YOU call to me through the one who is the love of my life. You call to me through my children and their lives. You call to me through my friends. You call to me through the people I see each day but know nothing about. You call to me through those who are truly complete strangers in my life…those whose path my feet will never tread upon. You call to me through the terrorist who bombs my fellow Americans. You call to me through Obama and Putin and Iran and ISIS and Republicans and Democrats and the ultra rich and the utterly impoverished.
You call…as you have called all of my life…without ever stopping, without ever letting up, never ceasing long enough to take a breath. You call morning and evening. Again and again. Day and night. Night and day. Out of the dawn and into the dusk.
Am I listening? Do I hear you above the fray and beneath the din? In those rare moments when I actually do hear your call, it is always a sweet beckoning. It is a call that feels bathed in love. Bathed in compassion. Bathed in forgiveness. Bathed in joy. Bathed in a deep yearning for all people and all life to live knowing, sensing, listening for and hearing it.
There is no trace of judgment in your voices. No trace of condescension. No trace of anger, malice or vengefulness. Just the pure simple clarion call of love coming to me through the beat of a hummingbird’s wings.
It is a call to life…a call that rings out to all that you have made…every creature, every cricket. And it is the call to life. It’s here always. But it’s a call that, most of the time, I’m missing…because I’m not listening.
Thursday, July 16, 2015
Monday, June 8, 2015
The Path To Freedom
Richard Rohr, contemporary Franciscan mystic, wrote the following helpful explanation of the way to experience true freedom in our lives...
Authentic spirituality is always on some level or in some way about letting go. Jesus said, "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). Once we see truly what is trapping us and keeping us from freedom we should see the need to let it go. But in a consumer society most of us have had no training in that direction. Rather, more is supposed to be better. True liberation is letting go of our false self, letting go of our cultural biases, and letting go of our fear of loss and death. Freedom is letting go of wanting more and better things, and it is letting go of our need to control and manipulate God and others. It is even letting go of our need to know and our need to be right--which we only discover with maturity. We become free as we let go of our three primary energy centers: our need for power and control, our need for safety and security, and our need for affection and esteem.
If you'd like to see more of his writings, visit www.cac.org.
Authentic spirituality is always on some level or in some way about letting go. Jesus said, "the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). Once we see truly what is trapping us and keeping us from freedom we should see the need to let it go. But in a consumer society most of us have had no training in that direction. Rather, more is supposed to be better. True liberation is letting go of our false self, letting go of our cultural biases, and letting go of our fear of loss and death. Freedom is letting go of wanting more and better things, and it is letting go of our need to control and manipulate God and others. It is even letting go of our need to know and our need to be right--which we only discover with maturity. We become free as we let go of our three primary energy centers: our need for power and control, our need for safety and security, and our need for affection and esteem.
If you'd like to see more of his writings, visit www.cac.org.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Come Hungry
Come hungry. That’s the standing invitation to prayer, meditation, solitude with the One. Come hungry, not all put together, not having figured everything out, not full of ideas or problems you want resolved or worse, solutions you’ve come up with.
Come hungry. No grocery list of items to pick up at the God Store. No “TO DO!” list for the One. Come without expectations. Come thirsty. Come weak and weary. Come wanting. Come listening. Come because you have nowhere else to go. Or, come here first and save yourself the trouble of traipsing all over creation’s inner and outer spaces looking for answers. Come without requirements and parameters and stipulations and druthers.
Just come…and come hungry.
Come hungry. No grocery list of items to pick up at the God Store. No “TO DO!” list for the One. Come without expectations. Come thirsty. Come weak and weary. Come wanting. Come listening. Come because you have nowhere else to go. Or, come here first and save yourself the trouble of traipsing all over creation’s inner and outer spaces looking for answers. Come without requirements and parameters and stipulations and druthers.
Just come…and come hungry.
Saturday, April 4, 2015
Refreshing Reflections
Monday: Listen for the Holy
Today, having entered into what the church calls "Holy Week," let's listen whole-ly...wholly...for the holy in each day. Faith says it's here. Hope says if we give ourselves to such listening, we'll hear it. Love says it will be holy for us...that is, it will be what we truly need to hear.
Tuesday: A Radiance Within
Rather, the radiance within comes from beyond us and from beyond anything we can do. Through a staid commitment to pray and/or meditate, or in other words, to wonder, to ponder, to stop and take in both the physical world around us and the spiritual world within us, we become exposed to this Radiance. And we glow.
Wednesday: Available
The Christian's walk is about something even deeper. It's about making ourselves available to God above all others. It teaches that as we do this, we come to see and experience God helping us sort out how and where to make ourselves available in the world today.
Thursday: Simple As That
Thank you, Lord, for giving me such a simple way of understanding my life's purpose. Thank you for all the people who will make themselves available to You and to me today in order to make my life good. And, most of all, thank you for giving me opportunities to go and do likewise. Simple as that. Amen.
Friday: So
I don't think any of us has the one, right answer when it comes to understanding God. I do believe, however, that when we stop long enough to ponder just this much of John 3:16 ("For God so loved the world...") we can all agree on one thing: We are so loved.
