Poem: Everything and Nothing

Everything and Nothing

When you hear the Lord say "Do not be afraid for I am with you."

Cling to him as your refuge

When the Lord speaks your name

Let the words sink deep into your soul

When the Lord says you are precious, without price, and so deeply beloved

There find your rest

His presence changes everything

And nothing

But you are held by God

Enfolded in the arms of love

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Failure as Spiritual Opportunity

This is the second in a series of posts on failure.

In my first post, The False Path of Failure, I reflected on some of the ways that fear of failure becomes an obstacle in our spiritual lives. I suggested that the good news is that though we are failures, God loves us and meets us in our failure. But let’s be honest, we have a hard time hearing that good news. Instead, when we face failure, we are devastated, discouraged, we feel hopeless. We wanted so much to feel like we are successful, but now we have failed.

Failure and identity

It’s hard to personally come to terms with our failure. We’ve fashioned a false identity of success for ourselves and now that false identity comes crashing down which has shielded us from the truth of reality. And we are terrified of the truth. What if we are a failure? What if we are worthless? How will we live with ourselves?

We may find ourselves taking on a new identity, a failure identity, one of discouragement and self flagellation, but that also is a false identity. And we may cycle from our success identity to our failure identity and then back again, never knowing our true identity.

There is a truth about our identity for us to discover. We are neither awesome successes or terrible failures. We are human beings, flawed and sinful creatures, but also beloved, gifted, children of God. That is the truth of reality; that is our true identity. God loves us and sees us just as we are, the good and the bad, the gifts and the flaws, the holy and the sinful. God always sees us as we truly are, in all our complexity, while we keep constructing false images or identities.

But when we fail, the Lord sees it as an opportunity to strip away some of our false identity and show us a glimpse of who we really are. God takes failure and turns it into an opportunity for good. In failure, we recognize our need for God. We turn to Jesus. We confess our frailty, or brokenness and our sin. When Jesus meets us he looks us straight in the eyes and pronounces us beloved. In the midst of our failure, we are invited to see ourselves through his eyes, to experience his love, his care, the truth about who we are.

What a gift! When we see ourselves truthfully, we can relax. We don’t have to strive. We can rest in being known and loved and accompanied by the living God, “for in him we live and move and have our being” -Acts 17:28

Failure and Shame

Failure is not only a personal thing, but it’s also a social thing. When we experience failure, we typically feel shame. When we fail, we want to hide from others because we don’t want them to see us as failures. Shame may be the thing we dread most about failure. Wherever failure goes, shame follows close behind

Jesus is not deterred by our shame; Jesus sees it as an opportunity. Jesus has borne the cross on our behalf, taking it’s shame upon himself, taking our same upon himself. We may want to hide in shame from him, but once again, Jesus looks us straight in the eyes and is not ashamed of us. He calls us friend. He lifts us up from the dust and restores our souls. He invites himself to our house like Zaccheaus. He touches us when we feel unclean. He smiles and welcomes us into his kingdom, where the last shall be first, where the meek shall inherit the earth, where the Lord is close to the lowly.

When we open ourselves to Jesus in the midst of our failure, Jesus takes our shame away. To be freed from shame is such joy. We may discover that through our failure we are now closer to Jesus.

Sometimes we are freed from shame and it never returns, but many times we experience it coming back upon us in the days to come. But having experienced Jesus embrace us in our failure, we now see that the shame is not from the Lord. It is a temptation, a snare of the evil one, who wants us buried in shame and back in our false identities. We begin to notice shame as it begins to work on us and we have the opportunity once again to open ourselves to Jesus, to let him meet us in the midst of failure.

If you struggle to open yourself to the Lord in the midst of failure, consider meeting with a spiritual director. In spiritual direction you can explore failure in a deeper way and find ways to let failure draw you close to Jesus.

