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Archive for the ‘acceptance’ Category

If Winter Comes, Can Spring Be Far Behind?

Posted in acceptance, changes, faith, trust, tagged , , on February 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

There are times when it seems difficult to understand why God allows excesses in some places and scarcities in others. We have droughts and we have floods. We have heat waves and “bone chilling cold.” Balance and moderation don’t seem to occur with any regularity.

In the last few years, I think I have finally reached a place where I have stopped asking God why things happen the way they do. Life is what it is! I could never really accept that God’s will causes unhappiness, struggle or pain. Today I believe (honestly) that God’s will for us is that we have freedom, joy, and happiness.

Anderson Gardens 09 017

However, God has given us freedom of choice and He/She does not intervene in the natural order of things. We are free to be happy or sad, and even though we frequently don’t want to fully accept this fact
, we are free to choose. We often choose to be miserable. I suspect it is part of the human condition that we sometimes enjoy our own misery.

I will never understand God, and today I don’t believe I was meant to do so in this human life. I’d like to think I will understand better at a later time. When I look for help, though, I find it in many places along the journey. One I would recommend to everyone is a small book I read years ago for the first time and still read today. It is called “The Will of God” and it was written by Leslie D. Weatherhead.

In the book, the will of God is discussed in three separate parts. First there is the intentional will of God. Then comes the circumstantial will of God (God’s plan within certain circumstances) and lastly, God’s ultimate will. Looking at it this way has helped me enormously to put life, death, catastrophes, pain, and suffering into perspective.

We have all seen great good come out of terrible suffering. Today I choose to believe that God never causes suffering, but does not intervene unless called upon to do so, and then the inventions come in ways we may not expect. We can’t see what lies ahead of us in our journey through life, but God can. All we must do is believe He/She desires the best for us all.

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THOUGHTS ABOUT FAITH

Posted in acceptance, faith, Higher Power, tagged , , on December 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Christmas Day is only a few days away, and my mind is very focused on holiday concerns, but there is something that keeps returning to me so perhaps I need to write about it.  I found a statement about a month ago attributed to Tagore Rabindranath which said, “Faith is the bird who feels the dawn and sings when the world is dark and still.”  

Why does this grab me and not want to let me go?  I have faith.  I am able to believe in things I can’t actually see with my own eyes.  Perhaps I want the kind of faith that bird has — the sense (intuition, intelligence, extrasensory perception), to not be afraid because I know there is certainty, absolute certainly, somewhere in this world.

I tell others that I truly believe that, while on the surface of life things are often troublesome, upsetting, sometimes actually evil, underneath it all there is a power in the universe where all is always well.  I do believe that, I think.  And yet —- I do not have the faith that bird has when it sings to the dawn that has not yet come.  That bird trusts.  It knows, it truly and certainly knows, that the dawn will come, so it sings.  That dawn may break on clouds, or storms, or gentle rains, or glorious sunshine — it doesn’t matter to the bird.  It sings anyway.  I want to be able to do that.

Winter Gazebo

Does this connect to Christmas?  Who knows!  I have spent years trying to figure out why my mind works the way it does to no avail.  It is what it is, and it does what it does, and my life percolates along so much better when I simply accept that whatever the current reality is, it is the best reality for me at the time.  Christmas is always a mixed blessing.  I will see some loved ones and will not get to see others.  I will be happy, but also unhappy.  Life will go on, until it doesn’t.

I have always wanted miracles.  Possibly the great miracles are in those things that just happen every day.  The sun rises and sets (whether we get to see it or not).  The dawn comes, and that bird will sing before the dawn even gets here.  It knows the dawn will break so it sings.  It is programmed to sing.  As a human being, I do not have that same programming, so I question things.  I think about them.  Still, I muddle through, and I hope that one day I will finally realize that my muddling is

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WHAT’S NEW IN 2014 — Plus an Invitation

Posted in acceptance, faith, Uncategorized, tagged , , , on April 19, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Tress of Life

Tress of Life

 

They say that time flies when you are having fun.  For me, time has been flying whether I am having fun or not, and I realized recently that I have paid little attention to this blog of mine.  It began because I hoped a few people would want to purchase my little meditation book.  I still do.  If you would like me to send you a copy at a reduced rate, leave a comment and I will get back to you.

