Afghan Reflections by Terry Douglas
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for my thoughts on my time spent there.
Meditations – Early 2009
Meditations- Early 2009 – January – April 2009 -Daily Affirmations
For over five 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.
April 29, 2009
Scripture:Search me. O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Psalm 139:23
Prayer:
Let me know your presence in the stillness.>
ResponseIsn’t it extraordinary for you that in the absolute stillness of this early morning, before the sun has even hinted a presence, that I am closer than a companion who in the past might have surprised you with a cup of coffee. You don’t have to look up; I am everywhere you look, even when you close your eyes. I give you the discrimination to distinguish aloneness in my presence from loneliness. For this moment, there is no clamor of the soul.
I do know the stirring of your heart. I am the calm and stillness that descends over you when you no longer can distinguish who is observing and who is observed. I am your recognition that you lack nothing. No need to travel afar for a quiet place of prayer and contemplation. That place is here, that time is now.
In this special moment, your anxious thoughts evaporate like a morning fog, or dead growth pruned from an otherwise healthy plant. Most especially in time you come to realize your dawning consciousness is related most intimately to you accepting and acknowledging that I know your heart, especially those anxious thoughts that seek to disturb your harmony.
All for this morning.
April 27, 2009
Scripture:While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Luke 24:36
Prayer:
I allow this dramatic scene following the resurrection to lose its impact because the words are so familiar.
Response:At least you are aware of your lack of attention. This indicates a dawning consciousness. Consider that the very lack of drama to the scene – Jesus simply appears –prompts you to become still. No trumpets, no gongs, no lengthy introductions – Jesus simply appears. It is that appearance in your life that I am asking you to take into your heart.
Think back when you became aware of his presence. Was it in a sign that shifted the direction on a road you were traveling – literally or figuratively? Was it a chance encounter with a stranger who offered the very wisdom that you were seeking up until then in vain? Was it an incomprehensible sense of peace that overcame you at a time of crisis? Was it a prayer that you uttered in the morning from the depths of sorrow, only to find joy in the evening?
Don’t expend energy wondering did Jesus really rise from the dead. Instead observe and witness the miracle of that rising in your life each day and share that truth with those whom you encounter – not so much in words, but in service and acts of love.
All for this morning.
April 26, 2009
Scripture:For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. Ephesians 1:4
Prayer:
A short verse that touches on mysteries I am unable to comprehend. Lead me.
Response:It would help, if you could suspend the notion of linear time as you suspend disbelief when you go to the theater or view a film or extravagant performance. Choosing you is an instant in time in the present. The Godhead brings you to existence this very moment energetically, like a sneak preview before the curtain is pulled open – such is his love and expectation.
Consider this swirl of energy as love, something only manifest in performance of service, compassion, dedication, as what brings you into existence and sustains you in all the trials that you face. And the Godhead endows you with a mission, provides you music to release, even prior to your awareness, dawning consciousness.
In divine patience, the Godhead awaits your awakening from slumber, your birth as it were; to witness the dawning light within you that sparks your environment with his presence so that it too becomes holy and blameless in his sight. From events in your world, you can see that his patience is divine and that an awakening in consciousness waits all who slumber yet. Be an awakener.
All for this morning.
April 24, 2009
Scripture:Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16.3
Prayer:
Help me to understand further commitment.>
ResponseThat isn’t your real question. You are reconsidering you can do one thing – like commitment – and receive the hoped for result, leading you to believe that you exercise an element of control in the process. Cleanse your mind of such thinking because it is indeed your mind and ego that become involved and I want your heart to be involved exclusively.
Commitment is of the heart. In commitment there is no attachment to a hoped for outcome. In commitment there is conscious trust. In commitment of the heart there is hope. In this verse you are encouraged to restore balance in your being. The verse is about new beginnings each moment. A life of commitment to the Lord is a life where all your plans succeed in the surprise of grace. There is no ledger to be maintained, no averages of success to calculate, simply acceptance and routine to be cultivated.
A life that is committed to the Lord is one that reflects a harmony that flows without attempting to control immovable forces, but rather dances, as it were, among what had previously been considered contrary forces. Instead of meeting the wave straight on, a life of commitment is riding that wave to the shore – even if that shore is far distant.
All for this morning.
April 23, 2009
Scripture:“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:32-34
Prayer:
Flocks, treasures, kingdoms, and thieves. It is difficult for me to stay with one image. Help me this morning.>
ResponseFirst, these words do not describe some fantasy kingdom. You are being invited to prepare for the journey of your life – your eternal life. Despite your trepidation, you are being encouraged and calmed as a parent addresses a child in the diminutive form of speech that might sound foreign to you. The reward awaiting you down the road is what has been promised to you by one so pleased to welcome you.
In preparation for the grand celebration, you are invited to let go of what you are still hauling behind you and to put those burdens to good use in service to the poor, those despairing, the lonely, the infirm, and you could fill in quite a full list. What you let go is a faint comparison to what you inherit in this Kingdom. Fit your treasure within on the eternal that proves to be inviolable. It’s as if you reach an international border station and those charged with discovering contraband wave you through, unable are they to comprehend the depth of the treasure you are becoming.
Be steady in your footfall as you move along the path, confident of your direction, listening closely for him who moves before you, just ahead.
All for this morning.
April 21, 2009
Scripture:And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:5
Prayer:
Help me to get to a deeper sense of hope.
ResponseHope is actually easy to grasp as long as you keep control out of it, that is, what you expect, or think you are entitled. Let me say a word about entitlement – it is what you think you are owed for your loyalty, service, position, and I could go on. Hope is the antithesis of entitlement. Hope generates surprise within you, anticipation, sort of a great expectation and acceptance. In hope your shoulders relax, grip loosens, eyes soften, and breathing slows and deepens. You see hope is manifested in the chatter of the birds before dawn, knowing in hope that dawn awaits.
Now this hope was not simply sprinkled over you, but poured as holy oil over your head and into your heart in the presence of the Holy Spirit. How do I know this, you might ask? Let me say most definitively that each moment you snare in stillness will be a clear confirmation of what I say and, if it is possible, will become more manifest with each succeeding stolen moment in silence. You see, in stillness, you will explore regions of the heart that are not bounded by the rhythms of the body. The Holy Spirit will be your guide and in his company you will learn of hope, surprise, and love.
For this day, see if you are able to articulate wordlessly – I realize the contradiction – your hopes free of what you would control, hold, or possess; rather accept, even recognize for the first time who you are as spirit and then express in some gesture of the heart your hopes. You might be surprised at how detached – not irresponsible – from the goals that fix you, and how your hopes – actually prayers – contribute to a peace and light that reaches far beyond your present circumference.
All for this morning.
April 19, 2009
Scripture:The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. Psalm 135:15-18
Prayer:
I came upon these verses after viewing the pink filigree of clouds above the sea as the sun was preparing to rise. Teach me about idols.
Responseidols are what keep your attention from me. It may be for an instant or constant as you allow your attention to be captured. Before you exclude yourself from idol worship because you don’t consider yourself rich, explore the traits of idols and those who become like them. They have a mouth but have lost capacity to speak; they have ears, but cannot hear; and there is no breath within. And let me repeat that this is a description of idols and those who become like them.
Idols serve as a shortcut for idle, even lazy souls. Would that your journey on the path could be a virtual one taken from your recliner, but it isn’t; you must take the steps, no idol substitutes. The capacity to speak, engage, see, hear, and breathe are all aspects of who you are in union with me.
And idols are not limited, of course, to a golden calf to be worshipped; they are found crafted in all the corridors of the mind and heart, encompassing what one does with precious time, and with scant consideration to the person one is now. Before you consider yourself guilty as charged or innocent, accept if you will that I seek a special, direct, current, authentic relationship with you. I need no intermediaries; do you? Reflect upon what I have provided you.
All for this morning.
April 18, 2009
Scripture:“You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me . . . When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple.” Jonah 2:3-7
Prayer:
Living by the ocean and especially when the seas are high as this morning, this imagery catches my attention. I can see myself riding above and under the swirl. Give me a deeper meaning.
ResponseSo it is deeper you want. See the seas as the natural metaphor for your life, any life. Awash, you raise your hand up to be plucked to the safety of a vessel; yet, no vessel seems to be near. I said seems because at just that time, that moment, an awareness, a higher consciousness actually, flows through you; and the sea, any sea, any tumult, is reduced to water, salt, foam – elements with which you can deal. Your raising of a hand is an unspoken prayer, a groan from the heart, and it is heard with even more clarity that a hymn sung by the most majestic choir in a world-renown cathedral.
In prayer you raise your awareness, gestured perhaps by an arm raised, a knee lowered, a pause in your routine that even someone sitting alongside might not notice. It is that flicker of recognition I seek from you in the crowded room of your life so that you become aware of your dawning awakening to my love and grace. You see, your gesture, your prayer, is for you even though you think that you are rendering it to or for me. If you were surfing, I would be on the beach watching you ride that first wave to the shore. Though you wave to me to catch my attention; your wave is really for you to appreciate on your own this discovery in love.
So in life when you seem tossed to the depths – and it doesn’t have to be as dramatic as Jonah’s experience – find your way to the light by raising your arm, or eyes, or thoughts, or intentions, or concerns, and you will discover there will always be a witness who hears you and is extraordinarily pleased that you are riding that wave, knowing as you know that there are more to follow.
All for this morning.
April 17, 2009
Scripture:The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises. The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. Ecclesiastes 1:5-7
Prayer:
My first response to these verses is Oh, well. Bring me a deeper meaning.
ResponseA stage is set for you and you are invited to participate. All nature is assembled and performs its parts flawlessly even in tumult; and you are asked to speak your truth against this glorious backdrop. These verses are not to convey what’s this life all about anyway? You are invited to take in the harmony and allow it to influence, to balance your own inner harmony.
I am sure you haven’t missed that you too rise and set and do hurry back – you are called home. Yes, there are times you are the wind blowing to the south and then the north – but even the wind calms and returns on its course. You are the young stream dashing against the rocks, then boulders, until you reach the open water – and then ascend once again.
See the cycle as a rhythm in life, and most especially in your life. It would almost be better – in fact it is better – not to dwell on photographs of the past as on storms of the past. Be present to now and filled with expectation of today – be it the sun about to rise, the wind shifting directions, the stream discovering a new channel to journey. And even if I am asking too much of you, it doesn’t matter; the movement and harmony of life continues with or without your awareness.
All for this morning.
April 14, 2009
Scripture:They asked each other: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32
Prayer:
Help me to realize that I don’t have to be on a road to hear you.
ResponseFor today see yourself walking in the rain along a darkened road before dawn. You are wrapped in thoughts of tasks to accomplish as close as you pull your jacket closer to ward of the rain blowing in from the sea. Without warning, a feeling, a thought penetrates your attention and encourages you to abandon your concerns, those distractions that keep you still, and to think more deeply. It is at such moments that you experience an ascent or is it a descent into the realm of the heart – where mind and its analytical ability are put aside.
