Be grateful for what you have,
they say.
Okay.
I’m grateful for my marriage
with my husband.
But many folks across the country,
emboldened with power,
want to rip our marriage apart,
calling our love unconstitutional,
along with many other nasty
words, phrases, and threats.
Seeking the goal of allowing
states to make our union illegal,
or perhaps a full-fledged federal ban.
So I’ll be grateful for what I have,
as I’ve been told,
before it all gets legislated away.
Happy Fourth of July
Trust the seeds
for they know that which they do –
their entire being designed to grow –
to make a way out of any soil.
We do not need to improve the seed,
nor should we smother it with care.
Instead, tend to the seed –
provide it with basic necessities,
love, and respect –
knowing that it is the will of the seed,
no matter the hardships of the season –
drought, famine, pestilence –
to sprout and bloom.
Do not impede the seed
through the folly
of our own understanding.
Trust the seeds
and rejoice in their flourishing.
www.goodreads.com/book/show/50376048
“The crowd is itself a destination and not a means to an end. The goal of cultivating those who can gather people centers theological education in its erotic power….Erotic power is, as Rita Nakashima Brock states, ‘the power of our primal interrelatedness’….Erotic power has been drawn in our time into the trajectories of colonial control rooted in whiteness and made malignant through racial segregation that has shaped and continuous to shape so many individuals and communities. Desire rooted in control is disordered desire that inevitably forms social prisons that drain life” (Willie James Jennings 149).
“The distorted erotic power that fuels that works must be freed from its captivity to whiteness and turned back toward its source in divine desire. We can start again. That ‘again’ being a gift from the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Theological education exists in the ‘again.’ This is education that has as its fundamental resource erotic power, and that power finds its home in the divine ecstasy in which God relentlessly gives Godself to us, joyfully opening the divine life as our habitation” (Willie James Jennings 151).
“To be invoked in theological education is to long for eternity and the end of death. It is to seek the blessed state where our words start to do new works by first joining the chorus of the words of those who live forever in the Lord and who sound the healing and redeeming voice of the living God. Then our words will heal. Then our words will build up. Then our words will help form life together. Then our words will give witness to a destiny only visible through love. Talking together then is a practice aimed at eternity, and it matters more than we often realize for bringing our hope into focus. This finally is the goal of this book and the task I want to leave you with — to bring hope into focus” (Willie James Jennings 157).
In a few weeks, I HOPE to be able to make a post revealing our wonderful new condo, celebrating that the move-in process is officially complete, and expressing excitement over the start of our homeownership journey.
But, amidst that post, and other posts of joy, the public-facing reality of life’s daily hardships and grind gets lost. During my prayer time this morning, as I grappled and struggled with the anxiety, struggle, and fear of this time of tremendous upheaval and change, I felt convicted to share this reality: Moving sucks. Especially compounded with the stress of everyday life.
I thought it was important to share a post of the ‘in-between’ joyful posts because it is more honest. But also because it is in the moments of trials and tribulations that I find myself most cognizant of God’s power of love and care in my life, especially through the incredible tribe of family, friends, and holistic supports (yay therapy) around me. It is these ‘in-between times’ of day-to-day life, as well as the hardships, that make the joyful moments so divine.
And in these ‘in-between times,’ and times of hardships, I give thanks for the unceasing presence of God that so often shows up in the form of YOU. I give thanks for you and the community of support you have all been for Connor and me.
While I look forward to being able to make the joyful post about our completed move, I thought it was important to name that this is a very challenging time and that I’m struggling. And that is both okay and honest.
Life isn’t living from joy to joy, as our social media accounts seem to display, but being present with God, and one another, in all the times: joys, hardships, and the in-between.
Love, thanks, and blessings to you all!
This is the Pastoral Prayer I wrote for the May 24, 2022 Clergy Session of the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church.
God of eternal presence with us,
amidst all joy and pain,
guide us in this gathering today
as we tend to the grief of what we have lost
and as we celebrate the excitement of what is new and expanding.
This gathering today may revive in us memories of loved ones, colleagues, and friends who are no longer with us today.
May we take time to tend to this grief
and remember the happy memories we shared together
while they were still with us.
In the next few moments, may we speak the names of those whom we have lost out loud OR quietly in our hearts.
[Speak out-loud or reflect]
Lord, thank you for the time we had to share with these beloved people.
May our memories together be a blessing until we meet again.
Three years have passed, and yet we still feel the looming presence of the pandemic.
