Presents or Presence

My grandson was trying to negotiate with his mother about when Santa would come and he could open presents.  He had faith and trust that there would be wonderful gifts waiting for him on Christmas morning.  If only he could make it come sooner.  Truly a child's way of thinking!

But is it really?  Don't we all want our gifts to come as soon as possible?  Isn't it really hard to wait?

And what about those presents.  Is that what we celebrate?  Or is it the real presence of God.  Emmanuel! God with us!  That is a real cause for celebration.  He is present!  God came to earth to live among His people!

Do we buy presents to show our love or do we give real presence to those that we truly love!

As we approach the new year, I hope to be able to be more present to those I love and to remember that God is always present.  He is in this world and the entire world is in Him.  Each and every creature on the earth shows that God is present.  Do you see?  Can you feel it?

We often get caught up in our fears about tomorrow and our regrets about yesterday, but all we have is this moment in time.  That is our present.  

Can we be aware of God in this moment?  One of my spiritual practices is to take time periodically throughout the day to reflect on what has happened over the past few hours and to try to see where God was present in those moments or events.  It's one way for me to keep spiritually connected to God throughout the day. Noticing the sacred in the everyday ordinary.

Being grateful for His presence.  He has given us His Spirit to help us become more like Him!

Living in His grace!

Watch and Prepare

As the Advent season draws to an end it has been a wonderful time for reflection on self, the state of our world and the greatest gift that has ever been given since creation.  The themes this season center around watching and waiting.  I have been especially tuned into those little miracles that God reveals to us in our everyday lives if we are awake to observe them.  

One of the recent lessons is the parable of the bridesmaids waiting for the groom.  Some took extra oil for their lamps and others didn't.  After waiting and watching for the bridegroom to arrive, those who were not prepared had to fetch more oil and missed the celebration.  How many people have been preparing so diligently for the Christmas season that they have missed the real opportunity for celebration?  How many have begun by preparing their hearts and minds through prayer and meditation to receive the gift that keeps on giving?

In a meditation on 2 Corinthians 8, we find Paul writing about the Macedonians: And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. ² In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. ³ For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, ⁴ they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. ⁵ And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

The Macedonians were a very poor people and in their severe trials and extreme poverty they felt overflowing joy.  How was this possible?  As it says in the first verse, they were open to receive the grace of God.  The grace of God created overflowing joy and that joy then overshadowed the severe trials and extreme poverty resulting in rich generosity.  Not only of money but also of love and compassion. 

That is what is in store for us.  If we prepare our hearts to receive God's grace, we too can have overflowing joy in the midst of our spiritual poverty being ever willing to share the love and compassion of Christ with all people of this earth.

Peace and Grace to all at Christmas!

Perspective

The view from the top of a mountain, or the micro detail seen from the eyes of a two year old scouring the ground for things to touch and pick up.  Both very different perspectives.  How boring would life be if we could only see things from one point of view.  Or what if everything were in black and white like an old photograph.

I was listening to a Mars Hill Bible Church teaching this past week on one of Jesus' parables.  It is one that many people don't like because of the way in which the "King" becomes angry with his people causing death and destruction. It is the parable of the Wedding Banquet from Matthew 22.  

The responses to the teaching on the web site were very interesting.  Many thought that Shane's interpretation was completely skewed and skirted the issue of God's wrath.  A few thought that his message was one of hope and love.  Others took a "Pharisee" approach and would only see it interpreted in the way they wanted it to be.  

Personally, I like to look at the parables in as many ways as possible.  To see them from a distance and to look into the very meanings of the words.  Shane's interpretation was his view or lens of this parable.  It is like when a referee's call is questioned.  They don't simply look at one view, the judges look at every view available to get a 360 degree view of the play.  Only then can they decide on the call.

I am starting to see how this view helps us in our lives as well.  When we only see things from our own narrow point of view, do we always have the best information to make an interpretation or decision.  It really is best to ask others, listen to their position and then try to discern a point.  Our single lens can often times lead us into making the wrong assumption or decision.

Holding differing points in dialectical tension is the only way to truly test your point of view with suspicion.  Hopefully your faith will be mature enough to accept that others have as much right to their opinion or belief as you do yours.

Peace for all on this blessed day!

A New Day

Oh how wonderful the sunrise as it re-lights our world and brings the new day.  We are given this promise of a new day by our God. Luke 1:78-79 promises that "because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace."  With each day we are given another chance. 

Another chance to love.  

Another chance to forgive.  

Another chance to live.

It has been quite awhile since I have posted on this blog.  It seems that time has passed swiftly and that I have been racing to keep up.  Sometimes life gets like that and all you can do is try to remain focused on the tasks of the day and to find time for thanks and praise.  I have returned to the academic life and am trying to balance that with work, family and my spiritual journey.  The program that I am in helps me somewhat in that respect.  I have started down the road to my Masters degree in Pastoral Care and Counseling.  So far, I have completed one three credit semester course in eight weeks and am embarking on my second class.  Much theory, reading and writing.  Thus, not much time for blogging.  But I seem to be settling into the routine a bit now and I hope to continue my thoughts and ramblings here.


In earlier posts, I spoke about the need to listen and to quiet the naysayer within.  I also spoke of trying to be a better farmer in helping to grow the seed.  These things I have started to put right, and so I listen and I learn.

