Perspective – This Life

The New Year Winds

Bring In the Blues

Sunday, November 30, 2025

And All Will Wake in the Love and Light

Of Christ,

Like Children Filled With Expectation of

Impossible Things,

for These Impossible Times.

Jeremiah 31:34

No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

Matthew 21:15-16

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became angry and said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
‘Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise for yourself’?”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

As another New Church Year begins, the wind blows and the colour blue for Advent arrives. The blue of waiting and boredom, the blue of royalty, the blue of despondency, the blue of deep yearning, the blue of hope, the blue of clear skies, the blue of the water into which we are baptized. These are the blues of Advent, four Sundays of preparing, as sombre as our other season of preparation, Lent. Just as Lent is more than giving up things, so Advent is more than waiting for the celebrations to begin.

These are the days (once again and always) to acknowledge

that in our baptisms

God has equipped us to know the Lord, for our sins are forgiven.

And we are freed to share God’s good things with everyone, especially those in need, and to sing God’s praises

unending.

From the Nest

Carried, Guided

Friday, November 14, 2025

On Wings, High Above It All

High Above the Brutality and Greed,

the Corruption and Scheming,

the Dishonesty and Shame.

Deuteronomy 32:11-12

As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young; as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions, the Lord alone guided God’s Volk; no foreign god was with them.

John 10:29

Jesus spoke: What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

There’s enough in the world to go around,

air,

water,

food,

clothing,

shelter,

work,

and

love.

There’s also enough

Brutality,

Greed,

Corruption,

Scheming,

Dishonesty,

and

Shame.

…

God provides us protection and passage on wings of love and light, high above the worst of humanity’s failings,

so that we can be blessings to others,

sharing

all

that

good

and

life-giving

with

all

people.

Reformation

Celebrations of History

Sunday, October 26, 2025

Challenges for Today

The Spirit Wends Its Way Into Every Moment, Every Life.

Sometimes we can even see it

between the trees in the sunlight.

Proverbs 3:27

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.

James 2:2-4

For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Do good!

Seek no honour!

Be humble!

All well and good.

But …

It’s not the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

It’s not what brings us closer to God.

First: God acts and saves us through Jesus’ sacrifice, forgiving our sins (each moment we breathe – and sin, since that’s who we are- miserable sinners all. Well we are actually really good at sinning!)

And then …

Well then we GET (not must) … We GET to work to do good for all people and all creation.

We get to seek no honour! We get to be humble!

We get to live with wide horizons, open hearts, engaged minds, and active hands, always doing Christ’ work here today.

And that takes reform every day, moving from the status quo so dripping with sin as it always is, and moving towards being Grace saved, Grace living, Grace giving.

Blessings

For All,

Friday, October 17, 2025

Young and Old, maybe?

When All The Colour Has Drained Out of Life …

Genesis 32:26

Then he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.”

Matthew 19:13a

Then little children were being brought to him in order that he might lay his hands on them and pray.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Youthful Jacob is able to demand a blessing from the angel he’s struggled against all night. Got a lame hip for it

and

a blessing in the end.

Jesus distributes blessings to the children freely, widely, readily.

…

but

is there a blessing for the old people.

Some cultures revere their older people.

Some respect them.

Ours ignores them.

…

Maybe there’s a blessing in that, too.

Place?

My Place

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

what’s your place like?

The Geese,

Soon Gone.

The Stillness Stays Behind.

Isaiah 55:12

For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Luke 10:17- 20

The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

pulled and pushed my bones and muscles resist

but they must out of the warmth from under a down duvet rise

dawn peeks through the trees

frost covers the grass

the air holds it’s breath waiting

the lake waters exhale fog rising

on the shore a goose honks once, then twice

across the waters the oil processing plant roars dullness

and trucks pound the pavement, as another of their work day begins

smoke rises from the chimney

a four fist size rock sits beside the path, pulled out from where it tipped innumerable loads of wood coming in

My day begins, a pot of water on the wood stove, waiting for heat, an hour until it boils for morning coffee and the day’s thermos of tea.

My ‘place’ awaits another 8 hours of hard labour preparing wood for the winter, repairing and improving systems that keep the cold, the storms, the animals and bugs at bay

…

and me alive.

…

What’s your place in life?

…

Is our place anything other than to rejoice that God has a place for us, in creation, and beyond?

Betcha Can’t

Betcha God Can!

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Thwarts and All Cannot Stop God’s Love

Canoe at 72?

Possible.

Be Saved Yet Again?

For God All Is Possible!

Job 42:2

Job to God: I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Luke 1:37

For nothing will be impossible with God.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Trusting that God will not be stopped, that all things are possible for God, is the first good half of trusting God.

