations to new life we have been seeking.

Lenten Reflection Questions:

1. What gifts may be waiting in what you resist?
2. Where do you sense the Spirit’s presence when you pay attention to what is instead of trying to be somewhere else?

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Wilderness Places
Katie Harmon-McLaughlin of Independence, MO, USA

For the word of the Lord is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. -Psalm 33:4-5

During Lent, we will share a story to dwell on throughout the week with questions for reflection. This slow, repeated practice of sacred reading and reflection is an invitation to simplicity and deepening during the Lenten season.

Throughout scripture, some of the most important, transformational moments for our spiritual ancestors happened in wilderness places. The wilderness was a place people were driven to enter in exile, transition, and discernment. Ours seems to be a wilderness time. Many are observing that what once felt reliable, comfortable, familiar has slipped out of our grasp, and we can’t find a way to return to what we knew before. We are wandering in an unfamiliar landscape that at first gaze seems inhospitable. Like the Israelites, we cry out for sustenance in a strange land.

Each year that the season of Lent arrives, it seems to be an exact description of a prolonged condition experienced by many individuals and communities of faith. In his 2017 Address, President Veazey described this strange new landscape we find ourselves in, “The word of calling, hope, and possibility emerges from the reality that great change is happening in the world. And the rate of change is accelerating. This change includes how people view God, culture, finances, technology, politics, and religious institutions.”

Lenten Reflection Questions:

1. How do the stories of our biblical ancestors speak to us about the conditions in which we find ourselves now?
2. How have you experienced great change in the church, the world, and your own life? How does this season of change impact how we enter the Lenten season?

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

What We Need Is Here: An Invitation to the Lenten Season
Katie Harmon McLaughlin of Independence, MO, USA

Then I turned to the Lord God, to seek an answer by prayer and supplication with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. -Daniel 9:3

Walking through Joshua Tree National Park in the Mojave Desert, I gaze out at the vast, dusty expanse. Occasional cacti, palm trees, and the famous Joshua trees themselves are scattered throughout the landscape. Towering rock formations beckon from the horizon. Growing up in the densely wooded, rolling hills of Kentucky, I am in unfamiliar territory. The desert astounds and frightens me. It feels exposed, rugged, unrelenting, and captivating with a different kind of beauty than the landscape that formed me. The land, at first gaze, seems completely inhospitable. A trip to the park visitor center and a keen eye on the trail reveal that a surprising number of creatures and vegetation actually thrive in these conditions. I am a visitor in this stunning and unfamiliar place, so I hike with a heart in awe and then return to what is familiar.

Throughout scripture, some of the most important, transformational moments for our spiritual ancestors happened in wilderness places. The wilderness was a place people were driven to enter in exile, transition, and discernment. Ours seems to be a wilderness time. Many are observing that what once felt reliable, comfortable, familiar has slipped out of our grasp, and we can’t find a way to return to what we knew before. We are wandering in an unfamiliar landscape that at first gaze seems inhospitable. Like the Israelites, we cry out for sustenance in a strange land.

Each year as the season of Lent arrives, it seems to be an exact description of a prolonged condition experienced by many individuals and communities of faith. In his 2017 Address, President Veazey described this strange new landscape we find ourselves in, “The word of calling, hope, and possibility emerges from the reality that great change is happening in the world. And the rate of change is accelerating. This change includes how people view God, culture, finances, technology, politics, and religious institutions.”

We are quick to resist what we do not know, but there are gifts to discover here. We remember that the season of Lent is a critical formational opportunity to be steeped in the wisdom, depth, and integrity of Jesus that leads to new life. We try to bypass the wilderness places in our spiritual journey to get to the “good parts” like resurrection, but good things happen here, too! The Israelites receive enough manna for each day, the prophet Isaiah envisions a desert in full bloom, and after Jesus resists the temptations, he is comforted and cared for.

