God's gifts to each of us are enormous, if we simply look for them.  The greatest of all that I have found is the gift of opportunity.  Opportunity is a word that conveys the feeling of progress, advancement, and as the American Heritage Dictionary reads, "A favorable or advantageous combination of circumstances". 

In my life in God, I am presented daily with favorable circumstances, opportunities to make choices between living spiritually or being purely human.  In the past, most of my choices were driven by the overwhelming power of human nature, rooted in habits that developed out of instinct and from years of looking for ways to satisfy the hunger that arose from an unquenchable feeling of loneliness.   Such things drive a soul to darkness in a way that chips one apart, a little piece at a time, while looking for that fulfillment that will surely be just around the next corner or behind the next bottle.  All trailing opportunities missed.

An ancient psalmist writes, "He reached down from on high and grasped me; he drew me out of great waters... He brought me out into an open place; he rescued me because he delighted in me".  I have felt the joy and relief behind these words in my own life, the day that I finally seized an opportunity to chose, and realized that I in order to live, I must surrender all of the things in my life that are driven by anything other than love.  Every door was opened and  the light of goodness filled each corner and  the rushing breeze of the Spirit removed the dust and darkness.  I set myself free from myself, and prayed to God that He would be my mind and my heart.

Another psalm, "remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your love..."  and another, "the Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I have been helped".  These are  words of comfort, the words that convey the situation of life today.  So, do I feel that I have I been made perfect or better than anyone?  Of course not, and I never shall be. But by realizing and seeing that one thing, that each day is an opportune gift from God to restore life in goodness and hope, I know that I can live. 

Live a life today, live as if you are who God created you to be.  Living away from your self is not a fearful place, it is not a lonely place.  It is where we all belong in order to be who we are.  The opportunity is always present, it is a gift waiting to be accepted.

What in the world?

There is something going on.  In the world.  If one doesn't realize this, then one must have one's head in the sand.  Keep it there long enough, and someone will cut it off at the neck. 

Yes, I believe it is that bad.  However, I also believe it is necessary and certainly not unique in the history of mankind.  "Things" never remain the same forever, and in our technological world, forever doesn't last very long.  There have been major cultural shifts, "turnings" if you will, through-out history.  We are seeing one now.  The greatest fear in these periods is not who will end up winning the illusion of control, but the mere fact that things are changing.

Who's at fault?  Every single one of us and none of us.  We are all people and we are consistently thus.  We all spend, we all hoard; we all love, we all hate; we all strive for truth, we all lie.  The only the difference is the magnitude of these things. 

Is God in the middle of this?  I don't know.  But I believe that all is as it should be all the time and that God is in the middle of that.  How we handle change, upheaval, revolution, idiots, whatever, is a function of God in us.  We who believe have our instructions and we have the experience of centuries of thriving in and hiding from human constructs of governance.  There is nothing to fear.  There is much to pray for.

It's hip to cite hyposcrasy

IN blog comments, letters to the editor, interviews, social media, and everyday conversation; it is very hip to rationalize away the idea of religion based on the "hypocrasy and intolerence" of religious people.  What a concept!  Such statements presume that those who openly identify themselves with a (Christian) religious group are claiming to be something they are not, and expect everyone else to be so as well.  There is only one rational response to these folk, in words that today's culture understands unequivocally- bullshit.

Granted, there are denominations out there which do proscribe to sole source salvation, and believe that those who don't belong are done for.  And yes, there are those who believe that actions speak louder than anything else and their faith is demonstrated through an elitist, exclusionary approach.   (You know who you are.)  But this is not religion, this is not Christianity.  This is what happens when human beings play cosmic arbiter.  And, it applies equally to the smug non religious person living high above the fray, who's own "tolerance" does not reach quite as far across the board as he or she may imagine.

Religion is about an individuals approach and relationship with a higher power.  Most of us refer to that power by the noun, God.   It encompasses an infinite number of forms and as many theologies.  There are actually those of us who are Christians, who can accept this fact and live with it, without feeling that such a belief diminishes our relationship with Jesus in any way.  Or, more importantly, that such belief diminishes Jesus and his message in any way.  Which is the way this whole Christian thing began, as I understand it, before humans began to improve it, (tongue in cheek). 

