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Meditations 2008
Meditations- Daily Affirmations
For over four years now I have risen daily before dawn and sat in stillness after reading a verse of scripture. What follows is the fruit of that quiet time that I want to share with you. As you will see the format remains the same. Someone suggested that I share this with a wider audience — my family and friends.
December 31, 2008
Scripture: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise. Psalm 111:10
Prayer: Help me to recognize your majesty.
Response: It is fitting on the last day of the year, or the conclusion of any day for that matter, to pause and place yourself in the firmament; glance beyond your physical presence into the galaxies of times and space. Don’t linger there, rather I now want you to go within and comprehend your presence in my grace and love. How marvelous to see the unlimited horizon before you, hear the breeze of a swift wind and not know its source, touch the rough rock of an ancient mountain and not know its age. And then, yes then, withdraw within in silence and stillness and become aware of my presence, my living presence within you.
In the instant when your pondering of what is beyond you turns within, wisdom is born. Wisdom is the fruit of our union in love. Nothing else matters. All the theories, all the scrambling, all the races won and lost, all the fortunes sought, are for naught. There is no comparison. I am not talking about a gray area; I am not negotiating a position here. I am simply stating that your dawning consciousness in my love is without parallel in your human endeavors.
So this day, feel the chill, be buffeted by the winds, hear the clamor surrounding you, but know in wisdom and in the depth of your soul our union in grace and love.
All for this morning.
December 29, 2008
Scripture: The angel (Gabriel) went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.” Luke 1:28-30
Prayer: Please help me to understand favor.
Response: It is good that you turn your attention to favor. Imagine that you are in a large classroom working industriously, in a quiet laboratory struggling with a formula, in a family contributing your effort for harmony almost unseen, in a crisis and calmly taking the steps that are laid before you – and through any or all of those experiences, your name is called; you are recognized, you are acknowledged. The trust put in you to perform was a trust well placed.
Finding favor with me is not trying to impress an impervious teacher. Finding favor with me is sensing my light within you and without hesitation sharing that light with those around you, and doing so in the serenity of your soul. And, I guess you understand, that the light – imagine a lantern – is not always held aloft on a carefree evening in a park where music and laughter can be heard in the distance. No, you are called to carry this lantern when the wind is howling and the path is rugged and snakes through ravines into which you are traveling for the first time.
You are blessed, yes, favored. The light will not go out and it is your steadfastness and resoluteness and joy – yes joy – that causes the lantern to blaze so much beyond your footsteps, lighting the way for fellow travelers, your companions who also journey a sometimes perilous path.
All for this morning.
December 28, 2008
Scripture: In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:4-5
Prayer: Oh, how familiar the opening verses of John are to me from my youth. Help me to pause this morning.
Response: Embrace the light that is within you. Know its source. Don’t take as accident your inclination to serve, to love selflessly, to perform in weariness, to laugh through tears, to serve those less fortunate – though you can become self critical of your efforts, to share the sorrow of friends and strangers, to pray deeply for peace and justice, to grieve, to exhibit compassion in actions, gestures, and quiet support. Put aside false modesty and accept those generous acts that you do perform, that are identified as you.
Accept that these actions, prayers, and gestures, do not originate with the exhortation of one more articulate perhaps than you, one viewed in a position of authority. No, within you is the light that I imbued within each of you as a sign of the intimate union we share. Ponder the words intimate union, and consider what they mean to you this moment in time.
Now, do you think that the light is simply provided, imbued in you, so you can recline on a celestial beach? No, indeed! The light is within you to share that light with those who have adjusted to the darkness. You are to bring the light to them and in the process you might discover that you have even dispersed the darkness that lingers in a quiet corner of your soul.
As a word of encouragement, let me say that the light is unquenchable, never diminishes, never recedes before the darkness – no matter its density, its seeming impenetrability, or its seemingly all pervasive nature. Do not ever consider that the depth of darkness merits its own reward, but rather move forward in action, prayer, and service to shatter the illusion of darkness.
Today, relax in the light that is your birthright.
All for this morning.
December 27, 2008
Scripture: “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.” Matthew 24:6-8
Prayer: I have read these words previously – many times – and I read the headlines of any newspaper and the words seem to indicate the same. Please give me a deeper meaning.
Response: Yes, this is a good topic for today. Let me begin by repeating the words, but see to it that you are not alarmed. That does not mean that I want you to accept the violence and aggression that appears far from your shores and within your environment and sometimes within your family and among your friends. No, wars and rumors of war and strife, are a clarion call to prayer, a shifting of your heart to service; no longer can you dwell on your own situation, considering it as the calamity of all calamities.
Instead I call you, as if to battle, to shed yourself from the sloth of comfort, and lean forward as if in battle, and without distraction focus my light to dispel the darkness. You don’t have to be reminded as to what you should do or be as you lean forward. There are unlimited, truly unlimited opportunities, to direct my light, diffuse the darkness, cool the anger, and diminish the fear. And you can do it, be it, right this moment in prayer.
It is not as if I wait, marshalling my forces, for you to ask. No, prayer in the first instance is really for you to realize our intimate union. In prayer you begin to realize this truth. You wield in my love a mighty sword, yet you still sometimes think, I did not say believe, that you a swishing the air with an empty hand. Prayer is your sign of fealty. Yet, I grace you with the freedom to act on your own initiative again and again to dispel the darkness.
For today, direct my light in prayer to the mounting tension in the sub-continent of Asia, to Afghanistan, to Iraq, to Sudan, the turmoil caused by the world financial situation – then bring my light into your nation, into your environment, into your family, and allow the light to grace you. And see in this how you do contribute to the easing of the birth pangs of a peace that defies definition and boundary.
All for this morning.
December 24, 2008
Scripture: And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. Luke 2:8-9
Prayer: So many times I have read and heard these words, even seen artists’ renditions of this scene, and yet my mind simply rushes by to the next sentence and the sentence beyond. Help me to pause here.
Response: The first lesson is that you don’t have to earn a doctorate’s degree to experience the manifestation of my glory. You all rush around, or most of you, seeking to gather knowledge disguised in learning, and too often miss or dismiss what I lay before you.
First consider the shepherds, sitting about, or even sleeping, awaiting the dawn. Self-trained, or trained by their fathers and mentors, they sleep lightly, alert to any threat to the flock. They are suddenly jolted from their sleep or thoughts by the physical manifestation of an angel. Though unaccompanied, the angel’s presence stirs the firmament and they find themselves in the midst of a sound and light show without the sound. Their sturdy staffs with which they ward off wolves and other predators are hardly the implements to quiet their minds and hearts. And they were terrified. When is the last time you were terrified?
What an entrance! If you were sitting in a theater and the second act opened with scene your attention would be riveted. So now for you. Don’t brush off the scene – if you can – by saying you have never served as a shepherd and therefore you can’t identify with that terror. Before I go further, remember the word serve. Instead view the scene as meant for you. You see, you are in the theater and the curtain has just gone up to introduce this act. Allow a gasp to escape your usual composure. Open wide the eyes of your heart and grasp the terror that fills, or should fill, you shepherds going about your daily and nocturnal tasks. In this alert state, hear deeply the words that follow.
Scripture: But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”
Response: The question I have for you is, would you be afraid, or rather, should you be afraid at such a scene? So used to the special effects in the film industry, you might have to work harder to shed the comfort of simply viewing a scene in order for you to realize that you are in the scene, yes, in the scene.
Now that I have your attention, or at least I hope I have it, see this scene unfolding in your own life this very moment. Reflect upon these shepherds with no guile except to protect their flock and to serve – there’s that word again – are blessed to witness an event beyond the comprehension of all the scholars assembled in the halls of learning as you are so blessed. And this event, this timeless event, proclaims to each of you a great joy that is for all of you. My love is not exclusive. Spend some time considering the angel’s message.
All for this morning.
December 22, 2008
Scripture: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26
Prayer: What a blessing. Help me to experience this day your face turning toward me.
Response: Imagine that you are in a crowded festive room; and imagine at the same time that you are not so festive, that events and circumstances in your life whether just recently or over some time have been less than festive. It might even be during this season when it is almost heresy to admit your deepest feelings that could include a certain undefined melancholy, a clear sadness, a sense of being overwhelmed – though of course with all of that you have not relinquished the opportunity to laugh, smile, to be joyous too.
Well, you are in the large reception room, wondering what you are doing there. You look over the heads of the others gathered, all of whom seem to be in the mood that the decorations signal. And then quite my accident you think – but remember there are no coincidences or accidents – you look to the right or maybe it was to the left – and you see the host, the host of all hosts, gazing directly at you with the full knowledge of your situation. And he smiles this knowingness and compassion to you. In his eyes and the gestures of his hands, he blesses you as if you were the only one gathered for the celebration. The sounds of gaiety drift off as if on a draft, and you are in the full presence of the one who blesses you and all you have brought to the celebration.
That is my answer to the blessing that so many have and continued to offer blessings for you and those around you and afar – and consider that these blessings are not limited by temporal time. You are receiving the fruits long past. And I seed this field of compassion and love with my grace, so have no fear that my blessings will ever be absent in your life or in the lives that follow you.
So this day, consider that as you leave home for your day’s activities, or even if you remain there, you are invited to attend a celebration, much more joyous than any event you have attended. And at the event I will be looking for you especially amidst the crowd assembled.
All for this morning.
December 20, 2008
Be still.
Stillness is a portal, like an entrance to an underground cavern in a secret mountain that you stumble upon.Stillness invites you within to discover my presence.
Rather, I ask you; I invite you to be still. Listen to my gentle words that all the clatter that surrounds your life cannot diminish; especially now as you prepare for the holiday season and contemplate a year ending. In stillness, I ask that you contemplate your new beginning in my presence.
All for this morning.
December 18, 2008
Scripture: And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Luke 2:40.
Prayer: I am returning to grace; help me to grasp further your meaning.
Response: Grace is allowing. All barriers and pretensions fall and you accept without guile, even without purpose, my love for you. For my grace to reach you fully, all your defenses and explanations fall away and you accept my embrace.
Explore what it means for you to cease explanation, justification, of who you are or have become, and simply return my gaze with one equally intense, direct, and full.
At such times, you are absolutely in my presence – and incidentally present. You are letting go of the future you wish to control or bring into reality. Instead, you throw up the grasping of your mind and accept with the warmth of your heart my grace, my love.
And what is this grace that you discover penetrates every fiber and strand that serves to distinguish you?
The easy explanation and one that is probably easiest for you to comprehend is love. Before you accuse me of providing a definition that is too simple and in its simplicity too difficult to comprehend, consider the love – the inexplicable love – you have for another, whether that someone is across the table from you, or one who has passed on, or perhaps someone you know intimately but never met. Love is not altered by physicality – present or not. My love for you transcends the love you experience in your life – my love is even more present than what you experience in your life.
Whenever you are able to pause sufficiently long to reflect upon this truth, not only will you be in my grace and love, but you will also discover in that instant a wisdom that belies your circumstances – at least what is considered your circumstances by the world. And indeed that wisdom is not one to be stated in one-line aphorisms, but wisdom from an endless source that you realize you have tapped in your defenselessness, acceptance, openness, prayer, and, yes, even weakness.
All for this morning.
December 16, 2008
Scripture: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
Prayer: My attention is caught when I read words that seem to be in contradiction – even when the words are familiar to me as are these. Bring me to a deeper level.
Response: You ask how power is made manifest, or made perfect in weakness? It is your recognition of your helplessness that allows you to see beyond the fingertips of your mind. Recognition requires you to pause, to look around, to reflect on your life, to consider the role others near and distant have played and continue to play on your formation. In this process, you begin to see the interconnections and the interdependencies present in your life. One result of such reflection is that you can admit in the quiet of your heart your weakness, but more important, before you begin to list all your weaknesses, this becomes a time of recognition.
I speak of recognition that acknowledges my loving grace in your life even when you might see yourself as most weak and vulnerable. As for so much that you read, here are six words that are more powerful than all the theological and philosophical treatises you might discover in the fading light of an ancient library – My grace is sufficient for you.
Whenever you feel that you are on a rampart and the invading hordes are approaching at full gallop, repeat these words, My grace is sufficient for you. Accepting the truth contained therein will relieve you from looking over your shoulder for reinforcements because I am with you and my power is made perfect in weakness, even your weakness.
Apply my truth in all you do and in all you are. Do not shy from that challenge that seems to be beyond your strength and endurance – though I am not encouraging you to disappear into some fitness gym. Rather, keep your good humor, be in harmony, even serene, knowing that my grace is sufficient for you, especially as you go about my work.
All for this morning.
December 13, 2008
Scripture: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.” Isaiah 60:1-2
Prayer: So much contained in these words. Help me to grasp the power that they impart.
Response: Yes, I ask you, implore you, even command you – whatever you prefer to get your attention – to rise up, get on your feet, wake up. Why? Because though darkness surrounds, your light, yes your light has come. Reading and reflecting upon these words indicate, or should indicate, to you that you are chosen. My glory rises upon you. Before you get too comfortable, you are not aglow to see your reflection in every stream you pass. Rather, your light is for the singular purpose of diffusing the darkness, that thick darkness that covers the earth and smothers the light, the ember of light, of your neighbor however distant he might be to you at this moment.
And I mean distance of the heart as well as geographical distance measures in miles. This is a time to rejoice especially in the times in which you live.
I said especially in the times you live. Why? Because there is no disputing or debating shades of darkness and despair that enfolds so many whether it be the violence created by drug wars, the violence caused by subverting cultures and societies, the greed that infects so many societies, the hunger that engulfs whole populations. And since no one can or should debate the subtleties of violence, you will find that the darkness actually invites your presence.
Consider these words – in times such as these, the darkness seeks your light. So for today, rejoice, arise, shine brightly my love, witness in all you do the victory of my light over darkness of hopelessness and despair. Resounding victory is within your grasp.
All for this morning.
December 11, 2008
Scripture:“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
Prayer:
As I pause this morning and listen to the heavy rain outside, I too ask for the ancient path. Guide me.
Response:You are at the crossroads. I ask you to stay a moment before you take that first step. Look around and see what lies before you. The ancient path is recognizable even if you might not think it has been used for heavy traffic. In fact, you will find that it is the path that does not have the heavy traffic. On the ancient path, you will not be distracted with the glitz and glitter that fills your day. While you might not catch the noise, you will be filled with an inner harmony. The steps you take flow of their own accord it seems allowing you to reach within and discover, seemingly for the first time, a harmony that exceeds all understanding in a worldly sense.
I say ask for the ancient paths. Pray for guidance; observe the road signs, even if it comes in the way of the bruised granite upon which pilgrims once trod. You see, you are on a pilgrimage of the soul. While I am not asking you to walk barefoot, I do want you to experience each footstep and in a respite consider the distance you have covered, never concerned about how much distance is before you. And consider also that each step is for my purpose.
And finally we come to the words rest for your souls. How to explain them except to say that a calm assurance comes over you, a confirmation of sorts. It would seem to you that your pulse rate slows though one would expect to see it increase as the ancient path is not always level. You will be captured in my love, knowing that all is well with your soul even though you don’t know what lies around the next bend on this ancient path.
All for this morning.
December 9, 2008
Scripture:“The days are coming,” declares the lord, “when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” Jeremiah 33:14
Prayer:
Provide me a deeper understanding of your gracious promise.
Response:This verse tells you of hope. However, you want to cultivate hope in your life, whatever images you associate hope with, hope is a critical, if not the most critical element of your faith. And it is hope that my grace stirs you in anticipation. So the first thing for you to be this morning is in a state of joyous anticipation because the days are coming.
I do not say the days might come – some day. No, I said whether you realize it or not the days are coming. The days are just before you. Clear your schedules, open the eyes of your heart, become alert – wake from your slumber. Catch the first glimpse of me if you can, feel the rumble of my approach through your limbs.
This is your time to rejoice. Why? Because I am here to fulfill a gracious promise, a promise you did not extract from me, but one that I fashioned, created to demonstrate my love for you. When is the last time someone did something for you that was unexpected and something that you did not deserve – so generous you wondered from where did that generosity spring? Well, if you can recall such an instant, you are given a hint of what the word gracious means in this context.
So for this day, accept the truth that I am fulfilling in your presence the gracious promise I made and if you need proof examine the inexplicable gestures and actions of service and love that surround you and manifest my presence. My gracious promise is not about organizations but about dawning consciousness.
All for this morning.
December 7, 2008
Scripture:Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. Psalm 98:1
Prayer:
Help these familiar words take on new meaning.
Response:For you to sing a new song, the eyes of your heart must be wide open in anticipation and wonder. And for you generally, you fall into a routine of praise. I am not suggesting that you should be standing at tip-toe, so to speak, turning from side to side nervously looking for the next event. Rather I am asking you to gaze with soft eyes within and acknowledge to yourself the wonder that fills your life.
Do not allow the word marvelous lose its power – even if you reserve its use to a murmur on your lips after witnessing the marvelous in your life; that is sufficient to restore the word to make an impact on your consciousness.
And for those of you who hesitate to sing about anything, I am asking you not only to sing your praise but to do it, be it, in a new song, your song, not one you have relied upon from the clipboard of your memory.
A new song connotes originality, authenticity because it is your song, a freshness that captivates a new found joy that you wish to express. And your new found joy is as original as the sun bursting each day afresh over your horizon of life.
And while the song is expressed without thought of reward or even recognition, you find that inexplicably you are awash in an instant in my grace and love, refreshed with new purpose, freed from stagnation, let loose beyond barriers that once seemed impenetrable.
All for this morning.
December 5, 2008
Scripture:But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2
Prayer:
Taken from one of the shortest Psalms, yet one with the longest message. Teach me to still and quiet my soul.
Response:What you should first catch in the meaning is that you have within you the capacity to still and quiet your soul. I know your first and perhaps only question is how. And that is the reason that the psalmist presents the message in so few words. I have stilled and quieted my soul.
Imagine what preceded David’s verse. Not from an historical standpoint, but rather internally in an area where you all roam. He, like you, allowed his mind to lead him in circles of confusion as he sought to make sense out of the distractions in his life; he pauses and with relief utters these seven words. And like a weaned child, he is satisfied; he is at peace.
I have stilled and quieted my soul are words you should repeat daily. See what happens and not so much around you, but within. It is like you are hearing for the first time a gentle rain that has been falling for some time on the roof of your home as you loosen your grip on emptiness.
And it is in that stillness that I will fill you – yes, overflowing with my love. It is in that time, in that space, you experience – if that is the word that conveys the meaning to you – a harmony that transcends infinitely the order you sought to impose upon yourself.
Be still and quiet in your soul today.
All for this morning.
December 3, 2008
Scripture:Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? Psalm 44:23-24
Prayer:
Cultivate in me the boldness of such prayer in all circumstances.
Response:These two verses contain the words of intimacy found in a deep love. The Psalmist is not addressing a judge in a court of law, but his God with whom he shares; I repeat shares, an intimacy. The Psalmist doesn’t need to go into any great detail because he knows that he is known as are the circumstances of his life.
Those same words I could and do use with you. Awake! Rouse yourself! Do not reject the promise of my love; do not hide by busying yourself or allowing yourself to be overwhelmed by circumstances that seem sometimes to be beyond your capacity to change them.
Return to those words to stir you in prayer. Toss aside the formulas of the mind and reveal your heart, yes, your heart suffering. And you will be surprised to discover that indeed your petitions do rouse me – as difficult as that might be for you to understand. I know your needs; I seek the response from your heart that beats with the vibrancy of life.
Imagine if you can that we’ve been separated for a time by thousands of miles and then you discover in an instant – that’s all it takes – for the international connection to be restored and we are soul connecting as never previously. Well, the connection has been restored in this instant.
All for this morning.
November 30, 2008
Scripture:“Do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19
Prayer:
Six words that I have heard and read so often; perhaps explaining how routine they can become. Help to take away the routine.
Response:The buried treasures that surround you in your garden – within reach – all await your discovery. You are not in a garden with which you are not familiar, or, put in another way, a darkened room that you have not visited earlier. All that is required is for you to pause and allow remembrance to flow over you – remembrance of my love and promise in your life and those of your loved ones.
I purposely did not say memory that serves to frustrate you when you are unable to recall specific events or facts – and this might become more evident with the aging process. No, I am talking about a remembrance that requires no exam or test. It is a remembrance that is nestled deep with . . . a recognition of a truth that embraces you when you are still.
Of the six words, consider the word me of outstanding importance. That word tells you each and every time that you come upon these words that we share an intimacy. If you need to be reminded of this intimacy that transcends all you have, do, and will experience on the path, consider the remembrance of a loved one far distant, one who has passed on, or even sits in the next room – though not present. Consider what happens in that moment of remembrance. It can be as if time has parted and with it space as well. Now consider the remembrance of me in your life and allow the munificence – quite a word for so early – to touch you deeply.
I am not a distant cousin who looks out at you from a faded photograph, but an intimate partner that accompanies you this moment.
All for this morning.
November 26, 2008
Scripture:Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Proverbs 3:3
Prayer:
This verse gives me pause as I search my heart.
Response:Yes, that is exactly what I wish you to do. The love I talk to you of is a generosity of spirit that flows from you and knows no limit. I am seeking that you to tap into this stream that sometimes appears to be locked down deep below desert sand. I want you to let, allow, free that love in who you are and in all you do.
Let love is my call to you, not unlike the call you have heard let the dance begin. It is a call for celebration and to invite all into your realm by your generous spirit. Don’t allow yourself to return to the arid regions of how your heart may once have been described. Once the waters below have been let loosed you will experience blossoms of the spirit abounding all around you.
Faithfulness is first to know the truth and then to embrace it with a grip that cannot be loosed. And let me say, this grip is not one of fear but rather an exuberant embrace on the truth – and you know this truth in the joy you experience.
I am not asking you to be yoked by either love or faithfulness; rather I am asking that both become as close as the inner garments of your heart. And just so that you do not accept them without considering them, pondering them, I ask that you to write the meaning of love and faithfulness as if on a tablet. I am not looking for blind faith, but rather a rich, understanding of my love that becomes inseparable to your demeanor.
All for this morning.
November 25, 2008
Scripture:For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Psalm 91:11-12
Prayer:
In a solicitation I received this verse – I am back with angels. I am listening.
Response:Continue to listen. That is the message for this morning and every morning. See in the word command my solicitousness for your well being – though you might question this as you move along the path. Spend a moment on what I mean by well being. In the financial turmoil, you see that well being is not limited to how much money you have. Well being is well being. If you have been able to wrestle yourself free from distraction, you will see that it is who are, your being, is what my angels are protecting. And they accomplish this mission in ways that would astound you, should astound you, if you can put aside thoughts of coincidences intersecting your life.
In just this past week, each of you could make a list of instances where evidence of angels guarding you in all ways is manifest. Take time to do this. Just a note to you – even indecipherable – will do. This will serve to bring your awareness closer to the surface of your being so that a smile of recognition will cross your heart when next this occurs. Guard you in all your ways
There are times, and you are even able to recall such instances – more dramatic than the ordinary – when you have experienced a lifting up – even if the lifting up was a new path, direction, opening for you. And it is not only the opening of a path, but the invitation that prods you, even nudges you to take those first steps. You see, when you become aware of my love, truly become aware of my love, what could – I did not say would – I do but to see that you are lifted up that you are not dashed against a stone.
So today, celebrate our relationship in the care you extend to others – family, friends, and strangers – in lifting them up as I do you.
All for this morning.
November 22, 2008
Scripture:An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. Luke 2:9
Prayer:
Though I have read these words in the Christmastide, I came upon this verse in an inscription to a novel I am reading. Give me a deeper understanding of angels.
Response:It is interesting to note that though the words are there for you to read – and read many times – you allow your eyes to slide over them. What phrase of this verse gives you difficulty? Surely, you can understand how they would be terrified if . . .; and surely you can accept the concept of light shining around them, manifesting God’s magnificence. You are left with accepting whether or not an angel of the Lord appeared, and even more critical whether angels exist.
Your difficulty is that at some level you wonder whether mention of angels should be placed in the category of symbols and representations that appear in fairy tales. Taxing your mind, not heart, you try unsuccessfully to define even limit the manifestation of God’s glory into some-thing with which your mind can comprehend.
I ask you to comprehend my glory in your heart – not mind. Open your heart-eyes and look around you. You might be surprised at what you observe and you might be equally terrified and humbled in that instant. And who knows, you might even awake.
All for this morning.
November 21, 2008
Scripture:The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants so that you may love him with all your heart and will all your soul, and live. Deuteronomy 30:6
Prayer:
Lord, here is a verse that I do not recall reading previously. Help me to fathom the wound.
Response:Yes, it is a wound. You might even consider the circumcision of the heart a branding applied to your heart to remind you of my love for you and that in my love you belong to me.
Sometimes, you don’t realize the impact that you have for your descendants as your ancestors have had for you. The fervor you feel in the darkness of the pre-dawn you owe perhaps to an ancestor – lineage or aligned in prayer – who offered prayer for you over the centuries past. In those moments, take time to pray for those immediately around you who will inherit the space that you now occupy; then reach further out in prayer to those many miles distant who also are your spiritual heirs and then for those who follow — hundreds of years into the future.
Now I want you to dwell on why you carry this wound – that you will love me with all your heart. Meaning? In the stillness of your heart, free of all the distractions that await your attention, you consciously express in that silence your love for me. And like the air you breathe, you experience life to a full dimension, not one envisioned earlier, even the day prior.
Spend a moment on the last word of this verse – live. It is my charge to you whom I love.
All for this morning.
November 19, 2008
Scripture:Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs: 5-6
Prayer:
Lord, help me to trust and acknowledge.
Response:Quite simple, isn’t it? You have come upon these words many times and it seems always easier to trust when you assume what the ending is, or you want it, to be. Is there not some similarity as when you watch a performance you have seen many times previously or at least a theme of the same ending and you watch it again and again, waiting to see what you have in a sense planned in your mind? Well, you are in for a special treat. Each scene of your life can hold your special attention if you are conscious, awake, because what unfolds you did not anticipate.