At such times, your heart does burn with a recognition that those on the road to Emmaus experienced. And your recognition, difficult for you to accept so wedded are you to past events recorded, is the same and is available to you each time you pause in the rain of your life – if you catch my meaning.
How can I make it clearer than to say over and over to you – using words, sights, relationships, events, circumstances – that I am walking alongside you? Be at peace and listen, observe, sense my presence on your road to Emmaus.
All for this morning.
April 13, 2009
Scripture:Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me.” Isaiah 6:8
Prayer:
So few words and like so many other verses in their familiarity the meaning drifts off as I often fail to secure it, ponder it deep within. Help me this morning; refresh my understanding.
ResponseThis verse like so many others is brief and contains all you have to comprehend. It’s like an essential phrase you should include in a notebook, were you to be stranded in some isolated or foreign environment. Don’t think that foreign travel is on your agenda, but it might. Each time you venture out of your clean well lighted place – as Hemingway described that comfort zone, that place where order seems to prevail – you are or could be stranded in a sense, drawn into circumstances, experiencing events that you would have chosen otherwise.
Here Isaiah is describing hearing the voice of the Lord. This is not some occasional or even rare event – or at least it doesn’t have to be. Right this moment, in the darkness before dawn, the birds chirping outside, I speak to you. There is no predetermined text to which I refer; I am not referring to notes taken the previous day; I am not repeating something that I don’t think you heard. No, each day, each moment, I speak with clarity to you who is, in this moment, becoming more conscious of my love. I can use a vocabulary in a sense now that would have been Greek to you earlier.
My questions are not addressed to a crowd of onlookers. No, they are for you. In fact, no one else can hear what I am saying to you, what I am asking of you. And your response is confirmation to you – I already know – that you are awakening; you are rousing from a deep sleep of neglect and isn’t that encouraging, a reason to celebrate? Who could possibly have imagined that this is you who hear and respond to my call? I did. So the last question for today is, Where are you going?
All for this morning.
April 12, 2009
Scripture:“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
Prayer:
With the wind howling outside my window, help me to answer the question, who am I looking for?”
ResponseNow that is a good question! I could end this lesson with the question. You see that it is in the question that you find the answer. It is in the question you discover deep within you the yearning that brings you all in your time to consciousness, full consciousness of my love. And that question transcends the mundane and transports you in the swirl of the wind to consider alone and in stillness the presence, love, and commitment of the Risen One.
Why indeed are you crying? Why indeed do you devote so much energy and distraction for divining an order and purpose to your life when at the deepest level your question or questions are answered daily. When your logical mind seeks to impose a solution on the divine order and purpose, let go in your heart and experience the delight of recognition in your life, in the present.
Take this special moment in time, not as an historical event, rather an eternal, present moment in your life with each breath you take in. That is the promise that is fulfilled for eternity in you. The resurrection event is today, this morning, with the wind howling outside, is a herald to wake you from your slumber, rouse your heart in celebration, take in the magnitude and magnificence of a promise fulfilled in you each and every morning of your life into eternity. Indeed, you might ask yourself, why am I crying?
All for this morning.
April 10, 2009
Scripture:And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 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 21:3-4
Prayer:
Help me to probe this special mystery on this special anniversary.
ResponseInstead of focusing on what is no longer, listen to the words of what is – God is with you; he sits opposite you on morning such as this and speaks clearly to you about your life of promise. He is your guest and you don’t even have to consider redesigning your home or heart to accommodate him. He is here. You wake in the morning and discover his presence over coffee in the stillness; he is still there in the evening as you prepare to retire. And he is not a guest who is simply trying to stay out of your way. He engages in a constant dialogue of love and grace, if only you will pause in the frenzy of your life.
He is not some stranger you took in. No, he is closer to you than family. He knows you better than any, I repeat any, intimate partner or loved one. He knows your inner most parts and blesses the tenderness that might escape the notice of that very same intimate partner or loved one. He does not take up residence with you for a free meal, but rather to provide you a free meal –and spend a moment on the free meal that you receive in his love.
Extraordinary to reflect upon the miracle of turning sadness into joy, grief into celebration, loss into overflowing abundance, despair into hope, loneliness into a community of love, age into eternity. And this just doesn’t happen by accident. The divine plan is quite deliberate and in your life you are able to manifest the results – if you will.
All for this morning.
April 8, 2009
Scripture:As God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14
Prayer:
Help me to grasp the meaning beyond the familiarity of the words.
ResponseImagine that you leave your home before dawn on an unseasonably cold morning. You go into the closet and chose a garment that is in tatters. Think of how uncomfortable you would be. In these verses, you are being given the pattern or template for the perfect wrap suitable for the weather you might encounter in all climes and on all days. Consider the warmth provided as your garment knits or weaves together the virtues described, even those that on occasion you might not display on the outer side of the garment – often because you are unconscious it seems, distracted by the chill you might feel within.
Each of those virtues has a story to tell you. And instead of describing to yourself times when you have been so wrapped, allow those who you encounter to teach you. Recall when you have been surprised, caught unaware by another’s act of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience directed toward you. Did it wake you from the self-centered attitude that might have engrossed you? Were you initially puzzled by the display, even embarrassed, did you almost wish away the encounter? If so, why?
And what about forgiveness? When it the last time that you forgave someone – even one who is unaware of the offense? And finally, what about love – love that bind these virtues into a radiant garment that never wears out, is never out of style, seems to fit you snugly whatever your expanding or contracting size?
All for this morning.
April 7, 2009
Scripture:Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it .Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:2-3
Prayer:
I am overwhelmed by the message contained in these two short verses. Help me to apply them in my life.
ResponseIt is good to reflect upon your life and recall instances when your generosity was outmatched by someone who showed such kindness to you. How startling to receive a gift from a stranger whether it is a helping hand on a roadside, a listening in a time of need, an errand performed that brings you back in contact with a loved one, a smile offered in a time of sadness. Yes, how startling to receive without asking, without revealing a need – perhaps not even recognizing the need.
The angels among you prod you not only into wakefulness but more importantly into action and action outside your comfort zone. Who knows how to touch those isolated in their despair – be it in the home down the street, across town in a prison, in a hospice, or someone close who lives in fear?
But this reminder is not meant to generate a feeling of guilt as your mail is flooded with genuine requests for support. Rather from a joyful heart consider the fifth word of the verse selected – entertain. Perhaps, you would prefer celebrate. In your giving, whatever you share embrace my joy and you will discover in every smile and gesture a resource within that might have been up until that moment stagnant.
All for this morning.
April 6, 2009
Scripture:And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. Philippians 1:9-10
Prayer:
In these short verses, my attention is caught by references to depth of insight, discernment, and blameless. Guide my understanding as to how love is to abound.
ResponseYes, so few are these words that others have written volumes to describe. The key to unlock the meaning contained therein is prayer. Though it is sometimes difficult for you to appreciate, even accept that all your research of the mind as exhaustive as it might be offers little lest you pray. It is in prayer that a depth of insight overflows in an instant, addressing the most complex questions of the heart.
It is in prayer that you are able to see beyond that curtain of doubt what you call discernment. And it is in prayer that you gain the courage to embrace the insights that are the evident fruit of your prayer. This courage of which I speak is emboldened as your faith settles deep into a quiet confidence.
So prayer brings you abounding love, knowledge, and insights leading to action evidenced as pure and blameless, reflecting the very fruit of your prayer. For today, identify the fruits of prayer in your daily routine, perhaps measured in a shift in your perception of a motive, analysis, goal, or fear in yourself or in someone with whom you come into contact.
All for this morning.
April 4, 2009
Scripture:For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden cause a seed to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. Isaiah 61:11
Prayer:
As spring appears in this clear but brisk morning, bring me to a deeper understanding of these words.
ResponseWell, you caught at least one of the lessons of this verse; you woke up this morning to read the verse. I am being only slight humorous with you. This verse is about waking up in consciousness and I let you know what happens, or how you can tell that indeed you are awake and so are your neighbors.
What do I mean? I am giving you a perspective that continues to rise from the first line to the last. See the soil – the material – on which you walk and often times are mired in as the first ground level of consciousness. There you see from time to time, separated, an occasional sprout – often times something that you are not responsible for planting; and you see mysteriously those dry seeds that you purchased and put in the ground on faith begin to defy belief in their growth. That is at ground level where you only respond as if prodded into temporary wakefulness from time to time – timed actually to the seeds and blossoms before you fall back asleep, back into the soil of forgetfulness.
And then in time – timed to your grace-fullness, that is timed to my grace penetrating and refashioning who you consider you – your essential being – to be, you wake to the consciousness, the wakefulness, proclaimed in every word of scripture, in every dazzling image that catches your attention, in every soulful relationship, in every pause you deliberately take to ponder, in every witness that has proclaimed my love, in every melody that causes you to weep, in every smile you see, in every service you perform. And how do you gauge that wakefulness, that emergence – actually elevation – that offers you a new consciousness? You will spontaneously embrace righteousness – not just in your corner of the neighborhood so to speak, but as far as your voice and prayer can carry; and praise, spontaneous praise will be sustained among and before all nations. So reflect on these words this glorious sun-filled morning.
All for this morning.
April 3, 2009
Scripture:Above all, you must understand that no prophesy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophesy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Spirit. 2 Peter 1:20-21
Prayer:
Help me to understand better the words carried along by the Spirit.
ResponseThese words suggest what occurs when in the reflection prompted by a reading of Scripture, but don’t limit yourself here; see yourself carried along in a relationship, sunrise, insight that opens you to new vistas of the heart. You see the Spirit is the breeze in your life, never stagnant, never becalmed. The Spirit provides the ever present dialogue that quickens your pulse, sends chills down your arms in a realization of the love and grace showered upon you.
I often ask you to do your best – and let me say this now – do your best not to treat prophesy and this dialogue about which I speak as historical in nature. It is just the opposite. Prophesy is present tense. It consists of what you hear right this moment. Prophesy is not confined to an ancient tome. Rather, you might discover prophesy in the words of a stunning sermon, homily, or in the words spoken in innocence by a child who cannot read. Prophesy is the bearer of truth on the winds of the Spirit.
So for today, lift your eyes; look around; expand your hearing radius; listen to me speaking to you so close that there is no strain involved; no academic degree required; no class to be entered or social status to be maintained. This prophesy confirms our relationship even in the drone of busy-ness.
All for this morning.
April 2, 2009
Scripture:“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” Revelation 4:11
Prayer:
Lord, give me an insight into my being.
ResponseYou are asking a question that your language hardly permits full understanding. If you could, imagine for a moment your first breath taken after your birth. Instead of retracing your steps through your father and mother, and further through ancestors, try to grasp that from the vacuum of the universe you appear, like a bubble that inexplicably rises above the surf after crashing on a rocky coast.
