Good morning…
During our final spiritual growth group of the semester, we opened our sacred time together by reading aloud the prayer of St. Francis.
One woman was drawn to the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, “What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies within you.”
Then with our hour of silent solitude, she chose to create two collage cards. One card depicted winter. The other depicted spring.
In the process of cutting and pasting, a scrap of paper randomly fell into her lap. Crossing out a few words, she received a word of encouragement: God “will guide you through…All supplies are included.”
“As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up,” writes Parker Palmer in Let Your Your Life Speak. “All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that just closed, turn around – which puts that door behind us – and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.” (42)
In reality, we are each designed to be an instrument of God’s peace, sowing love and pardon, faith and hope, light and joy. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us (Ephesians 3:20, MSG).
As we become instruments of peace, God will guide us through. Equipped by the Spirit within us, all supplies are included.
…Sue…