In such a theater, I ask you to suspend disbelief and embrace trust with all your heart. Disbelief is truly the imposition of your own understanding – the ending to a scene that you have planned on, and instead you are met with surprise. All I ask – and I repeat – all I ask is that you trust me with all your heart – not mind.
And in foregoing your rush to decide the ending, you will acknowledge me in your trust and will discover a gift that had proved elusive up until that moment. Simplicity will enter your life, as if for the first time, and that winding path with its mind numbing alternatives will ease before you into a singular path – no less arduous at times – that is straight. And in that instant the clarity of my love will descend upon you and enfold you.
All for this morning.
November 17, 2008
Scripture:By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. Hebrews 11:8
Prayer:
Help to restore a faith in me that does not linger in hesitancy.
Response:First, earlier in a verse above, you read of Abel – And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. (Hebrews 11:4). Don’t you see how extraordinary that thousands of years later, you still hear in faith the words of one long dead. When you read the words of Scripture, realize as I have said before that they are chosen and spoken to you for this moment.
Let me return to Abraham’s faith. Whenever you hesitate to embrace a truth because you don’t know where it is leading, consider this – Abraham listened to the call. This means that he prepared himself to listen by setting aside time in prayer, by observing closely what was happening about him, by studying. His listening was not reserved for a special day or a special season. No, he listened every day. Listening was woven in him as a special thread is woven into a precious fabric.
Next, he acted upon what he heard and this was not limited to a pious Amen. No, he set out on an arduous journey across a desert, through land unfamiliar and hostile. He obeyed the call. For you the call might not be as dramatic. Yet trust me when I say you are called across the desert of your environment and at times your heart. And you like Abraham have no idea of the destination, yet I ask you to move out as I did Abraham.
And Abraham did obey the call, but please do not diminish Abraham’s willingness because you see he could have remained where he was with his people. But he did not and his people followed him. And this faith, as with yours, is rewarded every time, yes every time you venture out in response to my call.
All for this morning.
November 15, 2008
Scripture:Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. James 1:2
Prayer:
Help me to cultivate perseverance.
Response:Before I address perseverance, let me have you consider pure joy. Has the term been overused so that you miss its essential meaning? Pure joy is not dependent on or staged to the externals in your life. Pure joy is a sense that all is well with you, despite the external circumstances that could diminish that joy, if you allow it.
Pure joy is a manifestation of our direct connection in faith and you know its presence in my love. In truth, you cannot disguise this joy. It is evidenced in all you represent as you journey home. Pure joy is transparent for all to see even if they only get a chance to glance in your eyes as you walk by. Clearly, pure joy is abundantly clear to those with who you are in regular and intimate contact.
Now how do I relate such joy to the trials that you all face – be it of health, age, financial, relationships of all kinds, professional, emotional? All the latter, especially when they are in stark contrast to pure joy, serve as a foil to this mystery of joy that I am revealing to you. How else to explain this joy except to say that beneath all you experience is who you are and to become in my love?
Perseverance is simply that patient waiting, not in an anxiousness that peers constantly over the horizon. Perseverance is allowing, even welcoming, an unfolding to occur in you and your life in faith. With endurance, patient endurance, you prove that you are faithful – most importantly to yourself. When all circumstances could or even should discourage, you remain steadfast, present to my love in faith. So indeed celebrate in adversity – even if quietly.
All for this morning.
November 13, 2008
Scripture:
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:5
Prayer:
Bring me to a deeper understanding of these all too familiar words.
Response:Let me begin with the word good. For this morning, think of good as being in harmony, in balance. I bring you in harmony with my goodness, that is, if you allow, are willing to experience this balance. It’s as if you are standing on a high dune with the breeze blowing sharply and you are on one leg. I am there to get you to bring that other foot down and secure or attain your balance so that you can observe what is happening about you and not be concerned about tumbling down the dune.
Turn your attention to the word love and pause there. Love is so difficult to define for you adequately, however, within you resides the meaning that you recognize immediately, I say immediately, when you encounter love. Love is a generosity of spirit that knows no limits, no bounds; it is outward reaching; it is not to be discouraged or dismayed – and for you it is that and more. It is impossible for you to comprehend what forever, so you will have to take it on faith. Forever is as long as joy creases your smile; it is the length of a tear that flows into your heart; it is the stretch of your hand in compassion; it is the depth of the stillness that surrounds you; and finally, it is beyond any comprehension of time that corners your mind.
Through all generations tells you that you are not at the end of the line awaiting the message to be passed to you. My word to you won’t be garbled. I speak to you each day in the present. When all generations are gathered as I speak to you, you will speak to others who passed through various times and cultures and faiths as one in my love.
All for this morning.
November 11, 2008
Scripture:He fills his hands with lightening and commands it to strike its mark. His thunder announces the coming storm; even the cattle make known its approach. Job 36:32-33
Prayer:
Fill me this morning with a sense of awe that transcends the headlines of . . .
Response:Awe is the correct word. And awe is found within beyond, far beyond, the fears that seek to overwhelm serenity and peace. Awe creates a sense of I see, I understand, and in that understanding patience springs forth and of course my peace that surpasses all understanding.
Awe too requires a pause – to observe me working in your world and in you. It is similar to hearing me and my intent for the first time though my lightning and thunder have resounded for ages in your empty field. Awe requires you to look up and listen, or be within and still.
As much as you would deny or contest this, to be conscious of me in your life is to see me in every step you take, every gesture you make. Awe is otherworldly and is discovered within as you reflect upon my presence in your life and those around you.
All for this morning.
November 8, 2008
Scripture:Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow. Psalm 144:4
Prayer:
This verse gives me pause as I fleet around.
Response:
Oh, if this verse could be on your lips during the day as you do rush about. I assure you that repeating it would indeed cause you to pause and in so doing you might discover that the shadow in your life and days diminishes.
This verse is not meant to cause you to be anxious by estimating or calculating the breaths remaining to you or to your loved ones. Rather, this verse encourages you to align your life to that breath … that breath of this very moment. In alignment you will experience a centering in my grace and the fleeting shadows will dissipate in my light as you become present.
This verse encourages you to stop what you are doing and be. This might sound as a riddle to some, though the words apply to you all. What purpose is served fleeting about? Isn’t this the day to come to a screeching halt even for a moment and linger in my word of love? Isn’t this the day to allow my grace to penetrate a frozen heart – whether it is your heart or someone who needs your solace? Isn’t this the day to offer in prayer, sacrifice, or service my love to ease the suffering that surrounds you – whether near or far?
This verse has a threefold purpose – to get you to pause, question, and act.
All for this morning.
November 7, 2008
Scripture:Don’t you know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? 1 Corinthians 3:16
Prayer:
I have read this verse countless times and it seems more often than I care to admit I do not take the essential meaning within. Give me a nudge.
Response:I trust that you are sitting securely in your chair with your feet properly positioned, your body balanced – weight evenly distributed. And there you have it. Anticipating the nudge, you are alert, awake and that is what you must do to begin to understand the significance of this verse.
The reason that you cannot, it is just not possible, flee me is that my Spirit lives in you. And when you do try to flee, you seem to be weighted down, and you are. It is as if you were running across a field with heavy bag whose weight causes you to shift it from one hand to the other. And all the time your progress slows, you grow weary, you lose your direction, and the weight of the bag causes you to lose your balance. So it is only when you resign yourself and take your seat in the middle of the field and allow yourself to listen to your labored breathing that you begin once again to sense the Spirit lives in you.
Now once you accept, really accept that the Spirit lives in you, now consider deeply that you are my temple. And, I might say, not a temple built in some forgotten ravine, but a temple crafted in excellence and beauty on a mountain top for all to see and for all discover. Because – and this should not be news to you – in seeing your temple standing aloft, each and every viewer is prodded, or let’s say nudged, to discover his/her temple within. Just imagine what your environment locally or stretching across the globe would be when – and I didn’t say if – that realization, that awakening in my grace occurs.
All for this morning.
November 4, 2008
Scripture:The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment. 1 Corinthians 2:15
Prayer:
Help me, particularly this day, to be a spiritual man.
Response:Please don’t limit this insight to this day. First discern the message that I am providing to you. It is the spiritual man – and of course woman – whom I ask to pause and allow that spiritual, grace -endowed nature, to override the chatter of the external in all you do. Who you are, is clear; how you allow that person, that you, to be seen in your actions, requires pause, reflection – even if as you say for a nanosecond.
Momentous decisions or even not so momentous decisions serve to train you to observe, decide, and act. Sometimes you find that as a spiritual person you choose a path that is not popular. This does not mean that you are on the right path and your neighbors have diverted to ruin. What it can mean, only you will discover later, is that you chose a narrow path through a mountain gorge that led you to a valley of great spiritual and inner tranquility. And in that instant of discovery, you no longer seek to compare your journey or path to those who traveled a different – perhaps even more popular route.
So today and every day, reflect from the heart and your decisions will be enriched in my grace and love.
All for this morning.
November 2, 2008
Scripture:For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 1Corinthians 2:11
Prayer:
I sense this truth reaching me across time into the present. Bring me deeper.
Response:Spend a moment reflecting upon how your thoughts hidden in the recesses of your heart are at times misunderstood by those around you. I am not suggesting this so that you can go about bemoaning that you are misunderstood, but rather to emphasize the truth of what you read and meditated on from the scripture verse. Only you know the thoughts that you either do not convey or those that are not understood. Of course, everyone knows the thoughts that you are able to convey, clearly, without judgment, or excuse.
So what is so revealing about this? Well, it shows you that there is a residence in which you dwell that is not the dwelling place of bricks and mortar with which most times you would prefer to be associated – and of course I am using bricks and mortar to cover whatever your persona shown to the world is.
And that dwelling place, that spirit, is known to you. It is you. That should not be difficult for you to understand, though you might resist that knowing as you might resist accepting who you are.
Now the essential grip of this verse is so too with God. It is the Spirit of God that knows in the deepest level of the meaning to know God so different so often from the depictions of God, the representations, that surround you in the bricks and mortar that you construct to keep yourself from knowing this Divine Love.
But all is not lost. The Spirit that knows most intimately the thoughts of God, ranges over you and shares that knowing with you and in the process you know yourself, or begin to know yourself, in the knowledge of God.
So the next time you feel that holy breeze, that Spirit breeze, pause and listen.
All for this morning.
October 31, 2008
Scripture:However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” 1 Corinthians 9
Prayer:
Bring me to your truth.
Response:You might think that upon reading this verse there is nothing more to do but wait expectedly. Yes, of course, there is an element of truth in this; however, what I am asking is that you nourish with my grace a heart-sense that brings you closer to the truth of my love and promise. Escape if you can the world of your senses where it is not uncommon to use the senses to determine whether you are making any sense or not.
This verse is a challenge to you. If your senses won’t give you a hint, what will? And there is a second question tied to the first – give you a hint of what? Let’s take the first question. I am asking you to suspend your earthbound walk. Remember, I said suspend for this moment. Allow yourself not to be ruled by your senses. I did not say not utilize them for as you can appreciate my words that ring in your heart right now you are recording through your fingertips; I am asking you to roam in your heart and listen without ears to me. Be surprised as you are touched without controlling the outcome. Feel the release as you become light in my grace.
Allow in that freedom the realization, the enlightenment, to enter and manifest within you, namely that my love for you exceeds to a new dimension what you ever could have conceived limited to your mind. In fact I urge you to keep your mind out of this experience.
And realize, if nothing else during your journey, my love for you and my solemn promise to you that even you can’t possibly imagine what I have and am preparing for you – though you get hints as if you have caught a glimpse of the wrapping.
All for this morning.
October 29, 2008
Scripture:“Dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven. Can his forces be numbered? Upon whom does his light not rise?” Job 25:2-3
Prayer:
Bring me to a sense of awe this morning.
Response:It is quite easy for you to capture the awe. All you have to manage is to remove yourself from the cycle of time that has you performing one action after another. It is in pause – dismissing the notion of time for a moment – that your soul perception catches the meaning of the question – Upon who does his light not shine?
Yes, it is a rhetorical question. Of course the answer is no one, yet how many spend their time looking for the light on others and do not relate this verse to themselves? Yes, the light does rise on you and the real question for you to address is, how does that light manifest in your life?
It is good to rise before the light so that you reflect on your life, your existence without the light. For those uncertain about the light, it is critical that you share, even witness the light rising, so that they too can see the truth of what I speak. However, before you can share this truth, you must take time to experience the light in your life. Please do not consider the rise as routine. Is the second breath that you will draw in this instant routine?
Be prepared once a week at least to sit before dawn and experience the darkness yield to the light that is rising upon you. No need to recite a prayer. Your presence is what I ask and your acknowledgement in silence of that light that shines on you in singular fashion.
All for this morning.
October 28, 2008
Scripture:But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. Psalm 33:18-19
Prayer:
Eyes, fear, hope, love, death, famine – all words that caught my attention this blustery day.
Response:So let’s begin with eyes – accept that my eyes are on you, not as a casual observer, but as an intimate lover. Think of instances when you were in the same room or even separated by miles, even oceans, and you sensed the intimacy of love though your communication might have been limited by a glance across a crowded, noisy room, or in a letter that took ages to receive. In such experiences you get a glimmer of how I observe you in love as if we were one – and we are.
Don’t dwell on the word fear. In fact, if you can, substitute the word awe for this morning. Here the all powerful is your intimate partner and is every bit and more concerned about you as an intimate friend and partner. You have in your midst someone who can move and even create mountains, and that someone is me who loves and graces you daily.
Hope is a word that in your apparent self-sufficiency – though it is an illusion – you don’t embrace deeply enough. I seek you to be hopeful. In hope you demonstrate to me – but more importantly to yourself – that you have declared your faith, patience, and love – and all this without the seriousness of a somber solitary, but with the joy of someone rejoicing in a crowd of loved ones – if you can imagine such a scene. If you can’t, do your best to create or contribute to such a gathering.
Death – and this might be difficult to comprehend – is a friend. It is death that frees you from the control of the material – and you don’t have to experience death to understand the truth that I share with you. Accepting death, allows you, frees you, to live in joy and in my love. Accepting death imbues you with a clarity that is missing as you puzzle a future, missing the present moment.
Famine – is not only one being deprived of physical nourishment, but even more importantly spiritual nourishment. So you discover daily, in each gesture you manage, that in my love you are delivered from such famine and instead experience a joy and spiritual nourishment . There will come a time when the word famine will be alien to you and you will have difficulty even defining or recalling it. Pray for such a time.
And finally, a word about that the blustery wind – see the wind as my presence breezing over you in love.
All for this morning.
October 26, 2008
Scripture:“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Prayer:
Speak to me of heart.
Response:First, let me say something about peace. Peace is a walk before dawn and observing the slither of a moon and the rich panoply of star formations overhead, and sensing the stillness in your heart as if wrapped in an impenetrable cloak. The concerns that could easily draw you from your cloak await your distraction, but you chose to remain still even though you are walking the path. That is the peace about which I am speaking.
In case you missed it, the cloak is my grace and love. Notice I did not describe it as armor because indeed you do feel the environment you are in, you do suffer the pain and sometimes agony, but mostly anxiety – and through the fibers of the cloak you become one with the environment without succumbing to its destruction, to its trouble.
Consider what you have experienced to date on your journey – the joys and sorrows, and how as you move along your peace in my grace goes undisturbed except in instances that once might have gone unchecked. That is the peace that I promise you – but you don’t have to wait behind a closed door for that peace. You have read that there are no closed doors and therein is contained a great truth.
Pray this day for those who might dismiss or not recognize the cloak in which they too are wrapped. Pray that they reach down and feel it supple fiber. In case you didn’t realize, it is an all weather garment. And you might not have realized it because it is light and does not burden you. And finally, you can lend the cloak to a neighbor without diminishing the protection it affords you, and in so doing help your neighbor to recognize the feel of his/her own garment.
All for this morning.
October 24, 2008
Scripture:Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23
Prayer:
I’m afraid that there are times when you don’t have to test me rigorously to know my anxious thoughts.
Response:Please notice that I did not say that I would test your anxious heart. In my grace your heart cannot, I repeat, cannot be anxious, though thoughts intrude as if to dispel the tranquility. If the truth be known, at the deepest level it is not possible for your anxious thoughts to disturb the peace that resides within you at the deepest, deepest level. So you can question or even say what good is that, if anxious thoughts do disturb your peace and I say, go deeper, and deeper still. Deeper still is both a direction and a suggestion for stillness.
I test you so that you realize the progress you are making. And it may come as a surprise that you are all making progress even though it might not be evident to those around you, or even to yourself. As I ask you not to judge or even estimate the peace of your companions on the road, I also ask you to focus on your own capacity for depth. You are much like someone who has always had a desire to scuba dive and explore the depths for treasure; now you have a chance, learning to operate in a pool; or someone who wants to climb high above the clouds; and now I am showing you how to take each step without allowing anxieties about future steps to intrude on your training or your journey.
And yes, I don’t need to test you to know your heart, but you do. What you discover is that indeed the exploration/adventure you feel, the commitment you display, and the reward you experience in my grace, all confirm, if you will, a lessening of anxious thoughts.
As I mentioned above, no anxious thought can disturb the peace and tranquility of your heart. And if you question me or that statement, go deeper to discover my truth.
All for this morning.
October 20, 2008
Scripture:But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
Prayer:
I am accepting of others’ weaknesses; help me to accept my own.
Response:I am asking you to be vulnerable for my sake. In your vulnerability, your weakness as you see it, you demonstrate an authenticity that you attempt to clothe with bluster and distraction. That is why I say my power is made perfect in weakness. Your weakness becomes a bold shield of authenticity that no weapon can penetrate.
In choosing, or at least accepting, to show your vulnerability, you show great courage, bolstered by and in my faith. Now this courage about which I speak is the word that reaches you this very moment. It is courage and yes my grace emboldens you in your weakness to be who you are resilient in my love.
You try so often to disguise this whisper that never leaves you. For today be weak and authentic and see and hear for yourself the power you sense surrounding and emanating through and within you.
Consider the promise, the pledge – my grace is sufficient for you – as you wander on the path to consciousness and awakening to and in my love.
All for this morning.
October 20, 2008
Scripture:If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Prayer:
Please talk of wisdom.
Response:The word wisdom is used almost as frequently as love. Let me dwell on wisdom for this morning. First, it is not easy to pray for wisdom unless you know what wisdom is and in this knowing you have the basis for wisdom as you all have – or should I say – as you all are. You see, you are all wise, or if you prefer, potentially wise or with wisdom, if only, I repeat, if only you wake.
Your prayer – and it should be a daily petition – that with my grace you awake. Such a simple prayer and yet so many are fearful of consciousness and its consequences. Intuitively, you know that awake you can no longer avoid maturing in my grace and love.
Wisdom is not knowledge; it is not a mind thing. Wisdom is reconnecting, re- integrating fully with your heart. A person with wisdom is a person who pauses as it were to consider, reflect and is not determined by outside influences. You all believe that you act with independence, or at least you have made that claim. What I am talking about now is acknowledging in your action your heart or soul sense – and that is wisdom.
Wisdom, once acknowledged, is enriched in my grace. There is no puzzlement here, or false modesty. You know your wisdom and see its maturation. It is for you to accept, acknowledge this divine ingredient within you and to apply that wisdom in service. Incidentally, you serve simply by being wise in your environment, in your community, and in your family and with friends. You ask, how will I know I am wise? In the question resides the answer.
All for this morning.
October 17, 2008
Scripture:Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. Titus 2:2
Prayer:
Reach me in my age.
Response:As you look back many, many years, you still recognize the person, the who, you are now. So what has changed? You have filled out in age – your weight is a symbol of what lurked within you as a youth. I am not looking for dramatic conversions of the spirit, though of course they do occur. I am looking for you to reconnect to a youthful experience when you recognized my truth and then allowed, perhaps, the exigencies of life to dull your perception.
In age, whatever age, you are given pause to reflect in your every day, in your every moment the wisdom that lingers and has lingered within you in my grace.
To be are two words, four letters that essentially sum up my message for this morning. I am asking you to be even, balanced, in harmony though you might be in the midst of a storm. The more you are able to drill down to the present moment – whether you are sailing single-handedly in heavy seas, feeling the crunch of outside pressures, enduring illness or loss – you will experience the present as the portal to eternity.
Then, you will discover within you temperance, self-respect and control, confidence in faith, and love that endures. And the surprise that awaits you is that others will recognize the same of you and, most importantly, in themselves.
All for this morning.
October 14, 2008
Scripture:But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Galatians 5:22
Prayer:
Help me Lord to see in these fruits your presence.
Response:The fruits become for you the barometer of your receptiveness. You see the fruits are available for you all. It is not as if you are in a shop and select a few or even most. No, the fruits are showered on you as a spring rain. The deeper you are in stillness determines how drenched you are in my Spirit.
Each fruit is a manifestation of my love, though it would be impossible for you to isolate one fruit from the other. As you review the fruits, surely you will notice one whose taste you are only beginning to cultivate and savor, yet even that fruit has a taste that reminds you of one that you own – so to speak.
Ask the question, how can I enjoy the fruit of love and not show kindness; or how can I be gentle and not exhibit as my own self-control? The fruits are interlaced as a bouquet that you would give as a house-warming gift, or to celebrate a new arrival in a family, or recovery from a bout of illness. And all of these instances apply and invite the gift of these fruits. It is in life’s experiences, if you are aware, that the fruits descend within you to nurture, celebrate, console, and encourage you on the journey.
So consider the fruits as your sustenance, freely given to those who seek such favor. For today, take an inventory of the fruits that you carry with you.
All for this morning.
October 12, 2008
Scripture:“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.” Luke 15:20
Prayer:
Again, so familiar. Bring me to a deeper understanding.
Response: The most important three words in this verse are he got up. If you need a definition of prayer, those words encapsulate it. You must get up – or more directly – wake up. Prayer is an action of the heart that you direct with my grace. How does my grace contribute? It is through my grace that lids that cover your eyes are loosened if not removed.
In getting up, the young man saw for the first time what he had been ignoring. And as you understand, seeing is not sufficient. Seeing without action is self-pity, a woe-is-me approach, that leaves you paralyzed. And that paralysis is fed by fear – it’s too late, what can I do anyway – and the past. Yes, the past. The paralysis of inaction – actually no-action – is the illusion of the past ruling your present, not someone else’s present, but your present.
Now, change your perspective to this scene, and see that father a long way off who is vigilant, watching, waiting, patient, forgiving, compassionate – a celebratory father, who without delay, spontaneously, not waiting upon protocol, rushes out to greet and love his son. See the father’s action. Can you just see the son getting up on his feet to go to his father? Now, see the father’s response – he rushes to the son who was a long way off. He rushes. The son gets up. So compare my love for you, my compassion, my patience, my expectancy – yes expectancy, and most of all my joy and celebration.
In reading this verse, you sometimes emphasis the depravity into which the son had slipped – in truth embraced. For this morning, I ask that you emphasis the joy and celebration in reunion that erases the past and with it all discussion of what prompted that aberration of behavior to occur.
Now how does this relate to you? You are called upon to be forgiving, compassionate, spontaneous, loving, patient, joyous, serving, generous with others, but do you see how these same gifts of the spirit shown to others is also to be applied to yourself? Yes, you are to be forgiving, compassionate, spontaneous, loving, patient, joyous, serving and generous with yourself. All is one in my love.
All for this morning.
October 9, 2008
Scripture:Set up road signs, put up guideposts, take note of the highway, the road that you take. Jeremiah 31:21
Prayer:
In these uncertain times, where are the road signs and the guideposts?
Response:This verse is especially important for you.
First, let me focus your attention on the road that you take. No longer can you wander as if any road is suitable. No, I want you at this moment in time to become aware – aware of the road that you are on. Look down at your feet; catch your attention on the steps, on shoes that protect your feet, the length of your stride. Wake up. You can slumber no longer. The alarm has been ringing and you have adjusted to the strident sound and almost consider it music. I give you some credit because I said almost.
Next, appreciate, if for the first time that you are on the road, on the path that I refer to frequently. Hear me, again as if for the first time. This is no time to think that you can seek refuge off the road in the woods. No, you are on the road and there is much for you to experience on this road, on this path, on this journey.
Take note of the highway should suggest to you that there are other highways. I want you to be aware of the highway that you are traveling. Don’t worry about someone else’s journey. Focus on your own highway with the same intensity as I ask you to observe your feet, the length of your stride.
And this journey is not simply for your benefit – in fact the opposite is true. In my love, I call on you to erect guideposts for those most troubled as they set out. Why would they be troubled? Could it be that they fear they don’t have enough provisions? Your guidepost should not only show the direction but also remind them that I have prepared sufficient provisions for every single soul on my path, my highway. There is absolutely nothing you can lack. You are and will be sustained. How is that for a promise? And my promises are not to be taken lightly.
And my road signs are not cluttered with directions and advice that might confuse you. They are not written in a language that obscures the meaning. I don’t expect that only scholars can embark with confidence. I call you all and you may well discover that you are setting guideposts for the very scholars who are looking for a hidden meaning that is lost in the simplicity of my message.
So in these uncertain times you are truly blessed because it will be for you to see with clarity the direction, for you to find yourself in my love, for you to know almost for the first time my grace in each and every step of your journey, for you awakening to the glory of my creation in a love that I share with you in abundance. Yes, discover that your cup does overflow in my love for you.
All for this evening.
October 8, 2008
Scripture:“No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:34
Prayer:
Help me to understand at a deeper level the words, they will all know me.
Response:Some times, or even most times, this verse escapes you though you have heard about and read about this new covenant. Please realize that this knowing is not dependent on newsprint or books distributed. This knowing is implanted in every heart from the least to the greatest, from the blind to those with sight, from the illiterate to those of great learning, from the infirm to the healthy, from the poor to the wealthy, from the disenfranchised to the powerful. What this means is that no one can deny – once access to the heart is cultivated, accessed – the spirit within that proclaims my love for you.