Indeed, the bubble is fragile, tossed on the wind, it seems, as it navigates the thermal currents. Yet, it doesn’t burst but continues its journey reflecting the light of the sun, magnifying the colors of creation as it lilts in harmony. It captures the sound of morning – and yes mourning – within the capsule it rides, the sounds of joy that resonate in all creation. Now for a moment consider that you are that bubble. I told you from where you originated; now the question – who is the it to which I refer? Is it the bubble? I think not.
In life your grounding in the material, the earth, causes you to forget your origins – much like dismissing your ancestors, even worse because I am asking you to consider a space-less-time-less-non-linear expression of creation. And at the pulse you can just get a glimpse of that over powering majesty that puffed you from the universe of dreams to bring you into a reality that you can recognize. And now the second question that should keep your attention for at least today – hopefully, much longer – Why?
All for this morning.
April 1, 2009
Scripture:And Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
Prayer:
This verse is so familiar to me; so familiar that I hardly pause to catch its meaning. Help me this morning to do just that – pause.
Response:I am surprised that you say you might miss the essential meaning of these words. With all of my guidance that in stillness you find me, did I ever suggest that you were not to continue your journey? It is on the path that you encounter the trials that each of you face. It might be financial concerns that are so real that they embrace you when you awake in the morning, or a health issue that is clouding your thinking as you go about your routine tasks, or concern for a loved one, or frustration trying to determine a future that proves elusive to the touch – and of course the list could go on and on.
What these words are suggesting is that to the extent possible take you out of the consideration in each and every example encountered. In doing so, you are essentially denying yourself. You are embracing, yes I said embracing that trial, that cross. In doing so you discover a freedom, a new life, as you pursue me down the corridor of your heart. You will also find your step lighter since you are no longer – at least for the moment – carrying the burden of self.
So you see, I am not counseling a somber, ash-cloth clad pursuit, eyes down, but rather a brisk walk, alert, focused, with confidence that you will catch up to me despite the fog that seems to settle over my footsteps from time to time. Please remember to lose yourself in the pursuit. What a paradox to ponder!
All for this morning.
March 31 2009
Scripture:You have made known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
Prayer:
Lord, guide my reflection this morning.
ResponseThe path, you have come to realize, is distinct, unique for each of you. There is a quality about it that you all experience and that is the joy that I shower on you when you let go, release your expectations and accept fully the love that I shower on you. In the letting go, you clearly are present and aware of my presence. There is no circumstance in your life that can thwart this experience of joy. Rather than attempt to challenge this statement by reviewing past events and crises, might I suggest that you simply accept the statement on face value, beginning with this moment?
Put aside, relinquish the hold of all the tasks that lay before you this day – I didn’t not say ignore them as not worthy of accomplishment – rather I said relinquish the hold, the distraction each represents. And for this moment, be in my presence consciously. It is as if you are entering a protective dome of light – golden light – and there everything is revealed as to each circumstance’s significance. You will find there the wisdom to distinguish the intricacies of seemingly insolvable issues related to your life.
Conscious in my presence, you experience a joy that exceeds any expectations that you might have nourished earlier. But conscious you must be, though accept that I never leave your side. This joy breaks through whatever time considerations that you generally associate with time and time constraints. And that joy, even if you can remain awake intermittently, is a hint of the eternal pleasure and joy that await you when you are fully conscious to my love. In the midst of the turmoil of your life, snatch awake this joy.
All for this morning.
March 29, 2009
Scripture:Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6
Prayer:
Tell me more of them. Who are they?
Response:Good question. For each there is a different shadow to haunt you. For some it is illness, loss, finances, relationship, job, age, frustration, responsibility, or anxiety; for some it is a real enemy bent on your destruction as it was for the Israelites. Each shadow has the capacity to freeze you in your steps, interfere with the free flow with which I grace you; have you looking over your shoulder in fear or nodding off into slumber to escape.
And then like someone swinging a wooden hammer against a huge brass gong, I announce my presence – not my arrival – for I have never left. For those who sought solace in unconsciousness, you are jolted awake; for those looking back, your attention is riveted forward, and, yes, those who seemed paralyzed with fear, you feel the blood resuming its easy flow through your veins to supply your heart.
Repeat these last lines of the verse whenever you are so disturbed – for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you or forsake you. Now for at least this day, apply the promise to your life even if the circumstances are not quite as dramatic – or maybe they are – as what Moses or Joshua was referring.
All for this morning.
March 27 2009
Scripture:Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:4
Prayer:
There are times – perhaps most times – that I become impatient for perseverance to finish its work. Guide me this morning.
Response:Maybe it’s not perseverance that is your challenge but the patience to await the results. Isn’t the experience of life like a race on a river that you have never raced on previously? Once you settle down, because you don’t know how long the race is, as there are no familiar markers to gauge your progress, you lengthen your strokes and concentrate on each single stroke — the single act of rowing. You are focused in the present and, if I might say, you are relaxed. That is perseverance.
So your life, simply stated, is the opportunity to take one stroke, one step, one smile, one embrace, one pause, one prayer, one service, one gesture — and on and on endlessly in the rhythm of this gracious experience of life where you discover almost unwillingly that your journey takes you through endless streams flowing left, then right, always forward. And almost contrary to your expectations you begin to exhibit that patience for which you once were most critical of yourself and others. In that moment of consciousness, enlightenment, you realize that you could continue endlessly – and will.
For today think about how perseverance calls you today.
All for this morning.
March 26 2009
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.” Jeremiah 29:11
Prayer:
Whenever this verse finds me, I do not tire of its assurance.
Response:It is difficult not to see that this verse is met for you individually and not in some broad, collective sense. Wherever you are this day, the verse serves as my reminder to you this special day that I have plans for you. In the whirl of your activity, sometimes lost to you is that I care. You are like weavers in a huge hall who receive the fiber and intuitively know the pattern on which you are working. And I ask from where that intuition comes? Lost in the swirl of color, the pattern you are forming, you lose sight and appreciation for the work of art to which you are contributing. When you step back – or rather within – you sense the creation of which you are part and to which you create. This is a difficult concept for you to appreciate. Accept that you are not puppets on a string pulled by a great puppeteer, rather you are co-creators of your environment.
For you to catch a glimpse of the vision I have for you, pause for your tea break – as if you were a weaver in the mountains of Central Asia, step back or better yet climb to a higher elevation to see the interconnectedness unfolding in the tapestry of your life to those around you and afar. And as I said above, that stepping back is actually the step within where all is made clear to you, even now.
Spend a moment this day on the word prosper. I have plans to prosper you. While you might be more familiar with the noun prosperity, consider the empowerment, the blessing, the selection that the verb prosper conveys. Don’t look around and think that I am directing my gaze elsewhere. No, I intend my words for you this very moment. All you have to do is hear the words and accept them.
All for this morning.
March 24 2009
Scripture:Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6:15
Prayer:
How often a verse that I have read quickly holds a meaning that I overlooked previously – as with this verse.
Response:It is like finally getting to the pastry crust and discovering a flavor missed in the filling. Yes, this verse captures for you the rhythm of Christ’s movement among you – even now. Just when you have figured things out – at least you think so – the author of life takes a turn and you are left to reflect on the meaning. All the signs of the miracle on the mountainside proclaimed that a worldly kingship, freedom from worldly oppression, the satisfaction of basic needs, and the list would expand if you were to interview all present – and consider yourself present as well. And just at that moment, anticipating the answer, he withdraws to a mountain by himself. What are you to make of it?
Make of it timing, timing in your life, letting go of what you want to control, and dissolve those desires in acceptance of what is – or put another way, allow those desires to dissolve into God’s will for you in this present moment. Observe the strength of character that you are witnessing in that withdrawal that he offers you in your daily life. How many times have you withdrawn to a quiet place – like now – to ponder a scene, a word, a thought, an insight before resuming your journey? So it was as Jesus withdrew again – it was not the first time, nor would it be the last – by himself.
For today, see if you can snatch a moment in time to withdraw and consider the passage of time as you journey on the path. You see in the withdrawal you greet the unfolding of who you are becoming.
All for this morning.
March 23 2009
Scripture: “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares he Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 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 31:33-34
Prayer: Help me to know better what is written on my heart.
Response: Consider how you would be in the world, if you accepted these words of Jeremiah literally as they are meant. Suppose you accepted that your neighbor close, and those who live far from you, because I have written it on their hearts? Is that the divine spark that you talk of when far off you come to recognize a characteristic, a trait, a sparkle in someone that you have discovered earlier within you? Is it in that moment that you put aside fear and hesitancy to find common bond? And you don’t have to be far off in a less traveled land to make this discovery – you could be in a convenience store, a mall, or in the pew of a familiar house of worship.
What would it take to look boldly into your neighbor’s eyes and see recognition – recognition of a traveled soul on the path homebound? How much courage would it take to put aside the pride of knowing and acknowledge in your actions that your fellow traveler will know me from the least and humble to those who occupy positions of authority, to those who speak in foreign tongues and display cultures with which you are not familiar?
You all will know me – even those strangers. I have written my message of love on their hearts.
All for this morning.
March 22 2009
Scripture:. . . and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. John 6:2-3
Prayer:
Help me to enter the scene that John depicts.
Response:Think of a time when you hiked with friends or family and came to a spot of unmatched beauty. There was an unconscious desire on the part of all of you to prolong this moment in time, and so you paused. This is what is happening in this scene. Notice I say is because this scene is in the present time for you this morning. And realize that it was not the natural beauty that gave everyone pause as much as being in the company, for the disciples the select company, of someone who spoke in an other-worldly sense of matters that active people customarily overlook; and not only in words did he mesmerize his followers and the huge crowds that followed at a distance. No, he reinforced his words of love with action and service to those in need.
The great discovery of the select, who on the surface seemed fine – one might even say prosperous in matters of health and livelihood, was that his comments and instruction touched a nerve of recognition, one that they had neglected for so long. They could not get enough of his words and actions, sensing that he would not be in their midst for long. That’s the scene for you to enter, and in entering you come to realize that all you need is a quiet place to be there now. It isn’t as if you were successful transporting yourself back in time, but rather, and this is important even critical for you to understand, this moment on the mountain side is now. So observe and listen.
Before you give voice to what you hear and observe around you, begin with what you seek to experience in this companionship because there resides the prompt cards for you to give voice to your innermost prayers. Each assembled on the slope – whether next to Jesus or further down the slope almost out of earshot but not quite — came with expectations that are sometimes so deeply imbued within that they hardly recognize these longings as their own, sometimes releasing them in unrecognizable groans uttered softly under their breath.
So take your seat and collect the urgings of your heart in stillness. No one is watching; they are all doing the same. All for this morning.
March 20 2009
Scripture:While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. Jeremiah 7:13
Prayer:
Lord, this verse seems as applicable to me now as it was directed to Jeremiah 2,500 years ago. Help me to keep my attention.
Response:What further reminded do you need that my word is freshly anointed? I mean that in reading my word with an attentive heart, you become the Jeremiah, the disciple, the lonely soul in the desert repeating the words silently to oneself and the words are as immediate as when Jeremiah first received them. Clearly, he thought them worthy enough to copy them down. I am not asking you to take out pen or paper, or sit before a keyboard, but I do ask you to remember the verse and respond individually to my declaration. More importantly, I ask what are you going to do about it?
