Anita Lustrea

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address producer at anitalustrea.com.

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 14 – Luke 13:22-30 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is [email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address producer at anitalustrea.com.

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 13 – Luke 12:13-21 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

On this week’s podcast it’s all about Conversation. You might think it is every week, but this week we are modeling what it looks like when everyone brings a topic to keep the conversation going! Melinda Schmidt, Michelle Van Loon, and Mark Breta join me. You’ve heard Melinda and Michelle multiple times on the podcast. Mark is a tech guy and does audio production—and he helps do some web-related stuff for Faith Conversations. He is a multi-talented person who is also a keyboard player and vocalist who does worship leading at churches. Mark is also a wonderful conversationalist and I’m so happy he is part of this week’s podcast. We delve into the topic of nostalgia and we have some fun with the topic of emojis and brand name products. I don’t know about you, but I thought we all could use a laugh along with the deeper topics!

Find Melinda here:

• Facebook

Find Michelle here:

• Website

Find Mark here:

• Website

The post Conversation Group – episode 331 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below.

Rumblings. 8.12.22  

Rumble 1. “When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from those who have never left home.” ~ Rumi

We do it all the time. We seek the advice of those who aren’t in the know. I can never get rid of the image of a pillow manufacturer advising the White House on COVID strategies while real scientists were given the cold shoulder. Things like that happened a lot back then. Let’s not make the mistake of allowing it to happen again. 

2. When Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) speaks I listen.

 “The metamorphosis of Jesus Christ from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglects the destitute) and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest transformation in human history.”

Why is it so strange? Because one only needs to read the gospels to see the real Jesus. And the real Jesus is not a gun rights, anti-science, nationalist kind of guy. We have this ugly habit of creating Jesus in our own image and likeness. Bad idea. 

3. “You are already under oath to tell the truth,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said to Alex Jones. “You’ve already violated that oath twice today. … Just because you claim to think something is true does not make it true. It does not protect you. It is not allowed. You’re under oath. That means things must actually be true when you say them…”

“What Jones did was unspeakably vile: He claimed repeatedly — and falsely, with absolutely no factual basis, since none exists — that the 2012 Sandy Hook killings never happened at all, that they were some kind of “false flag” operation that was “a giant hoax,” and that the 20 dead children ripped to pieces by rounds from an assault rifle were nothing but “crisis actors.” ~ Eugene Robinson, WAPO

A lawyer for the plaintiffs was spot on when he said that “When Jones breathes he lies.”  Jones and others like him, have had free reign to ply their sinister, conscience free and cowardly trade with little or no consequence. 

Will this be Jones’s ‘come to Jesus’ moment. Who knows, huh? Miracles happen. My hunch, however, is that he’s burrowed so deep into the dark side of some version of hell that he wouldn’t recognize a miracle if he saw one. 

But for now his wallet is thinner. He  has to face three more trials. He will not be remembered as a good man. His willful, evil, intent and the damage he inflicted is part of the public record and seared into the consciousness of the Sandy Hook parents. 

Unfortunately, he will most likely find ways to do even further damage and he will find his audience again. That’s what guys like that do. They know how gullible and malleable much of America has become.

4. Ron Sider died. He was, among other things, the author of “Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger.” That book greatly influenced my life and for that matter, a generation of Christians. He was an evangelical scholar, professor, writer, speaker  and activist. Christianity Today described Sider as “the burr in ‘the ethical saddle’ of the white evangelical horse.”

I pulled one of the books he edited off my bookshelf this week. It’s entitled, “The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump.” Thirty sharp and insightful men and women, all evangelicals, contributed essays speaking to that spiritual danger. Kind of busts the stereotype a bit, huh?

Sider was always talking about tough subjects and inviting conversations about them. He frustrated many but he wasn’t afraid to be one of those voices crying in the wilderness. Well done, good and faithful servant.

5. “The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys the attractions of an interior voice but will not listen to others. He identifies the will of God with anything that makes him feel, within his own heart, a big, warm, sweet interior glow. The sweeter and the warmer the feeling is, the more he is convinced of his own infallibility.” — Thomas Merton, Trappist monk. 

