Tender Places

Nourishment, Uncategorized

Girasole: Sunflower

November 18, 2019 / 1 Comment

As I finished the last few pages of a humorous/serious memoir about a man who dramatically changed his lifestyle and location from a high-speed Los Angelino to a Tuscan, I was caught up in his description of the beautiful sunflowers that…

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Awareness is a tender place of connection in our daily search for God and God’s search for us. This chapter’s stories describe simple yet life-altering tender places that guide us to deeper insights and discovery of the sacred in our everyday lives. A single leaf dancing in the autumn wind, a 60’s rock song, or a tiny fairy drawn from the pages of a famous children’s book… all surprise us and draw us into that tender place of awareness where we catch a glimmer of the mind of God. In those present-moment experiences, our own spirits join with our Creator’s in ways that we cannot fully explain, only experience and relish.

Perseverance keeps us trying and doing and working. It is both a practice and a deep, tender place where God meets us in the minutiae of life or in the midst of awe-inspiring vistas. Stories range from exciting travel adventures to mundane household tasks. All speak to that combination of a willing heart, a new perspective, and the spiritual fuel we need to persevere through daily life and major challenges. The Triune God draws us into a place of new reserves of strength and connection beyond mere endurance. This tender place is more than a lifeline for survival: it is survival with wings.

The tender place of transformation captures life’s subtle changes as well as the sudden interruptions of life. These stories describe practices, decisions, and events that irrevocably move us into different ways of being, sometimes for the better… sometimes not. Transformation can be slow or sudden, but its very essence is change and change is active. Transformation uncovers deep questions of faith. Where is God in the circumstances of our lives? How does God work in the natural order of things? What spiritual resources can we draw upon in times of transformation? Transformation takes us to a tender place as we seek answers to questions such as these.

Empowerment is a word found everywhere from newspaper articles to webinars to self-help books. Is empowerment a feeling, a force, or an action? From where is it drawn and how is it created? These stories of empowerment vary widely and include literary excerpts, Biblical texts, and nature-sourced photographs. Power is. It cannot always be explained or understood, but it can be recognized and accessed by those seeking a Christian faith that is relevant, rich and vital. The tender place of empowerment inspires courage, action, and strong intention. The mystery of God’s Presence can transfer to us– indeed it can become us– infusing our lives with power in delightfully unexpected ways.

Vulnerability as a place of growth and strength seems a contradiction. What does it mean to be vulnerable in a spiritual sense? Is it a weak place in our defenses or the result of inexperience and naivety? How can vulnerability become a place of divine encounter and spiritual connection? Finding the balance between protection and openness can be difficult. The authors’ stories describe love and loss, caring and crisis, openness and woundedness, and healing and hurt. Vulnerability is a tender place where we experience both the exquisite joy and the searing pain of living in relationship with God and others.