What if this Lent we rested for a while in this wilderness place to take a look around and appreciate what is here? What if we stopped trying to get through the wilderness to somewhere else and began to recognize the sacred abundance in unfamiliar places? What if being formed in the rhythm of Christ isn’t just about enduring the parts of the journey we’d rather avoid, but entering them deeply with an open and willing heart? Moving toward Jesus, the peaceful one, entails following him through the whole journey of transformation-and discovering in what we resist the deepest invitations to new life we have been seeking.

The poet Wendell Berry proclaims, “What we need is here.” This is my Lenten prayer this year. I am going to take a break from being on my way to somewhere better and rest a while in an unknown land. Appreciating where I am for what it is, I echo Berry’s invitation, “…and we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.”

Sit for a while in this wilderness place and join me. Take in the expansive view and let your soul settle in. Rest your gaze into what is unfamiliar and find delight in unexpected beauty. Notice the creatures, plants, flowers that call this place home. Ask yourself what you really need. Take delight in discovering what is enough. Find life in the Lenten wilderness.

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Lenten Spiritual Practices

Moving Toward the Peaceful One

As Jesus was nearing the final days of his life, he wept over the city and proclaimed, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace” (Luke 19:41-42).What are the things that make for peace in our lives, communities, and around the world? During the Lenten season, spend time in silent refection or journaling each day to notice: Am I moving toward Jesus, the peaceful One? Pay attention to your attitudes, actions, and relationships this day. When did you most embody the peaceful One in your daily living? When were your thoughts or actions contrary to the peace of Jesus Christ? How might Jesus, the peaceful One, who is always near to you, be inviting you to draw nearer to him through your daily living?

Fasting and Giving-$40 in 40 Days

A Lenten fast gives us an opportunity to make space in our lives so that God can live in and through us.  It’s a time to evaluate what we hunger for most and what we consume. This year, we’ve been invited to tithe as a spiritual practice by setting aside $40 during the 40 days of Lent. If you are participating, pay attention today to the dollar you have given. What might you have done with that dollar otherwise? How does Lenten generosity invite you to reflect on what is “enough” in your life? Who might you invite to join you in this practice? How might your gift be magnified by the many others responding to the same call?

You can make your $40 offering anytime during the Lenten season online or through your offering envelope for Worldwide Mission Tithes.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

The Struggle from the Cocoon
Joyce Bullion of Waipahu, HI, USA

The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; God is their refuge in the time of trouble. The Lord helps them and rescues them…because they take refuge in God. -Psalm 37:39-40, adapted

Many of us go through life wounded-physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We often have high expectations-dreams of getting married, perhaps having children, and a home with a yard and a white picket fence. When life does not turn out that way, disappointment twinges. We sometimes become disillusioned and skeptical of the blessings we have.

When we are transparent in our brokenness, light enters our wounds and we reflect an even stronger light. I have found if we give our pain to God, we are lifted and strengthened in our Lord and Savior. As we continue to praise God and pray for direction, our lives will be of service in love. Often our toughened scars strengthen us, and we are better able to help others as we share ourselves.

I heard a story of a man who found the cocoon of a butterfly. He decided to help the butterfly by snipping off the remaining bit of the cocoon with a pair of scissors. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The butterfly’s wings never did grow large enough to fly. It spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body. The struggle to leave the cocoon is nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, we would see no need to struggle. We would be immobilized. We need to take everything to God and let Divine light form and strengthen us.

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Spiritual Practice

Surrender

What might it look like to surrender a little to God each day? A simple prayer of surrender can help us become aware of God’s consistent invitations to deeper relationship and awareness. Imagine when you encounter a challenging person or situation silently uttering this prayer, “I surrender into your love, O God.” The same prayer can be meaningful in moments of joy and gratitude as a way of returning to the awareness of oneness with God. It’s ok if we don’t surrender everything all at once all the time. The prayer of surrender is a constant practice of returning little by little to the deepest love that is the ground of our being and desires wholeness and oneness for us and all creation.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

God Is Here, There, Everywhere…and Especially with YOU
Gary Piper of Fort Gratiot, MI, USA

For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. -Isaiah 54:10

There are times when amid the storms life throws at us we need to stand against the howling wind. Rain pounds on our faces, the roar of thunder echoes in our ears, and darkness is all around. We shout to the world our praises and thank God for the brightness of Divine presence.

