rooted

Clearing Our Cloudy Images of God by Felicia Murrell

Clearing Our Cloudy Images of God by Felicia Murrell

The sun beams. The grass beckons. I heed its welcome and lay on my back. Bare feet to the earth, knees upright to support my frame. Shielding my eyes, I stare at the sky naming each majestic cloud as an image I’ve formed in my mind’s eye. Horse. Chicken leg. Heart. I think about clouds as images. Clouds as covering. And somehow, I think about God…

Where is God in the clouds? How do I name that which I’ve deified? How cloudy are my images of God? What or who do I imagine God to be?

Tradition has given me some answers. Many words have been written to substantiate men’s beliefs about God. I’ve parroted a lot of them. But how do we truly begin to know God in that passionate, deep, mystical, unveiled knowing that Jesus speaks of in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”?

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.

Frozen Peas and a Fragile Ego

Frozen Peas and a Fragile Ego

Crazy, the things we believe about ourselves, about others, about who we’re supposed to be. And Holy Spirit comes to remind. You, me, we are fully loved. Fully held. And I can show up in life fully me. Saggy eyelids. Bruised eyelids. Ever-so-slightly lifted eyelids. This place of showing up as is, this is the place of grace. The place we begin to live more rooted in love for God and for ourselves. Less tangled up in judgment. More tangled up in the love of God.