With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. Eleanor Roosevelt

Meditation: When I was 18, I spent a summer in England. In a small charismatic church community I dedicated my life to God. The idea that I would be a “totally new person” after that experience was a very real expectation of mine. However, I did not change. My teenage struggles did not disappear. First I was angry that God did not just take all my problems away. But later I could see that “being new” did not mean that I could leave myself behind. Instead of “reinventing” myself and “becoming new” as in suddenly being or acting differently, this commitment to God more so changed how I perceived myself and how I saw the world. “Being a new creation” meant that this relationship with God that I consciously agreed to would gradually change me over time. I discovered that “being new” would be a process of decades. And it meant to gradually become aware of myself and others with more patience and with deeper empathy and compassion. I realized that rather than being a “new person”, I am receiving new strength and new thoughts each and every day. And thus I am being renewed every day as I walk with God.

Prayer: God, when I wished I was different, you helped me to embrace myself as I was. When I was hoping to have all my problems solved, you walked with me deeper into them, so I could understand myself better. When I wished myself away, you affirmed my value. The “new” reality is not a changed me. The “new” in my life is my relationship with you and your presence, your love, your compassion and your acceptance of me. And over time, this relationship is changing me. Thank you for your long breathe and for your patience. Amen

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2. Corinthians 5:17

The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness. Niels Bohr

Meditation: More than 500 people have been arrested in Russia during peaceful demonstrations against the regime’s corruption. One of the ones arrested is an opposition leader. In the recent weeks several individuals who were about to testify against the Russian regime died mysteriously in accidents or disappeared shortly before their testimony. Dictatorship needs secrecy. Here in the US a lawyer, Jeffrey Lovitky, feels deeply intimidated, and yet he is filing a law suit against the President for keeping his financial information secret. He could not find anybody else who would have the courage to be a plaintiff in this case, as all feel scared. The lawyer says that opposing such secrecy is his duty as a citizen. Where is American politics going when the intentional withholding of information and secrecy is becoming the norm? And when citizens have to fear when they try to have the truth come to light?

Prayer: God, you are truth and you bring truth to light. We pray for our democracy to not be abused by those who function based on lies and secrecy. We pray for Jeffrey Lovitky for strength, courage and protection. We pray for our judicial system for impartiality and independence. God, let the truth prevail. Amen

Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. Ephesians 5:11-12

Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. John Muir

Meditation: I just booked an overnight stay on our favorite Georgia Island. The four of us will get away. We can’t go for long, but quality counts. Beach view, ocean smell, bike rides, water and frozen yoghurt… These are ingredients that our family deeply enjoys. We will breathe the salty air. We will taste good food. We will enjoy each other and let the dog run… We will break away from the intensity of work life… and wash our souls with the gift of nature…

Prayer: God, we are excited. We will be getting away. You allow us a break from the everydayness of our lives. We reconnect with nature, with You, and with each other. We can’t go for long, but two days are already a wonderful gift. Thank you! Amen                                                                                                                                                    `

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.  Psalm 96: 11-12

Today is life- the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto. Dale Carnegie

Meditation: Every day is a “little life”. How do I embrace the challenges, and yet make room for wonder and creativity? How do I take on the tasks at hand, and yet breathe, stretch, nurture myself and rest enough? How do I not lose joy, enthusiasm and passion, and if I lost those, how can I recover them as essential experiences for my Spirit and soul to be alive? Life is a gift and an invitation to live abundantly.

Prayer: Life giving God, sometimes we get into a boring routine. We are so used to the demands of work. Every day looks the same, feels the same. There is no time for leisure or for fun anymore. Help us break out of our anxieties and our life draining cycles. Inspire us, free us. So that life is more than a duty and drain. We are grateful for your life giving Spirit. Amen

I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. John 10:10

 

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences. Eckhart Tolle

Meditation: Being in the here and now and feel all that is going on within and around me, can be an overwhelming yet also liberating experience. Responding and not reacting to what I experience makes the here and now MY life and not just my circumstances. When we ground ourselves in God we receive the freedom to respond and no longer just react to our circumstance. We can choose to leave, we can change things or we can accept things totally. What an amazing freedom! And yet, it is a freedom that is first of all a gift of the Spirit. And then: it also takes much practice.

Prayer: God, when I feel scared and overwhelmed, Your Spirit reminds me that I am free in you. Free to choose to leave, free to change and also free to accept things I cannot change. You are with me. My circumstances do not have the last word. Thank you for your Spirit that sets me free. Amen

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2. Corinthians 3:17

What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am. ‘Who am I, then?’ The one who sees that. Eckhart Tolle

Meditation: When I work with clients in therapy, I support them in seeing themselves with new eyes. Often they have first been overwhelmed with and then become identified with the many voices and stressors around and within them. For them coming to therapy means slowing down. It means breathing deeply and taking time to sort through the voices, memories and stressors. As clients learn to see themselves with new eyes and look compassionately at themselves, they often have liberating experiences. In Christian terms we could say: “I see myself with God’s eyes”. Liberation means differentiating myself from my problems. I am coming to know that I am more than my issues. Liberation can mean for example seeing the clear difference between the judgement  “I AM my addiction” versus the description “I HAVE a behavior” that locks me into an addicted cycle. Liberation means to see that I can have a renewed relationship with myself, and that I am more than the sum of my problems.

