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A Christmas Blessing

12/20/2014

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The Definition of "Blessing" The poet David Whyte once said, "To bless someone is to invite them to enter into the story."

    The Christmas Story To give someone a Christmas blessing is to invite them into the Christmas story:

  • To say "yes" to God's call even when we have no experience (Mary)
  • To give birth to miracles even after we are old (Elizabeth)
  • To be content with a supporting role (Joseph)
  • To be willing to leave work early to be a witness to good news (Shepherds)
  • To go travelling in search of the truth (The Wise Men)
   
Reflection Questions
What is the most intriguing part of the Christmas story to you?

What part of the story are you being invited to experience?

To whom can you invite into the Christmas story?


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A Truth for All Times

6/28/2014

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Picture
In Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Beloved, a white woman named Amy finds a black woman in the woods about to give birth. Sethe, a runaway slave on her way to Ohio, is not sure at first whether to trust her.
 
Certainly Amy shares her culture's view that Sethe, as a black woman, is inferior to her in intelligence. But the kindness in Amy overrules all else and instead of doing what the law requires—turn her in—she lifts up Sethe's swollen feet and begins to tenderly massage them. Sethe begins to cry.
 
“It’s gonna hurt, now,” said Amy. “Anything dead coming back to life hurts.”
 
“A truth for all times,” the story’s narrator observes.


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Secrets

3/13/2014

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Click here to see a humorous excerpt from the classic TV show I’ve Got a Secret. Guests on the show would come on stage and whisper their secret into Garry’s ear. (The secret was then revealed to the audience.) The panelists would ask questions to try to uncover the secret. It was always great fun when the secret was revealed to the panel—whether it was shocking or unusual or simply unexpected. Good energy is released when a secret becomes known.
In Frank Delaney’s epic novel about Ireland, the narrator tells us that every person has three dimensions to his/her life:
  1. The public life,
  2. The private life, and
  3. The secret life.
The story Delaney weaves aptly demonstrates that the untold secrets we hold inside ourselves play out in our actions in unpredictable ways. We are the only ones we are really hiding our secrets from. Everyone else already “knows.” Or at the very least, they “know” that we are hiding something.
In Delaney’s story, a family goes to great lengths to hide the secret about the true parentage of a young boy. The child is aware that he is not being told the whole truth. This child is not able to come into his full manhood until he discovers the truth about himself.

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    Margaret Morgan Maat
    Margaret Morgan Maat is a minister, coach, organizational effectiveness consultant, musician and motivational speaker. She lives in Houston, Texas. 

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Margaret Morgan Maat | 281-913-3328 | Houston, Texas

Visit Ignite the Change, Margaret’s website focusing on
revitalizing the institutions that shape our children’s future.
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