Transition

This is me - right now! There is no better way to say it, share it, word it. This is me - spinning, spiraling and moving in and out of ...

Transition- the transition from school to work; change, passage, move, transformation, conversion, metamorphosis, alteration, handover, changeover; segue, shift, switch, jump, leap, progression; progress, development, evolution, flux.

But, there is a quiet stillness within that tells me I am not alone, God is here, within all of this - what a gift.

Rochester Michigan

Here we come!!! Rochester is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan and a suburb of Detroit. The population was 10,467 at the 2000 census. The City of Rochester is bordered on the north, south, and west by the City of Rochester Hills.

Rochester has great natural beauty due to the three waterways that surround the city, abundant green space of three parks, and two winding nature trails. Residents can enjoy fishing in the Clinton River or biking along the Paint Creek Trail.

"Rochester", or the "Rochester Area", are often used to describe Rochester, Oakland Township, and Rochester Hills.
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Mark has been named the director of the Resource Center for Missional Leadership at Rochester College (Equipping Missional Leaders for Faithful Engagement with a Changing World). I believe this is a wonderful fit for Mark's passion and vision for the Church in today's culture. I ask you to join me in prayer for Mark and the College as he seeks to serve in this way. Please see his blog post at http://rcmlrc.ning.com/

On the Road Again - to Michigan

The photos shown above are of Rochester College in Michigan.

Mark and I have lived in Minnesota for two years now. Mark has been attending Luther Seminary and taking classes towards a PhD in Congregational Mission and Leadership. We have enjoyed the diversity of life, of weather and of community. I believe we have learned to live more simply while we've been here. There is less that we need in this life than perhaps we thought. We've learned many things that I hope we will carry on to the next adventure in this journey called our life.

Though Mark has finished his class work, he has not finished the program. He is in progress - but timing is not always our own is it? We feel that we have been called to move, and work with Rochester College. We will begin our life in Rochester this summer. We are anxious to join the community there and work to help build and sustain this college.

I am thinking there is no one better to introduce you to Rochester College (if you don't already know) than Rubel Shelly,the President of Rochester College. The following are some of his words "Rochester College exists to engage students in a vigorous liberal arts education within a Christian community for a life of study and service. Students in pursuit of high goals, faculty committed to helping them, and genuine Christian community to bind them together in the process - this is what our college is about.

The beating heart of Rochester College is the campus life of students. Young men and women learn not only history, science, and career skills for the business and professional world but life skills about living to reflect the image and glory of God in the world. As lived here, spirituality is hardly drab and monotonous. Following the example of Jesus, it is joyous, relational, and missional. The Savior of the World loved beauty, engaged the words of Holy Scripture, and showed his love for others through unselfish service.

But the focus of the college is not in the past. We are a forward-looking, dream-driven place! With a diverse student body and dedicated faculty, we are pursuing excellence in business and healthcare, teaching and psychology, athletics and the arts - as well as Christian ministry.

The roots of Rochester College are in Churches of Christ, and its branches reach across all denominational lines. We are non-sectarian in our approach and work to build up the Body of Christ in our region and around the world."

Having learned that we need less on this journey, I hope we will be open to what is really important - to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. There is more to come -

For Earth Day

"I will make rivers flow on barren heights,
and springs within the valleys.
I will turn the desert into pools of water,
and the parched ground into springs.
I will put in the desert
the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive.
I will set pines in the wasteland,
the fir and the cypress together,
so that people may see and know,
may consider and understand,
that the hand of the Lord has done this,
that the Holy One of Israel has created it."

--Isaiah 41:18-20 (NIV)

We are stewards of God's earth, ruling over that which is not ours. "You [God] made humans ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under our feet: All flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas," Ps 8:6-8.

Let us be good stewards of the gifts God has given us. Let us not abuse, abandon, neglect, misuse or take for granted any of these amazing gifts of creation. Amen

I Purpose

I am struggling a bit - can't sit still. I have weighty things free-floating through my mind. I got things done today - but sheesh, I've got to let go ... tomorrow ... by God's goodness may I find purpose ...