Every one of us needs more than our selfish needs and desires give us. Every ‘me’ needs an ‘us’ willing and able to call us out when our narcissism gets the better of us. Merton is right. Contemplatives have their own demons they wrestle with. 

6. “The Torah, the Mishah, the Talmud and later rabbinic sources consider the woman’s physical and emotional health before that of the fetus. Until the baby is born, Judaism considers the fetus to be part of the woman’s body. She is never the villain when difficult choices need to be made.” ~ Rabbi Mara Nathan

The phrase “she is never the villain when difficult decisions need to be made” touched something in me.

I have confessed many times that I clumsily embrace a “seamless garment” ethic as my approach to life issues. It’s not always easy. Caring about life issues from womb to the tomb has all kinds of intellectual, spiritual, and moral challenges attached to it. 

Valuing the pregnant woman, actually seeing her, shouldn’t be one of those challenges. 

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision that effectively chopped up Roe v Wade, state legislatures, composed primarily of conservative white men, went to work and churned out a slew of anti-abortion legislation. The kindest thing I can say is that in their rush to respond they didn’t dot the i’s and neglected to cross the ‘t’s’. There were so many questions left unanswered. Many women felt unseen. The circumstances of their pregnancy and the reality of their overall health profile seemingly didn’t matter. They had become the enemy, the villain.

And then, when those women and others rose up in an angry protest, something totally astounding happened. 

In conservative Kansas, voters went to the polls in unexpected numbers, and voted last week to 

‘see’

those women, refusing to categorically view them as the villain and the enemy. 

Then there was Indiana …

Perhaps ‘selective seeing’ is our greatest sin – personally and collectively. 

7. On Wednesday morning, I felt a disruption in the Force. I was feeling anxious and out of step. 

And then there was this small, inner voice reminding me of the most basic of things. “Take a deep breath Mike. Remember what Jesus told us, that He is the vine and we are the branches. Stay connected. He’s got this.”

8. ‘Twas a good week for Joe Biden. Climate change legislation, more jobs, gas prices dropping, Medicare will now be able to negotiate with drug companies, etc.. A White House aide quipped – “We kept hearing ‘Let’s go Brandon. So we did.”

The man isn’t very flashy but he is dogged in his determination to do right by the American people. 

Republicans pretty much decided to not support any of these things and actually derailed an attempt to lower insulin prices. No surprise. So disappointing.  It would be nice, however, to see them at least try, if only a teensy-weensy bit, to be part of the democratic process. 

9.  “I’ve missed so much of my actual, human, beautiful, not-beautiful life trying to force things into perfect. But these days I’m coming to see that perfect is safe, controlled, managed. I’m finding myself drawn to mess, to darkness, to things that are loved to the point of shabbiness, or just wildly imperfect in their own gorgeous way. . .  

And so, instead: present. 

If perfect is plastic, present is rich, loamy soil. . . Present over perfect living is real over image, connecting over comparing, meaning over mania, depth over artifice. Present over perfect living is the risky and revolutionary belief that the world God has created is beautiful and valuable on its own terms, and that it doesn’t need to be zhuzhed up and fancy in order to be wonderful.” ~  Shauna Niequest, Present over Perfect

To be present to God in the present moment. To be present to all those who cross our path. To be present to ourselves. That’s a good way to live. No one can do it perfectly. No one’s asking you to do that. God’s invitation is to at least try.

10. Thank you for reading my Rumblings. Thanks for taking the time to ‘like’ them and a big thanks to those of you who share them with your friends and family. I know sharing  them can be a bit risky but maybe this is a time in history where ‘risk’ is needed. I’m going to be taking a bit of a break, heading North with Anita, and the plan is to be back mid-September. Blessings. 

The post Mike’s Friday Rumblings – 08-12-22 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is 

[email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address producer at anitalustrea.com.

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 12 – Luke 7:11-17 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below.