Anyway, explaining this would take years of blogging and make little difference to anyone.  Which is sad.  Just as sad as reading the cynical, prejudiced thoughts of the enlightened who enjoy their right to condemn and besmirch what they fear.  I know far, far more Christians from many, many denominations who would try to understand those viewpoints and pray for those people, rather than drag their attitudes through the mud and condemn them to hell.  But for some reason, those folks just don't get it. 

Oh well.  I guess I'll go out and be hypocritical and intolerant for the rest of the day.  What else is there to do?

Civility and compassion: How do we get there?

Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The preceding prayer for soical justice is from the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church, USA. It states very succinctly the pangs I feel as I continue to hear people, individual people, persons (I must emphasize that the words do come from real live people) who appear on television, speak on radio programs, make speechs to groups they wish to persuade, write columns, blogs and tweets; who can not resist the rush of power that must come from verbally crushing their self defined enemies. While at the same time calling for civility in discourse, rhetoric that would once upon a time be restricted to trade books that were only sold in those kinds of stores, spews from their peers through all media outlets with the force of raw sewage.

I heard someone say recently, that nowadays telling the truth may be thought of as activism. I believe this. What I also believe is that someday, being honest, striving for moral values, politeness, common couth shall we say, will once more be in vogue. I realize that such things take effort on the part of those who practice them, which may explain to some degree why the current culture prefers to go in the other direction. But, how far in the other direction are we as a society willing to go? Can anyone make a point without using threatening, brutal sexual imagery to punctuate it?  Is that supposed to make us all cringe in fear of these hooligans?

When there is no foundation, nothing substantial can be built upon it. Our culture has eschewed building foundations on any thing other than the sands of the lowest comon denominator.  Vulgarity is cool.  Right? Its all part of the vanilla, no-one-gets-their-feelings-hurt group think. (As long as one is cool, of course). We see the fruits of this everywhere. Even as I write this little rant, I almost feel obliged to apologize for myself and hope that no one will take offense to my standing on such a perilous platform as criticizing the coolness of the peeps. Sorry, I can't. My voice is just as relevant as Charlie Sheen's, though far less interesting, I am sure.

So, if our leaders want to bring civility to the fore and we want to live in peace with one another and act in unity rather than acrimony, what do we do? Certainly not what we are doing now. Does the prayer above even make sense?  Does it even have a chance?

Of course it does. I believe we can heal. I believe we can make it there. And I believe it because it is the message of Jesus. The World, 2011, isn't the first point in time when things have been so unruly, but we could make it the beginning of the end. Jesus' teachings and words still ring true and still hold hope in their consistency.  It is simple, we do not have to hate each other and in God's love, there is no fear.

"What is the good of drawing up, on paper, rules for social behaviour, if we know that, in fact, our greed, cowardice, ill temper, and self conceit are going to prevent us from keeping them? I do not mean for a moment that we ought not think...What I do mean is that all that thinking will be mere moonshine unless we realise that nothing but the courage and unselfishness of individuals is ever going to make any system work properly...You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you can not have good society." C.S. Lewis

Good men and women, its time to be heard.

Civility: Making a comeback or the topic de jour?

Ah, civility!  Once the hallmark of the Western world, the trademark of the elite classes.  Civility, we hardly knew ye.  It is gone, lost in a world where shrillness, absurdity and vulgarity have obliterated respect for truth and pass for clever communication.  As long as the message is received, who cares what it looks like, sounds like or who it embarrasses or ruins!  The point must be made, at all costs. Not only that, but isn't schadenfreude a delicious treat?

Today, I see that the University of Arizona is opening a National Institute for Civil Discourse, a center for the debate and study for civility in our culture.  The fact that we need such a Center is embarrassing enough, but even as the announcement of its opening is being made, the discourse regarding the Institute for Civil Discourse is rash with sarcasm, scepticism and out right incivility (see the comments on the link above, and just about any other source of this news clip.)(Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/21/national-institute-for-civil-discourse_n_825825.html?ir=College)

The biblical lectionary for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany, read yesterday in most liturgical churches around the globe, presented a very timely bit of gospel on this subject.  Jesus is teaching the beatitudes, the very heart of the message of God and is quoted thus:

43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Matthew 5.

