In Solitude Solidarity…

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“In Solitude Solidarity” HERE, a Henri Nouwen site post can bring one back to the Maya Angelou video commentary in the last CP post about all of us having the opportunity to enjoy the best and suffer the worst while being a Child of God.

This part of the Solitude Solidarity catches attention

Rather, in the center of our solitude we meet all men and women as brothers and sisters. In true solitude, we stand so naked and so vulnerable before God, and we become so deeply aware of our total dependency on God’s love, that not only our friends but also those who kill, lie, torture, rape, and wage wars become part of our flesh and blood.

This solitude sounds pretty challenging. Yet, perhaps with this version of solitude, we can truly love one another, setting “othering” out of the game!

POSSIBLE ACTIVITIES

  • Did you miss the 3 minute video HERE with Dr. Maya Angelou, or want to hear it again? Powerful commentary!
  • Find 10-20 minutes for solitude with a focus on solidarity like Nouwen mentions: “Our hearts, full of God and empty of fear and anger, become a welcoming home for God and for our whole human family on earth.”
    • Do this in silence and stillness posture
    • Do this with some musical background? HERE are some possible meditation practices
    • Do this with some movement, perhaps like the Whirling Dervishes HERE?

Enjoy your time, filled with the Spirit!

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Photo by Clement Eastwood on Pexels.com

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 25, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically

Including the one HERE about the first publisher to be smote  …  plus toonfever like this one:


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Juneteenth – reflecting and encouraging…

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Juneteenth is a federal holiday now, offering a wonderful time to reflect on our past while encouraging a better future. The TedEd 6 minute video HERE shares background history to this holiday begun in 2021, including this note:

“Juneteenth holds profound significance as a celebration of the demise of slavery, the righteous pursuit of true freedom for all, and the continued pledge to remember the past and dream the future.“

While the practice of slavery is now illegal in the United States, we find many quasi-slaved by the behaviors of the past coupled with opinions sadly still voiced by too many in powerful positions. As compassionate people of faith seeking peace, we have opportunities to help those quasi-slaved with justice-filled actions. To quote Meister Eckhart, “Compassion is where peace and justice kiss.”
 
Ready to be additionally inspired? Spend 3 minutes HERE with Dr. Maya Angelou which includes her “child of God” commentary and encouragement to embrace positive opportunities.
 
PRAYER: Creator God, help us examine the natural beauty wherever we are, including with those children of God who may not be acting quite the way we’d like (nor in the way we think you’d like…) Power us to act in justice-filled ways. Amen

Enjoy your time, filled with the Spirit!

NOTE: CP is indebted to Matthew Fox and his post HERE, helping spur several of the references and commentary about Juneteenth above. That blog posting is well worth a full reading if you have time

P.S. Want to know more about Juneteenth? AP has a “beginner’s guide” HERE

unrecognizable man with bulb against sundown sky
Photo by Clement Eastwood on Pexels.com

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 25, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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SONG: Mother Earth (encore)…

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Encore! Encore! This word, uttered by a young elementary school child this past week at a summer enrichment program, was a thing of beauty. She was enjoying a particular experience, wishing for another opportunity.

Encore! Christian Playbook readers may recall a CP post on the song Mother Earth. That song – now in the CP “All Year Round” song listing HERE – contains lyrics relating to our climate series

Now I am going on a journey
And I pray all things end well
While Mother Earth looks after me
I will follow faithfully

~  Mother Earth (full lyrics HERE)

When you have a few minutes, the song Mother Earth (HERE) is worth enjoying – as an encore or for the first time. The instrumentation, rhythm and lyrics will likely lighten your day plus get you thinking.

PRAYER: Creator God, help us examine the natural beauty wherever we are, with corresponding prayers of WOW, praising our connectedness to you and seeking ways to heal your creations… Amen

ENCORE! ENCORE!  🙂

Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit!

