Rest: Outside series - Christian Lindbeck (Ps. 4:8)

Blessed, blessed rest;
letting go, releasing all,
succumbing
to somnolence.
Essential essence,
mysterious,
dark,
unnerving,
sleep is a reminder
that I am not the center.

Vulnerable.
Inert.
Unable to act,
we humbly sleep
while God does His work.

Sleep: a daily invitation
to accept limitation,
to trust the larger story,
to put myself
in perspective.

What am I?
A vapor,
a child whose father 
never sleeps,
limited,
broken
and in need of
recuperation.

Nature-sleeps
are heaven's vitamins:
the breath of plants
mingles with human inhalations,
trees calm
and dirt heals.

Breathe deep
the healing rhythms
of earth's fauna
and flora.
Respire
as ocean waves
roll in upon sand
then suction 
seaward
again
and 
again.

Sleep
and trust.
Sleep and trust.
Sleep
is
trust.

OUTSIDE -Tim Knipp - On the Mountain - Matt. 5, Ezra 27:16, Is. 2, Lu. 6:12

July 22, 2018

Notes from the Texas road. Thanks for the sermons on the Hillcrest website 

Outside Series - Christian Lindbeck - Listening Outside Psalm 148, Psalm 19 Romans 1

Finally got to listen to some of the message we've missed while on our epic road trip. We are listening in our trusty Honda on the bumpy Texas highway.

Tend and Protect: Outside Series - Tim Knipp (Gen. 4:9; 2:15; Num. 3:7; 8:26; 18:5)

We have been
called to care for
and tend 
our world
and one another.
Working in concert
with the giver of life -
trimming
and weeding
and feeding - 
we are rewarded
with beauty,
sustenance,
the promise of 
shalom.

Priests to the earth,
we kneel
to render our
work of 
service-worship.
Adorning earth's temple,
we mow grass
and shovel manure:
our holy orders.

Let us be shaped
and pruned
as we serve
and protect,
keep and tend.

Growing things
reveal intricacies 
of God's character,
like peeling layers
of onion releases
pungencies,
earthy and sharp;
as planting a seed
in darkness 
begins a process
of new life -
buried
to rise anew.