Alleluia. Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Alleluia. Christ is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Easter Sunday

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Let anyone with ears listen!
- Matthew 13:9

The sounds of spring in the Northern Hemisphere are unmistakable. Birds singing, rain showers, the wind in the trees, and the sound of gurgling creeks, all announce the resurgence of life all around us.

The sounds of Easter are unmistakable too. Some of my favorite sounds of Easter include trumpets, bells, organ music, choir descants, children shrieking as they hunt for eggs, and loud acclamations that Christ is risen.

All around us, God is speaking to us of resurrection. The question, one that we have been reflecting on in our journey through Lent this year is, “Are we listening?” We have learned that one of the greatest gifts that we can give to one another is the gift of listening. We have learned that much of what passes for listening is not authentic listening, but instead superficial, almost a pretend kind of hearing, and that deep, authentic listening requires intentionality.

Today we are reminded of the gift of resurrection that God has promised us. The gift that we can give back to God is to truly listen to the story of Jesus’ resurrection with the ears of our hearts.

Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, while not usually associated with the celebration of Easter, is a profound description of what happens when we are open to listening to God. With the guidance of our guest writers, this Lent has been devoted to removing the rocks and thorns in our hearts, souls, and minds that make it hard for us to truly listen to God and to one another. I invite you now to listen to this parable as a parable for what can happen when we genuinely listen to the good news of Easter in our lives.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!

—Matthew 13:1-9

My hope and prayer for all of us today is that through listening to the story of Easter anew, God will bring forth a harvest of resurrection in our lives and in the lives of those whom God calls us to love and serve.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Hear the Cicadas

Hear the Cicadas

Holy Saturday

Reflection By Martha Bourlakas

They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
- John 19:40-42

Holy Saturday sounds quiet. Yesterday, we heard the loud anguish of chaos: yelling, crying, pleading, nailing, wailing. Today is different. We are heartbroken, left holding the dead body of our beloved Jesus Christ, and we hear a significant shift in tone. Peaceful phrases form the narrative: clean linen, new tomb, myrrh and aloes, in the garden. We know what’s going to happen with Jesus, and ourselves, because we have read over and over what comes next, but we have to pay attention and hear this moment. On this Holy Saturday, we are all cried out, no tears left, but we are not yet in the Resurrection. We are still at the tomb. Quiet, in shock, not yet flowering the cross, not yet counting the eggs in our baskets, not yet eating our hot-crossed buns. It is in this quiet we become prepared for the glorious new life to come.

When I was growing up, our family would visit a graveyard on our yearly beach vacations. My parents loved the deep shade of the Spanish Moss and the history the tombstones taught. I saw it as needless time away from the sand and the ocean, but I was a kid, so I went along. Sweating and swatting mosquitoes, I read the dates of the babies and children and felt the childhood fear, I hope nothing happens to me. Then I would quickly move on, so as not to feel sadness too long. Nodding my head, Yes, I get the history here, but wondering, How soon can we leave? I’m ready to play and have fun again. Ten-year-old reflections of deeper human questions: How do we regard death? How do we laugh and celebrate after someone we love dies? How did my relationship with someone I loved affect the person I am?

As people of Jesus Christ, we must take this brief, suspended moment under the graveyard oak trees to reflect on the person we watched die on the cross. If we move too quickly to the celebration of Resurrection, we might miss, in all the noise, the space for the important tombstone questions: Do I know, as much as possible, the person Jesus was? How will the life of Jesus make a difference in my life going forward? How will I show the love of Jesus in my other relationships? How will I live into the hope of rebirth? By taking the time to sit with death, to look into the tomb, we find it is not as scary as we once thought. We learn from what was, and carry that knowledge into the salty ocean of our futures. Listen, and you will hear the cicadas sing songs of courage and hope.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Complicity

Complicity

Good Friday

Reflection By Martha Bourlakas

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
- Psalm 22:1

Today is a horrifying day. It is impossible and un-Christian and inhuman to move past it without acknowledging and understanding what happened. Today, we are eye-witnesses to the murder of Jesus Christ, and we are complicit because we are the descendants of this human family. In Psalm 22, we hear a cry, a scream: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? Hearing someone else’s screams, pleading in agony, is painful, and causes us to turn our heads, cover our ears. We say, I wasn’t there! I never would have been part of the mob! I never would have watched while Jesus died on the cross! Can’t we just focus on the resurrection? The glorious resurrection will come, but we are not there yet. Today, we are at the scene of violence, despair, and death, and we must attend.

