…the rest of us… …who have waited… and waited… far longer than we wanted or was comfortable. …who have mourned and are still mourning… and may never stop mourning because letting go of the grief feels like a betrayal of all we’ve lost. …who are struggling… with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and terminal illness… or maybe… just life. …who feel unseen… unheard… misunderstood… forgotten… by others… by God. …who have prayed all the prayers and have simply run out of prayers… whose prayers have been reduced to silence.
…if you feel lost, invisible or engulfed by pain… these prayers are for you.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2 ESV
As we journey through Advent, we are reminded again that it is typically described as a season of waiting. Even more so, as a season of waiting in darkness. Our first week we lit a candle of Hope. Last week we lit another candle, a candle of Peace. This week we light another candle to push back the darkness… the candle of Joy.
Not sure about you, but joy in seasons of darkness can seem not merely impossible, but unreasonable. Is it even reasonable to seek joy in the midst of great pain?
…the rest of us… …who have waited… and waited… far longer than we wanted or was comfortable. …who have mourned and are still mourning… and may never stop mourning because letting go of the grief feels like a betrayal of all we’ve lost. …who are struggling… with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and terminal illness… or maybe… just life. …who feel unseen… unheard… misunderstood… forgotten… by others… by God. …who have prayed all the prayers and have simply run out of prayers… whose prayers have been reduced to silence.
…if you feel lost, invisible or engulfed by pain… these prayers are for you.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2 ESV
As we journey through Advent, we are reminded that it is typically described as a season of waiting. Even more so, as a season of waiting in darkness. Last week we lit a candle of Hope. This week we light another candle… two candles now pushing back the darkness. A candle of Peace.
But where is peace in the darkness?
Peace is really hard to come by in the midst of dark seasons in our journey. Especially when we strive against the disorienting uncertainty of darkness. In my darkest places, striving might’ve been an understatement. I was fighting back… swinging punches into the darkness as if my life depended on it… but never hitting a thing. At the end of that fighting… that wrestling… came pure exhaustion… but then, surprisingly, peace. Settling in like a blanket of snow that comes silently falling through the night. I awakened to the blinding white of winter, shut my eyes, and waited… and, somewhere in the midst of that winter season, found my breath again. It was there… waiting for me all along… waiting for me to stop long enough to find it once more.
…the rest of us… …who have waited… and waited… far longer than we wanted or was comfortable. …who have mourned and are still mourning… and may never stop mourning because letting go of the grief feels like a betrayal of all we’ve lost. …who are struggling… with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and terminal illness… or maybe… just life. …who feel unseen… unheard… misunderstood… forgotten… by others… by God. …who have prayed all the prayers and have simply run out of prayers… whose prayers have been reduced to silence.
…if you feel lost, invisible or engulfed by pain… these prayers are for you.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. Isaiah 9:2 ESV
Advent is typically described as a season of waiting. Even more so, as a season of waiting in darkness. The first week of Advent, a single candle is lit… a single candle pushing back the vast, encompassing darkness. This candle represents hope.
In seasons of darkness, silence and waiting, hope doesn’t come easy or cheap. Hope is costly. Hope stands when it feels like sinking. Hope reaches when it would rather withdraw. Hope keeps moving forward… even into the most mundane acts of ‘normalcy’… whatever that is. Hope keeps on hoping, even when all seems hopeless.
