The Fullness of Life

The past week has been a whirlwind of life and death. Two friends in Christ have come to the end of their journey. Our second grandchild was born last Friday and my youngest daughter turned twenty this week. Such a swirl of experience covering the entire spectrum from birth to death!
In each situation families gather to pray, to remember, to anticipate and celebrate. We remember lives well lived.  We pray for a life just beginning. We give thanks for a life that is maturing and finding purpose and direction.
We thank God who knows each of us by name since before we are born; who promises to be with us always; whose grace makes all things possible.
I find myself praying in Ephesians 3: I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Being Snowed In

January cold and snow used to be a welcome season to read, reflect and plan for the coming months. That respite from the hurry of other seasons has largely vanished. Today a bitter winter storm is coming. I hurry to get stuff done and I yearn for the time to wrap up with God.
Nancy Copeland-Payton's book, The Losses of Our Lives, includes a prayer that seems fitting for this day:

Settle me into this moment,
this once-in-a-lifetime moment, O God.
Quiet me.
Make me still.

Give me courage to sit with my longings.
Let me hear your whisper
calling me,
beneath the surface
to your undercurrents.
Amen.

How Hot?

I knew I made a good choice in restaurants when each table offered five different kinds of hot sauce.  I had no intention of using any of them (my body has demanded much more respect in such matters) but I had fun reading the content labels to distinguish what kind of hot I might have enjoyed!
I use the same criteria when it comes to barbeque restaurants.  There is a very popular restaurant near my home that does not offer its own sauce but puts catsup on the table.  I don't go there very often. 
The entire ritual at dinner reminded me that the core of spiritual discernment is distinguishing between good choices.  The choice between good and evil or right and wrong requires faithfulness ... not discernment. Discernment involves sorting through the shades of gray ... identifying the movement of the Spirit leading one on the way.
While reading the menu at Carlsbad Tavern in Phoenix, I found myself desiring the pork tenderloin with an apricot habaneros sauce. But first I needed to know: how hot is it?  Our server checked with the kitchen who agreed to put the sauce on the side.  Discernment!
It was great!