Today I purpose to live

My life will shine
As the morning sings
I walk in liberty
Bound in true dreams
Manifested promises
Chase my forward motion
A covered path before me
The fruits of my hoping
The fruits of my living

Today I purpose to love

My love will speak
With the sound of grace
Merciful within mercy
The works of my faith
Smiles of overflowing
Inspire my giving
Abundance of joy as rain
The fruits of my living

michael john faciane

Musings on Easter and Spring - Past and Present

"And I, as I am lifted up from the earth, will attract everyone to me and gather them around me." John 12:32

Remember when Jesus told us a grain of wheat must die? "Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over." I love his references to himself and life in terms of soil, grain, seeds, reproduction, new life - gardens.

Jesus tells the disciples they will be sad, but the sadness will develop into gladness." He speaks of giving birth - " When a woman gives birth, she has a hard time, there's no getting around it. But when the baby is born, there is joy in the pain. The sadness you have right now is similar to that pain, but the coming joy is also similar. When I see you again, you'll be full of joy, and it will be a joy no one can rob from you. You'll no longer be so full of questions. ... Your joy will be a river overflowing its banks!"

Where is Jesus when Judas brings the Roman soldiers to seize him - in the garden (at night - darkness?).

Buried - in the dark earth - where did the stirring come from? ... from within, because it was God who said, " Let light shine out of darkness." I agree and believe that we are seedlings/clay pots - nothing much to look at because our life here is not about us - it is about letting the light shine out of us - it is about life in Jesus. What does it say in II Corinthians? - For while we live, we are always being given up in death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you."

Where is Jesus in the midst of my darkness? He is buried in my heart and his light burns bright - and the darkness? ... the darkness can not overcome it!

From Spring 2001 - This is part of a letter written to my cousin Nancy as I was reflecting back on the death of our amazing Aunt Bernice (my mother's oldest sister) on Easter in the spring of 1998.

"Hi Nancy, ... Primavera - 'first green,' ah, the color of happiness? Dylan Thomas wrote, 'The force that through the green fuse drives the flower ...'. When working in the youthful sun, I feel life in the soil of the earth as I prepare for new seedlings. I even feel the green fuse in my own body - do you?

Frances Mays quotes part of a poem by Horace, in Bella Tuscany, that I love,

'In spring the swelling earth aches for seeds of new life.
Lovely the earth in labor, under a nervous west wind.
The fields loosen, a mild wetness lies everywhere.
Confident grows the grass, for the young sun will do no harm.
The shoots of the vine do not fear a southerly storm arising
Or icy rain slanting from heaven under a north wind -
No, bravely they bud now and reveal their leaves.
So it was since the beginning of the world,
Here is the brilliant dawning and pitch of these days.'

And I think YES this is spring, a season that I adore! ... when regeneration of nature explodes everywhere around me, when new surges of energy pulse through my own veins and yet for me and perhaps you as well death is associated with spring and it is a paradox to me. All of life is a series of seasons I suppose. But isn't it odd that I associate the blooming of tulips, lilacs and sweetly scented lilies with death and now with Nancy's (another cousin Nancy) death (2001) I find myself reflecting on this time in the same way.

Isn't it odd what fragments of memory stay? The greenness of Bernice's back garden as I gazed through the glass door in her sun room, feeling almost suspended in the trees and part of life in those trees. ... hanging lilac from Nancy (the cousin now gone) over my head as I slept in Bernice's bedroom and had wonderful dreams and visions. In the midst of death spring came - as it always has and will. Strange how memory can reach around years and reconnect to the place and time where old loves are still intact.

What has grown since that time? From the cold death grip of winter and Bernice's illness came spring breaking the bonds that cannot hold new life. From Bernice's death something new was born - our relationship - and I am so thankful. An amazing gift

Well, back to the beginning; is 'first green' the color of happiness? I'm not sure - perhaps a mixture of pain and joy - in the loosing, something was found - new life - precious life.

I hope you are well - my love to you
Nancy"


in the midst of darkness, there is a stirring, is it life? ... is it light? ... is it love?
yes, yes, yes ... amazingly yes, graciously yes, miraculously yes - amen!

Waiting

"Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal." -Jesus

"... in spring the swelling earth aches for seeds of new life ..." -Horace

in the darkness, there is a stirring, is it life? ... is it light? ... is it love?

we are waiting

Good Friday

... into the darkened soil a seed was buried today -

Wage Peace

This is a beautiful prayer ... I was so touched that I wanted to share it. I needed these words today - Do any of you find similar words that touch you in such deep places?


Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.


wage peace - judyth hill - september 12, 2001