Dear Friend,

When I decided I wanted to take a group of youth to the PCUSA Youth Triennium this summer, it was definitely because I wanted the youth to have that experience, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I wanted the experience too. I wanted to be in a place where I saw all kinds of young people excited about faith and church and Jesus. I wanted to see the way our denomination connects us with all kinds of people from all over the country. I wanted to go to worship everyday with 2000 other people and sing and pray and hear God’s word preached.

I found this quote this week: “Faith as it is described in Scripture is not, in other words, a destination. It’s not a conclusion or a form of closure. Faith is a longing. Faith is a hunger. Faith is a desire.”

Sometimes I feel a hunger or longing for a new way of encountering God. Sometimes I long to be alone in silence. Sometimes I long to learn more about God or the Bible or other practices of faith. Sometimes I desire to go into a beautiful part of nature (for me often walking by the lake). Sometimes I long for a certain kind of fellowship with others. And sometimes, I guess, I long for worship with 2000 youth and adults in a giant convention center.

When you long for God, where does it take you? Does your faith feel like a hunger or desire? If not, do you remember it ever feeling that way? How do you feed that hunger?

Pastor Jenny

Dharma in the Garden

by Barbara Brown Taylor

Barbara Brown Taylor is one of my favorite preachers and authors, so I imagine this will not be my only recommendation from her. I really enjoyed this article because I have always been interested in the idea of mandalas. I used to not understand how the monks could spend so much time making the sand mandalas just to see them wiped away. In mid-life now, I appreciate more the sentiment that “the energy I put into it matters more than what comes out.” Perhaps I also have accepted just the slightest bit more that I don’t have much control over what comes out either…maybe.

Read the full article here.

Reckless Love

Cory Asbury

This was one of the favorite songs from Triennium worship in Louisville (the youth conference I took 7 youth to at the end of July). It’s interesting to think of God’s love as reckless. I’ve heard God’s love described as promiscuous and they create a similar feeling in me. I am drawn to the idea that God’s love is without any of the careful boundaries we might put up; that God’s love is even a little dangerous in how great, how overpowering it is.

Tibetan Monks Create Sand Mandala

Here’s a short video showing the creation of a mandala. The intricacy is amazing! And I enjoy getting to hear a bit of the chanting.

We heard this poem/prayer a couple of times while we were at Triennium.

In his inaugural address, President Nelson Mandela quoted from Marianne Williamson’s book, A Return to Love. He said:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to manifest God’s glory within us.
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.”
May it be so. Amen.