And I will forgive their wickedness is my generous promise that requires all of you to do likewise in your daily tasks. Wickedness to be forgiven must be known by the perpetrator as well as the victim. In awakening from the slumber into which you retreat wickedness of whatever variety comes into the light, can no longer be denied, and is to be forgiven.
They will all know me does not refer to a future tense, but rather the statement of a truth. You all know me though you make various attempts to deny or ignore this intimate knowledge we share. For this day, spend even a nanosecond in that direct awareness, free of the teaching of those who would distract you.
All for this morning.
October 7, 2008
Scripture:Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. Psalm 57:1
Prayer:
Surrounded by the news in the papers, this verse caught my attention. Please enlighten me to a deeper meaning.
Response:Consider the words take refuge and those times when you did so — climbing a trail when a storm comes up suddenly, on the water as a squall overtakes you, on the beach when storm clouds approach faster than you anticipated. Now recall the disasters that seem to overtake you from within – the loss of a loved one, the loss of a position, and even the loss of what you had come to believe. What do all these experiences from which you learn have in common? Yes, they all pass – the sun does rise again – though I am not saying without some affect on you.
Please now spend a moment in reflection on what refuge means to you. Consider how you seek at such times to escape the howling wind or the rains that buffet you or the seas that have suddenly risen to where escape to where calm, even relative calm prevails.
And it is the same for the disasters that overtake you from within. Even more important is the refuge that you prepare – a metaphoric clean well lighted place – for you to ride out the storm and maybe, just maybe, find that in time – when the storm has passed – you have prospered through the experience.
Think of yourself in the shadow of my wings. First, how did you get there? In the rush of the storm you might not remember. But you are there – if you so will. How did you know the refuge that I offer? This is where experience, your experience serves you so well, and your experience only grows as you trudge the path and sail the waters of life.
My invitation is current and constant – come to me in times of disaster, even when those around you are oblivious to your disaster or overwhelmed by their own. In the stillness of the stone cabin with the roaring fire, I will comfort you and bring you to an even greater awareness of my presence in your life. Your only requirement is to take refuge.
All for this morning.
October 4, 2008
Scripture:Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 2 Timothy 4:3
Prayer:
Just as I often come upon a verse with which I am familiar but seem to be reading for the first time, I don’t recall ever reading this verse previously. Please allow me to explore more its meaning.
Response:Don’t spend too much time in thinking about what others do. Rather accept responsibility for the path that you are own. At times in your life you sought teachers to confirm what your itching ears wanted to hear; explore what motivated you. It is quite natural to follow the words or the teacher who will not really disturb your life pattern and will allow you to indulge yourself – even if deceptively.
You must have gathered by now that my words and my love are meant to disturb your life pattern. I call you to resist the impulse that by now all is accomplished on the path or journey while in truth you are still tying your shoelaces. I disturb your life pattern with my love. Yes, I disturb your life pattern with my love. Have you ever been in a crowd and hear your name called and are not sure you want attention to be called to your presence. Well, I am calling your name and you are in a crowd, and further I won’t stop calling just because you are trying to convince me that you do not hear me.
Sometimes what I have to say is not, I repeat not, what your itching ears want to hear. And yet, if you are to be honest with yourself, down deep in your heart those words are exactly what you have longed to hear, but did not make time to listen.
Indeed, I am leading you on a path you have never travelled heretofore; yes, I am fashioning you into a priceless piece of pottery worthy of honor; yes, I am commissioning you to share my love – it is so simple – with those who search distracted by the clatter that surrounds. So relax in that love.
All for this morning.
October 1, 2008
Scripture:All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 16
Prayer:
Please tell me more about God-breathed.
Response:God-breathed is my way of telling you of my presence in the present. As you sit in silence and read Scripture, reflect upon the words; I am present bringing you directly the enlightenment that you are ready for that day. Understand that the enlightenment is not limited by the words upon which you reflect. The words provide the opening; they set the stage for what is often a much deeper insight than you anticipated and one that takes you to a place you might rarely visit.
God-breathed has a fiery context to it, a living quality, that burns the dust from a historical volume lost on some library shelf. The more accustomed to being still in my presence the more you will experience a space infinite where you are one with me. Shake off any thought that I am calling you to an upper room removed from loved ones and responsibilities. To the contrary, I call you to be still and listening in soul-full alertness amidst the world in which you live. How else for you to beckon, touch those who have yet to discover my peace, love.
In the beckoning, you put to service the God-breathed message with which you become imbued. If it were not so, it would be better that Scripture, all Scripture, should remain on the dusty shelves of ancient libraries.
All for this morning.
September 30, 2008
Scripture:When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. John 21:9
Prayer:
What about the fish on the coals? What is the significance of them?
Response:Note that Jesus suggested to these frustrated fishermen that they toss the net on the right side of the boat and they did it and caught a catch they could hardly pull to the shore. And then they are invited to breakfast, to a celebration actually, where they contribute some of their fish to the fish that are already grilling. So what’s the significance of the scene in your life today – not the lives of some fishermen of two thousand years ago?
First point, the celebration, reunion, was not dependent upon them following the advice of someone on the shore that they did not even recognize. There were fish being prepared for their arrival. You receive my word – even though it might not be as specific as to where to toss your nets – and it is up to you to follow my directions. However, realize that my joy in your company does not depend on you complying – though I desire it so. I am prepared – yes prepared – for the celebration to begin as soon as you step off the boat of your life and approach my light – even brighter and warmer than a fire grilling fish on a beach.
And just think how the celebration of reunion expands and deepens when you contribute the fruit – in this case it was the fish – of their labor to the feast. And I invite you by all your works of service to bring your contribution so that our celebration will be overwhelming in its joy.
Finally, see in this mysterious stranger on the beach whom the disciples did not recognize, the stranger in your midst with whom you share your labor of love.
All for this morning.
September 28, 2008
Scripture:[T]he other disciple . . . also went inside. He saw and believed. John 20:9; “I have seen the Lord!” John 20:18; The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. John 20:20; “Stop doubting and believe.” John 20:27; “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29; But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31
Prayer:
Help me to understand belief.
Response:Belief is a transformational experience. Until you experience it you will have difficulty explaining it. Try to explain swimming to someone who doesn’t know the depth of water. Yes, a transformational experience that you control. Control you ask? Yes, control. I can lead you to the lake; can even be standing knee deep in the water and invite you to enter so that I can instruct you. Unless you are willing to get wet we can and do continue our dialogue from afar with you imagining what it feels like to be wet, to be gliding on top of the water without fear of drowning. I am sure that the symbolism of baptism has not been lost on you.
Believing is a transformational experience because for the first time you are present. You are not lost in past fears nor are you anxious about a future that is yet to unfold. Belief is the boldest action you will be and are asked to embrace. Yet, belief is not without its inestimable reward. Plunging into the waters your doubts are washed clear in that moment and in every moment you remain present to my love.
Belief is a deliberate act on your part. No one can do it for you. No one can force your belief. Yet know that my grace enfolds you and attunes you to hear me in all the scenes that capture your attention in the course of the day and night. And you cannot blame another for your failure to believe. Resistance is natural as it is natural for a child to resist the gentle urgings to enter the water to learn to swim.
So see belief as a surprise that snatches your attention, fills you will unsurpassed joy and wonder at my love for each of you.
All for this morning.
September 27, 2008
Scripture:The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. John 19:35
Prayer:
feel this man reaching across the centuries with his testimony.
Response:Yes, this unnamed witness is standing in your presence to tell what he saw. How many times do you witness the miraculous in your lives and hesitate to attribute the manifestation of my love as no more than a coincidence? At such times, those who hear your story can quiz you, doubt your description of events, or accept quietly the mystery that enfolds your existence, your life.
Notice in the recounting, he hopes, even prays that you also may believe and share his joy. However, he and you know that is left to you as to whether you will believe, doubt, reject – even though you don’t dispute the account. You see, believing what I tell you does not assure that you will embrace my message.
You can’t avoid the truth that it is left to each of you to act on what you believe. And action, like the prism of a crystal, has many sides and in the light many colorations. Action includes embracing my message through understanding and reflection, works of service and generosity and compassion, the adaption of a peaceful spirit, obedience, prayer, prudence, patience, and trust – and all this in my love.
So I ask you today to become the unnamed man mentioned in this verse and give your testimony in words and actions that reflect for others the change that has occurred within you. And why do you do this? So that others may believe and share your joy.
All for this morning.
September 25, 2008
Scripture:“You are not one of the disciples, are you?” the girl at the door asked him. He replied, “I am not.” John 18:17
Prayer:Yes, this verse I have also head and read many times. I have also felt relieved that it was Peter put on the spot, and not me.
Response:Don’t be too relieved. I want you to think about Peter and his ultimate answer, I am he. You see, you are quick to point out when someone doesn’t measure up to your expectations, including yourself. Now, for a change, and make it permanent if you can, dwell on the occasions when your answer is I am he.
For most of you, the question will not incur the danger that Peter feared and eventually overcame, but rather it will be in those ordinary incidents that surround your everyday life – and please be aware that there are no ordinary incidents. Believing that most of your waking moments are ordinary, allows you to save yourself for the big moment that often times doesn’t come or worse you don’t recognize it.
Consider also the words contained in the question – You are not one of the disciples, are you? Be in the present. He was not being asked if he were or intended to be a follower. So consider what it means to answer, Yes, I am. And what does that require of you, because as I have said, this verse is written and passed to you at exactly the right moment in your life? And don’t think it will be the last time I will ask that question of you.
I know you can answer with a lengthy list of do’s and don’ts, yet I want you to explore also what the affirmative reply means in a deepening relationship with me – and this is not all about do’s and don’ts.
This question is about relationships, relationship with me. For you to answer affirmatively, you see for the first time, you are awake for the first time, and you love for the first time.
So instead of emphasizing Peter’s denial, I want you to draw strength from his affirmation and all your affirmations that resound in your heart.
All for today.
September 22, 2008
Scripture:“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3
Prayer:Sometimes I am struck by the power of one verse, and this is one of those times. Bring me to a deeper meaning and understanding.
Response:Yes, you are being given an insight into what this eternal life is all about. Eternal life – those two words are repeated over and over again with all sorts of interpretations. And here the explanation, though brief, is given to all of you who are not still slumbering. Let me make the explanation even more exciting – you are getting a hint and even more in this life entrapped as you are in the body.
Eternal life offers you a knowing of me. I say offers because if you do not become conscious you will miss it as you slide over the words that seem so familiar, yet you do not pause and ponder on the meaning. Know me. Here I reduce the several words to two. Know me. Can you say that you know your partner, your loved one, your children, grandchildren, your friends, strangers you encounter, even your enemies – and here I am promising, yes promising that eternal life offers you full knowledge of me.
Can you put aside all your cognitive thinking and simply dwell on this extraordinary, supernatural, over- -the- top , solemn oath, promise, or whatever other word you need to appreciate fully, in the depth of your soul that you will know me, the only true God. And please don’t get bogged down on debating the words the only true God. I am here for you and you and you. I know you. In fact, if you can be in a place where there are no witnesses, you know that I know you, and I am gentle with that knowledge, and you also know that gentleness.
Realize that when you catch a glimpse of me, though you will say that you hardly got a glimpse or worse that you would have difficulty recognizing me, realize, I repeat, that you are in fact getting a hint of eternal life – a life that those loved ones who have preceded you are enjoying in as full as a capacity as they seek – I did not say as they sought. What do I mean here? Have you ever met a mysterious though not threatening stranger and failed to ask his or her story – and then later regretted it. Well, I am imploring you in love to ask in prayer my story and in that quest you will truly glimpse eternal life in my telling that will affect each of you most deeply – and eternally.
All for today.
September 21, 2008
Scripture:“I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” John 17:26
Prayer:These words are deceptively easy to understand. Perhaps, because I have heard them so often that I miss the essential meaning.
Response:That is fair to say. That is the reason that I implore you to read for truth not volume. Don’t allow your mind that is training to reach for the next word and the next sentence. Teach it to pause and incidentally that it what I ask you as well – pause. Also, put aside your notion as I have said repeatedly that these words are historical. This very verse, each and every word contained in it was composed for you this very moment. If you could touch the print it would still be damp.
With this approach, see what I make known to you – my love. This revelation is for this day and every single day upon which you wake. And when you no longer wake in this body, you will need no reminders, you will not have to train your mind, me love will be self-expressive in you as you are in me.
These words allow you a glimpse of how my love works in you. It is a swirl that knows no boundaries. In fact there are no boundaries – no way to say where my love begins and yours ends. The love I am to you knows no national, political, gender, cultural, ethnic, age, religious boundaries. It is left to you with my grace for you to first sense/perceive this love and next to share/infuse those around you and afar with that love.
If you were asked to sum up my message, four letters would do it – love. Spend time this day in comprehending what love means to you and how you are asked to share this love – which is divine.
All for this morning.
September 19, 2008
Scripture:“You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy." John 16:20
Prayer:Speak to me, please, of grief.
Response:Grief is like myopic vision. All are involved or overwhelmed by one scene; you are not able to take in everything surrounding you and within, and you are not yet able to see in a timeless dimension. I mean that for the moment you seem ruled by time and space. I say seem because once you see in this existence a paradox that eternity hints at, you are able to put or apply a more accurate understanding to grief – and for that matter joy – and the events that trigger both in your life.
Grief and joy are not either or. Now that is something for you to consider. Grief and joy are not either or. They are like veins in your body bringing sustenance to all regions of your heart, mind, and body. Your joy is deeper, richer, more generous in its display, more outward as it is enriched – say enriched – with the grief of whatever variety that you experience, about which you remain conscious, that is, do not ignore.
Grief is the bitter herb that proves to be the secret ingredient in a recipe of inestimable worth and taste. In time grief brings celebration in your life to its essential meaning in joy.
Let me conclude as I began – You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
All for this morning.
September 18, 2008
Scripture:“I have told you this so that my joy may be within you and that your joy may be complete.” John 15:11
Prayer:Can you talk of joy?
Response:Love and joy are often misplaced and both are essentially my message to you. Joy can best be described as being in tune and harmony. You are one in joy and love as if you were participating in a grand chorus or orchestra. Your joy is to know no bound and needs no reflection such is its spontaneity. Joy is taking flight after waiting so long at the edge of the cliff before you let go of your fear of heights.
Joy holds immediate recognition. You need no one, even me, to tell you that you are joyful. Though there is some preparation for you to do. First look about you and within you with clean eyes as if you have composed something and now must reread it, proof it. Detached you see what is written and not what you thought or intended to write. Joy stems and is evident in detachment, untroubled and untrammeled by what is not. Think over these words one more time. Joy is an honest and open expression of my love.
You should ask how can you increase your joy? Well, this may surprise you. In my love your joy is absolutely boundless. You can’t increase it, though your awareness of my love in you as you awake does increase the perception that the joy has multiplied. Again, using an analogy I have used before, sometimes you appear to yourself that you are paralyzed or just sitting in a dark room. Adjusting to the dark, you begin to see that you are surrounded by treasures of inestimable worth and that those treasures are reserved for you. Joy is that awakening and the realization that you are in a treasure house of my love. Your only challenge is to wake up – not an unreasonable request.
So today, enough of talking or considering your woes be they financial, personal, physical, relationship – instead spend the day – yes, the day, not an hour or minutes – in the treasure house that I have created for only you. And next, share that treasure house with others, those you meet, or with whom you live or work, and notice how your treasure house expands with riches.
All for this morning.
September 16, 2008
Scripture:“But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” John 14:26
Prayer: I am listening.
Response:And this is exactly how I reach you – through your attention, listening. Your listening is not limited to the words that seem to swirl in your mind. No, the listening that I speak of is the listening that might occur in the middle of the night when you wake and wonder what has woken you. Instead of fretting with an anxiety of the sleep you are losing, simply listen. You might hear something and further you might discover as quickly you are back to a restful sleep.
I guess you have concluded that the teaching about which I am talking is not confined to a classroom or to a pulpit for that matter – though there are many instances that the words that reach you would surprise even the speaker. Adopt a style of listening that is without judgment, one that opens to a deeper meaning sometimes disguised by the gesture, tone, or purpose of the speaker. See beyond, or rather hear beyond, as if you are pulling back a curtain.
I am not presenting you with a puzzle, you see. In fact, note the words I will remind you. If you are still, sufficiently still, you will recognize my message and your only question will be, where did I hear this before, it seems so familiar?
So on the breath of the wind I reach you in all your circumstances and at all times – no exceptions.
All for this morning.
September 13, 2008
Scripture:“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46
Prayer:Sitting before this single light on my desk before dawn, help me to understand better your presence.
Response:I want you this morning to reflect upon illumination. And the illumination I talk of is within. Take the scene that you describe in your prayer, and realize now that the light I bring to you all is an illumination that brightens all within you. It is as if you become the eye or beam of that light. With this light that I illumine, you see with new eyes. Consider now that you direct the beam. Wherever you turn you are now in my illumination to see colors and subtleties that you would have missed as you would a painting done by one of your masters. And I am the master artist who instructs you and brings light and illumination to your heart and understanding.
And as you appreciate, the light is not reserved for or restricted to your eyes. Consider this light a light of clarity. Where there was doubt and confusion, I offer truth. It might not be the truth that you think you sought – I said think you sought – but rather a truth that resonates in your heart and one which you recognize.
I come to you to dispel darkness. Now what is so bad about darkness? The darkness that I talk about is a darkness that paralyzes you because it prevents you from venturing out on the path, out beyond yourself and self-absorption. You see, there are times that you hesitate to expand in my love, satisfied with what you have grasped and control, and fear of losing it – whatever it is.
I come to embolden you in my love, to step out, commence your journey because I am lighting the way for you. You are no longer in darkness. Repeat those words and sense the confidence and conviction they give to you – and this light is not on loan. You don’t have to give it back. My light is a gift to you and it will not extinguish.
All for this morning.
September 12, 2008
Scripture:"Did I not tell you if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” John 11:40
Prayer:I am speechless in the quiet of this morning before dawn. Take me to a deeper understanding.
Response:What catches your attention? Is it that the words seem to be spoken as if for the first time and you hear them as if for the first time? No need to look around and fear that someone might have heard these words spoken to you? Your reaction in your heart cannot be overheard or even seen. You are in a private space that allows these words to fill your consciousness.
Yes, the time is now for you to shed all caution and believe. Please don’t retreat into history and debate events that occurred and were recorded. No, sit still and hear what is spoken to you this moment for the first time. Listen deeply. Do your best not to turn aside from the promise that you will see – I repeat will see – the glory of God in your life as you believe.
It is as if you are in a darkened theater and you have been sitting patiently so long that you close your eyes. While not sleeping, you are not especially conscious. As you sit quietly, you have not noticed that the curtain has been drawn unveiling an eye-catching scene but your eyes are closed, and who knows, you might have slipped off into slumber. Well, this very moment I am saying to you awake. Come forth into consciousness. You don’t have to wait for your body to cease functioning; I am asking you to wake now. See the glory of God reserved for you in this very moment – not the next moment or a moment that has passed.
And don’t be lazy. Don’t expect me or someone else, your neighbor, to describe this glory of God. No, open your eyes, awake, and then speak of this glory that surrounds you. Jot down in your mind or even on a notepad what you experience. You will be surprised how in this process you become more attuned to this glory, your vision improves. And you will also be surprised to discover that as your vision improves so does your conviction.
All for this morning.
September 10, 2008
Scripture:"I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. “John 10:16
Prayer:How about this one flock and one shepherd?
Response:If you are looking for an endorsement for some words on exclusivity you will be disappointed. My words are meant to reveal and encourage inclusivity. I would rather you spend this time to consider what it means that they too will listen to my voice.
Instead of dwelling on why you are or should be in this one sheep pen, consider instead the voice that you hear and recognize. You see it doesn’t matter the credentials you claim, the pew in which you sit, or the recognition you receive or think you should receive. Rather it is most important that you hear the call, recognize the caller in your life; and then that you act, that is, that you follow me out of the confinement of that sheep pen. Oh, the images that I present you as you journey outside for the nourishment that you trust that I will and do provide.
Whether you realize it or not, hearing my call to all of you creates a community of believers, as the inner voice summons you outside in my love. It is not important whether or not you can box that belief in a culturally acceptable forum. It is so very critical that you cast all doubt aside and listen to my voice that might be hidden in your loneliness, patience, acceptance, hope, perseverance, relationship, and of course love, and that you act upon this summons, yes summons.
No need to compare notes as to the octave or timber of the voice you hear from that heard by your neighbor; but much more important to distinguish my voice from the chaff of your active life, speaking to you directly. And once distinguished, for you to sit still with your ear cocked in the direction of the wind upon which my message flies. I call all of you outside the comfort zone of your life established in the familiar such as the sheep pen. The paradox is that then my voice will be most clear to you.
All for today.
September 6, 2008
Scripture:Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say.” John 8:43
Prayer:I guess I need some instruction on what it takes to listen.
Response:As you might realize, listening is more than scoring high in a hearing test. Some of the best listeners of my word are those whose hearing is physically impaired – but oh their spiritual hearing is finely tuned. So wedded are you to the physical state it is sometimes an overwhelming concept for you to digest that the listening of which I speak occurs when you turn off the impulse to speak, turn off the distractions of technology in which you are implanted, gaze gently about you, and let go of that tension that flows more than blood through your veins.
Once you are successful there – and only you can decide to bring rein to your senses – you will experience a symphony you never heard previously, a lashing rain in the midst of a hurricane that cleanses your heart, a quietude that defies distraction.
And what I call you to is not to lose yourself in nothingness; no, I am not calling you to float as jetsam in a galactic stream. I am calling you to fold yourself figuratively inside out and hear me reverberate on and in your heart a message of love, my love, not distilled to ease its impact. It is as if I am asking you to stand upside down, break the mold of thinking that has conditioned you to miss my message, to embolden you to seize my truth – despite all your inhibitions caused by previous disappointment.
All for today.
September 4, 2008
Scripture:When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12
Prayer:Speak to me of the light of life.
Response:The light of life presents itself to you as a heightened consciousness, awareness. I say heightened because you are discovering from your first breath until your last that you are awakening – at least that is my plan for you. You see, at death you won’t be sitting around or lying around. You will be fully conscious in spirit. You will be spirit awake to the extent that you have shed the thickness that shrouds you as a blanket in the darkness of night.
Following me is like leaving your cell. You imagined the cell door was locked, but discover to your wonderful surprise, actually your graced surprise, that the door swings open quite easily. At first you seem to be following a shadow moving down the corridor holding a lantern. In life that shadow seems to be lost – hopefully for only a moment – as you turn on to another corridor. As soon as you retrace your steps, there’s the lantern again only now it appears closer and brighter as you have corrected your course.
And my promise is that in following diligently along the corridor that light held for you is that you will never walk in darkness, or perhaps it is more accurate to say you need never walk in darkness. Let me provoke you, stir you – if you follow me, you cannot walk in darkness again. It is not possible. Oh, but now you must spend some time on my meaning of the words follow me.
Let me spend a moment on the meaning of light of life. Your headlines seem to be filled with the darkness of life. I want you to put your newspaper aside and think of the headlines you would write for own news release as it reflects, relates to the light in your life. What does light of life mean to you? The words are easy to understand but more difficult to apply unless you see that light of life as my gift to those following me out of the darkness.
And finally, I am not suggesting a row of robots in step marching forward. Rather I see you joined by so many hurrying along, cheerful, loving, even carefree, courageous – such is your confidence and most of all your consciousness and awareness. You have thrown aside that dream state that had confined you to the dank, dark, spiritless cell in which you were imprisoned. Quite a cause for celebration this light of life.
All for today.
September 3, 2008
Scripture:s“You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” Having said this, he stayed in Galilee. However, after his brothers had left for the Feast, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. John 7:8-10
Prayer:Surely, there is a deeper meaning in this verse.
Response:The deeper meaning is what you experience daily. You are asked to journey on your own without crutches. Of course, I mean this figuratively. You are asked to trust in faith and to continue your journey, accepting that my presence will accompany you. Clearly, you have many examples of this in guiding young people, or from a time when you were young yourself. Well, now you are young in spirit, not a bad thing. And you are asked to go out into the world that at times seems as imposing as attending an annual feast. And further you are asked to represent who you have become and you won’t be able to look over your shoulder and point to me when someone challenges you. You have to manage by all appearances on your own.
That is what I want you to take from these verses this morning. Realize that I am never far though you might seem to be on a desolate trail, and even if it appears that the feast has been called off, or instead of companionship you are alone – even lonely.
And take the word or rather the underlying meaning of the word secret, a word which you have studied. Accept that it is secret for a time because of circumstances or reasons that you are not ready for yet. I say yet because all does become manifest even in things secret. And notice, where such circumstances become open is at a celebration, the Feast, to which all were traveling. So be confident that you will understand all, the lights of self-illumination will shine at the feast to which you are all journeying . Take heart.
All for this morning.
August 30, 2008
Scripture:The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. John 6:63
Prayer:It seems that I never tire of learning more of Spirit.
Response:Repeat those first four words – The Spirit gives life. You overlook the significance of the meaning as you consciously and responsibly take care of your physical condition. To any threat to good health you usually respond in whatever way or means you know or learn. This should not change. Here I am reminding you, yes reminding you, that the Spirit gives life, eternal life. Understandably, these easily grasped words hold a mystery that you at best only see faintly through a curtain. My promise to you is that the curtain will be pulled and you will comprehend in spirit a panorama of consciousness that is simply beyond comprehension now.
That is the reason that I tell you that faith is so important. Hear my words and accept them. I am not asking you now to see how these words apply or have applied to others whom you judge less than worthy. The words this morning are only written and spoken to you – not anyone else, even if someone is close by or in the next room or in the same church. See the words – I have spoken to you. Make no mistake. Do not take refuge in a crowd – even a holy crowd. You cannot escape me. The Spirit gives life and my desire through grace and love is to give you life and give it abundantly.
In listening to me, hearing my words, reflecting upon them, Spirit is showering you with a life that you still can’t comprehend though you know there is a difference in you – the you that resides in the depth of your being. This showering is every bit as manifest as a rain shower you encounter suddenly though the sun continues to shine.
