The Spirit Steward: Easter Sunday: The Robin Sings Again.
The next...: Easter Sunday: The Robin Sings Again. The next time you are up early on a morning in the spring, walk outside your door and listen. You...
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Easter Sunday: The Robin Sings Again.
The next time you are up early on a morning in the spring, walk outside your door and listen. You will almost certainly hear this song, the dawn song of a robin. Long before the sun came up, that robin was singing as it prepared its nest. Even when the rest of the earth is sleeping in the darkness, even when much of the earth is still gripped by the icy fingers of winter, the robin knows a secret. The robin knows that spring is coming.
Did you ever wonder how a robin knows that song, and how it knows how to build its nest? They don't go to school and take a "nest building class", of course. They don't even learn it from their parents. But when a robin sings for the first time, and when it builds its first nest, it's following an instinct that it was born with. It doesn't have to have hope, or faith, or belief. The robin just knows. And it follows this truth without even having to think about it.
On Easter, God is asking us to remember what the robin already knows. Long ago, when you became you for the first time, God did something miraculous for you. God gave each of you an unbreakable bond to life. God also gave you a promise to remember even in dark and cold times: Spring is coming, for you and for the world. You don't have to find it, or make it happen. It will just come. That's God's love, and it isn't a dream or a myth. It is certain. As certain as the morning song of the robin. As certain as the spring.
This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ... Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
On Easter, Jesus rose from the tomb that everyone around him thought was permanent death. It was actually never in doubt, and Jesus knew this, even when everyone else couldn't believe it was coming.
So, here is my Easter Prayer for each of you.
Amen.
The next time you are up early on a morning in the spring, walk outside your door and listen. You will almost certainly hear this song, the dawn song of a robin. Long before the sun came up, that robin was singing as it prepared its nest. Even when the rest of the earth is sleeping in the darkness, even when much of the earth is still gripped by the icy fingers of winter, the robin knows a secret. The robin knows that spring is coming.
Did you ever wonder how a robin knows that song, and how it knows how to build its nest? They don't go to school and take a "nest building class", of course. They don't even learn it from their parents. But when a robin sings for the first time, and when it builds its first nest, it's following an instinct that it was born with. It doesn't have to have hope, or faith, or belief. The robin just knows. And it follows this truth without even having to think about it.
On Easter, God is asking us to remember what the robin already knows. Long ago, when you became you for the first time, God did something miraculous for you. God gave each of you an unbreakable bond to life. God also gave you a promise to remember even in dark and cold times: Spring is coming, for you and for the world. You don't have to find it, or make it happen. It will just come. That's God's love, and it isn't a dream or a myth. It is certain. As certain as the morning song of the robin. As certain as the spring.
This is why Jesus said in Matthew 6:
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ... Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
On Easter, Jesus rose from the tomb that everyone around him thought was permanent death. It was actually never in doubt, and Jesus knew this, even when everyone else couldn't believe it was coming.
So, here is my Easter Prayer for each of you.
Enduring and Miraculous God,
Let us begin this prayer by remembering that you have taught
us, through prophecy, through experience, and through Christ, that there is a light
that shines in all places. A light that is released once we dig down into our most
heartfelt places to remember your miraculous love for us.
Lord, help us to carry that love into this world, to help
this love stretch far enough to reach those who need healing and reassurance, to
bring hope to those who need it the most during this season.
Help us carry Your Love to those needing comfort in the cold
and the darkness. To those experiencing loneliness, or poverty, or depression.
Help us hear their prayers, oh God.
Help us be your warmth and light to them.
Help us carry Your Love to those who have prayed to You and
are still awaiting an answer. To the
sick, to the lost, to those out of work, to those out of ideas. Help us hear their prayers, oh God. Help us to make sure they are not alone in
the dark.
Lord, you are the maker of miraculous things, even amidst
the clouds of uncertainty.. You bring hope to those
of us who can muster it, perhaps that we might give that hope to those who have
none left. Let us keep our eyes open for one another, so that as few of us as
possible have to be alone in the dark. Let us keep our eyes open to You, so
that we, too, might remember that we are never be alone. For you have taught us, in your enduring
light, that miracles are not things that happen to us, but rather things that
happen through us when we just let them run their course.
Amen.
The Spirit Steward: Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What.Happy Pa...
The Spirit Steward: Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What.
Happy Pa...: Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What. Happy Palm Sunday, Friends! I am bringing back the blog. "The Spirit Steward" starte...
Happy Pa...: Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What. Happy Palm Sunday, Friends! I am bringing back the blog. "The Spirit Steward" starte...
