markmanry

[bl]S[/bl]o, we failed to step into the quiet for two days this week. It’s only 17 minutes of our day and we just couldn’t do it. And it’s not like we totally forgot. We actually remembered throughout the day and simply chose to spend our time differently. It takes more effort than you might think. This giving up, walking away and choosing to sit. In addition, I’ve unintentionally and intentionally eaten food that isn’t raw. The unintentional times don’t surprise me. I’m in the habit of eating without thinking. Actually, I have many habits of the flesh I do without […]

[bl]I[/bl]f my image of Jesus changes and I stay the same, it would mean I wasn’t following him. Walking in his lead, in the places he’s going. A new image of Jesus demands a response.  I continue in the gospel story of Mark with the hope of understanding how a suffering Jesus calls his followers into uncomfortable places. Enter the story again with me. After Jesus rebukes Peter, he calls together a crowd and begins to explain what it really means to follow him. If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and […]

[bl]A[/bl]s I approach Jesus in the quiet my hope is to hear him and see him in new and more truthful ways. We all have ideas and images of who Jesus is and what he came to do — inherited from family and religious communities, shaped and distorted by particular influences and experiences, and honed by God. It’s difficult to step outside of these preconceived ideas – some truthful, some not. But I want to know him. To see him for who he really is. So I open the gospels. For here, living and breathing in these words is his […]

[bl]I[/bl]n the quiet we’ve been sitting. Together in the same room, no talking, simply being. Some close their eyes, some keep them open, and at different times we look at the wooden cross hung on our mantel. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/cross-e1299820224526.jpg”][/lightbox] Even Tessa participates, though her three-year old energy is bursting through the silence wanting so badly to speak or move. Fifteen minutes must be longer in silence than in activity. For it feels like more than just a moment in our day. Day one, the children notice what they must leave in order to join the quiet – the computer, a […]

[bl]W[/bl]e like our blond haired, gentle Jesus. The one we’ve created in the image we think he ought to be and look and act. Jesus is perfect, this we know. But our human minds and hearts struggle to capture perfect in the form of a man. What does that look like? So in our naivety we sketch the white skinned, long haired Jesus that famously is printed in all the childrens Bibles. And the Jesus we like to identify with and tell people about is the ever loving, full of grace, resurrected Jesus who also “died on the cross for […]

[bl]O[/bl]n International Women’s Day I think of her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Jessica-e1299601417682.jpg”][/lightbox] And her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bonnie-e1299600690370.jpg”][/lightbox] And her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Tape-e1299600949479.jpg”][/lightbox] I remember her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Harriet-e1299600815988.jpg”][/lightbox] And her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Janet-e1299600894935.jpg”][/lightbox] And them. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ida-e1299601344339.jpg”][/lightbox] And her. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Zipporah-e1299601294850.jpg”][/lightbox] And each of them. [lightbox href=”http://environmentsofgrace.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Womens-Conference-e1299601279738.jpg”][/lightbox] These women who serve their husbands. Carry children in their womb, on their back. Dig in their gardens. Cook day after day. They have inspired me. These women who struggle. Get dirty. Don’t complain. Lose children. Get sick. They have encouraged me. These women who are strong. Who rise above. Who keep trying. They have taught me. These women […]

[bl]I[/bl]t’s quiet in my house. So quiet. The children are sleeping, Mark is snowplowing and I am sitting in bed just listening to the silence. It’s almost unsettling. Because rare is the moment I actually hear nothing. I don’t even know what to do! I’m tempted to make a late night snack and relish in the moment of eating something yummy without having to share. I’m tempted to tune out and watch River Cottage, a BBC TV show that Mark and I enjoy together. I’m tempted to pick up a book and get lost in someone else’s story. All options […]

[bl]L[/bl]ydia Jane is 8! We couldn’t have known then everything she would do. She would expand our family, our hearts. We would no longer be the same. She would spend her first year of life in Guatemala, growing and resting in love. She would spend her second year in bows, in America. Her beauty would capture the eyes of strangers, and we would tell them about the One who grafts us into his tree, roots us in his love. The true Father of adoption. Her golden skin would color our world, her golden spirit would brighten our life. She would […]

[bl]T[/bl]he days of Lent are drawing near. Forty days of fasting as we anticipate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For those of us who didn’t grow up with this Lenten practice, we tend to interpret this time of fasting as simply “giving something up.” We choose something we really like, and do without it for 40 days. And maybe, just maybe we pray a little bit more because our giving up reminds us to. But surely there’s more to it. Surely, we fail to really understand the purpose and significance of this practice and tradition. I do not […]

[bl]I[/bl]t’s easy to be thankful when the sun is out. Our human lips speak circumstantial praise, often concerning things of the flesh, and focused on the provisions of God that appear good. But what about the things that don’t appear good? What about the times that are difficult? Trying? Life taking? How do we say thank you when our children die? Or when love deserts us? Or we lose our job….and house…and savings? What does thankfulness look like when you have to give birth and raise your children without the one on earth who loves you best? When sickness fills […]