For today identify the life in you that cannot be measured by taking your blood pressure or temperature. See it in your walk – along the path that you are treading. Tread lightly – you are spirit.
All for this morning.
August 28, 2008
Scripture: Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. John 6:10
Prayer: How many times do I ignore this simple command?
Response:Yes, it is so easy to fill your ears with noise, even if the noise is of the should-of’s you think you must accomplish, and you do not hear my command: Sit down. As in this scene there was sufficient space for all to be accommodated. And so it is in your life. And this respite was not just to get off their feet, but to prepare them for a message once, I repeat once, they were fed.
Can you see how this same formula for the nourishment of your soul works? First there is a gathering of the willing and interested, perhaps even the committed. People were lined up not because of some command to appear. It was not you see a command performance, but rather an open air concert for which no tickets were required.
Next, there was wonder on the part of those present. They held an interest in discovering the mystery that had been hinted at in the stories that they had heard or perhaps even witnessed and this curiosity outweighed any social or societal concerns that they were going against established norms of the day. Their interest in the spirit even outweighed their concern for the physical since food and drink were in very short supply.
Though impatient to get on with the show, they listened when told to find a place and rest in the verdant field around them. Listened is a key word and one that prepared them for the message to be delivered.
So the message for you today is to let go of any of your preconceived notions as to how it, whatever it is, is to occur in your life. Go against your learned response that says that you have to do something, and contrary to your inclination take a seat and listen. And in following my directive, you will discover that your cares of the moment are met and more importantly your deepest longings that exhaust your imagination to explain are fulfilled in my overflowing love for you.
Extraordinary isn’t it that just when you are ready to do something, I ask you to do nothing and listen; just when you think you have learned so much, I ask you to un-learn; and just when you believe you are discriminating, I ask you to be indiscriminate and generous in your service and love.
All for this morning.
August 26, 2008
Scripture: Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. John 4:36
Prayer: Help me to learn to reap in my own life.
Response:In your own life includes most especially every place you touch within a day’s time. Consider from waking that each moment presents a widening field on which you gaze and to which you are invited to reap the harvest planted and nurtured over the season of growth with rain and sunshine. As in your life, your growth and readiness for the harvest have depended upon a mixture of warmth and sun, cold and gray, rain and even drought for the harvest to stand so sturdy ready for reaping. So you are called upon, all of you, to likewise become the reapers of the harvest, the mentors and teachers and listeners to those who someday will do likewise.
Reflect for a moment and perhaps during the day those sowers in our midst or perhaps those who have transitioned who figured prominently in preparing you for the role of reaper – a task I call you all to perform in my grace and love.
And don’t miss that I am not suggesting that you are merely involved in an activity to keep fit, though fit you will become. No, the activity you are being called to perform is the harvest of the crop – not a crop – of eternal life.
As with any harvest there is a timing involved. Reapers are needed so that the crop does not deteriorate in the field. And you see it when the crop is left almost convincing the crop that there is no further purpose for its existence but to occupy a field. You are being reminded that this crop is meant for eternal life. There is an urgency to respond to the growth cycle, to ensure that this crop proves to be the nourishment for those who come later to continue the reaping. Your wages are as abundant as the crop and are also measured in terms of eternal life.
So remain in the field today and see yourself as the reaper of a harvest that was planted long before and awaits your precise touch in celebration of my love.
All for this morning.
August 24, 2008
Scripture: Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and the people were constantly coming to be baptized. John 3:23
Prayer: Tell me more about the deeper meaning of this phrase.
Response: For you this morning you are being reminded of the practicality of your spiritual life. Check yourself to see that there is plenty of water and you are not isolated. This advice applies in all things spiritual, including, most especially, in service and relationship. It serves no one if you decide to open up a baptismal fount in the desert far from an oasis, or conversely at an abandoned oasis where the water is plentiful. There is a harmony, a balance in the life of the spirit. Respect it, don’t try to have the environment conform to your control, but flow with it as the water flows and the people come.
In a sense, this verse also reminds you of the obvious that you might have a tendency to overlook when you are decided in your views – and I mean when you are closed to viewpoints that clash with what you consider bedrock beliefs. See how this verse also describes relationship – relationship of John with his followers and the strangers that have heard of him and journey out to see for themselves. It is also relationship and trust of those who do wander to where John is to see for themselves his truth. Consider the trust they shared with their fellow travelers, especially as they were confronting the norms of their society, even challenging those standards. That is freedom, or at least acknowledging their freedom as each of you is responsible for your own awakening in my love.
What happens when the water runs out or the people no longer appear? It is time then to move as the ancient cities of Delhi and other places relocated as the river carved out another path that skirted the original establishment of the city. Call it change, but I would prefer to encourage again openness and a certain excitement for what awaits you each day.
In all your dealings with others be of the light. What does that mean? Again, I repeat – be gentle, patient, open, listening, serving, compassionate, forgiving and loving. And if or when you are able to reflect in your actions – remember this is all about conveying, embracing this spiritual traits – what I have just said, you will be in a place of plenty, nourished by the flowing waters and you will discover that even if you are a recluse you will be surrounded in love.
All for this morning.
August 23, 2008
Scripture: The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John3:8
Prayer: It was windy on the beach this morning, help me to use that experience to reach a deeper meaning for this verse.
Response: See yourself as a kite in such a breeze before dawn. Feel the exhilaration of flight without ever being able to place yourself in relation to the ground. This is a good description of your spirit aspect, not confined or contained in your body mass or limited to the ground that you can walk or run.
Now bring that kite in your imagination to the dawn. Observe the colors that come out reflected in the sun’s light. See how you can even distinguish your kite from another’s. Now you can sense height or elevation, experience soaring even higher or plunging downward on a draft. What is constant is the seeming aimlessness of the wind.
For just a moment step out of your body and become aware of that wind that rushes within you in the consciousness of my love. No need to distinguish rituals that signify this rebirth as they vary from one persuasion to the next. Rather accept and acknowledge your own rebirth as it were. See in the rebirth you have and are experiencing a freedom every bit as free as the wind that rolls from all directions and heights, at speeds that are sometimes difficult to calculate, accompanied by sounds that lull and sometimes frighten. Now the question I ask with the freedom—this rebirth – you have been granted, what are you going to do in service to those who seem planted on the ground alone?
All for this morning.
August 22, 2008
Scripture: He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. John 2:25
Prayer: What am I missing in this closing verse of the chapter containing words that my eyes drift over?
Response: Doesn’t the last phrase catch your attention? It is not what others say in condemnation or praise but what is within? What this verse is imploring you is that you first devote time to discovering who you are, yes, who you are within. Don’t rely upon what others say you are; you know better.
This self-knowledge is especially important when you come to say that in fact what others say about you is not quite the case – good or bad. Don’t rely upon illusions of your own or others’ making to be who you are to become. Read this last sentence over again – it is not the puzzle you have made it out to be.
This verse should also encourage you as you wrestle with self-discovery not to be swayed one way or the other in approaching another about which testimony has been spread in speaking my truth.
And no you do not have to quote scripture to do this. Revealing who you are is sufficient; notice I did not say what you do. Who you are has the contents for a most interesting book whose ending you are still fashioning; what you do are words for a two-page resume.
And it is should be obvious to you that I know you. Who else spends the time listening to your inmost thoughts? Who else is always present? In your long or short life there has never been a time when I have not been so close your soul has touched me.
So the question is why? Why have I never, repeat never given up and said as you have said when discouraged – Enough? Well, the answer is so simple. It is because I know, yes know, what is within you. I have fashioned this ember of love and placed it within you. I have acted as a bellows when you feared it was extinguished – though you might have opted for a less dramatic manner of revival – and as a gentle whisper of breath to steady the flame.
So today gauge how the breath you receive is acting on your heart and how this action is creating within you a self-awareness that you sometimes ignore.
All for this morning.
August 21, 2008
Scripture: Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water;” so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so. John 2:7-8
Prayer: This is another selection I have read many times. Please give me a deeper understanding.
Response: Think of the words my cup overflows. This scene is one of my overflowing love for you. Nothing, it seems, no vessel can contain or constrain that love. You ask for peace and discover a peace that defies explanation or expectation. You were just looking to have an immediate problem solved and discover a life-changing strategy that releases you from daily torment and turmoil.
Recall that the incident occurs at a wedding banquet – the joining of two people in marriage vows, of two families in support, of a village in harmony. And the request is made to solve one problem. They have exhausted the nectar of their labor. Instead of referring for many generations how they had to curtail the toasts for long life and joy, they now celebrate for even more generations – until the present – a celebration that knows no end.
So with you. Don’t consider that the marriage feast ended a couple of thousand years ago, but rather see it as a celebration that continues into your moment. What was prayed for then is poured over you now in my grace. Remember how often I have told you that scripture is not limited to a historical document. You are reading these words today because I mean them for you now, I have selected them for you today.
This day act as if you are at the same wedding feast and have just discovered that instead of muttering among yourselves, you have been freed to celebrate my love in your lives. During the day toast – figuratively! – each display of my love in the celebration of the life you live and share with those around you and afar.
All for this morning.
August 20, 2008
Scripture: I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” John 1:33
Prayer: And who is the one who sent John?
Response: You know the answer already, yet you want confirmation. It is he, who sits opposite you when you are pressed for an answer to your prayer, when you sit still and listen, and when you try to make sense out of confusion or better chaos. And yes, it is he is with you this evening.
Your presence in consciousness is all that is required for me to reach you and you are aware of that connection. I say this because I am with you at all times and become quite adept at communicating with those of you who prefer to sleep. Be assured that you will awaken from your slumber. Take no comfort in refuting me by looking about and judging a neighbor or a stranger. I will reach you all. However, instead of taking a head count of those you judge won’t hear, silence your mind and concern yourself with your own consciousness. Once you do that, you will find that you contribute to the awakening of others.
There are some of you, like John, who hear, soul-hear, and do take action on the basis of what you soul-hear with more conviction than someone receiving a written order. Explore in your life when direction came from this quarter and in retrospect you are so similar to John who simply states that the one who sent him seeing no need to go into any more detail. None was needed; all understood. Notice for your own benefit that he did not remain in isolated prayer when he received the summons. He went out and performed this baptism for whoever lined up at the Jordan. Think of people in your life – those who stepped in a sense out of step to perform an act that at first glance seemed so uncharacteristic, so out of character, so outside their professional credentials and I could go on.
And you might think that such summonses are rare, and you would be wrong. In the turmoil of your environment – and I speak on a global level – many, so many receive daily a summons to act. I am not saying that you should pack your bags but I am saying that you should be at the ready to support others not so fortunate in my love.
Let me close by saying that you are all called, and my call to you uses all media to which you are drawn, and I do not exclude the medium of silent, listening prayer. And I of course take full advantage of your interests and passions that trigger your full awareness to reach you. With this message I am putting you on notice. You will be hearing from me. You might conclude that I am raising the decibel of my message. I would say you are waking and if a comparison could be made you would discover that I am whispering – no need to shout. I welcome you from your dream state to full consciousness.
August 18, 2008
Scripture: Though him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. John 1:3-5
Prayer: Speak to me of this light.
Response: These words are so simple. Your eyes wash over them like water over rocks. Linger, though, this morning and see how your life is the light that distinguishes you. Surely you understand that it is the light within you by which you are recognized, not the physical features that can be characterized by space you occupy and the color you reflect.
It is that light which I ask that you uncover. Do not move around as if you are in the shadows, or worse retreat into the shadows. The light is, I can say, your birthright. Each of you are distinguished by that light.
Now what is that light? It is the spark, the ember, embedded in you, and although you might make a mighty effort to ignore this spark you can do nothing to disguise its warmth, I might say its divine warmth. The light is a reminder of your origin as is the sun rising each morning.
You might not be able to see the light in the mirror so accustomed have you become to dwell on the physical wrapping, but you should find it easier to see it, experience it, with those who embrace you in love. So it should not be a great leap of faith to assume that if the light resides in someone who loves you, it also resides in you.
And this light is not static. Have you ever looked into a fire – whether in a fireplace, around a campfire, or the flame from a candle? See its movement. So it is with your light. And feed that fire and it grows. So with you, uncover your light – in a sense give it air, a breathe, bellows – and feed it with service, prayer, compassion, forgiveness, and love, and see, feel the brightness of the light, even feel its warmth as you engage others.
Realize the origin of the light, understand that it is entrusted to you, and you are charged with unveiling, feeding, and sharing that light.
All for this morning.
August 13, 2008
Scripture: When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4
Prayer: Yesterday I observed the meteor showers before dawn and this morning a brilliant curtain of red stretched across the horizon, help me to be conscious of you.
Response: I ask further that while conscious you serve. You see – I am not using these words as a customary introduction to a more convoluted sentence, but rather I am reminding you that you see. In seeing, you are able to penetrate the fog of unconscious action – at least sometimes. See the wonder that I spread before and around you as your alarm clock. Not someone else’s, but yours.
Once you really catch my splendor, you let go of all that ties you grasp to the earth that halts your flight – figuratively. See in the panorama of creation your role in service of recreating that splendor in whatever you do even if it is to tend a garden, relate intimately with those you encounter. Do your best to banish custom to your reactions to those around you and to your environment. Respond spontaneously from the heart in all you do in order to be-come.
Ponder in your heart this day why I am mindful of you. I am present at each breath you take. This is my call that you slow down and breathe each breath in that awareness.
All for this morning.
August 11, 2008
Scripture: He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. Ephesians 2:17
Prayer: With the clamor of war ever present, tell me what has changed.
Response: Do your best to dismiss the notion of sequential time, that is a beginning, middle, and end time, or to think of yourself as in the future of those who lived at the time Ephesians was written. Instead, see yourself in a present and this verse applying to you now and not as a historical document to be reviewed at your leisure.
Also, consider also the verse from Psalm 68:30 – Rebuke the beast among the reeds, the herd of bulls among the calves of the nations. Humbled, may it bring bars of silver. Scatter the nations who delight in war – which you almost selected for this morning.
I am present, this very moment and my message is one of restoring peace. For some it is a peace once won, for others a peace rarely if ever experienced; it is a peace that is born out of pain and grief, and sorrow and sometimes despair. It is a peace that knows no understanding, is beyond understanding, but the heart acknowledges and recognizing this peace. This peace is shorn of ambition, greed, self-absorption, and aggression.
See these words as I come and speak to you of peace wherever you are – distant as you are involved yourself and become anxious of what you cannot control, or near, in touch, within earshot of my words.
I want to call your attention to the phrase – Rebuke the beast among the reeds. That beast is not the unnamed they who haunt your media, but rather you who lurks in the darkened corridors of your mind, withholding your full commitment to peace in your every action of service, as if you have not heard this call to and of peace in whatever language or wisdom it might have reached you.
For today and every day, stay in the present and see what you can do to promote peace within you and within your immediate setting, and then with your free time devote yourself to earnest prayer for those experiencing the ravages of violence in whatever form and who are not afforded your leisure.
All for this morning.
August 7, 2008
Scripture: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43: 1-2
Prayer: I heard these words the other day. What is the deeper meaning?
Response: Have you ever thought that this journey you are on is in response to my summons. I am calling you home. And you whom I call is someone I know intimately. And I call you by name. When can you recall someone calling you to return? If it was as a child you might have not especially welcomed the call so busy were you, but you heard it none-the-less. Reflect on instances that you can recall or times in your life when you heard over the shout of others or the activity in which you were immersed that call from a loved one.
I know you by name. Understand more deeply the intimacy you share with me even if you seek to distance yourself from our relationship or feign that you have not heard. The latter ploy might have worked as a youth but not now. The reason that my voice cannot be lost in the turmoil around you is that my voice is within.
Also, think of the select circle around you that knows you intimately, knows your inner thoughts, your causes for joy and for grief. I think that you will agree that that circle is indeed limited, and in fact for some of you it might be circle of one – you. Well, I am with you in all the seasons of your life and it is my great love for you that I call you. Have no anxiety about what lies before you. I will not allow the elements to sweep you away. I am that rugged staff you use to negotiate the crossing. And you will recover from whatever danger or fear that you encounter because you are not alone.
I have summoned you by name. You are not a casual acquaintance, but rather the you for whom your name was first spoken. At times, you think of yourself in a crowd. For now and evermore, see that though in a crowd I found you. And why is that? Because I knew where to look.
All for this morning.
August 3, 2008
Scripture: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with it mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. Psalm 131:2
Prayer: I hadn’t thought until now how much there is to reflect upon in this verse. Prod my discernment.
Response: You know instances, even times, when you are stilled without anxiousness. Recognize those times like now before the events of the day press you to move out of the stillness. It is not moving out of the stillness that is to be avoided – for how else can you survive and even flourish. The challenge is to move without anxiousness, without the anxiousness of a child who fears its source of sustenance will be withheld.
Note the image is one of a child that no longer requires its mother’s milk, yet remains with the mother. There is a source of confidence in this scene for the child growing to maturity and the mother acknowledging that growth.
So you see that the child is developing a self-confidence in its relationship with its mother; so you must strive for that same self-confidence with me.
There is trust as the child experiences a new dimension of love where the child is allowed and encouraged separation in a physical sense, yet the mother’s presence as mine is always evident.
The child develops as you do in awareness of what stillness of the soul means by being still. It seems such a simple notion one that you should take to heart – or should I say soul.
And finally, this verse says to you much about your essential being, your soul. Your soul is within and of you. Life is a journey that offers you many challenges but one so often overlooked is to give those around you and your environment a glimpse of that soul, no longer hidden within.
All for this morning.
August 1, 2008
Scripture: By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundation, by understanding he set the heavens in place, by his knowledge the deeps were divided and the clouds let drop the dew. Proverbs 3:19-20
Prayer: In the darkness before dawn, I sometimes overlook your wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Fill me with your words.
Response: Try, if you can, bring this cosmic description into your own life and your relationship with me. See how my wisdom, understanding, and knowledge preside over your life. For you see, it is my wisdom that covers you and creates your awareness of my presence. I am the mantle that you reach to pull close in stormy weather. And you do this almost by instinct.
And after the storm has passed, or it is still buffeting you, it is my understanding that calms your anxiousness. It is then that you gain a perspective of your life – that is your place in the universe of my love. It is as if you are transported to a safe distance to observe a tumultuous scene and now instead of chaos you see – understand – a pattern of healing.
And through the experience of wisdom and understanding, you acquire a cosmic knowledge, a memory it seems, that you retain and find nourished within you, and this same knowledge – and the insights that accompany you transmit to those around you in your actions of service.
And here you see the cycle of my love in the moisture from the deep that is let loose from the clouds to nourish all my creation.
All for this morning.
July 30, 2008
Scripture: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Prayer: Lord, expound a bit on this verse that is bursting with import that I too easily overlook.
Response: Yes, this verse is challenging. Imagine, if you will, that you were walking, or trekking if you prefer, in an isolated area of great beauty. Consider the mesas and buttes of Sedona from which you travelled recently. You are alone and upon reaching an elevation the trail turns and there on the red rock is an ancient Indian painting depicting these words in symbols. You spend time deciphering the message, but once deciphered you are still pressed to understand the words, or perhaps accept them.
Faith is being sure – first, you have to ask yourself when in your life have you been sure of anything. And I am not looking for you to come up with the answer “never.” Have you ever been sure of another’s love and support when difficulties surrounded you? Have you ever relied upon a parent, mentor, counselor, or teacher to guide your development in your youth, and yes as you grew to maturity, and beyond – if that is possible? That is the sureness about which I speak. And the faith is knowing that support is there – like going into a familiar place – even in the dark – and placing your hand on exactly for what you were searching.
And what do I mean with the words of what we hope for? Well, sometimes it seems that what you hope for is hidden way down deep in your heart. You are hesitant to even utter the words aloud or even to whisper them for fear that you will reveal an advanced state of madness to others, or even to yourself. It is important in your maturation to give voice to your hopes, even if they cannot be overheard – though you hear them, because you see, those hopes that are nestled in your heart almost unseen and unheard form the basis of your faith. Your faith – not some memorized formula that others have given to you to repeat. Your hopes form the basis of your faith that proves steadfast in whatever calamity or adversity you face.
These words should catch your attention. How can you be certain of what you do not see? What a contradiction in terms! Your mind seems to be overworking trying to disceCertain of what we do not see.rn a logical explanation. Well, there is no rational explanation for the mind, but there is clarity in the heart once you become still. You should repeat these words whenever you seem overwhelmed, I am certain of what I do not see. While others might consider you mad, rest assured it is only a malady of the heart from which once stricken you will not recover though you will rest in my love.
All for this morning.
July 28, 2008
Scripture: They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord – the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more. Jeremiah 31:12
Prayer: Perhaps, the thunder storms and all the rain that fell drew me to the words about a well-watered garden. Teach me to shout for joy.
Response: Yes, to shout for joy indicates a certain abandonment that you would do well to cultivate. Put yourself at the top of a summit after a long and sometimes treacherous climb. With all thought of the descent put aside, consider your joy and the full expression that you give to that joy.
Well, that is what I want you to bring into your life today – unbounded joy. Express that joy from the time that you stir and move about in your surroundings. See yourself as the farmer that greets the rain, the thunderous rain, as the end of a drought. Feel how the parched ground is now soft and like a cushion for your feet. This drought was of the spirit and I have showered you this day and every day with my grace.
And look about you and see what I provide. I did not say provided because I want you to remain present. In a spare moment make a list, even if in your mind, of the bounty of your life in spite of your ailments and anxieties. Determine how you can share this bounty with those around you, especially those whose gardens are not as well-watered. And learn how in sharing your bounty even if limited to a gesture, a note, or a call it seems that your bounty overflows. And it does because you reaching out across the boundaries of space and time invite the rains to come – the rains needed to cultivate your garden to abundance.
So the lesson today is on your need to embrace and proclaim my joy, to rejoice in the bounty that I prepare for you daily, and, finally, on the words you will sorrow no more. Sorrow no more! What a challenge! To let go of every worry that seeks to disturb this moment – like every moment – in my presence.
July 25, 2008
Scripture: “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Luke 18:41
Prayer: Lord, that is my prayer as well.
Response: And the question I have for you is, “Why?” Is it just to satisfy the mystery of life, or to foretell some future joy or calamity, or what? It is important for you to explore what prompts this prayer.
As you have read and heard throughout your life, your prayer is already answered. Now comes the difficult part for you – to believe that it is so. That before the last word left your lips, even before the sound of the words formed on your vocal chords, earlier yet – before the un-articulated sense of aloneness gripped you – I restored your sight.
And how is it restored, you ask? And I respond, by your question. Now that is something for you to reflect upon – your very question contains the answer to your prayer.
Oh, is it too early for you this morning to let go of your mind analysis and instead accept into the heart my words that are not meant to puzzle you, but to restore you to full and intimate relationship with me. I am the father who responds deliberately, swiftly, and comprehensively to the prayers of your heart. Read this last sentence again – in fact, read and reflect upon it regularly.
If you missed it – so well known is this verse – I ask what do you want me to do for you. I am inviting you to request an action from me, and an action that is reserved exclusively for you – to see. There is another hint about prayer I should point out to you. Even when you pray for others that you can name or a region of the world that you might not have visited, make it personal. Let me give you an example, “I pray that in this day I be reminded of the suffering of those in combat and I be allowed to link my prayers to theirs to ease their sufferings and those around them,” or “I pray for my close friend or family member; let me be recall the anxiety I feel or have felt in the past to become one with that soul; and in that union ease that suffering.”
Understand that you cannot “see” alone. You see in communion with others. Such prayers become a resounding chorus that is heard in the hearts of those for whom the prayer might not even been directed.
So today see how you now see.
July 23, 2008
Scripture: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Prayer: Thank you Lord for giving me the impulse to spend some quiet time in prayer.
Response: This morning I want to expand upon your understanding of prayer. As you might have once heard, prayer is not a monologue, but a holy and sanctified dialogue. Please don’t allow your mind to conjure up a scene of priestly robes and dimly lit candles and the breath of incense – though of course ritual has a special place in reverence. No, this morning I wish to expound gently on prayer as dialogue where you enter into a special relationship with me, putting aside all notions of how it is supposed to be.
I ask only that you open your heart to reveal yourself and your concerns, your joys; to confirm your understanding of the insights that I grace you with. Like a little child, in the process of prayer you expand the capacity of “pray” lungs. Not only do I witness this growth but much more importantly, you experience the change. If I can use another analogy, it is as if I have brought you to the edge of a beautiful canyon and nudged you over the side and now watch you fly – somewhat tentatively but flying none the less – no longer earth bound.
In prayer you fly and interact with the wind that is my grace. Sometimes you are terrified it seems when you get caught in a thermal that rushes you up above the cliffs or sees your flight plummet down close to the cliffs from which you entered this experience; and sometimes there is no wind and it takes all your strength to return to the safety of your nest. Understand I am just as present in no-wind and if you listen amidst the churning of your wings my voice will be quite distinct.
Now something about peace – as you become more adept in “flying” you find that it becomes natural. Your focus in the activity is second nature – as you would say – but I say is first nature, focused, deliberate, essential. I use the word essential to remind you that flying is not just about sight-seeing – however beautiful or terrifying the landscape; no, flying – and of course you see the relationship to prayer – is the most important activity for you to perform. As flying leads you to food and nourishment, so too does pray lead you to the nourishment of your soul whether the winds howl or are becalmed.
So the next time your life gets too busy for prayer, I ask you to recall the falcon – and that is what you are – that decides to forego a ride on a thermal for food and instead becomes food for a predator.
All for this morning.
July 20, 2008
Scripture: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. Isaiah 40:28
Prayer: Though these words seem to end discussion, I do ask why these words leapt into view this morning.
Response: Where would your language be without the word why? Forget for a moment about language, who would you be without your questions? The questions – and they are constant it seems – are your gauge as to how you are doing on the path. I am not suggesting that you are almost there if the questions cease. Rather I am asking you to examine the quality or the essential element of your question as a test for your acceptance. It is one thing to question and continue questioning the existence of injustice in the world, but another – though still important to the questioner – to probe as to why you are facing such turmoil in your own individual lives.
