Received: 2025-09-23 11:37:18

Our friend Dave is having surgery on his wrist tomorrow. Please pray for minimal pray and a positive outcome. Help his anxiety to lessen and remind him...he is not alone. Thanks in advance for your prayers.

I want to read a poem to you called Blessing In The Chaos by Jan Richardson. And then following that, we’re actually just going to sit for a few minutes and gaze at some gorgeous nature; we’re just going to drink it in. 

We often fill this space with a lot of words and a lot of thoughts, and in that, sometimes we can miss the presence and beauty of God so often found more deeply in silence, in stillness, in the quiet spaces. We don’t want to miss that, today. 

To be clear – there’s nothing for you to do here, nothing to accomplish, in these moments. There’s no specific goal, you don’t need to “achieve” some special union experience. Just let your body, your soul, and your spirit take some deep breaths. Knowing that they probably need them. 

POEM | Blessing In The Chaos 

To all that is chaotic in you, let there come silence. 

Let there be a calming of the clamoring, a stilling of the voices that have laid their claim on you, that have made their home in you, 

that go with you even to the holy places but will not let you rest, will not let you hear your life with wholeness or feel the grace that fashioned you. 

Let what distracts you cease. Let what divides you cease. 

Let there come an end to what diminishes and demeans, and let depart all that keeps you in its cage. 

Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.

Contemplations
Blessing in the Chaos | Practicing Rest

Ready for what's next?

Breath Prayer
Jesus Wept

Perhaps you are familiar with what is famously known as the shortest verse in all of scripture, John 11:35: "Jesus wept"... 

Bible Study
Journaling the Bible | Micah 6:6-8

What we’re wanting to do here is to shake up both over-familiarity (for those who have been reading the Bible for a long time) that can sometimes cause the Bible to feel stale, as well as to think more deeply about what some of the ancient words and metaphors really mean, and what they might look and sound like in our present day context. 

Contemplations
Love Languages: Gift-Giving

Awhile back, a popular author categorized some of the ways we express and receive love into five different ‘love languages.’ But have you ever thought about the ways that God loves us?