Words of Faith

Words of Faith

Spirit to Spirit Writing Project

The word Lent comes from an old English word meaning lengthening of days. In Christianity, it refers to the time before Easter, traditionally observed through repentance and learning. It's a season to be intentional about changing and growing. Some people give up items to create space and time for new life and habits to grow. Instead of giving something up, I invite you to try to commit to answering these writing prompts each of the 40 days of Lent. The discipline it takes to set aside time each day to reflect and write about God and your relationship with spirituality is a journey that you will emerge from with a renewed spirit. Every writer has their own special voice to add to this project, whether poetry, prose, essay, thoughts, lists, or through comments, prayer, and encouragement.

How do I participate?
Each day, a writing prompt will be posted. A prompt is a question or statement that is meant to inspire your thoughts in whatever genre you feel moved to write. Post your reflections as a comment under each day's prompt (for further instructions, see 'How To Post' on the right side of the page). It is up to you if you write, read, or pray along with us each of the 40 days of Lent or just drop in from time to time when the spirit moves you to participate. Writing regularly is a discipline that many writers struggle with and this is a way to involve that discipline as a Lenten practice. Through writing and leaving encouraging words for others in this project, we become a supportive spiritual writing community

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Pages, Screens and Songs That Inspire Change


Is there a book, movie, sermon, musical, blog post, or song (or something else along those lines!) that changed your thinking in a spiritual way?  Share what it was and write about it.  If you have more than one, write about as many as you want!

6 comments:

  1. Borning Cry, LBW 732
    [Waterlife]

    1. “I was there to hear your borning cry. I’ll be there when you are old.
    I rejoiced the day you were baptized to see your life unfold.
    I was there when you were but a child, with a faith to suit you well;
    In a blaze of light your wandered off to find where demons dwell.”

    2. “When you heard the wonder of the Word I was there to cheer you on;
    You were raised to praise the living Lord, to whom you now belong.
    If you find someone to share your time and you join your hearts as one,
    I’ll be there to make your verses rhyme from dusk till rising sun.”

    3. “In the middle ages of our life, not too old, no longer young,
    I’ll be there to guide you through the night, complete what I’ve begun.
    When the evening gently closes in and you shut you weary eyes,
    I’ll be there as I have always been, with just one more surprise.”

    4. “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old.
    I rejoiced the day you were baptized to see your life unfold.”

    Text and Music: John C. Ylvisaker. b. 1937.

    Holy One, Ground of Being, Source of Life, Fountain of Light,
    Creator, Keeper of All, Day Maker, Sustainer of All, Designer,
    Word Made Flesh, Incarnate Word, Christ Jesus, Savior of All,
    Breath of Life, Joyful Song of Ages, Peace Bringer, Gardener of Life;

    Any name we give works to focus this moment’s need.
    Important only: You’re the Source, we’re the seed.
    In this brief breath, this short pulse, life’s gift bestowed.
    Faithful care, constant grace, out of You a river flowed.

    Cupped in Your Holy hands each life kept safe, assured,
    Beginning, middle, ending redeemed by Saving Word,
    Baptismal covenant blossoms faith, each servant born anew,
    Brings personal story to the scene, each life lived so true.

    Praise with us Angels, Heavenly Ones, come join us in the now.
    Our spirit beings in human form given this ground to plow,
    Mysterious truth, paradoxical embrace, each soul makes.
    Co-creators appointed by Holy One, none the mission forsakes.

    The Rev. Ronald Allen Melver, M.Div.
    8 March 2014

    ReplyDelete
  2. Every time I read one of Nadia Bolz-Webber’s sermons, or her book, I learn something perspective-changing. As a former PK, I love the way she is a different pastor than I would expect. I don’t want to use the word ‘rebellious’ to describe her, like the media touts, because she is much more than that. She is a pastor, she is human. She is doing incredible things and a witness to the power and the grace of God in a way that I completely understand and hunger for more of.