Rumblings. 8.5.22 

Rumble 1. “Listening does not grant the other side legitimacy. It grants them humanity—and preserves our own.” ~ Valarie Kaur

“Post this at all the intersections, dear friends: Lead with your ears, follow up with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear.” ~ James, MSG

“Author Esther de Waal describes how in Benedictine spirituality there is an inherent connection between listening and responsive action:  To listen closely, with every fibre of our being, at every moment of the day, is one of the most difficult things in the world, and yet it is essential if we mean to find the God whom we are seeking. If we stop listening to what we find hard to take then, as the Abbot of St. Benoît-sur-Loire puts it in a striking phrase, ‘We’re likely to pass God by without even noticing Him.’ . . .” ~ Center for Action and Contemplation

Great listeners make the rest of us feel like a million bucks, don’t they?  Some of you have learned to listen well and you’re like ‘gold’. Thank you. 

2. “God is not a celestial prison warden jangling the keys on a bunch of lifers–he’s a shepherd seeking for sheep, a woman searching for coins, a father waiting for his son.” ~ Clarence Jordan, Koinonia Farms and Cotton Patch Bible

The image of a God who looks, searches and waits for us is very appealing. I grew up with the image of a god that was far more punitive, eager to pounce on someone the minute they crossed the line and made a mistake. There are times when that god still shows up in my thinking. It’s never pretty when that happens.

3. Heather Cox Richardson writes that “ Oil giants ExxonMobil and Chevron reported historic profits from the last three months. Exxon made $17.9 billion (not a typo) last quarter, up 273% from the same time last year, while Chevron made $11.6 billion. Exxon’s rate of income was $2,245.62 every second of every day for the past 92 days; Chevron made $1,462.11 per second. Together, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies are expected to announce $60 billion in profits for the past three months. They plan to spend much of the profit not on reinvesting in their businesses, but on stock buybacks, which drives up the price of the stock. 

These record profits came at the same time that American consumers were staggering under high gas prices, which made up almost half of the increase in inflation of the past few months.”

You know, this whole ‘Capitalism without Conscience’ thing is getting old.  It’s truly tiresome. 

4. If the findings of the January 6 Committee don’t lead to indictments and guilty verdicts against the major players, then what happened on that day, all the plotting and scheming that led up to it, and the shenanigans afterwards just end up being a blueprint and training exercise for some other fools who want to plan and execute a coup. And there will be a next time in our country if we don’t take care of business now. Bet on it. 

Other corrupt leaders  like Brazil’s Bolsonaro will jump on it too. He is already playing copy cat as the presidential election on 10/2 shapes up. He’s well behind in the polls and surprise, surprise he’s already complaining about a faulty voting system, hinting that he’s not conceding if defeated, and has already proven he’s narcissistic enough to stir up a revolution. 

The whole world is watching. 

5. “If we can trust and listen to our inner divine image, our whole-making instinct, or our True Self, we will act from our best, largest, kindest, most inclusive self. There is a deeper voice of God, which we must learn to hear and obey. It will sound like the voice of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of common sense, of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self. It will always feel gratuitous, and it is this very freedom that scares us. God never leads by guilt or shame! God leads by loving the soul at ever-deeper levels, not by shaming at superficial levels.” ~ Richard Rohr

To hear and obey the deeper voice of God is possible. It’s a game changer. 

6. “No one need starve. There is enough land and enough food. No one need die of thirst. There is enough water. No one need live without mercy. There is no end to grace. And we are all instruments of grace. The more we give it, the more we share it, the more we use it, the more God makes. There is no scarcity of love. There is plenty. And always more.” ~ Rachel and Rosemarie Freeney Harding

Enough. We have enough. Sharing it is the issue. Of course, it all starts with the desire to be generous with all that we have. It’s surprising how threatening that call to share our time, treasure, and talents is to so many people. It’s a scarcity mentality that is ingrained in some people right from the get go of their life. Many do the hard work, however, of overcoming those deeply established patterns of selfish belief and behavior and learn how to bless others.

7. If you are OK with having Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu students sit through a Christian prayer in public school, and not OK with having Christian students sit through a Muslim, Jewish or Hindu prayer, then it’s not religious freedom – it’s religious oppression.

Not sure where I saw this but it sure makes sense to me. After all, we do live in a pluralistic society. Right? We can make that a beautiful thing or we can make it a living hell. Our choice.

8. Legislation attempting to save us from discomfort in educational settings fails to understand the role discomfort plays in forming us into an interested and interesting human being. 

Ever learn to ride a bike? It hurts. 