P.S. Any of the 10 Ways to Confront Climate Without Losing Hope article ideas leading you to personal action?

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 18, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Feeling Climate’s Effects…

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Those in the Cincinnati region and various other geographies have been affected by climate recently – air conditions from Canadian wildfires causing masking and staying inside; severe lack of rain browning our earth; etc.. It’s yet another reminder of what some of us learned from margarine commercials many years back: “it’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!” (click HERE for an example commercial)

We are learning more all the time about the impacts of human action on our earth’s climate. What begins as a HUGE human discovery – “plastics,” for example – ultimately causes some rather substantial climate challenges (plastic containers clogging water sources.) Yet we also experience wonderful joys from human discovery – the abilities to fight wildfires with techniques including aircraft dropping water on specific fire targets.

This constant battling of good and evil is challenging. What begins as a good invention can cause many unintended consequences.

Our human condition relies on wise counsel and substantial discernment for “putting our best feet forward.” May this day find us all learning – including learning sometimes by “doing it wrong”…

Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit!

P.S. Any of the 10 Ways to Confront Climate Without Losing Hope article ideas leading you to personal action?

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 18, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Falling Upward …

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Constant failure at loving is ironically and paradoxically what keeps us learning how to love. When we think we’re there, there’s nothing to learn. ~ Richard Rohr (HERE)

We Learn By Doing It Wrong is the title of this CAC posting – it is well worth a read. In the post, Richard Rohr shares powerful commentary about “falling upward,” a concept he has expanded in a book by the same name. When we “put ourselves out there,” worrying less about making mistakes (and our ego) while focusing on following Christ’s examples, it’s then that substantial progress can occur.

Love one another.

Turn the other cheek.

{and so many more…}

May this day find you learning by “doing it wrong,” with joy in your heart…

Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit!

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 11, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

You may enjoy the comic HERE that’s newly added to the humor page below? 🙂

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Assisi inspirations …

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When you think of Assisi, who comes to your mind?

Did any of you say “Clare?”

Recent journeys brought Saint Clare of Assisi ‘front-and-center.’ HERE is one source sharing Saint Clare and her relationship to Saint Francis and the Franciscan way of life.

Incredibly famous folks frequently require a host of other less familiar folks to inspire the cause. In a “CP-novelized” version** of Saint Clare and Saint Francis, she was a companion like few others; her inspiration, encouragement, reminders, etc., helped Saint Francis thrive, fanning the Spirit in him all the more…

Like Saint Clare, may we find ourselves “fanning the Spirit’s flames” in those all around us…

Enjoy the day, filled with the Spirit!

**and maybe factual too, though we won’t do that much research, at least not now! 🙂 In a short video HERE, Sister Margaret Carney provides fuel for the novel…  🙂

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 4, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

You may enjoy the comic HERE that’s newly added to the humor page below? 🙂

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Memorial Day reminders …

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“We wait, our Father, until at last something of thy strength becomes our strength, something of thy heart becomes our heart, something of thy forgiveness becomes our forgiveness. We wait, O God, we wait.” ~ Howard Thurman

The quote above seems valuable this day after Pentecost. Yesterday’s worship may have been a valuable reminder of this stirring. Today brings an opportunity to continue that recollection and associated actions…

It’s a Christian Playbook tradition to point folks to the Guideposts article A Devotion for Memorial Day by Fred Bauer. This provides some historical perspective on the holiday and Fred’s holiday practice with his mother.

This article and holiday offers time for reflection and various activities along the lines of…

  • Thinking of those who’ve passed
  • Decorating graves
  • Reminding loved ones of what will happen with us (perhaps with Binder of a Lifetime activities?)
  • Honoring memories as we see fit

POSSIBLE ACTION: If you feel the urge, consider taking a 5-15 minute stroll through a cemetery you pass along your way today. Pray for those buried there, their sacrifices, their families and the love that they shared. Maybe some flowers come along with you? Then, maybe it’s time for a phone call to someone whose memory you’d like to celebrate while they are still alive?

