Have Seen

All I have seen teaches me
to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Yellow-Head Dance

I came around another dirt-beaten bend on a forested path and there they were, hundreds of them. Slender. Tall. Radiant yellow-headed flowers all facing skyward, as if looking for something. Or, praising Someone.

I was running...but not now. I was stopped, in wonder at what all might be going on...in this one sun-drenched spot in an otherwise dense woods. A slight breeze introduced its music to the mix, making the scene as close to a Nature Dance as I've ever seen.

After being transfixed, I continued my run...coming across 2s and 3s of more yellow-heads creeping along the trail.  It seemed as if they were headed somewhere...like to the gathering of them I had enjoyed just a few minutes before.

It struck me how not unlike them we are...as we gather together on days like today, to worship.  Looking for the Light to warm and fulfill our lives.  We take courage by the gathering, of others like and unlike us, and by those striving to get there at various points along their journey.

I wish I had a camera at the time; the radiance of the bright-yellowed scene rhythmically coming both from the earth and heaven at the same time was more than words can capture.

Sometimes we walk together, sometimes alone. But like the yellow-heads, whether we realize it or not, we are reaching upward for the Source of our life.

And, boy is it fun when the music's playin'!

Calling

 

You will never lighten any load until you feel the pressure in your own soul.

The ultimate imperative and the training of your character, the training of your own heart, is going to happen when you are alone.

-- Ravi Zacharias

Really enjoyed this thinking / challenge regarding our 'calling' in life from a recent address at Wheaton College.  Click image to watch the series.

What You Become

What you get by reaching your destination
is not nearly as important as what you will become
by reaching your destination.

-- Zig Ziglar

Enduring

Nothing great was ever done without much enduring.

-- St. Catherine of Siena

Total Effort

Always make a total effort,
even when the odds are against you.

-- Arnold Palmer

Disposition

I have learned that the greater part of
our misery or unhappiness is
determined not by our circumstance
but by our disposition.

-- Martha Washington

Some call this attitude. Some call this faith. Disposition puts it a bit uniquely; I like it. I especially resonate with the observation on 'our circumstances'.

Contemplative simplicity isn't a matter of circumstances; it's a matter of focus.

-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Sunrise

 

At our annual church harvest holiday week, the sunrise does it again.

Click pic...for more pics. 'Wasting' time, eating, talking, playing, and dancing (some of the dancing pics are pretty fun to click through quickly)!  Quite the harmonies of 'being together'.

Fruit

The fruit of Silence is prayer. The fruit of Prayer is faith. The fruit of Faith is love. The fruit of Love is service. The fruit of Service is peace.

-- Mother Teresa

Obstacles

Most of our obstacles would melt away
if, instead of cowering before them,
we should make up our minds
to walk boldly through them.

-- Orison Swett Marden

I think this is true particularly in the context of our fears. Not favoring this as a form of self-determinism, but as a renewing of our minds, since it is often our fear that disables us.

Char-cool

Last night's dark punctured, with the sky's pin-prick leakings of light. The air chilled now with October's anticipation and the nose welcomed the smokey of still charring wood.

I have come to so love this conspiratorial deluge of the senses, what they arouse so deep within me. Welcome Char-cool!

...camping this weekend. I anticipate. The life of direct conversation with others, the escape from the dominance of our flat-screens, the surprise of the blend of the 3-dimensional world of nature and the unique interaction of souls it prompts.

Parenthood - Everything Is Not OK

 

I have plugged for this show before. This week's episode was another really good one - very family, very human. I was prompted to confess a bit of me I saw in Adam (one of the characters) to Tami.

Worth your while. Click pic to watch....

Spend on It

There's a very positive relationship
between people's ability to
accomplish any task and the time
they're willing to spend on it.

-- Joyce Brothers

Get that tongue out of your cheek, Joyce. Not many people (any?) can get good at what they do without really working at it.

But really, with the self-evident humor, why wouldn't this be a very natural response to Emerson's thought?

Within Us

What lies behind us, and what lies
before us are small matters
compared to what lies within us.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Partial Redemption

There is no such thing as partial redemption.

While it may be true at any given moment that it isn't complete yet, there is nothing 'barely' about redemption. God isn't just 'doing the best he can' with what He's been left to work with. No, His redemptive work is full, complete, and total.