There are not many ways to look at this and come away with a message that does not promote civility, if not compassion, forgiveness and acceptance of others, enemies included.  What could today's world, or any other time in the history of mankind, do with a widespread acceptance of this message?  Not an acceptance of Christianity, or even of Jesus as Son of God- just this message alone?  Why is it so difficult?

It certainly isn't difficult to think of civility and to profess that civility may be achieved by having the right person or people in power.  Plato certainly thought so, as did St. Augustine.  The Muslims of the world see it in their cultural way of thinking.  So why is it so hard?  And why is it so easy to make fun of this idea and the people who sincerely pose the idea in our time?

Could it be that our foundation as a culture and of species is so soft that belief in the motives of others to extend beyond personal survival, fear and selfishness is just not smart?  Doesn't everyone want to take what I have, hold me down, push me away, impose on me, eliminate the very threat of me...?  And even if I began to look at the world the way that this message suggests, that doesn't mean that anyone else will!  I'll be a laughing stock, a target! 

I don't know how to solve this problem and I don't believe that the centuries of contemplating it  will culminate in utopia this week.  But I do know that I can try, and keep trying.  I can comment and I can see that God lives in every thing and everyone, and that alone is enough to give it a shot.  I don't have to find my enemies and get smoochy with them, I just have to be willing to try and leave presumption and fear behind when we are walking the second mile, remembering as Father Thack said yesterday, we have to be willing to walk the first mile to get to the second one.   I must remember that I alone don't have to twist facts, or lie, or make absurd points using extreme examples just to have my voice heard, I just tell the truth, over and over again.

Thank goodness people are trying.  I pledge to try as well.

The one real thing

Every now and again, my mind gets tired, and my thoughts spin out of control like a stack of papers in a whirl-wind.  So many things so often, can one escape the news of the world these days?  And what are we to make of it when everything that happens in the world is immediately descended upon by experts who explain to us what they think this or that means.  The wind twists and turns, the papers fly and the trees bow.  What do I hold on to?

The journey of life takes one to so many interesting and beautiful places, that nailing down something as simple as an identity can be tricky. The "is this really me" thing can become like a person in a department store fitting room. Hmmm. Too tight, to loose, too old fashioned, too new, too young, too brown, too red. Its easy to hang it all on a rack and walk out into the world in the same old clothes we wore in, forgetting that at some point, we had to choose those too.


I struggled with this identity question for many years .  I felt that Christianity was my foundation, after all, I was born this way, baptized into the body, and had been a member, sometimes even dues paying.  But the question remained, where is my foundation, where is the most fundamental source of my strength?  Especially in times of uncertainty, which, as everyone knows, come along about every day.  There were many things to hold on to, to be sure, but there was still that lingering question, what is the real source of all this?

God showed me something recently.  Not something literally as a picture, but something in my heart that shuddered through my entire being.  It's all about redemption.  That's it.  That is the foundation.  It is not about me or my wants, my fears, my social blindness or excesses.  It's about redemption.  Jesus, the man, dying a very real death, and each and every one of us given a chance for new life.  The life that we all so very desperately seek.  The life promised by so many creeds, cultures, religions, cults, what ever, the life of freedom, peace, and joy.  The life of being God's own.  It is truly here.  A lot has to be pulled away in order to see it, a lot has to be learned and then unlearned to know it.  But it is there.

That is the foundation.  Without it, a swirling mess in a tempest.  With it, the ability to be.  And now that I can be, I will finally be able to live.

Another year over, and a new one...

A new year is on its way.  Time does fly, and it is true what people say, the older you get, the faster it flies. 

I haven't written much here in 2010, and I regret that.  The year was one of confusion and uncertainty.  I reached depths that I never thought I would see in some aspects of my life, and learned lessons that were far too late in coming.  Writing during that time would have been beneficial no doubt, but in the end I made it through with God's help.

So, no more looking back.  Jesus said, that if we put our hands to the plow and continue to look back, we're not fit to move forward into God's kingdom.  One may interpret this passage many ways, but for me it means that there should be only one goal in mind once the Holy Spirit has spoken in our lives.  Anything else just clouds the picture.

Thus, my resolution for the new year, don't look back.  Move forward and walk in light.  God knows where I am headed, as the Psalm says, I will commit my path to the Lord and live in the land and feed on its riches.  What more is there to do really?

Happy New Year!