PRAYER (from the Guideposts article)

Teach us, Lord, the best way to pay an unpayable debt

is to show with our lives that we didn’t forget.

May this Memorial Day be filled with memories, actions and the Spirit!

 

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, June 4, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

You may enjoy the comic HERE that’s newly added to the humor page below? 🙂

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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We Wait…

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“We wait, our Father, until at last something of thy strength becomes our strength, something of thy heart becomes our heart, something of thy forgiveness becomes our forgiveness. We wait, O God, we wait.” ~ Howard Thurman

The quote above is from a “Never Late” post from Our Daily Bread (HERE.) Not all of us can take the “culture was different here for its own good reasons” perspective that the pastor referenced was able to embody.

Hmmmm… How does reading the “Never Late” ODB post – read in the context of our recent climate crisis commentary – strike you?

May our days ahead be filled with Spirit-filled ways of making positive differences in our world, even if requiring a little longer wait than some might appreciate …

 

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, May 28, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

You may enjoy the comic HERE that’s newly added to the humor page below? 🙂

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Not Too Late…

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Okay, so perhaps the Spirit was encouraging the previous re-post with the Iona creed? 🙂 Or was it a recent visit to a place where Machiavelli was a focus?

While considering the climate crisis, worry can invade. Perhaps that’s when the Iona Creed and supportive folks around us can stir us to action, even if a little humiliation and discomfort come along for the ride?

For me (and this CP community,) reader/contributor Andy has been a blessing. He shares the Not Too Late Climate webpage HERE . It’s a wonderful resource, encouraging us to Inform, Imagine and Act (IIA) relating to climate issues.

Should you feel so inclined, check out the website. The linked articles provide additional opportunities for information, potentially triggering imagination and action.

May our days ahead be filled with Spirit-filled IIA ways making a positive difference …

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, May 21, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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Iona: With-us God…

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Have you dreamed of traveling to Scotland? Multiple friends have recommended Iona as a location to visit. For some of us – whether we visit there or not – the Iona community is inspiring in affirmation of faith, song and more. You can read their entire affirmation of faith HERE.

A portion of that affirmation of faith is

“…We commit ourselves to work for change
and put ourselves on the line;
to bear responsibility, take risks,
live powerfully
and face humiliation;
to stand with those on the edge;
to choose life and be used by the Spirit
for God’s new community of hope. Amen”

~ Iona Affirmation of Faith

Is this powerful, or what?

It’s certainly not human nature to support all of these principles. Yet, armed with the Spirit (and a community for examples and spurring us on,) it can increasingly become part of our lives.

In what ways do you feel the tugging of new/continued efforts for love and good works? May our commitment in some small way be energized by the words from the Iona community…

Enjoy the day, including the tugging from the Spirit!

Lectionary Texts for Sunday, May 21, 2023:

POTENTIAL ACTIONS – FOOD INSECURITY: This season will likely find increasing numbers of folks looking for food, presenting opportunities to

  • share financial and/or food offerings with a local food pantry
  • check with your faith community about upcoming opportunities to feed community members
  • volunteer to help with a local mobile food pantry or community dinner
  • find a Little Pantry in your area and help stock it with shelf-stable food items

NOTE: for those in the Cinci region, some food organizations are listed HERE

Know someone who might like receiving Christian Playbook messages like this?  If so, please forward this message and they can sign up WITH THIS LINK

CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK HUMOR – click HERE for MORE humor, updated periodically


Click on the cartoon above to visit toonfever.com!

STREAMING WORSHIP SERVICES – Cincinnati, Bowling Green and more!

CLICK ON ICONS BELOW FOR LINKS TO CHRISTIAN PLAYBOOK PAGES ON DEVOTIONALS, PRAYERS, MUSIC, STUDY AND LOVE

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