Yes, I am looking for you to move on from the state described in the verse. That’s the kind of doing I am asking for. Because in that doing, that action, you discover a becoming within yourself that you did not consider possible. Perhaps, you think I am suggesting that you limit your ease, or at least you consider it so – to perform at a multi-tasking pace. Well, I am. Take time to listen – and that means in stillness. You don’t need any interpreter for my words, or any special acoustic devices to snatch these words from the airwaves. No, I speak to each of you individually and my voice is distinct, my message is clear. Don’t ask for a summary, just take time to listen.
And do you know what? You will be surprised at how you alter your day’s activities; experience the calmness that enters what might have been a house of bedlam and I don’t mean structures but your interior; see sights that you might have missed in your frenzied activity.
All for this morning.
March 18 2009
Scripture: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 23:8-10
Prayer:
Reassure me Lord that you do not lose sight of me.
Response:No, I do not lose sight of you. In fact your searching, sometimes frantic, as you look north and south, east and west, would be better spent looking within. You see, I have never left your side. It is, however, in your search that you, yes you, realize this thirst and it is in your thirst that your search is realized in my presence recognized.
If in a desert, you would discover that the thirst you seek to slack is immediately below you in the sand, needed only your soft tap to experience the gushing of my grace over you. Quite an incredible image for you to contemplate, when you are next dehydrated by the concerns, even anxieties of your circumstances.
This is not a game of hide and seek. In your search you learn action and service – not indulging yourself to ponder over and over your fate. Rather it is in your search for me that you shake the dust from your sandals and minister to those who also wander sometimes without purpose across your path. And you might even find that these searchers resemble you as they are members of your family or among your closest confidantes.
All for this morning.
March 16, 2009
Scripture:To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. Psalm 3:4
Prayer:
With your grace keep my attention.
Response:Your prayers are the cries that indicate the depth within you is our relationship. Even before you utter the first syllable, I hear your joy, groans, murmurings. That holy hill of which the psalmist writes is within you. I have taken up residence there. So you see there are instant communications and even more instant dialogue.
If you will be patient and listen you will discover and be a participant in a vibrant exchange. You are required to be still. Sometimes, you might even say most times, you put down the receiver before I have had a chance to speak.
So my message is imbued in the circumstances around you. As you awake, you will see that our exchanges lengthen and deepen and become more meaningful. If I might say, clarity emerges and you become at ease with yourself. You will also find that you are grounded in the present time –and you are. Focus on the word answer, for indeed you will receive answers to your pleas and with clarity. My message you will find is fashioned for you especially because it is with you I converse in grace.
All for this morning.
March 14, 2009
Scripture:He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” John 6:65
Prayer:
What does enable mean?
Response:Perhaps you would be more comfortable with empowered. In my grace you awake, become conscious, and in this rousing you are enabled, encouraged, exhorted to set out on the quest. No matter where you are in your life passage; it has no import even if you have resting on the side of the path, once you are awakened and resume your journey you have been enabled. It is as if a burden was lifted from you and your steps seem lighter.
What I want you to understand and to reflect upon – it is not about you acting on your own, but rather, and this is essential for you to catch, it is about you responding. In that response you connect, tap into my grace; it is as if I was sending these random radio signals out and some isolated station picks up the signal and acknowledges receipt. As you might have imagined already, it is not about simply sending the receipt. I am asking you to embark on the path. And please do not try is distinguish whether your neighbor has been called, received the signal. In fact, each of you over the expanse of the globe can detect the signal, though only those sufficiently conscious are responding. Have confidence that others, even all, will respond in time.
See that signal as my grace and love, burst transmissions that travel a circuitry that spans the globe.
All for this morning.
March 13, 2009
Scripture:There he went into a cave and spent the night. And the word of the Lord came to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1Kings 19-913
Prayer:
Help me to hear you in the gentle whisper.
Response:Yes, I use the calamitous events in your life to catch your attention. You too retreat to your cave and attempt to ignore the signposts found all around you. But I persist until you get it – as you would say. And just when you think that you are on your feet and attentive, through the thunderous events and circumstances you encounter, you hear my whisper. Of all things, you hear my whisper – something you have ignored for years. And in that instant, you too stand up and go the entrance of the cave and await my words spoken to you in a whisper above the tumult.
For today, consider my question to Elijah, and answer it as if spoken to you – as it is spoken to you – What are you doing here?
All for this morning.
March 12, 2009
Scripture:“My people have committed two sins: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13
Prayer:
Help me to search out the spring of living water.
Response:Your prayer should really be that you be sustained by this living water. See yourself established on the fringe of a desert where a spring of crystal clear water flows. Don’t be tempted to move off further in the desert, relying upon underground chambers constructed of discarded stone and tile to hold stagnant water when you establish your temporary lodging
Identify in your life the source of living water, my grace in your life. You can recognize it because of its movement across the rocks that would interrupt your journey, but with the water serve to keep that water cool, pure, refreshing.
The movement of the living water is like the undulating waves that touch the shore, the wind that grazes across your landscape, a widening dawn at sunrise — all reminders of my presence in grace that surround you who are sometimes pressed into shelters of your own construction.
All for this morning.
March 10, 2009
Scripture: “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you. . . .” John 17:3
Prayer: Bring me to a closer knowing.
Response: The knowing that I seek for you in my grace is a knowing without qualifiers – fuller, lesser, or the like. Knowing is without words; it is a confidence like the recognition of a loved one by a walk seen in the distance, a gesture caught on a stranger that brings the loved one into your presence, a disposition that guides you yet. This knowing knows no separation; rises from a depth within that surprises you like the sun tipping through the horizon at dawn; it is familiar like a bosom friend who visits and there is no recollection when he or she was absent.
In this knowing you – the you who observes – changes, matures, and pulses with a capacity to love not recognized earlier. In this knowing, in this proximity, you become the love that once you observed at a distance, though you can hardly give expression to that time or that distance – like puzzling over a faded photograph as to the age and image looking out at you.
Now this is eternal life – to be one in union, transformed in and through the power of my love. No turning back.
All for this morning.
March 9, 2009
Scripture: Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:14
Prayer: In the desert help me to hear your voice
Response: At times when your voice seems hoarse with pleas that seemingly go unheard, you might feel that you have wandered into a desolate region, sparse in its vegetation. You might realize it but you have followed all the sign posts and can’t at first understand why you find yourself in a desert region. And as you look around, there is nothing to distract you other than your thirst.
And what is that thirst? The sense of assurance in my grace as I nourish you in the companions who come across your path, in the idyllic scene s of nature that touch you at that particular time, the events in your life that all seem to be progressing according to your plan, I repeat your plan. Then you seem alone. It’s like running a marathon and there is no one manning a refreshment station along the route. Your prayer is bleak with your pleading, even if you don’t consider yourself abandoned.
It is in the desert, the dark night, of your soul, that I embolden your heart with love for me. It is then that you continue your journey without the satisfaction of my presence though I have not left your side – another paradox. It is then that I speak to you at a decibel below the sounds around you. It is in the desert of your journey that you are strengthened in my love.
All for this morning.
March 6, 2009
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. Habakkuk 3:19
Prayer: Help me to realize that without your strength there are not many heights I would reach.
Response: By now you realize that the heights I talk of often are disguised in the depths. Ask how you penetrate or deal with the challenges that command sometimes your attention. If you find yourself figuratively closing your eyes and dashing forward, you might pause and reflect upon this verse. I am your strength; I sustain you even if you are picking your steps carefully along a mountain ridge with loose rock all about. I urge you on higher to the next level where you are surprised to discover a mountain lake high above the tree line. I encourage you especially when you are weary; when you wonder about your progress, have second thoughts about your direction.
Consider the opening lines – The Sovereign is my strength. Not only are those words meant to resonate in your heart in all seasons of your life, but also to be on your lips when faced with a daunting task or event in your life. Your words are not only a reminder that commands your attention, but also forewarning to those who would trifle with or obstruct your purpose. Spoken softly these words are a measure of my strength in you.
For today, see if you can resume your journey higher on the slope; walk nimbly and alertly; consider even anticipate the refreshment that awaits you further on.
All for this morning.
March 4, 2009
Scripture: My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth, the span of my years is nothing before you.”
Prayer: Help me Lord to grasp the truth uttered by the Psalmist and not as an historical truth but meant for me this day.
Response: The psalmist is calling out to you across the centuries and he is inviting you to do likewise for those in your midst and those to follow. He invites you in the present tense to be still in my presence and experience the fire that burns especially for you. Allow that heat to envelop you even on a cold day – be it the weather or the daunting tasks, it seems, that await you. Don’t rush to bring your mind of precision into the scene.
Then let me hear those words of the heart that are unspoken that lead you to even deeper truth. Embrace in my grace the answers you seek to drown out in the din of activity. You don’t need an interpreter of dreams to confirm for you how fleeting this life experience is. Without getting morose, accept that truth directly and address it as it relates also to those you love.
Though your days are not much more than can be grasped as you sea shells from the sea, consider the unique treasures each represents as you hold the collection in your hands, and ponder each day especially today.
All for this morning.
March 2, 2009
Scripture: My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: “Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere handbreadth, the span of my years is nothing before you.”
Prayer: Help me Lord to grasp the truth uttered by the Psalmist and not as an historical truth but meant for me this day.
Response: The psalmist is calling out to you across the centuries and he is inviting you to do likewise for those in your midst and those to follow. He invites you in the present tense to be still in my presence and experience the fire that burns especially for you. Allow that heat to envelop you even on a cold day – be it the weather or the daunting tasks, it seems, that await you. Don’t rush to bring your mind of precision into the scene.
Then let me hear those words of the heart that are unspoken that lead you to even deeper truth. Embrace in my grace the answers you seek to drown out in the din of activity. You don’t need an interpreter of dreams to confirm for you how fleeting this life experience is. Without getting morose, accept that truth directly and address it as it relates also to those you love.
Though your days are not much more than can be grasped as you sea shells from the sea, consider the unique treasures each represents as you hold the collection in your hands, and ponder each day especially today.
All for this morning.
March 2, 2009
Scripture: “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior!” 2 Samuel 22:47
Prayer: Help to understand the imagery of this verse.
Response: You wake and go outside in the cold and rain and dark, and wonder. What is this all about? This question forms on your lips; you do not even utter the words aloud. And the answer, very specific, resounds around you in this time of darkness. You don’t have to wake up before dawn to wonder alone. The question comes to you almost on cue.
Well, this verse is one that I will whisper within you at such times. And it is an exclamation, a shout. Notice that from declaring, shouting that the Lord lives, you are then asked to praise this Rock – this impenetrable, unchanging Presence. No, you are not being asked to worship an idol, but my Presence in your midst, at all times, in all circumstances, in all climes. My response is not affected by the wind, the rain, the frost, the sounds of fury from the sea – above and beyond all the elements I stand above as any mountain presence you have experienced.