That is the beauty of redemption, in the first place.

Forgiveness

The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness.

-- William Blake

An odd juxtaposition of images -- glory, conquering, forgiveness -- but a not so subtle irony none-the-less. I remember a rather stunning thought from Blue Like Jazz that such 'conquering' is even more by asking for forgiveness than simply granting it.

Forgiveness carries a lot of assumptions. Things like the need to be honest, the willingness to seek out another person with my vulnerability, the reality that I need it as badly as any one else. And, of course, these are among nearly impossible tasks without having realized that I, myself, have been forgiven in very specific and personal ways. The act is a profound one, a deeply human one, a powerful one. One that truly dismantles (conquers) so many of the false constructs we have built in our lives.

When is the last time I forgave someone...or asked for forgiveness?

Your Story

We can't change the present or the future. We can only change the past, and we do it all the time.

-- Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone

We all know the line that says something to the effect that if we don't remember the past, we are condemned to repeat it. Donald Miller's latest book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, is all about living our story now because the past has sure shaped it.

I really like these thoughts about story as well:

Grace is the backbone of every woman still standing.

-- Ann Voskamp's blog

God’s writing your story and He never leaves you alone in your story....

-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

That is a lot be thankful for. Continue reading Ann's thoughts about your story....

Two for the Road: Stolen & One

Two for the road today...

...much of our lives are spent trying to avoid conflict. Half the commercials on television are selling us something that will make life easier. Part of me wonders if our stories aren't being stolen by the easy life.

-- Donald Miller, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years


It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for … the masses.

-- Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Patience

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.

-- St. Francis de Sales

Change

...we were designed to live through something rather than to attain something, and the thing we were meant to live through was designed to change us.

-- Donald Miller, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years

Nature Speaks

The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they display knowledge.

Yet their message has gone throughout the earth,
   and their words to all the world.

-- Psalm 19:1-2, 4

Is God silent or is He talking?  What is His language?  Psalms 19 seems to answer this question.

His language of love is Nature.  He has spoken and continues to speak...day after day after day.  The glory of His Nature 'pours out speech'. Undeniably. Irretrievably. Unquenchingly. Overwhelmingly. If we listen, we are star-struck by it, stream-struck by it, mountain-struck by it, season-struck by it.  Its order, chaos, and timelessness all pronounce the transcendence of his love throughout our experience of tHIS life, in this world.

 ...and so many still seem able to hardly notice.

Blake and I were talking about his recently; what do you think?  What is God 'saying'?

Priesthood of All Believers

Anthropologists tell us that "religion" is a universal cultural reality. Every culture creates a religion. We find religion all around the world, in every culture.

The religions they create have at least two characteristics:

• people create religious rituals to ceremonialize their devotion
• people create a religious hierarchy to outsource their religious obligations

We don't want a priesthood and ministry of all believers. Instead, we want people to go to God for us and leaders to do the ministry to us...

Continue Reading

By Us & For Us

Before we can begin to see the cross as something done for us, we have to see it as something done by us.

-- John Stott

CT: What Kind of Wife

Picture this: a bride and groom dashing out of the church, through the showers of birdseed and into the limo, all aglow with the light of love from the vows they've just taken. In the backseat of the car, en route to the reception, they embrace and kiss. Then the groom announces that he has something to say:

"Now you realize, my dear," he begins, "that, as far as I'm concerned, we can't really say we're married, because I don't know yet what kind of wife you'll turn out to be...."

This CT article is one of those 'must read' kind of things about grace and faith -- really worth your time:

Continue Reading!

Mistakes

The greatest mistake you can make in life
is to be continually fearing
you will make one.

-- Elbert Hubbard

...so, we can 'go for it' and give it our all and be thankful for any good that comes out of it and seek forgiveness for anything bad we've caused.

To Reveal

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.

-- Benjamin Disraeli

I'm not a huge fan of superlatives...like when people say things like, "I've always believed that..." or the 'est' in statements like the above. But, generally at least, they are used to emphasize a point and the one above is a good one, in my estimation. Especially when one thinks about what our true riches are.

Grateful Participants

We get robbed of the glory of life because we aren't capable of remembering how we got here.

...stunningly true, no?