Stay tuned for part three of this series on failure coming soon, as I explore the theme of abandoning ourselves to the Lord as a response to failure.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Prayer for an Easter Potluck Feast

Jesus, the sky went dark when you died

And the world grew cold

What joy could the world have without you

True source of love

We felt the emptiness, the hopelessness, the despair

When you died the best part of us died as well

And then this morning you rose from the dead

With joy in your heart

Blood pumping through your veins

Eyes opened to the light once again

Death defeated

Satan conquered

Sins atoned

Forgiveness won

We are untied with you once more

We rejoice with you

overflowing with new life

Super bloom of all super blooms

Spectacular redemption

Torrent of hope

Jesus, you are alive and at work among us

We are filled with your presence

Our hearts break out into song

Rejoicing in your victory

And did you say you wanted something to eat?

You’ve come to the right place, Jesus

We welcome you to this feast

We eat it with you

Jesus Christ, living one, firstborn from the dead

We celebrate your resurrection

Amen and Amen

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.
This prayer was inspired by the Ignatian Exercises.

If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Resurrection: An Ignatian Meditation

Resurrection: an Ignatian meditation by Dale Gish

Easter Sunday morning. The Father and the Spirit come to the tomb, to raise you from the dead. They experience great loss. An angel rolls away the stone and they enter the tomb.

The Father proclaims, “Death you are defeated. Death you are broken. Death release your prey.” The Spirit breathes life into your body. They unwrap the grave clothes from your body. You open your eyes. You sit up. You feel new life in your veins. Death leaves your body. You are filled with Joy. The Trinity embraces with joy, together again, separated no more. The world is right again. All the pain and suffering and injury are healed in you, leaving only scars. And you are filled with love, love for your people, love everywhere. You have conquered death. You have won the victory.

Jesus, you turn to me and say, “you have accompanied me in my passion and death. You died with me, now receive new life with me.” I run to you and we embrace. Jesus, I love you. It is so good to see you alive. I can hardly believe it. We are together again.

And you say, “It’s good to be alive. My dying was terrible. I was abandoned and forsaken. The whole world turned against me and crushed me. Evil triumphed and destroyed me. See I still have the marks. Bitter death overcame me, but now I am raised in power to new life.”

Oh, Jesus, it has been so hard to see you suffer and walk this path. There is an ocean of grief in me. It’s hard to even take in that you are alive. Part of me still suffers with you in your passion. I begin to weep. You embrace me again and you say, “I give you my joy.”

Suddenly I am filled with and overwhelmed with joy. Your joy fills and overflows me. Everything is good; everything is right. We stand there a long time, just being together. My heart is filled with peace. Reunited with you.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Ignatian Exercises. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Forever Imprinted By You

Your shaking hands touched me

Grasping my rough imperfections

Taking my burden upon you

I am what you came here for

You are what I’ve been fashioned for

I can tell that still you love me

Carried until you stumble

Then hauled by another to the place

where we lay defenseless

Your hands pressed against me

The spikes that pierce you

pierce me also

Driven through you

Deep into me.

Your blood spills over me

Soaking into my grain

Like a Passover door post

Forever marked before the Lord

We are lifted up

And I can provide little comfort to you

in your time of trial

You are abandoned

And I alone am left to embrace you

Let this last embrace be one of love

I give what I have to you

You who have absorbed such bitter hate

To be so close to the one I love

These terrible, holy moments

Now in your hour of death

I chant a blessing for your dying

“Receive your servant

His trials done

Let not death hold him

Your beloved Son”

Then you breathe your last

And your spirit departs

I shudder along with all creation

At the emptiness that descends upon us.

I hold your body till you are taken down

Then I am empty, but not barren

Never the same

Forever imprinted by you

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola.If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Poem: By Your Wounds

By Your Wounds

There you are, wounded in your person

Drawing me close to you

To join myself with you

You open my heart and I weep

To see you afflicted, mortal, suffering

I am stricken

Then I am on fire

All my wounds blazing

Burning, overwhelming my senses

I did not come here for this

I came for you, not my woundedness

Jesus, you can’t help it, can you

Always there for me

Seeking my good, even in your time of trial

“Come closer,” you say

Bring my wounds close to yours

uniting them together

Sorrow and love flow mingled down all around me

And you say this is the beginning of my restoration

Mending what’s broken

Redeeming the losses

Making things right

Such blessed suffering you give me

That by your wounds I am healed

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Poem: Your Wounds

Jesus, you call me to come to you

In your passion

Inviting me to be close to you

Whatever comes

Though my heart shudders to behold

And my body wants to flee

I see you there, suffering

I do not want to leave you alone

Or abandon you.