God Rested by Andrew Peterson So they took His body down The man who said He was the resurrection and the life Lifeless on the ground The sky was red as blood along the blade of night As the sabbath fell they shrouded Him in linen They dressed Him like a wound The rich man and the women They laid Him in the tomb So they laid their hopes away They buried all their dreams about the kingdom He proclaimed And they sealed them in the grave As a holy silence fell on all Jerusalem But the Pharisees were restless Pilate had no peace And Peter’s heart was reckless Mary couldn’t sleep But God rested… Six days shall you labor The seventh is the Lord’s In six He made the earth and all the heavens But He rested on the seventh He said that it was finished And the seventh day, He blessed it God rested…
God rested… as Jesus, his own son, was “laid to rest” in death, God himself rested. The lifeless body of our Lord and Savior lay in rest… in complete stillness… no breath, no heartbeat, no blood coursing through his veins… motionless and quiet in death. And, because it was the Sabbath day he had ordained from the dawn of Creation, God rested.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength.” Isaiah 30:15
Our salvation lies in the quiet rest of God. Even in the very moment that split all of human time and existence in two (BC/AD), God rested and by implication, Jesus did too. Sabbath was meant for rest. Even God himself did not break Sabbath to resurrect his own Son! But Sabbath sets on Saturday evening… and Jesus didn’t rise until Sunday morning…
…The sun went down… the sabbath faded The holy day was done and all creation waited…
This is the moment that all creation held its breath. As the sun faded over the horizon on Saturday, the sabbath day of rest had ended, but it wasn’t yet Sunday morning! We can only guess what happened from the setting of the sun on that sabbath to the rising of the sun on that “greatest of all gettin’ up mornings,” but somewhere, sometime, between that day of rest and the day we celebrate as Resurrection, his heart began to beat and his lungs filled with breath once more.
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Revelation 1:18
Have you ever considered that moment when Jesus’ lungs again—for the second time in his life here on earth—filled with air once more? Was it a slow awakening or a violent gasp? We will never know. Yet, somewhere in the darkness of that night and the even greater darkness of a sealed tomb, his lungs and heart came back to life.
His Heart Beats by Andrew Peterson His heart beats, His blood begins to flow Waking up what was dead a moment ago And His heart beats, now everything is changed ‘Cause the blood that brought us peace with God Is racing through His veins And His heart beats, His heart beats He breathes in, His living lungs expand The heavy air surrounding death turns to breath again He breathes out, He is word and flesh once more The Lamb of God slain for us is a Lion ready to roar And His heart beats
Scripture (1 Pet 4:6; Eph 4:9) and Christian tradition indicate that some time in the “silence” of Holy Saturday, Jesus plunged into the depths of hell where he defeated the ruler of this world, took the keys to the Kingdom, and preached the saving gospel to the righteous who had died before his atoning death on the cross. If we consider the notion that the Father observed the day of rest and Jesus laid in death’s motionless rest until the sunset on Sabbath, then Jesus had a mere 10-12 hours before the sun rose that Sunday morning! It sure sounds like he was busy… busy setting things right in this broken, chaotic and distorted world! Jesus, the son of Mary, the very son of Eve, the SOON-TO-BE-RESURRECTED Son of God, tread upon the head of the vile serpent (Gen 3:15)—the serpent who had spoken lies into the ear of God’s beautiful creation many thousands of years before, and a hundred million times since. The father of lies defeated!
Dr. Curt Thompson speaks of this theological tradition of Christ plunging into the depths of hell to preach the gospel message in his August 24, 2021 podcast Being Known: That’s a Wrap. He speaks of this verse found in 1st Peter upon which the tradition has its theological underpinnings:
But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. 1 Peter 4:5-6 ESV
Thompson goes on to say, “…Jesus preached to the dead. And what this tells us is that there is no part of our history that he’s not coming for. The parts of our lives that we thought were dead –he’s preaching to them and he’s asking them, he’s telling them to wake up because he’s got beauty and goodness waiting for you. …And there’s no stone we’re going to leave unturned. I’m coming for all of it.”
Christ speaking to all the dead places in our lives… all the events and memories that we’d rather leave dead and buried in the tombs of our pasts… those are the places Jesus won’t let rest. His blood poured out and body broken in order to bring his resurrecting, redeeming and restorative power to bear on the broken places of our lives. It is where our ashes become beauty, where our torn rags of mourning are traded for beautiful garments of praise, and where the lies spoken to us are trumped by a crown of glory and truth!!
