Shannon's Corner

  SHANNON’S CORNER AARGH…UGH...HUMPH...      As I sit to write this newsletter it has been a struggle to know what to share and write since this month has been very mundane.  As I type the word  mundane  it led me to think about the book,  The Sacred Mundane  by Connie Befus that I just finished reading.  It is the author’s journey of how to practice Romans 12:1 of being a living sacrifice…a spiritual act of worship.  She shares how often we separate things and people into the categories like the sacred and the mundane.  And yet God, who is omnipresent and omniscient meaning He is in it all.  Everything.  This concept has made me to stop and ponder how often in my own life I separate things without realizing it – this is God’s and this is mine.  How can I invite God into the daily, ordinary, mundane aspects of my life?  What does that look like?  Maybe we can...

  SHANNON’S CORNER Celebrations… …hearing stories and testimonies of how God is transforming the lives of the women who I met at the retreat Bethann, and I facilitated for Light of Life Mission.  Being invited into their pain, hurt, and unresolved grief as they felt safe to share those parts of themselves.  Just like the blindman in Luke 18 shouted, “Son of David have mercy on me.”  The crowd tried to shush him, and he shouted even louder.  Again, the crowd told him to shut up.  The blindman was desperate for Jesus and so he shouted even more loudly, and Jesus stopped.  What is it you need from Jesus that you need to shout out to him?  One area that was prevalent in the stories shared was so much unresolved grief.  Giving them language around grief.  How unresolved grief stacks up like a tower and eventually it will fall over if we do not take the time to unstack each block – the loss – by naming, acknowledging, validating its impact to ...

   SHANNON’S CORNER What a beautiful blessing from God is the gift of friendship.   Those folks who not only love you but know you, a deep connection.     I spent a few days with my friend, Fanny, and her family.     I got to be a part of her everyday life, participating in her women’s bible study, helping her to m ake papa relleno (stuffed mashed potato), staying up late talking, and finishing the final edits of the book, The Invitation into Spanish.     In translating this book, Fanny and I talked about how we felt the weight and responsibility of staying true to the author’s message yet in a way that makes sense to the audience.     It gave us a small glimpse into the work of Bible translators as they translate God’s Word into the various languages so people can read and understand God’s word. Lent, Holy Week, and Easter Sunday can be described as riding a roller coaster where your emotions and thoughts are at times the lowest of...