love

Clearing Our Cloudy Images of God by Felicia Murrell

Clearing Our Cloudy Images of God by Felicia Murrell

The sun beams. The grass beckons. I heed its welcome and lay on my back. Bare feet to the earth, knees upright to support my frame. Shielding my eyes, I stare at the sky naming each majestic cloud as an image I’ve formed in my mind’s eye. Horse. Chicken leg. Heart. I think about clouds as images. Clouds as covering. And somehow, I think about God…

Where is God in the clouds? How do I name that which I’ve deified? How cloudy are my images of God? What or who do I imagine God to be?

Tradition has given me some answers. Many words have been written to substantiate men’s beliefs about God. I’ve parroted a lot of them. But how do we truly begin to know God in that passionate, deep, mystical, unveiled knowing that Jesus speaks of in John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent”?

An Apology and a Few Thoughts on Love

An Apology and a Few Thoughts on Love

I blew it. And I’d like to apologize. On January 6th, as the capitol was under assault, I posted what was happening in my Facebook feed. I posted while I was pissed. Never a good thing to do. We know this, right? And yet, watching what was unfolding, I was incensed. I won’t go into the reasons now because it’s not helpful, and it’s not the point. I posted my opinion because it’s America and we can. And then I blew it.


The Present Is the Gift

The Present Is the Gift

Because here’s the thing. This present moment, the breath I’m taking now, is the only thing that’s real. While I still feel the effects of the past, the past itself is, well, past. And while I anticipate the future with a mix of hope and doubt, the future itself is unknowable. The only place I can know and be known, the only place I can live rooted in love, the only place I can experience God, is in this very messy moment. Rooted in the reality that there is enough, right here, right now. Me in God. God in me. In the now, there is enough.

Life Is in the Roots (or how I began writing rooted IN)

Life Is in the Roots (or how I began writing rooted IN)

This place of connection is the place where truth and wisdom break in.  So I lifted a question.  Why is connection so important to you, God? Connection with you, with ourselves, with others? The response came—every point of connection is a connection with him. God in us.  God in others.  God in everything he’s made.  Not in a pantheistic, the tree is God, kind of way.  But in a sacramental, seeing and touching the holy, kind of way. 

Frozen Peas and a Fragile Ego

Frozen Peas and a Fragile Ego

Crazy, the things we believe about ourselves, about others, about who we’re supposed to be. And Holy Spirit comes to remind. You, me, we are fully loved. Fully held. And I can show up in life fully me. Saggy eyelids. Bruised eyelids. Ever-so-slightly lifted eyelids. This place of showing up as is, this is the place of grace. The place we begin to live more rooted in love for God and for ourselves. Less tangled up in judgment. More tangled up in the love of God.

A Heartbeat Away: Reflections on a trip to India

A Heartbeat Away: Reflections on a trip to India

I think that maybe Jesus knew, if we’d just break some bread together, have a little wine, and share our stories, the distance between us, all the things that divide, would begin to shrink. That we’d discover our shared humanity and fall a little in love with one another. Not in a mushy Hallmark movie kind of way. But in a heart to heart, connected kind of way that would bind us together in love. Maybe this is the point of communion, a union shared in Christ, in love, that spans continents and political parties and our deep desire to be right about pretty much everything we believe.