Worth the Wait

Our God is intensely gracious, slow to anger, rich in love.
God's good to all, compassionate to the extreme; no one, not one single creature, is left out...
Psalm 145:8-9

No one's left out of God's circle of attentive love. But it doesn't always feel that way. The love is flowing out to all, to every living thing, but we aren't all receiving it 24/7. We're far better at blocking it out than we are at absorbing that love's full potential. And there's so much going on around us that either enhances our receptiveness of God's care... or works to cut us off entirely.

But the truth is: No one is left out. All are plugged into that energy source that is God, that is love. And the question we can ask ourselves is: In each word we say, each action we take, are we helping someone know of that powerful love, or perhaps obscuring the view?

As you may know (especially if you read the last post on this blog), I've been part of a group of people hosting 5 teenagers from a boys' boarding home in Palestine, visiting our country and getting a break from the often-prison-like life of their normal world. They and their families are cut off from so many of the opportunities we take for granted. Just leaving their village to go to the neighboring city can be a nightmare of frightening and frustrating checkpoints, with soldiers' guns pointed at you and suspicious eyes making you feel lower than a cockroach. It's awful. That's life in an occupied country. It shouldn't be that way, but it is.

Not everyone has given up hope that someday life will be better. So many of the Palestinians I've talked to say that their hope is still alive. Hope is all we have, they say, so how can we give it up? My fervent hope is that in some small way, our hosting of these boys has put them in the free-flow of God's dignifying love.

For those of you who read my last post: Yes, our weary travellers did finally fly into Logan, late morning on Friday. And has it ever been worth the wait! It's been so amazing, so far beyond my expectations, to see 5 scared and hesitant and exhausted kids gradually open up... and soon they were having the time of their lives! The highpoint for me was sitting in a group of about 30 who'd gathered for a barbecue at our church, playing a cardgame called Spoons, laughing hilariously at this crazy game which easily crossed our language barriers. Talk about free-flowing joy! It was incredible. No one was left out, no one cut off. The spirit of God's overflowing abundance was abundantly tangible!

What a privilege it can be to serve as God's emissary, to help open up the blocked flow, to release the joys of soaking in God's love.

Thank you, thank you, Living God, for soaking us with your refreshing love. Open my eyes today to see someone who needs a bit of hope, someone who thinks they've been left out of all that is good, of all that is you. And when I need reminding, when I'm feeling left out, help me to know which way to turn so I can be back in that flow again.

(If you'd like to read a bit more about our visitors from Palestine, the Union Leader wrote an excellent article about the first leg of their trip: http://theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Nashua+program+gives+a+respite+from+tensions+at+home&articleId=7c546710-f5a1-4f06-b943-9a046e6ded3e)

~Kari Henkelmann Keyl

Waiting Prayers

I'm waiting... Any moment now the phone call will come, and I'll hop in the car and drive to Logan to pick up some weary travellers. Six people from Beit Jala, Palestine, one adult and five teenagers, will be visiting our fair state, and my family and I will be part of the hosting team. But their travels have been rocky, marked by long searches, fingerprintings, and delays. They missed their connecting flight from JFK to Logan, so we hosts need to wait, probably into the late hours of the evening or into tomorrow.

When my husband and I spent five weeks in Israel/Palestine 2 years ago, we learned well that waiting is a painful part of everyday life for Palestinians. Waiting at check-points, not knowing whether you'll get through at all or if it will take hours, is a given. It was hard to witness this reality. I once saw three women going through the pedestrian check-point from Bethlehem into Jerusalem, on their way to a wedding. Two were allowed to go through, one was told she could not. All that time she had waited, and there was to be no wedding joy for her on the other end.

I'm waiting... and I'm worrying... and I'm praying. Will you pray with me?

O Holy Spirit, breathe your peace into my friends as they travel. Hold in your strong hand Abdallah, Raja, Andre, Mokarram, Melad, and John, that they will know your presence. Refresh them with delightful experiences in our country. Help us to know how we can best show them your welcoming care and how we can hear your voice through them as well. Teach us all to wait, O Lord, freed of anxiety, full of you.

Thank you. I'll go back to my waiting now. And I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes. Jesus' peace be yours in whatever kind of waiting you may find yourself in.

