Enjoy this LIVE STREAM replay I did on Periscope.
The first one I did was awful so I had to delete it. I’m still learning this streaming stuff and the camera works was an “F-“. My how screwing up keeps me humble! I have so many chances each day.
Enjoy this resource. It’s a great way to start Autumn with greater awareness, gratitude, and transformation!
(Already read it or feeling a bit more generous? Please use the donate button (see left column) to contribute to the show. Help me make awesome things for your ears to hear each week. Much Love & Thank you! ~L)
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MIN
1:30
1. It’s hard to pray to God as Father when you’ve had a bad dad. What should I do?
• How do we think about God? (usually like a human person or institution)
• God is Spirit not an old white man in the sky with a long beard.
What adjectives will help you connect with the Being typically called “God”
4:00
Hebrew word for God is a description too (yahweh “I am” a verb) that was not used. Adonai was substituted and that simply means “Master/Lord” and is a term of respect.
4:30
It’s misguided to think that God can be contained or described well using a “Proper Noun”. God can’t be called a proper name/noun…like “Billy” (and that would make Jesus “Billy Jr.”).
Hebrew names are descriptive when referring to people (not how we use names to address people today).
5:00
YAHWEH (Hebrew word), means I AM (or “is”) and works like a verb denoting Presence an Love in Action. It defies typical proper names and descriptions.
5:50
2. On Forgiveness
“What should I do to forgive when I can’t forget?”
6:10
Forgiving is a continual process.
Thinking of forgiveness as transactional–a debt clearing mechanism. Be an accountant and don’t worry about your emotions being on the same page.
7:20
Remembering that you are not your thoughts.
8:00
What Justice is actually (Shalom). Making things right and reconciliation.
8:50
3. What to do about envying others (in this case writers in the field) and being jealous of their success.
9:15
Seeing the negative emotions as tools. Reframing them to use them to find our calling, gifts, and passions.
9:30
Not getting caught up in “should” and “oughts” and comparisons.
9:45
When you can say of your work, “Wow, I get to do this!” you can have enough gratitude to be comfortable with the success of others.
10:15
It’s common and normal to get feelings of jealousy. It’s only when the take over our hearts and mind do we need to reevaluate and recalibrate what we are doing and thinking.
11:00
Deciding that the options of other people and the opinions should have huge power is a choice we can change.
12:05
4. Getting over feeling guilt and shame that keeps resurfacing.
Daring Greatly Brene Brown (the difference between guilt and shame.
• Guilt is important so we can learn and correct and grow and become better people.
• Shame is a belief that something, un fixable, is wrong with you.
Shame whispers lies in your ears. Shame becomes a decision of who we are as person.
14:05
Being put to shame by parents and others.
14:50
A mistake isn’t part of who you are.
Redemption is always possible. You can start anew.
15:10
My caveat.
15:50
5. Church isn’t working for me anymore and I feel guilty leaving the church, but I don’t feel fed.
In the U.S. we often go to church as a consumers and look for what we can get out of it. Church can be piss poor.
17:00
Look for ways to give and minister and find connection in other ways.
18:00
For me, small groups were a starting point that lead me to seminary.
18:50
Bringing back the potluck and sharing life with people.
19:30
Sometimes we sense church isn’t “working” when meaningful connection is lacking.
20:30
“we” is better than “me”.
Thank you for listening and sharing the show with others. If you’ve gotten an enjoyment from Spark My Muse, come back every Wednesday for something new, or save your mental energy and subscribe!
Today: A conversation with Shane Tucker!
Shane is a Soul Friend (Spiritual Director) with a focus on artists and creatives, be they “yuccies”, “slashies”, painters, musicians, or any one in need of deeper and more sustaining, soul-level communing.
I invite you to just listen, read the show notes and click on links, and give what you can.
That’s all. :)
• If it’s worth nothing…um what? Are you serious? This just got more awkward..Aw…snap! I sincerely apologize. Let me know what I can improve and please come back and listen again soon!
• If it’s worth one dollar, five dollars, twenty-five dollars, six hundred dollars, a billion-zillion dollars… you get the idea…
simply, tap into the river of gratitude in your heart and contribute what you can– HERE or use that Paypal button, over yonder.
(Of course, since money isn’t everything, you can say “thanks” and help with something that is not monetary, just let me know here. You make fruit pies, right?)
• Use the social share buttons, spread the word, leave a great a review at iTunes…these are all ways to help too. Thanks in advance for your generosity!
Every little bit helps a lot.
Thank you, listeners for making the show heard in 96 countries and a,l 50 of the United States!