May we take time to acknowledge this grief,
remembering and honoring what has been lost:
plans, justice, communities, dignity, events, rights, services.
In the next few moments, may we speak that which has been lost out loud OR quietly in our hearts.
[Speak out-loud or reflect]
Lord, thank you for your constant presence with us during this time, weeping along with us and our communities.
May we continue to rely on your boundless love as our strength as we continue to care for our congregations, communities, families, and selves.
During these three years, we have also encountered new persons, deeper relationships, and the expansion of families.
May we take time to tend to these joys,
holding the faces and names,
of those we have met and grown to cherish and love.
In the next few moments, may we speak the names of those whom we have met out loud OR quietly in our hearts.
[Speak out-loud or reflect]
Lord, we name these relationships with gratitude, and we bless them.
May we continue to tend, cherish, and rejoice in the beloved people and relationships whom you have placed in our lives today.
These three years have been marked by forced innovation and change.
May we take time to acknowledge the good that has come from the Holy Spirit
helping us to expand and imagine our communities in exciting new ways,
emphasizing justice, dignity, accessibility, safety, and creativity.
In the next few moments, may we speak the good out loud OR quietly in our hearts.
[Speak out-loud or reflect]
Lord, thank you for the innovative power of your Holy Spirit, leading and guiding us in these times of profound change.
May we find strength from your Holy Spirit, and from one another, to continue the ministry work to which you have called us.
God among us,
our unrelenting listener,
we give you thanks for this time to share
our griefs and joys with you.
Bless us, keep us, and inspire us
in the great work to which you have called us –
yesterday, today, and tomorrow –
in collaboration, accountability, and support
with You,
with our ministry communities,
and with our colleagues here today.
In Your name,
we rejoice and praise.
Amen.
My Lover is my Lord,
in him, I do not want.
He lies with me on clean linens
and wraps me in his sinewy arms.
He enlivens my body and soul
and leads me on pleasurable paths
toward mutual ecstasy.
With him I journey through
the soft fleshy curves,
hard muscled edges,
and vulnerable tissues
of our bodies.
In him, I fear no harm,
for his rod
and my staff
are in the hands
of excellent communicators.
He prepares a warm cuddle for me
after the stresses and joys
of the daily grind;
he anoints my head with kisses
and my heart overflows.
Goodness and mercy
flow from our union
into all of the days
and the ways
of our lives.
I shall dwell in the embodied home
of my Lord – my Husband –
until death do us part
and we reunite
in eternal embrace.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58495625-becoming-rooted
| Keetoowah Band Cherokee activity, author, and theologian Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley has crafted this brilliant 100 day devotional for people to connect with their faith more deeply by finding ways to become more rooted in the Sacred Land from which we came, the Land on which we live, and the Land to which we will return. Each day starts with a short quote from an important figure to help calm our minds and prepare for the day’s reflection. Next comes a 2-3 page reflection on humanity, the land, and/or the living beings around us and how we can become more deeply connected with all creation. Finally, each day ends with a call to action, further reflection, or meditation. This enables folks to extend the learnings of the day into more rigorous/in-path/tangible ways throughout the day, as they are able. The book is divided into 10 thematic sections with 10 deviations each. It is a wonderful journey of reflection, discovery, and connection. One of the most powerful outcomes of this book is how I was challenged to connect with my family’s cultural roots in deeper and more intentional ways through history, food, and cultural practices. Not only is this important for my own growth and learning as a vital part of my family, but also to challenge the pitfalls of white supremacy that force white folks to give up all cultural specificity for the privileges of supremacy and uniformness. As a result, this intentional work is vital for white folks to regain specificity, resist the uniformness of white supremacy, and learn how to be solidarity conspirators with our non-white siblings and all of creation. This book is a powerful meditative tool for personal growth and reflection that leads to tangible communal outcomes and solidarity. Invest in this journey or reconnection with Sacred Earth today! |
We are excited to announce that we are now legally…
Reason: Over the past four years of marriage, we have spent a lot of time discerning how we can (a) best honor our wonderful families through our family names and (b) create a unified last name for our family in the future. After much time of prayer, listening, and conversation, we have settled on the hyphenated last name: Showalter-Swanson. We are thrilled that this hyphenated last name enables us to be unified in name as we contemplate the future of our household and pay tribute to our incredible families who have poured into us, loved us, and formed us into who we are today.
