Tag Archives: sermon on the mount

Feb 26 2014
3 Comments
learning to live, on, poems, Quotes

the beatitudes

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When you are empty and wondering if it was worth it, it means you’re valuing what God values.

When you are broken-hearted and swollen with tears, it means you are craving the kingdom and recognize its absence.

When you learn to think and fight and dream in third ways, it means you are beginning to grow your kingdom legs.

When you realize how far you still have to go and it leaves you moving humbly and curiously, it means you will become who you hope to become.

When you make room and offer love to those who should be kicked out and chewed out, it means you are learning to welcome yourself the way you’ve already been welcomed.

When you see beauty and hope and artistry in everything, it means you are learning to see with the eyes of your maker.

When you stand on the line between those fighting against each other and call for a ceasefire, you resemble your father more than you ever have before.

When you live in ways that speak to something deep and true and it lands you in hot water, it means you have found the ways of living that challenge the present and speak to the future.

When you live like me, and look like me, and forgive like me, and make peace like me, and love like me and get chewed out and spoken down to and looked crossways at and released from your position for, you’ve found what you’re looking for and you’ll never be happy again unless you live into what you’ve discovered. And don’t think you’re the first; you come from a long line of rule breakers.

djordan
Pine Tree Dr.

Add your own version of the beatitudes in the comments below. 

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May 21 2013
2 Comments
learning to live, poems, Prayers, social work, what they are teaching me

in the eyes

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in the eyes
the way we make it clear
what we think about you
whether we speak kindly or not

in the tone
the way we make it known
if we think we are lucky to know you or
if we think you are lucky to have found us

in the words
the way we make it obvious
why we are wasting time on you at all
or why we desperately need to know more of the world that
you know
you have survived
you have crawled through
you have climbed over
you have made beautiful
you have dignified

the reality that we manage the resources
that often stand between you and the respect you were born deserving
can and do often mislead us
to think that we could
if we wanted
speak unkindly with our eyes
suggest superiority with our tone and
communicate arrogance with our words
because we think that you need us

while all the while, the kingdom belongs to you.
God of those we attempt to marginalize, for our sakes, forgive us.
Lord hear our prayer.

djordan
108 S Church

These words come after yet another encouraging meeting where staff sit together to work and pray through what it means to remember that we are servants doing the work of Christ, knowing that in doing Christ’s work as he would do it, every interaction we have should reveal more of the dignity and worth inherent in every person. We don’t do it well all the time, or maybe rarely do it we do it well, but it is our heart at ARM to do so. 

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Apr 19 2012
7 Comments
learning to live

beyond sides of a story

Our temptation is, of course, to listen for the evidence and decide which side of the story we will choose to stand on. And our temptation then is, of course, to fight for where we have chosen to stand. And our temptation then is, of course, to stop listening because when fighting for the side of the story we have chosen, we fight with all our might because it has become the ground on which we are now standing.

But what happens if we consider moving beyond sides of a story? What if we have been fighting for the either or for the or when it was never an either or to begin with? What if our need for choosing sides comes more from a need to stop listening, because listening is harder than fighting. Persisting in curiosity is harder than moving into superiority.

I know when I speak, I am telling what I’ve seen. What I’ve smelled. What I’ve felt.

And when they speak, they are telling what they’ve seen. What they’ve smelled. What they’ve felt.

And if we experienced the crash of the story me from one bank, and them from the other, we may both tell the truth, and still tell a different story.

So is there a way to listen widely, getting so many sides of the story that we move beyond sides all together and rather begin to experience the fulness of the story we know we exist anyway? A fullness that breeds humility and compassion and generosity because we continue to listen and therefore take on the fulness and complexity of the story itself rather than landing on a side and being forced to start a fight.

It is, of course, the work of being a peacemaker. And the peacemakers are, of course, the children of God.

djordan
Pine Tree

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