When you are born, you wake slowly to everything. Your brain doesn't stop growing until you turn twenty-six, so from birth to twenty-six, God is slowly turning the light on, and you're groggy and pointing at things saying circle and blue and car and then sex and job and health care. The experience is so slow you could easily come to believe life isn't that big of a deal, that life isn't staggering. What I'm saying is I think life is staggering and we're just used to it. We all are like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we're given -- it's just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral.

We are awakening to God, as we live, if we are willing.

I've wondered, though, if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of life is because we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement.  We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage.  And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.

-- Donald Miller, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years

Gratitude goes a lot farther than the other reaction: busyness.

...by the way, I'm thoroughly enjoying this Donald Miller book.

Barrenness

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

-- Socrates

Meant to be Given

It is interesting how we gauge what we keep for ourselves. It seems that we often base this on what everyone else is keeping...I shouldn't have any less than everyone else, right?

But, when does that thinking take us somewhere that simply isn't right? See Ann Voskamp's thoughts on our problem with this here.

We don't own anything - everything we have is given to us.

Nothing given to us is meant to be kept. Everything given is meant to be given (to others).

Oh God, Our Help

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home.

Under the shadow of thy throne,
still may we dwell secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received her frame,
from everlasting, thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages, in thy sight,
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night,
before the rising sun.

Time, like an ever rolling stream,
bears all who breathe away;
they fly forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come;
be thou our guide while life shall last,
and our eternal home.

-- Isaac Watts

I attended a wedding recently where this song was sung. My how I've missed it over the years. What a vision to sing such a thing like this at a wedding. Pure vision.

And, perhaps, I recognized more of its sweep because of two other recent events, one another kind of beginning and another hinting at a possible ending. The former I referenced in yesterday's post regarding my son. The latter regarding the open-heart surgery of my 71 year-old mother. The juxtaposition of the two and all their possibilities laid right next to something like a wedding that wants to be built on this kind of God. What a wonder. What a mystery. What a stopping. What a worshiping.

Shadow of Me

Like that created by the setting sun, the older I get, the longer my shadow gets.  It takes up more space.

I arrived at this thought one day as I contemplated the leaving of my son for the first time at college (which we did last weekend).  It occurred to me that he needs to be out of my shadow.  I don't know of anything particularly wrong with my shadow (well, sure, there is plenty wrong with it....), it's just the order of Dad-ness.  He needs to be free of me, the shade of my shadow, for a while.  In order for him to grow, to identify the size and shape of his own shadow, he must move out away from mine.  He needs sunlight to grow...all things do, to develop fully, to mature, to become what they are intended to be.

You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was.

-- OLD IRISH PROVERB

I can ascent to this intellectually.  But I must admit, something else is at work, too.  I wish I knew what he was up to, how he is doing.  Not too long ago, our lives were quite integrated.  Now they're not...or so it feels.  At least, they're not integrated by proximity.  And this, though bearing a sense of loss, is how it should be now, for his sake.  It is time for him to find himself, on his terms...and without my direct supervision, without the shadow of me directly over him.  This is healthy...for both of us.

...and, it forces something else good in me; to pray for him, to entrust him to God.  To trust God for him.  To trust that God is for Him and taking him more fully from here (not that He didn't have him fully until now).  This process of entrusting him to God frees him to grow up into the shape God has for him.  And, really, what more could I really want for him.  I don't want to over-shadow him.

I want him to find his own shadow, so that he can see what he really looks like...who he really is.

...and, if his experience is like mine and that of all sons, the Shadow of Me will likely be quite a part of his anyway.

Don't Worry About Size

Don't worry about the size of your platform or whether you'll have one -- you will. Instead, pay attention to the people around you and the opportunities in front of you, knowing that your chances to make a positive difference will come along in due time. Focus on the impact you have with the platform God gives you.

-- Tony Dungy, The Mentor Leader

Truth and Beauty

The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives.

-- Albert Einstein

Beauty Simply Is

Beauty requires no justification, no explanation; it simply is and transcends.

I pay tribute to God by paying attention.

All beauty is only reflection.

-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Something Else

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

How Well Do We See

Once upon a time there were two small boys who asked their fathers to take them to see the great parade that passed through the village every ten years. The fathers, remembering the parade from when they were boys, quickly agreed, and the next morning the four of them set out together.

Continue Reading, some good stuff, especially at the end.