In this short verse you are told with certainty that I am the Creator of the universe – just ponder what that means. If it is too difficult, limit it to the globe upon which you live; if still too difficult, consider the environment in which you reside; if still too complex, drill down to your own immediate circle of activity. Do you see? It is beyond your comprehension, so why – there is that word again – continue to trouble yourself as it applies to what you touch daily, and instead, accept?
Now I welcome your questions about injustice because you know at your deepest level you can do something about it in service, generosity, and love for those afflicted. If there is any purpose in staying informed about what is happening in your local and world community it is to at least be in prayer communion with those that suffer – and then watch for results to confirm your commitment.
Rest assured I do not tire or weary as you experience, sometimes almost daily. I say that to encourage you to rely upon me, my strength, my energy of love for you and in you.
And I guess you will have to take it on faith – repeat that word — faith. You cannot fathom my understanding; though I encourage you and urge you to try. It will be in your effort to understand me that you will find understanding of yourself and it is within you that I reside.
All for this morning.
July 18, 2008
Scripture: Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart. Job 22:21-22
Prayer: So much is contained in these verses that I would and do resist. Help to remove the film from the eyes of my heart.
Response: Isn’t interesting to you that my instruction is only a reinforcement of what you already know from the message that I have planted securely in your heart. When in your life, think about the occasions that just leap from your memory, were you most at peace? If not now, reflect upon this question in the course of the day. You might find those occasions remind you when your relationship was most intimate and sharing, when family was most vibrant – even if chaotic, when you were performing tasks in your daily work of which you were most convinced of their value and the contribution you were able to make – and you might also discover that at such times our dialogue was most clear.
If you want a definition of peace what I have just described is your peace with me despite the chaos that might surround. Yes, and that peace exists even among the tears of forgiveness, the laughter of celebration, the humility of not knowing, the resignation in what the world calls victory as well as defeat. In fact, it is that peace of the active and not slumbering variety of which I speak.
But before I go on, let me say submission is not the submission of defeat, but rather the clear sense that you nourish with my grace that acknowledges my path. In submission you are not arrayed twelve across a road marching in surrender, but rather many more than twelve in union with me witnessing the light within.
And about prosperity, do not spend an inordinate amount of time trying to define in general what prosperity means or specifically what it would mean for you. Understand and accept that right this moment in my love you are prosperous with a wealth of spirit that cannot be taken away. No economic downturn can lessen your prosperity. You will even see a greater return on your investment of your submission and acknowledgement in such times of disorder.
Finally, I ask that you lay up my words in your heart. I ask this not that you can repeat the words from memory, but rather that you reflect, even ponder them and snatch from them my message to you which is one of eternal love.
All for this morning.
July 16, 2008
Scripture: The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33.14
Prayer: Help me to see your presence this day.
Response: It actually does not take much, if you pause and look around, listen to the sound of the birds awakening, or hear the waves chiseling their way relentlessly on the surf, or for a moment catch me in the gap between breaths.
I realize that my constant theme with you is for you to be still. It is a theme and a way of life and a path that I proscribe for you. When you are most still and alert you are most aware of my presence. That is the promise I make to you — note that I did not say made to you. Each moment in time I renew that promise – my presence will go with you.
What does that mean? It means literally that you embody my presence. Imagine if you will being responsible for transporting a treasure of inestimable worth, or better, realizing in the middle of a journey across a barren desert threatened by marauders that you discover along with you is this gem of great worth. Once you recovered from the shock and perhaps even fear of losing it, you would, I hope at this stage of your journey, decide what you would do to ensure that no one takes the treasure from you.
Well, that is where you are. My presence has always been with you, but in your ignorance, arrogance, or simply inattention, you did not realize or appreciate what you carried within. Whether you consider it a burden, whether you judge yourself unworthy, or whatever your reaction is, my presence is within you. You are accompanying me along this trek of life and I you. We are inseparable. Yes, we are inseparable.
Now consider what this means. It means that there is nothing that you will face this day, the decisions that you make, the decisions that you put off, the gentle words that you speak and the not so gentle words you think, are all within earshot of my presence.
Before you become weary just thinking of the pressure this awareness could create, consider the final words of this verse – I will give you rest. For today, I want you to note each moment of rest that you experience today whether it be a stop at a Starbucks, lingering at a stop light, glancing your eyes across the horizon, or whatever you see as what I mean providing you rest. You see I don’t want you to be overwhelmed “transporting” my presence on your journey of life.
All for this morning.
July 14, 2008
Scripture: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13
Prayer: These words are on inscribed on a cross hanging in my home. I pass the cross daily and hardly recalled the words when I searched them out this morning. Inscribe these words on my heart.
Response: First, accept that these words are given to you at all ages of your life – they are not just for someone graduating college or embarking on a career. So you see my plans to prosper you are plans for you this very day. Once you realize this in your heart, all the mystery of the future evaporates into the present.
And more importantly, you will call upon me calmly, deliberately, confidently, without any anxiousness.
And my plans can be likened to a stream running through the mountains. Envision if you can that it is your stream. Yes, you can attempt to thwart it, you can attempt to block it, and you can even exit the stream. However, if you remain poised you will ride it through spectacular scenery and though you will be jostled and are jostled, you will discover that my plans for you include that you become more adept – remember that word – as another turn appears before you or the white water you face seems less daunting.
And it is then that I hear you most clearly and respond to you deeply. Because it is then that you know me from your heart. And it is then that you will realize that I am alongside you, helping you to navigate down this stream, and it is in this descending you will find that you see and hear me most clearly.
So what do you have to do to realize my plans for you? Simply hold on and enjoy the ride of your life – not someone else’s.
All for this morning.
July 11, 2008
Scripture: If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:11-12
Prayer: I woke earlier than usual. The darkness has a special stillness. Help me in these verses to confound the darkness and confront your presence.
Response: I don’t recommend you making a habit of rising so early, though you can see – and I use this word deliberately – my presence in a most undiluted fashion. Yes, it is good to grip the truth of my presence even at times when you are habitually in repose.
What should it mean for you? Well, first you begin to see that I dictate – perhaps too harsh a word so early – the rhythm of the universe. That means that the center point is not your movement even when you are rolling over to catch another hour or so of sleep. You and as evidenced your actions are folded into the synergism of the universe. What do I mean? Bring into your consciousness the realization that you are one with me. I am the breath that you breathe, the source of your joy, the comforter in your sorrow. And I know you most intimately. I think you would agree that I know you even better than you know yourself. Rest assured – you are not a marionette that I created but a bursting soul energy that encompasses my love and is the capacity to be love fully.
At the deepest level – and we must talk of levels in your body-state – you know what I have just said to you. Yes, you know it and seek oftentimes to ignore it, claim ignorance as you might deliberately look away and posture your soul in a glance of innocence. I say this to you not to reproach you but rather to remind you of the progress and growth you are exhibiting else you would not demonstrate any flicker of recognition in my words. Your mission on this journey is to be fully conscious – a worthy goal and one for which I am supremely patient – where you no longer feign ignorance and embrace the truth with the eyes of your soul fully open in recognition.
Instead of seeking the darkness to hide or to be covert in your soul recognition, seek the darkness to see me clearly, to hear my words spoken softly, and to feel my presence that never diminishes.
All for this morning.
July 5, 2008
Scripture: Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Psalm 103:1
Prayer: Such a simple line. Help the “me” who calls out to my soul take in these words deeply.
Response: It is a truth that you should not overlook if you can that I provide you guidance with and in simplicity. What could be clearer then to ask you, some would say command you, to give praise, and to do it with regularity and spontaneity. Have you considered why this is so? Do you think that, in your meaning of the word, I need your praise? No, but let me offer you a secret that is not much of a secret because it is so obvious. You need to praise, just as you need to love, need to serve, need to think beyond the horizon of your own self-interest.
I ask your praise through this Psalm of David as my gift to you. In just a few words I give you a clue to your salvation, to my love, and I even ask you to confront the you that seems apart from your soul – and in doing so I show you the way to become one. Yes, I am asking you to see that the you who scrambles about almost distracted in your daily tasks is one and the same with the one who reflects and is your origin – your inmost being. This might be too early in the morning for you to ponder this, but at least you have something to return to at a later date. In praise I am asking you to bring the outer and inner most being as one in praise, service, love, and all other words you can conjure up to look beyond yourself from your inmost being to others and ultimately to me.
And clearly I am not limiting your praise to vocal choruses but search for the wordless groans for which there are no words to express. You see in the latter praise – and you must admit some praise is not especially joyous at the time – we meet in the gap of that groan, and I understand and respond in love.
Yes, this morning, you chose a simple line that opens a psalm and I offer you something to contemplate quietly without the aid of an outside discourse. As I have reminded you previously, the answer to your queries resides within.
All for this morning.
July 3, 2008
Scripture: We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you. Psalm 33:20-22
Prayer: It seems that as I get older I recall in the recesses of my mind your words I heard in chant or ceremony so many years ago. Give new meaning to these words this morning.
Response: Yes, in your youth trust and hope did not have the meaning that you are gaining insight now. When you were a youth trust and hope were words chiseled on a stone monument or letters in a faded text. Now they are written on your heart and pulse with the beating of your heart.
In the past trust and hope were concepts for you, now they are a living reality. Trust and hope are your life blood, or should I say soul blood. There is no more distinguishing test of where you are than the degree of your trust and hope.
When you were young you almost considered it a weakness to trust in anything or anyone that you could not control, so too hope seemed to be a desperate state of mind – though it really is all about heart – for one who had not come prepared. Now, the insight that I am giving you is that with the acknowledgement of your weakness, by your inability to control the events of your life, you are arriving at the bedrock of your being and that is trust and hope. Trust that I am with you and guiding you in love and grace, and hope that indeed my love is revealed in your salvation. Notice I did not say will be but rather is revealed in your salvation.
Please don’t overlook that I also say or remind you that your heart is to rejoice in your trust. Try to renew, refresh the capacity to rejoice in your life. It begins by sitting – being with all your attention in the present. Rejoice fully and in that rejoicing you will begin to see the essence of hope and trust. It might be good to remind you that hope and trust really do not have a future meaning. Both connote the present. Your request is granted in the moment you ask.
I have given you something to ponder and reflect upon this morning.
July 1, 2008
Scripture: Then Job replied: “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him, when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Psalm 23: 1 & 8-10
Prayer: After a week traveling in all directions in Arizona, I have a sense of Job’s search. Help me to discover you within.
Response: Yes, distance here is used in a figurative sense, as real distance allows you to catch the significance of search and desire. Imagine, if you can, or re-create in your mind the anticipation that you felt as you drifted around a corner along the Colorado River through Glen Canyon and the surprise that awaited you. Nothing predictable – in the rock formations, the vegetation, the bird life that flew over you. Though the raft ride was a symbolic search, you discover that the search is within encouraged by the path or journey you are on.
In a very real sense the raft ride symbolizes the life journey, where or when you do not press the elements of the water flow, but sit poised and alert to what I spread before you. Sometimes your eyes seem to be shut tight in fear, anxiety, even boredom and you miss what I surround you with in all the elements and companions I direct to accompany you.
Come to realize that in your search for me in all directions that I am in your midst. See your life as a ride on a raft that moves without pause, endlessly, as your journey home unfolds. Save your energy to take in fully your life experience and not on trying to divert to what will become a dry canyon. See in your glance the deep and vibrant colors I display for you if only you will give me your attention. See the sunrise and the sunset of your day as brief pauses within which you will journey the four directions almost unaware taken as you are with the panorama that I offer you.
For today, recreate a raft trip in your day, and then when you are proficient in allowing this trip to unfold, take it more deeply within and see what unfolds there.
All for this morning.
June 23, 2008
Scripture: “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34
Prayer: Help me to keep present and not drift off.
Response: Isn’t it amazing how complicated you make your life. Catch the rhythm; really catch it, of the day. The darkness cedes to the light and the light eases into darkness and the cycle is repeated. That is basic. To give a bit more detail, the night softens to a gray dawn and most days a brilliant sunrise awaits those who can get up on tiptoes that early, and from that the full light and activity occupies you until you slow down to accept the darkness and repose.
Where anxiety enters is when you weigh inordinate options for the day’s activities, splitting moments and activities in your mind, stirring a dialogue among seeming ghosts who clamor for your time and attention. At such times, or even in that agitated stream of activity, go back to the most simple description: the darkness ceding to the influence of the light and the light giving way to rest in darkness.
Take this flow or cycle into your normal day and see how it can influence you so that you are more in control and less reacting to those ghosts that flow in and out of your field of vision seeking to divert your serenity of spirit.
You will discover, if you haven’t already, that this rhythm once adopted provides you a calmness of the heart that promotes your attention on what is important for this moment and you will also discover that you listen with more attention to the murmurings of your heart. It is in your heart that you discover that passion that I nourish when you are still. Ah, at such moments – you will find that this attention span expands – you will hear me and feel my pulse through all your surroundings.
All for this morning.
June 21, 2008
Scripture: “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. John 21:3 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. John 21:6
Prayer: Speak to me of the deeper meaning of these two verses.
Response: Yes, these verses are not all about fishing. First, see that the manifestation of my love is prompted by action. Peter said, “I am going out fishing.” This was not a hobby but how they earned money to live. Action! And his followers, his friends, his colleagues, said that they would go with him. You can almost hear their sandaled feet on the beach dragging their boat into the water. At such times there was not much time to reflect. Though their inner spirit was calm at the moment of hauling the boat to the water’s edge, grabbing the oars, filling the boat with the net, they were performing actions which occupied their lives from dawn to dusk and into the night.
Then they row a hundred yards out and drop the net and wait, and wait and wait. They sense that if there is a catch it is not much. Some even wonder why they acted so on the spur of the moment to accompany Peter. Their fears are confirmed when they raise the net and observe nothing in the net.
And they hear the unsolicited advice of someone standing on the shore – far enough off that they are not sure who it is in the dark – but his words of authority and direction and their own frustration at not hauling in any fish causes them to comply. They are astounded at the catch that follows and recognize in that instant who is calling from the shore.
So in these two verses you are being exhorted, yes, exhorted to act, not precipitously but within the range of your experience, within the community you operate, and trust in faith, await with hope my manifestation in your lives. I am not saying that your experience and your environment will not expand. Who knows you might find yourself confidently fishing, so to speak, in deep water many, many yards from shore.
What does not change, or should not change, is your expectation; put another way, your hope. And that is what distinguishes you in my grace. Life is deciding to go fishing, hauling the dead weight of an oversized vessel to the water, rowing out sufficiently, dropping your nets, and waiting and hoping, and all this in the dark, and of course, awaiting further direction. Incidentally, the direction is always in communion with my love for you. If you hear direction that is not, then of course it is not from me and might even be the clamoring of an anxious mind. Note: I did not say heart.
So that is all for this morning. A very important fishing lesson for even those who think they live far from the sea.
June 19, 2008
Scripture: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Prayer: Help me to fathom your meaning.
Response: In its time is a key phrase in this verse. And patience is required of you to catch this profound truth that I share with you. Indeed, I have placed eternity in your hearts. You manage to grasp a hint of it when you pause in a moment of reflection and realize that time appears to stand still. Actually, you are at such instants in an eternal moment that has no beginning or end.
This morning as you walked before dawn with the sky just beginning to lighten in the east, you gazed into eternity as you observed a full yellow orange moon. Your rapture was wordless, focused and intent. This is the hint you catch from time to time and you don’t have to go out on a solitary beach to see it or to experience it. However, those moments served to calibrate your antenna, as it were, so that you can pick up indications of the eternity of which I speak in more routine environments.
Fathom is another word I want you to ponder. Plumb, fathom, are words to describe descent and most importantly to be aware of the descent. You are like deep sea divers in training. You begin in shallow water and are always accompanied by an instructor in my grace. As you acclimatize to the water temperature and the increasing depth you begin to see the beauty beyond description and without boundary that is yours. It is yours because it is within you for you to discover – again with my grace.
Set is another word to think about. I did not say that I set it in one particular sect but – and listen to these words – in the hearts of men. Seems inclusive doesn’t it – to include you all? Yet, I also observe that they cannot fathom. I could have said will not fathom.
So today consider the beauty that I make available and accessible to all of you. All you have to be – note I did not say do – is patient.
All for today.
June 18, 2008
Scripture: In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it. Isaiah 30:15
Prayer: I am listening this morning for your words.
Response: Repentance and salvation are linked, despite your wish to ignore a need for correction. I have been using of late the word awake in my lessons. Repentance is actually a very natural experience and it begins with becoming conscious. It is like what happens when you judge someone for an action even if you say nothing to that person or even anyone else but nurture the apparent grievance in your heart. And then you discover the circumstances, or the true intent of the individual, and you realize for the first time how incorrect were you in your judgment.
You follow a path, defend a practice, and then discover your true intent hidden in an external flurry of movement. As you repent, feel the deep sorrow for your actions or inaction. You are awake and conscious to your true intentions, and seek to correct – as in a course correction – your life or path direction. I would say that once you become conscious there is no way to avoid repentance. The opposite is true – if you do not feel repentance, you have still not awakened to your circumstances, to my love and salvation. Of course, you have the power to remain in slumber.
In quietness and trust is your strength. This should become for you another mantra when you are tempted to react to circumstances of your life without fully understanding what is happening. Think of the solid mountain standing amidst the fury of a storm. Quiet – not tense – allowing the storm to rage, always trusting that the winds, pelting rain, and lightning will all cease as the morning dawn in the first light of a sunrise. Apply this source of strength in your daily life when the uncertainty of a future encourages consciousness.
Until you wake, I will observe that the wisdom and grace I provide you will go unnoticed or ignored. With my grace, I assure you that your period of repose is coming to an end and you will grasp as if for the first time the aliveness in spirit that you have squandered up until now. And in this awareness you will repent deeply and sincerely.
All for this morning.
June 14, 2008
Scripture: Praise the Lord, O my soul – who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Psalm 103:5
Prayer: Good things and youth renewed – what is the promise at a deeper meaning?
Response: First, spend a moment on what constitutes your desires. I am not talking about material desires – though you will find fulfillment in the material as a very real confirmation that the path you are on is correct for you. You also discover that as you move in harmony with your soul’s desire and intention, your desires change. They become more ethereal, not weighted down with matter and control.
And that is what unfolds for you in the “good” things that you experience in each moment of your awareness.
And what do you think about your youth being renewed? There is a freshness in you that you might have almost forgotten. It is my promise to you that as you shed the illusions that have captured you in the world you will find that you become truly more youthful. And this youthfulness might not be distinguished by the speed with which you think you can cover a hundred meters, but it is distinguished in how you quickly see each moment as a treasure.
Also, you discover in your youth being renewed that you experience a treasure and peace that you searched for intensely and never found until you in a sense came home and discovered the peace within you, the you that doesn’t age.
And what is there about eagles that make this imagery so poignant? Think of the ground speed that age has diminished and see and experience the speed in the flight of an eagle that you take on coursing through and on the winds. What better image to convey renewed youth than that of an eagle. My only caution to you this day is do not think that I am giving you license to take up hang gliding. Soar in your spirit and you will find it so exhilarating. And finally please appreciate that you are not soaring in the dark but openly and at an altitude for all to see and to become encouraged to take wing also.
In the breeze catch renewed youth, renewed compassion, and renewed commitment to serve.
All for today.
June 12, 2008
Scripture: In your distress you called and I rescued you, I answered you out of a thundercloud; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Psalm 81:7
Prayer: Speak to me of thunderclouds.
Response: First let me speak of distress. Without distress you would not pause and gain or seek nourishment. You are like the long distance runner who is maintaining a pace and discards the notion that he needs nourishment, especially water, to continue. Keeping with this image, look around you as you move along the path and spot opportunities to refresh yourself. Remember, it is not the destination as much as the journey you are on. To avoid the nourishment and sustenance and you risk the destination.
So when you are almost overcome with fatigue, look around for the way station. It might be a book, some music, a friend, a landscape, or simply a time when nothing is to be scheduled. This becomes your time and space to be nourished as you know the journey awaits.
And I do rescue you even when you seem to be unconscious to my presence. Sometimes the rescue is not something you would have chosen, but you must agree when you are quiet that the event or experience or even calamity served my purpose.
You paused in your grief, in your loss, in your distress and you were comforted, sustained, and nourished.
You see distress does serve a purpose. It is like the alarm that announces that it is time to awake, to look about, to feel my presence that you will be surprised is always near.
How I answer you is in the surprises that await you. There would be less surprise if you were more conscious. You will discover that my surprises become a bit more subtle as your consciousness expands – like improving your ear to catch the nuances of symphony or better the flavor hidden in a special dish. So if you find that your taste in life is not much different than it was years ago, it means that you have to spend more time in silence.
And I do test you. Not for my purpose, but for you to see, to experience the a-hah moment of wonder and confirmation. Confirmation of what? That is what I want you to ponder this day.
All for this morning.
June 10, 2008
Scripture: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44
Prayer: Again with this verse, I have heard it quoted so many times. Please enlighten me to its deeper meaning.
Response: First, note that the verse does not say a treasure but treasure. Treasure encourages your imagination to expand beyond the limits of the mind. In fact, I ask you to conceive of treasure without space boundaries, without material value, and without the limitation of time.
You see, the treasure of which this verse describes is one of eternity, and, this is where you must suspend the insistence of your mind to give precise definition, because the treasure of which I speak is abundant beyond description and is within your grasp – it is within you.
If this is beyond your comprehension this moment, you have not spent sufficient time exploring the field in which you are wandering. And that field is surely the environment in which you live, those with whom you are in relationship and those farther afield – like those for whom you pray. The treasure is in the field on which you tread and my advice is to sell all that will tarnish and disintegrate through age and use, and purchase the field filled with treasure that is within you, I repeat.
Experience in a quiet moment the joy that awaits your discovery. See yourself walking across this field, filled with wonder you are. And notice that this field is available to you but at a price. So as you explored for treasure, now consider the price to be paid. Yes, the field can be purchased, though it will take your sacrifice to accomplish the sale. And the sale price is set as if on a billboard set at the edge of the field – For Sale – All You Have – All You Are!
But consider what a bargain this field – the kingdom of heaven – is and who would not offer all material possessions and pursuits to acquire this treasure? Are you sure?
All for this morning.
June 5, 2008
Scripture: Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love. Psalm 48:9
Prayer: Let me do so in my life.
Response: Consider today that the temple I refer to is your body that carries you through each day. There is no need, in fact I would have you not reserve your prayers for a building, but you know that already. The importance in considering your place of worship to be your body is that I urge you to pray constantly. I am not suggesting that you go around as a zombie uttering prayers. Rather I ask you to maintain steady and ready access to me throughout the day.
Think of how you breathe and perform functions automatically. Well, in the instance of prayer and meditation, incorporate your life in the spirit into your conscious activity and allow what you consider the important tasks of your life like meeting the challenges of the day to your in a sense unconscious life.
I am not looking to disrupt your life but rather fix within you a guidance system that handles what you have considered the most important elements of your life so that you can cherish, cultivate, and nourish the life of the spirit. What does this mean practically, you ask? It means developing routines to give your full attention to matters of the spirit. It might mean taking a period of time – you decide whether it is one minute, five, or longer when you are fully attentive to the spirit within you.
I am not suggesting that you have to be apart, or that you even must maintain a glazed look in your eyes. It is the consciousness that I am calling you to. Think of your alertness when you are in a darkened area and are trying to distinguish a sound. That is the sort of consciousness I am seeking for you to develop, to which to attune your sensibilities.
Now once with that consciousness, meditate, focus on the theme of this lesson, my unfailing love for you. Repeat the word unfailing because, as they say, much of the time the word is lost in translation, your translation. Unfailing love, I repeat to you as you should repeat whenever a doubt creeps in. Why unfailing, you ask? Do I have to justify my love? Surely, you respect my power, the power of my love, to provide this love in a morning shower that might resemble for you monsoon season in India.
For today and ever after, keep the words unfailing love at the very tip of your tongue. Whisper it, shout it if you must – but ensure that you are not on a city street and have people consider you mad. Though I must say, once you fully receive the significance of my meaning you will be considered mad by those who still churn about like robots in their daily activity.
Let me end with these words – Be conscious to my unfailing love. Awake
June 3, 2008
Scripture: How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 36:7
Prayer: Help me to confound the truth of your protection.
Response: First, it is important for you to accept that the protection offered to you is that of a winged raptor, and not a pigeon nesting. See in this image fledglings trying out flight for the first time. I want you to catch the boldness in this image and not consider yourself cowering in fear.
Next, I want you to sense the exhilaration of flight — flight – allowing the wind to thrust you on a thermal and yet learning to control with your wings and the shift of your body flight above the clouds of your doubt.
In the shadow of my wings is intended to remind you that I am above you shielding you from all danger. That is not to say that you will not know danger, especially the danger of discouragement, or worse listlessness, sloth.
By refuge, you are to realize that if you wander off too far, scurry back quickly when you sense danger. You see, in flight you are also encouraged to use your senses to anticipate, foretell danger and to make wise decisions, namely to return to the shadow of my wings.
The shadow describes a peacefulness, knowing that all is well in my love.
So today consider the breadth of my love and protection and what awaits you if you climb in flight sufficiently.
June 1, 2008
Scripture: He said to them: “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Mathew 13:52
Prayer: Tell me about the storehouse and the new and old treasures.
Response: There is more to this verse than you see on first or second reading. You are instructed about the kingdom of heaven, though there are times when you might conclude that you were dozing at the time of instruction. And you are the owner of your house, that is, the temple – your body that allows you to navigate through these life experiences and lessons.
Recall a time that you had reason to investigate what was stored in a closet that was so full you avoided even opening the door. Well, imagine what you might have access to with all the gems of wisdom you have gained either as a gift from someone or from your own diligence. And even if you can’t come up with an example, consider how you can access what resides untouched in that storeroom –if only you would open the door and investigate.
