When we’re growing up there are all sorts of people telling us what to do when really what we need is space to work out who to be.  Ellen Page

Meditation: The current generation of children and teenagers is surrounded by so many impressions. Social media bombard our children with images all day long. Those images tell them what they should be like. Sometimes we parents try to counteract those influences by telling our children: “Time to clean up your room!” “Why don’t you read something?” “Please, put your phone away, enough is enough!” I believe that boundary setting and the holding up of behavioral expectations are important. However, even more important is for our children and teenagers to find space. Space to work out who to be. Space to feel. Space to think for themselves. Space to not just “take in”, but also formulate who they are, who they want to be and what they think about all the things they consume all day. How do our children learn to “digest” what they take in and articulate their own opinions, thoughts, hopes and fears? We as adults need to engage children. We need to create spaces for dialogue. We need to ask children and teens for their thoughts and opinions. Let us create spaces for sharing and for relationships. And so, not the media are telling our children what to think or how to be, nor we just tell them what to do, but they will work out in dialogue with us who they are and who they want to be.

Prayer: God, help us and our children use the freedoms of technology for good. Help us to not constantly “indulge” by consuming endless hours on the internet ourselves. Help us stay in relationship. Help our children and teenagers to take time away, to find spaces for reflection, opinion building and conversations. Protect us and them from abusing the amazing freedoms that our technological age gives us. Help us all – teenagers and adults alike – to work out again and again who we want to be in You. Amen

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13

When you see something beautiful in someone, tell them. It may take a second to say, but for them it could last a life time. Ruthie Lindsey

Meditation: I remember growing up that both my parents had a hard time acknowledging beauty. They occasionally mentioned inner beauty as the “heart or soul beauty”. But not outer beauty or beautiful ways of being. When I left home at nineteen, my five year younger sister stayed behind. Before I moved out, I told my parents to tell her as often as possible how beautiful she was. Today I am telling my teenage girls every day how beautiful they are. I am not saying this to make them become vain or conceited. I am not afraid as my Pietistic ancestors were that this could happen. I just know that in our current culture, we often face competitive behavior and hurtful comments, which can easily be cruel, critical, and jealous or mean… And so, I hope my naming the beauty of my girls will last them a life time, and they will be surrounded by a spiritual layer of protection, as they come to believe how wonderfully they are made.

Prayer: God of wonder and beauty, I thank you for inner and for outer beauty. I thank you for your Spirit that calls us beautiful and that instills in us respect and wonder for how we are made. Help us to take that second to affirm a child, a teenager, and even an adult when we see beauty in them. Words can build up or tear apart. Let us all join Your Spirit in building up, in affirming and in celebrating each other! And we are grateful. Amen

You are beautiful for you are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Meditation: The phenomena we see in the US today resemble the ones in Germany eighty years ago. What we can observe as parallels are the strategic abuse and perversion of a democratic system by influencing the uneducated masses, by either controlling or demonizing the media, and by undermining the legal system. The propaganda back then was put out every day and fed nationalistic material to the masses, which sounded patriotic, but it covered up the elimination of basic human rights and of groups of people who were considered “not Aryan enough”. Today many “not American enough” immigrants are leaving the US, or they are being imprisoned. The Fox News channel has become a right wing propaganda machine of the current government. Immoral and unethical behavior is being normalized and legal loopholes are being constantly utilized with the help of highly paid lawyers. Violence is being glorified. Wake up USA !… Never forget Germany’s history!…

Prayer: God of history, wake us up. Where are the demonstrators? Where are all the women who were marching in January? Help us to organize and help us to resist. Let us learn from the past. In your mercy, do not allow the same strategies to cause the same harm! All that happened was done in small increments. “Everything was legal” – and “all became lethal”. God, have mercy. Amen

So be careful how you live. Live as (wo)men who are wise and not foolish. Make the best use of your time. These are sinful days. Do not be foolish. Understand what the Lord wants you to do. Ephesians 5:15-17

 

More than 2 billion people now struggle to survive under totalitarian or authoritarian dictatorships. The growing alliances and collaboration among these terrorists is a serious threat to every nation that wishes to enjoy freedom. The United States cannot be beaten, but it could be destroyed, if it turns its back on the oppressed peoples of the world. There is no good thing to be gained by our total political isolation. David L. Rosenthal

Meditation: The “America first” politics, or “America only” politics will backfire. The US government pretends to stand up for the forgotten coal miners, while under this disguise it truly abandons the poor and the disadvantaged inside and outside the US. Abandoning the world community in the shared effort of preserving our planet is a scary symbol of isolationism. The acting politicians are part of the upper class in the US in an misguided attempt to only preserve and increase their own riches and privileges. In reality this isolationism is shortsighted “destructionism”.

