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ScriptureProverbs 4:18 (NRSVUE) But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. RefrainI am being dazzled, gradually, into the light. QuoteBrian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences "I've been gradually dazzled by Christ into a much more hopeful and glorious theology. But along the way I've also learned that I have to tell it slant. I can't always expect someone to see in five minutes what it's taken me fifty years to see. In our pilgrim journey we need to be careful not to blind others with what we have seen. We dazzle... gradually." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureLuke 8:9–10 (NRSVUE) Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that 'looking they may not perceive, and hearing they may not understand.'" RefrainThe story is working in me before I understand it. QuoteEugene Peterson, from The Contemplative Pastor "Jesus' favorite speech form, the parable, was subversive. Parables sound absolutely ordinary: casual stories about soil and seeds, meals and coins and sheep, bandits and victims, farmers and merchants. And they are wholly secular. As people heard Jesus tell these stories, they saw at once that they weren't about God, so there was nothing in them threatening their own sovereignty. They relaxed their defenses. They walked away perplexed, wondering what they meant, the stories lodged in their imagination. And then, like a time bomb, they would explode in their unprotected hearts." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureHebrews 5:12–14 (NRSVUE) You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil. RefrainI am ready for what once would have overwhelmed me. QuoteSt. John of the Cross, from Dark Night of the Soul "The soul, after it has been definitely converted to the service of God, is, as a rule, spiritually nurtured and caressed by God, even as is the tender child by its loving mother, who warms it with the heat of her bosom and nurtures it with sweet milk and soft and pleasant food, and carries it and caresses it in her arms; but, as the child grows bigger, the mother gradually ceases caressing it, and, hiding her tender love, puts bitter aloes upon her sweet breast, sets down the child from her arms and makes it walk upon its feet, so that it may lose the habits of a child and betake itself to more important and substantial occupations." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScripturePhilippians 3:13–14 (NRSVUE) Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. RefrainI am always being drawn further in. QuoteGregory of Nyssa, from The Life of Moses "Such an experience seems to me to belong to the soul which loves what is beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is constantly perceived. And the bold request which goes up the mountains of desire asks this: to enjoy the Beauty not in mirrors and reflections, but face to face." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSVUE) For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. RefrainThe truth dazzles gradually, so that I may see. QuoteEmily Dickinson, "Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant" "Tell all the truth but tell it slant— Success in Circuit lies Too bright for our infirm Delight The Truth's superb surprise As Lightning to the Children eased With explanation kind The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind—" Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture1 John 4:7–8 (NRSVUE) Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. RefrainLove is my refusal of cynicism. QuoteWHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES by Mary Oliver When I am among the trees, especially the willows and the honey locust, equally the beech, the oaks and the pines, they give off such hints of gladness. I would almost say that they save me, and daily. I am so distant from the hope of myself, in which I have goodness, and discernment, and never hurry through the world but walk slowly, and bow often. Around me the trees stir in their leaves and call out, “Stay awhile.” The light flows from their branches. And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say, “and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureGenesis 1:3 (NRSVUE) Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. RefrainI was called out of the darkness. QuoteDavid Bentley Hart, from You Are Gods "From eternity, God has brought forth spiritual creatures into existence in the only way that such creatures could be formed: by calling them to ascend out of the darkness of nonbeing into the infinite beauty of the divine nature. To exist as a spiritual creature is simply to have heard and, from the first instant, responded to this total vocation. Creation is already deification—is, in fact, theogony. For that eternal act—that summoning of all created natures out of the primordial darkness—is most certainly an entirely free and unmerited gift of being, imparted to those who were not and who in themselves had no claim to be; but it is also, and no less originally, the call that awakens the gods." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureJames 1:17 (NRSVUE) Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights. RefrainIt's all a gift. QuoteJulian of Norwich, from Revelations of Divine Love "And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as a ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding and thought, 'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus: 'It is all that is made.' I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureGenesis 15:5 (NRSVUE) He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." RefrainHope returns when I look up. QuoteJ.R.R. Tolkien, from The Return of the King "Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScripturePsalm 19:1 (NRSVUE) The heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. RefrainThe world will never starve for want of wonders, but only for want of wonder. QuoteWendell Berry, from The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays "The Bible is best read and understood outdoors, and the farther outdoors the better. Passages that within walls seem improbable or incredible, outdoors seem merely natural. This is because outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary but the common mode of existence." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureRomans 13:13–14 (NRSVUE) Let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. RefrainI want to spend my life knowing you. QuoteBrian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences "Lord, as much as I can mean anything, I mean this prayer in this moment: I want to spend the rest of my life seeking to know you as you are revealed in Christ. Amen." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureDeuteronomy 6:4–5 (NRSVUE) Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. RefrainEven here, the prayers hold. QuoteJürgen Moltmann "When we encounter insoluble problems and despair, we must remember that the Shema of Israel and the Lord's Prayer were prayed in Auschwitz." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureJohn 1:50–51 (NIV) Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that." He then added, "Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." RefrainGod is nearer to me than my own soul. QuoteJulian of Norwich, from Revelations of Divine Love "God is nearer to us than our own soul, for he is ground in whom our soul stands, and he is the means that keeps the substance and the sensuality together so that it shall never depart. For our soul sits in God, in true rest, and our soul stands in God in sure strength, and our soul is naturally rooted in God, in endless love." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

ScriptureJohn 1:47–49 (NIV) When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit." "How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you." Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel." RefrainI was seen before I was found. QuoteRabbi Johanan bar Nappaha of Tiberius "Why were matters of Torah compared to a fig tree? Just as this fig tree, whenever a person searches it for figs to eat, he finds figs in it, as the figs on the tree do not ripen all at once, so too, with matters of Torah. Whenever a person meditates on them, he finds in them new meaning." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scripture1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NRSVUE) Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. RefrainPrayer is keeping company with God. QuoteMother Teresa "Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts." Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.