The treasures are much more than things to grasp or to hold. The treasures are living and spring to life – it seems – as soon as you glance upon them. In fact, you will find that once you acknowledge the truth contained in a treasure, the treasure is not external to you. You are in union. It might come as a surprise but you are in union, and yet with so many treasures you seem to roam aimlessly around and through the corridors of your heart because you are distracted by what is truly transitory and external to you.
The treasures within your storehouse are all, I repeat all, you require for your journey, the journey you are on right now though this might have even escaped you. New and old denotes a timelessness that I wish you to grasp. Old and new, new and old represent a cycle of nourishment and renewal. See this storehouse as the endless resource I provide you to meet every challenge you encounter. There is nothing awaiting you today for which I did not prepare you. Imagine me as the person you approach in planning your trip into an unknown land. I am the master logistician. You have access to all you need to endure successfully and even flourish on the path. And what’s more, through my grace I remind you of my presence and availability to sustain you.
And see me also this morning as the co-owner of the house who is ever eager to reveal to you treasures new and old that you have overlooked, and in the revelation you come to know the treasure as your own.
All for this morning.
May 30, 2008
Scripture: O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
Prayer: Cultivate in me that thirst that prods me to continue to search beyond a dry and weary land.
Response: One might think that I should be cultivating your taste for a fine wine, but then again I might be. You see by inspiring you, I am instilling in you a discrimination of sorts to recognize me and not to resign yourself to a dry and weary land.
Picture yourself about to give up but you recall the sound of a mountain stream, gurgling over rocks as it makes its way to the sea from the highest altitude. You can even recall the cooling and quenching taste of that experience. It is with that recollection that you stand up and continue through the dry and weary land. That recollection is my grace that urges you onward along the path.
Spend some time recalling in your life instances when you experienced the surprise of coming upon that mountain stream and the refreshment it offered even if you have never visited a mountain clime. The stream might be a chance encounter with a friend or a stranger, a visit to a bookstore and discovering a treasure just before you, hearing a musical score for the first time that enraptures you, smelling a flavor from a kitchen that recalls for you a celebration, hearing laughter from an unseen corner and recalling your own laughter.
Your thirst and longing are evidence for you that I surely touched you, that I beckoned and beckon you, and that I encourage you with all the signs that surround you and intersect in your life daily. My presence found in those signs is there to accompany you, to sustain you, to encourage you in whatever and whenever you find yourself in a dry and weary land of your life. You will discover that your stays in such weariness become brief as you move further on the path of your life.
All for this morning.
May 28, 2008
Scripture: Every gift and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17
Prayer: Give me a deeper understanding of your constancy.
Response: That image is well chosen because it describes to you not only my constancy but also that I am right over you. And I remain with you and within you. There are no shifting shadows with which to contend or anticipate. Said another way, there is no interference in my signal to you though your life can create the static or noise that prevents you from hearing me directly. Indeed, it is your choice to turn your attention elsewhere but I see a most constant and consistent return to the station I have set within you.
Shifting shadows also connotes unchanging. By this I do not mean or wish you to think that there is no growth allowed you or that my message is pre-canned. If you can put aside linear thinking, put aside time and space dimension which you experience, and consider that what appears to you unchanging – those heavenly lights without shifting shadows – is actually a portal to eternity that you experience now.
Think of the exhilaration of sweeping down a mountain glacier with no thought of falling or sweeping over the side of the mountain. In that experience you would no longer be concerned with every blade of ice before you but rather you would see for the first time, you would have the capacity to take in the whole scene, without boundaries forced upon you by speed, space, and time boundaries.
So I encourage you to see that you are covered in a sense, in a real sense with my grace that is an unshifting light that seeks to lead you to the exhilaration of my love. And the paradox, there are so many used to confound your mind so you will be still, is that you speed down the glacier in my love when you are still, quiet, reflective, and in an ease of heart.
You would have probably chosen to have me be clearer – or perhaps not so clear – in my imagery and parables and stories and your life experiences, but then you would not have been able to acknowledge growth and even enlightenment in my love in the heavenly light that shines without any shifting shadows.
All for this morning.
May 26, 2008
Scripture: But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
Prayer: I cannot recall ever reading a fire shut up in my bones. Help me to understand more deeply your meaning.
Response: First be prepared to have a phrase or word in scripture strike you especially one morning, though you might have come across the words previously. A fire shut up in your bones seeks to give expression to the divine spark that is within you, though there are times when you would seek to deny or ignore the significance of this revelation.
The essential message contained in this phrase is not really a mystery unveiled. When you are quiet, I mean soul-quiet, you realize quiet clearly what I am saying. Your only difficulty is attaining that soul-quiet state when you cast aside all thought of "what would others think" if I make bold to penetrate this truth on my own.
And notice I say that my words are shut up in your bones. Think or reflect on that image – fire shut up in bone matter. What a contradiction or rather paradox. The fire you would think would consume the bones, but no, it allows, yes that is the word allows its flame to be contained in the bone matter.
It is for you to release that flame, that light, that love in your material surroundings. And here the paradox or contradiction continues, because once you release the flame you will contribute to the consummation of the material in my love.
You did not think this morning that just a phrase would lead to the conflagration of which I speak. But yes, it does and this conflagration sears away the fear and anger and hatred that up until now consumes so much of your environment.
So this morning I ask you first, to be still and feel that flame within your bones, recognize it, honor it; next, in prayer, reflection, and action release the flame into your environment. In doing do, you will discover that others will be encouraged to do likewise and what started as individual fires will spread for all to see even in the night.
All for this morning.
May 23, 2008
Scripture: When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed about the teaching of the Lord. Acts 13:12
Prayer: A snapshot scene. Lead me to a greater wisdom.
Response: Critical for this verse is the word “saw.” And that is what I encourage you to do – to look around you – at events in your life each day. Seek to develop a discriminating sight that catches the uniqueness of life and the manifestations of my love. Don’t tread along assuming that nothing relates to you.
Consider this proconsul – and you are surrounded by proconsuls. If the truth be known, you are a proconsul. Another word could be special. You are special, though you are much more willing or inclined to observe someone else’s favor. So at least for this day see yourself as special.
Next, catch the light that flickers within you and takes the form of recognition of my presence. The proconsul looked closely at what others would dismiss as madness. With courage he accepted first to himself and then aloud the occurrences that what he witnessed was out of the ordinary and he believed.
Those out-of-the-ordinary events did not cease two thousand years ago or earlier. They ring your every day experiences. All it takes for you to see and not assume. You will find when you dismiss assumptions your life will be filled with surprise – even if some believe that there has been sufficient surprise in their lives in the form of unexpected consequences.
You are the proconsul and are asked to widen your glance, increase your peripheral vision, and in this example direct your light beyond the individual concerns you might be inclined to indulge yourself. Then, seeing almost with new eyes, confirm, believe, and serve. Again, quite simple, requiring first and foremost keen sight to observe what is occurring on your path.
So for today, no assumptions, please. See as if your sight was restored and it is.
May 21, 2008
Scripture: For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. Acts 9:9
Prayer: This verse is also familiar, almost too familiar, to discover a deeper meaning.
Response: The essential meaning is that Saul was required by his temporary incapacitation to be still. And note he did not know it was only to be for three days. I say only because in retrospect you can dismiss the challenge that he faced.
If you are able, take every moment, even when you are thrashing about, to be still and listening. The dramatic circumstances of Saul’s blinding and his anger, perhaps it was fear, that brought him on the road to Damascus, gave him much to consider. More importantly, his anger and fear had to subside and only he could regain control of who he was with what turned out to be, in retrospect, a temporary blindness.
It is good to contemplate such circumstances in your own life though I am not suggesting that you stage such an event. Right not you can be “blind” to what troubles or distracts you – right now in this moment. And you can also exhibit a patience of soul by not jumping up to make a pot of coffee. Simply stay in the silence of the predawn and listen with a fullness that does not allow distractions to intrude.
You can see from the perspective of history what these three days meant to Saul, soon to be baptized Paul. Now, put history aside, and embrace the stillness that I offer with no thought of what you will accomplish or even if there is a next moment. Discover in blindness and stillness your identity and allow that identify to unfold in your purpose. So simple.
I ask you today not to dwell in the historical perspective of this verse, that is, who was it, what did he do later, what are the results today, but rather who are you, what are you doing today?
All for this morning.
May 19, 2008
Scripture: Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns. Jeremiah 4:3
Prayer: Is it my planting this spring that draws me to this verse? Provide me a deeper insight.
Response: Here I am encouraging you to discover what is unfolding and to be satisfied, declining to churn over in your mind what is of the past. Look at your life this day as an open field that needs turning, breaking up: it needs your touch. Wisely, you have identified what brings pain, even the memory of pain. I am offering you this and every day a new start.
Clearly, I am not suggesting that there is no work, effort in the project of today. The words break up suggests that you experience the hard labor and even strain. I will bring you relief. And once you start there is no stopping. Your field that has been up until now unturned, is to be ploughed. Catch the excitement and the discovery that awaits you.
And yes there is a time dimension. You are invited to plough the field and plant before the rains come. The rains also represent all the distractions that seek to encourage you to delay or avoid the challenge. I want you to greet the rains – even if they appear to be setbacks. Focus again on the surprise, the bounty that awaits you.
And about the thorns, you can understand that working among them will only remind you of the pain you suffered in the past and in doing so you lose your perspective of the present. The thorns also represent not only pain, but delay as you become engulfed among them.
Notice that in this verse I do not talk about the harvest. That will come. For the moment I want your total attention on the task at hand that begins in silence as your eyes scan over the unplowed ground, the dark earth, with all its treasures ready to be released.
All for this morning.
May 17, 2008
Scripture: “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’” Isaiah 65:1
Prayer: So much for me thinking at times that I found you!
Response: My love is discovered when you realize that it is spontaneous and without any merit on your part. You have many examples that point to this love around you. Remember I said point. It is for you to be reminded of the depth of my love when you see such signs in the love that a parent has for its child though the child has done nothing to merit it, in fact, often times quiet the contrary is true.
Do not dwell, however, on the merit aspect of this connection to me, rather see in surprise my presence in your life precisely when you do not expect it, or more accurately you are so distracted by one crisis or another that you are not focused or still sufficiently to see me until it seems I trip you into quiet and you say “aha!”
This verse speaks to you today of my determination to find you in your circumstances. It doesn’t matter where you are, how burdened or successful in the world’s eyes you are, I will reveal myself to you so that you have difficulty turning away without recognizing my presence in your life. You don’t even have to admit it to anyone else, simply know it in the depth of your heart.
Think of a treasure hunt with no idea of what the treasure will be and discovering all the while that you carried the treasure in your heart. It’s like biting into a sandwich and discovering a note from your beloved.—that’s me – who prepared the sandwich.
Feel the relief that you don’t have to pore over documents in a library, or search across continents, or engage wise men in conversation – all you have to do is see how I reveal myself to you especially even though you had not previously called to me.
All for this morning.
May 15, 2008
Scripture: “For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:20
Prayer: Help me to accept what I have seen and heard.
Response: How often do you attribute my hand in your life as mere coincidence? It is almost as if you fear that you will trick yourself into belief if you were to see the intimate connection we share daily. What I propose to you is to accept a three-step process.
First be awake to what is happening in your life – everything from health issues, to financial strains or surplus, to relationships and to those who happen upon your scene, to the weather, to everything that living in this world entails – all the experiences. But do this from the vantage point of the present, not burdened by what you can recall from yesterday or even years past.
Next, be alert, some would say be awake, to those instances or incidents that catch your heightened awareness or attention because you say to yourself – isn’t that interesting, or what a coincidence. And a coincidence is not always something you might consider positive. Realize in this exercise there is no positive or negative.
The third step is to leap across your doubt and cynicism and see my hand, or better my presence. No, there is not a set script for each of you, sogive up assuming that I will mouth the words for the play in which you perceive you are performing. No, it your actions that determine the outcome of this production, or better it is you who are progressing along the path – to use another analogy, though I will whisper a word if you are stuck or provide drink to slack your thirst along the way.
What I am asking you to do is to figuratively kneel in my garden and look down at the rich earth, quietly, and in silence. Focus easily and see all that is happening just before your eyes. See the blood worms aerating the soil, the first seeds germinating, the moisture in droplets that seems to have a life of their own, smell the breeze filled with the odor of spring, sense the movement of the birds eager to discover what awaits them in the ground. And see yourself in the midst of this scene as you are in the midst of my creation.
Now when you have knelt long enough observing, not disturbing, see my connection to you in all, I repeat all aspects of your life, and give thanks, not because I need praise, but to allow yourself to witness my love for you all especially and specially – each day. Then, what can keep you from speaking all you have seen and heard?
All for this morning.
May 13, 2008
Scripture: All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone who had need. Acts 2:44-45
Prayer: Lord, I read these words and can’t help but think of economic and political systems that are defunct. Help me to focus on the words: they gave to anyone who had need.
Response: There you have it. Contained in those words is your call to service. And don’t limit your call to food and shelter. Include, notice I did not say that this is an either/or call, food for the spirit.
Give a wider interpretation to selling their possessions and goods. You are asked to share not only your food to those who hunger in the body, but to share your message with those who hunger in the spirit which I am sure you realize is as ravaging, even more so because that feeling of despair ravages the spirit more than the lack of food and sustenance.
So these words are not meant to make you feel guilty that you are not living in a commune. Rather I am calling you to display in action a generosity of spirit in service. Service to whom? Service to the person who comes, maybe even stumbles, across your path, who might be quite well dressed and fed, but hungers for the word you might be able to provide; service in prayer for those in agony and sorrow scattered across the globe who have experienced deep loss; those in your midst whom you recognize by sight but not by the circumstances of their life. Be like the antenna with your alertness to catch – that is to listen to – the subtle signals, the faint signals of someone who has lost the power, if ever it was displayed, to shout a spirit need.
Selling your possessions, if you have missed it, refers much more than material goods. Selling your possessions means moving out behind the costume you wear to minister to those in need. It means revealing who you are and becoming without any regard as to what “people” say. Do I have to remind you that in appearing to the world as powerless you assume a mantle of power that you might never have envisioned.
Service is not forcing yourself on another in need. Most of all it is listening and discerning – a word that captures that pause and conclusion – where the need is and how to provide or contribute to satisfying that need generously. You would not have to go far to find examples of what I am referring with only a brief scan of your news that reports on real and perceived needs daily.
So approach the unfolding day in a listening mode tied to a commitment to serve in whatever capacity needed. Notice, I did not say in whatever capacity you have time for. Ponder this line, but do so free of guilt. Look at the opportunities in both prayer and action which you can contribute. Finally, do not consider your family and those in your immediate community not worthy of your careful attention.
Doing so and being so, you will find that you too live holding everything in common.
May 10. 2008
Scripture: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28
Prayer: Dreams, visions, what’s the difference? As with so much of what I read, the words are easy to understand, but the meaning sometimes escapes me.
Response: Don’t try so hard to distinguish in your mind vision from dream. As you accept your age and what you have gathered along this journey you have been on, see in your heart that dreams represent a certain stillness where you are witness to all that is unfolding. And it is with dreams that you are peaceful, even defenseless, accepting, and vulnerable. Yet in this state you are stronger than you realize in your vulnerability.
For those that are young, visions are the action scenes presented and form almost as plans of action to bring about change. In visioning you take an active part in creating a future. In dreams you accept what is unfolding in an active manner, if that can make sense to you. There is nothing passive about dreams, but rather it is your active acceptance and surrender to my plans for you that fulfill your mission in life to serve.
Both visions and dreams have a harmony that bring to the fore what in visions you are to do and in dreams what you are to be.
In dreams you reach a place in your heart where you acknowledge my presence. In dreams, now listen carefully, you awake. That is another paradox within which meaning is buried or hidden from those who cannot yet sit still in my grace.
So let me say again, in dreams you awake. And please don’t miss it is in the pouring out of the Spirit on all of you that you both have visions and dream.
All for this morning.
May 9, 2008
Scripture: To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophesy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:8-9
Prayer: Here is another example of words with which I am familiar, yet I know that the essential meaning I sometimes take for granted. Help me to grasp the deeper meaning.
Response: Surely, you catch that these two verses outline a range of influences that the Spirit has on you all as you work your way on the path. And please do not attempt to limit the Spirit’s influence by categorizing each of the gifts mentioned and believe that those gifts are representative of the whole. Think of the Spirit’s influence as evidence that the Spirit each day it prods you to pray, to praise, to awaken, and even provides at times the holy groans that read your heart when you are simply unable to articulate the prayer so deeply felt.
Also, do you best not to look around and say that one has this gift and the other that. The verses are to indicate to you the influence the Spirit has in your life as if a flavor added to what you might consider in yourself a bland liquid or one that needs to be invigorated. If you must, the Spirit adds flavor and carbonation to you when you are flat and stale.
However, I do want you to consider the range of gifts that are shed on you in various degrees as the Spirit determines. Again, don’t try, if you can, figure out why he or she and not me, or why me and not he or she. It is a fruitless exercise, especially since you are attempting in that effort to comprehend with your limited mind – and no insult here – a mystery. You would do better to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving in your heart for whatever gift or gifts you receive, and as I said above don’t limit it to the gifts mentioned above.
They are not, repeat not, all conclusive. For example, a mighty gift not specifically mentioned above is the gift of selfless service.
Take these gifts of evidence of the Spirit’s presence and interaction in your life. Don’t worry about anyone else. If you can recognize a gift within you – and you each should be able to do so – put aside false modesty – take as witness that you as well as others have been singled out. Do not consider these gifts as exclusive, that is, meant for few. Few or many, if you are focusing on your own gifts, that is more than sufficient to own the gift and to use the gift in appreciation for the grace showered on you.
Finally, these gifts serve to awaken you from your slumber. It is as if the Spirit is moving about you and slapping you awake with the gift that serves as the Spirit’s rod.
May 8, 2008
Scripture: To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophesy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” 1 Corinthians 12:8-9
Prayer: Here is another example of words with which I am familiar, yet I know that the essential meaning I sometimes take for granted. Help me to grasp the deeper meaning.
Response: Surely, you catch that these two verses outline a range of influences that the Spirit has on you all as you work your way on the path. And please do not attempt to limit the Spirit’s influence by categorizing each of the gifts mentioned and believe that those gifts are representative of the whole. Think of the Spirit’s influence as evidence that the Spirit each day it prods you to pray, to praise, to awaken, and even provides at times the holy groans that read your heart when you are simply unable to articulate the prayer so deeply felt.
Also, do you best not to look around and say that one has this gift and the other that. The verses are to indicate to you the influence the Spirit has in your life as if a flavor added to what you might consider in yourself a bland liquid or one that needs to be invigorated. If you must, the Spirit adds flavor and carbonation to you when you are flat and stale.
However, I do want you to consider the range of gifts that are shed on you in various degrees as the Spirit determines. Again, don’t try, if you can, figure out why he or she and not me, or why me and not he or she. It is a fruitless exercise, especially since you are attempting in that effort to comprehend with your limited mind – and no insult here – a mystery. You would do better to cultivate a spirit of thanksgiving in your heart for whatever gift or gifts you receive, and as I said above don’t limit it to the gifts mentioned above. They are not, repeat not, all conclusive. For example, a mighty gift not specifically mentioned above is the gift of selfless service.
Take these gifts of evidence of the Spirit’s presence and interaction in your life. Don’t worry about anyone else. If you can recognize a gift within you – and you each should be able to do so – put aside false modesty – take as witness that you as well as others have been singled out. Do not consider these gifts as exclusive, that is, meant for few. Few or many, if you are focusing on your own gifts, that is more than sufficient to own the gift and to use the gift in appreciation for the grace showered on you.
Finally, these gifts serve to awaken you from your slumber. It is as if the Spirit is moving about you and slapping you awake with the gift that serves as the Spirit’s rod.
May 6, 2008
Scripture: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18
Prayer:
Lord, in this verse please shed your light of understanding on the words glory that will be revealed in us.
Response: Almost unnoticed is the glory that will not so much be revealed to you as in you. You spend so much time looking for the light outside, and you now have discovered I mean to reveal to you the light within.
When you accept this truth for the first time beyond just nodding at the words you will experience an a- hah enlightenment that surprises you, if not more intense, at its simplicity and profundity and promise – all at the same time.
Realizing deeply the truth of these words reverberates throughout your whole being once you get it. With this truth there is nothing to threaten your peace – no, not illness, setbacks, even the approach of death.
How is this glory once revealed to you seen by those around you? I smile to tell you that the light cannot be contained in you once revealed. So you will find, or better, others will see something different and yet something recognizable in the spray of the light crossing their shadow. And so the glory revealed in you prompts others to see the light within each of them in consciousness – there’s that word again.
The glory that is revealed in you can be compared to the balance you feel standing with legs apart or sitting at a desk with your feet firmly planted beneath you. This glory is manifested as a pause – an eternal one – that needs no further declaration or explanation.
So today reach inward for the glory that is becoming manifest and allow the light to be visible in your life today
May 2, 2008
Scripture:Show us your unfailing love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. Psalm 85:7
Prayer: How many times have I heard the words and repeated as a refrain grant us your salvation. Help me this morning catch the essence in a new light.
Response: There are many thoughts and images and words imprinted in your youth that are there for you and to nourish you in your age. This verse is one. What day should not begin with this first praise? Think of a time when you can open your eyes after sleep, perhaps it is still dark, or at least only the gray of the false dawn is showing and you open your conscious moment with Show me your unfailing love, O Lord, this day. You need go no further in morning prayer.
Those words of the psalmist are meant for you this very morning and every morning. It becomes your declaration of truth and of my steadfastness in your life. It becomes your call to consciousness after a night of slumber. Those words can serve to be your alarm clock reminding you that it is past time to declare your intention to see what I place before you each and every day.
Grant me your salvation is not, I repeat not tied to the first clause. I show you my unfailing love each moment and it is not tied to your salvation. The and connecting the two clauses is most important. In the past it served to unite you to the person leading the service. Now it is meant for your conscious relationship.
And a word about salvation – salvation is you becoming conscious to my love and in doing or becoming so your every action, thought, dream, relationship reflects and is consistent with that love. So you see, salvation is a manifestation of who you are and becoming. It is your declaration and confidence in the salvation I have declared.
So open the day with that eager curiosity and expectation Show me your unfailing love and you will discover salvation in your midst.
All for this morning.
April 30, 2008
Scripture:
For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. Isaiah 66:4
Prayer:
Bring me to a place where I do not ignore your call – where I listen to you.
Response:
Call and speak have two different connotations. Both require you to be conscious and not to make as if you are only hearing the wind or a door closing, or the ambient noise living in a city. Call holds a certain urgency, and it is in a call that I urge you into action to serve.
And you can just imagine the diversity of service I call you to. Call is actually doing something about what I instruct you in the many lessons and events of your life. The common reaction – and you all receive my call – is to plug on even harder, unconscious, to your daily routine. Routines are established so you can go about unconscious to the activity performed. Think of your breathing. Another reason I urge you to take and a deep breath and to be conscious of it, though I am not encouraging you to go about life simply being conscious of each breath. In my call, I am attempting to roust you from your slumber. I am seeking to see you awakened, yes, even enlightened through my grace.
So listen to my call. I do not get hoarse. But I do urge you not to become accustomed to the call to the point that you ignore the call to service. Even on the top of a mountain the wind ceases. Don’t wait for a time when you can no longer distinguish between the howling wind and utter calm. Then you have truly fallen further into sleep.
In speaking, I am instructing you, filling your heart with my word and love. Your listening improves vastly when you respond to my call. You will find that then you can sit in stillness and you are able to hear me both in the howling of the wind – that may be turmoil surrounding you – as well as, equally, in the quiet time of meditation where thoughts of your routine do not interfere and you are totally focused on what I am saying to you. My teaching surely incorporates service but also and most importantly leads you to a consciousness that you never imagined possible and for which I destined you.
So you see that calling and speaking to you is all for the purpose of waking you from your slumber. No longer will you find yourself repeating the words of others, but will discover the source of your own wisdom with which I have enriched each of you.
All for this morning.
April 27, 2008
Scripture: For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 62:11
Prayer: There must be a message here since I was planting just after dawn.
Response: As you are quick to observe, there are no coincidences. Consider the knees of your jeans still wet and muddy, allowing you to retain the gardening image that I present to you this morning. All your work still await the sprouting up that you can do nothing but await after your toil. And it is a continuing toil. In this simple scene whether it be of a farmer who depends upon his livelihood for the seeds to sprout up or you gardeners who bring color around and into your home, there is a faith you demonstrate in the process and it goes further than hoping for rain.
The lesson here is to consider the preparation you make, the determination to keep to the process, your belief that indeed the blossoms will burst forth in time – and all this given witness to the mystery of life. So simple. You need no scholarly treatises to describe the process. It stands out for you each day and not only in the earth you till and plant, but in your every day activity.
Consider each day as a day in my garden. Don’t be surprised, you shouldn’t be, of the hardwork and faith I require. Here’s a challenge for you —don’t even expect that you will be present for the harvest, that is, to see the blossoms. As you cultivate your faith with my grace your knowing of the fruits that await is as real for you as wandering in a garden at the time of its richness – so great is your faith, and I should add your optimism that is reflected in your every action.
Much is written about righteousness and praise. Another word for both is love. As you grow in consciousness and love so natural to you will become full righteousness and praise. And that is the miracle that awaits you in the garden of your heart.
All for this morning.
April 23, 2008
Scripture: "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John 7:38
Prayer: Help me to see the living water in my life.
Response: This living water of which I speak flows from me and washes over you as if you were a child sitting at the edge of the surf. As a child you will feel the splash and might even close your eyes so much is the glare of the sun and water taken together. What you sometimes, or most times do not comprehend, is that you take these living waters of grace with you and in your day to day actions with others and even alone in prayer. Allow the flow to come out of you.
No worry, you see, the source of the water and grace are limitless. In fact like inhaling and exhaling, you will find that the more generously you share the living waters your capacity, if it were air – lung capacity – expands.
