… watching for the brushstrokes of God
“We had a joke in South Africa in the 80s. ‘There are two possible solutions to our crisis here. One is miraculous, and one is realistic. One solution is that God will send down angels and sort us all out. That’s the realistic solution. The miraculous one is that we will sit down and talk with our enemies.’” ~ Rev. Charles Villa-Vicencio
How do you live believing in miraculous solutions?
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth,
and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy,
and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” Isaiah 40:21-22
Lift up your eyes?
…”To bear this blessing,
you must first take yourself
to a place where everyone
does not look like you
or think like you,
a place where they do not
believe precisely as you believe,
where their thoughts
and ideas and gestures
are not exact echoes
of your own. … “ ~ Jan Richardson
Where does this take you?
Sabbath becomes a decisive, concrete, visible way of opting for and aligning with the God of rest.” ~ Walter Brueggemann
How do you align with God?
“For many years, it has been the custom to leave a lighted lantern by the side of the road at night to cheer the weary traveler. Beside the lantern, there is a note which gives detailed directions as to where his cottage may be found so that in case of distress or need, the stranger may find help. It is a very simple gesture of beauty and wholeness.” ~ Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart
In your own way, do you keep a lantern burning by the roadside with a note saying where you may be found “just in case”?
What inner work would it require to call the world to presence rather than productivity?
With the Eyes of the Heart 