Lynching—mob murder used to terrorize an entire race of people— occurred throughout the South and Midwest in the years of Reconstruction, following the Civil War. The Equal Justice Initiative, www.eji.org, has to date completed the most extensive research on lynching in America. EJI Director, author, and attorney Bryan Stevenson wrote, “We cannot heal the deep wounds inflicted during the era of racial terror- ism until we tell the truth about it.” When we read about lynchings or see pictures, we turn our heads, avert our eyes. We say, I wasn’t there! I never would have been part of the mob! I never would have watched while a human being was lynched! But we did watch. From the Lynching in America report: “At these often-festive community gatherings, large crowds of whites watched and participated in the Black victims’ prolonged torture, mutilation, dismemberment, and burning at the stake.”

I pray my white, Southern ancestors were not eye-witnesses to murder. I pray their strong faith led them to speak out against such atrocities. But I don’t know. I pray we are evolving as humans, that our faith is helping us strive for justice and to respect the dignity of all human beings. But I witness our ongoing, entrenched racism. I know I have benefitted from that racism. I know my silence and passivity are part of my complicity. I looked away from the video of the murder of George Floyd. I averted my eyes, covered my ears.

Thanks be to God, the mutilated body of Jesus Christ does not remain on the cross. We live and move toward justice through the Resurrection. Today, though, we must listen to the cries of Jesus, look straight into the eyes of evil and hatred, acknowledge our complicity, ask for forgiveness, and become better, Easter people. Let us pray we remember we are beloved descendants of one family of God, ancestors of all who will follow.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Feet-Grab

Feet-Grab

Maundy Thursday

Reflection By Martha Bourlakas

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
- John 13:34

Jesus did not need to see us with cell phones to know how humans would behave in 2021. The Son of God knew from the get-go how easily distracted we are, how we procrastinate the hard work of loving in favor of busy-ness, how it can be easier to lose our eyes in a screen than to have an eye-to-eye conversation. He knew we need pointed actions and stories to make us listen and attend to the larger, urgent love narrative. In today’s Gospel, Jesus knows he does not have much time left, so he must synthesize his lessons. To teach his most critical commandment—Love one another as I have loved you—he gets intimate. He holds and cleans us where we are most dirty, most callused, most vulnerable: our feet.

During the pandemic quarantine, our family watched a lot of scary movies together. Our ritual—selecting the movie, popping the popcorn, digging up Junior Mints from the candy drawer, turning off the lights, lighting candles—seemed trivial at first, but then meaning appeared. The world outside our doors was suddenly so frightening and unpredictable that our grown children and their parents needed intense stories and characters to help us step away from reality, if only for two hours.

One of the horror movie tropes is the feet-grab. As soon as the protagonist is down on the floor, especially near a bed, under which scary demon-character hides, you know what’s coming ... she is going to have her feet grabbed, and will be pulled rapidly into the void. No no, no, we scream, it’s your only chance! Get up, run away! As if we hadn’t experienced this plot point over and over, our family clung to each other. We squeezed each others’ arms, held hands, covered each others’ eyes, and laughed at our fears.

The movie feet-grab allowed us much-needed intimacy with each other, the only humans in our immediate worlds, the only people we weren’t seeing through screens. Our daughters, like so many, quickly forced away from their close friends and boyfriends by the pandemic, had lost human touch, and needed a safe way to cling. How critical touch and intimacy are to our psychological-emotional development. What a loss not to be able to touch and hold.