With Love,
~Lisa
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Snapshot of the segment:
• Meade is fermented honey and herbs added.
• Irish wine is (usually) white wine, with some honey and herbs.
• It is still often used during the wine toast in Irish wedding ceremonies.
A conversation with Shane Tucker:
His website
His Twitter
Shane is…
• An ordained Anglican Preist
• A trained Anam Cara (soul friend in the Irish Tradition).
• He lived with his wife and family in Ireland for 11 years!
Conversation (podcast) notes:
MINUTE 3:00
How Shane and his wife and family happened to live in Ireland for 11 years.
4:15
How God begins to grow dreams in us
Working at the Willow Creek Church
People have long said that still seems true. When foreigners come that end up being more Irish than the Irish themselves.
7:20
One of the most potent lessons learned from the Irish was the necessity to put people first. They take time to connect with each other and share life.
9:00 A sense of call to minister to artist and creatives.
9:40 On why he feels a passion to serve the creative community: “I believe the creative of today is the prophet of old”. It is a prophetic call.
10:10
“Creatives are called to paint a picture of the future that God is calling us all into. His Kingdom coming.”
10:50
“When a creative (person) using their gift…it taps into something deep inside of us and reverberates…and it feels like echoes of home.”
12:00
Jesus invites us to “walk with me and work with me.”
12:20
answering: What is Spiritual Direction (or soul friendship) actually?
13:00
A soul friend is “the best friend you’ve always wanted.”
and the Saint Bridgette quote…
13:50
A good picture is in the New Testament of the friends walking to Emmaus and then Jesus come in their midst. Unpacking life.
14:00
“The Soul Friend is someone who helps us see how God has been at work in our lives…so we can (as St. Ignatius says) “to recklessly abandon ourselves to his loving care.”
15:20
The problem with the phrase “Spiritual Director” on two counts so I use “soul friend”.
18:00
How he was trained in soul care and soul friendship
21:00
On becoming an Anglican Priest…
25:00
What he find to be the deepest needs of the creative community he works with?
Affirmation and Presence
30:00
Living in a Creative Age (moving from head to heart)
31:30
There’s an affective moving in society leading with Beauty first and then Truth that leads to freedom.
32:00
Alan Crieder
Behave Belong Believe (in which order should be in what era)
33:20
“What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.”
35:00
The error of focusing too much on trying to convince people just intellectually.
36:00
Ignatian Spirituality
Celtic Spirituality
Soul Friendship
by Rev Ray Simpson (Church of England)
The Celtic Way of Prayer
by Ester De Waal
Holy Companions
42:30
on the hospitality and generosity of Irish spirituality.
The story of an Inn with 7 doors for the 7 roads.
Thank you so much for listening to the show!
To get alerts of the topics and the new and interesting folks coming to the podcast in future episode click HERE.
Here’s a tasting of who’s coming in the next few months:
Mako Fujimura
Nicole Unice
Shane Claiborne
and, yes, more!
This Sunday marks the start of the season of Advent 2015.
The predominant theme of Advent is WAITING in expectation.
It’s a timeless theme.
Waiting makes up a big portion of our lives, doesn’t it?
Whether it’s waiting in line or in traffic or waiting for an occasion or certain situation–we do a lot of waiting.
For me, a focus on waiting pulls me out of the present moment to a moment that exists in theory. It involves hope or anxiety. Or both.
The prisoners I minister to have a life centered on waiting for their freedom. They routinely tell me that keeping busy is the best way to conquer the burden and stress of waiting.
If we just stay busy we can miss the gifts that come only through waiting.
Because waiting is such a huge part of the human experience, it’s no wonder that Christianity has long interacted with this theme as a entry point into bigger spiritual conversations and concepts. It is through this struggle we gain growth and maturity in our walk of faith.
Patience is rarely, if ever, attained by any other means than practice.
Waiting is that practice.
Waiting on the Lord is a vibrant theme in Scriptures too, right?
Most of the stories in the Bible include the aspect of waiting. Abraham and Sarah (and many others) wait for offspring, David waits on the Lord for deliverance, the prophets wait for God’s promises to be fulfilled, Paul and the other apostles do a lot of waiting in prison, and in the season of Advent we acutely encounter Mary’s waiting for the Savior, Jesus. She is the vehicle God has chosen to birth the Prince of Peace. It’s a nine month process–on the heels of thousands of years of waiting for the Messiah.
This delivery involves a lot of anticipation and waiting.
And so too does most anything else of worth. These many stories echo our own pain and struggle.
I appreciate Mary’s expression of gratitude during her wait (a.k.a. The Magnificat-see the video below to hear “Mary’s Song” sung my John Michael Talbot). We can use her example to help us along.