Sunday, April 5, 2020
Waving our Palm Branches No Matter What.
Happy Palm Sunday, Friends!
I am bringing back the blog. "The Spirit Steward" started in 2010 with the following mission:
Imagine that it's the first day of summer vacation from school. Thatt's not hard to do these days when we're all kind of in that zone anyway. Your mom or dad says, before they go off to work (in the next room 😏) "Enjoy your day, my beloved child.. I'd like you to clean your room and take the dog for a walk today". You grunt at them, roll over, and go back to sleep until noon. You eat a bit of breakfast and spend most of the afternoon binge watching your favorite TV show, totally planning on walking the dog and at least organizing your room into some out of the way piles.. maybe even making your bed. At 4:00 pm, your parent finds you on the couch in the living room. Your room is untouched, and the dog has taken matters into his own hands and relieved himself on the carpet in the dining room. Obviously, they are dissappointed. Depending on the parent, you prepare yourself for the lecture, the guilt trip, or the yelling... maybe all three.
You actually feel pretty bad that you forgot to do your chores. Some part of you truly believes, in that moment, that you are probably a terrible person. You wonder what your punishment will be. Maybe you start punshing yourself inside. You go get the leash, take the dog for a walk and start cleaning your room.
As you are cleanring your room, your parent returns and gives you a hug and says that they love you. You may think that the only reason they did that is because you finally did your chores. You might think that the hug.. the love.. it's really basically conditional on your performance.
But here's a little secret. God's love doesn't work like that. There are parts of it that aren't conditional one you getting perfect grades in "Good Kid Class". There is a huge, sustaining, part of God that loves the kid on the couch putting off their chores and watching YouTube videos all day. Why? Because God believes in you, and knows that being human is having days like this where we are less than the perfect version of ourselves. God actually has a lot of faith in you, because God knows you and what you are capable of. God believes in that, loves and cherishes that, and celebrates that. Even when you don't, or when you don't believe you are possibly worthy of that love. That love was there before you were born, and will endure forever.
From Psalm 118:28-29
Happy Palm Sunday, Friends!
I am bringing back the blog. "The Spirit Steward" started in 2010 with the following mission:
I wish this blog were just a mirror... literally. I wish it were just a looking glass where everyone who came here saw only the perfect and pure reflection of themselves as God does... the beauty and power possible inside of everyone. When I look at people every day, that is what I see - it's all I see - their Spirit, just as it was intended.God built in each of you a light and a power to be you, from the moment you were born. You didn't have to earn this, you can't buy it, and nothing you do - good or bad - can take that away. It's your free gift just for showing up. It's called God's grace, and it works like this:
Imagine that it's the first day of summer vacation from school. Thatt's not hard to do these days when we're all kind of in that zone anyway. Your mom or dad says, before they go off to work (in the next room 😏) "Enjoy your day, my beloved child.. I'd like you to clean your room and take the dog for a walk today". You grunt at them, roll over, and go back to sleep until noon. You eat a bit of breakfast and spend most of the afternoon binge watching your favorite TV show, totally planning on walking the dog and at least organizing your room into some out of the way piles.. maybe even making your bed. At 4:00 pm, your parent finds you on the couch in the living room. Your room is untouched, and the dog has taken matters into his own hands and relieved himself on the carpet in the dining room. Obviously, they are dissappointed. Depending on the parent, you prepare yourself for the lecture, the guilt trip, or the yelling... maybe all three.
You actually feel pretty bad that you forgot to do your chores. Some part of you truly believes, in that moment, that you are probably a terrible person. You wonder what your punishment will be. Maybe you start punshing yourself inside. You go get the leash, take the dog for a walk and start cleaning your room.
As you are cleanring your room, your parent returns and gives you a hug and says that they love you. You may think that the only reason they did that is because you finally did your chores. You might think that the hug.. the love.. it's really basically conditional on your performance.
But here's a little secret. God's love doesn't work like that. There are parts of it that aren't conditional one you getting perfect grades in "Good Kid Class". There is a huge, sustaining, part of God that loves the kid on the couch putting off their chores and watching YouTube videos all day. Why? Because God believes in you, and knows that being human is having days like this where we are less than the perfect version of ourselves. God actually has a lot of faith in you, because God knows you and what you are capable of. God believes in that, loves and cherishes that, and celebrates that. Even when you don't, or when you don't believe you are possibly worthy of that love. That love was there before you were born, and will endure forever.
From Psalm 118:28-29
Open for me the gates of the righteous; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The Lord has done it this very day; let us rejoice today and be glad. Lord save us! Lord, grant us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
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