In this Maundy Thursday Gospel, Jesus knows the immediate future is going dark, that he is being pulled into a horrible human void. Jesus illustrates his urgent love lesson, stops us cold, by holding our feet. He does not focus on our bony bunions, but looks us in the eye and washes us in humility and love. Cling to each other, he says, for it is in the intimacy, the love, you will find your way out of the darkness.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

The iCloud of Witnesses

The iCloud of Witnesses

Wednesday in Holy Week

Reflection By Jan Kwiatkowski

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
- Hebrews 12:1

Several seasons ago, I referred to the people gathered in Facebook groups as the great iCloud of witnesses. Across cities, states, nations, and continents, we came together and experienced a taste of spiritual connection with people we’d never get to meet in any other way. We also have the opportunity in these circles to get a glimpse of the timeless connection we have with the great cloud of witnesses to whom St. Paul refers.

While it often seems, especially during the times in which we currently live, that connection can be tenuous, distant, and fractured, we have been reminded these last forty days that our connection is deep, strong, and it cannot be broken. Tomorrow, we transition from Lent into the three holy days that lead to Easter. Our time together will soon come to an official end and even though we won’t be together in this same way, we will continue to know the blessing and depth of the authentic connection we have shared on our journey through Lent.

Wherever this Lenten journey has taken us, or will take us, we have the assurance that we are not alone and we never will be alone. The iCloud of witnesses in this time and place is connected to the timeless great cloud of witnesses and nothing can sever that tie. The love of Jesus, who will die and who will rise, binds us always and forever.

Making It Personal: Do you have a sense of how your journey has been shaped by those with whom you have shared this Lent? How do you experience spiritual connection in your daily life? How might you sustain or nurture that moving forward? What’s it like to think of yourself as part of the great cloud of witnesses?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Known by Name

Known by Name

Tuesday in Holy Week

Reflection By Jan Kwiatkowski

Listen to me, O coastlands, pay attention, you peoples from far away! The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.
- Isaiah 49:1

One of the first things we want to know when a new child enters a family is their name. When someone we know begins a new relationship and it’s looking serious, we want to know their name. Children begin to understand the significance and power of naming when they are invited into the process of naming the family pet. Many of us have strong preferences for, and associations with, our names or nicknames.

Choosing, knowing, and sharing a name moves us from a position of distance from a person to a closer relationship with a particular someone we know by name.

In business or professional circles, being invited to call someone by their first name, rather than by their title, shifts the nature of the relationship. If naming and knowing a name has this much power in our human relationships, just how much more astonishingly amazing is it that God always has, and always will, know us by name? We are the “much-loved Child of God.” And, what’s most astounding and almost beyond comprehension is that God welcomes and longs for us to call God by name.

In our human frailty, even during those times when we stop calling on God, nothing we could ever do would cause our Creator to stop calling our name and longing for the sound of our response.

On this Tuesday in Holy Week, I invite you to pause for a few moments and open your heart to hear that you are a much-loved Child of God.

Making It Personal: How might you invite your heart to hear the reality that you are a much-loved Child of God? Reflect on the reality that God longs for the sound of our response. What is the name you call God? How did you come to know God by that name?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Pausing to Listen

Pausing to Listen

Monday in Holy Week

Reflection By Jan Kwiatkowski

All these sounds would be easy to miss if I did not create the time and space to listen to them. Listening to them brings me a sense of peace and joy.
- Craig Phillips

In the way to the pool after one of those brief summer thunderstorms, my grandson asked, “Nana, can you hear the puddles splash?” While I’d heard the sound of splashing puddles many times, when my grandchild asked me to listen, I stopped and truly listened. And you know what? Puddles actually do splash. In my eagerness to get to the “good stuff ” of pool-time, had I not paused to listen to a little voice, I’d have missed a wonderful moment. In his reflection yesterday, Craig Phillips wrote about the gifts of peace and joy we receive when we take the time to pause and listen.

Most of us have walked the days of Holy Week many times before and we know how the story of the week unfolds. Yet, in our culture’s eagerness to get to the “good stuff ” of Easter, I wonder if we might be missing what is being declared to us in the moments of each day of Holy Week?

As we journey through this week, we are, once again, invited to pause and listen for any new things God might be declaring to us. Just as Craig’s backyard invited him to hear what was going on around him, and my grandson invited me to hear a new thing in splashing puddles, perhaps paying closer attention and listening to what we are experiencing in the present moment will allow us to notice what God is doing in our lives, this day, this week, and this Easter.

