No Big Secret.
Contemplative writer, Karen Nelson shares a big secret with her readers in “No Big Secret.” Shh…it’s a secret.
Contemplative writer, Karen Nelson shares a big secret with her readers in “No Big Secret.” Shh…it’s a secret.
Inspired by Numbers 6:24-26, Sherry Roscoe offers this poem, “After Weeks of Snow, Rain. & Ice.” This is Day 24 of Lent.
Beth Griffith was inspired to write today’s poem from a photo she took in the Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada. May you be inspired as well on this 20th day of Lent.
Today, Selah Companion Beth Griffith gifts us with one of her poems, “Climb Up to the Light” and illustrates it with her photography. Enjoy.
By Mary Pandiani
Executive Director
Selah Center
To start the new year, we read this scripture with anticipation and a promise. The “home of God is with His people” where God’s presence resides with us, no matter what the circumstances. We have the unending flow of God’s fountain, like the original baptismal waters that came from a river, always renewing, always originating from the source of life.
In early church baptisms, a stream ran through the church so the waters were never stagnant. Similarly, as we start this new year we begin again, finding restoration in the living waters that come from the One who makes all things new.
One way to be intentional about the new year is to explore what a “word” might be for the entire year.
Rather than proclaiming a New Year’s resolution that may last for six weeks at the most, listen for the invitation by God for the choice of a word. Listening proves to be more life-giving and honest than assigning some goal or need for accomplishment. It’s a way to explore the intention to have for this beginning again. The discovery of the word becomes more about the integration of being and doing than just the doing.
The process usually starts with dedicating some time to ask these questions:
- What seems to be resonating with my soul right now?
- What are ways I’ve seen God at work as the last year comes to a close and a new year begins?
- What images/pictures come to mind and heart as I take time in quiet to be present to God?
Sometimes it comes through scripture or a poem, or a conversation. Over time, usually a week or more, a pattern emerges that brings some confirmation. It cannot be forced. I wait for as long as I need to wait. One year the word didn’t appear until late March. If I’m honest, there are years where the word sticks and other years where it was helpful but not necessarily profound. If I keep the word prominent in some form, whether in a journal or an artistic expression, I use it as a lens to see the year—a way to stay awake to the ways God is present.
While there’s no formula for the process, it begins with the question:
What is the longing God is revealing to me for this year?
As we say in Selah, if all we can bring is desire, that is enough. Perhaps your “word” begins with expressing the desire to have an intention given by God. Remain open and receptive to what may unfold for you.
By Mary Pandiani
Executive Director
Selah Center
About thirty years ago, a new tradition began at Christmas time. In the Western Hemisphere, the night of the Winter Solstice, Blue Christmas becomes a time to honor the sadness that accompanies the season. On this day, we acknowledge those who no longer celebrate the Christmas season with us in person. Entering into a ritual of quietness, we light candles in remembrance. It’s a time to grieve amid celebration for the season.
This year, Blue Christmas touches close to my heart. Several deaths in the last few months have impacted me, most significantly a dear friend of thirty-two years and my mother-in-law of my late husband. I celebrate this Christmas without them, and it’s not easy to do so. While I can still enter the joy of the season, my heart is heavy with grief upon grief. This realization holds my attention nearly every day. Tears well up from deep inside.
I use the word “honor” in sadness purposefully. Sadness does not take away the joy from the season. Just as Mary and Joseph experienced joy and sorrow on their journey, from hearing from the angels, trying to find a place to stay for the night, and giving birth to baby Jesus. Holding both is a paradox. And I am reminded there is sadness and joy in the life story. I want to make a note of this reality and honor it.
The poem by John O’Donohue, A Blessing for Loneliness, invites me into what the darkness of grief and sadness offers. Ending with the “blue flower” in this blessing, he captures my imagination with mystical allure. In Romantic poetry, the blue flower symbolizes the artistic and emotional striving for the infinite. Connecting to Blue Christmas, I remember my longing for the infinite, even amid my sadness. Can I trust that what emerges, whether in the grief or the joy of the season, will be a gift from God? I find solace in knowing the pain I feel is equal to my love for those I miss. And could it be, from the darkness, I might know light?
