Scripture

John 11:3, 5 (NIV)

So the sisters sent word to Jesus,

"Lord, the one you love is sick."

Now Jesus loved Martha

and her sister and Lazarus.

Refrain

I am loved as a friend, and I am not alone.

Quote

Henri Nouwen, from Out of Solitude

"When we honestly ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us,

we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures,

have chosen rather to share our pain

and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion,

who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement,

who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing

and face with us the reality of our powerlessness,

that is a friend who cares."

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Scripture

Psalm 84:5-7 (NIV)

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,

whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,

they make it a place of springs;

the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength,

till each appears before God in Zion.

Refrain

Even in the valley of weeping, there are springs.

Quote

Charles Dickens, from Great Expectations

"Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears,

for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth,

overlying our hard hearts.

I was better after I had cried, than before,

more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude,

more gentle."

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Scripture

Proverbs 4:18 (NRSVUE)

But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,

which shines brighter and brighter

until full day.

Refrain

I am being dazzled, gradually, into the light.

Quote

Brian Zahnd, from Unseen Existences

"I've been gradually dazzled by Christ into a much more hopeful and glorious theology. But along the way I've also learned that I have to tell it slant. I can't always expect someone to see in five minutes what it's taken me fifty years to see. In our pilgrim journey we need to be careful not to blind others with what we have seen. We dazzle... gradually."

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Scripture

Luke 8:9–10 (NRSVUE)

Then his disciples asked him

what this parable meant.

He said, "To you it has been given

to know the secrets of the kingdom of God;

but to others I speak in parables,

so that 'looking they may not perceive,

and hearing they may not understand.'"

Refrain

The story is working in me before I understand it.

Quote

Eugene Peterson, from The Contemplative Pastor

"Jesus' favorite speech form, the parable, was subversive. Parables sound absolutely ordinary: casual stories about soil and seeds, meals and coins and sheep, bandits and victims, farmers and merchants. And they are wholly secular. As people heard Jesus tell these stories, they saw at once that they weren't about God, so there was nothing in them threatening their own sovereignty. They relaxed their defenses. They walked away perplexed, wondering what they meant, the stories lodged in their imagination. And then, like a time bomb, they would explode in their unprotected hearts."

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Scripture

Hebrews 5:12–14 (NRSVUE)

You need milk, not solid food;

for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant,

is unskilled in the word of righteousness.

But solid food is for the mature,

for those whose faculties have been trained by practice

to distinguish good from evil.

Refrain

I am ready for what once would have overwhelmed me.

Quote

St. John of the Cross, from Dark Night of the Soul

"The soul, after it has been definitely converted to the service of God, is, as a rule, spiritually nurtured and caressed by God, even as is the tender child by its loving mother, who warms it with the heat of her bosom and nurtures it with sweet milk and soft and pleasant food, and carries it and caresses it in her arms; but, as the child grows bigger, the mother gradually ceases caressing it, and, hiding her tender love, puts bitter aloes upon her sweet breast, sets down the child from her arms and makes it walk upon its feet, so that it may lose the habits of a child and betake itself to more important and substantial occupations."

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Scripture

Philippians 3:13–14 (NRSVUE)

Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own;

but this one thing I do:

forgetting what lies behind

and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal

for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Refrain

I am always being drawn further in.

Quote

Gregory of Nyssa, from The Life of Moses

"Such an experience seems to me to belong to the soul which loves what is beautiful. Hope always draws the soul from the beauty which is seen to what is beyond, always kindles the desire for the hidden through what is constantly perceived. And the bold request which goes up the mountains of desire asks this: to enjoy the Beauty not in mirrors and reflections, but face to face."

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Scripture

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NRSVUE)

For now we see in a mirror, dimly,

but then we will see face to face.

Now I know only in part;

then I will know fully,

even as I have been fully known.

Refrain

The truth dazzles gradually, so that I may see.

Quote

Emily Dickinson, "Tell All the Truth but Tell It Slant"

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant—

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind—"

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Scripture

1 John 4:7–8 (NRSVUE)

Beloved, let us love one another,

because love is from God;

everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

Whoever does not love does not know God,

for God is love.

Refrain

Love is my refusal of cynicism.

Quote

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled

with light, and to shine.”

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