Making It Personal: Have you ever found yourself wanting to hurry through the discomfort of Holy Week for the “good stuff ” of Easter? If yes, how might that get in the way of you hearing the things God is saying to you during this week? What is one thing you can do, or let go of, today in order to pause and listen?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening With All Our Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind

Listening With All Our Heart, Soul, Strength, and Mind

Palm Sunday

Reflection By Craig Phillips

His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.
- John 12:16

In the early morning I often sit with my coffee on the deck in my backyard and listen to the sounds around me. I’ve learned to identify the song of the male cardinal calling from the trees. I hear an owl still hooting an hour or so after the sun has come up. After a while, I hear an increase of traffic on the road nearby. All these sounds would be easy to miss if I did not create the time and space to listen to them. Listening to them brings me a sense of peace and joy.

On three occasions before his entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, Jesus warned his disciples that he would be killed and after three days rise again, but “they did not understand him.” Their responses demonstrate that they were unable to hear what Jesus was telling them. They did not hear him, because they were not truly listening to him. They shut their ears to what they were unwilling to hear, that he in fact would be killed.

The Gospels portray Jesus fulfilling the words of the prophet Zechariah, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! ... Lo, your king comes to you... humble and riding ... on a colt.” As Jesus rides into Jerusalem he hears the noisy expectations of the crowd. They shout, “Hosanna!”—“Save us now!” Some have hopes that Jesus will expel the Romans who occupy the land, and begin to rule an earthly kingdom as did their ancestor David. At the beginning of the week, the crowds greet Jesus with hopeful expectations, but by the end of the week, when he does not fulfill their hopes and dreams, the crowds turn on him screaming, “Crucify him, crucify him!” The sound of excited voices and expectations surround him, call out to him, but Jesus mysteriously remains silent. Jesus heard the clear expectations of the crowd yet remained intent on what he had to do, even as he recognized what would happen to him in Jerusalem.

Most of us know what it’s like to be surrounded by other people’s expectations of us. Sometimes they are realistic expectations, other times they are not. How do we listen to the expectations of other people without losing our own identity or being untrue to ourselves?

When we listen to the events of Holy Week with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind, we encounter a wide range of human emotions from extreme sadness to overwhelming joy. If we can be attentive to the range of emotions we feel as we enter into that story, we open ourselves to being at one with the hope hidden in the inner ground of our being.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Is Contagious

Listening Is Contagious

Listening in the Midst of Change

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Good listeners are created as people feel listened to. Listening is a reciprocal process—we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.
- Margaret J. Wheatley

Two things we have learned from our experience of the coronavirus are just how interconnected we all are with each other, and how easily and quickly a virus can spread.

These two learnings can also apply to the transmission of our emotional states. Have you been part of a group where the leader was chronically negative and critical? I would guess the rest of the group’s morale and spirit eventually became negative and deflated, as well. Compare that to how good it feels to be part of a group in which the leader is positive and supportive. These are but small examples of how strongly our moods and spirits can affect one another.

I coached youth soccer when our kids were growing up, and I remember playing several games against a team whose coach was a screamer, always yelling critical comments at his players. It is not surprising that the play- ers on that team yelled at each other, and at the referee, more than any other team we ever played. Again, the spirit of the leader was contagious.

As Margaret Wheatley says in the quote above, “Listening is a reciprocal process—we become more attentive to others if they have attended to us.” It turns out that listening is also contagious. Good listening invites good listening. If someone does not even pretend to listen to us, the chances are minimal that we will make much effort to listen in return.

When it comes to listening, the choices we make are contagious. The question is, what kind of listening are we sharing with others?

Making It Personal: What do you think of the idea that listening is contagious? Can you think of a recent example in which you noticed that listening (good or bad) was contagious? What kind of listening do you think you are sharing with others?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Grief and Gratitude

Grief and Gratitude

Listening in the Midst of Change

Reflection By Scott Stoner

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them.
- Francis Weller

Earlier this week I wrote about the full range of emotions that we naturally feel. Our feelings will undoubtedly range from the challenging feelings of grief and sadness to the more pleasant emotions of happiness and gratitude. As we think about the emotions we are likely to feel in the midst of significant change, grief certainly needs to be included.

