Nature will try anything once.

This is my go-to prayer. When other prayers, hymns, psalms or simple sighs fall flat I come back to this lovely, simple and honest prayer.

At the first Building Committee meeting we struggled to answer the basic question of how to maintain St John’s many outreach and support missions during construction of the new Connector and Fellowship Hall.

be at peace in this moment
and receive without judgment
what is.

I’m sure everyone feels the same way as I do, but I am constantly amazed at what happens when there is a need at St. John’s for our many projects and outreach in the community. There seems to always be the perfect person or group of people with the specific talent, skill sets, passion, and love for our church community to be able to make these miracles happen and get them across the finish line to completion.

It all started with a simple statement Bishop Rob made during a sermon at St. Johns a few years ago: “God’s love refuses to be kept in a box.” Taking this to heart, a few of the parishioners sought to learn more of the inspirational stories of restoration, provision, new opportunities, and people who are passionate about change –those who take God’s love out of the church building and into the world.

I never really thought of the garden team as a ministry though in terms of church structure I suppose it is. First of all, I refer to it as the Garden Guild .

And this is the real gift of Reading Between the Lines – the deep sharing, the sense of trust and respect for one another, the willingness to be vulnerable, the lived wisdom, the openness to be changed. The welcome to newcomers and the sense of connection that is palpable even on Zoom.

Although many things have changed , the focus remains the same, the care of the altar as that remains the center of our services.

“The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.”

So may we, in this life
trust

to those elements
we have yet to see

or imagine,
and look for the true

shape of our own self,
by forming it well

to the great
intangibles about us.

My path to God through my child within is uncomplicated and sweet, a lovely time of innocence with moments of complete TRUST.

Trust is the foundation of any relationship.

Somewhere between the pandemic and politics, I lost trust. Somewhere between the gun and racial violence, I lost trust. And somewhere between the remarkable difference the lockdowns have made on the natural world and so very, very much more, I will share that I have lost trust. Ugh.

How was I to get through these times, what was I to learn or what could I practice? I wanted to listen to God.

But the good news is that then there is new life. Wildflowers bloom again… They’re both such surprises. Wildflowers stop you in your hiking tracks. You want to savor the colors and scents, let them breathe you in, let yourself be amazed. And bulbs that grow in the cold rocky dirt remind us that no one is lost.

Remember him who himself remembers us as he promised to remember the thief who died beside him. To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping. Praise him.

“Hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand.”

Hope seems to me to be the basis of most spiritual life. I remember my grandmother kneeling with me at my bedside when I was 3 or 4, and teaching me that I could talk to God.