new site

Our new location is www.kavannahouse.com

we've moved.....

Just want to let you know the blog continues but will now be found on our website....

We would love to have you join us there. You can sign up to receive an email to let you know every time there is a new post. You can also find us on Facebook ( and we would love it if you would 'like' us) and also on Twitter.

You have no idea how much your support means to us and we hope you will continue to allow us to be a part of your spiritual journey.

Grace and peace -
Deb

transformation

The other day I was talking with a friend of mine and she was telling me how she was seeing God work. He has a very specific way of speaking into her life. She is beginning to notice when He wants to say something to her and she creates space in her schedule to listen, to journal, to process. The things she has come to know about herself and about God are beautiful.


I am in a place of feeling incredible gratitude for being granted the privilege to listen and be a witness to these kinds of stories…to have a front row seat to holy transformation…to sit in the midst of sacredness.


Thank you to God….and to my friend for allowing me to be a part of it all…


Grace and peace,

Deb

trust

Have you ever had the experience of praying for something and seeing, in your head, how it would work out? I do that all the time. But…you know what? It NEVER works out that way.

Or, how about this….you’re not sure what’s ahead, what’s around the next corner. You may be sensing that God is calling you into a new adventure but you cannot possibly see how it will come to pass. Or, you may be facing a very difficult situation that is full of uncertainty. If only you could see what’s ahead, then you could trust Him with whatever it is.

I used to fear these circumstances (sometimes I still do). I wanted to have more control, to be able to plan things out, to know what was coming next so I could better prepare. What I really wanted was for God to answer my prayers my way. This kind of living caused me a great deal of anxiety. But then, slowly, God began to change my perspective. I began to relax and truly trust that He knew what was best. I didn’t need to know everything.

I have been on this journey long enough to know that God always works it out. Not always in the way I want Him to and never the way I think He will, but, none the less, He works it out.

Now, instead of fearing what’s around the next corner, I am looking for the surprise. I know God loves me and that He will take care of me, even if it is in unexpected ways. So, instead of needing all the answers, I am able to live with the questions and anticipate the surprise, looking at it like a gift. It may not come when I expect it, be wrapped the way I think it should be or even be the gift I want…but it will always be the gift I need.

May your day be filled with “God surprises”. May you not be fearful and anxious about what lies ahead but learn to be open and excited about the surprises God has in store for you. Enjoy the gift; the gift of trusting Him with everything.

Blessings,
Deb

incarnation

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“When I hear people talk about what is wrong with organized religion, or why their mainline churches are failing, I hear about bad music, inept clergy, mean congregations, and preoccupations with institutional maintenance. I almost never hear about the intellectualization of the faith, which strikes me as a far greater danger than anything else on the list. In an age of information overload, when a vast variety of media delivers news faster than most of us can digest – when many of us have at least two e-mail addresses, two telephone numbers, and one fax number – the last thing any of us needs is more information about God. We need the practice of incarnation, by which God saves the lives of those whose intellectual assent has turned as dry as dust, who have run frighteningly low on the bread of life, who are dying to know more of God in their bodies. Not more about God. More God.

Barbara Brown Taylor
An Altar in the World

In chapter three, The Practice of Wearing Skin, Taylor explores how we live out our faith in our bodies. She erases the illusion of separateness between the spiritual life and the physical body. Approaching our spirituality from a more holistic perspective exposes the fallacy of increased knowledge of God resulting in transformation. Knowledge isn’t bad – it is just insufficient.

It is no accident that Jesus came as a man – a man with flesh, bones, muscles, blood, nerves and emotions. He came, wearing skin, just as we wear skin. It as much as part of His divinity as was His spirit…and so for us.

Today – do not seek more information about God – seek more of God. Notice how you might live out your faith, using your body as a gift offering back to God and to others. Thank Him today for the work your body allows you to do. And may you begin to see the wearing of skin as a beautiful spiritual practice.

Grace and peace,
Deb

only 3 more days on this site -

difficulty

“Life is difficult.

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it--then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.”