Grief is an inevitable part of our lives because change is always happening in our lives. We all experienced times of grief and loss before the pandemic, and we will experience them again after the pandemic has passed. While none of us desires grief and loss experiences, they are part of the fabric of life. The choice we have then is how we will carry our grief.

Francis Weller, a well-respected psychotherapist and grief expert, provides helpful wisdom on how to carry grief. I will close with the full version of the above quote. His keen insight reminds us that when we take time to honor and listen to our grief, we will find that our capacity for compassion and gratitude are enhanced.

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.

Making It Personal: In general, how comfortable are you with listening to and honoring grief—your own and others? What stands out to you in the Francis Weller quote, and how does that speak to you right now?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to God in the Midst of Change

Listening to God in the Midst of Change

Listening in the Midst of Change

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
- Psalm 23:4, KJV

I discovered a concept called the J Curve a few years ago, and it has helped me to understand the challenges we face when we go through significant change. In the J Curve diagram you will see that, in the initial stage of change, we experience decreasing stability because we have lost the stability and comfort of what was, yet we don’t necessarily know what is ahead. All we know is that we are experiencing some kind of falling, and this can be unsettling.

As we enter the bottom of the J Curve, it is now clear that we are not returning to the old normal, but we don’t yet have a sense of what a new normal might look like. As we move to the J Curve’s right side, we begin to experience renewed energy and a sense of new possibilities.

I have come to understand that the J Curve is also the Jesus Curve. It is the curve of loss and rebirth, of death and resurrection. To paraphrase Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of a J Curve, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”

When I look back over my life, it is often in and through J Curves that my faith has deepened and grown the most. In his reflection last Sunday, Donald Fishburne made this exact point when he wrote, regarding this time of the pandemic, “My prayer life and spiritual life have been broadened and deepened.”

Making It Personal: What J Curves have you experienced throughout the last year? Is there a J Curve that you are in the midst of right now? How has your faith helped you in these times of change?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to Others When They Are Dealing With Change

Listening to Others When They Are Dealing With Change

Listening in the Midst of Change

Reflection By Scott Stoner

If one gives answer before hearing, it is folly and shame.
- Proverbs 18:13

There is a connection between our capacity to listen to others’ emotions and the capacity to listen to our own. Referring to the scale of emotions in yesterday’s reflection, we will find that our capacity to listen to the “unpleasant” 0-5 emotions of others will be directly related to the ability to do the same with ourselves.

All of us know people who have suffered more than others this past year. The pandemic has hit some individuals and groups of people harder than others. We focused earlier in this devotional on the importance of listening to our neighbors. Being a faithful listener to our neighbors, those who have dealt with more than their share of change this year, is perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can offer them.

As the verse from Proverbs states, people who are grieving don’t need us to give them answers. They probably don’t need advice either. What they need is our loving and caring presence. What they need is for us to be comfortable listening to their grief, pain, and uncertainty. What they need is for us to be truly interested in hearing their real response when we ask, “So how are you doing right now?”

There is a beautiful quote from Henri Nouwen that describes the kind of listening and care people need from us when they are grieving.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing ... that is a friend who cares.

Making It Personal: How comfortable are you in simply listening to another’s grief or sadness? Have you been a friend to someone who has faced a great deal of change during this past year? Is there someone right now to whom you feel called to reach out and listen?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening to Our Emotions in the Midst of Change

Listening to Our Emotions in the Midst of Change

Listening in the Midst of Change

Reflection By Scott Stoner

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.
- Jim Rohn

In essential clue about the current state of our emotional wellness is how comfortable we are feeling and expressing the full range of our emotions. Imagine that the full range of emotions exists on a scale from 0-10. Now think of 0-5 as the “unpleasant” emotions, like sadness, anxiety, worry, anger, and fear. Next, think of 6–10 as the “pleasant” emotions, such as joy, love, happiness, excitement, and peace.