This is the hope of the season and our lives; a light has been brought into the world. I celebrate the light while honoring the darkness. My prayer on the longest night of the year is to continue to learn what it means to trust God in whatever happens, whether sadness or joy.
By Sandy Shipman
Selah Companion
I understand the waiting of Advent, the wanting, the waning hope. Aching for justice, mercy, and love while experiencing division, judgment, and hate. We pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” like the Jews of Mary’s time praying for the Messiah. We pray and wait for the powerful and mighty to save us. Who would have thought that God would deliver the Messiah not from the mountaintop but from inside a human? That was unexpected.
Now, we have this annual practice of the whole church waiting expectantly for Jesus to come from inside Mary during the Advent season. Candles and choirs and scripture readings. But back then, most people didn’t know the Messiah was coming so soon. They had work and oppression and Laws on their mind. They had hope for the Messiah in the same way we do. Perhaps thy kingdom come, someday, later, in the future. But today, we have work to do, battles to fight, and morality to uphold and defend.
Mary was another teenager who got pregnant before marriage. I imagine she was shunned and judged and deemed less than. Few suspected the Spirit had entered her, that Jesus was alive within her. How might the conversations, the interactions have changed if the neighbors had known that God was so near?
I recently created art with a teenage girl, an amazing artist. She was kind, inquisitive, protective, and she made me laugh. She was also a six-year veteran of the juvenile justice system. And pregnant. I imagine she is shunned, judged, and deemed less than. I can hear the neighbors discussing virtue and choices and patterns of behavior. What if we knew the Holy Spirit was living inside her? What if we believed Jesus was alive within her? Would our conversations and interactions change with God so near?
Would we travel great distances and bring the child gifts? Do we?
What if, in all our conversations and interactions, we behaved as if we believed God was alive in each of us? What if we kept the Law and loved one another?
Anyway. I understand the waiting. The wanting. The waning hope.
Let’s surprise everyone with God’s Love delivered once more from inside a human. You. Me. Thy Kingdom Come.
By Kathleen Heppell,
Selah Companion
While we prepare for sleep and night watch of our sheep, the fire warms us. Sky cloudless, black, yet bright with stars… We whisper… how such beauty takes our breath away.
A blinding light. Bright as day. Stunned. Paralyzed. Will we die? “Fear not.” we hear, shaking as we fall on our faces, our arms covering our heads. These words… we try to make sense of what we hear and have seen.
Lifting our heads, we see an angel announcing Rejoice! Rejoice! The Messiah is born this night in Bethlehem, as scripture foretold. Wrapped snugly in clothes, lying in a manger.
Our Savior lying in a manger?
The sky becomes brighter as the heavenly host sings, filling us with joy as we have never known. We hear Glory to God in the highest heaven and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.
And then they are gone, leaving us with baaing sheep, our fire, and one another.
We must see our Savior. No one wants to be left behind, yet our sheep must be protected. We don’t argue in our usual ways; a hush among us as we decide who will go into Bethlehem. The fastest run toward the sleeping town to the stable at the inn guided with a knowing in our hearts.
We stop in front of the opening. Panting, we gather ourselves. How to enter this place with the promised Savior within? This smelly stable is Holy. Our overflowing joy gives unfamiliar confidence. We enter in silence. Oldest to youngest, our torches held high.
There he is, a baby lying in a manger, wrapped in snug clothes. Nearby his parents sit up, rubbing their eyes, questions on their faces. “The angel of the Lord told us our Savior, the Messiah, was born this night. We have come to worship.”
They nod in understanding, with curiosity and awe on their faces. We fall to our knees. Foreheads to the ground, we praise the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, Adonai, and in our midst, Immanuel, just as was promised.
Strange… the smells of animals would be incensed to our God. Somehow we know our presence, the offering of our hearts and voices, is pleasing to the Lord Most High.