~Kari

Steve-o's Devos: You're Welcome

It happened the other day. I had gone out for lunch and took for granted the person who was my wait staff person. I did not intend to pay less attention or even to be somewhat dismissive of the person but I was hungry. Perhaps you are the same way sometimes when you are waiting to eat or you missed breakfast or any number of things that cause us to "skip" a meal. It was not the fault of my server that I had done these things. But they were at the top of their game.

Pretty much I wanted to be seated, get some coffee and head on out to the buffet area for breakfast. Our server came to greet us, welcoming us to the restaurant, and then launched courteously into a description of what amazing things awaited us on the brunch serving area. It is that person's job to do all of these things and to encourage us to try the more unusual fare that has been cooked up--the very items that make eating at this particular restaurant worth the trip.

And so, our server began a rather interesting description, or perhaps warning, about the soup of the day. If I am honest, my mind really thought "Who cares about soup?" The description continued as we discovered that we needed to know that this was a cold soup ("great" said my brain) and that it had special New Hampshire strawberries from a farm up North. An overview of the importance of the farm's organic production was glossed over as well. Fortunately, before I could growl out a hasty "We'll have the brunch," another person arrived with our coffee. Part one of my morning needs was already being met.

Now, what does any of this have to do with anything you may ask..

As I tried this strawberry soup, I had to admit that it was fabulous. I began to wish I had paid more attention to the waiter's description. And, I did what we all do on occasion, I made a point of telling our server how really good it was and thanked them for telling us about it. We asked more pointed questions about the dish as well. We engaged in a conversation about strawberry soup. I think it was a first.

Experiences with God are, I think, much like this. God comes to us in all sorts of ways and we least expect that there is some aspect of grace that we are receiving. We simply take it and later realize how very sweet and amazing it was, perhaps wishing we had paid more attention to the person who shared this with us.

Discovering a life in Christ is like that too. Sure we may stop by to say "hello" to one another, be nice to each other, show interest in one another, but we must work really hard to be truly hospitable to one another. It is more than just being nice to people. It is about being truly joyful about the interaction, truly thankful for that brief moment where we discover the holiness of living in community with one another.

Strawberries are just coming into season here in New Hampshire. I can't think of a better way for us to remember the sweetness of God's love for us, the overwhelming sensation of a juicy strawberry as it bursts with flavor can be a reminder of the amazing grace liberally applied to all aspects of our lives. Hospitality and openness in community bursts out into our own world as well. This week, consider how the sweetness of God's grace can burst out through your actions wherever you may be.

You're welcome....

Dialogo: Cutting back?

If you even catch a bit of news here or there the sense is that people are often talking about "cutting back" due to the continued increase in gas prices. Some folks are going to just continue to live the lifestyle that they have become accustomed to and just hope things will change.

What caught my ear yesterday was a conversation with a father of a a fairly large family. As he drove their huge SUV around town dropping off all the kids to their various activities, he said that he just did not want to have his kids spend the whole summer playing in the backyard.

Now, I have to wonder...what would be so wrong with that? Why couldn't you spend a couple of months finding creative things to do, reading a couple of books, playing games with siblings...seems like the possibilities to be occupied would be pretty huge. I had that kind of flashback to when I was in elementary school and remembered these days of June when I could not wait to be able to be home, playing in the backyard and just having a school-free schedule. There were the occasional trips to the library to stock up on books to read for rainy days when our mother did not plan to put up with bored children. There was the off chance that you could convince your parents to let you go to a movie--though that was a long shot.

Many of you have shared your concerns about how difficult it is to be a young adult financially these days between the cost of school and low wage jobs to get you by in the interim. So my question as you head off into the first weekend of "summer" is to encourage you to find a low or no-cost way to play. We all need to play and maybe in the process we will reconnect to people we have forgotten about or have not had time to be with due to our busy hurrying from one thing to the next.

How will you consider "cutting back" from the busy daily living we all are caught up in participating in so that you can just truly ease your mind and spirit--and pocketbook--to rediscover who you are and where your important relationships are at this time in your life?

It is a big question, and the challenge is to consider a time when the distractions of hundreds of cable stations, internet accessibility, and instant messaging forced us to relate face to face with one another. What do you think?

Out of the Deep Waters

In your great mercy, O God, answer me with your unfailing help.
Save me from the deep muck; don't let me sink!
Let me be rescued from those who hate me and out of the deep waters...

