The Gospel is read from John 3 and I remember that no matter where I go looking, where I ever find him, it all comes back to this. God so loved the world…
The light has come into the world… I’m staring at the floor following the dance of the green and orange and red stained glass light on the floor tile while words of Gospel truth dance in the cool air. And people loved the darkness rather than the light… Just like that, the light shifts and vanishes from the floor and a grayness seems to cloak the space around me.
Just like that.
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Job | Obscurity
Satan’s second stroll through the throne room has tightened a slip knot around my mind these last weeks and I can’t seem to chew through the rope to turn the page.
He waltzes in, following along with the angels into a place he clearly doesn’t belong, but presents himself in front of the throne nonetheless. He and God replay the episode from the first chapter on TiVo. It’s nearly word for word.
From where have you come?
From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.
Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?
Of course Satan has considered Job. The last time we talked Satan had just dragged Job out back and beat the dickens out of him. Took everything he owned, everyone he loved but his wife and a few friends. Read the rest of this page »
Preparation Day: 18
The words of David, upon being rescued. Again.
Psalm 18 for your Sabbath Preparation.
Find some quiet contemplation in these weekend communities:
Still Saturday with Sandra King | Sunday with Deidra Riggs
(Thanks for stopping by today. I’m encouraged by your visit.
I’ll beg your pardon for the closed comment box on Preparation Days.
It just helps me not talk so much.)
Meeting Diana
Diana Trautwein can stand flat-footed and look me in the eye.
(Not many can claim such a thing.)
In turn (defying some unwritten law of physics, or perhaps botany — science is not my subject), I tilt back my head and look up to her. Read the rest of this page »
Rumors of Water: Are You Serious?
It’s tough to get me to unfold my arms from across my chest. My brand of fun almost always comes with a hint of reluctance and a straight face, and words like stoic, droll and deadpan come up often in my company. But some will see the quick-flashing glint in my eye, camouflaged by the stuffed shirt I often wear.
Make no mistake. Much of life is serious business.
But sometimes, a little permission to play opens a valve and lets loose a new thing or two.
Our book club on L.L. Barkat’s Rumors of Water continues today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
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MAKING HEADROOM chronicles a year (or so) of weekly trips to a monastery, where words are spoken slowly, as though the point is to hear them — not to see how many can fit into an already bustling space. It’s the kind of place where the next thing is glad to wait as long as it takes for an old man to shuffle across the room. I learn to meet him in the quiet so I can also meet him in the clamor.
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