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Breaking Open


Hi Friends,

I have been enjoying sending out a weekly devotional every Monday.  It is my hope you are enjoying the warm days over this August weekend.  Murray, Alex, Hailey, and I ventured out at 5:30 am today to try and catch a few fish for supper.  The fish were not biting at all however, I do enjoy early summer mornings sitting in the boat enjoying the sun.  The devotional today is from Kari Elliot. 

Hi Everyone,

It’s really nice to have an opportunity to say hello and share a little with you today!

Over the past few months I’ve been thinking a lot about the physicality and tangibility of Jesus's life. Sometimes I think my faith gets too reasoned out and stuck in my head and I forget that Jesus shared our humanity and lived a physical life just like ours. He walked from town to town, eating and drinking, pointing out examples and encouragements to faith along the way.

When Jesus talks about it, the Kingdom of God is never just an idea or a warm feeling, but something that’s displayed and referenced in everyday things: a mustard seed, a bit of yeast kneaded through dough, a pearl of great price, a cup of wine, a garden, a stone rolled away from a tomb. The gospels are really quite a sensory experience!

Anyhow, over the last 5 years or so I’ve really valued the practice of heading out to a prayer labyrinth and using the quiet space to move my prayers into my body and find a little more focus and intention in my practice. (If you’ve never walked a prayer labyrinth before, I’ve included a picture of one here; the concept is simply to walk your way to the centre, holding your thoughts before God on the way in and listening as you move slowly along the twists and turns, lingering to listen for the Holy Spirit to give new understanding, comfort, or invitation in the centre, and then winding back along the path, praying into what has been received on the way back out.)

Many times my feet have pounded their way along this path in sorrow or confusion, when I have a particular friend or situation that I’m praying for, or even just on days that feel long and restless. I find that it gives me a space to pray with my whole self in each step and slow breath and to trust that God will meet me with new insight and strength as I work at being fully and honestly present with my body, mind, and heart.

Somedays, when the sun is warm, I’ll kneel down and put my hands on the centre stone of the path and remember the warmth and energy of God’s love in the lives around me. On other days when it’s raining I’m amazed to see the dust washing away over the stones, bringing about something fresh and green all around to mark the space as safe and sacred and new.

This week, as I walked into the clearing I heard gentle popping sounds all around me - in the  heat all of the caragana pods were twisting and breaking open, dropping hundreds of seeds all around. It made me think about all of the twisting and breaking and change that has come out of this season of uncertainty and I started to wonder what those seeds might have to say about the Kingdom of God.

Often my first response to change is to feel sad or concerned about the breaking - what the change means in a season, what needs to be done to accommodate and fill in gaps, how I might return to the way things were before. But the sound and the sight of all those seeds flinging into the world made me think more about how God moves us from the cozy spaces we’re comfortable in and invites us into new seasons of possibility and beauty to demonstrate God’s kingdom in courageous new ways.

I’ve been thinking about verses like Isaiah 43:19:

 See, I am doing a new thing!

    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the wilderness

    and streams in the wasteland.

and Psalm 40:3:

 He put a new song in my mouth,

    a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear the Lord

    and put their trust in him.

 This week as I think about those seeds and verses, I’m trying to carry some new questions with me:

 What space is currently being opened in me to create the possibility of something new?

 How can I embrace a new song or picture of God’s faithfulness in this season?

 What is in front of me in this moment that God might use to shape something new in me and in my community?

 I hope that in this season of long, slow-paced days, you find yourself able to find intentional spaces to listen for the new things that God is shaping around you in the everyday places of your life, and I hope that you can welcome those changes with curiosity about what God might yet bring out of this season.

Thanks so much for reading!

Kari

Thank you, Kari, for sharing your thoughts with us this week.  If you would like to write her a note, her email address is kari@ebap.ca 

Blessings, stay safe, Robin


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