The other half is knowing, from experience (one’s own and those of the God’s people since the beginning of time) that God intends good for us, that God indeed loves us like we can only dimly imagine possible.

That’s seemingly impossible:

loving such miserable sinners as us,

mere blips in time,

vulnerable to

the smallest

bugs,

and so capable of

ugly and hateful destructive things

against the earth that supports life for us all,

towards people different than, and especially those so like, us,

and even to ourselves!

Yet there it is to see: God loves us, forgives us, and does the impossible:

God gives us life, and then renews life for us when we botch it so badly.

Even, Especially, Now

God’s Goodness

Monday, October 6, 2025

Hearing, Seeing, Trusting

Life Without Trust

Life With Trust

Psalm 27:13

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

James 5:15

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

It’s all good and fine to live life waiting for life after death, dismissing how miserable life is here for oneself, or how miserable it is for others, while oneself enjoys comforts and privileges unimagined even 100 years ago.

Well, that’s not good or fine, really.

Our lives are more determined by what we hear, see, and trust than the actual things we experience. The same mundane and boring or dire and desperate circumstances can be experienced completely differently by different people, usually depending most (not considering various vulnerabilities due to health and age) on their value-reality framework, which they live with each day.

If one hears the autumn winds blow, and does not take the time to actually see beauty of the yellow leaves against the deep blue skies, the marvels of the waters reflecting the wisps and billows of clouds, and the freedom from bugs the cool temperatures provide, how can one trust that even as winter approaches one’s preparations for the darkest and deepest of cold days will be enough?

If one hears the words upon words spoken, presented, and drilled into the fabric of our lives these days, and does not take the time to also hear the Words recorded by the saints through the ages of God’s love for us, and then to see the wonders the Word has brought to all peoples of all times, how can one trust that in the darkest and coldest of days to come God will walk with us?

The wonders of God’s love for us are not reserved for only after death. These wonders spring up and blow about each day around us. Today we can see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Today we can trust that prayers help those who are ill, and that God already pours forgiveness to all people, hoping we will hear it in God’s Word, see it in lives past and present, and learn to trust it today, and in each day to come.

Wonders to hear, see, and trust abound.

Given the Wilds of Climate Change

We Need Jesus to Do More –

Than Walk On Water

Friday, September 12, 2025

We Need God to Stabilize the Water Everywhere!

Storms A’Brewin’

Proverbs 3:25-26

Do not be afraid of sudden panic, or of the storm that strikes the wicked; for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.

Matthew 14:26-27

But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

it’s just fine to deny that we are the cause of climate change.

Just go a head and bury your head in the sand,

so you can carry on blithely, making it so much worse for us all.

Now if we’d followed Jimmy Carter’s plan for 20% solar power, started in 1979,

(adapting it in each country, like our own, eh?)

We’d not be in the such terrible grips of climate change with smoke and wildfires and drought and floods, and storms so wild we’ve never seen the likes of them.

…

But wishing doesn’t make it so.

And only lots of action, guided by wise thoughts (dreams and prayers as well),

will make our future a bit better than

the even worse it is each year

because

did

nothing

when

counted

the

most.

…

Now our actions

or in-actions

count

again

the

most.

The Learning Curve

Yearning Enough

Sunday, July 13, 2025

To Go Out As The Sun Goes Down

To Pray: God Save Us!

Isaiah 26:9

My soul yearns for you in the night, my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Mark 1:35

In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

Oh that it were so.

Or so.

So that we could climb the steep curve to learn justice.

And that we could make justice be equal for all, and life be abundant for all, and all be able to enjoy the basics of life, and …

well, that God’s will were on earth as it is in heaven!

We yearn for lots of things,

but our greatest, rightest, most worthy yearnings are that God’s judgments to be applied for all on earth,

for we trust God’s mercy and abounding steadfast love, to forgive when we need it, and when do we not need it!

Yet

so much interferes

each day

we seek the calm of the approaching dark to beg God

to come

and save us

also this day

and this night.

On Watch,

Getting Us To Plant and Build

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Goodness in Our Time

Join the Circle

…

of Life.

Jeremiah 31:28

And just as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring evil, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.

Titus 2:11-12

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly.

…

Words of Grace for Today –

…

It’s easy to think the world is lost.

The present times of turmoil and uncertainty do not promise a better future, if a future at all, for us.

With whatever time we have,

God gives us the gifts of the Holy Spirit

to leave behind impiety and worldly passions (like the economy’s foundation of greed)

so that we can reflect

the goodness God has made us capable of embodying

to other people,

Making these days, short as they always are for each of us,

the best days of life on earth,

ours.