Living Tree Poetry

“Don’t worry about the numbers.  Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you.”
Mother Teresa

“What can I give him poor as I am; If I were a shepherd, I would give him a lamb.  If I were a wise man, I would do my part.  But what can I give him?  I will give him my heart.
Christina Rossetti

“You are a gift to yourself and to the world around you.”
Panache Desai

“Be a light to your neighbour’s feet.  Go without fear into the depth of man’s heart.  I shall be with you.”
Catherine Doherty

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
Ephesians 2:10

MY PRAYER today that we may be people aware of our gifts, and continuing to grow in them.  Our church’s theme at the moment is ‘The Body’, a series encouraging us to understand the importance of the church community, his plan for it, and our place in it.  Our home group leader has given us our word for the year – ‘Know’.  She reminded us of the truth ‘to know God is to know yourself, to know yourself is to know God.’ The overarching idea that we might come to know what it might look like to put in practice a life lived out in everyday engagement with God.

Christina Rossetti said, ‘what can we give him?’. What often stops us from giving anything is our doubting that we have something of worth to give, to bring to the table.  Our heart is where we start, our heart is ‘our why’. If something starts with the heart, it will keep its momentum, and always bring fruit.  So in giving our hearts, (something we often have to re-gift) we begin to know him and ourselves in him, we grow more and more into the selves he designed to be.   We begin to understand our unique contribution, which our minister said today, “is not just ‘another thing on our plate’ but growing more and more into who we are”.  Today I pray we would reflect on the thought that, ”The light isn’t at the end of the tunnel, it’s wherever we are.”  We have something to offer, as unique as we are, and if it is only a light to our neighbours feet, then that is enough.

These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.