I Will Instruct You

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

-- Psalm 32:8

In the end, leaders lead...by example.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

-- 2 Corinthians 8:9

God’s not out to get you — He’s out to give to you.

And God’s blessings don’t pursue temporarily — but relentlessly. It’s right there in His Word: His goodness and mercy pursue me not just some days — but all the days of my life. When I’m in a wilderness, His mercy and goodness run after me. When I’m hurting, His grace hunts for me. When I’m plagued by problems, His goodness pursues me.

Surely Your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life…

-- Psalm 23:6

Your beauty and love chase after me …

-- Psalm 23:6

-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Gateway into Fall

Must say I like this thought from OtRs latest newsletter regarding the season of Fall.  Joe Henry always thinks of September 1 as New Year’s Day:

The gateway into fall; marking the time to set aside distractions and truly engage in the soul's real work; to rededicate yourself to love and service, forgiveness and mystery.

-- Joe Henry

It is a most wonderful time of year, a welcomed rhythm of life.

Going to College

What is the purpose of 'college'?  We took our son to college today.  Anticipating the event, I asked myself what the purpose of doing this is.  In part to remind myself; in part to admonish him -- at the end of the day, what is this whole thing for?

I got it down this far:  Going to college is an opportunity.

An opportunity to:

• become a professional in some skill-set 
• develop more awareness -- of one's self, of others, of the world
• fit the 3 together from a deeper awareness of God

How would you describe it?  What do you see as the purpose of 'going to college'? 

Going Back and Forward

Going back can sometimes be the quickest way forward.

-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Until it is faced

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

-- James Baldwin

Strengths & Weaknesses

Every time you meet a person with great strengths, you are also meeting someone with great weaknesses.

-- Peter Drucker, The Effective Executive

Excuses

As you might have gathered, I'm exploring the concepts of leadership of late. Here's one to start off this week's continued thinking:

If you start making excuses to cut out the things that are important because of urgent circumstances, it will become a habit, and you'll start cutting them our regularly.

-- Tony Dungy, The Mentor Leader

When you think of leadership, what stands out as 'important' to you?

Far More Willing

Experience has taught me that the Shepherd is far more willing to show his sheep the path than the sheep are to follow. He is endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving.

-- Elisabeth Elliot

Do you ever catch yourself censoring your prayers? Why would you do that, you might say? Among other things, is something at work to cut our prayers short? It seems to me that a big part of following God is praying (breathing with God).

I was out today and found myself praying. Praying that God would free me from some things, but as I came closer to the specific words of my request I noticed myself start to censor my prayer. Do I really want to say that? If I do ask for something, He just may give it to me. Be a little careful how you phrase that, I thought. And, then, I realized why I was doing this; that I was really trying to avoid something. And, that something was the possibility of pain. You see, I know that if I ask God something like 'teach me to love like you do'...this may very well be granted and the granting may be very painful, like it was (is?) for Him. 'Help me not to...' ...and, He may just answer that by exposing something (painfully) in my life. So, without even realizing it, I was censoring my own prayers to God.

Acknowledging this, however, lead me somewhere I might otherwise have not gone. It lead me to consider the notion that it may actually be good for me to experience a helpful pain. Like having a needed surgery, the short-term pain may in fact become an integral part of a needed healing of something. Pain isn't always simply to be avoided. I have to remind myself of this. It can be a good thing that truly frees me toward the things I more genuinely want and ask God for. And, do I really want to be in the business of negotiating for goodness from God, particularly as I tend to define goodness in any given moment? Half the time, I don't really even know what is truly good for me, what I really need.

So my censoring effort, if successful, would have kept me from discovering this idea. I would have stopped by prayer short. In other words, if I had managed my prayer, I may not have realized what I was really doing and forfeited my deepening requests of God for His goodness - as He defines it - however He may choose to grant them.

And He is, afterall, endlessly merciful, patient, tender, and loving.

Bob Dylan - Fort Wayne 2012

 

Man, the old guy wasn't so old last night. He was 'feeling good' with new variations both jazzy and jammin'. What a beautiful evening to be outside listening to really quite fabulous music with both iconic and relevant message for even our times. My appreciation simply increased.

Click pic for set list....

Leadership

Most ideas today about leadership seem quite novel, but the more I review the topic, the more timeless the traits obviously are:

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.