Ever encounter a new theological idea? It can be uncomfortable. 

How about that time historical facts changed your opinion and you met with resistance from your friends? 

Remember the moment when you whined because you were being forced to read a piece of literature? It felt like torture until you discovered you loved it

Discomfort accompanies learning. Without it, we become dull and ill-informed people who end up writing legislation designed to produce dull and ill-informed citizens. 

9. I’m involved in some anti-racism work in Sarasota. More and more, I’m seeing that a major thrust of that work will be to engage those who profess Christ. but their political fervor puts them at odds with the message Jesus actually preached and lived out. 

In the process, I’m asking myself questions about what’s real and what’s not regarding my own faith. Am I in line with Jesus’s message? If not, why? And when will I get on board with it? It’s easy to see what’s wrong with someone else. Looking in the mirror and seeing our own shortcomings is an absolute necessity. 

10. “Fun things to do, good places to eat, new places to shop and changes to the entertainment and dining landscape” were articles people gravitated towards last week according to the Sarasota Herald Tribune. 

Oh my. I get it. I’ve read the same articles, and looked at the same things. Nothing wrong with that either. However, if that’s the only content we pay attention to we will end up in the shallow end of the pool of ideas with not a whole lot to offer anyone who needs to go deep. 

The post Mike’s Friday Rumblings – 08-05-22 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is 

[email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 11 – Luke 6:6-11 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Is scripture relevant for now? Melinda Schmidt joins me on the podcast as we answer that question and dig in to thinking more broadly about how that looks? As we look at being deeply formed instead of shallowly formed, what does lament look like? And how to we access scripture in a way that is relevant for today?

If you’ve been struggling lately, we’ll take you on a journey to discover the rawness of scripture and also the hope that is ours in scripture.

Find Melinda here:

• Facebook

The post Melinda Schmidt – episode 330 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 7.29.22 

1. “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

This is why so many needed initiatives struggle to get passed in Congress. Follow the money and you’ll see who legislators are really beholden to and why they aren’t willing to change the rules of engagement. It’s nothing new. You’d think the quite obvious existential threats to our planet might force a change but money is a powerful, powerful enticement.  It’s been the ruin of many of us. 

No matter the organization there is always a danger that ‘love of money’ will rear its ugly head. It seems there’s always one person, with dubious motives and a large bank account, lurking in the background, looking for just one greedy soul, willing to throw integrity to the wind. 

2. Religion is one of the safest places to hide from God.” –  Richard Rohr

I’ve seen this happen. I’ve done it myself. I found myself hiding. God came looking for me. I kept hiding. In plain sight I hid, but in my defense I did hold up a sign that declared religious practice and sound doctrine were sufficient and that knowing a lot about God was equal to or better than being in an intimate, loving relationship with the Almighty. And it was easy to find others who believed that too.

Once again, I was wrong.  

3. “May we not just grieve, but give:

May we not just ache, but act;

May our signed right to bear arms

Never blind our sight from shared harm;

May we choose our children over chaos.

May another innocent never be lost.” ~ Amanda Gorman

4. “Two people read the same Bible. 

One sees reasons to love. 

The other reasons to hate. 

One sees unity. 

The other division. 

One finds prejudice. 

The other equality. 

One discovers compassion. 

The other, indifference. 

One goodwill.m. 

The other malice. 

Two people, one book. 

One book, two views. 

The book is a mirror. 

The reflection is you.” ~ Mindful Christianity

Pope Francis began a weeklong trip on July 24 across Canada, meeting with indigenous communities, calling it a “pilgrimage of penance”. The Pope issued a historic apology Monday for the Catholic Church’s cooperation with Canada’s “catastrophic policy of Indigenous residential schools”, saying “the forced assimilation of Native peoples into Christian society destroyed their cultures, severed families and marginalized generations in ways still being felt today.”

Obviously, the Pope opened his Bible and decided that confession and repentance, not indifference, were near and dear to God’s heart. He can’t fix the personal and generational pain that was inflicted upon indingenous people but his humility, honesty and sincere tears of remorse open a door to further healing. And the church will need to walk through those doors. 

