it all comes down to this....

I'm here in Omaha, Nebraska for a couple weeks. It all comes down to this....This weekend is my interview and commissioning with Word Made Flesh. One step closer to Argentina for a few years. Looking forward to some extra time with O-Town friends. My parents and sister will also be here this weekend for the commissioning. It will be great to have them here to share in this step! I may be MIA in bloggerland for a couple weeks until I am home in Cali. Until then.....

a sabbath prayer

I continue to enjoy my rhythm of Sabbath this fall. I am loving my mornings of solitude, reading, & prayer, afternoons with friends and outside, and evening worship with my church community! However, recently, I have been more mindful and aware of those who can not afford the time or space to enjoy the day of rest that God gives us to enjoy (much less time for solitude, silence, and contemplation). Those who do not earn a living wage and must work long hours 7-days a week…those who are oppressed and persecuted… those who are exhausted and worn out from living and sleeping on the streets…those who are hungry and starving….and those who suffer pain, abuse, or disease.

Just two Sundays ago, I was enjoying my Mother Teresa book on the beautiful bluffs of Long Beach overlooking the ocean when a couple awoke from a rough night of sleep under a tree. Their day began with the stress of life and survival and a big argument. Their reality was a good interruption to my savoring the moment. It is something I need to continue to wrestle with, as I find my own rhythm of life and Sabbath.

Christine Sine, in her book Godspace (formally titled Sacred Rhythms), shares her similar struggle. She shares her Sabbath prayer which reminds her of God’s promises for Sabbath rest both now and eternal.

As we close this Sabbath day, O God, we come longing for your future to be revealed.
In a world polluted and destroyed, we remember you promise renewal for all creation,
Your Sabbath rest is all inclusive.
In a world where many are heavy laden, you promise to take our yoke upon you,
Your Sabbath rest shares our burdens.
In a world where many are imprisoned and persecuted, you promise to set the captives free,
Your Sabbath rest frees from oppression.
In a world where many are starving, you promise to feed the hungry,
Your Sabbath rest provides abundance for all.
In a world where many are diseased and disabled you promise to heal the sick,
Your Sabbath rest brings us wholeness.
We live in anticipation of that day when Christ returns, and a Sabbath rest comes for all peoples,
Not alone but as part of a great international community that is your body.
Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus, come into our hearts and our lives,
And grant us your eternal Sabbath rest.

May our Sabbath day and worship always leave space and make effort to include and invite those who are “weary and heavy laden.” May we point to God’s promises and seek to be instruments of those promises of His rest today! While we also look forward to the day when Jesus returns to fully liberate and usher in eternal Sabbath rest!

my college football season still has a heartbeat!

Yesterday my dad and I went to the Rose Bowl to see the UCLA-Cal game! After a fun UCLA upset, I am relieved that my last college football season in the U.S. for awhile still has a heartbeat (for at least another week anyway)!

rhythm of life

Wow, most of my recent posts & reflections have been all about spiritual life & formation. I guess that is where my head and heart is these days! I'll try and mix it up soon. But, in the meantime....

I was just going through some books beginning to prepare some material on developing a rhythm or rule of life. "A rule of life is a pattern of spiritual disciplines that provides structure and direction for growth in holiness...It is meant to help establish a rhythm of daily living, a basic order within which new freedoms can grow. A rule of life, like a trellis, curbs our tendency to wander and supports our frail effort to grow spiritually....A rule of life allows us to cultivate and deepen this growing likeness [to Christ]. It fosters gifts of the Spirit in personal life and human community, helping to form us into the persons God intends us to be."

If this above quote from Marjorie Thompson sparks your interest, check out her book, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Spiritual Life. It discusses prayer, worship, fasting, self-examination, and hospitality and gives helpful instruction on how to develop and nurture these practices in our daily life. Another similar book is God Space: Time for Peace in the Rhythms of Life (previous title Sacred Rhythms) by Christine Sine.

sacred space (for advent)

I know, I know....it is too early to start talking Christmas and Advent!!! I will make this quick! I was just made aware of a prayer book for Advent called: Sacred Space for Advent and the Christmas Season (2007-2008). The book includes scripture readings, reflection questions, and prayer starters for each day of Advent and the Christmas season. I have really enjoyed the Sacred Space annual prayer books published each year, so I'm sure this Advent one is just as great! You can check it out at Ave Maria Press here:

http://forestofpeace.com/itemdetail.cfm?nItemid=862

You can check out some sample pages on that site. It is also on Amazon.

Anyway, enough Christmas for now! I just wanted to pass it on, in case you were interested and needed time for ordering and shipping (overseas friends!). I do plan to blog more on Advent again this year....but not until mid-November! :)

silencio and incarnatio

The spiritual practice of Lectio Divina has been a valuable and significant part of my journey and formation these past several years. Lectio Divina is Latin for “sacred reading” and represents an early monastic technique of scripture reading and prayer. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to study, ponder, listen and, finally, pray from God's Word. The traditional steps of this “ladder” of lectio were first articulated by Guigo II in the 1100’s and include four steps: lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio (prayer), and contemplatio (contemplation). It is a way of listening to the text of the scriptures as if we were in conversation with Christ and he were suggesting the topics of conversation.