Most of us are relatively comfortable feeling and expressing the 6-10 emotions, yet it seems many of us try to avoid feeling and expressing the 0-5 emotions. Here is an important insight regarding this range of emotions: if we block out the 0-5 emotions, we will soon notice that we feel far less of the 6-10 emotions. This is the truth being pointed to in the quote above from Jim Rohn.

Emotions are not good or bad, they simply are. They are like a thermometer, giving us a read on the world around us. Watch a young child and within thirty minutes you will notice that they are comfortable experiencing the full range of 0-10 emotions. They don’t try to build walls around their feelings to protect themselves and don’t get stuck in any one emotion. If we are willing to genuinely listen to and accept all of our emotions without judgment, we too, can avoid getting stuck in any one emotion. The key is to keep our emotions in motion, let them flow in and through us, and watch them pass like fall leaves on a river, floating downstream until they are out of sight, now just a memory.

Making It Personal: As you listen to the emotions you feel regarding the changes you have been dealing with in your life, what do you hear? Are you comfortable listening to and acknowledging the “unpleasant” 0–5 emotions? What about 6-10? What emotion(s) do you sense right now as you listen to yourself?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening in the Midst of Change

Listening in the Midst of Change

Theme for the Week

Reflection By Scott Stoner

Change can be scary, but you know what’s scarier? Allowing fear to stop you from growing, evolving, and progressing.
- Mandy Hale

In yesterday’s reflection, Donald Fishburne writes about the overwhelming changes that the last year has brought into all of our lives. He wrote openly about the grief and loss that he, and no doubt, all of us, have faced. He says that in the midst of all this change, he has experienced spiritual growth and that he is grateful for how this year has been a form of spiritual pilgrimage.

It was just a little over a year ago that our lives changed in ways we could never have imagined. Given a choice, most people would prefer stability over change, and so it’s not uncommon to hear someone say that they really don’t like change, particularly when it is unplanned. Whether we like it or not, this year has given us all more than enough opportunities to practice adjusting to change.

This week we will focus on listening in the midst of change. This theme is important because it is in the midst of any change that listening is often the most difficult to do. Change, especially when unplanned, creates anxiety, and anxiety tends to constrict our ability to listen well. It is worth noting in this context that the word anxious is derived from the Latin word anguere, which means to tighten or constrict.

This week we will focus on listening to the full range of our emotions when facing change. We will notice when we are constricting and feeling anxious. We will also notice what helps us to be open to listening to ourselves, one another, and to God, so that we can not only face change directly, but actually grow in the midst of it.

Making It Personal: Name a few changes that have been most significant for you in the last year. Did any of these changes cause you to constrict with anxiety and make it hard to be open to listening to yourself, others, or God? What, if anything, has helped you through this time?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Along the Pilgrims’ Way

Listening Along the Pilgrims’ Way

The Fourth Sunday in Lent

Reflection By Donald Fishburne

I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
- Jeremiah 31:33b

It a time of expectation before the Passover, some Greeks wished to see Jesus, so Philip and Andrew took these pilgrim seekers to him. As Jesus prayed, a voice from heaven shared God’s glory. Then the crowd heard Jesus say, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Jesus draws all people to himself— for our healing and salvation. But not without struggle. This would cost Jesus his life.

In the year since Ash Wednesday 2020 we’ve been on a journey. I would say a spiritual pilgrimage, deeper into the heart of God. We did not ask for the suffering and discord that began last year around the globe. But God has been with us all along the way. Perhaps this has been for you, as for me, a lean time of loss and grief, an extended wilderness time. For the longest time we have not been able to gather together around our Lord’s table. But we heard our Lord’s voice, and we listened. It’s never too late to listen.

The Good News for me as we listen in this transformative pilgrim journey is that my prayer life and spiritual life have been broadened and deepened. My wife Sarah says my countenance and spiritual demeanor have changed. I’m more appreciative of the profound faith passed on to me by family, friends, mentors, and by members of the generations before. My ancestors, including literal Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower 400 years ago, were not perfect, nor am I, and now I have to reckon with that. At their worst, some were oppressors of one sort or another. At their best, they were pilgrims walking and sharing the way of faith.