Coat of Arms: During our name merging conversations, we noticed that four values from our families continued to come up that were not only deeply meaningful, but also came from both our Swanson and Showalter families. When we concluded that hyphenating our two names was the best way to honor our distinct family experiences, we also wanted to find a way to name and celebrate these joint family values. As a result, we decided to create a Coat of Arms in consultation with artist kerrysilkpainting / silkandtimber. We weren’t interested in a Coat of Arms in the traditional heraldry sense, but in the sense of family history, legacy, and four named values. The consultation process was amazing and allowed us to not only honor our families’ values, but think about how we, as the Showalter-Swanson family, can continue to embody and live out these values in our present and future.
The following is an explanation of the different parts of the Coat of Arms.
You who cast aside the poor
for your own political and financial gain
may have created comfortable homes and lives
but your comfort shall be short lived.
___
Christ says that he is present amidst ‘the least of these.’
By putting your feet on the necks of the poor,
you have transgressed against God
and will be judged accordingly in eternity.
___
But there is still hope for you. Repent!
GIve up all that you have
and become a listener and an advocate
of the justice that the poor demand.
___
For in these actions, you stand with the poor, with God, in love.
Anything less is to reject God and to embrace evil.
My Goodreads review of The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation by Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell; My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I started this book not knowing what to expect and was thrilled to find myself deeply transformed by it.
For me, this text accomplishes three important goals:
1. It provides a contemporary, contextual, and relevant depiction of trinitarian theology and why the Holy Trinity is so important.
2. It calls out the violence of retribution theology that undergirds atonement theology. Furthermore, Rohr and Morrell provide a clear alternative to atonement theology through trinitarian theology.
3. It conveys abstract and complex theological concepts in palatable and accessible language and metaphors.
This book is split into 4 parts. First, the Introduction. This section includes a wonderful forward from William Paul Young and a helpful ‘Trinity 101’ to set the stage for the rest of the book. Part I focuses on the need for a paradigm shift in how we understand the centrality of the Holy Trinity in our personal and communal spiritual lives and ecclesial structures. To demonstrate this, Rohr does a brilliant historical trajectory of the Christian understanding of trinitarian theology. Part II makes a cause for the contemporary and contextual necessity for trinitarian theology primacy. Our embarrassment of the complexity and mystery of trinitarian theology is rooted in an idolatry of empirical data and a distant/detached God that only embracing the divine dance of the Holy Trinity can topple. Part III spends some time focusing on the vital importance of the Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity AND her central role in centralizing trinitarian theology in our everyday lives/relationships. Rohr and Morrell then provide 7 spiritual practices to try implementing much of what we learned throughout the text.
This book taught me, challenged me, convicted me, and brought me life-giving joy. I would highly recommend it to any and all Christians, and folks who are curious about inter-religious dialogue.
To end my review, here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“All is whole and holy in the very seeing, because you are standing inside the One Flow of Love without the negative pushback of doubting. This is all that there really is. Call it Consciousness, call it God, call it Love; this is the Ground of all Being out of which all things-and especially all good things-come” (86-7).
“Stridently taking sides in a binary system has nothing to do with truth. The gospel itself is neither liberal nor conservative but severely critiques both sides of this false choice. The true good news of Jesus will never fill stadiums, because dualistic masses can never collectively embrace an enlightened ‘Third Way,’ which, contemplatively speaking, always feels a bit like nothing, because in this position you are indeed like Jesus-you have ‘no place to lay you head’ (100).
“Godly knowing is a humble and non-grasping kind of knowledge; it becomes a beautiful process of communion instead of ammunition and power over. It is basically reverence! Knowing without loving is frankly dangerous for the soul and for society. You’ll critique most everything you encounter and even have the hubris to call this mode of reflexive cynicism ‘thinking’ (whereas it’s really your ego’s narcissistic reaction to the moment). You’ll position things too quickly as inferior or superior, ‘with me’ or ‘against me,’ and most of the time you’ll be wrong” (103).
“The Spirit’s work, if we observe, is always to create and then to fully allow otherness; creating many forms and endless diversity seems to be the plan. Creating differences, and then preserving them in being” (113).
“I think penal substitution is a very risky theory, primarily because of what it implies about the Father’s lack of freedom to love or to forgive his own creation….Humans change in the process of love-mirroring, and not by paying any price or debt….The cross is the standing icon and image of God, showing us that God knows what it’s like to be rejected; God is in solidarity with us in the experience of abandonment; God is not watching the suffering from a safe distance. Somehow, believe it or not, God is in the suffering with us. God is is not only stranger than we thought, but stranger than we’re capable of thinking! But we tried to pull salvation into some kind of quid pro quo logic and justice theory-and retributive justice at that! God’s justice, revealed in the prophets, is always restorative justice, but this takes a transformed consciousness to understand….The quid pro quo, retributive mind has to break down in order to truly move forward with God. This is the unique job description of grace and undeserved mercy” (132).
