Yesterday we relected on moments of awe and wonder.  I learned recently that the Greek root for the word "beauty" is related to the word for "calling." The words are kalon and kalein — beauty and calling, wound together at their root.

The Christian poet and philosopher John O'Donohue reflected on this connection and suggested that in the presence of beauty — in the presence of awe, wonder, kindness, and goodness — something happens in us that is not neutral. Beauty, he said, is not passive. It is actually calling you. Calling something out of you.

Think about the last time you were stopped by something beautiful. A piece of music that hit you unexpectedly. A landscape that took your breath away. A moment of kindness between two strangers. A child's laughter. Something in you responded — leaned toward it, opened a little. That response, O'Donohue would say, is not accidental. It is an invitation.

An invitation to go deeper in your faith. To heal something that has hardened or been wounded within you. To engage the world in some new way — to grow, to serve, to give in response to what God has quietly placed on your heart.

The ancient Greeks sensed it. The contemplatives have always known it. Beauty is one of the ways God speaks — not in thunder, but in the still small voice of a moment that catches us off guard and whispers: there is more. Come further in.

May you have eyes to see it today. And may your heart be open when it finds you.

Prayer: Loving God, open us to your healing, transforming grace. Attune our hearts to the beauty you have woven into the fabric of this world — and to the calling that beauty carries. May your Spirit touch our spirits. And may we ever be channels of the blessings we have received. Amen.

‍

In an interview shortly before his death, the poet and philosopher John O'Donohue said, "It's beautiful when you find someone at work who's doing exactly what they dreamed they should be doing and whose work is an expression of their inner gift. The gifts that are given to us as individuals are not for us alone, or for our own self-improvement — they're actually for the community, and to be offered to others."

I think about a man I knew from another church — a retired CPA who was passionate about helping young couples find a way to live debt-free. With his help, I saw so many couples strengthened in their marriages, able to become more generous, and able to pass on a new way of being to their children.

I think about a woman named Jacki whom I met at a continuing education conference years ago. She was a former Miss Florida contestant who worked in the beauty industry — and she felt God calling her to begin a ministry offering facials, manicures, makeup, and clothing to women who had been physically or emotionally abused.

I think about Barbara Enos and Bonnie McCarty from my previous church, who made prayer quilts for veterans, women in shelters, and people in need.

Whether you experience a calling like this as a tug on your heart or a stirring in your soul — whether you hear God's voice clearly, or are moved by the cries of human need, or simply sense: this is one thing I can do right now — these callings speak to the presence of a caring God whose Spirit is deep at work within us, moving us toward the places where grace is most needed.

May you and I ever remain open to those callings. May we use the time, the experience, and the gifts we have been given to bless a world that is desperately in need.

Prayer: We thank you, O God, for glimpses of your Spirit at work in and through others — in the quiet, faithful offerings of ordinary people. Stir us as well. Show us where our gifts are most needed, and give us the courage to offer them. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

‍

Today's message was written by my friend, Rev. Roger Kunkel, founder of Dial Hope.

In the novel about life in a mental hospital, entitled One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, these words were uttered by Randall Patrick McMurphy: "That's the first thing that got me thinking about this place, there wasn't anybody laughing. I haven't heard a real laugh since I came through that door......When you lose your laugh, you lose your footing. " 

Because of the level of depression and pain in such institutions, a heavy dose of laughter is sorely needed. Through laughter, inner torments work themselves out. It is the medicine needed to revive a wracked heart or withering spirit. We need sure footing along life's rugged paths. A steady supply of laughter gives us footing. For when I complain, scowl, or retaliate, I am caught in the clutches of cursedness. I am miles from blessing anything. When I laugh, life giggles and shakes in delight. 

We are reminded that the Gospel is not boring, it is not ho-hum, it is good news. Ta-Da! In Proverbs, we read, "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones." (Proverbs 17:22) 

Let us pray: God of all precious things, who hears our pain even when tears block our words, create in us a heart of laughter and hope. May your Spirit still the anxiety of those who live with enormous pressure and stress. So bring us comfort where we need comfort, but where we need justice, let there be love. Lord, you have become an undeniable presence, a reliable friend, the one who walks in when the rest of the world walks away. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. 

A friend once asked Isidor Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in science, how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but she always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" Without a doubt, asking good questions helped Rabi succeed.

Questions are essential to science. They are also essential to life and to faith.

In one of his books, pastor Rob Bell writes, "Some communities don't permit open, honest inquiry about the things that matter most. Lots of people have voiced a concern, expressed a doubt, or raised a question, only to be told by their family, church, friends, or tribe: We don't discuss those things here."

"I believe the discussion itself is divine. Abraham does his best to bargain with God, most of the book of Job consists of arguments by Job and his friends about the deepest questions of human suffering, God is practically on trial in the book of Lamentations, and Jesus responds to almost every question he's asked with...a question."

What strikes me about that list — Abraham bargaining, Job arguing, Lamentations putting God on trial, Jesus answering with questions — is that none of it looks like tidy, comfortable religion. It looks like people who took God seriously enough to wrestle. And God, it seems, welcomes that.

May your family, your church, your friends be a community open to honest inquiry. May you ask good questions. And may you trust that God's Spirit is patient enough, and big enough, to meet you inside them.

Prayer: Eternal God, you are holy and you are mystery — and yet you are loving, and as near as our next breath. We confess that we don't always have the answers. We confess that sometimes we are afraid to even ask the questions. Give us the courage to bring our honest doubts and deepest wonderings to you. And grant us the grace and peace that surpasses understanding, even now. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Some years ago, I was jogging with a friend. He and his wife had recently lost a baby during their pregnancy. I can only imagine all the emotions he must have been experiencing. But as we were running, he said, "I've always struggled with the Christian theme of redemption — understanding what it means. But recently I think I got a glimpse. On the one hand, this has been the hardest thing that my wife and I have ever gone through. On the other hand, because we are going through this together, we have experienced a level of closeness and intimacy that I didn't know was possible. I think we realized more than ever how fragile life is and how much we really need each other."

His comments made me reflect on redemption — and the way that life is layered. There is so much that is good and true and beautiful. And that often sits right alongside the heartache and violence and brokenness. But sometimes we do get a glimpse of the way in which God can bring good out of bad, beauty out of ugly, light out of the dark.

Redemption doesn't erase the hard thing. It works through it, alongside it — until something new and unexpected emerges on the other side.

Psalm 130 makes the powerful claim that "with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem." This is not a promise that life will be smooth or without suffering. But it is a promise that things will not always be as they are today. There is hope. God will have the last word.

Prayer: Today, loving God, I lift up to you those who are carrying heavy burdens — those who feel as though they are in the midst of the darkest night. Meet them in this moment, that they would sense your loving presence. Grant each of us eyes to see your hand at work in our lives, even now; for you are the God who has promised to make all things new. Amen.

‍