And in case you missed it, this Rock is not unmoved but is your Savior. Now here is a mystery for you to reflect upon this day – The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God, the Rock, my Savior.
All for this morning.
February 28, 2009
Scripture: After he had said this, he went on to tell them: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up. John 11:11
Prayer: Wake me up, Lord.
Response: Reflect upon the meaning you place on the words fallen asleep. It’s temporary with a hint that you will awaken, and indeed you will. Most importantly for you now is to wake up in your physical wrapping.
You nod off when you have deprived yourself of rest – so fixed you become in attending to busy duties that provide your explanation of why you can’t find the time to be still. I am here to rouse you, and I accomplish this by nudging you awake, gaining your attention by an inexplicable experience you encounter whether of joy or sorrow. Do not fail to note that you as Lazarus are my friend.
I will not allow you to linger in despondency, in a desultory state, in the grip of inaction and self-absorption. Now, as your dearest friend in my Spirit I will awaken you, and urge you to rise, and in rising you will get a sense, a preview, of your rising when your physical nature slips away. As you rise into consciousness, you will discover that you no longer nod off, or at least with the regularity you did; instead you will note a vibrancy that you have missed since the days when you played as a little child.
Full consciousness, awake-ness, is measured in the endless dance of life in my grace in which you now discover the stamina to engage.
All for this morning.
February 27, 2009
Scripture: Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place Psalm 51.6
Prayer: You never fail to reach me when I am still – and so now I ask in truth and wisdom.
Response: Truth and wisdom – sometime are used by you interchangeably. Truth is actually a simple concept to grasp – what you know to be true, accept and act in accordance with that truth. While easy to grasp intellectually, it proves difficult at times to act upon the truth openly without fear, especially if that truth is contradictory to the actions of your heart. And you do seek the truth and even draw that truth deep within, sometimes allowing it to mature over time, sometimes to store even confine in a hidden vault where even you have forgotten its existence. I do desire the truth to invade your inner being and not to go unnoticed.
Truth like light has the power to diffuse the darkness and ignorance that might have lay dormant, unmoving for ages. With truth, you consider yourself and surroundings with fresh heart eyes.
Color has suddenly been added to what might have once been a bleak scene. Therefore, seek truth with an openness and curiosity that venerates me. Now wisdom is what I teach as a wine steward would an apprentice.
Wisdom is based on your search for truth, on patience to allow the truth to mature under my guidance and tutelage. Wisdom is a quiet knowing that one applies carefully in service, be it in a soup kitchen, interacting with contemporaries or children or those who are completing their journey.
Wisdom is dispensed in measured portions and for it to be nourishing you must allow time for its assimilation, and always trusting in my grace. So for today, invite truth to invade the inner sanctum of your heart and welcome my wisdom that accompanies.
All for this morning.
February 25, 2009
Scripture: O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint. O Lord, heal me for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? Psalm 6:1-3
Prayer: As the season of Lent begins, help me to seek healing as I cultivate the psalmist’s sense of anguish.
Response: See if you can nurture in my grace the sense of anguish that transforms into enthusiastic compassion and service. Do not linger in sorrow for missed opportunities.
Rather see this moment as offering you full reconciliation in my love – right this minute. Dismiss the past and dive into the present that sorely needs your attention.
You will discover the healing you seek that transcends the human wrap, your anguish will be turned to joy, your weariness will be turned to exhilaration, and what once appeared dull and lifeless in your life will be transformed into color and vibrancy. And all this is offered to you when you come to me in prayer, humbly offering your sorrow for transgressions of the heart with firm resolve to reach out and touch those with the mercy that I shower upon you.
I desire that those who receive your grace-full love are led to wonder of the source of this love as you indeed wonder in my presence.
All for this morning.
February 24, 2009
Scripture: The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3
Prayer: Help me to see your constancy in my life.
Response: There are times when you might feel that you are wandering in a vast field of strangers in an unknown land. At such a time, you might recall a beckoning that draws you forward and it is in that instant that you realize that you are not alone – no matter the challenge – that I go before you, never beyond earshot, or better heart-shot. Reflect on what it means for you to experience everlasting love. The love that I talk of can be no other than everlasting, eternal.
What you experience in your relationships represent – I trust – signposts pointing to the one true love that you actually experience now, though you must awake to catch the full dimension of the love. Also, consider what it means to be drawn with loving kindness.
Such love is patient, kind, trusting, not overbearing, forgiving, and tender – and all the adjectives that you would describe the intimacy of a love that is transcendent.
Now, that is a word to ponder for today – transcendent – because you are on a transcendent path.
All for this morning.
February 23, 2009
Scripture: But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. Nehemiah 4:9
Prayer: I smile with this threat. Remind me of the need for action.
Response: The reminder for you today is that there is synergy in our relationship. Your prayer naturally leads you to action, to service – and action leads to prayer.
You might find that your prayers are even prompted by your action and service, prayers of thanksgiving, compassion, sorrow, joy – the full range of heart-emotion. My call is not one of retreat but of engagement. Indeed, I desire your prayers, to be present to hear the whispers of your heart that perhaps few hear – and I call you to action in service bolstered, emboldened by my grace. Remember the only surrender I seek is to my love.
So indeed man the ramparts and confront directly the challenges you face in daily life and do so with the knowledge of the intimacy we share and, of course, with the compassion I teach.
All for this morning.
February 22, 2009
Scripture: “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” John 1:39
Prayer: Give me the grace to accept the invitation.
Response: This is an open invitation to you and it doesn’t even require an RSVP – you can be spontaneous and show up without fanfare or announcement. “Invitation to what?” you ask. Well, would you drop all your responsibilities and you come, if I replied, “To a lecture series, to a briefing, to an admonition on conduct, to a donors’ conference?”
Perhaps not. No, my invitation is for you to enter into my presence and see to the full capacity of your heart – and listen quietly.
No need to respond or even comment, if you are not so inclined. Just come and see. And it is what you experience and will experience that will spur you to return.
As you reflect upon your life to date, you will recall the fullness of spirit, your spirit that you recognize, each time as if for the first time, in my presence. Linear time – moving in a straight line from past thru present to future – dissipates, and you are in an eternal moment where mind-thoughts of age, illness, finances, loss, or any other cause for worry or anxiety fade as the credits of a film you are previewing. Come and see is to listen at a heart level what I reveal and the discernment I share, yes share with you, and most importantly to witness by service to those who are still sitting on their invitation.
And in witnessing, you are not to judge why others have not responded to the invitation with alacrity. Only describe what you see allowing my grace to influence all in time. So I repeat, Come and see.
All for this morning.
February 20, 2009
Scripture: The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. John 1:9
Prayer: Deepen my understanding of this light.
Response: It is not surprising that this short verse contains a mystery that you push to grasp. Think back many years ago when you traveled in a car late at night alone on your way to Montana.
You intended to drive through the night when you perceived a single light approaching you in the winter air, by then you were in North Dakota.
You pulled to the side of the road to confirm that it was a train approaching, but more importantly that it was not heading down the center of the highway.
And you waited and waited and waited – and then many minutes later confirmed that the approaching light signaled a locomotive that passed you on tracks to the right of the road. Well, excuse me for reaching back into your memory bank to allow you to catch a glimpse of the excitement of the Light that comes into the world for every man.
If you think your attention was gripped so many years ago – was it from fear that you would be run over by the train having inadvertently strayed onto the tracks or fatigue from driving non-stop from New York – so should this verse freeze your attention on this event in your life. True light – to every man – coming into the world. So before you look around you and take a head count of who is included in every man, look within; pull off to the side of the road and receive the light that comes most especially for you.
All for this morning.
February 19, 2009
Scripture: You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalm 16:11
Prayer: I am struck by the majesty of the words of this verse and tend to miss the essential meaning.
Response: It is the majesty as you name it that catches your attention.
Surely, by now you understand what is the path of your life? Without filling the specifics of tomorrow – after all there is only today – you recognize the path.
It is a path trod by those who preceded you and energetically followed by those behind. And to open your heart, see if you can eliminate for this moment the notion of linear, surface time and singular path.
You are approaching the Godhead and were never distant – another paradox. And this truth serves as the foundation, the basis of your joy as you are enlightened to this truth. Imagine the joy of reunion with one long absent, only to discover you have never been separated. In this moment be the person who recognizes my presence now and for evermore. Eternal pleasure begins with the realization that the silence of the moment resounds with my presence.
Yes, I am just here, just now. The king you sought out from afar to petition is alongside listening intently to that petition though you speak in whispers. Now that is joy for you to experience.
All for this morning.
February 18, 2009
Scripture: A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. Isaiah 42:3
Prayer: From my youth this verse is familiar. Help me to fathom its deeper meaning.
Response: I ask you to stay for a moment with the words presented and not rush off to the interpretation that you have learned.
Delve into the spirit of the One who is all powerful yet with no need to show that power or to dismiss the intention of the weary.
This verse is meant for you today as a sign of encouragement. Bruised and smoldering at times, you are encouraged to seize responsibility, endure, and to nurture the smoldering wick – if that is how you appear or better someone with whom you are in contact. You see, the question to ask is if the all powerful does not break a bruised reed or snuff out a smoldering wick, why should you?
You are called to encourage those who falter, are bruised, seem to be losing their flame. Be not dismissive or impatient. Allow the bruised reed the time in your patience with my grace to be restored, the spark to flame once more.
Look about you this day and minister gently and secure in my love. This verse contains a jewel for you to snatch and keep close on your journey.
All for this morning.
February 17, 2009
Scripture: In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever. Psalm 44:8
Prayer: I need help with the words all day long.
Response: If it helps, the verse is guiding you to an inclination of the spirit. Just beneath the hum of daily activity – some quite meaningful, some automatic responses to daily routines – you are being asked, directed even, to be conscious.
Sounds like another paradox doesn’t it? This inclination of which I talk is to be nurtured on the path so that you do not miss what is vital to your awakening. In a real sense I am asking you to be alert to the surprises that await you. In praise – silent praise as well as praise uttered aloud – you acknowledge my presence and that serves to raise you to another state of consciousness. And why boast?
Well, in your boasting you embolden your faith; you are more prepared to face adversity – perhaps not a battlefield – but surely required as you face what you once considered – and maybe even still do – daunting challenges. Boasting serves to bring forth a deep roar – even if subdued – to the surface of your being, manifesting a confidence in my grace, bolstered by my love. For today be alert to your every challenge whether in the home or work environment or in chance encounters; and as you approach the challenge boast of my support and discover the relief that you experience.
All for this morning.
February 15, 2009
Scripture: The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord. Isaiah 38:20
Prayer: Teach me to sing.
Response: This verse reminds you once again of my love and your acknowledgement of that love in celebration each and every day, this day, of your life – no matter what you experienced the previous day.
The words — The Lord will save me – should indicate to you our relationship and for a relationship to exist and mature you must recognize it. I am not some stranger who comes to your rescue and disappears before you have a chance to ask a name. I am your companion that walks alongside, not someone leading an endless column in which you are in the rear.
