A sixth grade girl, an only child,
living with two parents who are
well-educated and financially secure.
Also in her life are loving grandparents, a doting aunt,
and an uncle, whose family supplies a couple of cousins.
Like a typical 12 year old girl, friends are important to her.
Any opportunity to get together is a good thing,
particularly if it involves a sleepover.

When I walk in the fall, I collect leaves. I pick up “particularly fine specimens” and take them home. Sometimes I press them and use them as a centerpiece or in some other creative way. Often they simply add color to the kitchen table until they dry and curl up and I return them to the outdoors. (I wonder if anyone has ever seen a pile of my recycled “particularly fine specimens” and imagined a tree that dropped all these different kinds of leaves in one place.)

There is no single characteristic that makes a leaf a “particularly fine specimen”. They are not necessarily the perfect, unblemished leaves. Instead, they are the leaves that catch my eye and capture my attention for one reason or another.

Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy.  (1 Peter 3:15-16, The Message)

As a writer, it's easy for me to hide behind the glow of my laptop and type away about my faith. I have the luxury of carefully choosing my words, pondering some witty or thoughtful response to a question or writing only about the topics of interest to me. But in "real life" conversations, the right words often do not come to mind, and I kick myself later for not having said something brilliant. Here's a recent example.

I visited what is probably the most conservative congregation in my community as part of my ongoing effort to attend worship with every faith group in town. This particular church uses the King James Bible in worship, has a hymnal that dates to 1972 (filled with the kind of songs you'd hear at a tent revival), and sends out people to knock on the doors of recent visitors like myself to ask questions like, "If you died today, are you a million percent sure of where you'd be going?" (Yes, that's an exact quote!)

As I read the lectionary scriptures for this coming Sunday, I found myself drawn toward one of the psalms, Psalm 22:1-15. Psalms is the prayer book of the Bible, but some of the prayers do not seem to apply to my life. The language and the references are foreign to me. Upon a closer look, however, I realize there have been times when I prayed this psalm.

 The stack of books sitting next to me have something in common: they all are, in one way or another, about fear. I didn't intend to put together a collection of books on that topic; perhaps my selections say something about the current state of my psyche, or perhaps it's just the ethos of our times that has given rise to these books. In either case, here's a peek at some of what I'm reading or browsing...

On the top of the stack: Inside Larry & Sergey's Brain. These two founders of Google have been causing fear in the minds of anyone who is steeped in traditional advertising, publishing, or marketing. Next: Life Is Friends. This one's about the "lost art of connecting in person," and is filled with tips for overcoming shyness, phobia about having guests over, and so on.  Then there's Will I See My Dog in Heaven?, a Franciscan answer to a common fear-based question in the hearts of animal lovers everywhere. Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World is dripping with fear on just about every page, I suspect. A book that hopes to dispel some fears is When Gay People Get Married: What Happens When Societies Legalize Same-Sex Marriage. Currently on the bottom of the stack is Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell, an exploration of the evolution of fear-based religion and how we can move beyond it. (A review of this one will be forthcoming next Thursday.)

God as Father,
caring, influential,
forgiving always.

God as Mother,
nurturing, challenging,
loving unconditionally.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” Mark 9:36-37

“Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17

“While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” John 12:36

For all who are led by the spirit of God are children of God. Romans 8:14

We were all children at one time. I invite you to reconnect with your inner child.

Imagine. A gift. You may choose To use this gift To support, Encourage, Soothe, Teach, Challenge, Affirm.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. James 2:14-17

What is faithfulness if we only practice it when it is convenient?

What is generosity if we only share our cast-offs and leftovers?

God, you are my rock and refuge.
(Of course, sometimes I forget to lean on you and attempt to take control…)

Ever-present God, you are with me all the time.
(Sometimes it doesn’t feel like you are with me. Sometimes I forget to talk to you…)

Forgiving God, I’m sorry I was so judgmental yesterday.
(But those people made me so mad! How can they possibly believe what they say?)

Nurturing God, thank you for my family.
(Is it really necessary that the teenage years be so traumatic…for everyone?)