… watching for the brushstrokes of God
“People do not resist change, per se. People resist loss. You appear dangerous to people when you question their values, beliefs, or habits of a lifetime. You place yourself on the line when you tell people what they need to hear rather than what they want to hear.” ~ Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky
What makes you appear dangerous?
“Many and varied are the interpretations dealing with the teachings and life of Jesus of Nazareth. But few of these interpretations deal with what the teachings and the life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.” ~ Howard Thurman, Jesus and the disinherited
How does Jesus give hope and relief with the back against the wall?
“Contemplative action … emerges from our real encounters with God. It is doing what God calls us to do … no matter how afraid we are or how ill-equipped we feel. … completely given over to a Power that is beyond our own – even, and perhaps most especially, when the risks are very great.” ~ Barbara Peacock
What action emerges on the Monday of Holy Week?
The peacefulness of spring rain, the warmth of the sun making its way higher in the sky, the earth softening with seeds stirring in its depth, life emerging, yet still hidden.
How do you take notice?
“Thus the ability to step back is not inaction but an invitation into a different kind of action — a different way of seeing and thus engaging the world around us. Stepping back, therefore, is not a retreat from the world of brokenness but an invitation to receive God’s imagination for the world.” ~ Emmanuel Katongole, Reconciling all things
How do you into a new vision?
“ A lot of unimportant inner litter and bits and pieces have to be swept out first….So let this be the aim…to turn one’s innermost being into a vast empty plain, with none of that treacherous undergrowth to impede the view. So that something of “God” can enter you, and something of “Love”, too…the love you can apply to small, everyday things.” ~ Etty Hillesum
How do you create inner empty plains?
With the Eyes of the Heart 