Reference

Reading: Mark 10.2-16
God is not Lawful - God is Life-giving!

Poem:

What God has joined together, let no one separate.
                         
—Mark 10.9

Don’t pick this up as a club to beat divorcees.
It’s already caused enough harm.

Only men had the power to marry or divorce.
Jesus was protecting women from being used and discarded.

Jesus’ accusers want to know what is lawful;
but he always seeks what is life-giving.

Sometimes when a couple has married
it’s not God that has joined them.

What God has joined together is a whole person;
don’t let a bad marriage break them.

Sometimes what keeps the “bent over woman” down
is a marriage from which Jesus would set her free.

Sometimes the paralyzed need to get up and walk away first;
only then can the healing begin.

Sometimes when Jesus says “Follow me”
there are things he wants one to leave behind.

Always and ever Jesus invites us
not toward what is lawful but what is life-giving.
Steve Garnaas-Holmes ~ Divorce – Unfolding Light

Podcast:

Play as a spiritual practice - ABC listen Featuring Susanna from Benedictus.

It's a commonly held belief that play is just for children, but for many adults it's a path to self-awareness and creativity. Play is a joyous way of spending time, and more than that, a way of being fully human and connecting with the divine.