In our day, we choose to take this journey with Jesus, who is guiding us toward Holy Week on a particular storm-tossed pilgrimage. All of us walk alongside Jesus, to mourn, to hope, and, through our faithfulness and our willingness to listen deeply to what this journey is telling us, to be lifted into his resurrected life.

This is the perfect season to invite others to journey with us through Lent toward Easter, as Jesus draws us to the cross and into eternal life and love. All we need to do is begin, right where we are.

Jesus hears and knows our needs and our struggles. Our joys and sorrows. Our fears, our yearnings, our hopes. Jesus desires to create in us clean hearts, loving us into the reign of God, overflowing with peace and joy.

Thank you, Jesus.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

The Fruit of Listening

The Fruit of Listening

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Reflection By Robbin Brent

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. ... If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
- Galatians 5:22-23,25

As we come to the end of the fourth week in Lent, let’s look at the theme for the week, listening as an act of mercy and love, through the lens of the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5. These fruit join with mercy and love to form a powerful foundation on which rests a vibrant life in God. Where, as Jesuit priest and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin expressed so beautifully, we can trust in the slow work of God.

These fruit give us the guidance we need to slow down so that we can show up in the present moment, the only moment in which we can sense the presence of God. We will need that guidance and support when we show up in the moment and discover unjust suffering and othering inflicted on our neighbors, as Scott Stoner wrote about in week three. And when we feel compelled to stand up and speak out in response to the suffering and division we witness, we can stand strong and faithful in our truth. We will know first-hand the freedom of spirit that is born from our desire to both speak and listen faithfully, trusting that what knits us together is stronger than what threatens to divide us. Malcolm McLaurin offered us a powerful example of this in his reflection in week two through the story of Starr Carter in The Hate U Give.

No matter what, we can trust that God is holding us all with infinite mercy and love that has been infused with the fruit of the Spirit. I can think of no more powerful map and compass for our journey: heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Making It Personal: Can you think of a time recently where you were compelled to listen to or speak out about a difficult issue? How did it go? If it didn’t go well, could first grounding yourself in the fruit of the Spirit offer you support and guidance? Could they help you to be a more faithful listener and advocate?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Listening Through Creation

Prayer as a Path to Love

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. ... Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
- Rachel Carson

I discovered the opening quote in one of my favorite books honoring creation, Earth’s Echo, by Robert Hamma. In this book he explores ways to listen for God in the world around us, how to be present, and how to notice. During this time of great uncertainty, turbulence, loss, and change, I take refuge in two places where I am able to remember God’s mercy and love: by the ocean and in the mountain woods. Oceanside, the rhythm of the tide, the moon’s phases, and the rise and fall of the sun, are a steady source of comfort, inspiration, a place where I experience a deepening of trust in God’s bounty. All I have to do is to show up and pay attention.

In the mountains, it is a walk to an ancient pine tree deep in the woods near my home. Every step I take toward the tree, I am aware of the fidelity of nature to be exactly what it was created to be. It rekindles my desire to listen more deeply for all the ways God lets me know who I am created to be in this world.

A contemplative practice I often engage with in these two places is walking meditation. As I walk, I follow my breathing and sense my feet making contact with the ground. I try to notice when each foot leaves the ground, and the moment they return to the ground. When I get distracted, I just come back to my breath and to my feet. I end with a prayer of thanksgiving for the gift of fully sensing my body in the present moment in God’s glorious creation.

Making It Personal: Do you have a favorite place in nature where you are more free to notice all the ways God expresses love for you, and for all of creation? If you aren’t able to travel to that place, do you have mementos you could place in your prayer space? It could be freshly fallen leaves, sea shells, acorns, rocks, fruit/veggie, flowers, etc.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Letting Go and Letting God

Prayer as a Path to Love

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Go out of yourself and let God be God in you.
- Meister Eckhart

Last Sunday Heidi Kim explored the “relentless tyranny of perfectionism” and the harm it has done, individually and communally. She shared that spending far too much time regretting what she hasn’t done gets in the way of her doing what she can. She ended by asking, “How might we let go of “perfect” to embrace what is well and true?”

