Embracing the darkness

 Daily Advent Reflections may be found here

1 Peter 3:15

Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you;

In this season I sense the nudge

to move from optimism to hope

For optimism encourages me 

to reframe the darkness

While hope exhorts me 

to embrace it

After almost two years

for the most part reframing

This Advent brings opportunity 

to stop and embrace

To sit with the darkness

until I can resist the urge

to flee or attack 

To sit with the darkness

until stillness settles in

To sit with the darkness

until I can acknowledge

the parts of self I’d rather stay hidden

To sit with the darkness

until I can show some love for the wounds

that make me all that I am

To sit with the darkness

until I can pick off the scabs

knowing that more healing is possible 

To sit with the darkness

not anxious about finding light

but to sit with darkness

until hope dawns.

Dredging up hope

 

Daily Advent Reflections may be found here

Psalms 25:4-5

Make me to know your ways, O LORD;

teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth, and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation;

for you I wait all day long.

Advent

Season of hope

Season of light

Season of joy

Season of peace

It seems that every year

we have to work harder

dig deeper

look longer

for the signs of the season

for those signs

of hope

and light

and joy

and peace 

They are more elusive than ever

in a world that is burning

with fear and rage

in a world where we barely turn our heads

at the ever increasing toll of death

from pandemic, from war, from terrorism, from displacement 

all refugees in a world that has no room for love

May we walk through this season

with our heads held high

so that we can look the darkness full in the eye

pledging not to look away

May we be prepared

to do that hard work to which we are called

to be harbingers

of hope

and light

and joy 

and peace

even and especially when our hearts are breaking

May we simply live into and out of love

by the power of the God of Advent, 

Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer.

Drag Queen God

 

This morning, through the autumn mist

I glimpsed God

Her auburn hair swirled around her

Her long purple boots tramped determinedly

through a carpet of autumn leaves

And her train trailed behind her

swirling up a rainbow

of red and gold and green and brown

The leaves were swept up

and deposited

in her wake

Indiscriminately

None left untouched

but all finding a new place to settle

and continue their work

of nourishing the earth

while God walked purposefully on

like a drag queen on the cat walk

displacing everything in her path

Disturbing

Repurposing

Grounding

Sanctifying

Autumnal God