    Her chapter in Pastrix about spending time as a young adult in a goddess-worshipping community gave me articulation to all the wonderful things I learned as a women’s studies major in college. I always had a trouble letting go of what I learned about Goddesses. The thoughts and beliefs that I felt back then found a place in my Lutheran theology as I live it. She gave me permission to keep those ideas about goddesses along with my spiritual beliefs about God. Nadia calls that time in her life “spending time with God’s aunt”, which I think that sums it up perfectly. Of course there is much to reclaim about the women who are briefly mentioned in the Bible. I love the reverence of Mary, mother of Jesus and relish the Xicanisma origins of the full-body halo around her on the grocery store candle (I won’t go into it too much here, but it is a symbol of womyn’s source of power and the remnants of an ancient goddess who is not to be messed with.) And seeing the musical Jesus Christ Superstar as a young adult sparked my love of Mary Magdalene, even though her story is slightly different than the musical. I also love the story of Lillith in the Gnostic books of the Bible, too. She is almost a goddess, and her story is almost completely hidden, like a woman in an attic. How she learned God’s secret name, requested wings from God to fly away from Adam and was soon replaced by a second ‘first woman’, much like the second Darren in the TV show Bewitched. There is also something about the goddess-centered creation story of Eurynome, who brought the world into being through moving and dancing the chaos into life. There are powerful goddesses with rich stories who feel empowering – not like I am God, but like I am being more fully represented as part of the face of God. These are stories of strong women characters that inspire my creative thinking about God.

    There is a children’s book along these lines called “The Girl God” that I’ve heard about – I’ve joined the Facebook feed, which hooked me in with this quote by Marcus Borg: “How can women be in the image of God, if God cannot be imagined in female form?” This is most certainly true. I don’t want to be God. I don’t even want God to be a woman (how limiting would it be if God was contained by gender?) But I do want to be able to look upon the kaleidoscope of God’s faces and see mine in there, along with everyone who ever was and will be. Male, female, transgender, and every other face, whom God knows by heart.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I join you in the exploration of the feminine-masculine paradox. Healthy individuals and communities embrace both and the dialogue between.

      ronaldo

      Delete
  3. THROUGH MY CAR RADIO ALTAR INTO MY WILDERNESS
    By Marlene Obie

    At different times in my life when I was particularly stressed, depressed, anxious and wondering what next catastrophe I would encounter, this music would reach (and still does) through the air waves and wake up some hope into me. I would spontaneously start singing out and breathing in some measure of confidence that I would get through whatever mire, fire or storm I was in. The entirety of the songs hit me, but here are quotes that particularly punch me in the heart, mind and gut.

    “I have a dream, a song to sing, that helps me cope with anything” and “If you see the wonder of a fairy tale, you can face the future, even if you fail.”
    From I HAVE A DREAM by Christy Lane

    “Blue skies smiling at me, nothing but blue skies do I see. Gray days all of them gone, nothing but blue skies from now on.”
    From BLUE SKIES by Willie Nelson

    “So don ‘t you sit upon the shoreline and say you’re satisfied. Choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide.” And “You’ll never reach you’re destination, if you never try.”
    From THE RIVER by Garth Brooks

    “I am strong when I am on your shoulders. You raise me up to more than I can be.”
    From YOU RAISE ME UP by Josh Groban

    And these that are difficult to sing in church without tears:
    HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING
    THY HOLY WINGS
    BORNING CRY
    MY HOPE IS BUILT ON NOTHING LESS

    “She’s a sparrow when she’s broken, but she’s an Eagle when she flys,” by Dolly Parton evokes within me the verse,

    “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, and not be weary, they shall, and and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

    And I start to believe I can soar. (Although I’m not literally jumping off any cliffs just yet.)

    ReplyDelete
  4. "There is no one in this world who does not consider themselves a person."

    This quote has always made me remember the people around me, known and unknown, who are living their own lives with their own struggles and joys. Even those who we would consider the most insignificant are 'persons' and are deserving of our respect and attention.

    Pat Mason

    ReplyDelete