Gratitude produces joy that makes waiting easier.
Waiting aptly exposes our traits of impatience, also. It works to refine us.
Henri Nouwen once wrote, “Impatient people are always expecting the real thing to happen somewhere else and therefore want to go elsewhere. ”
Rev Adele Ahlberg Calhoun recently wrote,
Waiting is how God gets at the idols of our heart. Waiting addresses the things we think we need besides God to be content: money, comfort, expedience, success or control.
TODAY’S NUGGET:
It’s a powerful lesson we find in Advent. Meditate on the longings of your heart and cultivate the seeds of advent there. Expectantly wait for God to fulfill his promises with a heart of trust and gratitude.
Today, I’m sharing with you my thoughts and draft notes as I prepare a talk.
If you’re getting stuck and feeling like you can’t find your purpose, or if you thought you knew your purpose and now you don’t really–don’t worry.
Although your basic human purpose changes very little, the details can change at different stages in life or in different circumstances. You are normal.
If you don’t know this bit about the shifts of purpose, you can go through dark periods needlessly and have longer slumps. Well, enough of that!
Not that there could be a “technique” per se.
Think of it as a rule of thumb or guide, if that helps.
Do you have a notebook?
Grab one.
Purpose – the finding and keeping of it – can be slippery. So, field notes help.
Keep track of your progress. It gives you a structure and a history to check on.
Worship
Does this sound a bit odd? Worship.
The more odd it sounds to you as a starting point, the more you need to do it to get properly orientated straight-away.
Worship is other focused, by nature. Yes?
That new perspective alone can help you make a break-through. But, really it’s much more than that at work.
“As we worship a fundamental shift happens because we remember who we really are.” -LD
At first blush it seems like worship is for God, because he is owed our worship. True?
That’s really only part of it. Let’s dig deeper:
1. God doesn’t need ANYTHING from us. He’s not insecure.
2. This means that Worship is to him (or toward him), but for OUR benefit.
To put it simply, God commands us to worship him because he wants it to be well with us.
[He knows we need it. Sure it’s his due, but he’s not an egomaniac. He’s always been taking care of us, even through the vehicle of worshipping him.]
When we fail to worship God, we start to worship lesser gods, like…ourselves, other mortals, our ambitions, the gods of the secular, dying world, and countless vanities.
Few things can create more clarity than a rightly worshipful heart.
• Clarity is a byproduct of worship and so are many other positive things I won’t get into this time.
Remember what Worshiping God helps us remember:
Don’t feel like worshiping?…well you have to start somewhere.
Back to that Handy-dandy Notebook!
(Shout out to Dora the Explorer)
Note feelings, changes, attitudes in your field notes now and during worship.
So where or how should you start in worship?
You can start with something that tends to speak to you and get through to you. What worked before? Start there and keep pushing through. Maybe you’ll find something new or maybe something familiar will help.
OPTIONS:
For some this may mean getting a true break from others and a return and appreciation of the created world. (A walk, a camping trip, a hike, a solo picnic.)
For some it’s music and song. (Just listen, create some, or sing along.)
For some it’s just praying for a while. (It’s talking to God, so it’s a great place to start, if possible.)
For some it’s a with the help of a spiritual exercise like… “Praying the Names of God”
Here’s a quick “course” on how it works:
“Praying the names of God” is to first, come up with 10, 20, or 100 names of God. There are plenty: Savior, Redeemer, Creator, Father, Shepherd, Mother Hen, Majestic…you get the idea. As you say, write, and pray the names, roll them over in your mind. What do they mean? Let them affect you, be thankful and rejoice, and (of course) express your thanks and gratitude to God in prayer…which would be the actual worshiping part.
Example: “God you are my Provider. You have taken care of me and continue to. I thank you for providing for me, even in ways I don’t now about. God you are my Rock…”
Reading the Bible might help trigger true worship. Reading the psalms or the great Bible stories like the one of Joseph can inspire a true attitude of worship. You can read using the practice of Lectio Divina for some extra punch too. As you read thorough a portion, note the works or wonders of God, and pray about them, giving glory to God. Worship.
Maybe you have other ways to get the worship started. So, just get started!
HOMEWORK!
You thought this was just some quick reading or some mental exercise, huh?
Nope. I’m asking more of you.
Assignment:
Use a notebook to record your mode of worship and your attitude at the start, during the time of worship, and afterwards. Then, continue to enter into times of short (5-15 minutes) and uninterrupted worship experience for a few days, or until the next post (which ever is longer).
Next post we will continue and with I in WISP
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