Jesus promised in Matthew, if we tell others that we belong to him, he would tell God that we are followers of Jesus. When we are aware of God’s presence in our storms, God’s power increases our strength, and we experience Divine love and compassion.

Often my early response to finding myself floundering in one of life’s storms is to stand up and shout, “Okay, God, where are you?” But slowly over the years and the many storms I’ve experienced, I’ve learned to first identify God’s presence. Doing so doesn’t weaken the storm, but it certainly strengthens and brings comfort to me. Now with the current storm raging in my life, because I’ve already responded to God’s presence, there are times I find myself thinking I should be worrying and fretting rather than feeling this peace.

Just because there may be times you cannot see evidence of God’s presence in your life, it doesn’t mean God is absent. It simply means God chooses to work behind the scenes where the storm is most dangerous. It’s all the same to God. Here’s how the Psalmist puts it:

Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. -Psalm 139:7-12

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Spiritual Practice

Surrender

What might it look like to surrender a little to God each day? A simple prayer of surrender can help us become aware of God’s consistent invitations to deeper relationship and awareness. Imagine when you encounter a challenging person or situation silently uttering this prayer, “I surrender into your love, O God.” The same prayer can be meaningful in moments of joy and gratitude as a way of returning to the awareness of oneness with God. It’s ok if we don’t surrender everything all at once all the time. The prayer of surrender is a constant practice of returning little by little to the deepest love that is the ground of our being and desires wholeness and oneness for us and all creation.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

Click here to comment or read online.

Transformed!
Michele McGrath of Huntington Beach, CA, USA

Jesus took Peter and the brothers, James and John, and led them up a high mountain. His appearance changed from the inside out right before their eyes. Sunlight poured from his face, His clothes were filled with light. Peter broke in, “Master, this is a great moment! What would you think if I built three memorials here on the mountain-one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah?” -Matthew 17:1-4 The Message

I grew up going to camps at Camp Buckhorn in Idyllwild, California, which is literally at the mile-high elevation of 5,000 feet. No matter the location, however-a rented retreat center, a historic manor house, dormitories set amid rolling hills, cabins and tents at the seashore or prairie, lakeside or river-close, near the end of every family camp I’ve attended, there comes a time when those gathered confess a reluctance to leave the mountaintop experience to go back to the “real world.”

Gathering is an important part of our discipleship. Shared time together in community helps us develop our discipleship and cultivates safe space where we can awaken to the future God is calling into being.

But ultimately, we are called into the world God created, to embody and enact God’s shalom in the world. We are called not just to awaken and dream, but to move into the world to take risks and experiment with new ways to bring God’s future near to those who need it most.

I sympathize with Peter who wanted to stay where he was and memorialize his powerful mountaintop experience. But we are here today because Jesus, Peter, and the rest did not stay there. They went, they risked, and they invited people to Christ. Let’s do the same!

Prayer Phrase

I surrender into your love, O God.

Spiritual Practice

Surrender

What might it look like to surrender a little to God each day? A simple prayer of surrender can help us become aware of God’s consistent invitations to deeper relationship and awareness. Imagine when you encounter a challenging person or situation silently uttering this prayer, “I surrender into your love, O God.” The same prayer can be meaningful in moments of joy and gratitude as a way of returning to the awareness of oneness with God. It’s ok if we don’t surrender everything all at once all the time. The prayer of surrender is a constant practice of returning little by little to the deepest love that is the ground of our being and desires wholeness and oneness for us and all creation.

Today’s Prayer for Peace

Engage in a daily practice of praying for peace in our world. Click here to read today’s prayer and be part of this practice of peace.

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