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dreamprayact

~ Reflections of a preacher, poet, and contemplative activist

dreamprayact

Monthly Archives: February 2012

An Ash Wednesday Prayer

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Ash Wednesday, blessed, Creator, doing justice, dust of the earth, God, God's image, grace, healing, holy habits, Lent, loving mercy, prayer, spirit, trust, walk humbly with God, wholeness

God of all creation,
you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger,
and you abound in steadfast love.

Today as I enter the closet of my heart,
I discover a lifetime of memories stored there –
some I would prefer to forget and leave behind,
others that remind me how truly blessed I am.

Today I hear again your invitation to renewal –
I hear it with every fiber of my being,
having been created in your image,
formed of the dust of your earth,
enlivened by the breath of your spirit,
established in the strength of your grace!

In these forty days of Lent, it is my heart’s desire
to surrender old harmful habits that yield nothing,
and to take up new holy habits that lead to life.

May this Lenten journey return me to a place of trust,
where my fear is conquered by your holy unshakable love,
where I am healed and made whole in the aliveness of life,
where doing justice,
and loving mercy,
and walking humbly with you,
are the ways of being that matter most.

Take Off Your Shoes

20 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Reflections

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

burning bush, call of God, call story, discernment, doubts, empathy, encounter God, holy ground, human condition, ordained ministry, questions, real presence, remove your sandals, self-reflection

I spent a day last week on an interview team talking and listening to individuals who are either candidates for ordination or working as local pastors in the United Methodist Church. The interviews are meant to be part of a discernment process for each candidate over several years’ time as they prepare themselves for ordained ministry. The process involves healthy doses of both self-reflection and the assessments of others, and it takes into consideration all the ways we measure health – psychological, physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational. Candidates are expected to be able to clearly articulate the movement of God in their lives that has led them to believe that God is calling them into ordained ministry. It is their personal “Call Story.”

Most of us on the interview team are ordained ministers who have served the church for many years. We remember sitting in the same seat once and doing our best to bring the mystery of God’s gracious activity in our lives to speech. We know it is daunting to be where these candidates are sitting and it gives us a measure of empathy.

As I listen to others tell their call stories I also recall some of the call stories in scripture, especially the one of God calling Moses. It begins when as an infant his life is spared through the courageous actions of his mother and sister. He grows up among his Hebrew people under the oppressive thumb of the Egyptians. He witnesses the brutal treatment of his people but never imagines that he will be called upon to do anything about it.

Then one day Moses leads his father-in-law Jethro’s flock of sheep out into the wilderness to Horeb, the mountain of God. There he sees a bush that is blazing but is not consumed, and when he turns aside to look more closely God calls to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” Moses replies, “Here I am.” Then God says, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” Then we are told that Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3:1-6).

It will always be a fearful thing to encounter God! God strips away all the self-protective layers of an ego-inflated life and addresses the core of who you are as a human being. There is no hiding from God. The very ground upon which you and I live our lives is holy ground. Even our abuse of the earth does not diminish its glorious nature. Even our neglect of our own bodies does not lessen their temple-like quality. God blazes in bushes all around us and within us. Just because we fail to notice them doesn’t make God’s presence less real.

I think back over the years to the time I first felt the stirring of God’s call within me. I remember that, like Moses, I had plenty of reasons why God was making a big mistake in calling me. I, too, asked, “Who am I that I should go?” I, too, wondered, “What shall I say to them?” I, too, worried, “But suppose they do not believe me or listen to me, but say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” I, too, objected, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now.”

All these years later I still do not know why God would call someone like me to lead a congregation. I can think of all kinds of ways that I am not qualified. I struggle with the human condition. I experience doubts. I have more questions than answers. I worry that in my weakness I am letting people down, or worse, letting God down. For these reasons and more, I am aware every day of the need to take off my shoes!

when your heart is frayed

09 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Poems

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

blessing, heart, orchid, poem, soft glow, sunlight

when your heart is frayed by circumstance
and the days feel gray as stone

blessed is the buttery sunlight
peeking through rose-tinted curtains

wrapping you in its soft glow
melting you in its benevolent embers

Photo of Cattleya Orchid by Dallis Richardson
Orchid-inspired poem by Mark Richardson
Orchid grown in the home of Steve & Shirley Burton 

Breathe a Gentle Word

06 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Prayers

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

breath of life, dream, gentle word, God, peace, prayer, song, still small voice

Breathe a Gentle Word

O breath of Life, bend near and breathe
a gentle word upon this restless world.

You, the song that inspires birds to sing,
you, the dream lying dormant in childlike souls,

you, the rising and falling of everlasting waters,
you, the infinite grains of sand upon each shore,

you, the soft pink glow that hastens the end of day,
you, the melancholy that remains when darkness falls,

on the day you first spoke of our becoming,
we tasted the sweet communion of your peace.

Now let your still, small voice bend near and
breathe a gentle word upon our beating hearts.

Words (c) 2007 Mark Lloyd Richardson
Photo was taken in Pacific Grove, California

Keep the Flame Lit

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by mark lloyd richardson in Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

flame of God's love, gift of God, God's grace, light of Christ, spirit within you, spiritual life, spiritual nourishment, spiritual wellbeing

“What nourishes your spirit?”

Sounds like a reasonable question for someone like myself who is called, ordained, appointed and paid to be a spiritual leader within the United Methodist Church, don’t you think?

My spiritual director Donna asked me this question yesterday when we met. My tiredness was apparent. I know I sounded discouraged. There is always more work to be done in pastoral ministry than there are hours in the day. The need for congregational renewal is real and pressing. There is no time to waste!

Yet time is the very element of life that I need to redirect toward the nourishment of my own spirit if I am to be the kind of spiritual leader who can assist others in living out their faith in hopeful and life-affirming ways.

Intellectually I know this, but the demands of ministry frequently push me to neglect my own spiritual wellbeing. Before I know it I am depleted, and my sense of joy vanishes into thin air.

“What nourishes my spirit?”

It’s as though I need to continually ask myself this question, and remind myself of the consequences if I don’t ask it, because I am terribly self-forgetful. My memory functions reasonably well in most areas of life, but when it comes to caring for my own spirit – my own soulful being – I am often blinded by what I must try to accomplish and I tend to ignore the warning signs of spiritual or emotional fatigue. Before long I’m wondering if I can get through the day or the week, much less the season or the year.

So to answer the question – I am nourished by real relationships with other human beings who risk vulnerability with me. I am nourished by nature’s astounding beauty. I am nourished by exceptional literature, especially poetry. I am nourished by the art of arranging words in ways that reveal who you and I are as beloved children of God.

Thirty-three years ago as a college student considering that God might be calling me to pastoral ministry, I preached my first sermon in my home church on a text from Paul’s letter to Timothy. There Paul advises his young apprentice “to rekindle the gift of God that is within you” and reminds him that “God does not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

I reclaim these words for myself today, as I seek to rekindle the gift of God that is within me. The light of Christ shines through people – imperfect, broken down people like me – to illumine the world with God’s grace and love.

I must do my best to keep the flame lit!

February 2012
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