Today is a new day!  

Each day that I am given is a day to celebrate the creation of our God.  Find the beauty of Him in His will and let His hands shape you into what He has planned.  It is the way to find the sacred in the ordinary, and a way of peace.


Now as this day comes to a close and the night falls quiet 'round me, I prepare for the 'morrow and if He is willing another new day awaits.  

In His peace and grace.

Speak Softly

Remember when you were in school and the teacher wanted to get you to pay attention?  She didn't shout over the classroom noise.  Instead, she spoke in a quiet voice causing the room to settle down and listen.  Our world continues to be so noisy.  Where is that quiet voice speaking to us?

In an earlier reflection, I talked about listening to that quiet voice that calls and our resistance to the message.  Again, I want to reflect on one lesson that was revealed to me recently.

A couple weekends ago, we waited in line to get into the Bayfront Blues Fest on a beautiful Saturday morning.  The line was cordoned off by some temporary barriers on either side.  On the outside stood a man shouting about the way to eternal life through Jesus,  and how Jesus died for our sins and that the only way to heaven was through Jesus Christ.  All perfectly good information in my book, but the way it was being delivered was all wrong.  The people in line stood watching this spectacle and shaking their heads and missing the message completely.

What was wrong wasn't the message, but how it was being communicated.  First, the man had placed himself outside the barrier and was shouting at the people on the inside waiting in line.  Wasn't Jesus about getting rid of the barriers that separate us?  Next, he was shouting his message at people.  I never read in the Gospel where Christ shouted at his followers.  Wouldn't it have made more sense to show compassion and love for those waiting in line?  Maybe by offering a cold drink of water or offering to carry their bags. Maybe even a hug or sign that he really cared about those that were waiting.   Finally, the message is one that needs to be spoken softly so that people will want to pay attention to what is being said.

How often do we act in this same manner, trying to shout our message at people from across a barrier (be it physical or emotional).  Life experiences like this can serve to remind us to speak softly!

Walking Home

Footsteps echoing across time, one after another.  Dust rising gently from each footfall.  How wonderful it feels when we know that we are on that last part of the journey and home awaits.  Good and comforting.   A place of refuge.  A place of rest.  Weary bones sag into a comfortable chair while hot sweaty feet cool in the breeze from the lake.  It is good coming home!

Not every walk or hike is like this, but that last part of the journey, knowing that you are past the halfway mark and are on the back half of the walk is always the best part.  Is life like that as well?  I am finding that this part of the journey is becoming more sweet in knowing that the mid-point in life has been reached and now I am walking home.  Is it the destination that I long for, or is it that I am just becoming more comfortable with the road that I am on?

The bible teaches us to set our minds on things of heaven, not things of earth.  I find that hard when I am still earthbound and still human.  Just this week I heard a comment that one can be so heavenly minded that he is of no earthly use.  That is not where I want to be, nor how I want to be remembered.  I want to be the one who washes the dusty feet of the weary traveler and one who provides refuge and rest.  Is that a heavenly goal or one that is grounded in an earthly existence.

What I have found on this journey is that it is hard enough without carrying a bag full of rocks of resentment, bricks of anger and shouldering the burden of excessive fears.  Somewhere along the first part of the journey I started picking them up and putting them in my backpack.  I wanted to keep them hidden so that others couldn't see the load I was carrying.  Once revealed, they could then be discarded and the burden lightened.  Now I have to be ever vigilant not to pick them up again.

I am certainly not ready for the journey to end as I know that there is much more wonder and splendor to behold, but it is still good to know that I am walking home!

Travel well!

Resistance

"A measure of the degree to which an object opposes an electric current through it", this is one of the definitions for the word resistance.  In today's society, this word can mean an underground movement or opposition to someone or some government in power.  In my meditations recently, I have been contemplating this word in regards to something a bit different.  An earlier post was focused on listening to the call of God regarding what we were created for.  Our calling so to speak.

In that post, it was more about being able to truly listen to that quiet voice of God that exists within us.  My spiritual practices have opened me up to hearing the message, but how do I move past resisting the direction it is leading me.  Remember when you were young and your mom called out from the back porch that dinner was ready.  However, you weren't ready for dinner, so you kept playing pretending not to hear the call.  That is a passive form of resistance.

What is it that keeps so many of us from doing what we truly long to do?  Why is there always a naysayer within that keeps us from following the call.  Like water running downhill, we tend to follow the path of least resistance.  We choose that which allows us to merely survive rather than thrive. Resistance arises from the depths of our minds, our cultural upbringing, the preference for what we know versus the adventure of the unknown.  How do we get past or around this resistance?

For me, it has to be faith and hope that gets me through, and maybe that is the way to go.  Through the resistance rather than around.  Along with the call to do what we were meant to do comes the limitations that go along with it.  Many of these limitations are in regard to our wants and desires. Physical or material comforts. Things that get in the way of what we truly need!  In order to move through these, we have to come to accept these limitations.  By accepting these through a grieving process, we will be able to see the real blessings that God is trying to give us.

Do you want to just survive, or would you rather thrive?  Lose the resistance to that deep inner voice of God.  Follow His voice and thrive!