His Heart Beats (con’t) The last enemy to be destroyed is death Christ must reign until no enemy is left The last enemy to be destroyed, to be destroyed is death His heart beats, He will never die again I know that death no longer has dominion over Him So my heart beats with the rhythm of the saints As I look for the seeds the King has sown To burst up from their graves I know, I know He took one breath and put death to death Where is your sting, O grave? How grave is your defeat How great, how great is His victory I know, I know His heart beats His heart beats So crown Him the Lord of Life Crown Him the Lord of Love Crown Him the Lord of All He took one breath and put death to death Where is your sting, O grave? How grave is your defeat I know, I know His heart beats He rises, glorified in flesh Clothed in immortality, the firstborn from the dead He rises, and His work’s already done So He’s resting as He rises to reclaim the Bride He won And His heart beats…
Like Jesus, from a place of Sabbath rest, we can move with Christ’s in resurrection power with humility and obedience as we bow our knees and hearts in reverence, our lives an offering to our Resurrected King Jesus. Let his heart beat in yours!
May the blessings of this Holy Saturday and Resurrection Sunday be upon you, Jody
Jody Thomae is an embodied spiritual director and hosts retreats through her ministry Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care. She is a graduate of Ashland Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing a doctorate in spiritual formation and relational neuroscience with a focus on embodiment and trauma-informed care at Western Theological Seminary. Her passion is for the person of Jesus Christ to be made more real through the revelation of creativity, embodiment and worship. Enjoy other Bible studies at here. If you’d like to learn more about embodying your spiritual life consider joining Jody at Rooted & Reaching Lakeside studio on the shores of Pleasant Hill Lake in North Central Ohio for a Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care (RREC) REtreat or the RREC Christian Embodiment Training. Sign up here to be notified of retreats, trainings and workshops geared towards creativity, embodiment and spirituality.
In O My Soul, we bring the psalmist’s cry to our practices of movement, breath and stillness. This cry of the various writers of the Psalms is a specific cry — one that includes the phrase “my soul.” Over and over throughout the Psalms we hear the cry of “my soul” — we will explore 44 of those in this book. Like my previous release Jesus In My Practice, each passage is explored through a brief summary and explanation of its context, relevant cultural notes, thoughts to ruminate as you consider the psalm, ideas for your practice of mindful movement, a short breath prayer and poem, and songs to accompany your movement practice, if desired. Also includes white space and journal prompts to write about your experience with the material.
This is a great resource for anyone who is interested in bringing their bodies to their study and experience of scripture. It can be used individually or in groups and is also a useful resource for teachers of movement, dance, meditation and breathwork, as well as somatic workers and body-based therapists. Available in hardback and softcover editions.
Check out this and all my other resources on Amazon today! All my resources are designed as explorations of discovery… of scripture… of our BEaUtiful embodied selves… of all we were created to be! Come explore what it means to live a whole-hearted, fully-embodied life… the kardia καρδία life!
Jody Thomae is a graduate of Ashland Theological Seminary and is currently pursuing a doctorate in spiritual formation and relational neuroscience at Western Theological Seminary. Her passion is for the person of Jesus Christ to be made more real through the revelation of creativity, embodiment and worship. Find individual examples of her Bible studies at www.jodythomae.com. She is an embodied spiritual director and hosts retreats through her ministry Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care. Sign up here to be notified of retreats, trainings and workshops geared towards creativity, embodiment and spirituality.
Is there a desire in your spirit to live to live a deeper, richer, fully-embodied, whole-hearted life? In the Ancient Greek, καρδία (kardia) is translated “heart,” and in scripture, it is almost always used figuratively. It means the seat and center of all physical and spiritual life, and according to the Thayer Greek Lexicon, it is “the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors.” Note it is physical and spiritual… together… as one. Its meaning holds a sense of the whole person—mind, body, heart, soul, spirit.
At Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care, we explore this καρδία (kardia) life through a series of 3-day retreats and a yearly 4-day retreat-like training, hosted and led by Jody Thomae, author and teacher on creativity, spirituality and embodiment, at her private home studio, Rooted & Reaching Lakeside, at Pleasant Hill Lake near the Mohican Forest in beautiful North Central Ohio.
Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care REtreats revolve around a variety of themes and are designed as an opportunity for you to withdrawal from the demands of daily life and set aside sacred time for rest and reflection, prayer and worship, movement and mindfulness, creativity and exploration. Together we journey with sacred rhythms—again and again—in Christ-centered community, spending time in embodied prayer, mindful creativity, adapted Christ-centered yoga practice, Biblical teaching and exploration, and worshipful movement. CLICK HERE to find out more information, including dates, costs, etc.
Resources geared towards those who want to explore how to live a more whole-hearted, fully-embodied life…
Voices of Wisdom in the Body: a Christ-Centered & Bible-Based Exploration of Energy As the title suggests, this is a Christ-centered and Bible-based exploration of energy through the lens of the body’s voices of wisdom. This Bible study and guide encourages the reader to listen to the voices of wisdom within our wonderfully created bodies. When we tune into the energy of our bodies, they speak to us with a wisdom. Tight shoulders, knotted guts, broken hearts, wringing hands, tired feet… all tell us of the stress, worry and tension we are carrying. Lightness, freedom, flexibility, resiliency, health, well-being and vibrancy tell us a different story. I invite you to join us in this exploration and discussion of the wisdom our body has been speaking and revealing all along.
8.5 x 11″ Workbook (textbook) format includes Bible studies, body-based prayers, affirmations, songs suggestions for reflection and movement, somatic explorations for engaging the body, as well as white space for reflection and journaling. This work has gone through an extensive peer review in deep conversation with an amazing group of Christ-centered body-based therapists and Christian leaders. The book is available in two formats: the original Voices of Wisdom in the Body is geared towards body-based teachers, therapists and bodyworkers and includes guided meditations, yoga nidra, EFT tapping, body-focused Enneagram activations and more! The Voices of Wisdom in the Body (Group Study GuideEdition) was created to use alongside Voices of Wisdom in a class or group Bible study or for individual client and student use and does not include the extensive review of energy nor the meditations and scripts in the back of the book.
In a devotional format with white space and prompts for journaling, this book asks: What can we learn from the questions Jesus asked as he and his friends journeyed the dry, arid lands surrounding Jerusalem? What does it look like to explore the teachings of Jesus to live a richer, fuller, more embodied life of grace, in harmony with others? A life that does not seek to cause harm to others? A life lived from a place of love rather than judgment? More pointedly: How can we bring these questions of Jesus to our “mats” — our studios, our meditation rooms, our sacred spaces — in our own practices of movement and meditation? And how do those questions inform our lives?
Each question of Jesus is explored through a brief summary and explanation of its context, relevant cultural notes, thoughts to ruminate as you consider the question, ideas for your practice of mindful movement, a short breath prayer and poem, and songs to accompany your movement practice, if desired. The book is written in a seeker-sensitive style for people of all religions and belief systems to enjoy.
Mary approached Jesus, saw Him, fell at His feet, and cried, “Lord, if only You had been here, my brother would still be alive.”
When Jesus saw Mary’s profound grief and the moaning and weeping of her companions, He was deeply moved by their pain in His spirit and was intensely troubled.
“Where have you laid his body?” asked Jesus.
“Come and see, Lord.”
As they walked, Jesus wept.
John 11:32-35
I have read and studied the story of the rising of Lazarus in John 11 many, many times. Each time, something rises to the surface and lays hold of my heart. Recently, it is this line in verse 34: “Come and see, Lord.”
As a church body, we’ve been reading in John leading up to Easter. Pastor Bill dug into this passage this past Sunday. Of course, there’s so much to dig into here. He was leading up to the famous “Jesus wept” (verse 35) as one of his main points… how Jesus is moved by our pain. However, I got stuck here in verse 34 at “Come and see, Lord.”
