Writing Prompt 37

What does living water mean to you? Where do you find it? How do you immerse in it? Use your senses to describe it.

Surfing in Living Water

I'm thinking about living water this week. Jesus offers it to the Samaritan woman at the well in this Sunday's lectionary reading from John's gospel. Water was my first experience of God and body surfing a formative experience as I grew up in Seal Beach. This is one of my earliest poems, not my best writing, but even coming back to it after almost ten years, I still find Jesus in the water.


Church of Living Water


"You're abandoning God," your mother
proclaimed on Sunday mornings
and drove her station wagon to a stagnant building
where the fear-broken tried to cast out damnation

With your back to sunrise
you walked barefoot across town
shifting the board in your grasp
and slipped under the surf

You paddled through years of blue-green mornings
salt-wind washing your bruised feet
and recovered from countless sand drills
when the sea spat you ashore

You outlasted the cool crowd
and the bronzed beach babes,
who drifted to another fad

The currents haven't changed
you remain faithful
in the quiet when even gulls are silent
waiting for the mother of waves

When she arrives, you embrace the swollen water
The force of moon-pull suspends you
alongside ocean's eternal walls

You slice through gravity
Jesus walks the infinite wave with you
aligned in uncontrollable rightness
before you plunge into living water

Writing Prompt 36

Write about temptation in your life...minor all things chocolate or major really, all things chocolate depending on how deep you feel like digging. If you dig deep, what nuggets of gold will you find in the pile?

The Upside of Temptation

Today is the first Sunday of Lent and the themes of temptation present themselves. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus heads into the wilderness after his baptism to wrestle with his call. Satan appears offering Jesus’ several opportunities almost too good to pass up––

1. Turn these stones into bread. Wouldn’t he crave fresh bread steaming from the oven, some comfort food after 40 days of locusts and honey, or the wilderness roughage diet? I see this as the temptation of More. Satisfying my every desire will bring happiness. I know it won’t, and I just put myself on the waiting list for a Kindle, so perhaps it’s hypocritical for me to blog about resisting temptation.

2. Throw yourself off the temple spire. Cause a scene, grab some attention, force God to swoop to the rescue. I call this the temptation of Rescue. I throw myself into a precarious situation either, or I’m not paying attention and I fall, or am pushed, and instead of taking care of my mess, doing my healing work, I yell, “Hey God!” (Feel free to substitute your chosen savior or enabler for God, e.g. spouse, parent), “Save me!” usually from my actions and myself.

3. Choose the easy path and you’ll get fame, glory and political power. Head rush galore. I name this the temptation of Influence, or It’s all about me! Secretly, or not so secretly, I want to be worshipped and adored. I want everyone to agree with me, and the world to cooperate and operate according to my agenda.


Jesus doesn’t cave to temptation the way I do frequently. He remains firm in his discernment of God’s desires for his life work. He’s famished but he’s not starving to death, he doesn’t need to use his power to satisfy a whim, he values relationship with God more. And, he won’t hesitate later, though to feed the crowds when they’re hungry. Think a few loaves, a handful of fish, thousands of people, a real need for food. Jesus won’t jump into folly, off the temple or any place else, he’s going to look before he leaps, and leap into something meaningful and deep (let’s hope a body of water, hah!). He’s not going to pursue worship and adoration through power, political or economic. He’s going to do his job, which requires every once of his life force, but he’s doing it for the greater good, not personal gain.

It all happens so fast on paper, but the way I think, temptation isn’t temptation, unless the opportunities and things dangled before you are something you really want––food after a fast, someone to rescue you from your reckless behavior––or provide an out to avoid your biggest fears or terrifyingly hard work. In my experience temptation isn’t a “no thanks” you give to a telemarketer, hang up and go about your day. Temptation rears it’s wooly head when I’m most vulnerable—emotionally, physically, spiritually. Sometimes I can keep my perspective and ask myself, will I be able to live with the consequences if I give into this temptation? No. Will my actions harm other people? Yes. When that happens, I can muster up the strength to say, “Away with you Satan.” But other times I act on impulse and have to muck through the consequences.

In temptation we run smack into the full extent of our humanity. Jesus was successful in his desert dance with the devil. Many of us are not. Although Jesus’ life doesn’t show us an example of temptation as a catalyst to turn our lives around, we can see it in the stories of some of the people he healed, “Go and sin no more,” and transformation is all around us. In my valley a former drug addict and self-described gang banger, met Jesus in jail and now ministers to troubled youth, helping them get off meth and out of gangs. My story is less dramatic, a mid-life crisis, “Who am I apart from my roles and wife and mother,” led to following God’s call to write.

The upside of temptation? Opportunities to examine our motives, our resolve, our deepest selves and our relationship with God and those close to us. Tests, that we can take again and again, unlimited chances to improve our grades. I always liked school, even tests; especially blue book essays…Get out the pen and write.

Writing Prompt 36

Have you experienced an Ash Wednesday service? Do you remember what it felt like to have ashes imposed on your head for the first time? Write about it. Include all your senses.

Or--Think about ashes--from a fireplace, a campfire, a house fire, a person you loved. Write that story.

Ash Wednesday

Soon I will be marked
smudge of ashes
across my forehead
gritty remains of fire
smeared on my skin
a small grating
anticipated

I don’t absorb them
the soot the meaning
of the moment
as deeply as I desire
What more do I expect
long for as Lent
lengthens before me

Seraphim and the bite
of coal against my lips
the taste of fire
lighting my tongue
searing me into
proclamation

I am God’s
God is mine
revealed in Jesus
I will never comprehend it
completely

Writing Workshop March 8

Holy Ink: Telling Our Stories
Writing Workshop
in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Sat. March 8; 9:30 am to 4 pm
Led by Cathy Warner

Explore your life, unearth your memories, name what you know, find the words, tell your story!

Join in a day of writing. We will focus on personal and family stories, life journeys, and spiritual experiences. Sharing is optional and conducted in a supportive environment.

$25 registration includes morning continental breakfast, beverages, snacks and materials.
Bring: lunch (or visit local market/restaurants), journal or notebook & pen, or laptop computer. Held at Cathy’s home in Boulder Creek, Santa Cruz mountains. Lunchtime recreation includes use of hot tub, relaxing in gardens and scenic walks, weather permitting.

United Methodist Advanced Lay speaking credit available on request. “Lay Speakers Tell Stories” text (purchased separately) includes section on writing as ministry.

To pre-register or for more info, email: cathy_warner@bcumc.com
Registration Deadline: March 3, 2008. Address & directions will be sent upon registration.