As difficult as it might be for you at times, even most times, I seek an intimate relationship with you and all you have to do is be still and listen. It is as if you were trudging along in that column and the next moment the leader is walking along side conversing with you. Your realization of my presence would surely lead you to celebrate, announce to those you love – even strangers – your joy – your discovery.
The Lord will save me is a phrase that you should adopt in all circumstances of your life – not as a mournful dirge chanted in sorrow, but as words fitting a lilting melody that diffuses the doubt that might seek at times to encompass your environment.
So for today allow your heart to sing robustly of your joy.
All for today.
February 13, 2009
Scripture: He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory. Deuteronomy 20:3-4
Prayer: Help me to translate this warlike exhortation into my daily routine.
Response: From these two verses, first dwell on what I mean by fainthearted. You have the capacity in my grace to shed all aspects of faintheartedness.
I ask you to be bold and hopeful, anticipating my presence and your victory to overcome what impedes your journey of the soul. I am asking you to adopt an adventurous spirit and to step out boldly whether it be the continuation of your journey this morning despite your hesitation prompted by the obstacles before you – real or imagined, or a radical departure left or right to link up with your path even if it means traversing a rocky stretch for a time. I am especially with you at such times of return; and though you might question the settings of your compass, I will assure you in my grace and give you comfort – even in the darkness that might seem to encompass your heart.
Next, I want you to be fully present to the realization of my presence. These are not words that are meant to be polite like the words you utter without thinking to a casual acquaintance upon departure.
See you. Have a nice day. I am not going anywhere. I am with you this moment; I am with you when you might be overwhelmed; I am with you in the darkness of the night; I am with you during the time of your greatest challenges of faith; I am with you when you grieve – and even when you laugh. You see, my promise to be present alongside you is not dependent upon your awareness though I seek dearly your consciousness, your awareness. And if you missed it – that is the road that you are on.
Some might consider given the circumstances of their life that they are going off to battle; however, I am here this moment to inform you that you are going off to victory. Consider my presence as you move on the path today.
All for this morning.
February 11, 2009
Scripture: This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 18:24
Prayer: Sometime or even most times I take each day for granted and spend the day anticipating tomorrow, always tomorrow. Help me to rejoice and be glad in this day.
Response: Yes, I heartily agree with your sentiment. Through my grace you learn to slow the frenetic pace of your life, loose the tension in your shoulders and hands, soften the intensity of your gaze, lean back in a chair and dream.
No I am not suggesting surrender – except to your inner being.
And then, once so grounded in the state of being for which you are meant, you will experience this and every day as a special moment, a special creation, for you to witness, not as a passive observer; rather you will find that you participate in creation in full consciousness. Once you catch the true meaning of this verse that has eluded you to this day – with faint glimmers of awakening – you will rejoice to a depth you did not realize possible previously.
How, you ask? Your rejoicing will know no end.
Sound remarkable, unbelievable? Your rejoicing only ends when you allow anxieties of a future to intrude.
Begin each day and be reminded during the day, that this day the Lord has made – and for you to experience and for you to participate in this dance of my love. And you are invited each day to toss off the hood of despair, grief, fear, and concern; be glad for the invitation I have extended to you and rejoice as if there were no tomorrow –and perhaps there isn’t, only an illusion that inhibits your gladness in the present.
All for this morning.
February 10, 2009
Scripture: Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1
Prayer: Give me the courage to hope and the certainty from faith.
Response: This is a special verse that in its brevity commands your attention. The verse challenges you to take a huge step not reserved for the timid. Yes, I am not asking you to put your foot forward hesitantly – so to speak. I am asking you instead to proceed down what appears to be a darkened corridor with confidence. If it helps, my grace is there to embolden you, and if you listen carefully in the silence, you will hear a melody that is familiar to reassure you.
Aside from stepping forward, I want you to fashion in your heart what you hope for. Again, this is not an exercise that is beyond you, rather one that you tend to avoid for fear that you are alone in this darkened corridor.
Your hope expressed in silence or aloud is a deep set prayer that you are sometimes not accustomed to utter. Well, I ask you to do so, realizing that hope represents a special prayer, one that goes beyond the safe prayer of generalities. I say safe because whether or not the prayer is answered, no one is really the wiser.
So I ask you to bring into consciousness your deepest most private hope – and let me remind you, if I must, that you will find that such prayer often does not involve circumstances that surround you but might truly affect those you love or those you have yet to encounter. Now the third step in your awakening is to cultivate that certainty of what you do not see in that darkened corridor.
Such certainty is that of someone who is certain that you walked along this corridor previously – know the designs carved on the walls, the curvature of the corridor, its height, and even – in your certainty – its length. For today, pray with this faith, hope, and certainty.
All for this morning.
February 7, 2009
Scripture: But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are sleep, that we sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
Prayer: Help me to take in deeply this scripture.
Response: Don’t make it any more cryptic and esoteric than it is. Simply, you are called to nurture hope in my grace.
Yes, you are called. Take the message as written for you today though you are in good health, though you grieve for others who have passed.
These two verses bring you together and challenge you to cultivate hope in those who are without hope. I also implore you to rise from your ignorance. Listen to me in stillness; reflect upon my word; catch the meaning, the need, of someone around you who lingers without words; be bold in a gentle way to share the path – the path you are on and have trod; encourage the lonely and the despairing. Hope is essential. It is the surprise finale to a great meal, and that finale is an eternal beginning.
How simple is that? My words are not meant to puzzle. Smile wide when those without hope choose to scowl or embrace despair. And do not separate yourself from them but seek to touch them. Instead embrace them in my love. Give them hope in my grace.
All for this morning.
February 5, 2009
Scripture: His heart is secure, he will have no fear; in the end he will look in triumph on his foes. Psalm 112:8
Prayer: Help me to fathom a heart secure.
Response: The psalmist provides you a description of full or perhaps dawning consciousness – a worthy aspiration for you, but you must awake first. If you rise from the bed or cot, from your chair alongside your desk or from your seat in the sand and doubt, or hold apprehension, or anxiety seizes your attention, you can be assured that you have fallen back asleep. There is much for you to consider in these last words. Coming into my consciousness does not mean that it is accumulative and no longer requires your attention. Quite the contrary, as you progress in the awakened state, I am asking you to nurture this awareness.
This is no time to sit back figuratively or literally, else you will be in slumber before you finish this sentence. My consciousness, the consciousness that I shower upon you in my grace, is marked almost by a 360 degree panorama, around, up and below you; it is where you sense first the inner stirring within you and you apply this heightened awareness to those with whom you come in contact – yes, those in need, disconsolate, in poverty of the body and spirit; those who turn to you for sustenance; and those who offer understanding, consolation, and forgiveness.
Whether you dance or not, you are in a spirit dance with those around you and afar – and the only way to hear the music and to learn the movement is to awake this moment.
All for this morning.
February 4, 2009
Scripture: But with you there is forgiveness. Psalm 130:4
Prayer: Teach me of forgiveness.
Response: Yes, you have touched an essential theme in my message of love. Forgiveness is looking over the wall of your fear and discontent, and offering a gift of peace and reconciliation. I did not suggest jumping over the wall – just yet.
The offering that you are capable of providing is a gift and is pulled together with what you have available at the moment. Withholding the offering until a time when you are more affluent and secure, when the memory of the affront has faded in your memory, will not provide the healing that awaits you – to say nothing of the offender. And as a gift, you are not to calculate the response, the thank-you, you seek.
As the offering is a surprise, so is the return, if there is a return. Forgiveness surges from the heart – not the ego. Forgiveness is acceptance; even acceptance of a culpability that might have gone unnoticed within you.
One of the first fruits of forgiveness is peace – peace for you first and perhaps that peace will invade the inner precincts of the one you once perceived as the offender. Peace is a freedom to enjoy in spirit the splendor of an expansive field in spring without distraction, a community of spirit without comparison or competition. It is a transformative experience nurtured in silence and stillness. Peace promotes a remembering that emboldens the risk of offering forgiveness.
All for this morning.
February 3, 2009
Scripture: And when he had given thanks, he broke the bead . . . 1 Corinthians 11:24
Prayer: Help me to catch moment of these words that are so familiar to me.
Response: As you live by the sea and sometimes reflect upon the silence between waves as they crash on the shore, be filled with the same expectancy in hearing these words.Giving thanks and then breaking the bread – two actions seemingly distinct and yet in silence and reflection they serve as the door post to enter into an eternal consideration.
Would that you incorporate thanks and action into your life; not limiting yourself to a few words before a meal.It is in thanks that you respond to your soul urgings that recognizes my presence in your life beneath all the turmoil, our interconnectedness.
Accept that you are not a random appearance on this earth without purpose.It is in thanks that you also declare a hope, a conscious hope, that my will for you, your purpose, will become ever more manifest.And then he broke the bread.Reflect upon how his audience was almost mesmerized by these deliberate purposeful acts.Thanks and the breaking of the bread – the pause between two thunderous waves shocking the shore into wakefulness. You are the shore, awaiting the incoming waves, hear me, awake.
All for this morning.
January 31, 2009
Scripture: "All your words are true. Psalm 119:160
Prayer: Help me to accept your truth.
Response: A short verse and an almost shorter prayer.Interesting how profound meaning is contained in few words.Notice how you are not directed to read a long treatise on the subject of truth; no footnotes are given to clarify meaning.A simple declaration is made – my words are true.Now the first thing you must do is to be still and hear my words.
Following that simple direction ensures that you receive my word with the clarity that can be lost in the cacophony of voices that surround you.This simple direction is the challenge you have faced in youth and now as you wonder where youth has fled.But don’t spend time wondering about the process.Simply take a moment in your day – and don’t bind the moment in elapsed time.
Rather take a moment and allow the moment to unfold.My promise to you is that when you follow this proscription, you will find that you could have written those words of the psalmist and will now in the fabric of your heart.And you will also discover that you no longer need help in accepting my truth because you become that truth as it is manifest in you.
All for this morning.
January 30, 2009
Scripture: "Teach me your ways that I may know you. Exodus 33:13
Prayer: Lord, I repeat the words please teach me your ways.
Response: There are many ways that I reveal myself to you.When you are looking elsewhere and are distracted or intense about a matter lingering in the future or hopelessly embroiled in a dispute of the past, I reveal myself in a special encounter with someone special, an event unplanned, a moment of overwhelming beauty, or in an experience of great joy or even sadness. All of the latter experiences register in your deepest consciousness and for a time – it doesn’t matter how long the experience lasts –that moment is eternal.Now there is another way – and there are many ways for you to know me – is when you are attentive, that means conscious, awake, and you hear my teaching.
Please don’t consider that I am speaking at such times from a prepared text from which you have been preached or that I am setting the dimensions of your confinement.