Friday, April 3, 2015
So
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." (John 3:16)
These words from gospel writer John's account of Jesus' life are probably the best known, most cherished--and possibly the most disagreed upon words in the Bible. Did God actually believe in human sacrifice like the pre-Judaic religions did? Would God require that of his followers? Would he actually give up his own and only son to provide the human? Is this the same God whom Jesus spoke so lovingly of? Is this real love?
I don't suspect we're going to come to agreement on this today--this Good Friday.
But what can we agree on?
Let's just take the first part of that verse..."For God so loved the world that he gave..." Just that much is so much! God so loved the world and everything and everyone in it (not just the ones who believe in him) that God freely gave (didn't barter or bargain, didn't charge, didn't even charge interest on the account)--freely gave the world his own and only son. What an incredibly loving gift!
I don't think any of us has the one, right answer when it comes to understanding God. I do believe, however, that when we stop long enough to ponder just this much of John 3:16 we can all agree on one thing: We are so loved.
And that is so good to know and remember on this Good Friday.
These words from gospel writer John's account of Jesus' life are probably the best known, most cherished--and possibly the most disagreed upon words in the Bible. Did God actually believe in human sacrifice like the pre-Judaic religions did? Would God require that of his followers? Would he actually give up his own and only son to provide the human? Is this the same God whom Jesus spoke so lovingly of? Is this real love?
I don't suspect we're going to come to agreement on this today--this Good Friday.
But what can we agree on?
Let's just take the first part of that verse..."For God so loved the world that he gave..." Just that much is so much! God so loved the world and everything and everyone in it (not just the ones who believe in him) that God freely gave (didn't barter or bargain, didn't charge, didn't even charge interest on the account)--freely gave the world his own and only son. What an incredibly loving gift!
I don't think any of us has the one, right answer when it comes to understanding God. I do believe, however, that when we stop long enough to ponder just this much of John 3:16 we can all agree on one thing: We are so loved.
And that is so good to know and remember on this Good Friday.
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Simple As That
The Christian Church's observance of Holy Week (which immediately precedes Easter) focuses on a different theme each day. Today is called Maundy Thursday. "Maundy" is the Latin word for commandment and the commandment being referred to is the one that Jesus gave his disciples when, after a meal together, (probably their last), he washed their feet--an ultimate act of servanthood in that culture. He said to them, "So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you." (John 13)
Was he literally telling them they were to go out and wash people's feet? No. He was using his action as a metaphor. Its message was simple: Our life's purpose (and therefore, meaning) will be discovered through the act of being available to each other--in helping meet each other's needs. Simple as that.
This being Holy Week, this maundy or commandment implies that to live this way is act-ually holy. That is, it's a way of making ourselves available to God through treating all of God's creation with reverence--one person, one situation, one experience at a time.
Lord,
Thank you for giving me such a simple way of understanding my life's purpose. Thank you for all the people who will make themselves available to You and to me today in order to make my life good. And, most of all, thank you for giving me opportunities to go and do likewise. Simple as that. Amen.
"...and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
Was he literally telling them they were to go out and wash people's feet? No. He was using his action as a metaphor. Its message was simple: Our life's purpose (and therefore, meaning) will be discovered through the act of being available to each other--in helping meet each other's needs. Simple as that.
This being Holy Week, this maundy or commandment implies that to live this way is act-ually holy. That is, it's a way of making ourselves available to God through treating all of God's creation with reverence--one person, one situation, one experience at a time.
Lord,
Thank you for giving me such a simple way of understanding my life's purpose. Thank you for all the people who will make themselves available to You and to me today in order to make my life good. And, most of all, thank you for giving me opportunities to go and do likewise. Simple as that. Amen.
"...and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8)
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Available
We want God to be available 24/7. If God is God, we reason, God can do anything and everything. Further, if God is love, as the Bible tells us, then God should be "there" (here) for us...available. Always available.
But it doesn’t seem to work that way. Maybe because this approach attempts to turn us into God and God into our lackey--instead of our Lord.
No, the message of the Bible seems to be quite the opposite: that we are here to make ourselves available to God...to be God's servants, God's hands, feet and heart, God's presence in the world.
With this message comes a promise: If we do this, we will discover that God is already available to us. Which, in a roundabout way, starts us back at the beginning. God is, in fact, available 24/7.
The Christian's walk is about something even deeper. It's about making ourselves available to God above all others. It teaches that as we do this, we come to see and experience God helping us sort out how and where to make ourselves available in the world today.
Holy Week is all about Jesus Christ being available to God above all other availabilities. Easter is about the promise of what happens because God is available to us.
But it doesn’t seem to work that way. Maybe because this approach attempts to turn us into God and God into our lackey--instead of our Lord.
No, the message of the Bible seems to be quite the opposite: that we are here to make ourselves available to God...to be God's servants, God's hands, feet and heart, God's presence in the world.
With this message comes a promise: If we do this, we will discover that God is already available to us. Which, in a roundabout way, starts us back at the beginning. God is, in fact, available 24/7.
The Christian's walk is about something even deeper. It's about making ourselves available to God above all others. It teaches that as we do this, we come to see and experience God helping us sort out how and where to make ourselves available in the world today.
Holy Week is all about Jesus Christ being available to God above all other availabilities. Easter is about the promise of what happens because God is available to us.
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