Living waters, my grace riding the Holy Spirit, can not be contained no matter how hard and constricted one might be. So be forewarned, once you drink in the living waters you are changed. There is no turning back, returning to who you were. You are changed and forever, for an eternity.
Sometimes it is difficult for you to realize this truth fully. Every change you experience in the external world is not forever. The most elaborate renovation will need renovation and repair in time. But I am saying to you that reception of the living water changes you forever and only your capacity to drink more of this stream of my love increases in my grace.
So sit by the shore some day and catch the meaning of the images that I have brought to you this morning.
April 21, 2008
Scripture: Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped, then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute's tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. Isaiah 35:5-6
Prayer: Help me to comprehend more deeply the joy of which you speak.
Response: It is difficult sometimes for you to let go into the joy described because even at an early hour you are planning your day and considering the duties that need to be performed. For a moment, however, put your self in each of the images presented and sense the joy. In doing so, you bring the joy to the surface because it resides within you.
The eyes of the blind – don't look beyond yourself for an image of a blind person. Distraction is your blindness as if you are determining what to avoid in a darkened room such is your dream state. Turn on the lights of your heart and feel the joy of one whose sight is restored, awakened.
The ears of the deaf unstopped - Hear me as I speak to you. There are times my words are shouted to gain your attention. You know the times, especially when an event in your life stops you still sometimes in wonder, sometimes in grief.
The lame leap like a deer – On your solitary walks reach out and feel the energy coursing in your body, a body fashioned to serve. In acknowledging this surge you discard ponderous thinking and look forward to the next hill.
The mute's tongue shouts for joy — And here you see praise. Yes, joy is praise. And it is for you to reflect upon the essential elements of your joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert - This is an appropriate image given your walk on the beach just after a thunderous rainstorm. Sense the growth and cleansing that is taking place around you and within. Hear the morning birds that shuddered in their nests but now are joyous.
All the signs are there for you to see and take in, the same that Isaiah sings of. That is a connection for you that transports you all to a realm free of space and time constraints. And don't miss, please, the foreshadowing of the Christ in these lines – and this foreshadowing is not limited to two thousand years ago but is evident for you today if you will be the blind, deaf, lame, mute that feels the waters rush over.
All for today.
April 18, 2008
Scripture: "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." John 6:63
Prayer: I could nod in agreement but then I ask why the body is so important to me – its health, appearance, even weight?
Response: I want you to approach each verse of scripture as well as other wisdom literature or words spoken with that same questioning and discrimination.
Clearly, you all understand that without caring for your body you are not able or perhaps indisposed to hear me, and equally important you are unable to add muscle, yes muscle to my service that needs torch bearers to dispel the darkness. So don't be tempted to remain reclining, listening without action to my pleas for service.
Once you understand what I am saying you should then be able to see that it is the spirit what wafts through your limbs to see the change that I urge you all to make in consciousness.
Jesus spoke with a clarity that is lost when someone takes my word and clothes it in the ego's call for respect and acknowledgement. When you serve selflessly, without concern for how the words or you look, you speak of and through the Spirit – and it is on those occasions that the darkness is dispelled.
So put into the proper perspective concerns of the flesh when they come against the inspiration of the Spirit. And equally don't denigrate the body as it performs under your direction my work.
Now having discussed the body and the spirit, ponder who you are.
All for today.
April 15, 2008
Scripture: But he said to them, "It is I, do not be afraid." Then they were willing to take him into the boat; and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading. John 6:20-21
Prayer: Help me to be willing.
Response: Yes, that is a key phrase – to be willing. Please take those words and the scene that is described in those few words to heart. First, I assure you in life not to be afraid even when you have not prayed to me directly nor have asked for my assistance – as the apostles in the storm tossed boat failed to do. In distress instead of seeking an immediate fix, time spent even a moment in stillness will serve you and you might even hear my assurance as I assured these frightened hearty fishermen.
You can always reject my assistance and continue to rush about fruitlessly in life. It is your call as you might say. However, if you are willing and assist me into your boat, or put another way, open the door because you see I am knocking, then I will come aboard or enter your room whatever analogy suits you.
Now, I am just not a hungry guest – though I am hungry for your love – I come to support you in your particular situation. As you read in this verse, the results are immediate — the boat reached the shore where they were heading. The verse does not say that the boat was righted and headed toward the shore where they were heading. No, the boat reached the shore. Take this in deeply. Reached is a powerful word. No need to report in the next chapter the journey because you know the result of bringing me aboard – you reach your destination.
Now a word about destination. You might not find it was the destination you intended. However, it is the destination you were heading despite all the distractions and detours that you explored. At the deepest level you know where you are heading. All of you must answer in the quiet of your soul. It doesn't matter where you appear to be going, even if you contribute to that impression by your life. Bring me aboard because I tell you who I am and calm you not to be afraid to discover your true heading and you will discover before long that you have weathered the storm and reached the shore safely.
Read these words of scripture once again and take in their full meaning.
All for this morning.
April 13, 2008
Scripture: Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." 2 Peter1:20-21
Prayer: I am listening after witnessing an extraordinary sunrise that seemed to move north in its brilliance outburst.
Response: As you cannot alter the course of the planets as they circle the sun, so you can't alter the Spirit as it s rushes like the wind through your life. The Spirit carries you like a kite is carried aloft in a sea breeze. There is not much for you to do but to release your self to travel ever high and in doing so to see your life from that higher perspective.
As you can recall when you resist the flow of the air you find that your flight becomes erratic and if you are not careful results in the kite crashing to the surface. So it is in life. Catch the air currents of my grace and you will experience within a flight of unimagined proportions.
You have within you an inner guidance system, so to speak, that will give you respite when the journey seems disrupted by low energy, illusions and phantoms of the past or future that invade your space. Acknowledging the Spirit you will do well to ride the currents without resisting and in my grace and love.
For today, see the interconnect-ness in all thinks, in all my creation, and in that reflection you will bolt out of the isolation that often leads to the thought that you are on a journey apart when in fact you are in unison and communion with those around you and afar.
You are carried along by the Holy Spirit.
All for this morning.
April 10, 2008
Scripture: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelations 21:4
Prayer: On this the fifth anniversary of Donna's passing, please reinforce the truth of these words.
Response: Five years, five months, five weeks – do you see that it is not a question of elapsed time, but what you bring with you on the journey unfolding before all of you who have been left to continue your quest. The passing of a loved one serves to help you distinguish what you need for the journey and what can be discarded as too weighty and burdensome.
A passing requires you to make an ascent, that is, the road seems a bit more challenging. You would hardly keep with you all the supplies and encumbrances that you carried earlier into your journey. So a passing reminds you, even requires you, if you are to make the ascent, to lighten your load, or put another way, lighten your load – as in diffusing light and love as you climb.
And what are the encumbrances about which I speak? How about anger, not forgiving, self-centeredness, self-pity, fear, despair, attachment, control, to name just a few – but if I gave you a couple of minutes your list would lengthen accordingly.
In lightening your load after a loss, some of you for the first time have taken seriously your mortality and isn't that an interesting reflection – one not to be ignored. There is a paradox that as you lighten your encumbrances, you seem to dispense in love much more than you were carrying. Do you remember me talking about the need to empty yourself so that I can fill you? Well, here is proof of that.
So on this anniversary and any remembrance of a grievous loss, celebrate! Yes, celebrate what I send you in love and blessings into what you perceived as an emptiness. You have to do two things: accept your emptiness and accept my bounty.
All for you today in celebration.
April 8, 2008
Scripture: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace." Numbers 6:22-26
Prayer: Let these words enfold me in my actions.
Response: Consider this greeting for whomever you encounter even if you would be hesitant to voice the words aloud lest someone think you odd, though odd you become. This blessing, if you catch the essence of my words, will be quite evident on the smile you convey, the peacefulness you promote even under tense conditions.
Requesting in prayer for someone else what you have received is the ultimate emptying that allows me to fill you with my Spirit.
Reflect upon the strength of the words keep you, shine upon you, and be gracious. And realize that my gift conveyed in your blessing of others is simply not a collection of words that are nice to the ear, rather with me turning my face toward you also, you receive from me what you all seek and that is peace.
What is peace? Rather than attempt to define peace, understand that peace is evidence that I have helped you find your way to innermost depth where I reside with you in my grace. All the scrambling to find peace and security, and in this blessing you discover that my peace is within you. One could wonder, even question, why all the wanderings a field.
So, take seriously your blessing extended to others either verbally or in prayer and intention, and you will discover your own peace especially fashioned for you in your circumstances.
All for this morning.
April 6, 2008
Scripture: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Chris! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3
Prayer: My attention lingers on the words new birth. Provide me a deeper understanding.
Response: New birth holds a special meaning of conversion of spirit; and while you might want to say that the new birth is a one time event like the birth of a child understand that I am signifying an event and the full maturation of the soul.
New birth is the path you are on now with all its joys and tribulations, with all its reflections and ponderings. This new birth is as fresh to you as a twenty year old as it is for an eighty year old. New birth is present to you this moment and in being present to you offers you daily, moment by moment, new hope.
Living hope pulsates in you and challenges you to shed all doubt, yes, all doubt. And this shedding is made possible in your new and constantly reinvigorated new birth.
And this new hope flows from the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Again words that you have heard and repeat so often yet were you to pause sufficiently in silence you would more appropriately be struck speechless with this reality.
Resurrection from the dead - how to explain the inexplicable? A mystery, you must conclude, but take heart, this mystery is no more inexplicable than your new birth – and that is what you should be focusing your energy on in the grace of Jesus Christ.
All for this morning.
April 4, 2008
Scripture: Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Acts 2:2-4
Prayer: I know strong winds and in such winds feel the affect on the upper reaches of my home. Bring these words to more clarity to me since they are almost too familiar.
Response: You, like those gathered in Jerusalem, share one common trait your attention must be seized from the events that surround your lives. The Spirit's descent is dramatic and the natural effects of the howling winds were apropos the significance of this happening. It is the rolling of the drums, the clash of symbols, or the fireworks display that has you all look up into the sky. So it was and is as the Spirit descends.
You might argue that you don't recall seeing tongues of fire pealing off from a flame and resting above your neighbor, but I would think that you can recall an event in you life, events in your life, when you were at a loss for words to describe the clarity and insight you received with little of no warning.
The Spirit touches you all; its flame finds a place above you before searing you with my love. You are branded but for so many you spend your time wondering about the scar and less time realizing how different, even conscious, you are becoming.
Reach across and speak from the heart and you will see that you have discovered the gift of tongues.
Do not, if you can, allow the frequency of reading a verse from scripture, dull you to the extraordinary occurrences that unfold in your life daily.
All for this morning.
April 2, 2008
Scripture: On one occasion while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." Acts 1:4-5
Prayer: It is difficult for me to catch the significance between water and the Spirit though I could repeat the answers I received from study.
Response: As you distinguish night and day, distinguish baptism with water and that of the Holy Spirit. As you walk on the beach before sunrise and cannot see clearly without moonlight, you see all when the run rises.
So it is with water and the Holy Spirit. In baptism with water you were signed with my love, with the Spirit you become conscious of that love in an increasingly responsive manner and participation in that love. Baptized with the Holy Spirit is like being given an inner garment that serves you in all the climates you will encounter on your journey.
The risen Christ commands, yes that is the word used, the disciples to wait until the Spirit descends upon them prior to leaving the sanctuary of Jerusalem for points east, west, north, and south. They are to wait patiently until they receive their inner garment, their provisions, so to speak.
It is interesting that my garment increases its purpose for you as you become more conscious of its presence that is the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. And realize that the Spirit did not descend upon you to cloth you for a life of inaction regardless as to how mobile or well-traveled you are or to become. As an inner garment you bring the Spirit into every venue you might visit, I repeat, every venue. And no need to think that you must shed your outer garments to reveal the inner. No, I would prefer that those you encounter the Spirit's presence among you reflect upon that meeting later in the quiet of their heart and recognize the fit of their own inner garment.
All for this morning.
March 29, 2008
Scripture: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelations 1:8
Prayer: I approach this book with trepidation. Reveal your word to me.
Response: Take each word as you would sample a delicacy. My words are not meant to confound. In this short verse I am revealing to you timelessness, my timelessness, I know it is difficult for you to comprehend, to get your mind around a concept that has no boundaries, like time. But as I have said to you previously these lessons are lessons meant not for your mind, which is, I think you are prepared to admit even reluctantly, finite.
So first understand that when I reveal myself to you, I do so using your tablets of knowledge, your experience, even your yearnings. Just accept the mystery of what I am saying to you now. I know no beginning and no end, and that I am ever present and present to you. And in that presence, or would you prefer me say in this now, I also reveal to you eternity that as you become conscious, note I did not say more conscious, you experience to the depth of your soul eternity. Eternity is integral to your soul. It is your inheritance as it were. It, and I hesitate to attempt to define what it means, is my thrust in creating you – to become enlightened and conscious to eternity, become conscious to your soul existence that knows no boundary of space and time.
So you see, the Book of Revelations is there for you now to waken you to the realm of the eternal that is within you. You can’t escape it – no way to avoid describing it differently so limited is communication through words – you are eternal. So take heart and soul, not mind, and waken to my message to you this morning. At your deepest level you know what I am saying though it takes instruction to dust off the layers of words, concepts, habits, fears, doubts that obstruct your soul vision.
I am the Alpha and the Omega and in that capacity and with that awesome power I am I embrace you with my love.
All for this morning.
March 27, 2008
Scripture: While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them: “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see: a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I have.” Luke 24:36-39
Prayer: These verses seem more acceptable to me from an historical perspective. Help me to read the words for today in my life.
Response: Yes, tales from many years ago are easier to accept as you are entertained by myths from the past. And you are correct in your question or request that these verses are meant for you today, even more than they were meant for the original witnesses two thousand years ago. You ask why? Today, I am asking you to put history into perspective and be in this morning. Hear my voice as I sit alongside you.
I begin your day with my admonition and blessing, Peace be with you. Think of a time when your parents woke you gently because you were leaving on a trip and they wanted to get an early start. You are leaving on a trip this day and I want you to get an early start.
Please approach this day with this excitement regardless of how far you will go – even if you plan to stay about your home this day. Each day, if you have missed my point, is an adventure and I not only wake you with my blessing of peace, but I also accompany you. And how often are you startled to be woken from your slumber that sometimes extends long beyond the time you are moving about seemingly awake? And I ask you as I asked the disciples, why are you troubled, why do you allow doubts to arise in your mind?
Let me give you some advice, doubts do not arise in your heart. So connect with your heart. It is in your heart that you hear me most clearly once you filter out mind chatter. Now as you might have surmised, this morning greeting I am offering you is not all about you getting ready for breakfast or for a commute into work or attending to the tasks that linger in your mind. As important as these responsibilities are, I am greeting you, awakening you so that you consciously, there’s that word again, perform each task as you contribute to the unfolding of my will in your world. No, you are not robots but awakened folks who are at peace, know no fear or doubt, and are determined to cultivate your surroundings – again however confined – with my love. So I ask you why would you doubt or even be surprised by my words in your life.
All for this morning.
March 25, 2008
Scripture: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:20
Prayer: I am listening this morning.
Response: This morning I want you to focus on the word surely. You will, if you haven't already, discover that this is the essence of your faith. The time of debate, like on the one hand and on the other hand, is completed. You enter the next phase of your life regardless of your age, health, or disposition with a conviction that grows and matures so that you can say quietly to yourself at least "Surely, I am with you always." Do you feel those words resonating in your bones as if those bones were a musical instrument? Whenever you doubt or seem overcome or even overjoyed by your journey, repeat these words. If you gather nothing else from the scripture let it be your conscious acceptance that I am with you always – and to the very end of the age.
Focus on my presence and dismiss notions and speculations as to how long the journey will be – or even on what awaits you. I await you now in companionship and love with my presence – a presence that transcends death. What a spectacular revelation, one that shocked the learned, the powerful, even those who spent their hours refuting or even proclaiming this truth in the libraries of the world. You see, I uttered these words quietly, clearly, and directly. You need no one to explain them further. You don't have to examine the vintage of the wine through the label on the bottle, simply taste the wine and discover the truth.
Indeed, there is much for you to celebrate this moment. I am with you always.
March 21, 2008
Scripture: From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over the land. About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" – which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:45-46
Prayer: I am listening, Lord.
Response: It is in this instant, in uttering those words, that Jesus empties himself of the longing of humanity. Jesus' cry is so penetrating to you this day because it is represents your cry at different stages and times of your life. And doesn't this recounting of Jesus' despair lend hope to you whenever you feel despair. I am sure that you have not missed, in fact you have probably just passed over it, that Jesus so close to completing his divine mission sounds as if he has lost heart and confidence. Take these words as the encouragement he offers to you in times when you wonder what your life encounters mean.
And in encouragement, as Jesus, shout your despair. I say encouragement because without doubt you will hear my word resonating in your heart as loud as any cry – that is, if you listen.The truth that Jesus' humanity discovered, and you discover, is that you are not forsaken and Jesus' humanity discovers this also – as you will – when he follows these words with "It is consummated."
That realization is for you to take into your heart and ponder.These events, though briefly described, are there for you to ponder. They represent a special poem written concisely, no extra words included, so that you can reflect on each word as each represents a precious gem for you to carry on your journey.
All for this morning.
March 20, 2008
Scripture: After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. Matthew 27:31
Prayer: So few words with such import. Help me to slow the reel so to speak and catch the essential meaning for me.
Response: Yes, so few words that disguise the suffering and humiliation endured by Jesus and there was much more to come. Your inability to seize this scene adequately is a natural response, like turning away from an accident, or casting your eyes away from the bedraggled person sleeping on a grate in your city. Part of your reaction is that there seems to be nothing you can do to correct the scene.
You know the ending. Jesus is on His way to be crucified. If you have your way, you would just as soon skip over the next verses and await word of the resurrection. But not so fast. What Jesus is showing you by His acts is his overwhelming love for you in the present. Don't, if you can, linger on the historical scene but see this determination as He picks up His cross as a current event in your life. Again, if you can, don't be that passive though shocked witness, whom Jesus passes, but be the one with him, alongside.I ask you to see this journey to Golgotha as an entry way and not a destination, or a final resting place.
There is much He is teaching you in these verses. Perhaps, the most important lesson is your need to plunge through all the distractions of your life, and nurture a single minded focus and determination to follow in His steps. Though you will not endure the humiliation and savagery of the crucifixion, you are being asked to commit and not to be deterred by what you might perceive to be an arduous path or one that could cause you to reveal who you really are, shed of the garments with which you wrap yourself.Stripped of His garments has the additional more essential meaning of Jesus revealing who He is – as his words proclaimed earlier to Pontius Pilate and the chief priests.
No one can claim I didn't realize who He was, but one can claim I chose to look away and not listen or observe. In looking away, these same folks failed to see the resurrection and the change made in their lives.
All for now.
March 19, 2008
Scripture: Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, King of the Jews," they said. Matthew 27:27-29
Prayer: These words have almost lost their bite, so often have I read or heard them. Help me to feel these words afresh.
Response: You have not presented me with much of a challenge. Take these verses and read each word slowly, pausing on the word that touches you. See the scene that is presented to you, the splendor of Rome though present in the provinces. Splendor and protocol, success and achievement represent all who serve there. Don't linger in the past and call up visions assisted sometimes by the film industry.
No, see the splendor of life for you when you would prefer not to be interrupted by the protocol of action that you have practiced, it seems for a lifetime. A protocol of action that is in truth a distraction.Instead, if you can, see Jesus interrupting what I prefer to call a dream state. He is hauled before you and you have the opportunity to capture what is transpiring as it applies to you today.
I repeat, you have an opportunity to capture the scene as it applies to you today.You will never be the same with this experience as witness. Sense most deeply the hypocrisy disguised in the mockery, think of the clever fellow who thought up the purple robe or the one who fashioned the crown. Do not deny that there are times that you are capable of performing similarly.
These verses are meant for you today to waken you from your slumber so that you can fully appreciate where these events are leading in your life, your life, not in the script of someone playing one of the roles. And in this soft or should I say gentle recognition of what is transpiring, give thanks quietly in the deepest recesses of your heart where only you roam. If you can do this, I assure you that you have awakened.
All for this morning.
March 18, 2008
Scripture: But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God." "Yes, it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you. In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Matthew 26:63-64
Prayer: Give me discernment to probe this essential truth and keep it ever fresh in my heart.
Response: Here before you is evidence of the leap of faith that I require. I am asking you to take Jesus' response into your heart. You like the high priests of your environment have asked the question. And you have heard the answer, no matter how you have tried to phrase the question, hoping if nothing else silence will follow so that you can go about unconscious in your dream state. Well, I answered the question of the high priest and I have answered your question, especially when you would have almost preferred silence after the events or an event of your life. There is no denying, I have answered the question.
It is as if lost you have asked for directions and I have given them plain, directly. I didn't have to draw you a map. You received and continue to receive my simple response: "Yes!" I didn't say: "No," or "Under some circumstances," "Not today, see me tomorrow," "I don't know," "That's what they say." No, I said "Yes!"Now take that leap to the other side on faith and let's continue your journey. As I continue to answer, I ask that you continue to ask and receive my response.
Each morning or evening ask the question and then receive my response with joy, relief, renewed faith, and continue your journey with the directions that bring you home.
All for this morning.
March 17, 2008
Scripture: Then he said to them: "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me." Matthew 26:38
Prayer: Lord, help me enter into this season of sorrow awake.
Response: I know it is difficult and has always been difficult for you to understand, come even close to what these words mean for you. Let me see if I can help you. As difficult it is for you to realize, accept that Jesus is divine and he fully took on your humanity, that is the message for you today. I know that in the past you glossed over the words of overwhelming sorrow to the point of death as simply an exaggeration – that Jesus was unable to feel the full impact of humanity.
And that is the key to this mystery, namely that he did experience the full dimension of humanity in order to sanctify your life with his sacrifice.Sorrow to the point of death – each word chosen so carefully. There is no exaggeration here. He emptied himself and opened himself to the full sorrow in a special grief that encompassed you, all of you, past, present, and to come. An overwhelming sorrow took hold of his soul and in this he taught you all how to deal with such grief and loss. He resigned the loss to the Father's will, in other words he offered the real grief and sorrow to the Father.The lesson for you today is to dwell on these words and accept them at the deepest level of meaning.
As I said above, Jesus felt an overwhelming sorrow at a soul level to the point of death. Now, reflect upon who you are or to become to ease that sorrow.
All for today.
March 15, 2008
Scripture: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." John 9:3
Prayer: How is the work of God displayed in our lives?
Response: This is almost a setup question, as if I prepared for someone in the audience to ask it – and everyone knows, or thinks they know the answer. Don't rush with words that you learned by rote or that others have given you. Instead spend some time alone and in stillness and reflect upon just exactly what works of mine are manifest in your life's purpose. This is no easy exercise because I am asking you to go a lot deeper than the hopefully frequent acts of charity you undertake. I am asking you to go so deep that where my work ends is indistinguishable as to where your works begins. If it still seems to be an easy exercise, you must go deeper.
Because you see we are united in my grace.As you sit before the keyboard there seems to be no interval between the thought you receive and the action of your fingertips on the keyboard. I want you to do the same in exploring my works in your presence in this life.Why do I ask this? Simply to increase your consciousness, or put in another way, to help you to wake up. I am not suggesting that dreaming is not good, only that it is not conscious, and for the most of your day you are unconscious.
You act in accord with that script we discussed some days ago. I want you to throw the script out and begin to touch more deeply my presence in your life. And why? Because once conscious, once out of your dream state, you will discover that we are truly working together in your environment however narrow or widespread it is. And then what happens? Those around you, and most importantly you, will see my works displayed with clarity and force.Many questions asked of you today to prompt deeper reflection that requires no study, simply attentiveness to my presence in you and all about as you awake.
All for this morning.
March 14, 2008
Scripture: Be joyful always, pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 16-18
Prayer: These words are easier for me to understand than to apply, especially in all circumstances.
Response: You use the expression, setting the bar high. Well, this is where I set the bar – high. Consider my words as a formula to bring you peace. You see that what I ask and suggest, and you could say direct, is all within your power in my grace. What a challenge to be joyful always. This means this very minute with no one observing, without allowing considerations of what awaits you this day, adopt a joyful spirit. You can see wherever you are and under whatever circumstances, and I stress the latter, nothing can prevent you from being joyful. I know this sounds bizarre to some of you, but please see that you are able to be joyful. It is your decision and one quite frankly that is easier to apply than the contrary.About prayer, I have instructed you much. Prayer is our internal dialogue that you are asked, directed, to cultivate as if – and it is – the breath of your soul. I don't expect you to go about distracted as if in a trance.
What I am asking that you is develop your consciousness, awareness of my presence in your life. For the moment, don't be distracted by thoughts of my presence in the world. Rather, I want you to consider and sense the significance of my presence in your life. And this presence is not just in passing as I pass you randomly throughout the day as if this were a game of tag. No, I am with you now, this moment, and am not watching over your shoulder to see whom I will visit next.Now giving thanks in all circumstances seems understandable and even easy until you experience the unthinkable in your life. And do you know what? You all consider your circumstances unique and at times sobering – and they are. I am saying to you that even then, give thanks. For the mystery you will one day come to some understanding is that I work in your life in all, repeat all, circumstances. How else to fashion the unique quality you each represent.And even when you resist, if it helps, accept that this is my will for you even if it doesn't make sense.
So begin this day with joy.
March 11, 2008
Scripture: This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go." Isaiah 48:17
Prayer: Lord, give me a better appreciation of your direction.
Response: What better appreciation can you have but to look back on your life or for that matter yesterday. See me in the choices that you make that touch your whole life and I do not mean you to limit it to the scripture verse you choose or the shirt that you select to wear. In fact throw off notions that I am sitting with an open script, your script, and am giving you prompts when you forget your lines. If that were to be so I would be devoted essentially to reading a script. No, you are writing and performing the script as it were. Staying with the analogy, I am in the audience, participating in the performance. Participating. Isn't that what an audience that relishes a performance does? Relishes the performance.