At such times, you become intuitive to my words however they reach the you who watches alert within.And it is then that you truly perceive who I am.It is as if you’ve been sitting at the back of a large lecture hall, listening to the teacher drone on in a language foreign to you, and then suddenly you awake to find yourself in the front row and the teacher is speaking softly and clearly, and he is looking directly at you.If you are still in a large cavern of learning, you are unaware of it.
All you know is that you hear with an awareness and in a light unmatched previously.So for today, take note – or should I say notes – of those moments when the teacher pulls you up unaware to the front row of the hall.Don’t worry about taking notes literally – the lesson will be repeated; rather spend your time as an artist would sketching as if to determine who this teacher is.And if you missed it, I am that teacher.
All for this morning.
January 28, 2009
Scripture: ">When he had received the drink, Jesus said: “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19:30
Prayer: The words, ">It is consummated, resounded in my heart last night as they related to a dear friend. I discovered later that he passed just hours previous.Help me to penetrate the deep meaning of completion.
Response: You will need a book of completions, so to speak, to even approach the depth of meaning you seek for completion.Consummation, completion, to use a sports metaphor, is rowing across the finish line knowing that you applied all your skill and strength to the endeavor.Yes, there were times in the race that you contributed to the shell going off keel or balance for a moment; yes you dipped your oar too deep on a stroke and caught a crab that nearly tossed you out of the boat; yes you allowed thoughts to distract you so you were not in synch with the team; and I could go on.
Yet, as the finish line came upon you – though only the coxswain was facing it – and he shouted, exhorted and beat against the gunwales with the wooden chocks, there was a sense of exhilaration, triumph that all the training, all the determination, all the resiliency despite the setbacks, brought you to this moment – crossing the finish line to savor in absolute exhaustion the peace, yes peace of completion.
And please notice that I said nothing about ">winning the race against any competition.So for today and much longer into your race, see yourself approaching the finish line; concentrate on taking each stroke as you have trained; just cover the blade with the water; sustain your balance; pull through with vigor but evenly; breathe deep; in recovery shoot your hands out ready to take the next stroke. Such is life and consummation.
All for this morning.
January 26, 2009
Scripture: "The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber. Romans 13:11
Prayer: How do I know that I have woken?
Response: Good question. You see it is more than slipping out of bed and preparing for the day’s activities and responsibilities.I am talking about an awareness that accompanies all your activities, just below the surface, your surface. Someone observing might not catch this alertness, but you do as you become able to sense each moment as you would a special moment.
You see – each moment is special.From the time you take your first cup of coffee that you have brewed, uttered your first word of greeting to a loved one, walked outside in the elements – rain, cold, snow, or heat, picked up a pen or sat at your key board, listened to music or heard nature resounding – each moment is there for you to turn inside out and touch the experience.
Once you become more attuned and wake up, you will find that you also are awake in increasing fashion to my presence.You see I am lurking in the aroma of the coffee and in the sounds of greeting you fashion.Your wakefulness leads to consciousness and that consciousness to me.I am found when you are inside out – awake each moment wherever that moment is experienced.Yes, I am found this very moment next to you, listening to you and I would like nothing better than for you to listen to me as I touch the deepest recesses of your being.
All for this morning.
January 25, 2009
Scripture: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
Prayer: My eyes lingered on the words, born of God. Bring me closer to their meaning.
Response: The key word in this verse is born. Envision the creation of a star – from nothing suddenly appears the spectacular burst of light into a limitless universe. Your re-birth from the physical dimension that you occupy is every bit as spectacular and more so.This re-birth gives lie to the physical and all it represents in the grasping and control that surround you.
This re-birth is freedom in my love.And the light is your birthright. No birth certificate of the physical dimension can be compared to the birthright of light within you; can even be discussed or debated in the same lecture room, parlor, or discussion club.
This birthright singles you out as an ">inheritor of my love with a burning – yes, light burning – desire to share that light with those lingering on the fringe of the celebration.A word about lingering – as you use it and now I – lingering is leaning forward, hesitant to commit, or even take that step forward, fearful that you will be noticed, waiting for a nudge from behind.
Well, relax.I notice you and further I am nudging you from behind, and pulling you forward, gently of course so that no one except you notice the movement.And movement is necessary.If you had a glass of champagne, this is the moment to celebrate.Your rebirth in my love is at hand.
All for this morning.
January 24, 2009
Scripture: "Nehemiah said: “Go and enjoy food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. The day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10
Prayer: Grief and joy – bring me closer to their truth.
Response: Grief and joy do bring you closer to my truth.And my truth is of love. You have heard and repeated for some time, ">celebrate in adversity.Somehow or for some way you have touched on a truth as if you were walking in chest high water and felt something in the sand below.Your instincts tell you that a treasure is lodged below the water.
Your toes feel the stone while you try to keep your balance.For some reason, you have yet to take a plunge and bring the stone to the surface.For now you are just examining it from a distance.Well that treasure is contained in the rock. It is rough and if you are not careful it will stub your foot or cause an abrasion – that is the grief you experience, perhaps not routinely, but to a depth at times you would prefer to forego.
Once you take the plunge, snatch the rock and bring it to the surface, it dissolves, falls apart in the atmosphere of my grace.And you experience the depth of joy that far exceeds the depth required of you to retrieve the treasure.Do not overlook in this verse my call for you to share and to be generous, not only with the preparations of the feast, but with my joy that is yet inexplicable to those in grief who seek and have not yet discovered the true sustenance I offer to all.
All for this morning.
January 23, 2009
Scripture: “Listen to me; be silent, and I will teach you wisdom.” Job 33:33
Prayer: Help me to listen even when my mind is filled with noise and distraction.
Response: Some times, even most times it seems, reducing the noise level of your life is the challenge you face.Accepting that reality, my guidance to you is quite simple – Listen to me; be silent. Follow this proscription and you will discover that the acoustics in the chamber of your heart improve radically.At first you might overlook the power of my words.
Listening is an art that has been lost along with the idle evenings around a campfire or even in a family room after a meal without the distraction of television.But it is an art that is worth restoring in all relationships and environs.I cannot over-stress the need to cultivate silence in your life.It is OK not to have a ready response, or worse, a response that anticipates your interlocutor.
Receive my words with surprise and wonder, in a child-like wonder that you thought that you had outgrown, regardless of your circumstances, no matter your weariness, the path you have trod.I will refresh your heart with my love and grace; and yes, you will also inherit wisdom in the process.
All for today.
January 21, 2009
Scripture: "The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails – given by one Shepherd. Ecclesiastics 12:11
Prayer: Help me to hear quietly and patiently the words of the wise.
Response: And in the hearing, I am telling you that moving along my path is your purpose; or resuming your journey is why I shower you with instances of discovery – that is, instances of wisdom. Please do not struggle over trying to interpret this last sentence.Simply stated, my wisdom and grace are designed to guide your steps.
Do your best to filter out your emotional reactions that so often are filled with judgment, pride, defensiveness, even feelings of inadequacy and concern; instead, listen intently to my words however they come to you – in a manifestation of wonder you observe seemingly for the first time around you, in the words of someone without the pedigree or stature to which you might be accustomed or from an innocent reflecting my love without book learning.
Yes, I prod you, stir your consciousness, to keep you alert to the path.You might say that you are sufficiently reminded, sometimes overwhelmed, with the events of your life.
Capture this thought that I convey to you this morning. At times when you feel you are being over-corrected, or goaded more rigorously than on the open road, you are traversing an especially difficult path.And at such times, I move closer to ensure, yes ensure, that your steps do not falter, that your heart remains firm, and that you move unerringly through my gate of love. Please consider these words as applied to your life circumstances.
All for this morning.
January 20, 2009
Scripture: "For I am the Lord who heals you. Exodus 15:26
Prayer: Teach me of healing.
Response: Healing is a knowing and in that knowing there is harmony.Yes, you can say that healing is an acceptance, though the message for today is one of awareness.Healing is awareness of our intimacy that for so much of your time is curtained in doubt and distraction.In healing your inner light, that Divine Spark to which you refer, shines openly in all weather conditions – bitter cold, howling wind, darkness surrounding.
Healing is evident for all to distinguish in the most brutal of conditions.Healing, like the disease that is linked to it, is infectious – only more so.You will detect the signs, actually you cannot miss them, when healed your touch is lighter, your voice gentler, your tears of joy more profuse, your vision no longer clouded.And just so you don’t delude yourself again, I am there always and in all circumstances – I said all circumstances – to bring you immediate and complete and full healing.
And the truly miraculous manifestation of this healing is that you, yes you, will know it in the depth of your being.
All for this morning.
January 19, 2009
Scripture: "Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. Psalm 25:16
Prayer: Bring me to a deeper understanding of loneliness and your graciousness.
Response: Let me begin with graciousness. It is an overflowing of grace, an abundance of my grace that I pour over you when you are parched and seemingly tormented by a mind that rushes forward into the future or reverses into the past. And yes, when that occurs, you are afflicted.It’s as if you need a calibration of the spirit – and I am here to provide the same.
As to loneliness – it invades your spirit when you allow mind chatter to drown out the musings of your heart. My advice at such times is simply turn to me.You will discover each time, yes each time, you do so that your mind will cease its spinning like tires in a snow drift, and I will show you within that lower – deeper – gear that will ease you out of your affliction.Loneliness is being subsumed by the tinsel of life’s distractions.
Though at such times you would insist that you are awake, indeed you are in slumber.Awake you will discover that you might be alone but you are not lonely for my love pulses through you and is manifest.
All for this morning.
January 16, 2009
Scripture: Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; b">ut those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Psalm 40:30
Prayer: I looked up from my desk and saw through the window a bright beam overhead.It was the moon. Help me Lord to be aware of your presence.
Response: It is when you are weary that you finally still and look around you, often to confirm that something awaits that offers relief – be it a place to rest in the shade, a fountain from which to drink on a hot day, a fire to sit beside in the cold, coffee brewing.It is in the looking around that a task and the weariness it entails that you disengage from your source of weariness for a moment and take in the full perspective of life.
That pause is prayer – wordless prayer.It is as we discussed previously the groaning that emanates from your heart and is heard quite distinctly by me – each utterance of your spirit.And in that instant your strength is renewed; your steps resume on the path with a lightness that confounds the young; the richness of your smile spreads to those who still ponder how they stumbled. To hope in me is to experience my overflowing grace as you once satisfied your thirst standing in a glacier stream with hands cups to gather in the cool water.All it takes is for you to look up from your weariness, pain, or suffering – and wonder.
All for this morning.
January 15, 2009
Scripture: ">In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.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: There are days that words fail me in prayer.Help me in my silence.
Response: This is a good verse for you to write down and put in a place that you can find in times such as this.Appreciate that prayer is not dependent upon how vocal or articulate you are.Stopping your racing mind serves to prompt the groans that express your sense of union with me and transcends any verbal connection.
In fact wordlessly, the you, who resides within not clothed in outward appearances experiences a revelation of sorts that brings you into direct and intimate contact with me; that moment becomes a peek, excuse the word, into the eternity within which you roam.And you will discover at such moments that they seem to be eternal; you might even discover that the clock seems to stop so filled with the experience you are.