We excitedly share more of our story with Mary and Joseph. Tired as they are, they, too, praise our God, who keeps His promises. We leave as dawn begins to kiss the earth. Travelers and shopkeepers on the road look at us as worse than the dirt they walk on. They hear us praising God to the highest heaven; we don’t care who we awaken.
Shrinking back from the stench of our clothes, they cannot miss the glory shining, like Moses, upon our countenance when they look at our faces. “Our Savior is born this day in the stable just down the road. The angel of the Lord told us; the heavenly host sang praises. It was the darkest night yet shone brighter than the noonday sun!”
Trying to take in what we are saying, they can see our joy. Some shake their heads, “Shepherds! The heavenly host coming to them? The Savior of the world born in a stable? How can that be?”
We tell them, see for yourselves, providing directions… While some seem curious, most keep shaking their heads. They don’t seem to want to see for themselves.
Yet nothing dampens our overflowing joy. Returning to our flocks, we tell everyone.
As we watch over our sheep, we ponder within ourselves and to one another how is it that He chose us, lowly shepherds, to hear and see this good news. How did He choose this young couple, peasants, to be His parents? How is it that the Messiah was born in a stable? And we ask, when will He deliver His people?
We know within our depths… at the right time… this baby will grow up to lead us and redeem us.
ON THIS SECOND WEEK OF ADVENT, we light the candle of peace. A state of being that means tranquility, mental calm, and serenity. We bring our request before God in asking for peace, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in. Christmas is typically a time of celebration and joyous expectations.
By Debora Buerk
Editor, Here & Now
& Selah Companion
For Christians, Advent is a time spent preparing for Christmas. For many of us, this can include decorating our homes, putting up a Christmas tree, creating an Advent calendar, writing Christmas cards, gathering with family and friends for dinner, and giving gifts.
The word Advent originates in Old English from the Latin word “adventus,” or “coming”—the arrival of God in human form, umbilical cord, and all.
While some are tempted to think of Christmas as an event to be observed at the end of the calendar year, they would miss the origin and meaning of Advent.
We don’t know when the period of preparation for Christmas, now called Advent, began. It existed from about 480, with the Council of Tours in 567. What we know and celebrate is a time of preparation for Christmas Day, when we celebrate the birth or beginning of the Christian liturgical year.
Advent anticipates the “coming of Christ” from three different perspectives:
This third meaning, I believe, was the focus of the early church—to wait for Christ’s second coming. This, however, has become downplayed among today’s Christians.
What if our focus shifted to waiting, anticipating, and preparing for the King’s return to earth, the defeat of Satan and sin, and peace on earth? Now that would be something to anticipate and celebrate.
So this Advent season, as you decorate for Christmas, sing the carols, and light the advent wreath, try to anticipate—look forward to Christ’s return and, with it, peace on earth. What if we wished each other a “Blessed Advent” as a prelude to “Merry Christmas?”
In doing so, we can simultaneously give and receive the love of God to each other—as we anticipate and draw near his birth.
I wish you a joy-filled Advent for all of us in the growing Selah community.
Stepping out of my house,
Turning, locking the door,
Already noticing the warmth of this mid – October day,
And the light cool, almost crisp breeze underneath the warmth of the sun.
Walking to my car,
Focusing on thoughts of the work day ahead,
I notice in my mind’s eye
A young girl, maybe five or six.
Facing me, with straight, almost chin length brown hair, parted in the middle with bangs;
Deep brown eyes, sparkling, alive!
Cheeks rosy, her smile broad, showing large, slightly crooked teeth.
She turns away
Spreading her arms, running this way and that.
She appears to embrace the day with joy and exuberance.
She turns and calls come run with me!
Let’s play!!
I feel her pleasure, excitement, and invitation to this moment.
I smile, then laugh, and say
Go ahead and run, enjoy, and I will follow behind you.
I see myself, sans briefcase and purse,
Arms stretching out; running this way and that
Following my younger self
Relishing the promise, and playfulness
Of this breathtaking day.
By KATHLEEN HEPPELL
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah Community
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, then I invite you to write for it. I’m accepting submissions now for blogs through the end of the year. In particular, I’m interested in blogs about gratitude, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year, as well as fall content through Thanksgiving. I welcome any form of contemplative posts such as poetry, reflections, original art, and original photography. If you’re interested or need more information, leave me a message in the comments. I hope to hear from you.
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, you can subscribe to receive each new post through email. You’ll find the form on this page. Or, you follow Here & Now through your RSS on WordPress.com.
Pause, Encounter, Grow
with the Here & Now blog,
DEBORA BUERK
Editor, Here & Now blog
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah community
Tonight I pray for you.
This ongoing–going-on kind of talking with God thing I do.
This candle burning.
This open window.
Heart of mine
trembling over how long you’ll be here.
I’ve never loved you more—than now.
Different intimacy, it’s higher, deeper
different than I’ve known with you before.
The chase is not on.
The embrace is on.
Holding you—holding me.
Curious.
Ever curious about where this road leads.
By Anonymous
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah Community
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, then I invite you to write for it. I’m accepting submissions now for blogs through the end of the year. In particular, I’m interested in blogs about gratitude, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year, as well as fall content through Thanksgiving. I welcome any form of contemplative posts such as poetry, reflections, original art, and original photography. If you’re interested or need more information, leave me a message in the comments. I hope to hear from you.
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, you can subscribe to receive each new post through email. You’ll find the form on this page. Or, you follow Here & Now through your RSS on WordPress.com.
Pause, Encounter, Grow
with the Here & Now blog,
DEBORA BUERK
Editor, Here & Now blog
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah Community
God is the generosity of wildflower
Fields dotted with blooms
Of every imaginable color
God is the majestic Mt. Adams
A towering presence
Light glistening off snow-capped peaks
Evergreens sheltering His creatures
God is the ocean tide responding to the distant moon
Waves rolling forward, building, cresting again and again
Chilling and tickling my toes with retreating foam
A vehicle for surfers and swimmers,
A dinner vessel for seagulls
God is in the ruby-throated hummingbird
Feathers shimmering emerald in the sunlight
Colorful, busy, seeking the nectar of His creations
Resting on the butterfly sculpture,
Peering in living room window, igniting joy
God is in the cawing black crows,
Squawking, stomping on our skylight
Littering the roof with clam shells
Recent signs that God was
Here and here and here.
God is the gift of a double beauty rose
Fuscia tipped white rose scented
With a lingering sweet aroma
Reminding me God beckons
More than one of my senses
Is God in my Yorkie?
Looking in my eyes with adoration?
Yes, God’s here, also.
Although I’m not convinced
God wants his tummy rubbed
God is the blue sky, the green trees,
The soft brown pine needles littering the forest
God is the hot fudge, warm caramel
Crunchy toasted pecans
Sweet pillows of whipped cream
Inviting me to savor all He offers
God is all the seen and unseen
Calling out from flowers, waves, birds,
Trees, mountains, pets, even desserts.
Through all of creation God invites me
To the joy and awe of being loved.
He draws me closer in each manifestation
Trusting me to sense His Presence
In whatever way I can,
Day after day.
Photo by REV. ANDREW LARSEN
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah community
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, then I invite you to write for it. I’m accepting submissions now for blogs through the end of the year. In particular, I’m interested in blogs about gratitude, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year, as well as fall content through Thanksgiving. I welcome any form of contemplative posts such as poetry, reflections, original art, and original photography. Interested or need more info, leave me a message in the comments. I hope to hear from you.
If you enjoy reading the Here & Now blog, you can subscribe to receive each new post through email. You’ll find the form on this page. Or, you can view the blog from your RSS feed on WordPress.com.
Pause, Encounter, Grow
with the Here & Now blog,
By DEBORA BUERK
Editor, Here & Now blog
a Selah Companion
part of the Selah Community