“The biblical text mirrors both the growth and the resistance of the soul….the text moves inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness. I call it the ‘Jesus hermeneutic.’ Just interpret Scripture the way that Jesus did! He ignores, denies, or openly opposes his own Scriptures whenever they are imperialistic, punitive, exclusionary, or tribal” (137).
“Jesus became incarnate to reveal the image of the invisible God. The personal Incarnation is the logical conclusion of God’s love affair with creation….God in Jesus became what God loves-everything human….God had to become human once the love affair began, because-strictly speaking-love implies some level of likeness or even equality. The Incarnation was an inevitable conclusion, not an accident or an anomaly. It shouldn’t have been a complete surprise to us. God was destined and determined, I believe, to become a human being, but it’s still a big deal when the impossible gap is overcome from God’s side and by God’s choice, even if it was from the beginning….You see, Incarnation is, rightly appreciated, is already redemption-Jesus doesn’t need to die on the cross to convince us that God loves us, although I surely admit that the dramatic imagery has convinced and convicted many a believer. The cross corrected our serious nearsightedness in relation to the Father, buying the human soul a good pair of glasses to clearly see the Father’s love. The mystery of Incarnation is already revealing God’s total embrace” (174-5).
“If you believe that the Son’s task is merely to solve some cosmic problem the Father has with humanity, that the Son’s job is to do that, then once the problem is solved, there’s apparently no need for the concrete imitation of Jesus or his history-changing teachings. Yes, we continue to thank him for solving this problem, but we’ve lost the basis for an ongoing communion, a constant love affair, not to mention the wariness we now have about the Father and the lack of an active need for a dynamic Holy Spirit. The idea of God as Trinity largely fell apart once we pulled Jesus out of the One Flow and projected our problem onto God. We needed convincing, not God” (176).
“Any staying in relationship, any insistence on connection, is always the work of the Spirit, who warms, softens, mends, and renews all the broken, cold places in and between things. The Holy Spirit is always ‘the third force’ happening between any two dynamics. Invisible but powerful, willing to be anonymous, she does not care who gets the credit for the wind from nowhere, the living water that we take for granted, or the bush that always burns and is never consumed” (187).
“Your job is simply to exemplify heaven now. God will take it from there. Here is the remedy when you find it hard to exemplify heaven now: Let love happen….Love is just like prayer; it is not so much an action that we do but a reality that we are. We don’t decide to ‘be loving….’ The love in you-which is the Spirit in you-always somehow says yes. Love is not something you do; love is someone you are. It is your True Self” (192-3).
I hope this quotes bless you as they have blessed me.
View all my reviews
I started this book thinking that I would enjoy it and was surprised to find myself deeply transformed by it.
For me, this text accomplishes three important goals:
This book is split into 4 parts. First, the Introduction. This section includes a wonderful forward from William Paul Young and a helpful ‘Trinity 101’ to set the stage for the rest of the book. Part I focuses on the need for a paradigm shift in how we understand the centrality of the Holy Trinity in our personal and communal spiritual lives and ecclesial structures. To demonstrate this, Rohr does a brilliant historical trajectory of the Christian understanding of trinitarian theology. Part II makes a cause for the contemporary and contextual necessity for trinitarian theology primacy. Our embarrassment of the complexity and mystery of trinitarian theology is rooted in an idolatry of empirical data and a distant/detached God that only embracing the divine dance of the Holy Trinity can topple. Part III spends some time focusing on the vital importance of the Holy Spirit within the Holy Trinity AND her central role in centralizing trinitarian theology in our everyday lives/relationships. Rohr and Morrell then provide 7 spiritual practices to try implementing much of what we learned throughout the text.
This book taught me, challenged me, convicted me, and brought me life-giving joy. I would highly recommend it to any and all Christians, and folks who are curious about inter-religious dialogue.
To end my review, here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“All is whole and holy in the very seeing, because you are standing inside the One Flow of Love without the negative pushback of doubting. This is all that there really is. Call it Consciousness, call it God, call it Love; this is the Ground of all Being out of which all things-and especially all good things-come” (86-7).