Robert Mulholland in his book, Invitation to a Journey, includes spiritual reading and Lectio Divina in his list of classical spiritual disciplines. “Lectio is a posture of approach and a means of encounter with a text that enables the text to become a place of transforming encounter with God. In addition to the four classic steps of Lectio Divina (lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio), Mulholland adds two steps, one at either end…..silencio at the beginning and incarnatio at the end.

These additional steps have been helpful to me, so I will share Mulholland’s explanation here…..

“Silencio is our preparation for spiritual reading. Shaped as we are by an informational culture, trained to approach the text as the ones who are in control of the text, we need to take time, at the beginning of the process of spiritual reading, to engage in a deeper internal shift in the posture of our being….John Wesley suggests we come to the text ‘with a single eye to know the whole will of God, and a fixed resolution to do it.’ The second half of Wesley’s guideline introduces the shift required in the deep inner posture of our being. It is a shift of the control of the process from ourselves to God. It is a deep commitment of our being to God’s purposes, even before we know what those purposes may be.”

“…we must add a concluding step, incarnatio. The whole focus of spiritual reading is to encounter God in ways that enable God to transform our being and doing in the world. This step brings us full circle to what we do in silencio. There we placed ourselves before the text to seek the whole will of God with a ‘fixed resolution to do it.’ Incarnatio is the fulfillment of that resolution.”

argentina here i come....

As I prepare to serve with Word Made Flesh in Buenos Aires, Argentina by February 1...I thought I would share some details about the ministry there, along with some pictures of the friends I will be sharing life and ministry with!

Adriana, Walter, Cora and Amani Forcatto

With the Forcattos (I better start looking for an Argentina futbol jersey soon!)

Jennifer, Jeremiah, and Jordan Dean (baby girl Dean due any day!)
The Deans will move to Buenos Aires about the same time as me and lead four-month Servant Teams.

The soon-to-be Argentina fellas!

Argentina
For the last 35 years Argentina has experienced a general crisis that has affected almost every area of society. The military coup d' etat in 1976, the return of a weak democracy in the early 80's and 10 years of a crude neo-liberal political model beginning in 1990 thrust nearly 50% of Argentina's population into poverty. All this culminated in the economic and social crisis of 2001 that not only resulted in a breakdown in the political, social and economic spheres but also cost the lives of dozens of people.

Like many other Latin American countries, Argentina is attempting to reverse this situation by leaving behind harmful and unjust political and econonmic models. For this to occur the country needs to foster and develop greater equality in the distribution of its resources and newly found economic growth.

WMF Argentina Vision Statement
WMF Argentina exists and is called to serve and discover Jesus among the abandoned and vulnerable youth on the streets of Buenos Aires. Through relationships based on mutual love, trust and dignity, the community seeks to love, rescue and liberate these excluded youth, as well as be loved and liberated by them. WMF Argentina envisions nurturing a movement of believers in Buenos Aires to discover and follow Jesus as they serve among youth on the streets. We also seek to create a welcoming community where hospitality is central, creating a space for healing, rest and reflection for WMF staff serving in South America.

Relationship Building
Walter and Adriana Forcatto are currently the only WMF staff living in Argentina [I add, but not for long!] and serve among kids and youth living on the streets of Buenos Aires. Because WMF has only been a presence in Buenos Aires since March 2005, the ministry of solidarity and accompaniment continues to deepen and mature. Several days a week they meet with the youth in the subway stations, parks and abandoned train tracks, bringing food, activities and games, and the love of Jesus. They also make themselves available to serve within the local church to be a voice for the children and the poor.

growing into vocation

As begin to recall and reflect back on these past couple of years, I am beginning to see how God continues to reshape my understanding of vocation and call. My tendency in the beginning of this season of discernment was to seek God with doing questions of who, what, where, and how (Where will I serve? With who? What will be my focus?). Gradually, with the direction of reading, mentoring, and some experience with the Ignation spiritual practices (Examen, consolation, and desolation) those discernment questions began to grow into being questions like,
What is God calling me to in relationship with him?...
And what experiences are drawing me closer to God and life in the Spirit?...
As well as, what experiences are drawing me away from God and life in the Spirit?

David Brenner captures “vocation” well in his book, The Gift of Being Yourself, “Too often we think of God’s call (or our vocation) solely in terms of what we do….However, while doing will always be involved, vocation is much more than our occupation. It is the face of Christ we are called from eternity to show the world. It is who we are called to be.”

Parker Palmer also has impacted my understanding of vocation Let Your Life Speak, “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about – quite apart from what I would like it to be about – or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions. That insight is hidden in the word vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin ‘voice.’ Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear. Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

My primary vocation is follower of Jesus Christ conforming into his image. Simple at its core, but a lifelong process of listening and formation! I now look forward to following Jesus to Argentina and continuing the process of formation among the community there.