Yes, I am sitting in the audience and just can't wait to read the reviews afterwards of a fine performance. And do you know who writes the reviews? You do!So let's get back to your question. I am the director, who endures endless rehearsal sessions with you and the cast. Remember you are a member of a large cast. This is no Off-Broadway production. And the cast expands as you learn your lines and move to encourage others to join as they encourage you. And learning your lines is simpler than you might think. It comes from reading your heart and soul. Knowing who you are and not some role you think you should be playing is the lesson for you today.
So my direction has more to do with setting the stage. And even here I am a bit unorthodox. I see to it that the curtain opens on another day, as today. It is for you to walk out on stage with all the trepidation you might feel, with all the eagerness that might be stirring within, even with all the weariness you sometimes have to overcome – but walk out on the stage. The audience is waiting. The more prepared among you are those of you who have been still in learning the lines of your heart.
All for this morning.
And you didn't imagine that Isaiah was of the stage.
March 4, 2008
Scripture: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Prayer: My tongue just slips over the words that you have overcome the world. Give me a deeper appreciation of what you mean.
Response: It is difficult for you to comprehend what I mean by overcome the world. When you sit back and reflect on these words, you isolate what is unpleasant for you and cheer that I have overcome it. I would rather you reflect on the cosmic, yes cosmic, proportions of what I speak. Those words are meant to reveal to you the power I am. And instead of immediately jumping to the conclusion that the power is capable of destruction, consider love.
In this world that seems to be filling with anger, step aside and consider the power of love that is manifest. In any event that you have experienced that you might not want to repeat, consider the presence of love that was even sparked by what you would describe as tragedy.Love is the rising tide that washes away sandcastles of arrogance, pride, greed, and anger of individuals, nations and even a globe.
When I say that I overcome the world, I mean that my love is rising in the most unexpected regions, under the most fearsome circumstances. It is for you to nurture the peace I have bestowed upon you in my grace. Indeed, you will experience trouble in your life of all varieties. Your only solace will eventually come when you truly accept the significance of the words that I have overcome the world, everything that fills a life from birth to death in relationship.
So this morning I grant you that peace.
March 1, 2008
Scripture: Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh." Genesis 18:13-15
Prayer: Lord, help me to accept your words about nothing being too hard for you.
Response: Before you can even approach me in prayer, do your best to know yourself. For prayer, for our dialogue to work, so to speak, you must be authentic. Pray as you are and not as you think you should be.Now, once you have identified who you are, have found your voice sometimes buried in the clutter of the tasks you think you should perform, grasp your dream and do not let go of it. Yes, it might be for a child when you are long past rearing children, it might be to embark upon an adventure that you have nourished since youth, it might involve the exploration of the soul that eluded you previously. And bring that dream to me.
And let me say, if you don't have the courage to bring the dream to me, I will prompt it from you as I did Sarah, standing behind the tent flap.You are all Sarahs, excuse me if I offend you. You are often standing behind a mask, in Sarah's case a tent flap. You are taking it all in but disguise your reaction and intent with an expressionless gaze, fearing to show your excitement. And then when you overhear, as it were, my voice in our soul you dismiss it with a laugh, until found out. Your reaction goes to a nervous laugh to fear that your disguise has not worked. Now you are confronted with my truth.
And what is my truth?
I will answer with a question: Is anything too difficult for me? So you see in this reading, I am imploring you to dream, to grasp your dreams, and come to me with confidence in prayer. And it is OK, if you laugh nervously.One last comment, your prayers that are connected to the dreams that resonate in your heart reflect my love for you. Now that is something for you to reflect upon.
All for this morning.
February 28, 2008
Scripture: If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:9-10
Prayer: Help me Lord to be conscious of your presence and guidance, even when I feel alone.
Response: Yes, in the quiet before dawn you could also think that you are talking or musing to yourself. I am here alongside you, prompting you to sense my presence and love. Where might you flee, you ask, to be alone? And my answer to you, there is no place where I will not find you, no place where I will not accompany you; and you are blessed with my companionship that does not require even acknowledgement. How is that for a thought to comprehend? I am with you and from me you learn patience. From me you learn steadfastness and commitment. From me you learn unconditional love.And let us talk about guidance. I am there to influence you with my grace to remain on the path. Do your best to see that path as movement in service.
You don't need any map; I am as it were your GPS system that informs you of the terrain around you, the roads that lie before you, in all directions. Do not trouble yourself with thoughts that you are on a treasure hunt and if you don't find the path you will lose out. The path is not foreordained. You create the path with my grace. Consider your own path to the present moment. Reflect on the turns and challenges and how you participated, even forge the path, especially when you hit sand, or bedrock, or heights that you didn't anticipate, or for that matter depths that you were not sure that you could negotiate.Let me sum up. The Psalmist is talking to you today as if he were sitting alongside you over a cup of coffee. Don't be distracted by his camel's hair cloak or his scruffy beard.
Just observe the intensity of his coal black eyes as he seeks to impart a message that he received and absorbed many years ago. He is telling you and others that's why his voice sounds hoarse that I am with you always, everywhere, and I mean in any physical location, emotional trauma, at times of overwhelming joy when the last thing in your mind perhaps is to get too serious. There is no place or situation that you can evade me or disguise yourself.
And I am not motivated by a desire to catch you but only, repeat, only to love you.So with the dawn rising consider now that I have made all known to you as the shadows of doubt evaporate.
February 26, 2008
Scripture: Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
Prayer: Lord, again, I have read these words previously. This time help me to catch the meaning you intend for me this morning.
Response: There are three thoughts that I want you to focus on and listen to me explain each: what is behind, press on, and called heavenward.How often are you thwarted or delayed in your pursuit of the goal by allowing considerations of the past to distract you? Please reduce these words to an event in your life, or a journey that proved particularly tedious and demanding. Instead of relishing that the event or experience is past you continue to dwell in the pain of it. Sometimes, your recollection inhibits your reaction to what awaits you as you sit immobilized in fear and trepidation that the experience will repeat itself. I ask that you forget what is behind and approach, indeed strain forward as one in pursuit of a goal that is to be unparallelled in your life.
And that leads me to the words, press on. Yes, press on in hope with your fledgling faith. You know what is around the corner, even though you only caught a glimpse of me, because I have told you. You can hear my footsteps, if you listen, the scuffle of my sandals on the tile before you. There are even times when you seem distracted that I call softly to you. And have no concern of the exercise that awaits you because I am really calling you within where you can't help but hear me, and catch much more than a fleeting glimpse of me.And finally, yes I am calling you heavenward. I am calling you home.
Don't rush your steps, simply, and I mean this deliberately, simply take each step with meaning and purpose. Keep your focus and your attention both of which you will see expands so that it would be hard for you to recall who you were before. Don't look back. Those are the words I want to leave you with this morning. There are enough examples of those who did so and regretted it in scripture, literature, legend, and life. There is a reason this theme is prevalent. So take it as your motto this day.
All for this morning.
February 23, 2008
Scripture: But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. Luke 10:33-34
Prayer: Help me to see with the eyes of the Samaritan.
Response: Yes, that is the right verb: to see. And to see like the Samaritan requires you to recognize him as your guide on the lonely road you sometimes traverse. In fact, I am quick to add that the Samaritan had it easier in one sense; he was traveling alone, alone with his thoughts. His attention was fully focused. He was alert. After all he knew traveling that road could be dangerous. And he knew this long before he came upon the man at the side of the road. The Samaritan was not distracted as you can be traveling through life, attending to your affairs, meeting deadlines, accomplishing tasks.
No, the Samaritan, though alert to danger, was traveling fully conscious of each step. Thus contained in that short description that Luke offers you today – wherever you are and wherever you travel – is the simple – but not no simple to implement -stricture to be conscious of each step you to take. In a sense I want your steps not to be hurried but be aware of how you raise your foot as you take a step and how you lower your foot.
Experience the weight that you put on your foot at the completion of a step and always be aware of your surroundings. Of course, I want you to experience the full beauty that resonates in your heart and I also want you to be aware of your fellow companions who are in distress. Perhaps, you won't come upon someone literally at the side of the road in pain and near death, but surely you come upon those who emotionally are in despair, are alone, defenseless, unable to ask for help because, as the man on the side of the road, they have become unconscious.Yes, this story holds essentially the lesson as to how you are to travel and to be conscious and your responsibility, yes I say responsibility, is to reach those not conscious, or no longer conscious, to sustain them on the journey.
And finally, consider the compassion shown by the Samaritan. In case you missed it, he represents the stranger in your midst that you are obliged to know, that is, when you have regained your consciousness.
February 21, 2008
Scripture: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Prayer: Help me to see oneness in your love.
Response: Can you just imagine Paul grasping for words to testify to his belief, to his faith. Can you just see him looking around, looking up to draw in the analogy, the image, that will convince the onlookers. Consider the question, why?It is not to draw upon the last efforts of a work brigade to stem the flood from a crumbling dike; it is not to urge an expedition through a dense jungle or up a summit.
No, Paul is saying to those in earshot, and you now two thousand years later are in the same crowd and his word are spoken to you this morning in the present. No, Paul is speaking to you in these words to emphasize, if you ever doubted, that I am with you, alongside you, under every conceivable circumstance. There has not been an experience in this life that could keep us apart.
In fact, it is an inconceivable contradiction of the Spirit.So if your mind jumps around from one picture word to the next that Paul uses, realizes that he returns to the basic theme, the inalterable truth, that we are one. You might feel aloneness, but in reality, we are a crowd experiencing the torment and joy, the disappointment and celebration, the wind and the calm. Contained in those verses for you this morning is a truth you overlook, especially when you feel overwhelmed and when you feel triumph. Do your best to pause at such times and feel my presence, a presence from which you cannot distance yourself, however hard you try. Accept "defeat," as it were, and as you have observed, victory is yours, or should I say ours.
In my peace this day.
February 18, 2008
Scripture: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed; for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23
Prayer: These words somehow have more impact for me as the lightening flashes and the thunder rumbles through the wind before dawn off the sea. Help me to focus on your compassions.
Response: I would rather you spend a moment on faithfulness, your faithfulness. It is through your waiting, your anticipation that you are able to see my compassion in all your work and life. In the midst of this storm you await the morning and the smell and the clarity of the air. Anticipation is another word for faith – conscious anticipation, joyful anticipation.My compassions are many and as you become conscious you also see with clarity after a storm the depth of my compassions. See the compassions that reach to the core of your being and resonate there with a knowing.
All the confusion that might surround you at any point in your life seems to dissipate in those compassions and you experience a knowing that eluded you earlier.Sit still waiting for the wind to cease, the thunder to move down the coast, the lightening to fade. In the waiting, patiently, you experience my will for you. It is in these moments of waiting that I reach you and linger within you long after the storm has fled your coast.All you experience is cause for you to reflect in wonder upon your life.
End your reflection with assurance of my compassions.
February 14, 2008
Scripture: The Lord is gracious and righteous; our Lord is full of compassion. Psalm 116:5
Prayer: Gracious, righteous and full of compassion. How could I not want to meet you?
Response: And you do each day. Though you are distracted so often and miss me in the crowd though I am alongside you, your constant companion. And there are those moments when you catch my glance. Yes, it might be prompted by a companion or someone you love; you might even catch my look in the eyes of a stranger; but even more powerful and direct is when you quiet and in stillness sit alongside me in attention.Gracious here means my gentleness and patience as I observe you and encourage your dawning consciousness. It is like standing on the beach you frequent waiting for the sun to rise. I too am waiting patiently for your dawn to rise.
The difference, and there are many, is that I am standing alongside you and nudging you to keep watching that seemingly blank horizon for the first pinprick of light.Spend a moment with righteousness. No, I am not about to hurl the tablets from heaven for you to follow. I am with you to ease your dullness and obstinacy into a consciousness of love – and yes, compassion. And I am constant and consistent in this endeavor. And in doing and being such for you, I am righteous.
See me as your guide in days when the wind howls seemingly without purpose in your life; see me as your boon companion when rested you reflect on my goodness; see me as your mentor when you help the least of mine generously and with patience. Encounter me as you would a friend after a long arduous journey and in that greeting realize that the past is lost into the joy of the present.
All for this morning.
February 12, 2008
Scripture: Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. Psalm 102:18
Prayer: Help to connect me to those who have long since passed on.
Response: Is that your prayer, or is your attention caught by the words of the psalmist who looks out beyond the centuries and writes words that touch you?As you are in communion and community with those around you, and even those who are far distant geographically, you are reminded this morning that you are also in communion with those who have passed on many centuries ago and even those who have yet to appear on your globe.A theme for you this morning is to discard at least for this moment the concept of linear, single dimensional time.
Discard the concept just as you would put a wristwatch in a drawer or turn the clock on the mantle piece to face the wall.I want you to appreciate and reverence the communion you share with all people, regardless of their era, race, culture, and any other characteristic that you would more likely use to distinguish them, to make them different, and instead to see a common bond. After all you are all on a journey and on this journey share provisions to sustain you. And in this psalm you are being offered across time sustenance that is every bit as nourishing as a drink offered by a friend on a journey through a parched desert.
And what can you do in return for this generous offering from the past which in the words become present? You can nod in thanksgiving a prayer of blessing on the gift and the one who extended to you that gift.In this escape from dimensional time, the steps that you take that sometimes appear as those in a hollow hallway or corridor now take on the quality of a raucous celebration of those reaching home after a long journey.
There is a reason to celebrate this and every morning.
February 10, 2008
Scripture: Jesus answered: "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bead alone, but on every word that come from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4
Prayer: Lord, this is another verse that I have read many times, brushing over the words lightly. Help me to probe a deeper meaning.
Response: You must spend your time with each of my words, especially the words that come to you from your heart. It is these words that are inscribed with special meaning for you. These words need no footnotes. Words assigned to your heart source have a potency that only you can fathom.
The word from me is truly extensive and frequent. You need no eyes to read, nor ears to hear my message spoken aloud, even no ritual in which to participate. All that is required, and I do not make light of this, is your attention, your soul attention.Remember that your life experience, this school of learning, has little interest in you remaining seated studying various texts, but rather your receptiveness for my message and love wherever you might be. Hear me throughout your day and night. The voice you hear is not some white noise, some filtering sound. I speak to each of you directly and throughout your presence on earth.
Reassuring it is to know that I have not sent you out on this adventure, this exploration of the spirit without a constant companion. This companion, my Spirit, is available to you as you would say 24/7 and provides you more than you even require for the arduous steps in your journey. The constancy and immediacy of Spirit means that when you awake in the depth of the night, you are present in a sound chamber, solitary, and most receptive to my word.
I am not saying this to encourage you to be sleep deprived. Rather I am explaining and reinforcing the total presence of my love.I have said this many times and I repeat: I abound in the stillness of your heart. Prepare that stillness in your lives.
All for this morning.
February 5, 2008
Scripture: The Sovereign Lord is my strength, he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights. Habbakuk 3:19
Prayer: Is there a reason that you want me on the heights?
Response: It is from the heights that you see the landscape that I have prepared for you. It is in the journey upward that youi realize how much I ask from you as you journey home. And you are to become nimble and adroit as you maneuver on those solitary paths that wind about so far from the sight of those who have remained in the valley, safer it seems but in actuality vulnerable to every threat of the spirit that lurks below, at the lower altitudes.Here again is a paradox. The higher you climb the deeper you reach, as solitary as you might feel, the more in union you are with me in stillness.
Notice, I am saying that I provide you what you need for the climb both spiritually, in strength and tenacity, and in longing to leave the plain in search. And the question for you to ponder is – in search of what?The next time you are in a mountainous area gaze at the heights and see if you can spot a mountain goat almost beyond your gaze, beyond the reach of your sight. Reflect upon its nimble frame, the power of its legs, its energy and stamina. In that sight consider your search the same as the mountain's goat – for nourishment.And I offer you yet another paradox.
As you climb in a glorious dawn on the steep and craggy ridges of the mountain slope alone, in another dimension you are in the world surrounded by those who are touched by your presence as you are touched by their presence.
Let me end today with encouragement for you to bring the confidence, independence, and strength to all your relationships below, sharing that spirit of roaming the heights alone to all those who clamor together lonely below.
January 31, 2008
Scripture: Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off his wrist. Acts 12:7
Prayer: Lord, help me to wake up.
Response: Consider the painful events in life as the angel of the Lord striking you into wakefulness. You are in a prison of neglect and the angel is with you to rouse you from your slumber. Sometimes you might feel only a nudge and that might do to awaken you for a time, but it is the rousing slap that forces you to jump to your feet almost in fear.It is the dream state that you must combat with all your energy and of course my grace.
And here is another paradox – it is when you are most engaged in the task of acquiring that you are most unconscious. It is in stillness and listening that you are most awake though to an observer you inaction is interpreted as slumber.Notice in this verse I am also telling you that you are struck into wakefulness for a purpose, for a mission, not one that I have selected for you but one that you see clearly as the correct path for you in my grace.
You know because I speak to you, I am close, and at the deepest level of your heart you do hear me. You might even reach a point in your life when that awesome, sometimes painful strike is welcome. You see so much rests on you waking up.Do not go back to sleep. Keep that as your refrain, especially when you find the comfort of unconsciousness as inviting as a feather comforter on a frigid night.
No, wake up, dress warmly, and go out among the byways. My promise to you is that you will find me waiting for you.
All for this morning.
January 23, 2008
Scripture: But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
Prayer: Dear Lord, teach me about hope.
Response: There is much to tell you about hope. Before defining it, hope takes seed in your heart. And in the heart hope manifests your recognition of me, prompted by my grace to you. It is as if you are standing before the classroom, alone, and you proclaim your confidence in what you heart sometimes most faintly is certain.It is like being off the coast and a deep fog settles over your craft. You hear a fog horn and know intuitively from where the sound originates indicating the narrow channel to the safe harbor. Here is another image. Hope is moving across a rope bridge swaying above a chasm and finding a rhythm in your steps that does not move against the rhythm of the bridge as you move to the other side and safety.Hope is, as I have said, certainty in a storm that no matter of fear or agitation that surrounds can distract you from your goal.And see what I promise besides. In hope your strength is renewed.
As you expend effort, empty yourself, you find that I fill you with strength for the arduous path, so that you soar, exhilarating and accelerating on the wind, abandoning all the constraints that those land-bound choose for themselves, and you journey endlessly without any glimmer of fatigue, and let me say encouraged by the good humor you displayIt is through hope that we meet.
Hope is the completed circle of my love in you. In hope you raise a banner for all to see and for me to meet.
All for this day.
January 21, 2008Scripture: "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts." Jeremiah 31:33
Prayer: Give me a deep understanding of this verse.
Response: Appreciate that these words in context concern the new covenant, one that is not limited by a collection of do's and don'ts, Rather, imprinted on your heart and mind is an echo presence that serves to validate your deepest longings, especially when you bring them to action, to consciousness.You might want to call it intuition, inspiration, conscience, the muse, or a voice not further identified, but each has the spark that can lighten your way if you choose.The feeling, it just seems right, reflects that spark, but it is more than that. You agree graced with the capacity that is not bounded to embrace my love in action and service. Don't see this grace as something outlandish, or exaggerated. As with things profound, the imprint of my love is simple.
You will gain confirmation of this writing on your heart when you pause, draw a breath, and be in a moment of time, allowing your intuition to guide your reflection upon any issue that you choose. By that very deliberation action you tap into the flow of discernment for which you are searching.What makes this discovery special is that it becomes proof for you that my covenant with you is deliberate and real.
Without exception, you all have written on your hearts this prescription. It is for you, each of you, to recognize these words and to follow the direction as it applies to your path.If you believe only that you enjoy a special relationship with me, that is sufficient and more than enough to devote some time to fathoming the meaning for you.
All for today.
January 16, 2008
Scripture: We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. 1 Thessalonians 1:2
Prayer: And what of prayer?
Response: Good question for this morning. How often do you pray to have your burden eased, or to seek a clarification in the direction upon which you are committed? Today, I want to discuss the prayers that you offer for other fellow travelers on this road, some of whom, or most of whom, you do not even know.In prayer you recognize a community of love that extends beyond the fingertips of your individual grasp or touch. In the very act of prayer your gaze rises from your toes to embrace those around you and far distant.It is through prayer for others that you are released to become one of generous spirit. Such prayer is so generous, especially since the object of your prayer is unaware of your intention.
Though you are offering so much to another you receive ten fold in return because of this generosity and service.In such prayer you will find that your eyes soften and you are filled with a growing compassion for those less fortunate who populate the earth, sometimes far distant. And interesting, you begin to discern signs that your prayers and intentions are having an impact on the actions and situations of others.Prayer is most powerful, a hidden source of love of which you all have been beneficiaries, especially when you have endured much.
Prayer as a sign of my love is joy to the person in prayer as it is for the recipient of the prayerful intention – even a stranger.Prayer knits a community together and let me say there is no boundary as to how large the community can be. As I said, prayer manifests the unfolding of my love.So take seriously and personally the power of prayer. Reflect on the prayers that might have been intended for you, and in gratitude return the favor in prayer.
Prayer has the potential to take you out of self.
All for this morning.
January 14, 2008
Scripture: Then I thought to understand this: but it was too hard for me; until I went in the sanctuary of God. Psalm 73:16-17
Prayer: This verse I found in Dag Hammarskjold's Markings. Shed light for me on your sanctuary.
Response: I am pleased that you are asking about the sanctuary. Clearly, you understand that I am not talking about a structure though you can bring my sanctuary to the structure. Clearly, you understand that sanctuary is not a thing, a political, religious, or temporal facility.My sanctuary is within each of you. It is there that I meet you. And do you know what? You don't have to be alone.
Yes, you can be and I encourage you to be with others in communion. However, just as you might have been reluctant to exercise outside in inclement weather, don't blame the weather – lack of companions – for not coming to my sanctuary.It is in my sanctuary within that you will hear me, that is, if you can be still in spirit, not rushing to provide words to fill a holy space of silence. It is here that you discover your heart and discover that your mind represents interests that sometimes fill the airwaves with monkey chatter.Be still in my sanctuary. I required the prophets to take off their sandals because they were on holy ground. The sandals were not important but your attention and reverence are.
Be still and listen and you will be rewarded beyond what you could have in your wildest dreams have anticipated.In listening you will discover my path for you.No, don't get excited. Nothing is predetermined. Your path is a direction for which you can serve in the years remaining to you. Service is entwined with love and, if you have missed this, love is my message.So enter the sanctuary – cautiously at first, if you must – but enter it and discover for yourself the nourishment of spirit that you receive, that you experience.
All for now.
January 12, 2008
Scripture: We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Romans 8:26
Prayer: Please help me to understand these words.
Response: Let me begin. Indeed, there are times, perhaps at different stages in your life when you find it difficult to pray, or events that surround you are simply too difficult to understand. You wonder about what is this life experience all about. For you it is truly not about things and stuff, but the real meaning seems to escape you.
Not only do you realize that there is not much you can control though you might have some small influence. It is at times like this, however, frequent or infrequent, that I am there to influence you, prod you, counsel you, console you, support you.And how do I do it, if it is the right word? I read the deepest recesses of your heart and give voice to that unspoken yearning in a holy groan.
What an expression, but digest its meaning. I give voice to your deepest sentiments of love that are blocked from expression as your mind seeks a rational explanation to the events in your life.I am the groan that you utter when no one else is around and you sit in loneliness, or walk along a deserted beach at sunrise, or seek to capture on a page a mystery of life that eludes you.Understand most clearly that not only are your prayers answered but that I even stir those prayers within you.
All for this morning.
January 10, 2008
Scripture: For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and self-discipline. 1 Timothy 7
Prayer: Lord, help me to grasp exactly what this spirit is that resides within me.
Response: That's the question. It is not for you to look over the field and begin to judge those who have gathered there as if for a race. No it is for you to explore your depth and to identify what I have touched to make you special. Take your time. In your distraction you might not have looked sufficiently deep. Once you begin to acknowledge those special gifts it is in the acknowledging you throw off your timidity. Timidity exists only in comparison, as you once looked about judging you against another.
At this point, you will find that it is like shedding a heavy woolen overcoat in summertime.And without that overcoat, you will find that you can actually feel coursing throughout your body a spirit of power that reflects my love to others; a new confidence envelops you, not for your purpose but for mine.Regarding self-discipline, I am not talking of a rigidity of thought or even practice, but rather I am encouraging in you self-respect for others. Though you might think you have the "word," as you might be encouraged to believe, it is through self-discipline that my spirit of power serves to touch those about you — yes, those in distress and uncertainty, those who ask questions that seemingly go unanswered.The spirit of power is found in the bounty of my love.
All for this morning.
January 9, 2008
Scripture: Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me, and your rod and your staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4
Prayer: In reading the Pope's encyclical
Spe Salvi, this line caught my attention as did the reference to the scripture above: one who walks with me on the path of final solitude. Lord, help me to become increasingly aware of your presence in my life, walking with me on this path of final solitude. And help me to draw increasing comfort from this realization.
Response: Let me speak about final solitude. This is an increasingly comforting time when you realize that your walk is with me. The footsteps you hear are mine and the closeness of those footsteps is to comfort you further. This path to final solitude is a time present for all of you to be totally conscious of the meaning, your meaning. It is not a time of panic, regret, or sorrow; rather it is time for you to accept yourself as you are and are becoming and to offer this soul to me in all humility.As I have said, this path is one of increasing consciousness; it is a time of letting go of all pretenses – all pretenses.
It is a time to risk honesty with yourself, if not with others if you can be so without causing harm to others.The valley of death represents all that you fear, and should fear, but fully accepting and believing that I am with you. It is like traversing a desert path toward an oasis that you have been told is before you. Trusting my word you continue carefully, rationing your water and your energy, but you continue forward, not allowing the temptation to cut to the left or right, or even return; you move forward keeping your eyes on the horizon.
And yes, I do suggest that you travel at night when the sun is not so intense, so consider the meaning of traveling in the dark, in the quiet. Know I am the star that you are following and I will lead you through the valley of death while your enemy sleeps, covered in thick blankets so as not to hear your footfall.
All for this morning.
