Category: Michael D


Devotion

Centering . . .

 

Ponder . . .

Don’t tug on capes, share them

Shannon Weber decided that there wasn’t enough love, recognition or connection in her world, so she did something about it. When she finds an unsung (don’t say ‘ordinary’ hero) she makes them a cape.

Caping people, catching them doing something right, shining a light on a familiar hero.

It turns out that this is way more difficult than being cynical, or ironic, or bitter. Being closed is a lot easier than being connected. It takes guts.

What kind of impact does one act of kindness make? It can last for years.

Go, cape someone.
[Seth Godin, “Don’t tug on capes, share them.” June 27, 2016]

 

Remember . . .

A Sending Blessing

It is a strange thing
to be so bound
and so released
all in the same moment,
to feel the heart
open wide
and wider still
even as it turns
to take its leave.

On this day,
let us say
this is simply the way
love moves
in its ceaseless spiraling,
turning us toward
one another,
then sending us
into what waits for us
with arms open wide to us
in welcome
and in hope.

On this day,
in this place
where you have
poured yourself out,
where you have been
emptied
and filled
and emptied again,
may you be aware
more than ever
of what your heart
has opened to
here,
what it has tended
and welcomed
here,
where it has broken
in love and in grief,
where it has given
and received blessing
in the unfathomable mystery
that moves us,
undoes us,
and remakes us
finally
for joy.

This day
may you know
this joy
in full measure.

This day
may you know
this blessing
that gathers you in
and sends you forth
but will not
forget you.

O hear us
as this day
we say
grace;
this day
we say
grateful;
this day
we say
blessing;
this day
we release you
in God’s keeping
and hold you
in gladness
and love.
[Jan Richardson. “This Day We Say Grateful.” June 24, 2016. © Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.]

Opinion from Baptist News Global

To borrow a movie quote, “Holmes, you must widen your gaze.” (Sherlock Holmes, © 2009 Warner Bros. Ent. All) “Widen your gaze” is good advice for our culture right now so that we might see and experience one another as something other than a political, sexual, or religious identifier.  For me, that means reviewing Red Letter Christians, Patheos, and other websites of those that label themselves “evangelical” who continue to redefine what “evangelical” means in the 21st century.  That also means checking out the Baptist News Global at least once a week.

I am not evangelical, but like being liberal (progressive for those fearful of that other word), I don’t think either need be a derogative term.  There is a richness in both adjectives that has been lost as we have figuratively and literally retreated to our gated communities in the online matrix and in the breathing matrix.  When you die in the matrix you do die in real life.  I found this article thanks to other liberals that I follow who pointed the way.  Widen your gaze.  A paragraph and a link.

We all are Omar Mateen
Miguel De La Torre | Baptist News Global | June 14, 2016

Reading our newspapers, watching our politicians and listening to our ministers we find evidence that proves we are more comfortable with a culture of hatred, a culture rooted in the survival of the fittest. Let those of us who claim to be disciples of agape stop talking about our current predicament, and instead commit to praxis that can bring us closer to a different reality.

Click here to read the entire article.

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