So I draw near

Joining you in your suffering

I see you separated from your friends

All alone, praying in agony

betrayed with a kiss

Arrested, accused, struck, judged

Beaten, mocked, abused, bloodied

Rejected, sentenced, carrying, falling, nailed

Weakened, suffering, abandoned

Forgiving, dying

I see you

And your wounds

Deepest wounds of love

Opened and offered up

Wounding complete

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.

Receiving the Mercy of God

I continue to notice how many of us have a reflexive feeling that God is harshly critical or judging us. Sometimes we feel this acutely due to a particular sin or failure in our lives. Other times we have a generalized feeling of God’s displeasure or judgment.

There is a place for the prick of conscience when we have done wrong, when we have sinned or when we are living in willful disobedience of God. But when we are seeking to love and follow God, I believe it is often the voice of the evil one, who likes nothing better than to try to keep us from going to the Lord. God always wants us to turn towards him, to come to him. Satan always wants to turn us away from, separate us from or put barriers between us and God.

Consider Adam and Eve in the garden. They disobeyed God and now they hide from God in the cool of the evening. They have done wrong, they feel ashamed and so they hide. It’s like the evil one is whispering in their ear, “God is harsh and angry and will never receive you with mercy.” But Satan is a lier. God wants their restoration. It is not God’s will that they should be separated from him, and so God seeks them out. If only they would run to him, confess their sins and be restored.

I recently came across this helpful quote from Pope Francis.

“The Lord always looks upon us with mercy;…let us not be afraid to approach him! He has a merciful heart! If we show him our inner wounds, our sins, he will always forgive us. He is pure mercy! Let us go to Jesus!”

— Pope Francis

God sees us with mercy. Let us soak these words deep into us. God longs to restore us. Be gone Satan, tell us no more lies! May we always run to the Lord to find forgiveness and mercy.

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

Responding to the Deaths that Surround Us

As a spiritual director, I am privileged to see the Lord bringing new life in people, seeing them find life in the midst of death. Having this perspective into life in Christ also gives me some perspective on the death I see all around me.

In a provocative post, Chuck DeGroat says that some of this death is necessary, and therapists and spiritual directors should not intervene, but instead, let it take its course. This led me to reflect that there are many kinds of death and that they are quite different.

I see people dying in a multitude of ways, some helpful and some quite destructive.  I see people being chewed up by the principalities and powers, sinful and broken structures. Some die as they shed their faith and move away from Jesus. I see people realizing that their faith had them living in death and they have to die to that death and find new life in Jesus, one that is more connected into the heart of God.

On a corporate level here in the US, the church is dying in many ways and some of those dyings are needed and we should not resist.  Other dyings are more like Psalm 11:3, where destroyed foundations damage God's people in harmful ways that will have long term consequences.

Regardless of the type of dying we face, our call is to turn to the living Lord in the midst of the death.  We come to the Lord in our weakness and death, asking to join him in his death, that he might raise us, give us hope and new life.

If you are facing into some type of death, consider spiritual direction as a way to seek the Lord and find new life.

Poem: Thirsting

Thirsting

I know that I am thirsty

That I need you

And sometimes I can discern my lack

Deep in my heart

A longing, unquenched desire

For you to fill this dusty vessel

And so I come to the source of living water

You

You know that I am thirsty

That I need you

You can discern my lack

Deep in my heart

Full of longing and unquenched desire

For you to fill my dusty vessel

You invite me to the source of living water

You

And then I recognize that you are also thirsty

Parched by my distance

Experiencing my absence deep in your heart

You long for me with unquenched desire

Longing to fill this empty vessel

To be my source, my living water

You

Thirsting for me

© Dale Gish 2019. All Rights Reserved.

This prayer was inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. If you are interested in praying the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius with me starting in September, please contact me.