Prayer: God of all nations, God of this world, many of us are horrified. We are devastated. How can this happen? How can the US start isolating like this? It feels like deformed cancer cells attacking and disrupting the larger organism. How can our “immune system” as our basic moral, legal and ethical values as a democratic country fail us this badly? How can it be that once again Your Name is being twisted, used and abused for political and material gains? God, have mercy!

 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord… You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you. James 5:4-6

 

The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly – indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection. Arianna Huffington

Meditation: Two poems from 2005 (my girls were 2 years old): “After a long day of excellence at work, I choose to embrace my imperfection as a mother. On my way home I play my favorite music. As I enter the house, I overlook the dust and the pile of dishes. Instead, I let the microwave cook for me, and I make myself a cup of tea to sit and choose to be and play with my favorite people – my kids.”

“When I come home I change my clothes.  And with that, I exchange my excellence as a working woman, with the art of imperfection as a Mom. I switch over from doing to “being”, from achievement to listening, from seriousness to fun. I know that my kids need that. And I am learning: I need that too.”

Prayer: God, thank you that motherhood for the past thirteen years has taught me to embrace all of me. Thank you that in being more authentic, I see excellence and imperfection no longer as opposites. Thank you that motherhood has helped me be freer in the world and have more fun. Thank you that the art of “excellent imperfection” has begun to permeate all areas of my life, including my professional work. And I am grateful. Amen

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! Psalm 32:11

Life is full of unanticipated changes. Our only choice as couples is in how we will respond. Gary Chapman

Meditation: Rarely couples acknowledge and talk about their marriage going through seasons. However, to me this is a helpful concept. We all know spring and summer, and we usually enjoy those spring years of getting to know each other deeply, and of expressing admiration and love. And then we cherish also the summer years of building things together, maybe a home, a business or a family. However, fall and winter are seasons that enter more mature marriages, and those provide for more challenging emotions and experiences. The fall season often brings storms of change and interruptions. Existential and also very concrete anxieties surface. We are challenged with how to manage those feelings individually and as a couple. When winter arrives, it strips our love at times to its bare bones. Some of the emotions of winter are hurt, anger, and disappointment. Those feelings are often accompanied by loneliness and a sense of rejection. Fall and winter are also deeply spiritual times when we learn how to pray more often and differently than ever before.

Prayer: God of love, when we go through fall and winter times in our marriages, we struggle. Your Spirit is present through these darker, colder times and comforts us in reassuring us that these are necessary phases and natural developments. The notion of seasons gives us hope that there will be another spring one day. We can accept the winter season of marriage better when we prayerfully accept it as a growing phase. Winter feelings can be: “I still love my partner, but right now I do not like him or her.” God, help us to allow for all seasons and for all feelings to find room in our marriage. And we are grateful. Amen

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

I spend my nights just sitting and reading a book and drinking my tea and walking my dog. That’s about as exciting as my life gets. Peter Dinklage

Meditation: After a long day at work, after driving my girls to dance and back, after preparing a quick meal, I love to just sit, read, write and drink a cup of tea. Was it not for those big brown eyes! When Zoe, our dog, looks at me, I have to eventually walk her. She has been with us now for 4 years. Even though she is tiny, she loves to run. I think thanks to her I have actually stayed fit these past years. Many times I would not have gotten up from my favorite spot on the couch. But she just looks at me with her big eyes. She does not make any noise, she just stares. And I know exactly what she wants. She intently watches my every move. Until I finally say the word: “Walk?” This is the word she has been waiting for all day. Her excitement is contagious. Our neighbors have gotten used to seeing the two of us walk (and often run) in the evening around our neighborhood. This is as exciting as my life gets. And I am grateful!

