Mark’s narrative of calling the four fishermen, Simon Peter, Andrew, and later James and John, wastes no time on the past or what else Jesus said that day.  It doesn’t tell me if one or more of them were a boyhood friend, had followed John the Baptist, seen a blind man healed or not met Jesus previously. Potential counted more than credentials.

Jesus offered a different life for these fishers of fish.  They believed Jesus could do what he promised and went with him.  Whatever their original expectations, daily association with their Lord changed their hearts and minds in ways they couldn’t have imagined.

When I read the gospel accounts of miracles, I see instantaneous healings and mighty acts and I realize that the transformation of these four men was every bit as miraculous.  Fortunately, miracles work on God’s timetable—sometimes immediately obvious and sometimes slowly. I don’t catch on until I look back, surprised to discover I have acted with faith on a change I didn’t know I’d made.

The Gospel of Mark records many examples of times when Peter, Andrew, James, John and the other followers of Jesus didn’t catch on.  I wonder if they also were surprised when they looked back.

Prayer:
Jesus, help us to catch on to the transforming power at work in us as we follow you. Amen

Question:
What surprises me when I consider how I am different today than I was yesterday?

Written by Nancy Alice Morton

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

“Get out of the way of the light!” My daughter-in-law joked as my hands blocked the laser light–again! The plumb-bob laser shot a line that was true, a perfect parallel to the ceiling.  All volunteers, including me, were eager to paint purple, green, and periwinkle stripes in the Sunday school room.

Since I was closest to the laser, my hand sometimes blocked the red line of light.  All work came to a halt. My friends needed the laser to tape straight lines.

We all need clear access to the Light.

In this passage, God graciously cleared a new path for his Light. God revealed himself to young Samuel and asked him to deliver tough news to his dear mentor Eli. The old priest’s disobedience caused Eli and his sons to lose sight of God. Under their leadership, the people of God had also lost their way.

In the stillness of the night, however, God called to Samuel, and he had ears to hear. He answered, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.”

Prayer:
Holy One, shine your light of healing and wholeness among us. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear. Amen

Question:
How are my distortions getting in the way of the Light?

Written by Deborah Jansen

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

This is the season when I stomp my feet and clap, “Let there be light.” NOW!

I pore over garden catalogs. Scrawl a plan for my plot of dirt. I imagine the musky smell of damp earth, the airy brush of mayflies, and purple phlox carpeting the woods.

But when I cling to ONLY spring days, I expose myself to a winter of discontent. I miss a cardinal who lights on a bird feeder. I overlook a squirrel’s wit when it jumps from one roof to another. I fail to see the gold fingers of a bare willow.

Our Creator, on the other hand, says everything belongs. He opens a universe to darkness and light, night and day, winter and spring, dying and rising. His fiat embraces rhythm, and the cosmos thrives.

I return to my eastern window, resting in a God who holds it all. Darkness is too much for me, as it often is, but our Wise One embraces it all—and me.

Prayer:
Creator, open my eyes to see the wide and wise rhythm of life. Amen

Question:
How can I open myself to gifts offered in darkness and light?

Written by Deborah Jansen

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

On the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere the Earth’s northern pole is titled farthest away from the sun. Because of this, we receive the least amount of sunlight on that day than any other day in the year. The solstice occurs a few days before Christmas each year.

I miss the daylight at this time of year. The sun has not risen when I get out of bed and is already below the horizon when I leave work. The days pass quickly.

I experience spiritual darkness too. Advent, our shortest liturgical season at four weeks, flashes by. I burst into and out of stores, buying gifts. I rush to and from gleaming parties. There’s so much to do. By the time Christmas is here, I’m burned out.

While giving and receiving gifts and spending time with friends brightens my heart, what I’m really looking for is Christmas in my soul. I want Christ and His light to come to me.

Even if I were to forget about everything that adds twinkle to the season, I’m sure I’d still end up with this sense of spiritual gloom.

The winter solstice occurs because God set the Earth’s axis at 23 degrees. In the dim midwinter, I look forward to those brilliant summer days of bike rides, walks and trips to the park.

Maybe I’m asking too much of Christmas. Maybe there’s a reason we celebrate Christmas at this time of year. Perhaps the purpose of this season is only to light our desire for Christ in our lives.

Prayer:
Lord, remind us that your shining face is with us in the darkness. Amen

Question:
Where is God’s light shining in my life?

Written by Eric Morse

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

Kids the world over do it.  Sit in the back seat, gaze out the car window.  Pass the time looking at lights. Watching stars.

City lights blaze, brightening the road but fogging the night sky. I look anyway, strain almost, for points of ancient light.

Suddenly a speck magnifies. In a second it’s big as the moon, overpowering the streetlights, bright, flaring, blue-white. Then gone.   I search the whitewashed skies and neon that swallowed it.  I squint behind us. Gone.

Awed, I turn to my brothers, but they are bored, sleepy. My parents sit impassively.  As if nothing happened.  As if nothing extraordinary flashed for all our eyes.

That night I doubted. Well into the day I wondered.  Was it real?  What does it mean? Where did it go? Will it come back?

I wondered until at last, a sort of truce emerged.  A peace between my questions and the light.

Gone, yet here.  Ancient luminosity.

Prayer:
Holy Child, radiate your mercy, wonder, awareness, and surprise over all that disquiets us.  Amen

Question:
What phenomenon enlivens me today?

Written by Bob Krause

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

In awe I read Mary’s assent and am struck by her openness, willingness and trust.  Yet, I ask myself, is there a safer place to be than in the hands of God?  Living on the edge of what I know forces me to step into the uncertain and the unknown.