M. Scott Peck

I know so many friends who are going through difficult times. Often, as Christ followers, we have been taught that life will be good, absent of most difficulties, if we are living in God’s will. Where did we get such an idea?
Life is life. That means it will sometimes be better than we could ever have imagined and sometimes it will be more painful than we think we can survive. We live in a fallen world.

But, I believe that Peck is on to something. The more we struggle against the difficulty, the more it consumes us. When we look for God’s grace in the midst of the struggle, we focus much less on the struggle itself and more on the God we cling to within it. That is transcendence…moving into and through the difficulty where God meets us.

Grace and peace,
Deb

PS; Four more days of reading the blog on this site. You can find it at www.kavannahouse.com

the power of love

Often I strain and climb
and struggle to lay hold
of everything I’m certain
You have planned for me.
And nothing happens:
there comes no answer.
Only You reach down to me
just where I am.
When you give me no answer
to my questions,
still I have only to raise my arms
to You, my Father
and then You lift me up.
Then because You are my Father
You speak these words of truth
to my heart:

“You are not an accident.
Even at the moment of your conception,
out of many possibilities,
only certain cells combined,
survived, grew to be you.
You are unique.
You are created for a purpose.
God loves you.”

Celtic Daily Prayer, Aidan Readings

I recently met with a beautiful woman. I have known her for a long time and have had the privilege of watching her grow and bloom. There is a sad side to her story. Her family doesn’t recognize her unique beauty. They miss it completely. But, she is beginning to let God’s love in and also beginning to believe that others can truly love her. That love is transforming her – and I get a front row seat. What a lovely gift.

To my friend – continue to rest in God, soak in His love and celebrate your uniqueness.
Grace and peace –
Deb

Five more days for this blog.......then it can be found at www.kavannahouse.com

listen

“Many of us prefer listening to a pastor or a speaker rather than training ourselves to sit in quiet and listen to God.”


Jan Johnson

I wonder why this is? I think, for me, it is because listening to someone else speak is, for the most part, a passive activity. There is the ‘active’ piece of paying attention but because their voice is verbal and audible, we can take it in.

When I listen to God, it becomes more active even though I am silent and listening. It takes so much more of my resolve to listen to that ‘still small voice’. I not only need to be in silence and solitude, I need to bring something to this time. I bring the work of surrender. I need to abandon myself to the work of God and sit quietly and let Him ‘speak to me’. It is not audible but it comes in pieces through the days and weeks to come. It is a mosaic…a beautiful puzzle that I can begin to see parts of through circumstances, relationships, readings, movies, sermons and other surprises that come in all different ways.

Do not neglect listening to those who are in a position to speak truth into your life…but I invite you to not substitute it for listening to the One who created truth.

Grace and peace,
Deb
PS: This is the beginning of the end - for this blog. The last post will be this coming Saturday. For over a month I have been running identical posts on both blogger and on my website and beginning Monday, April, find me at Kavanna House at www.kavannahouse.com

eternity

Eternity is not something that begins after you're dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

I have been thinking about this for awhile. I am not sure why it never occurred to me before (maybe all of you have already had this revelation and I am just wwwway slow!). I always thought of eternity as something ‘out there’ or beyond now. But it really is ‘now’. I am in the midst of eternity. I am in a certain place in time within eternity.

I am also aware of how much I am caught up in time. Wikipedia, the ‘expert ‘source on everything, says that time is: "a nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future." The part of that sentence that stands out to me is, ‘from the past through the present to the future’. That is time….that is eternity.

I am wondering how I might live if I were consciously aware that I am already living in eternity? How might it change my view of dying? Or of losing those I love?
Just thought I would share my musings with you.

Grace and peace,
Deb

shhhhhhhh

“Some of the most reverent people I know decline to call themselves religious. For them, religion connotes belief. It means being able to say what you mean about God and why. It also means being able to hold your own in a debate with someone who believes otherwise. They, meanwhile, are not sure what they believe. They do not want to debate anyone. The longer they stand before the holy of holies, the less adequate their formulations of faith seems to them. Angels reach down and shut their mouths.”

Barbara Brown Taylor
An Altar in the World

This quote is out of the first chapter, The Practice of Paying Attention. This is what my life feels like now. I have less and less desire to debate theological issues. I am less able to articulate what I know about God and why. There are some things I believe to my core – the truth about who Jesus is and that I need Him. The truth that God loves me more than I can ever comprehend. The truth that I am both an exquisite creature made in the image of God and a reckless sinner who lives under the curse of the Fall. The truth that tells me to love God and love others. The rest is mystery to me. Mystery I cannot figure out. Mystery that I do not feel the need to figure out.

It feels as if the closer I get to God the less I know. I do not feel I can adequately know what He is, who He is, how He moves. So, I try to just lean into what I do know. The rest I am content to leave up to those who enjoy the debate.

Some ask me why I do not talk as much as I used to…could it be that angels have come down and shut my mouth? I am not sure if that is the explanation but it sounds good to me.

Grace and peace,
Deb

sing

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentations;
I hear the real though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I am clinging;
while love is Lord o’er heaven and earth how can I keep from singing?

Tradition Quaker Hymn

prayer

A Prayer in ‘the Middle Years’ of Opportunity

Lord, help me now to unclutter my life,
to organize myself in the direction of simplicity.
Lord, teach me to listen to my heart;
teach me to welcome change, instead of fearing it.
Lord, I give you these stirrings inside of me,
I give you my discontent,
I give you my restlessness,
I give you my doubt,
I give you my despair,
I give you all the longing I hold inside.
Help me to listen to these signs of change, of growth;
to listen seriously and follow where they lead
through the breathtaking empty space of an open door.

Celtic Daily Prayer;
Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community

desire

Do you really want to live your lives,
every moment of your lives, in His Presence?
Do you long for Him? Crave Him?
Do you love His Presence?
Does every drop of blood in your body love Him?
Does every breathe you draw breathe a prayer, a praise to Him?
Do you sing and dance within yourselves, as you glory in His love?
Have you set yourselves to be His, and only His,
walking every moment in Holy obedience?

Thomas Kelly
A Testament of Devotion



How can one possibly live like this? For me, it isn’t a lack of desire. I so desire an intimate relationship with God. I know that I don’t ‘breathe a prayer’ every time I draw a breath (at least not consciously). I have ‘gloried’ in His love, at times, but I definitely don’t walk in obedience every waking moment. So, reading something like this can be discouraging.

But, I don’t think God wants us to be discouraged by these words. In fact, I think He wants us to be very encouraged as this is what we can aspire to. I used to give up after a day or two of trying to live up to words like these. In the last several years, I began to sense that God was only asking me to have the desire to live this way. He knows that, because I live in this fallen world, I will continue to struggle with brokenness and sin.

What I’ve noticed is that the more I desire intimacy with Him and set my intention on that, the more I realize I am living closer to the way He wants me to. Less effort, more change. It’s the Holy Sprit working in and through me…it is not because of my own efforts. Not that I don’t need to be open and cooperate with this work but it is so much less work when I let God take the lead.

I invite you to think about asking God to stir that deep desire in you for more intimacy with Him. It will be the beginning of a new season in your spiritual life. If you already have the desire for more, enjoy it and move with it as it takes you into a deeper place of being with Him.
Peace,Deb

salvation

“Although the word “salvation” has come to mean “eternal life” in most religious circles. It is helpful to return to the word’s Latin root salvus, meaning “whole”, “sound”, “healed”, “safe”, “well”, or “unharmed”, as a way to understand the spirituality of salvation. Salvation and spirituality and self are related – spirituality connects to us to the whole, allows us a glimpse into our place within God and God’s world, giving a new sense of health and well-being in our situations and identities. The idea of salvation need not be rejected; rather it needs to be brought back to a truer rendering of its root meaning. We need to come to an authentic sense of personhood, stitching together what was unraveled into a new whole. From a biblical perspective, that involves connecting to human well-being by asking “Who am I?” in relation to “I AM”. And that might be our salvation.”

Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion

Salvation, many times, gets boiled down to a few words we say in response to a message or an invitation from a pastor. But, I love this definition; that salvation is more than a moment in time that decides our eternal fate but it is a process in the here and now of ‘becoming’….becoming more whole, more sound, more healed, more safe, more well.

Jesus did not come only to offer you an eternity with him – he came to offer you a rich and textured life, full of joy, pain, beauty, difficulty, laughter and tears. If you remember to ask, “Who am I, in this moment, in relation to I AM?”, you will begin to see that He is ever present in each and every situation, and that his desire is to weave salvation into each and every moment.

Grace and peace,
Deb
PS - I would highly recommend this book.

empty tomb?

“Leave yourself alone. Enter solitude. Be silent. Do your good deeds in secret. Make dead space into holy ground.

You will become less, it’s true. But you will also become more: you will discover your true self and meet more often, lose less often, the Lord of the holy wild. For out of empty tombs and dead spaces comes the living Christ. Be still and know that He is God.”

Mark Buchanan

“For out of empty tombs and dead spaces comes the living Christ”. How encouraging is that? I know that many days, I feel like an empty tomb. I feel as if I’m filled with dead space. I feel as if I don’t have one more good thing to give, to say, to do, left within me.

Those are the days that I know I am trying to do it on my own. I’m not consciously tuning God out…I’m just not being intentional about sitting with Him, about getting myself out of the way. When I try to be present with God, I am so much more aware of Him being the One who works in and through me and that what I am able to do is because of Him. It is in Him that I live and move and have my being.

Today…do you feel like an empty tomb? Do feel like you are hollow inside…filled with only dead space? Remind yourself that the Creator of the universe, the One who made the foundations of the earth, who crafted the mountains and carved out the seas….lives within you. And…that makes you the bearer of the Christ. Move and live and have your being this day resting in that knowledge.

Grace and peace,
Deb

it's a new day

“Is there anyone I can level with? Anyone I dare tell that I am benevolent and malevolent, chaste and randy, compassionate and vindictive, selfless and selfish, that beneath my brave words lives a frightened child, that I dabble in religion and pornography, that I have blackened a friend’s character, betrayed a trust, violated a confidence, that I am tolerant and thoughtful, a bigot and a blowhard, that I hate hard rock?”

Brennen Manning
Ruthless Trust

I think this quote hits home for all of us. I know it does for me. I was talking with a friend the other day. We were talking about how, sometimes, we can hardly believe that God doesn’t just smite us (don’t hear that word everyday, now do ya!), that we both have thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that we know aren’t what God would want of us. But, the amazing thing is that He waits…He waits for us to come around, to acknowledge those things within ourselves, turn back to Him and allow His love to enfold us, once again. He knows that we live and move in a fallen, broken world and that no matter how much we try, we will never be fully whole until we see Him face to face. That means we will never be free of the struggle that Brennan Manning describes but it also means that there is hope and forgiveness found in God’s love.

May today be a fresh start for you. Know that we all struggle with the ‘dark’ stuff in our hearts but also know that God is waiting for you, desiring you to move back toward Him. Allow yourself to experience His love today.

Grace and peace,
Deb

awareness

One of my favorite authors is Ken Gire. He has a way of helping me learn to pay attention to the movements of God in my life. He has written numerous devotional books. The first book I read by him is an excellent book called, Seeing What is Sacred: Becoming More Sensitive to the Everyday Moments of Life, (old title - The Reflective Life) that is written, specifically, to help you become more aware.

I want to share a quote from him:

"He[God] has much to say, not only from the Scriptures but from the circumstances of our everyday lives. However prosaic the pages of our lives may seem at first reading, within the lines or in between the lines God may be speaking. Every book we read, every movie we see, every person we talk with, every song we listen to, every moment in our lives, in fact, should be subjects for reflection and could be ways through which God is speaking."


Consider asking God to help you today...help you pay attention to where/how He may be speaking to you, perhaps speaking in ways you had not considered before. Feel free to share what you noticed.


May you see Him in a different way today.

grace and peace,

Deb

only Jesus

Taken from I Cor 1:

I have a serious concern to bring up with you, my friends, using the authority of Jesus, our Master. I'll put it as urgently as I can: You must get along with each other. You must learn to be considerate of one another, cultivating a life in common.
I bring this up because some from Chloe's family brought a most disturbing report to my attention—that you're fighting among yourselves! I'll tell you exactly what I was told: You're all picking sides, going around saying, "I'm on Paul's side," or "I'm for Apollos," or "Peter is my man," or "I'm in the Messiah group."
I ask you, "Has the Messiah been chopped up in little pieces so we can each have a relic all our own? Was Paul crucified for you? Was a single one of you baptized in Paul's name?" I was not involved with any of your baptisms—except for Crispus and Gaius—and on getting this report, I'm sure glad I wasn't. At least no one can go around saying he was baptized in my name. (Come to think of it, I also baptized Stephanas's family, but as far as I can recall, that's it.)
God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn't send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words.”

I am in the middle of a transition – only three more weeks in my present position. I am blessed that I am not merely leaving something – I am going to something, if that makes sense. I am moving out more fully into what I sense God calling me to.

One of the things that have come to light, as I leave, is that things will be done differently in my absence. There will be a different approach, a different philosophy regarding how to approach and guide people in their own spiritual formation. This can create some tension, in both those responsible for handling the transition and for those who will be impacted by the change. In navigating this transition, it is important to honor the process and to recognize that there is not ‘one’ way to invite people into a transforming life with Jesus. This is not a new tension. Check out your closest Christian bookstore – or look into the history and tradition of the church. You will find innumerable ways to approach spiritual formation. And, according to the Scriptures, it was a tension found in the beginning of the church. As humans, who are still impacted by the Fall, we have a tendency to want to divide and separate rather than create harmony and unify; to call one way right and another way wrong. Different teachers or leaders will have a different approach toward leading others into a vibrant life with Christ and there is beauty in that diversity.

Bottom line, what matters is that people are encountering the Living God in new ways and it is changing their lives. People may be drawn more to one way or another and some have deeply resonated with several approaches. As tempting as it might be to want people to follow me or my philosophy, it is not honoring Christ. As soon as I start paying more attention to who is following whom, I am no longer concerned with leading people to Christ but more concerned with leading them to myself.

Thank you, Father, for different leaders, different styles, different approaches and different philosophies - and may we all continue to point people to You – in the way that You have called us to.
Grace and peace-
Deb

just be

“If we begin to worship and come to God, again and again by meditating, by reading, by prayer, and by obedience, little by little God becomes known to us through experience. We enter into familiarity with God, and by tasting how sweet the Lord is we pass into . . loving God, not for our own sake, but for Himself.”

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

When is the last time you “experienced” God? When is the last time you felt His love for you? When is the last time you sensed Him speaking to you?

If you haven’t experienced God this way, consider spending some time in silence, every day. Begin with several minutes and add time as it seems right. Let your only request during that time be “God… I want to meet with you here, in this moment”…and sit.

Even if you ‘feel’ nothing, know that He is answering that simple prayer and that your spirit is being refreshed by Him.

Grace and peace,
Deb

rest

“Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can possibly do is take a complete rest.”

Ashleigh Brilliant

Last week, I had the opportunity to guest teach at a nearby college. We were discussing different spiritual practices and the practice of silence came up. One of the students said, “Whenever I attempt to practice silence, I fall asleep after only a few minutes. Why do you think that is?” In all of my infinite wisdom, I said, “Probably because you are tired.”

We are all so used to running a hundred miles an hour that when we take few minutes to be still, we drift off. Rather than feeling defeated because you cannot stay awake and attentive, perhaps you should give yourself permission to rest. When you are physically depleted you cannot possibly bring all of your attention and intention to God.

If you find yourself falling asleep when you set time aside to be still with God, maybe the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap.

Grace and peace,
Deb