I kept rolling that phrase over and over in my mind. How often have you said to Jesus, “Come and see”…asked him to come and see the places of pain and grief and death in your life? I’m certain that many times in my life I’ve simply wanted to get to the “good part”… the part where Jesus shouts, “Lazarus, come forth!” and Lazarus steps out of his grave, alive and well, and ready to be loosed from his grave clothes.
But what does it look like to allow Jesus to walk alongside us in our painful places, to allow him to weep with us, to share in our sorrow and suffering? What does it look like to slow down the “I-want-healing-now” place in our spirit that clamors for attention and a quick resolution? Can we slow down enough to show him the places of our greatest wounding, the pieces of our broken hearts, so he can carefully and lovingly put them back together?
“Come and see” speaks to the heart of healing… the place where our pain is seen, heard, recognized and validated as real and worthy of another’s eyes. So many that work in the area of trauma tell us that because we are harmed in community, we must be healed in community. And yet we know that often our places of trauma and wounding have been hidden away… even if we’ve tried to share or get help, our cries were often unheeded, our voices were quieted, our pain was shoved under the rug or into the closet where no one would see or know… ever! The world has taught us to be ashamed, to never talk about it or bring it up again.
But the body and soul won’t have it…
Crying to be heard and seen and felt and recognized, our bodies and souls have lashed out in a thousand different ways… pleading for our pain to be acknowledged.
“Come and see, Lord.”
Come and see the places where my pain has been unacknowledged, where my voice has gone unheeded, where my story has been deemed unworthy of being told.
Like the shards of broken pottery, each piece of our story must be collected from the rubble, dusted off and examined by the Potter, the Soul’s Creator. We must be given voice to tell the story of every piece… how the rough edges have formed calluses on our hearts… how the dirty pieces have caused infection in the deep places within our spirit… how some pieces have disintegrated into dust, never to be found or repaired, but remembered by the body nonetheless…
Slowly, painstakingly, we must tell the story of each and every shard, allowing Jesus to walk with us, weep with us, as we do. And as Jesus hears and sees each one, the Master Artisan of Kintsugi can begin to gently mend the fragmented pieces back together with the golden epoxy of his mercy, grace and love.
“Come and see, Lord.”
“Come and see.”
In the coming Holy Week, spend some time reflecting on the last seven statements of Jesus spoken from the cross through the art, poetry and song with the “7” Virtual Art-Walk series:
Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You and The Creator’s Healing Power—Restoring the Broken to Beautiful, both in-depth, interactive devotional books in the Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series that serve as resources for creative Christians, artists, and lovers of beauty and worship. Jody has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as an arts ministry pastor and worship leader and is a guest lecturer on creativity, embodiment, and spirituality with Healing Care Ministries. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and the use of creativity in formational and healing ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. She is particularly interested in the reclamation of the body in the healing journey and works in the area of embodiment, wounding and trauma through her work as a somatic therapist and an embodied spiritual director through Rooted & Reaching Embodied Care: Integrated Spiritual Direction and Caregiving for the Mind, Body, Spirit & Soul. Her life verse is Isaiah 50:4. Her books are available through Amazon. Jody has also recorded a devotional CD, Song of the Beloved, which is available through Square, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and other music outlets.
What is an “embodied spirituality” and what does it mean to embody your spiritual experience? How do we bring our bodies to our prayer, worship and other spiritual practices? There are many great resources I want to share with you that explore these questions.
I recommend these books…
Jesus In My Practice: Bringing the Questions of Jesus to My Movement, My Meditation & My Mat by Jody Thomae. On Amazon.
Voices of Wisdom in the Body: a Christ-Centered & Bible-Based Exploration of Energy by Jody Thomae. On Amazon. Also available in a Group Study Edition.
Embodied Prayer: Towards a Wholeness of Body, Mind & Soul by Celeste Snowber Schroeder. You can preview the book here.
