A beautiful offering…
Twelve months ago,
a brisk January beginning,
a gift in her hand.…
soulkindling.com/2018/12/31/honoring-the-past-year-and-her-colorful-embrace/
How to kee up with Ronnie in the New Year… you don’t want to miss him!
Hello friends!
Many of you have received my “Keeping the Faith” via email or by reading in your local paper. Some of that will change in 2019. I will continue to produce content for my local Gatehouse Media papers and exclusively for Digital First Media (The Detroit News, et. al.).
My columns will be available here on my site and through social media as usual. Some smaller papers will no longer be able to carry the column, and email distribution will end.
All the best to you in the New Year, and Keep the Faith.
RM
Thank you, Rogene & Bob for the inspiration you offer throughout the year ❤️❤️
Every year on New Year’s Eve I ask you to join Bob and I as we pray for peace. If you have a chance to go to a group peace prayer or meditation gathering today, by all means do. There is power in individual prayer and mediation but when we gather together with shared intention it is multiplied.
Very wise words from Ronnie ❤️❤️
I hope it’s not too soon to say it, but you probably spent too much money this holiday season. It’s understandable, and I am not without compassion for you or your bank statement. Your list was no doubt long, those on it probably had expensive tastes, and you were expected to spend more than you had.
You have been trained to behave like this, after all, as have I and the several generations before us. By busting the bank each year, we do exactly what we have been conditioned to do, for somewhere along the line we shifted from being a contributing society to being a consumer society. Buying, acquiring, and getting is the truest mark of modern America.
Over time, we have been acclimatized to a life of covetousness, desire, and envy (There is also that phrase I hear so often from the sphere of marketing: “You deserve this!”)…
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The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
An amazing morning of worship
Sharing leadership with a dear brother
Music, laughter, and incredible connections
Your Spirit was indeed present, Lord
Contemplating what gifts we bring to the new year
An afternoon trip into Rocky
We were able to enjoy despite the Government Shutdown
An evening relaxing with my sweetie
A much needed break after a hectic few weeks
Now, as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A day of reflection and preparation
An evening of fellowship
As the year comes to a close
It is a time to look back, and examine
It is a time to look forward, and seek
It is a time to simply be in the Present Moment
It is a time to simply be still
As we prepare for sleep
As we prepare for tomorrow
Lord in your mercy, hear this humble prayer
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The old year will soon be gone and a new year will begin. My prayer for all of us is that we will meet God in new and fascinating ways as we traverse 2019. A part of that prayer is that we will truly use the gifts which God has given to us for the benefit of God’s Kingdom and not for our own self-aggrandizement or self-glorification.
The Gospel Reading for this First Sunday after Christmas seems to be out of order. Jesus’s birth, next we see him at age twelve, and on Epiphany (January 6th) the Wise Men come with their gifts for the infant or two year old depending upon your theological math!
Tomorrow we will sing more Christmas Carols since this is still the Christmas season. For the purist, it begins on Christmas Eve and ends with Epiphany twelve days later… you know, the Twelve Days of Christmas with a Partridge in a Pear Tree, Leaping Lord’s, Maids a Milking, and Five Golden Rings. Click here for my favorite version of that song: John Denver & The Muppets: The Twelve Days of Christmas
Anyhow, we have the incident in the Temple where the precocious teenage Jesus tells his parents… why were you worried, I was doing my Father’s business… if I had been missing and said something like that to my parents, I would have been in trouble!
Well, if we look beyond that, we do see that Jesus was following the call of God in his life. This was a very brief look into the early days of Jesus. His life would remain shrouded in anonymity and mystery until he appeared at the age of thirty to begin his public ministry. The gift that he would bring to the world had not yet been revealed, but glimpses of the gift were indeed seen by the religious leaders who were amazed by his understanding and questions.
However, as we stand on the cusp of a New Year, wondering what it will hold for us as individuals and as a Community of Faith, my thoughts turn to the reading from Colossians 3:12-17. It opens with these words in verse 12: As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.
How are we to walk into this new year? What are we supposed to be about in the building of God’s Kin-dom (a concept we explored in some depth at the PC(USA) 223rd General Assembly)? The opening verse gives us a good idea of how we are to begin this process. Compassion… Kindness… Humility… Meekness… Patience… Clothing ourselves like that, we would see our work of building the Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven (a phrase I use regularly when praying at the dedication of our tithes and offerings each Sunday).
Can you imagine what life and this world would be like if people actually acted that way? Especially those who claim to be followers of Jesus. We would see a lot fewer lower case christians and a lot more Christ Followers!
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:13-14)
In the words of Louis Armstrong, what a wonderful world this would be! Louis Armstrong – What A Wonderful World
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I believe that this world needs a whole lot of kin working together with compassion, humility, kindness, meekness, and patience. If we could see each other, even with all of our differences as Kin created in the Image of God… relatives… family… called to build a Kin-dom here where love binds us all together. That would indeed be a gift for the new year.
Perhaps we can each do our part to make that a reality, beginning with our own homes and neighborhoods. Can you imagine it? I believe we can, in the words of John Lennon, if we try. Will you join with me, dear reader?
A simple and yet profound reminder for today…
The symbol of Christmas—what is it? It is the rainbow arched over the roof of the sky when clouds are heavy and foreboding. It is the cry of life in the newborn babe, when forced from its mother’s nest, it claims the right to life. It is the brooding presence of the Eternal Spirit making crooked ways straight, rough places smooth, tired hearts refreshed, dead hopes stir with newness of life. It is the promise of tomorrow at the close of every day, the movement of life in defiance of death, and the assurance that love is sturdier than hate, that right is more confident than wrong, that good is more permanent than evil. — Howard Thurman (The Mood of Christmas)
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Family is all safely back home
Christmas time with them is concluded
Today has also been a time of introspection
Time spent resting and reflecting
Time spent with a dear brother
Time watching meaning-filled movies
Rent–living and loving fully in the present
Walking through the Valley of the Shadows
Offering love, hope, reconciliation, peace
Springsteen–remembering our youth
Hearing the message of Justice and Equality
A present day prophet speaking aloud
Working for a better future
As I look at the present insanity in our nation and world
As I see and feel the hatred and fear
Lord, help me to see and to be the hope
Help me to be an instrument of your Peace
Help me to be an instrument of your Love
Lord, help me to walk with ALL of your children in Love, Hope, Freedom, Reconciliation
Lord, in your mercy, hear this humble prayer
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
