A+ha.

Goodbye 2011.

Love. Laughter. Tears. Joy. Happiness. Frustration. Broken dreams. Surprises. Holy moments.

2011 was full of them. 

2012 will be too.

What are you most thankful for from the year that is ending? And how will you show up for the year to come?

Happy New Year. May you find blessings and holiness in the big and small things every day.

Hope. Peace. Love. Joy...it all comes together.

"And the Word became flesh..."

Yup. It did. God came into the world to show everybody what Love really looks like. 

God still comes into the world, you know. Every day. In people like you and me. 

It didn't just happen back then in a place over there long ago and far away.

It happens now. In the mess, in the chaos, in the everyday stuff of life: doctor's appointments, laundry, running to soccer practice, workplace drama...God breaks into our lives with grace and peace. Not judgment and punishment but with grace and peace.

Pretty cool, huh?

So Merry Christmas, everybody. May the grace and peace of God fill your heart and souls and minds and bodies with light and hope and love. Lots and lots and lots of love.

 

What if it's true?

So: what if this whole Christmas "thing" is true? What if this is more than a good story...what if God really did come into the world as a human being at one point in time...and what if God continually comes into the world today through people just like us? Through us, even? What, if anything, does that change for you? 

God in Drag. (a Hafiz poem as we continue to wait in the dark of Advent for the coming of the light into the world))

You are the sun in drag.
You are God hiding from yourself.
Remove all the “mine” – that is the veil.
Why ever worry about
Anything?
Listen to what your friend Hafiz
Knows for certain:
The appearance of this world
Is a Magi’s brilliant trick, though its affairs are
Nothing into nothing.
You are a divine elephant with amnesia
Trying to live in an ant
Hole.
Sweetheart, O sweetheart
You are God in
Drag!

-Hafiz

 

Light Wins.

The light shines in the darkness...and the darkness could not overcome it. (John 1:5)

We are all made of light. Just a reminder. 

O Come All You Faithful.

I was listening to Christmas music on an early run this morning and heard the familiar tune and words: "Sing choirs of angels, sing in exaltation..." I stopped for a moment--right in the middle of the street--and wondered what that would sound like. What would it sound like if choirs of angels started singing in exaltation? And then believe it or not, I heard it. A choir of angels. They were singing from inside of me: inside of my heart, inside of my head, deep from my soul. And I started to weep as I realized the simplest truth: the choirs of angels aren't outside of us. They are inside. And they are beautiful: their voices, their light, their very being is amazingly holy and beautiful. Glory to God, indeed.