-- John Quincy Adams

Well-Roundedness & Inspiration

Those individuals in our organization who are inspired tend to outperform. That's because the more well-rounded you are, the better you're able to perform.

-- John Robak

Well-roundedness is likely a product of many things - family, up-bringing, opportunity, exposure, reading, personality, etc.  Based on my personal experience, I think college can go a long way for someone as well.  But I am particularly intrigued, however one gets there, by the connection between it and inspiration.

College & Reading

Donald Miller seems to concur with yesterday's post:

I don't think there is any substitute for a college education, and I regret not attending myself, but a diligent commitment to reading will get you far. All leaders read, and there are almost no exceptions.

He went on to say this, which I like quite a bit:

I just think of the mind as a muscle, and by working it, we get more enjoyment out of life.

And, humor about an otherwise quite serious problem is quite...winsome, no?

The latest statistic is that the average American watches 1,456 hours of television a year but only reads three books. So if it's true that readers are leaders, and the more you read the further you advance, then there isn't a lot of competition.

-- Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon

For Those Who Want to Lead, Read

Even as global literacy rates are high (84%), people are reading less and less deeply. The National Endowment for the Arts has found that "reading has declined among every group of adult Americans," and for the first time in American history, "less than half of the U.S. adult American population is reading literature." Literacy has been improving in countries like India and China, but that literacy may not translate into more or deeper reading.

This is terrible for leadership, where my experience suggests those trends are even more pronounced. Business people seem to be reading less — particularly material unrelated to business. But deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.

Continue Reading...

When You

...when you have a lot, it is easy to not want to lose it.
When you don't want to lose it, it is easy to invest effort into keeping it.
When you invest effort into keeping it, it is easy to think you deserve it.
When you think you deserve it, you have forgotten that it was really given to you.

When you forget that it was given to you, you forget who gave it to you.
When you forget who gives you...anything you have, you're in trouble.

Thankfulness and Living

“Gratefulness allows us to understand what matters most to us and translate that to a broader goal,” offered the researcher who presented his findings at the American Psychological Association annual meeting.

When we don’t think there’s much to give thanks for, we don’t think there’s much to live for — because giving thanks to God is the purpose of our lives.

When we don’t focus on what we can thank God for, we can’t focus on living....

-- Ann Voskamp

Tendency

The older we get, the greater the tendency to become convinced that our path of experience and knowledge is normative for others.

We must hold this lightly for their sakes, as well as for our own.

Wait (Pt 2)

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him

-- Psalm 37:7

We are encouraged to wait. We are challenged to wait.

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

-- Psalm 27:14

At times, it seems we have no choice but to wait.

Some times we wait so long, we forget what we are really waiting for...or who is doing the waiting.

So what is going here? What is making us believe that this effort, this activity is so against something in ourselves? ...when, in fact, it may be part of our purpose? What is the purpose of waiting in our lives?

Wait

Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens."

-- Ruth 3:18

I Will Wait -- Mumford & Sons

Click to listen while you read:

I Will Wait

Well I came home
Like a stone
And I fell heavy into your arms
These days of dust
Wish we've known
Will blow away with this new sun

But I'll kneel down wait for now
And I'll kneel down
Know my ground

And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

So break my step
And relent
Well you forgave and I won't forget
Know what we've seen
And him with less
Now in some way shake the excess

And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

Now I'll be bold
As well as strong
And use my head alongside my heart
So tame my flesh
And fix my eyes
I tethered mind freed from the lies

And I'll kneel down
Wait for now
I'll kneel down
Know my ground

Raise my hands
Paint my spirit gold
And bow my head
Feel my heart slow

Cause I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you
And I will wait I will wait for you

-- Mumford & Sons, Babel

Shields & Cages

...no one tells you that the shields you carry to keep you safe, they become the the steel cages that keep you alone.

-- Ann Voskamp

Am I OK?

We live regularly with the question of whether or not we are OK. And, most of our time is spent seeking the answer to this question from those around us. But, even with each validation, we are dropped off at the bus-stop asking it again. Am I still OK? What about the last thing I did, or didn't do? Where does that leave me now. And, in the end, we are exhausted by the endlessness of the affirmation we seek.

