SMALLBONES SAGA 2020
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2020, as we heard ad nauseum, was unprecedented. We’ve made jokes about it, mourned, gotten angry, grew weary of face masks and social distancing, limitations and restrictions, stay-at-home orders, and adding to our woes in the U.S., we wearied of the brutal presidential elections that ended with the loser (aka Trump) making all kinds of false accusations, promoting all kinds of conspiracy theories about fraud, even attempting to overthrow the results and refusing to concede. I haven’t been to church since end of March, meet with spiritual directees via Zoom, cancelled a scheduled day-long retreat in May, avoided brick and mortar shopping as much as possible (many where I live believe coronavirus is exaggerated, a hoax or fake news so they refuse to wear masks or social distance). Only occasionally do I meet with friends for a meal, cheese and wine, coffee and chocolate. In a word, 2020 sucked! Roll in 2021.
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Rainbow of Hope for 2021
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So I wrote another book, Unprecedented Prayers for Unprecedented Times. It contains 22 devotions on 22 unprecedented prayers in the Bible. The ancients called these prayers laments, a nice word for a complaint, because the pray-ers complain to God about everything that upsets normal life, be that sickness, injustice, hardship and yes, even a deadly pestilence like this coronavirus. My book is available at https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jackie-smallbones/unprecedented-prayers-for-unprecedented-times/paperback/product-85vmyr.html?page=1&pageSize=4 and also at: https://www.amazon.com/Unprecedented-Prayers-Times-Jackie-Smallbones/dp/1716798566. Through the end of 2020 all profits from sales will be donated to a local foodbank.
These unprecedented times have forced us to discover new ways to live, stay healthy, keep hope alive, and draw from deep wells. To give space for this, I offered a weekly group lectio divina (prayerful reflection on Scripture) on Zoom. I’d never done this before and had no idea whether it would work or not, but, as the old saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” We met once a week in June and, because that worked so well, we continued meeting twice a month through the end of October. One of the advantages of Zoom was including people from around the U.S. and the world. We were enriched with input from very different cultures and backgrounds. Virtual gatherings have their limitations and drawbacks, but they also have some positive gifts to offer, and the Spirit still works through virtual means, as we discovered. I have also planned a morning virtual Advent retreat (Dec 5) to begin the Advent journey.
I invite you to join me in reading your Bible daily with Advent devotions on Scripture related to the Advent season. Devotions begin on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, and will appear every day through Christmas Day at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/advent-2020
Being forced to spend more time at home, I did more reading! No hardship for me😊. As the pandemic began, I reread Etty Hillesum’s An Interrupted Life. Hillesum was a young Jewish Dutch woman who died in Auschwitz in 1943 after spending time in a concentration camp in Holland. Her wisdom and acceptance of her suffering challenged me to think more deeply and more hopefully. She discovered a deeper relationship with God in the suffering all around her and, despite the horrors, she grew into a deeper belief in the truth that “God is love,” which she said was “truer now than ever.” One of her short prayers has become something of a mantra for me as I struggle with the failure of the Trump administration to deal with covid-19, turning it into a political stunt to win support for his failed re-election bid, and as I keep wanting to tell God what to do about it, I often pray: “I shall let you make your own decisions, O God.”
One of things I’ve struggled with in this era of Trump is how many sincere Christians support him, no matter how profane, immoral, corrupt, un-Christian he behaves and why they are shocked that I didn’t, indeed couldn’t vote for Trump. Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation helped me understand. Her book reinforced my belief that our picture of Jesus will determine what we believe and, more importantly, how we live. As I’ve learned over the years, it’s easy to create a Jesus who backs my causes, priorities, political agendas, etc., rather than accepting Jesus as he is revealed in Scripture, especially the Gospels. The Jesus of many has little in common with the Jesus I read about in the Gospels. A question that continues to haunt me when I read the Gospels is this: If Jesus came to my part of the world today and lived and taught as he did 2000 years ago in Palestine, would I still follow him; would I go to the places and people to whom he went; would I risk my reputation by being seen with the wrong sort? There are days when honesty forces me to confess ‘maybe not.’
I think the one thing the Trump era has done for me, for which I’m grateful, is to reflect more seriously about the Jesus I love and the kind of Jesus-follower (Christian) I want to be. In a word, I want to be a follower who loves as Jesus loved. I therefore appreciated the Czech writer, Tomáš Halík’s I Want You to Be, a book on the love of God which, he maintains, always includes love of neighbor (in Jesus’ teaching this is anyone, regardless of race, creed, gender, gender orientation whom I happen to meet). The title comes from a saying attributed to St Augustine: “I love you. I want you to be.” That’s what true love does, never forcing a person into a mold of our making, just letting them be themselves. Halík also reminded me that “to love God and experience his love means saying all the time a mature and faithful yes to life.” Another mantra to repeat regularly.
So, I invite you to love God and, despite the hardships of a global pandemic, disastrous responses from political leaders, keep saying a mature and faithful yes to life and to God. And may you experience a life-giving Christmas and New Year that is considerably better than 2020.
