Thursday Thoughts
A Prayer for Being Known
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 02/15/24
In this week in which we celebrate Valentine’s day, God’s love find us wherever we are and may we know this love deep into our being.
A Prayer for Being Known
Divine Community,
We want to be known and we’re terrified of being known. Of being laid bare in the presence of another. We are grateful that you are not a God who demands a spirituality rooted in some solitary existence, but it is hard to belong without allowing the direction of our lives to be dictated by those from whom we seek affirmation. Help us to daily discern the truth of our selfhood, that our communities would offer insight without commanding assimilation. As we find spaces that truly see and know us, help us to not run from them. The more beautiful a thing is, the more terrified we are of losing it. Do not let this terror keep us from the love we were meant for. And as we learn to accept friendship and care, may we be stirred to extend it to others. Keep us from contributing to loneliness and dislocation in the world, knowing that our freedom is mysteriously entwined with the freedom of those around us.
Amen
A Breath Prayer
Inhale: I was meant for love.
Exhale: God help me to receive it.[1]
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
[1] Cole Arthur Riley, Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human (New York: Convergent, 2024), 70-71.
For the Beauty of This Day
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 02/08/24
For the Beauty of This Day May your days be gentle, kind, and full of God’s presence. God, I want to bottle up the magic of this day, and sip from it again and again. I want to savor the taste of it, the beauty of it, so I won’t – can’t – forget. How is it, God, that such a day could unfold so naturally, and, at the same time, feel orchestrated for perfection? It’s as if it poured itself into my soul and became the essential vitamin I didn’t know I was missing. It appeared the way wild pansies do, suddenly, their bright colors spreading and growing effortlessly in the hard ground, where nothing else will. God, thank you for this day that became for me a gentle gift, and a heat at ease, and hope blooming. Blessed are we with open hands receiving it gratefully, carefully storing it away like a tea set, ready to be poured out again when friends stop by. Blessings, Pastor Amy
A Blessing - For Love in a Time of Conflict
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 02/01/24
In a world full of conflict inside and outside our homes, I leave you with the following blessing. May the Spirit bring each of you peace this week.
When the gentleness
between you hardens
And your all out of
your belonging with each other,
May the depths you
have reached hold you still.
When no true word can
be said, or heard,
And your mirror each
other in the script of hurt,
When even the silence
has become raw and torn,
May you hear again an
echo of your first music.
When the weave of
affection starts to unravel
And anger begins to
sear the ground between you,
Before this weather
of grief invites
The black seed of
bitterness to find root,
May your souls come
to kiss.
Now is the time for
one of you to be gracious,
To allow a kindness
beyond thought and hurt,
Reach out with sure
hands
To take the chalice
of your love,
And carry it
carefully through this echoless waste
Until this winter
pilgrimage leads you
Toward the gateway to
spring.[1]
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
[1] From John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (New York:
Convergent, 2008), 32.
Created to Create
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/25/24
Perhaps you are like me and have way more projects started than you will ever finish in a reasonable amount of time. Whether it is house remodeling, paper sorting, writing, crafting, etc, a project always feels more manageable at the supply store than it does at home (or when you are planning it to avoid another project)! Ask any knitter, and most will tell you that they regularly purchase yarn for the next project (or ten) before they are done with the first - and often end up with a pile of unfinished projects and a huge yarn stash. I myself just took a rug hooking class at the Mill at Shady Lea even though I have untold knitting and sewing projects, a loom I keep putting off dressing for the next weaving project, and a garden that is going to wake up in a few months.
I want to embrace the drive to creative that lies under the stockpiling of various kinds of building and creating projects. I am convinced that we were created as co-creators, and embedded deep in our person is the “dna” to create. We are created in the image of the great Creator who painted the earth and skies with all the colors. The Psalmist said it for us in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens herald your glory, O God, and the skies display your handiwork.”
In Exodus, when Moses was giving the directions for the building of the tabernacle (the tent precursor to the Temple), a man by the name of Bezalel was appointed by God and “filled with the Spirit of God [he was] given skills and knowledge of every craft” (Exodus 35: 30-31) - including embroidery work and weaving! Moses went on to record that Bezalel and his helper Oholiab taught others handicrafts so they too could contribute to the creation of this portable worship space: “every woman and man whom YHWH has blessed with skill and understanding” (35:36).
Again in Psalm 8, David reflects on God’s creative works and the role God has given humanity to be responsible for creation. Compared to the beauty of God’s work, who are we in comparison? He asks. And yet. And yet, God has created us to care for this creation. We are created in the image of God for this purpose. And being created in the image of the Creator might just explain the desires we have to grow gardens, build things, and create beauty through art.
So, the next time you start to create something, look at your hands and remind yourself that those hands were created to create. When you feel the urges in your soul to create, let yourself revel for a moment in the truth that this is a sign of the Divine image in you.
How great are your works, Oh God, and how marvelous that we get to join in your work through our own!
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
PS - Want to join us in a shared creating space? Our knitters gather every Tuesday at 1 p.m. in our Parlor. Or, try our new 1st Saturday art and craft space at 10 a.m. in the Hope Circle Room. Or, watch for opportunities to volunteer with the CCAP garden!
The In-Between Seasons
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/19/24
The days are getting longer - yet now there is
snow on the ground. Yesterday evening at 5 p.m. it was still dusk, and at 5:15
p.m. I could still see light in the western sky! The shortest days of the year
were hard on me this year, so the return of some evening sunshine has been a
blessing. But, having it coupled with these below freezing temperatures and
crusty snow on the ground reminds me that while we are moving toward spring, we
really are in an in-between season. We have the cold of winter but the light is
increasing toward spring.
I don’t particularly like in-between seasons. I like things that are clear cut. I want to know what to expect to happen at all times.
If only life did what I wanted it to! Unfortunately, like many of you, I often find myself in in-between seasons. This winter, as I've been sick, is one of those seasons. I’m ready for spring in more ways than one. I’m still having to learn to sit and be with this body God has given. To sit and wait for the Spirit to move.
Perhaps you too struggle with the in-between parts of life. If so, let me leave you with a prayer.
A Prayer “For Those Who are Looking for a Sign”
God who shows,
I need a sign. However sincere my discernment, it seems like clarity continues to evade me. God, how will I know? In the absence of firm assurance, this lack of confidence pulls me here and there like a leash. Remind me that many things can be good at once, but if there is an answer that is most right for me in this season, reveal it to me. Help me to have compassion for myself as I name my uncertainty. Show me what it means to be a person of both conviction and openness, that I might gain the courage to act and decide even when it feels like a risk. May I find divine affirmation on the path to self-trust. Amen
?
From Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies: Prayes, Poems, and
Meditations for Staying Human. New York: Convergent, 2024, p. 54.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