Exhausting this method, though, isn't bad. It leaves us looking for something else and moves us towards the understanding that ultimately we cannot be validated enough by others...because they were not designed to validate us. Our only real validation comes from God. He is the one who created (authored) us...made us to be what we are. And with God, we are not OK...on our own merits. We are not who we were made to be. We have simply screwed things up, over and over and over. And, we are not OK. Perhaps our deepest sense of this is what keeps us constantly looking for another opinion...from others.

A surprising (and relieving) truth is that we can be OK with God after all. Because He has offered us forgiveness, if we seek it. He is the one who constantly invites us back to what He made us to be. And, in seeking this forgiveness, we discover that He is the only one who can answer our deepest question. We are OK, because of what He has done for us, for our un-OK-ness. And, when we realize this, we are finally free to not get off at all the old bus-stops. We are free to live with a new answer, a freeing answer, to our human question.

Two Kinds

There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners, and the rest, sinners who believe themselves righteous.

-- Blaise Pascal

Cubs vs Reds 2012

 

Continue viewing...

How vs Why

"We all live life asking questions, questions about how to get ahead, how to make life more meaningful, questions about how to survive or help people survive. The question how is an American question, and it rests on the presupposition that we know what life is really about."  

Just give us the manual.

The Bible is answering primarily another question. It taps into our un-habited questions of why.  If we feel it is out of sync with our concerns, perhaps it is because it and we are seeking answers to different questions.

The link below encourages us to think about the many why questions we are often unaccustomed to asking.  Continue reading....

Flourish

If all the insects were to disappear from the Earth, within fifty years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within fifty years all forms of life would flourish.

-- Jonas Salk


Seems a bit dismal, but not in light of yesterday's post...read here.

Especially when we could be doing this.

Makes Me Mad

...just keep it out of sight?

'Just' makes me mad.  How much of this is going on?  ...probably way more than I want to know.

Indifference at work?  One of our crimes?

...somehow I am a part of this and I don't want to be.  But, how do I not support the cultural machinery all around me...that enables this kind of thing?  Seems like it has to come down to some personal choices that don't seem like they would matter anyway (not that that alone should make a difference).

Seven National Crimes

I don't think. I don't know.
I don't care. I am too busy.
I leave well enough alone.
I have no time to read and
find out. I am not interested.

-- William J. H. Boetcker

Indifference

The greatest tragedy
is indifference.

-- The Red Cross

Each Other

If we have no peace,
it is because we have
forgotten that we
belong to each other.

-- Mother Teresa

Wonder

As I wander off the porch of a space some dear friends are sharing with us, I realize I have forgotten that it is Saturday Morning. There are no digital clocks on these views, only the natural ones, whose rhythm is so easy to get accustomed to...like it was natural or something.

I have mentioned my deep affection for slant before, and this morning is full of it. Light miraculously invading the shadows of ridges and trees, but ever so gently as it does so. It seems transported this morning on breeze, creating a flutter of a million leaves all waving in a kind of praise. The light and the shadows dance together romantically, as the leaves of the conductor's wand direct them deeply into a kind indescribable beauty.

A fullness drowns out the sense of doom we so often carry around with us. It requires a trust, but oh so beckoningly. And the human spirit within me yields today to it.

Thank you, David and Julie, for a spot to remember, to wonder, to discover. Thank you for your humility, which so frees us to enjoy the fact that all goodness is from God.

A Watch

When I go running some place unfamiliar, I take my watch.  It helps me know how far I've gone.  Otherwise, the pain in my bones, the fatigue in my legs, or my gasping breath on a hill might deceive me into thinking I can't do (or can do) something I really can.  Pain or discomfort -- a deceiver.  I haven't really thought of it like that before.  I need something like a watch to help me properly interpret what I experience, to have a more true understanding of it, rather than just going with what it feels like where I am.

Both are realities, but one could overshadow the other.

Ann Voskamp puts it this way:

Joy and pain, they are but two arteries of the one heart that pumps through all those who don't numb themselves to really living.

and

this Daily discipline is the door to full freedeom.

A watch to keep me oriented to what is true...to make me free.

Be Still, and Know

 

...and (see post below), beauty opens us back up to the reality of God. What is it about the lack of our movement that enables this? Rush, rush, and rush and we may never notice Him or see Him...imagining that we are the source of provision, of goodness, of what we have.

