It’s Friday, Nov 13. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.
☕️ Yes, I am a little excited to be a balloon handler in the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!
It’s an amazing gift to be able to volunteer. My niece works for Macy’s, and she sponsored my husband and I (and a crowd of other family) to be able to apply to steer a huge balloon for 2.5 miles (now I know what all the run training was for).
Our balloon is ‘Derpy’, a character in ‘KPop Demon Hunters’, all of which was Greek (well, Korean..) to me, until this week.
Derpy is a ‘large, supernatural feline that resembles a tiger’. Kids apparently love him (her?)! One of my high school friends got in touch - she teaches a special ed classroom of first graders - and said her students just did a unit on the parade, and were extremely excited to learn about the Derpy balloon.
So I made a plan to make a video for her kids - as much ‘backstage’ stuff as I can before I have to put my phone away and join the parade.
Which just reminds me how connected we all are. And how easy it is to bring joy into others’ lives, and to pass it along.
I am a great believer in regular spiritual practice for growing in relationship with God.
Because it keeps us open to all kinds of miracles, beauty, and connection.
It’s Good Stuff.
This week’s theme: counterintuitive faith practices
Sabbath is a commandment - I’d say the one we break most often! It’s also the most counterintuitive to modern American life. That’s why it’s so hard!
And also so necessary…
☕️ ‘The World Does Not Depend on Me’ by The Reordered Life.
‘One reason we rest poorly is because we have an incomplete view of rest.
Rest isn’t merely a pause from work. Rest is an act of trusting that God remains God when I stop working. Rest is about letting go of control of things which, ultimately, we don’t control anyway.’
Yes, we know about the lilies of the fields and the birds of the air. Still, we can’t help worrying. But maybe there’s a way to do it faithfully…
‘…as much as scripture detests worrying, it doesn’t imply that it’s an off switch you can flip. It makes it sound simple, because it is simple, but it is not easy. If you are a person moving through the world, trying your damndest to see every human being as a brother or sister in Christ, at some point you are going to worry.’
Being selfish might seem to be the opposite of faithfulness. But the parable of the pearl of great price and the treasure in the field might suggest otherwise…
☕️ ‘The Case for Selfishness’ by Arianne Rice .
‘Is Jesus telling us in this parable about the depth of soul-searching we must do to discover the precious treasure God has woven into us? Is he saying the time, effort, resources and attention you and I give to this selfish quest is where our treasure lies? And once we discover it, get to choose to hold onto it with all that we have?
And this is a good thing?‘
Holy simplicity and holy complexity - buried in a mustard seed - make miracles an every day practice…
☕️ ‘The Gift of Tongues’ by Ross Byrd .
‘From the perspective of holy complexity, faith is a seed, but it is not a magic seed. It cannot, in itself, produce anything at all. Rather, the seed becomes a seed when it is sown. The true seed is the buried seed. As in the Parable of the Sower, the seed of the word must find fertile soil in order to bear fruit. Its potential cannot become actualized as long as it sits on the path or, worse, sits in the pocket of its owner.’
The spiritual practice of place…
☕️ ‘Going Nowhere‘ by Doctoral Discipleship.
’This place has never been mine; I’ve never adored or yearned for it. Perhaps it’s a delusion—yet I am inclined to believe it is God’s work in me—but I no longer see this place for what it isn’t (though the list could be long). I see it for what it is or could be. I see it as others have always seen me—brimming with potential.
Perhaps our potentials might need each other in the days ahead.’
Sometimes, the practice is just opening our eyes..
☕️ ‘Reflect the Light’ by Donna L Turner.
‘I watched this cloud as the sun was going down, with the light moving across different clouds and changing colors. I’m no scientist, and I don’t know why the colors change, but I know that the clouds need to be in the right place to achieve the best reflection and beauty.’
This week at Free Range Priest:
☕️ ‘The Parable of Airbnb and the Episcopal Church’.
I can’t help but feel the significance of how a mission-minded, expanding church built an iconic building, then abandoned it for a 1960s high rise, which quickly became an albatross they finally managed to get out from under.
Meanwhile, an avatar of startup culture decides they need a permanent home and buys the actual home of the mission-minded church.
☕️ It’s almost Advent!
The season of preparation, and we’re practicing Vigil: keeping awake when your body doesn’t want to. Like fasting, it’s intentional discomfort for spiritual clarity. It’s keeping ourselves spiritually alert and faithfully awaiting the light of Christ, especially in the darkness.
This year we’re doing something new at the Trexo gym. We’re collaborating with New American Orthodox - a denomination (new way of telling God’s story) to study Revelation as a vision framing our participation in this ongoing story, and to stay awake in vigil.
Details soon - but you’re invited to join us every Sunday evening of Advent - November 29, December 6, 13, and 20.
We will light an Advent candle, sing an Advent hymn, pray, and wait together. We will find our part in the story.
Join the gym (become a paid subscriber) to be part of the preparation…
Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment:
What have I missed?
I can’t always read 400+ newsletters.
And there’s lots of great Substackers I haven’t met yet - especially those who are just starting, and who may not have that many followers yet.
PLEASE share the Good Stuff you’ve read this week in the comments below.
And PLEASE restack this post so others can see - and subscribe to - this Good Stuff.
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How cool that you will be a balloon handler! Some years we go in person to watch, this year I'll watch with my kids from the couch and we will look for you. Too bad you can't wear your collar! 😂