Some of my writings this year
I was in South Africa for 2 months, returning to the US mid-February; just in time, as it turned out since S. Africa shut down for protection against covid-19 and all flights, including international ones were cancelled. I describe some of my most adventurous experiences in “SA 2020 Adventures” which can read at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/sa-2020-adventures.html
If you, like me, struggle with prayer and praying meaningfully, read my article on how the Psalms train us in prayer, and thus are necessary for our spiritual growth. “Teach us to Pray: The Psalms as necessary training ground,” is available at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/psalms-and-prayer.html
This new Church Year (begins on 1st Sunday of Advent, November 29) features the Gospel of Mark. I spent over 2 years steeping myself in Mark and ended writing a book with 100 daily devotions, all from Mark. I didn’t plan 100 days, it just ended up that way. Perhaps I could have added a few more, but I certainly couldn’t have done it in less. Journey to Jesus with Mark’s Gospel as Guide is the most significant book I’ve written thus far and has had most impact on my own life. It challenged and helped form how I continue to think about Jesus and what it means to follow him. It has also affected how I read the Gospels, and indeed all of Scripture. If you desire to deepen your spiritual life I invite you to buy my book and spend 100 days with Mark. And, it will make a great Christmas gift for your family or friends who desire to know Jesus in ways that will transform their lives. It is available at: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jacqueline-smallbones/journey-to-jesus/paperback/product-1qkzqyrq.html?page=1&pageSize=4
These unprecedented times have forced us to discover new ways to live, stay healthy, keep hope alive, and draw from deep wells. To give space for this, I offered a weekly group lectio divina (prayerful reflection on Scripture) on Zoom. I’d never done this before and had no idea whether it would work or not, but, as the old saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained.” We met once a week in June and, because that worked so well, we continued meeting twice a month through the end of October. One of the advantages of Zoom was including people from around the U.S. and the world. We were enriched with input from very different cultures and backgrounds. Virtual gatherings have their limitations and drawbacks, but they also have some positive gifts to offer, and the Spirit still works through virtual means, as we discovered. I have also planned a morning virtual Advent retreat (Dec 5) to begin the Advent journey.
I invite you to join me in reading your Bible daily with Advent devotions on Scripture related to the Advent season. Devotions begin on the first Sunday of Advent, November 29, and will appear every day through Christmas Day at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/advent-2020
Being forced to spend more time at home, I did more reading! No hardship for me😊. As the pandemic began, I reread Etty Hillesum’s An Interrupted Life. Hillesum was a young Jewish Dutch woman who died in Auschwitz in 1943 after spending time in a concentration camp in Holland. Her wisdom and acceptance of her suffering challenged me to think more deeply and more hopefully. She discovered a deeper relationship with God in the suffering all around her and, despite the horrors, she grew into a deeper belief in the truth that “God is love,” which she said was “truer now than ever.” One of her short prayers has become something of a mantra for me as I struggle with the failure of the Trump administration to deal with covid-19, turning it into a political stunt to win support for his failed re-election bid, and as I keep wanting to tell God what to do about it, I often pray: “I shall let you make your own decisions, O God.”
One of things I’ve struggled with in this era of Trump is how many sincere Christians support him, no matter how profane, immoral, corrupt, un-Christian he behaves and why they are shocked that I didn’t, indeed couldn’t vote for Trump. Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation helped me understand. Her book reinforced my belief that our picture of Jesus will determine what we believe and, more importantly, how we live. As I’ve learned over the years, it’s easy to create a Jesus who backs my causes, priorities, political agendas, etc., rather than accepting Jesus as he is revealed in Scripture, especially the Gospels. The Jesus of many has little in common with the Jesus I read about in the Gospels. A question that continues to haunt me when I read the Gospels is this: If Jesus came to my part of the world today and lived and taught as he did 2000 years ago in Palestine, would I still follow him; would I go to the places and people to whom he went; would I risk my reputation by being seen with the wrong sort? There are days when honesty forces me to confess ‘maybe not.’
I think the one thing the Trump era has done for me, for which I’m grateful, is to reflect more seriously about the Jesus I love and the kind of Jesus-follower (Christian) I want to be. In a word, I want to be a follower who loves as Jesus loved. I therefore appreciated the Czech writer, Tomáš Halík’s I Want You to Be, a book on the love of God which, he maintains, always includes love of neighbor (in Jesus’ teaching this is anyone, regardless of race, creed, gender, gender orientation whom I happen to meet). The title comes from a saying attributed to St Augustine: “I love you. I want you to be.” That’s what true love does, never forcing a person into a mold of our making, just letting them be themselves. Halík also reminded me that “to love God and experience his love means saying all the time a mature and faithful yes to life.” Another mantra to repeat regularly.
So, I invite you to love God and, despite the hardships of a global pandemic, disastrous responses from political leaders, keep saying a mature and faithful yes to life and to God. And may you experience a life-giving Christmas and New Year that is considerably better than 2020.
Some of my writings this year
I was in South Africa for 2 months, returning to the US mid-February; just in time, as it turned out since S. Africa shut down for protection against covid-19 and all flights, including international ones were cancelled. I describe some of my most adventurous experiences in “SA 2020 Adventures” which can read at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/sa-2020-adventures.html
If you, like me, struggle with prayer and praying meaningfully, read my article on how the Psalms train us in prayer, and thus are necessary for our spiritual growth. “Teach us to Pray: The Psalms as necessary training ground,” is available at: https://www.storymakerlife.com/psalms-and-prayer.html
This new Church Year (begins on 1st Sunday of Advent, November 29) features the Gospel of Mark. I spent over 2 years steeping myself in Mark and ended writing a book with 100 daily devotions, all from Mark. I didn’t plan 100 days, it just ended up that way. Perhaps I could have added a few more, but I certainly couldn’t have done it in less. Journey to Jesus with Mark’s Gospel as Guide is the most significant book I’ve written thus far and has had most impact on my own life. It challenged and helped form how I continue to think about Jesus and what it means to follow him. It has also affected how I read the Gospels, and indeed all of Scripture. If you desire to deepen your spiritual life I invite you to buy my book and spend 100 days with Mark. And, it will make a great Christmas gift for your family or friends who desire to know Jesus in ways that will transform their lives. It is available at: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/jacqueline-smallbones/journey-to-jesus/paperback/product-1qkzqyrq.html?page=1&pageSize=4
