Just a wee bit...

"Like every other gift and grace from God, hope speaks through human voices and touch."
Kathy Coffey, "Give Us This Day"

And here's the thing...the human voices and touch needed are ours. It's up to us, those of us who look to God to right the world, to listen to God and find out what WE are to do. Lately, I have been struggling with my Homework Room duty at school. Students come in over their lunch recess and work on school stuff they need to finish. Think the movie "The Breakfast Club,"  I play the role of the poor soul that has to monitor them. (Yea, THAT guy!) I realize today's Gospel of the mustard seed and yeast address exactly what is needed to make the situation better for us all. A tiny bit more compassion and love will go a long way to help. A bit more patience, and loving concern, coming from me, will likely turn the whole thing around. I'm so grateful that God infuses me with the love first, so I can pass it along. God's love is already there, so I can draw from it all day long and share with others. Today, let's think and pray about the situations we find ourselves in, where just a wee bit of God will help the whole picture. That wee bit of God is already inside of us...we just need to tap into it. Love, heidi

Less is more...

"Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."
Luke 12:15

It's difficult to explain to people, in this day and age, that I value wealth less and less as I get older. I tried to explain to the lady who handles my retirement account that I'm not interested in how much bigger it can grow. In fact, I told her, I want out of the market and just leave the bit that's in there. I'm trying to learn the lesson from our Gospel today (Luke 12:13-21) NOT to build bigger barns to store my wealth. My wealth can't be stored in a barn anyway! My wealth is my family and dear ones with whom I have shared time on this planet. My wealth also includes the visually impaired clients I grew to know and love through my career and the wee little "clients" I serve in my school job now. This is a lesson I haven't completely learned, mind you, but I'm in the process of learning. It's completely upside down from what I grew up believing. More is not better. More is just more and with more, there's more work. More to worry about, more to protect and keep track of...more to distract us from what's really important. Like I said, it's a work in progress, but this Gospel today brings it home. It's all about our relationships, with God, with loved ones, with strangers, with our fellow travelers on the journey. The more stuff we are carrying, the less able we are to reach out to others. Love, heidi

What God has made...

"For what can be known about God is evident to them, because God made it evident to them. Ever since the creation of the world, (God's) invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what (God) has made."
Romans 19-20

On my walk this morning, I noticed several trees in their full-on red glory. Other trees were still in the process of turning and their colors were almost iridescent.  Over all this beauty hung the still-almost-full moon, like a huge soccer ball, in the sky. Pray-As-You-Go asked us to reflect on what we see in creation and what does it tell us about God.  The tremendous beauty shows me how God is steadfast and never-changing, like the moon. Reassured in that, we are called to be like the trees, constantly transforming and letting go of ourselves--being open to regular shedding of the old and budding of something new. Under the steadfast love of God, we can allow our hearts to be changed, our attitudes and opinions to be transformed until we are able to look around us with eyes more like God's eyes. Our world is not just black and white. Our world is a mass of color and light, birth and death, sorrow and joy. Under God's loving gaze, we can learn to hold these paradoxes and ironies of our colorful world. Today, let's all find some time to be outside and experience the power and divinity that God shows us in creation. Especially this beautiful time of year, God is showing us, so vividly, the path of life. Love, heidi

Living hope...

"I have in mind what the bible calls a 'living hope,' the hope that waits for God to do what needs doing to make (the) world work right."
Lewis B. Smedes, "My God and I" (as quoted in Give Us This Day)

I would say that I'm waiting for that, too. The world seems so messed up right now and I have hope that God will...fix it. I realize, of course, that God works through human beings to right the wrongs and fix things. One time things were so messed up, God sent a flood to just wipe everything out and start over, but God promised not to do that again. So God shows awesome restraint and patiently waits for people to tune in and figure out God's will, and then act on it. There are times, I notice, when I get to see a glimpse of incredible, vast goodness. When things seems to fall into perfect place and God's grace shines through like the sun through a hole in the clouds. One example was the wedding we celebrated last weekend. All the elements of a God party were there--joy, love, dancing. It was heaven. God gives us these glimpses to give us the living hope Lewis Smedes is talking about. With the love and joy of young people starting a new life together, there is living hope for the future. When we can glimpse the goodness, the hope seems so real and reachable! Love, heidi

The One Thing...

"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing."
Luke 10:41-42

At the risk of sounding clueless, I wondered this morning what was the "one thing" Jesus was talking about. I mean, Mary was listening to Jesus, at his feet, so the obvious conclusion would be that listening to Jesus is the "one thing." But just listening to Jesus seems to be only the beginning of the One Thing. We can listen all day and night, but unless we go out and do what Jesus asks us to do, we are stopping short. The One Thing actually turns into more like Two Things...hearing and heeding. We have to hear it before we can go do it, but we can't just rest after hearing it. We need both contemplation and action; both are prescribed for us by Jesus.  Today, as we embark on an October Tuesday, let's spend some quiet time hearing Jesus, and then, as we feel directed to do, let's go out and do. It's a perfect day to love all we encounter! Love, heidi

God moves closer...

"For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, 'Fear not! I will help you.'"
Isaiah 41:13

This scripture has always meant the world to me. It was such a comfort during difficult times and now it is a reassurance in this joy-filled time. Our son, Blaine and his beautiful fiance, Jenn, are marrying this weekend and I am so caught up in the whirlwind of all that, I felt I almost had to introduce myself to God this morning on my walk. "Oh, hello, remember me?" I feel like I have drifted away on a raft made of worries, details and To-do lists. My mind has been so preoccupied with plans and other stuff I've neglected the readings and even setting time aside for silent prayer. The thing I realize, though, is, as I've tangled myself up in other activities, God has moved closer to me. God is filling the gap that I, myself, created. God has my right hand! This is a fabulous time with our family, Jenn's family, friends and the joy of two lives coming together, deeply in love. God isn't left out, God created it all. We love because God first loved us. And so, as the revelry builds through this week and hits full throttle this weekend, I appreciate your prayers and warm thoughts. As I will get to proclaim in the reading I am doing at the wedding, "Love should come first; it should be the beginning of and the reason for everything." (Gerald G. May, "The Awakened Heart"). Love, heidi