I keenly relate to Heidi’s description of perfectionism as a relentless tyranny. I would add to that the tyranny of busy-ness in order to mask my fears about how well I am doing in life. It seems like no matter how hard I work on a project, problem, or relationship (or worry about the situation while procrastinating), I often second-guess myself and the sufficiency of my efforts. This has softened over the years as I have patiently addressed this painful tendency, and now, instead of an underlying driving cadence of next, and next, and next, I more often experience a sense of ease and openness. To move from relentless tyranny to freedom and a place of spaciousness in which we shift from “Here I am God,” to “Here we are.”

The season of Lent offers us an opportunity to reflect on essential questions. We may want to consider how to let go of perfectionism in order to be more available to all that God desires to offer through us. To ask what do we need to let go of in order to more freely enter God’s prayer for us? What do we need to let go of in order to be freer to love others in God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, and with all of our mind?

Making It Personal: Can you think of a recent situation that has been impaired by the relentless tyranny of perfectionism? What questions would you like to ask God right now? Do you have a trusted friend or small group where you can share your journey and what you might want to let go of during this season of Lent?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

Prayer as a Path to Love

Prayer as a Path to Love

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Reflection By Robbin Brent

In prayer we discover what we already have. You start where you are and you deepen what you already have, and you realize that you are already there.
- Thomas Merton

The quote from Thomas Merton reminds me of Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of Oz. With the ruby slippers, she could have clicked her heels together three times at any point and been home. But not knowing this, she embarks on a dramatic journey filled with danger, fear, beauty, darkness, friendship, and hard-won wisdom. At the end, she and her friends learn that what they most longed for, what they thought they lacked that only the wizard could provide, they already possessed. Merton is saying something similar about using the “ruby slippers” of our prayers to help us remember and return to the abundance we already have, but may have forgotten.

Let’s return to the intercessory prayer questions introduced in week two as one form of prayer that can help us to more fully join our prayer with God’s prayer for us. From this place we can deepen the connections we already have, and offer prayers for mercy, compassion, and love, for ourselves and on behalf of those whom we love, and for those with whom we are in community.

• Beloved of my heart, what is your prayer, your deepest desire for me/ this person/this situation?

• What do you want my prayer to be for myself/this person/situation?

• What, if anything, is getting in my way of joining more fully and freely in your prayer?

• Is there anything you would have me say or do on your behalf?

Making It Personal: If you practiced this way of praying, did you receive any insights or guidance? If you prayed on behalf of another person or group, did that change your thoughts or feelings about them in any way? You might want to write down your responses, or share them in a conversation with a trusted friend or family member.

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:

The Power of Story

The Power of Story

Listening as an Act of Mercy and Love

Reflection By Robbin Brent

Because we fail to listen to each other’s stories, we are becoming a fragmented human race.
- Madeleine L’Engle

I have always loved stories. The greatest legacy I hope to leave to my grandson is a love of story, of listening deeply to his, and of sharing my own with him. I like to think that when we are sharing stories, we are listening for the wonderful ways God is showing up in our lives through our hearts and through our imaginations.

From ancient times through the present moment, wise people have known that the power of story rests in its ability to carry messages directly to the heart. Important messages shared through stories of struggle, of divides seemingly too wide to bridge, of timeless wisdom, enduring love, hope, mystery, magic, and of mercy. Stories connect us to the common ground we share beneath any differences that threaten to divide us.

It is through our stories that we come to know and to name our deepest desires and longings, our gifts and our needs, how we want to move and be in the world. Stories can be where we discover and share underlying currents, events, and themes in a treasure hunt for spiritual breadcrumbs, where we witness for one another the ways God is always present and active in our lives.

Making It Personal: Who is God asking you to listen to right now as an expression of love? Do you find it easier to consider both sides of a situation when you are listening to a story well told? Have you used storytelling as a way to help others better understand you, your hopes and your fears, your struggles and your celebrations?

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Follow along with us this Lent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.

In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.

TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR LENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW: