by Trina Riley,

​I recently read one of the best definitions of contemplation I’ve ever come across. I’ve read it several times very slowly, and I encourage you to do the same. 

“To ‘contemplate’ means to observe carefully, to pay attention. Throughout the day, things catch our eye and we momentarily contemplate them. In the quietness of the sustained attentive gaze, we recognize a preciousness—an immediate worth or value for which no words can do justice. And we sense this is so because the worth or value is God’s presence pouring itself out and giving itself away in and as the gift and miracle in whatever it is that may have captured our attention.” (James Finley)
Now read it like this…

Throughout the day, I catch God’s eye and He contemplates (gazes) on me. In the quietness of the sustained attentive gaze, He recognizes a preciousness – an immediate worth or value for which no words can do justice. This is so because the worth or value is God’s presence pouring itself out and giving itself away in and through the gift and miracle of me…

Wow. What if we took a few minutes of our precious Facebook-social media-news-frenzied time and just immersed in that reality…as the precious apple of God’s eye, soaking in His gaze with all the wonder and worth we are meant to live in? And what if we took a moment to gaze back? And then took that gaze, His gaze through us, to the rest of the world? No fear, no ego, no striving, no having to be right or fix this mess. Just soaking…so as to truly see His presence and worth and value in the midst of the clanging cymbals all around us. Discernment. Love.

​Paul is speaking from this place, this cycle of love. He is immersing in God’s love, as God is completing the work He has begun in Paul. In this space, Paul is able to see the people around him, recognizing their precious worth and God’s miraculous presence and work in and through them. They are in this together. There is hope.  He speaks from the outflow of a heart filled with joy as he sits in chains for God’s sake! He knows who he is, he is God’s and he is loved. He experiences it…tastes it…gives it…lives it.

by Trina Riley

Of the 50 plus books I’ve read over the last two years, Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives, by Wayne Muller, truly stands out and is one I will return to again and again… to remember, to learn, and (hopefully) practice even a portion of the great wisdom and revelation found throughout the pages.  I encourage you to get this book and do the same.  I share with you only a sample, so as to whet your appetite for all that Muller offers when defining and exploring Sabbath. It just may change the way you view (and even do) life.

In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.

All life requires a rhythm of rest.  There is a rhythm in our waking activity and the body’s need for sleep.  There is a rhythm in the way day dissolves into night, and night into morning.  There is a rhythm as the active growth of spring and summer is quieted by the necessary dormancy of fall and winter…

We have lost this essential rhythm.  Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest; that doing something – anything - is better than doing nothing.  Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever-growing expectations, we do not rest.  Because we do not rest, we lose our way.  We miss the compass points that would show us where to go, we bypass the nourishment that would give us succor.  We miss the quiet that would give us wisdom.  We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight.  Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest.  And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.

…Our lack of rest and reflection is not just a personal affliction.  It colors the way we build and sustain community, it dictates the way we respond to suffering, and it shapes the ways in which we seek peace and healing in the world.

…How have we allowed this to happen?  This was not our intention…

I suggest that it is this:  We have forgotten the Sabbath.  Before you dismiss this statement as simplistic, even naïve, we must explore more fully the nature and definition of Sabbath.  While Sabbath can refer to a single day of the week, Sabbath can also be a far-reaching, revolutionary tool for cultivating those precious human qualities that grow only in time.

by Trina Riley

So how is the journey of Lent going, Friends?  Do you find yourself as I do – desiring, struggling, persevering … maybe even forgetting?  David Underwood has given us great wisdom and writings from Ruth Haley-Barton to help guide us through the season.  As I press on in my own Lenten journey, I am realizing how much I really struggle with fasting… with accepting (much less embracing) limitations.  Here are a few words from Marjorie Thompson’s book, Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life, that I have been pondering... 

As Protestants began to recover church seasons, many took on the tradition of “giving things up” for Lent - dessert, chocolate, popcorn, chewing gum, or other food frivolities.  What we have participated in and witnessed is the trivialization of a very profound discipline…

We trivialize spiritual disciplines when we lose sight of their real purpose.  Lent is not a six-week inconvenience in an otherwise abundant year, during which we somehow please God with voluntary if minor suffering.  Lent is not a testing ground for the true grit of our willpower… The question we need to ask with any spiritual discipline is, “What does God want to accomplish in me through this practice?”


For the early church, Lent… was understood as an opportunity to return to normal human life - the life of natural communion with God that was lost to us in the Fall…

In the Orthodox teaching…To eat, to be alive, to know God and be in communion with Him were one and the same thing.  The unfathomable tragedy of Adam is that…he ate “apart” from God in order to be independent of Him…because he believed that food had life in itself and that he, by partaking of that food, could be like God, i.e., have life in himself.

In Eden, God gave Adam and Eve every fruit of the garden but one.  That one fruit, out of a world of variety, indicated a limit to human freedom.  Accepting that limit was the single abstinence required by God.  It was a way of recognizing that human beings are dependent on God for life…A life that recognizes no limits cannot recognize the sovereignty of God…

Perhaps we can see, then, that the discipline of fasting…has to do with the critical dynamic of accepting those limits that are life restoring...

by Trina Riley

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand of precious wood. When it was finished, all who saw it were astounded. They said it must be the work of spirits. The Prince of Lu said to the master carver: “What is your secret?”


Khing replied: “I am only a workman: I have no secret. There is only this: when I began to think about the work you commanded. I guarded my spirit, did not expend it on trifles, that were not to the point.  I fasted in order to set my heart at rest.

"After three days fasting, I had forgotten gain and success. After five days I had forgotten praise or criticism. After seven days I had forgotten my body with all its limbs.

"By this time all thought of your Highness and of the court had faded away. All that might distract me from the work had vanished. I was collected in the single thought of the bell stand.

"Then I went to the forest to see the trees in their own natural state. When the right tree appeared before my eyes, the bell stand also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt. All I had to do was to put forth my hand and begin. If I had not met this particular tree, there would have been no bell stand at all.

"What happened? My own collected thought encountered the hidden potential in the wood; From this live encounter came the work which you ascribe to the spirits."

(by Thomas Merton from the teachings of Chuang Tzu)

Where do you find yourself in this story? What stands out? What images, emotions or revelations does it evoke?  Read it again. Notice… wonder… imagine.  Go ahead!  Let down and even have some fun with it.  Our Father loves for us to be creative and playful… this journey with Him is not meant to be only serious and heavy. You may be surprised!  

God is the great Master of using story, poetry, metaphors, and imagery to help us see and understand the deeper things of Him… and of ourselves.   Our work (life) is an outward manifestation of our inner life.  As we are more deliberate and in tune with our own souls and relationship with Him, our story becomes full and rich…  a natural outflow of truth, understanding, and deep intimacy with a loving God.

by Trina Riley

Last Tuesday was Epiphany. Epiphany is a Christian festival, observed (in the rhythm of the church year) on January 6, celebrating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles represented by the Magi (Matt. 2:1-12).  Today, we commemorate Jesus’ baptism by John in the Jordan River, which launches us into the season between Christmas and Easter.  We call this season, “Ordinary Time.”

Each season or festival of the church year points us back to the reality or “manifestation” of Christ in our lives. This one is no different, and in fact may be of particular importance. Ordinary. We contemplated Christ in the midst of Christmas and Advent surrounded by all of the trimmings and trappings of the season to remind us. But what about now… coming out of the hype, entering the doldrums of January/February cold, the trees and everything around emanating a certain dreariness?  

Do we see Christ is in the most painful, dull, or ordinary times of life? Amidst the brown bare branches, do we see the beauty of the frost glistening on the end? Are we aware of the deep nourishment and growth that is taking place in those roots as they grow and spread underneath the frozen ground?

How can we truly see? We must first learn to settle our minds down. Christ, souls (ours and others’), and His Kingdom are not something we see or grasp with our minds. We must learn to see beneath the surface with spiritual eyes…to know His presence. To be present. A moment of quietness with Him, letting all those crazy thoughts, tasks, worries and fears settle down deep, like muddy river water that’s been shaken up.   As we get still, things get clearer. We begin to see. I find this particularly helpful at the beginning of my day.

We can then take a few moments at the end of the day to do what is called examen of consciousness.  This is simply taking a moment to reflect back on every aspect of your day – waking, eating, commuting, conversations, business dealings, difficulties or trials of the day, interaction with your world, returning to home and/or family, getting back into bed. No guilt or condemnation…just noticing where or if you were aware of Christ’s presence in the ordinary. He is with us in all things every moment. We are invited to truly be with Him, aware and participating, as He turns the ordinary into extraordinary. 

by Trina Riley

Isn’t it ironic that as we rush into this holiday season… time, hearts and souls filled with parties, appointments, meetings, food, obligations, stress, rush, and stuff, we are entering into a beautiful sacred period of time in the Christian year known as Advent… WAITING?  In the midst of chaos, a baby is born in a manger to a carpenter and a young girl who said “yes” to something far beyond her… beautiful, dark, and uncertain… and then spent her whole life pondering the coming of Jesus into her life.  Ponder means to consider and carry deeply within.  It does not mean to fix, escape or even to figure out.  Could it be that this Jesus came to teach us not to be more spiritual, but to be human… real… humble… fully present… eyes to really see Him?  To say “yes,” to wait, to carry deeply, to be with, to wonder and to see?  I am astounded at my own tendencies and oftentimes knee-jerk reactions to life.  Subtle undertones of guilt, condemnation, escapism, analyzing, and even fixing in the name of Jesus often thrust me into willpower and striving.  But I am gently reminded this Advent season that life is a season of active waiting… not passively waiting to get out of the present trials or darkness, but of “waiting in God,” as Rick puts it.  To live fully present with Him in the midst of life, eyes wide open with expectant hope, learning to truly see Christ.  Leaning in to Him and letting go… loosening my clenched grip around expectations and security.  Tending to the longings of my soul… my longing for Him.  Patiently watching for Him to show up and surprise me.  Surprise, because He most often shows up in ways I am not expecting, if only I have eyes to see.  As I get quiet and present, arms wide and hands emptied, He shows up in power and glory in the ordinary… far beyond my wildest imaginations, time and time again.  Advent literally means “arrival.” What are the longings of your heart?  Will you “wait in God” this Advent season to be surprised at the arrival of Christ in your life?

by Trina Riley

Taste… Pretty strong descriptive word, wouldn’t you say? This isn’t talking about learning great information about God.  Taste!  This is a commandment and a grand invitation to really take in and experience, just as you would your favorite food, savoring every bite.  Throughout my life, I’ve known a lot of people who claimed to know a lot about God… very few who live as though they taste the goodness of God.  Why is that?

In 1 Peter 2:1-12 (the teaching today), Peter mentions tasting the Lord’s goodness.  But he is pretty clear about some things that go hand in hand with “tasting” as well as “maturing.”  He strongly urges his friends to abstain from sinful desires, “which wage war against your soul.” In our quest for understanding grace, we often minimize sin.  We still tend to see sin as a list of rules God gave us for “whatever reason,” but that He’ll forgive us anyway, so it’s no big deal.  Oh, but it is a big deal. Not for the wrongness of it, but rather for what we are missing. 

There is a beautiful reason for abstaining from sin, and we don’t often hear of it.  This saddens me, as it is the very thing we should be speaking of and teaching our children about. SPACE. In telling us to turn away from sinful behaviors, God is asking us to rid the clutter, escapisms, and destructive patterns that are filling, distracting, and wounding us to the core.  As we turn from our sin, we are turning to God in great expectancy, giving Him room to touch, heal, comfort, and transform.  The soul is the core of who we are, and the place where God dwells.   As we turn away from sin, we create SPACE for God to breathe His life into our very souls. 

Are we courageous enough to take that step of obedience in turning away from sin?  Of asking God to show us the areas we have become numb to?  Do we have enough faith (even the size of a mustard seed) to set aside our coping mechanisms, be willing to feel the pain of what’s real, and wait for God?  Or are we content to continue knowing a lot about God without really tasting?  

by Trina Riley

A few weeks ago I talked about story. I continue to be reminded that in story there is space. Space to find and be found.  Space to learn and ask and grow.  Space to love and be loved. Henri Nouwen so beautifully expounds on this, causing me to explore further, to keep asking the questions, and finding my way in this story – in this relationship with God and with others. 

True freedom to be ourselves is living in true intimacy with God and others. It comes to those brave enough to ask the hard questions, willing to wrestle and sit, and move within this space. We can be free with our questions, our sadness, our fears…looking not so much for answers as for relationship with a real Jesus. Talking with Him. Learning to see Him. Being with Him. Knowing Him. He is enough. Or is He? Are we courageous enough to ask? To see what is real and true? To admit we might not really know or see or hear or love Him? Relationship is a journey. Empty religion is full of quick fixes and pat answers. Where are you?  I invite you to continue to journey with me, to wonder and to ask.

“… We need to become storytellers again, and so multiply our ministry by calling around us the great witnesses who in different ways offer guidance to doubting hearts. One of the remarkable qualities of the story is that it creates space. We can dwell in a story, walk around, find our own place. The story confronts but does not oppress; the story inspires but does not manipulate. The story invites us to encounter, a dialog, a mutual sharing.

A story that guides is a story that opens a door and offers us space in which to search and boundaries to help us find what we seek, but it does not tell us what to do or how to do it. The story brings us into touch with the vision and so guides us. Wiesel writes, “God made man because he loves stories.” As long as we have stories to tell to each other there is hope. As long as we can remind each other of the lives of men and women in whom the love of God becomes manifest, there is reason to move forward to new land in which new stories are hidden.”

- Henri Nouwen

by Trina Riley

There is a huge difference in being a true follower of Jesus and empty religion. One is a grand STORY that we have been invited into with Him…the other is a tireless effort and striving to do what’s right, hoping it’s enough but never really feeling like it is.  One is being with God…relationship.  The other is doing…often beckoning a distant God in our time of need, wondering if He really will show up, and most often feeling disappointed, disillusioned, and even rejected.

Truly great stories include heroes and heroines, adventure, good, evil, pain, beauty, victory, defeat, war, peace, death, birth, and, of course, a really great love story.  We’ve not heard much of our Kingdom story.  Our religion has often been reduced to fragmented bits and pieces of information, formulas, and lists of do’s and don’ts.  But what about the story…the greatest story ever told?  We are living it!

If we really understood this, would it change the way we go through life?  Would we wake up fully entering into and welcoming all that is written on the page of today?  Would we be a bit more accepting of the mess and the pain and the death involved, knowing that without these elements, we couldn’t truly have the passion, peace, love, joy, and real life we so desire and were made for?  Would we allow ourselves to be pursued, responding in delight? What if we don’t have to write our own story, but instead get eyes to see the amazing one we’re in?  Eyes to see who He is and who we are becoming…eyes to see Him and His Kingdom here and now. In our understanding of this, would there possibly be less striving, less worrying, less guilt, less fearing of the next chapter?  The Author knows what He’s doing, and the end of the story really is too good to be true. We only need a willing heart to respond to the invitation to see – saying “I do” each and every day.

Excerpt from an article by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, provided by Trina Riley

“Confess your faults one to another” (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone.  It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship and fellowship…  may still be left to their loneliness.  The religious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner.  So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship.  We dare not be sinners.  Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous.  So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy.  The fact is that we are sinners!

But it is the grace of the Gospel…  which is so hard to understand, that confronts us with the truth and says:  You are a sinner, a great, desperate sinner; now come, as the sinner that you are, to God who loves you.  He wants you as you are; He does not want anything from you, a sacrifice, a work; He wants you alone.  “My son, give me your heart” (Prov. 23:26).  God has come to you to save the sinner.  Be glad!  This message is liberation through truth.  You can hide nothing from God.  The mask you wear before men will do you no good before Him.  He wants to see you as you are; He wants to be gracious to you.  You do not have to go on lying to yourself and your brothers, as if you were without sin; you can dare to be a sinner.  Thank God for that.