Comments on: MARCH 6 – FROM FIREWOOD TO BEAUTY http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/ Advent and Lenten devotions by Goshen College students, faculty and staff Tue, 02 Apr 2013 01:56:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Dolores Nice-Siegenthaler http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-91 Dolores Nice-Siegenthaler Fri, 06 Mar 2009 22:40:18 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-91 The place of suffering I am meditating with this Lent is a small clay pot of soil I filtered from my back yard. Everyday I touch it, stir it, put a small mound in the palm of my hand. To me, something about bare soil is like an open wound. I want to 'improve' it, cover it up, grow something in it, ignore it. But I keep going back to it every day. I especially notice how 'potent' it is to read today's scripture and meditation while holding this 'ordinary,' (wounded?) soil. Thank you. The place of suffering I am meditating with this Lent is a small clay pot of soil I filtered from my back yard. Everyday I touch it, stir it, put a small mound in the palm of my hand. To me, something about bare soil is like an open wound. I want to ‘improve’ it, cover it up, grow something in it, ignore it. But I keep going back to it every day. I especially notice how ‘potent’ it is to read today’s scripture and meditation while holding this ‘ordinary,’ (wounded?) soil. Thank you.

]]> By: John Hackman http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-90 John Hackman Fri, 06 Mar 2009 21:05:21 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-90 I burn many cords of wood each winter for the supplemental heating of our old house. Most of my neighbors know this and come to me to work up an old tulip, apple, cherry, dead and deseased dutch elm for fire wood. In thirty three years I have never paid a cent for wood and very little fossil fuel to haul it to my house. Even a next door neighbors old hard to split giant box elder that I cut up and burned this past winter provided warmth for our bodies but it also warmed our hearts for our generous neighbors who thought we were doing them a favor by cleaning up their dead unwanted wood. Gifts created out of an old apple trunk that are shaped by the artist are also gifts to me in warmth from a neighbor when I recycle and use the wood and conserve on the costly production and use of other fossil fuels. Others also provide the raw resouces for us to use in the testimony of simple living. John Hackman I burn many cords of wood each winter for the supplemental heating of our old house. Most of my neighbors know this and come to me to work up an old tulip, apple, cherry, dead and deseased dutch elm for fire wood. In thirty three years I have never paid a cent for wood and very little fossil fuel to haul it to my house. Even a next door neighbors old hard to split giant box elder that I cut up and burned this past winter provided warmth for our bodies but it also warmed our hearts for our generous neighbors who thought we were doing them a favor by cleaning up their dead unwanted wood. Gifts created out of an old apple trunk that are shaped by the artist are also gifts to me in warmth from a neighbor when I recycle and use the wood and conserve on the costly production and use of other fossil fuels. Others also provide the raw resouces for us to use in the testimony of simple living.

John Hackman

]]> By: Annabelle Lerch http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-89 Annabelle Lerch Fri, 06 Mar 2009 17:44:38 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-89 Thank you for a beautiful analogy! We appreciate your dedication to our alma mater and to environmental learning at Goshen College. Thank you for a beautiful analogy! We appreciate your dedication to our alma mater and to environmental learning at Goshen College.

]]> By: Meghan Hoover http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-88 Meghan Hoover Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:36:06 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-88 that was really beautiful -- thank you. that was really beautiful — thank you.

]]> By: Pam Harrison http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-87 Pam Harrison Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:31:38 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-87 THe real fruit of an apple tree is not an apple but another apple tree or a beautiful bowl - faith to struggle to something new, God's blessings to all. THe real fruit of an apple tree is not an apple but another apple tree or a beautiful bowl – faith to struggle to something new, God’s blessings to all.

]]> By: Jim Rowley http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/firewood-to-beauty/#comment-86 Jim Rowley Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:17:30 +0000 http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/?p=103#comment-86 Coincided nicely with my meditation today from James 4 which says evil is knowing what to do but not doing it. Jesus tells us clearly here what we need to do but it is hard. His Will, not mine, be done! Coincided nicely with my meditation today from James 4 which says evil is knowing what to do but not doing it. Jesus tells us clearly here what we need to do but it is hard. His Will, not mine, be done!

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