Prayer: God, we are grateful for our animals. They bring out the better in us. They welcome and greet us every day with the same enthusiasm. And they depend on us. They become companions. They learn our habits as much as we learn theirs. For some of us our pets even replace the children we never had and always wanted. We thank you for the bond between humans and animals. We thank You that Your love and Your care embraces all animals as well. Amen

You care for people and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7

Faith means living with uncertainty – feeling your way through life, letting your heart guide you like a lantern in the dark. Dan Millman

Meditation: We are living in uncertain times. A lot of things are changing around us. Faith during these times means letting our heart guide us. However, our hearts need more than our feelings to know where to go. Our hearts by ourselves are not prepared for the weather changes ahead. What if our lights as lanterns are not strong enough, do not see far enough to get us to shore? We need a fixed point of reference in these new and unfamiliar storms coming our way. In some way we need a lighthouse that is steady, that we can orient ourselves towards, while we face the stormy challenges and anxieties of facing the waves of life.

Prayer: Jesus, you entered our existential anxieties. You know them all. You have felt hunger, cold, pain, fear, joy, love…We pray that You will become our “lighthouse” and our guiding post more than ever before in our lives. We pray that we begin to listen more to You than ever before. We pray that we can admit when our light is not strong enough. We are grateful that Your light has shone and guided Your followers through the centuries. Therefore we want to trust that You will see us through as well. And we are grateful. Amen

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. Martin Luther

Meditation: Our German Church in Atlanta is a small mission church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). About 350 Lutheran delegates met these past days for the Southeastern Synod Assembly in Chattanooga, TN. The motto for the 500th anniversary of Luther’s 95 thesis is: “We are church for the sake of the world.” It felt good to be surrounded by other pastors who wrestle with living and speaking in a world that is so rapidly changing. It felt good being part of the larger body of Christ. The focus of the speeches was on alertness and on speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. It is good to know that our small church is being claimed by the larger Lutheran Church, even though we are ecumenical in nature ( as we are both Catholics and Protestants).  During the Synod worship the symbol of pouring water, of breaking bread and of sharing wine combined with beautiful music felt nurturing and strengthening. I suddenly realized how exhausted I was. The church cycle from September through May as the only pastor of the congregation has been intense. Now was the time to breathe and to allow the larger community to “hold” me. I am grateful!

Prayer: God you provide times where the larger body of Christ feeds us. You remind us that Your Spirit is so much more active and far reaching than we often realize. Thank you for the reminder that we as “shepherds” need to receive nurture as well. Thank you that I witnessed my colleagues wrestle with similar questions and concerns I am wrestling with. I pray that the resolutions of the Lutheran church will be brought to representatives in Congress. I pray that all Christian Churches are gathering in large numbers to speak publicly and in Your name. Amen

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Proverbs 31:8

It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion. I think he must prefer quality to quantity. George MacDonald

Meditation: It is so tempting to “keep going”. Sometimes the demands of life are so multilayered, and we have so many different roles to play, that it is hard to know when to “stop”. When we dare to pause, we sometimes get in touch with a deep physical and even emotional exhaustion that we did not know was there. Keeping going, caring for large quantities of people, things, tasks and goals seem to be so needed, so valuable, so desirable and “praise worthy”. Really? Daring to pause, and even daring to stop gets us back in touch with ourselves. As important and as exciting our roles, tasks and services for God and for others are, our own emotional, physical and spiritual health is even more important. God wants our best work and our quality work. This means that God wants us to prioritize our own overall health. What might this look like? We learn to say “no”. We dare to delegate. We set limits. We realize that “if I am everywhere, I will be nowhere fully.” “If I go into ‘autopilot’, I am no longer mindful”. “If I wear too many hats, I might want to give some of them away.” What a challenging thought: Quality not quantity…

Prayer: God, you are a God that teaches us that “less is more”. You are so countercultural. You teach us that one day lived mindfully counts for 100 days lived in stressful routine. Help us discern which hat to let go off. Free us from needing to prove ourselves. Help us aim for quality with our family, with work, and even in our social life. Thank you for showing us new ways of living. Help us to practice them. And we are grateful. Amen

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish. Jeremiah 31:25