“Stridently taking sides in a binary system has nothing to do with truth. The gospel itself is neither liberal nor conservative but severely critiques both sides of this false choice. The true good news of Jesus will never fill stadiums, because dualistic masses can never collectively embrace an enlightened ‘Third Way,’ which, contemplatively speaking, always feels a bit like nothing, because in this position you are indeed like Jesus-you have ‘no place to lay you head’ (100).
“Godly knowing is a humble and non-grasping kind of knowledge; it becomes a beautiful process of communion instead of ammunition and power over. It is basically reverence! Knowing without loving is frankly dangerous for the soul and for society. You’ll critique most everything you encounter and even have the hubris to call this mode of reflexive cynicism ‘thinking’ (whereas it’s really your ego’s narcissistic reaction to the moment). You’ll position things too quickly as inferior or superior, ‘with me’ or ‘against me,’ and most of the time you’ll be wrong” (103).
“The Spirit’s work, if we observe, is always to create and then to fully allow otherness; creating many forms and endless diversity seems to be the plan. Creating differences, and then preserving them in being” (113).
“I think penal substitution is a very risky theory, primarily because of what it implies about the Father’s lack of freedom to love or to forgive his own creation….Humans change in the process of love-mirroring, and not by paying any price or debt….The cross is the standing icon and image of God, showing us that God knows what it’s like to be rejected; God is in solidarity with us in the experience of abandonment; God is not watching the suffering from a safe distance. Somehow, believe it or not, God is in the suffering with us. God is is not only stranger than we thought, but stranger than we’re capable of thinking! But we tried to pull salvation into some kind of quid pro quo logic and justice theory-and retributive justice at that! God’s justice, revealed in the prophets, is always restorative justice, but this takes a transformed consciousness to understand….The quid pro quo, retributive mind has to break down in order to truly move forward with God. This is the unique job description of grace and undeserved mercy” (132).
“The biblical text mirrors both the growth and the resistance of the soul….the text moves inexorably toward inclusivity, mercy, unconditional love, and forgiveness. I call it the ‘Jesus hermeneutic.’ Just interpret Scripture the way that Jesus did! He ignores, denies, or openly opposes his own Scriptures whenever they are imperialistic, punitive, exclusionary, or tribal” (137).
“Jesus became incarnate to reveal the image of the invisible God. The personal Incarnation is the logical conclusion of God’s love affair with creation….God in Jesus became what God loves-everything human….God had to become human once the love affair began, because-strictly speaking-love implies some level of likeness or even equality. The Incarnation was an inevitable conclusion, not an accident or an anomaly. It shouldn’t have been a complete surprise to us. God was destined and determined, I believe, to become a human being, but it’s still a big deal when the impossible gap is overcome from God’s side and by God’s choice, even if it was from the beginning….You see, Incarnation is, rightly appreciated, is already redemption-Jesus doesn’t need to die on the cross to convince us that God loves us, although I surely admit that the dramatic imagery has convinced and convicted many a believer. The cross corrected our serious nearsightedness in relation to the Father, buying the human soul a good pair of glasses to clearly see the Father’s love. The mystery of Incarnation is already revealing God’s total embrace” (174-5).
“If you believe that the Son’s task is merely to solve some cosmic problem the Father has with humanity, that the Son’s job is to do that, then once the problem is solved, there’s apparently no need for the concrete imitation of Jesus or his history-changing teachings. Yes, we continue to thank him for solving this problem, but we’ve lost the basis for an ongoing communion, a constant love affair, not to mention the wariness we now have about the Father and the lack of an active need for a dynamic Holy Spirit. The idea of God as Trinity largely fell apart once we pulled Jesus out of the One Flow and projected our problem onto God. We needed convincing, not God” (176).
“Any staying in relationship, any insistence on connection, is always the work of the Spirit, who warms, softens, mends, and renews all the broken, cold places in and between things. The Holy Spirit is always ‘the third force’ happening between any two dynamics. Invisible but powerful, willing to be anonymous, she does not care who gets the credit for the wind from nowhere, the living water that we take for granted, or the bush that always burns and is never consumed” (187).
“Your job is simply to exemplify heaven now. God will take it from there. Here is the remedy when you find it hard to exemplify heaven now: Let love happen….Love is just like prayer; it is not so much an action that we do but a reality that we are. We don’t decide to ‘be loving….’ The love in you-which is the Spirit in you-always somehow says yes. Love is not something you do; love is someone you are. It is your True Self” (192-3).
I hope this quotes bless you as they have blessed me.
Deacon Grant 