But take a few...to step back, to wonder, to be grateful, to receive the truth that it is God who provides us with all things, that gives us everything...and we are both renewed and reminded about the real order of things in life. All things start and end with God. What a relief, what enjoyment, what peace is ours.

Continue viewing...

Beauty - Revisited

Beauty often comes in forms greater than we can take in all at once.

It soaks.  It opens.  It reveals.  Though it can take us by surprise, it is often slow.

Beauty leaks through our crust, opening and softening us to things within us, to the world outside us.  It is an unparallelled power.  A force undeniable, except when we ignore it.

How to Make Any Relationship Better

When the Farmer comes in after 11 from the field, he carries it in on his grimy shirt, a few pounds of dirt.

I wonder if he feels it, the weight of the gritty world on his shoulders.

He finds me in a straight back chair at the window in lamp light. There are pages on my lap. He has no words.

Continue reading here....

Cannot Make Yourself

Do not be angry that you cannot make others as you would wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

-- Thomas à Kempis

Wants To Be

Family ought to see a man less for what he is, and more for what the man wants to be.

-- Brother Smith

Faith & Control

Faith is about, among other things, the release of the need to control life.

In fact, show me someone who has faith, and I will show you someone who has less and less tied up in how things go.  And, in opposite, show me someone who has a high need for control, and you will see someone to whom faith is not much more than an idea.

Control is most often about fear.  But here is the key to fear.

The Key

He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure.

-- Isaiah 33:6

This is the kind of assurance we have, even when it feel like this.

What Lies In Me

I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God.

-- Oswald Chambers

What Needs Healed

What if your healing comes through tears?

What if it takes tears to turn our hearts to God? What if it is our humility that rolls 'our stone' away?

Humility

The soul of a true Christian, as I then wrote my meditations, appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year; low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrancy; standing peacefully and lovingly, in the midst of other flowers round about; all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun. There was no part of creature holiness, that I had so great a sense of its loveliness, as humility, brokenness of heart and poverty of spirit; and there was nothing that I so earnestly longed for. My heart panted after this - to lie low before God, as in the dust; that I might be nothing, and that God might be all, that I might become as a little child.

-- Jonathan Edwards

Manna

Your future includes manna. It will come. There is no sense devising future scenarios now because God will do more than you anticipate. When you understand God's plan to give future grace, you have access to what is arguably God's most potent salve against worry and fear.

-- Ed Welch, Running Scared

Lose Your Life

Lose you life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorite wishes every day and death to your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

This still surprises us when we come up against it. We ascent to it, even rather easily, until we are faced with the loss or letting go of something particular...something that makes us feel like we are losing life.

But what does this really mean, if it doesn't mean the areas we spend most of our time preserving, protecting, even building?

Peace & Safety

There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct if for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won where the way leads to the cross.

-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Anything You Have

[Anything you have...] It is due to the century and place in which you were born, to your talents and capacities and health, none of which you earned.

In short, all your resources are in the end — the gift of God.

-- Tim Keller

Tami and I were talking recently.  The more I have and the more I am aware of what others don't, the more I struggle to accept the disparity, to not ache for those without. And not just without the physical comforts or benefits in this life, but the deeper and internal stuff that people don't have, don't know about. I have been blessed with so much, not the least of which is awareness of God's goodness.  But, we are all one. And, I can't not feel a ping of inability to completely enjoy something knowing that others are suffering in so many of the dimensions that they are -- some of it by their own choosing, but much of it (perhaps) not.

Oh, to be more like Moses.

Gratitude

An attitude of gratitude creates blessings.

-- Sir John Templeton

Saw this one this morning; seems fitting in light of yesterday's post.

Lack of Time?

The real problem of life is never a lack of time.

The real problem of life is lack of thanksgiving.

Why did Jesus give thanks before He broke the bread and fishes that weren't enough to feed all the people? Did He need to? Did He do it to teach us to do it? Or, was it that He knew something about the relationship between thankfulness and time...and multiplying things. We might accurately report we don't have time to stop and be thankful, we've got thing to do and places to go to make things happen, to keep up...with all that we don't have time for.

...stopping to pray, in this world view, is a waste of...time.

...not according to Jesus. Things, including time, multiply when we allow ourselves to become thankful.

I redeem time from neglect and apathy and inattentiveness when I swell with thanks and weigh the moment down and it's giving thanks to God for this moment that multiplies the moments, time made enough.

-- Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts

Growth Begins

Growth begins when we begin to accept our own weakness.

-- Jean Vanier

Something Else

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Fear of Man

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

-- Proverbs 29:25

Authority

A recent review in "Books & Culture" of Victor Austin's book, Up with Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings, states that we are:

"essentially social beings all the way to the end". He rejects the idea that authority rides on that beast, coercion. "When coercion becomes necessary, authority is not able to be all that it could be". My father is in his eighties, and I am in my fifties, and I still respect his authority very highly, but not, I hasten to add, because I am afraid of a spanking.

Austin shows that there is a liberated sort of authority that does not exclude freedom but actually depends upon it: "I am persuaded that the freer we become as human beings the more we will need authority".

-- Douglas Wilson, "Books & Culture" review of Up with Authority: Why We Need Authority to Flourish as Human Beings

We are clearly in an age where authority is unfashionable. We have almost come culturally to despise judgment, at the same time when, because of that, we crave it more than ever. Those that we admire are, in fact, those that makes critical, astute, and good judgments. We just don't like it when they're wrong.

But if we abdicate authority completely, what authority have we essentially, and unwittingly, adopted?

Infatuated

We have become infatuated, as a culture, with being liked by our kids in all the ways that we did not like our parents. We have lost the power to say, 'no'.

Grace

If he gives you the grace to make you believe, he will give you the grace to live a holy life afterward.

-- Charles Spurgeon

Safe Sex: No?

Any interesting article, Risky Sex, discusses the notions of safe sex; what is and what isn't safe...about it.

Do It Right

If you don’t have time to do it right,
when will you have time to do it over?

-- John Wooden

The Juvenilization of American Christianity

This seems to coincide rather consistently with a recent article in Christianity Today about The Juvenilization of American Christianity.

It goes without saying, but probably does need to be said, that the two groups (the culture at large and the subsets of the church) are swimming in the same pond and drinking the same water. Which presents both opportunity and challenge to consider what we are all a part of and what needs to be stood against.

Half-Hearted Creatures

If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

-- C.S. Lewis

Prolonged Juvenile Period

“Many parents remarked that it takes more effort to get children to collaborate than to do the tasks themselves.”

Today’s parents are not just “helicopter parents,” a former school principal complains to Marano. “They are a jet-powered turbo attack model.” Other educators gripe about “snowplow parents,” who try to clear every obstacle from their children’s paths.

A rather fascinating assessment in 'The New Yorker' continues here...

Cowboys Must Be Deranged

Dear Mr. Fuller:

I was struck (lightly) the other day by the following wonder: if lawyers become disbarred, and priests unfrocked, how might people in other paths of life be read out of their profession or calling?

It occurred to me then that electricians get delighted and...

Complexity

Complexity is the new opacity.

-- NPR program on the changes data is making on society, 6/30/12

Goodness

Comforts and pleasures are not the larger part of God's goodness, though they certainly are included.

I pray that I will not dis-respect His goodness. So I ask myself about when I tend to do that.

I tend to do that when I forget about His goodness or take it for granted.

And, I tend to forget about His goodness when I become comfortable with comforts and pleasures and seek to hold on to them or when I feel at risk of losing them and start to scramble to keep them.

I can cling to them...rather than to Him.

Sometimes God takes away goodnesses from us, particularly comforts and pleasures, so that we will know of His greater goodnesses to us. I have experienced this. But, now, I am grateful for it (even though I wasn't at the time).

When we come to know of these kinds of goodness, first-hand, we hold less onto the the other versions of goodness, because we know that everything has been given to us. True goodness is not held-onto, it is given away. And, we reflect His goodness when we extend it to others.

All goodness is designed to bring glory to God.

I pray that God would help me remember this and that His goodness far surpasses my small understandings of it.

We Have Listened Long Enough to the Pessimists

In March of 1906, unable to preside over a public meeting of the Association for Promoting the Interests of the Blind, deafblind activist and author Helen Keller instead sent the following stirring letter to her good friend, Mark Twain. On the day of the event, Twain, who was chairing the meeting in Keller's absence, read her stunning letter aloud...

Lists

The greatest poetry comes out of lists.

-- G.K. Chesterton

Riches Stored

I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

-- Isaiah 45:3