Allow the groaning of the Spirit by releasing to the eternal moment as a matter of your prayer practice.
All for this morning.
January 12, 2009
Scripture: "The day is yours and also the night; you established the sun and the moon. Psalm 74:16
Prayer: Keep that rhythm and balance of life before me.
Response: With your heart eyes open there is no way to avoid the harmony that I lay before you. I invite you to step within and observe the inner workings of my plan.You will find that I unveil all to you as if you were invited into a clock shop and observe the intricacies, the inner workings of an ancient clock.
How often you avoid the invitation, preferring to rely upon the time told instead of the time unfolding.Note that I tell you that I created both the day and the night, and both experiences are for you to discover as you would on a walk shells tossed up from the sea onto the beach. Consider such a trip to the beach at night and what you might gather and again during the day.See the treasures that each provide. The same treasures are distributed; it is only for you to persevere in the search.
So today give praise for the day and night of your life; stir yourself to see in the night perhaps a treasure that lies before you, a treasure beyond worldly value that awaits your pause, your recognition, and then your acceptance in my grace.
All for this morning.
January 11, 2009
Scripture: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. Ecclesiastes 2:1 and 2:4
Prayer:Lord, help me to catch the rhythm of life; keep me from being stuck; push me to experience the sunsets and the sunrises before me.
Response: Yes, life is not static.If you were to imagine a winter sport – you are tobogganing down a steep hill, traversing the hill as you slow the speed, moving from left to right and back again, but always continuing downward in the rush of the wind. The fullness of the experience and the learning is related to your growing ability to handle the turns, the shifts and drifts that you come upon.
Accept that weeping is or should yield to laughter, and mourning to celebration and dance.You discover that one who has experienced deep weeping and grieving is one who knows unsurpassed joy and laughter, or one in mourning can learn, if willing, to dance without inhibition.
Why is that, you ask? In the experiencing and learning of life’s lessons in my grace and love, you also learn and experience healing that shines through your laughter, joy, and dance step – even if the latter are shuffled steps in the sand; thus, without thought, but rather heart, you reflect in your actions my love and peace.
All for today.
January 10, 2009
Scripture: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14">
Prayer: Help me Lord to accept that where I am is exactly where you would have me.
Response: If it helps, try to see your life as small steps along a road that is unfolding before you. For a moment, do not look on the path as to where you will place your next step.Rather concentrate prayerfully on the step you are in.Be the step.Next see the step, or if it helps, station yourself between steps.
With that appreciation, assess your position, moving from your center outward and ask this most important question – Why? Why are you where you are at this moment in time? Who knows? You are where you are with your uniqueness for a special purpose, or, if you prefer, a royal purpose. Ponder that purpose generously.Do not get swept up in the movement of your life.Give pause and consider, reflect, and then engage to make a difference.
Do not remain silent.
All for this morning.
January 7, 2009
Scripture: "Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Psalm 51:6
Prayer: I am listening.
Response: What more to teach you than to encourage you to be in stillness so that my words reach you, resound in your heart. Sometimes it is so difficult for you to pause and take in my message.Often you acclimatize yourself to my words as you would elevator music or music you play in your home for ambiance, as you say.
Perhaps you need practice in listening to music as well as to my words.And be advised, I have much more to say than comment on your actions.The focus of my words to you – not some neighbor or even someone with whom you share a home or a place of employment – is directed to who you are.I am sure that you appreciate that who you are and become in time directs, or at least influences, your actions, what you do.
What will it take for you to stop, look, and listen?Almost, the instructions you receive crossing a railway track or reaching a crossroads.Not a bad analogy.I am not stressing caution as much as watchfulness.I seek in you the watchfulness of someone fully awake, though I am patient with your progress.And when you finally awake, I will teach you wisdom in the inmost place.
All for this morning.
January 5, 2009
Scripture: ">He said, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me, from the depths of the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry.” Jonah 2:2
Prayer: Is it because I live by the ocean that I can relate to Jonah? Help me to see prayer as not just calling out.Let me comprehend your answering, your listening.
Response: Sometimes your concern that you will not be answered or that I won’t listen causes you to shout out the louder to drown out your fears. And I choose the words ">drown out deliberately. I am telling you through Jonah that I listen and answer your every prayer.At your deepest level you know this and that is why when you are still an overriding calm prevails.
For some it is as easy as letting loose your clenched fists, easing the tension in your face and shoulders.Realize that Jonah is describing a life threatening danger in his distress and he is literally and figuratively calling from the depths of the grave.Each of you experience what prompts similar pleas, though spend no time comparing the level of distress or pain experienced with that of a neighbor.
Most important for you is to embrace your own loneliness, fear, anxiety, despair, disappointment, or pain whenever it rises, and to call to me in prayer.Your prayer becomes a true realization and revelation of who you are and this is no small accomplishment for you to arrive at this point in your lives.Self knowledge is the lesson of the path that you are on and no matter of your success in a worldly sense, no matter of distraction and busyness must be allowed to keep you from this. And my response – every time – serves to help you to witness my love for you especially.
All for this morning.
January 4, 2009
Scripture: ">I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone. 1 Timothy 2:1
Prayer: Everyone?
Response: That is the shortest prayer you have uttered during these sessions, and it is good that the word caught your attention.Instead of spending time on the obvious – let me explore with you who that everyone is.As it is easy to despise those whom you fear and know nothing about except what you are fed, so it is just as easy to mumble a prayer of generalities about those you are similarly uninformed or in whom you have no interest.
Instead your prayers as well as diatribes are attached to labels of deceit.So I am asking you to pray deeply for understanding about the circumstances surrounding those with whom you come into contact, or live and even suffer far beyond your touch.
Do your best not be influenced by what others might tell you, discovering in the process that they are as uninformed as you are, though they might hide behind poorly defined biases.
For everyone reminds you that my love is not exclusionary.And I know even now are positing in our mind exceptions to this statement.Spend your time proving the expansiveness and inconclusiveness of my love, and less on deciding who merits it or not.Requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for everyone are the tasks in love and grace that I lay before you.
All for this morning.
January 3, 2009
Scripture: ">So many gathered that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Mark 2:2
Prayer: Preach to me Lord of the word.
Response: As I have said previously, my message is not complex.And I use basic words to reach you all. ">Word is a good example.Consider it – four letters and the depth of meaning lingering just below the surface. When you speak a thoughtful word, it represents an utterance that emerges from the depth of your heart.
The words I love you come to mind, words that when not uttered customarily or without meaning convey a truth that cannot be duplicated.So when I preach the word to you, and I do it every time, yes every time, you meet me in stillness, silence, in prayer, in acts of compassion, I speak of a truth in love that rises from the depth of the universe.
My word becomes a portal for you to be in my presence and to the depth that you are willing to explore. Repeat the word"> willing because it is your will that determines in my grace your capacity to descend.My word is present and alive for you this moment.What greater gift have I prepared for you than the word?You would be hard pressed to suggest an alternative.
All for this morning.
January 2, 2009
Scripture: ">“O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.”Nehemiah 1:11
">
">Prayer: I remember a line in Zorba The Greek, Teach me to dance.Well, this morning, I am asking you to teach me to pray.
Response: Actually, your analogy to dance is not off the mark at all.Prayer is a dance.In prayer as in dance you lose yourself in a rhythm and are no longer looking at your feet, or you might say staying with a formalized number of words or a preferred cadence.Prayer as in dance is grace-full, and I use this word deliberately.
Dance as prayer is free, a free expression of who you are – no longer fettered by who people think or judge you are. So in dance, it is said that you should dance unaware of who is watching. As you dance, your steps become more fluid and there is so much more ease in your movement, especially as you interact with others; so in prayer, the more often that you find a stillness of spirit within you, you will be rewarded with your movement in my grace and with others for whom you pray.And have you caught the smile and joy of those dancing, even when they conclude.
Well, that is the joy I offer you in prayer and delight you will experience even when the music ends – so to speak – and you return to your tasks. Those who find no joy in prayer are those who are still observing their feet while dancing, and counting to themselves, or even audibly. For today, pray lightly and ">freely as if you were on a dance floor, unaware of who might be observing.
All for this morning.
January 1, 2009
Scripture: ">Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him. Mark 1:20
Prayer: Give me a deeper sense of your urgency.
Response: Is it a sense of urgency or is it impatience that you detect in the words ">without delay? Do you recall a time when you were waiting for a loved one to open a gift from you and the person seemed to take so long, pulling the wrapping off so carefully as if to use the wrapping a second time?Well, a few things for you to consider, the wrapping will not be used a second time.The gift of my love is for you now and not in some undetermined time in the future.
So consider it impatience on my part, or it is eagerness for you to realize, to become conscious in your awakening of my love that is showered on you?I am not holding anything from you.
All manifestations of my love are here before you.It is as if you have been called to attend a huge celebration and you discover upon entering the room that you are the honoree. My impatience, and I will concede that it is impatience, is that I want you to enter the room and once you adjust your eyes to the flood of golden light that you open yourself to receive me.I want you to reflect upon the call the sons of Zebedee received and their dramatic and prompt response.
I am calling you – and without delay because I have put no obstacles in your way – and am urging you to follow me in service, a service that begins once you open the gift that I have prepared for you.
And finally, the gift as in a treasure hunt, gives you a clue to what the service can be.So this day, open the gift that is before you.Stop reflecting upon the design of the wrapping. Open the gift and comprehend in the opening my love for you. Everything flows, yes your actions and decisions, from the opening.
All for this morning.
August 8, 2009
Scripture:
Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he come to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. Psalm 98:7-9
Prayer
This day marks my forty-fifth wedding anniversary. Help me to catch the jubilation in these verses.
Response
What you have before you is an other-worldly sentiment to where the psalmist is leading. What if the seas could resound, the rivers clap their hands, the mountains sing? Yet, it is so. The invitation this morning is for you to suspend the literalness of your existence – the rising – retiring, checklists, plans, actions, possessions, needs, wants, even concerns and anxieties; and go to a place where you hear the sea resounding to its depths and yours as well; where in the turbulence of a river you feel its clapping to your core; and from those distant granite mountains you listen to their singing in choir, the breath of sound reaching you on the winds. Can you sense now the jubilation for the Lord has come; He is present? Yes, to judge the world but note these most important words in righteousness; and the people with equity.
Have you noticed how nature in its broadest sense is aware of what is occurring, about to happen, as seen through the flight of animals long before a tsunami; a chance mixture in a laboratory that unfolds a healing remedy; a weather pattern that portends drought or a flood? See the interconnectedness of your existence and be jubilant with all the signs before you of my presence.
Now, you ask, is there a connection with your anniversary date? Of course! In listening, you see that the visual plane upon which you tarry holds only a hint of the interconnectedness in eternity where anniversaries are marked with a soul-sound of joy that creates new stars and seas, changes the course of rivers and then once again, and catapults mountains. Remember for today – in righteousness and with equity.
All for this morning.
Prayer
“They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.” Revelations 3:4-5