Ok... so who's saying these words? (besides the obvious: the one who first sang/wrote Psalm 69)
~Could it be some destitute Lakers fans, grieving their horrifying defeat by those dastardly Celts?
~Could it be me, after the kind of day I've had today, when the to-do tasks keep piling up as I spin my wheels and feel sorry for myself, then feel guilty for wallowing in self-pity, which only deepens the muck I'm stuck in?
~Or would it be one of the too-many Iowans who've lost everything in the swirling flood waters covering their beloved towns?
~How about the child who's fury is building up inside after a school-year full of bullying?
~Or a young woman of Darfur who must venture out to find fresh water knowing she may well be raped along the way?

So many reasons to cry out, to reach up out of the whirlpool waters sucking us under, hoping for a strong hand to hold onto... So many awful things are going on in the world that I hardly feel I have a right to lament, since I do live in a safe place and I don't need to wonder where my next meal's coming from.

But lament I do, many times a day, pouring out my own personal complaints and (by the grace of God) my complaints on behalf of people I know have it so much worse than I do.

The psalms in the Bible are full of such lamenters, desperate people spilling their guts, getting it all out, before God and other God-lovers. I don't find a lot of answers when I read the psalms, but I do meet other questioners there. They keep me company. They teach me it's ok to get it out, to be angry and ugly, to feel those unlovely feelings instead of chastising myself for feeling them. Feeling them allows me to begin to see beyond them. And usually what I see is a patient God waiting for me.

My patient, listening, absorbing God is waiting for me to empty out my yucks, so that there's some new room for the good stuff. The good stuff is hard to describe. It's a God-presence that's still and quiet and humble and centered. It's a power and a peace and a readiness to take on the world again.

Draw near to me and redeem me... asks the singer of psalm 69. Come closer, God. Take me back. Steal my heart away from the self-pity swamp. Give me a peek into what's beyond...

~Kari Henkelmann Keyl

Steve-o's Devos: Mercy Me

In the midst of a rather humid and warm Sunday morning, I glanced at the bulletin which listed the hymns we would be singing that day. One of them caught my eye, mostly because I misread the title. The title of the hymn actually was, "There is a Wideness in God's Mercy." This is an old hymn from the 19th century that sort of outlines the ways God is present in our lives and how forgiving God can be.

What my eye, and perhaps mind, saw/thought it saw, was this title: "There is a Wildness in God's Mercy." Now that made me take time to stop and think about how I deliver my own version of mercy and grace in my own walk with God. Perhaps you can think about that a bit this week as well. Because even though we are at heart good people, sometimes we bump into folks who just rub us the wrong way. In the midst of the intense heat we are experiencing this week, it does not take much to set us off as humans. Tempers seem to flare with the sun and when everything cools off we all find ourselves regretting something we may have done or said. That is where mercy comes in I think.

While the hymn does take into account the many ways God can be compassionate or forgiving to us, even when we don't deserve it, I kind of think there is a bit of wildness to God's mercy when it happens to people we don't think should get a little of that compassion. I would be willing to bet most of us can think of 5 people who we do not believe could ever receive God's mercy. If we are honest, our list might be longer than what we need to buy at the grocery store.

Therein lies the power of God made possible through Jesus. Jesus' life and ministry emphasizes constantly that God comes to us. The people who may have been tossed out of other relationships, people for whom a little grace is near impossible to receive from others. It is a little crazy, a little wild, this mercy that God grants so freely.

When having those conversations with children about who is in heaven, we all have made it out to be a place populated by the likes of us. God's mercy is a bit greater than that, a bit wilder and a bit wider. It encompasses and includes far more people than we can imagine...Thank God!

What do you see?

This past week, Erica and I headed to the Carolinas for a wedding. We took a day or two to do a little sightseeing as well and stopped off at Duke University. While there we headed to Duke Chapel, one of the gorgeous cathedrals of the South. Since I am always looking for unique backdrops for worship settings or to use in devotional imagery, many of my shots feature unusual backdrops or special odd shapes. Erica's are always filled with pictures of one of us or friends.

While in the chapel I took several photos and one of them was of the arched ceiling which is wonderful to behold. You can imagine my interest then in this photo has an almost facial expression to it. What do you think?