Prayer: Jesus, you have a way to be with us that is non-judgmental. You describe things instead of condemn things. You say: “This is what you have done. Go forth and sin no more (John 8:11)”. You separate us from those inner and outer voices that judge and condemn us. You set us free. We are more than our grades. We are more than our mistakes. We are more than the sum of our failures. We are Your beloved. You always have hope for us, as you believe in our ability to grow, to learn and to change. And we are grateful. Amen

For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 1. John 3:20

Great leaders are willing to sacrifice the numbers to save the people. Poor leaders sacrifice the people to save the numbers. Simon Sinek

Meditation: Last night CNN interviewed two older white men from a rural area in Kentucky. Both voted for Trump. Both are extremely sick and “Obama care” gave them health insurance for the first time in many years. They knew Trump would change the Affordable Care Act. Trump promised them to repeal the current health insurance plan and replace it with something “even better”. The two men voted for the new president who sacrifices the people to save the numbers for defense spending, for making the rich richer and for building walls. The two men know what is coming. They know that if congress approves the new health care law today, they will lose their insurance. The one man with oxygen lines in his nostrils said: “It will be a slow dying”. I heard his heroic dying language as the misguided glorification of sacrifice implying that it is better to die under a white despot than live under the health care of a black president? What crazy and insane idolatry of sacrifice!

Prayer: God, strengthen the backbones of the dissenters in congress today. Do not allow bullying tactics and money threats to overcome what is right and just for millions of people. The coverage of millions of people who needed and received healthcare is being sacrificed on the altar of nationalist capitalism that only serves a few. God, you want love not sacrifice. The hastily put together “offerings” of health insurance for some but not all are unjust and do not know You. You always care for the “least of them”. God have mercy. Amen

“I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me. Hosea 6:6

 

It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness. Eleanor Roosevelt

Meditation: Last night our city was shaken by a big storm. It knocked out power lines and many homes remained without electricity overnight. As our family arrived in two cars after a long day, we were unable to open the garage that usually allows entry into our house. Gratefully we found an extra house key. Sleeping in the cars would not have been fun. Battery run candles that usually serve as decoration suddenly became life savers and our means of getting around the house. My husband and I sat together with a candle. It was quiet after a long day. Our girls huddled together and did their homework by candlelight. We got in touch with how our ancestors might have felt after the sun went down and there was no electricity. It brought us together as a family. No distractions, no intrusions. And then we all went to bed early. Some storms are a gift.

Prayer: God of light, God of darkness, as You take away our access to light, we adjust to seeing and feeling in the dark. We stay closer together. We pay more attention to each other. We limit our intake and output. We focus on essentials. Thank you for being right there with us, for reminding us that light is a gift and that darkness is a gift in its own way. Thank You, Amen

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. Psalm 73:23

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Lewis B. Smedes

Meditation: The expression“being saved by Jesus” is often used among more conservative Christians to talk about the hope of “not going to hell”. But what if “hell” already starts here on earth? I believe that we create our own “hell” by holding onto grudges, pains, rage, judgments and prejudices. Letting go of these human behaviors that imprison us is a deeply spiritual act, yet impossible without God’s Spirit that first of all offers us forgiveness and unconditional acceptance. Once I receive forgiveness for my own judgments of others, my wrong doings and my missed opportunities to love, I am releasing myself from the prison of “hell on earth”. And this is how I then become able to forgive others, as I join God’s healing and saving intent. Just as “hell” starts on earth so “Heaven” can already begin here on earth.

Prayer: I am amazed by You, God. You hate prisons. Especially prisons that we create ourselves. You want to set us free. You want us to experience Heaven by preparing a table before us. You fill our cup so that it overflows. As we sit in our self-created imprisoning darkness, and as we grow increasingly “sick and tired” of being “sick and tired”, You come walking by our prison door to open it. You allow us to “grab You”, and hold onto You for dear life. You are our healing place, and Your deep joy is to save us from ourselves. And as you set us free, You enable us to forgive others. We are invited to help You prepare bread and wine for all to share. You are already here. “Heaven” begins now. And we are grateful. Amen

Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. Jeremiah 17:14

Forgiveness says you are given another chance to make a new beginning. Desmond Tutu

Meditation: If somebody asks me “Why are you a Christian?  Why not another religion? There are so many to choose from?” I think one of the main reasons that I am still a Christian would be the clarity with which Jesus embodied the experience of forgiveness at the center of his life, of his teachings and even of his dying experience. There is no other religion that interrupts the cycle of violence the same way. If I can forgive the person who wronged me, I am free. I am free from having to retaliate. I might still need to protect myself from the other person’s rage by either leaving or drawing boundaries. But I am no longer part of the spiral of destruction. I am a new creation. And the other person, whether they accept forgiveness or not (yet), they have the chance of a new beginning as well. Whether they choose the chance of becoming free of hatred, guilt and shame is up to them. The offer is there.

Prayer: God of Grace, help me to forgive the one who wronged me. Fill me with Your Spirit so I am able to forgive the one who treated me unfairly. Set me free from the addiction to pain, revenge and hatred. Help me shake off the poisons of anger and hatred and instead surround me with the shield of genuine forgiveness. I pray that the new that is possible will begin inside of me and then also inside of the one who wronged me. Thank you for Your amazing gift of forgiveness. Amen

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2. Corinthians 5:17