By assenting I, too, open myself to the possibility of being a God bearer.  Consenting to guidance by the still small voice within illuminates my path and perchance the path of another.  As I continue to consent to God working within me, I hear the voice more frequently and more clearly—never insistent—always my choice.  As I act on the Spirit’s direction, I find that I am given power to accomplish each task.

As British poet Minnie Louise Haskins so beautifully elucidated in her poem entitled “The Gate of the Year…”

“I said to the man at the gate of the year—
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness and
Put your hand into the hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’”*

Prayer:  Lord, help us relinquish our illusion of control so we might be empowered to do your will.  Amen

Question:  How might I live in trust today?

Written by Connie Lee Whalen

*Haskins’ poem was quoted by King George VI in his first Christmas speech, 1939, soon after Britain entered the Second World War.  The quote gave encouragement to a nation and brought fame to an obscure school teacher and poet.

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

1943, Montgomery, Alabama. White bus driver James F. Blake tells an African-American woman to enter the bus by the rear door. As the woman walks toward the back of the bus, Blake drives off before she can get on.

Rosa Parks tells herself that she will never ride a bus driven by Blake.

In December of 1955, Parks sits in the back of another bus, in the first row reserved for blacks. All the seats for whites are filled when another white man gets on. The bus driver tells Parks to move to the back of the bus so the white man can sit down. Parks realizes that the bus driver is James F. Blake.

She refuses to move. Later that month, the Montgomery Bus boycott began. It did not end until a year later, when the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that racial segregation laws were unconstitutional. It was one of the first victories in the Civil Rights movement. During the boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a powerful and inspiring leader.

We all have opportunities to be a voice calling out in the desert. But we must use that voice before we can make straight the way of the Lord.

Finding our voice is not always easy. Like Parks in 1943, we’ve all felt the humiliation or shame that comes when we stifle our voices in the face of injustice. Humiliation and shame today can be turned into motivation and courage tomorrow.

With the pain of 1943 in her mind, the Parks of 1955 was able to create a world filled with more of the Lord’s justice.

Prayer:
Lord, help us find our voices so we can make a straight path for you. Amen

Question:
How is God asking me to raise my voice?

Written by Eric Morse

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

Wait a minute: We’re like grass? Appearing for a few months and then fading away, our “constancy” being neither faithful nor consistent.

Hmph. I’m not flattered by that comparison.

When I chew on the grass metaphor further, however, new sprouts of thought emerge:

Each blade of summer grass is important, adding its singularity to a perfect sweep of green. Networks of interwoven roots feed a lawn, helping it emerge from its sleeping winter cycle, fresh and lush each spring.

Beyond carefully tended Kentucky bluegrass, there are wild prairie grasses that dance in the wind, unselfconscious and showy in their prime. After they drop their seed heads—rich promises for next season—they rest fallow, being nourished by their extensive root systems.

Maybe it’s good that we’re grass-like—full of vigor in our prime, then dormant and resting as we’re “deep root fed.”

Prayer:
Ever-present gardener, nourish our roots with the water of life and nudge us to embrace fallow time for renewal. Amen

Question:
How can I honor the quiet seasons of my life when I need renewal?

Written by Robin Kline

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

I stood in front of the table filled with the artisan’s wares. My first glance drew me to brilliant glazes of royal blue, eggplant purple, and cinnamon red. I peered closer. The glazes covered the insides of small bowls perfect for a scoop of ice cream, medium bowls ideal for morning cereal, and large bowls ready for autumn apples.   At the back of the table was a curved, stippled vase waiting for flowers and another vase that had found its purpose as a lamp base.

The artist had taken great care with each and every item. She started with raw clay, created the forms on the wheel, added the glazes, and fired them. Even though she started with the same raw material for all the bowls and vases, each one has its own unique shape, color, texture, and could serve many purposes.

Isaiah reminds us that we are the work of God, the greatest artisan of all.  Just as the artist who created wonderful and varied items from her clay, God forms us into amazing individuals with unique shapes, colors, personalities, and gifts.

Prayer:
Creator God, help us to continually appreciate the similarities and differences we share through you.  Amen

Question:
In what other ways can I use gifts I have been given?

Written by Ellen Fisher

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com

On a recent trip north on I-35 to Minnesota I was struck by the increasing number of wind farms on both sides of the interstate.  For miles and miles the rows and rows of tall white turbines with rhythmically moving blades pick up and share the energy of the wind.  Perhaps we should call the turbine engineers “air farmers” because their harvest transforms God’s gift of air in motion to light up our homes and provide energy to keep things going.

Paul, author of Ephesians, may have lived 600 years before windmills with the simplest sails were invented, but he was millennia ahead of our understanding of God’s power to electrify our lives and put the wind in our sails.

For him, knowing Jesus personally brought clarity of vision about God’s extravagant plans for those who believe and a reminder of the remarkable work in progress in us. Paul was eager for us to experience the transformed life with its endless energy and boundless strength that comes from a live connection with Jesus.

Prayer:
Energizing Lord, help us to be transmitters of the transformed life you give us. Amen

Question:
How do I open my sails to catch God’s limitless energy?

Written by Nancy Alice Morton

The Bridge is a collaborative ministry by four Downtown Des Moines churches. The Bridge Meditations are part of the ministry of The Bridge which is working to enrich the lives of those working, living and visiting downtown Des Moines. Programs developed by The Bridge offer spiritual formation and development, professional counseling, holistic health and family support. The Connection Cafe is a Bridge ministry which provides a free mid-day meal five days per week. The Connection Cafe is located next to the YWCA on Grand Avenue and is supported by many churches and civic organizations in its ministry. For more information, or to volunteer to help with The Bridge, The Connection Cafe or other Downtown Des Moines ministries contact Rob Hoover at 515-771-1481 or by email at theconnectioncafe@hotmail.com