5. “Biblical faith calls it the Image of God in which we are all created. Thomas Merton calls it the true self. Quakers call it the inner light, or “that of God” in every person.  The humanist tradition calls it identity and integrity.” ~ Parker Palmer

When we come home to our true self, a light goes on and our whole way of being begins to change. When we choose the false self, we turn off that light and nothing changes.

6. The Jan. 6 hearings, if nothing else, revealed the character or lack of it of the main players on that particular day. The former president was center stage of course and when he decided that throwing ketchup against the wall was far better than taking responsibility for his actions and saving lives, he revealed himself fully as the bad actor he truly is.

Joseph Heller of “Catch 22” fame might have been prophetic when he wrote this years ago. 

“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”

Still and remarkably, 40% of Republicans surveyed in a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll consider January 6 “to be an unfortunate event that happened in the past and it’s of little or no concern now.” Wowser. What a world they live in. 

By the way, “Run, Hawley, Run” memes still have me chuckling. As I said last week, it’s pretty much a clown show at this point. In doubt? Consider these gems. 

-Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz asked the question. “Why is it that the women with the least likelihood of getting pregnant are the ones most worried about having abortions? Nobody wants to impregnate you if you look like a thumb.”

-The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., got married on Friday. A few days earlier, his father voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.  

7. “The American Negro has the great advantage of having never believed the collection of myths to which white Americans cling: that their ancestors were all freedom-loving heroes, that they were born in the greatest country the world has ever seen, or that Americans are invincible in battle and wise in peace, that Americans have always dealt honorably with Mexicans and Indians and all other neighbors or inferiors, that American men are the world’s most direct and virile, that American women are pure…Negroes know far more about white Americans than that …The tendency has really been, insofar as this was possible, to dismiss white people as the slightly mad victims of their own brainwashing.” ~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)

My hunch is anything by Baldwin will end up on the ‘do not teach’ list in a variety of states. That saddens me because letting the brainwashing continue is a disservice to everyone.

8. In his terrific little book “Seeking God: Finding Another Kind of Life with St. Ignatius and Dallas Willard”, South African Methodist pastor Trevor Hudson describes a life changing conversation he had with his friend Dallas Willard. One evening he asked Dallas to recommend a list of books for him to read. Willard replied “I suggest you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.”

Hudson followed up asking him if there were any other books he should read. Willard replied: “My suggestion is that you take the next 20 years or so to read and meditate on these four gospels. Read them repeatedly, immerse yourself in the words, and deeds of Jesus, and commit to memory as much as you are able.”

Dallas Willard’s conviction was that if someone wanted to “interact with Jesus as his disciple, one must keep company with Him in the Gospels.”

What a beautiful and meaningful spiritual practice. I don’t know if I have twenty years left in me but to spend what ever time I have left in the company of Jesus is a very compelling thought. 

9. “Jesus didn’t die on the cross so that we don’t have to. He died on the cross so that we may join him there.” Dallas Willard 

“When Christ calls someone he bids that person to come and die.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“If we truly want to know the life God gives us at its best, it’s deepest, it’s most flourishing, we need to learn to die daily. While this may not involve literal martyrdom, it will mean dying to all those aspects of our lives that prevent us from becoming the loving person God wants us to be.  Life through death describes the pattern of authentic Christ following”. ~ Trevor Hudson

In order to rise, one must die. I’m pretty sure life is a series of mini-deaths and resurrections. If we can accept and embrace that concept, we’re well on the way to growing up. 

10. In a cartoon by David Hayward, Jesus is talking to his disciples and says: “You have heard me say: be humble, forgive, love, and show mercy. But now I say unto you: ridicule those who disagree with you, despise people of other orientations, denigrate women, and above all be arrogant and rude.”

Satire has a way of getting our attention doesn’t it?  In this case it should lead to some soul searching. 

The post Mike’s Friday Rumblings – 07-29-22 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Lectio Podcast Verbiage

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. My email address is 

[email protected]. Also, feel free to share this podcast on your social media or tell a friend about it. 

If you’d like to support this podcast you can do so through a gift to PayPal using the email address producer at anitalustrea.com.

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music, you can learn more about Steve Wick and how to purchase his music on his website.

The post Lectio Divina 10 – Luke 2:22-32 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.