I love this short and sweet video called Flowing Grace from Paul Denniston of Grief Yoga. Whether your holiday season is busy and chaotic or filled with the pain of loss and grief, take a moment to flow in grace…
Click here for a longer chair practice that combines movement, breath and sound to connect to love, peace and grace. It is a quiet, simple practice that focuses on letting go of the negative in order to be filled with peace and contentment. If you are struggling this holiday season, I recommend exploring more of Paul’s resources on his website or on Facebook.Continue reading
I’ve recently discovered the Abide app. You can listen to daily scripture meditations, as well as meditations geared towards anxiety, anger, addiction, depression, fear and grief. There are meditations on blessing and forgiveness and even ones to help you drift off to sleep. Moreover, many of these Bible-based meditations are very embodied in nature, encouraging body-oriented relaxation and simple breath prayers like….
We all need times of rest and replenishment in order to live whole-hearted and fully-embodied lives. However, in our crazy, hectic, fast-paced society, it is really difficult to make time or space for rest. Even when we are utterly exhausted we keep pushing: one more task… one more errand… one more project… one more phone call… one more appointment… one more fill in the blank . Our bodies cry out to stop, to slow down, to breathe, and yet, we keep right on pushing through. And, worse, if something goes wrong (which *news flash* it’s bound to), it’s even more difficult to rest, because we are driven to fix things, to solve problems and to make them go away. Continue reading
Join Morgan Day Cecil for a short embodied prayer inspired by Fr. Thomas Ryan, recorded at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia. The choir singing in the background is so BEaUtiful!
Mala prayer beads are very popular these days, not only among those who do yoga, but as a fashion trend. After I purchased my first mala, I began to research prayer beads and ropes from other religious traditions and eventually tore my mala apart to reconstruct it with Christian symbolism instead. Prayer beads or ropes are used across many spiritual traditions to help one pray. Traditional malas are used by Hindus and contain 108 beads. Rosaries are used within the Catholic tradition and contain 50 beads. Chotki are used within the Orthodox Christian tradition and contain 33, 50, 100, 150 or more prayer beads (or often knots instead of beads).
Selah prayer beads are my own original, Christ-centered design for contemplative prayer beads. The word Selah is taken from the Book of Psalms. Hebrew scholars believe it is a musical term indicating a place of pause, reflection or a place to take a breath. Selah prayer necklaces are constructed with 100 beads, 10 of which are called Selah beads. These beads are meant to serve as stopping points, places for you to pause and reflect as you pray your way around the circular design of the necklace.
Hello Fellow Worshipers! Found this recipe for play-dough with essential oils at One Essential Community and thought I would share it with you. You can find full instructions with photos and essential oil blend ideas.
Playdough is a wonderful way to use the embodied sense of touch during prayer and meditation time. Add essential oils and we include the sense of smell. You can add the following scriptures to embody your prayer, meditation and Bible study time:Continue reading
Introducing Vibeke Kiiskila, founder of Unity Dance Center and host of Worship Dance TV. I had the wonderful pleasure of spending some time talking with her about my journey in worship dance, embodied prayer and creative ministry. You can listen into our conversation here:
Come forth into the light of things, let Nature be your teacher.
William Wordsworth
Believe one who knows: you will find something greater in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which you can never learn from masters. Saint Bernard de Clairvaux
Whenever I have found myself stuck in the ways I relate to things, I return to nature. It is my principal teacher, and I try to open my whole being to what it has to say.
Wynn Bullock
The school year is over which means this is our final Kintsugi of the Soul*. I hope you’ve enjoyed our stories of healing, redemption and hope. Our final story is that of Kevin Hines, the man who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge and lived.
Our Kintsugi of the Soul* project is wrapping up next week. This week I want to share the story of a woman reunited with her dogs following the terrible wildfire in Paradise. I love this beautiful story of restoration!
Nurturing the Creative Spirit Within 