faith

Mercy in the Wilderness: Prayer for a Pandemic

Mercy in the Wilderness: Prayer for a Pandemic

What if this time we share in the wilderness offers us a gift? The gift of our own undoing. What if it opens the doorways to our souls? The place where we find our true selves again. Where we find one another again. Where we find God again. Or maybe for the first time. Or maybe in a new way. What if we find a new way to be ourselves? To be together? What if there’s mercy in the pruning?

Honestly, it feels like it’s too soon to offer the words “gift” or “mercy” into the chaos. Because there’s so much pain right now. So much fear, anxiety, uncertainty. All of this is real. We feel it deeply, the groaning in our world. We can’t rush or push or work our way past it (although some will try). We must first hold this space together, acknowledge the fear and loss, and find a way to walk together through it. Loving, serving, praying, we will find the way through.

The Power of Doing Absolutely Nothing

The Power of Doing Absolutely Nothing

What an honor to be invited to write for the Global Leadership Network! Here’s a brief excerpt from my blog post. Click here to read the full article.

As leaders, it’s imperative that we craft a way of life for ourselves that is responsive to body and soul.

Jesus observed this rhythm, withdrawing often to lonely places after productive ministry seasons (Mark 6:31). Sustainability was more important than their stories of success.

What does practicing moments of stillness look like in your organization?

Perhaps you could take time in meetings, at the beginning and at key junctures, for prayer. Or you could establish a norm for you and your staff to take a day of solitude each month. Or consider scheduling regular periods for personal silence during your work week. Or perhaps you could make it normative to take all vacation time and completely unplug.

During strategic planning days and retreats, it is a regular practice for our Roots&Branches team to begin with an extended time of quiet. We each pray silently and listen for the ideas, thoughts and priorities that rise in our minds and hearts. When we come back together, each person shares what they’ve sensed in this time.

Without fail, we begin to see themes arise. Clarity comes. And we have a unified sense of direction.

Befriending Desire

Befriending Desire

It seems inevitable that part of maturing and growing into adulthood is a process of coming to terms with our earnest desires. You could rightly say that children and adolescents are wanting, needing, longing beings. Just take a three-year-old through the checkout counter at the grocery! As we enter young adulthood, we begin to learn that some of our larger desires and needs will require that we forgo certain immediate desires and needs. In other words, we learn to moderate or deny some desires in the short run, which is evidence of growing maturity.

The Present Is the Gift

The Present Is the Gift

Because here’s the thing. This present moment, the breath I’m taking now, is the only thing that’s real. While I still feel the effects of the past, the past itself is, well, past. And while I anticipate the future with a mix of hope and doubt, the future itself is unknowable. The only place I can know and be known, the only place I can live rooted in love, the only place I can experience God, is in this very messy moment. Rooted in the reality that there is enough, right here, right now. Me in God. God in me. In the now, there is enough.

(IN) Darkness

(IN) Darkness

Last Friday, my mom called 911. She was having trouble breathing, much more trouble than usual. She’s 80, and she has COPD. Her already weak lungs were compromised by viral pneumonia. She is recovering slowly, feeling the limitations of her body. We are in a new season, a season I would never choose for her, a season of loss. Loss of independence. Loss of control. Loss of even breath. We are bumping around in the dark. Praying and feeling our way through. Trusting we will find God present with us, even as God is present (IN) us. Maybe, like me, you’re feeling your way through a dark space in life. If so, I offer you (and me) some words from rooted (IN).