 

MEANWHILE, I think I have done enough with giving you a sense of what the book if about.  I am not sure if this will work, but I would like this forum to be more interactive.  It is very hard to practice the presence of God.  Easter Sunday is tomorrow, and yet Easter fails to mean quite as much to me as it once did.   Whether or not you are a Christian, Easter can remind us of rebirth.  This past winter has been very hard (and destructive) but most of my little plants are attempting to rise above ground level, and some of the yards around us already have daffodils blooming.

 

Life goes on, day by day and year by year.  It is now 2014, and I have written nothing new here.  If you will assist me, I promise to do better.   I invite you all to use this forum for a discussion on how we maintain our spirituality — if indeed you are interested in doing that.   I often watch Bill O’Reilly on the Fox News Network, and I agree with him that our world is becoming more secular and less religious.  Is this impacting we humans adversely?  Do we need to be religious to be spiritual?   What does it mean to be spiritual?  How can we make religion more attractive to those who want no part of it?

 

I will commit to writing about these questions in the days ahead, but I am hopeful that some of you will jump in and add your own ideas to this blog.   I’d like to take this blog in a new direction and I need help to do that.  Please help.

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LEADING WORTHY LIVES

Posted in acceptance, faith, spirituality, tagged , , on November 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.  (Eph. 5:15-16)

 

 

How do we go about leading worthy lives? How must we walk carefully in order to be wise? Is there something you feel God wants you to do in this life that you have not yet done? Reflect on these things as you quiet your minds.

 

It’s hard to remember that Paul spent much of his later life in prison, writing letters to the various places where the new Christian churches had been established. He must have felt that his life was worthy of what God called him to do. Being incarcerated certainly gives people time for reflection.

 

Sister Theresa certainly felt she had received a calling, and she followed through admirably and not without suffering. Missionaries who head off for possibly uncivilized places must believe that they are following God’s wishes. I have often wondered if there was something that God wished me to do that I ignored because of laziness, fears, or simply a taste for the benefits civilization brings. I admire Sister Theresa and those who are missionaries—those who put themselves out for God. However, I have never felt a need to do those things.

 

I like to think our lives are worthy if we simply have a desire to live a decent life and be as caring toward others as we can. We all make sacrifices of some kind, but I am very aware that I have given up little for my faith.  I am willing to do what I can, but wonder sometimes if I should be doing more.  Today, I will try to be open to hear if God does call and hope you will do the same.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for November 25th

 

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POWER FAILURES

Posted in acceptance, Higher Power, reflection, trust, tagged , , on July 31, 2012| Leave a Comment »

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Contemplate today on power—where we get it, how we use it, its benefits, and its drawbacks. Don’t limit yourselves but think about any power source.  Whenever the weather gets really stormy, I tend to think about power failures in the sense of losing electricity. I suspect it might be related to childhood fears of the dark. Periodically, we hear about massive power failures in major cities. Empathy may then take me to places I would really rather not go. I am able to viscerally imagine myself under the earth in a steaming subway car in the dark. All I can do is pray that those without power will think to call upon the one source of power that never fails.

Sometimes in the past, we’ve heard horrible stories of looting and crime during power outages. Yet we also usually hear of people calmly waiting for help to come—and perhaps more importantly, knowing that help would come. They know that something is watching over them.  In some countries, the demands for electric power have gone beyond t he infrastructure set up to properly provide it. In many high-rise office buildings, it is impossible to open windows, so it makes one wonder what would happen should electricity not be readily available for long periods of time.

The Bible naturally has multiple references to power. Power comes from many sources; Mother Nature has enormous power. We ourselves have an underused power source in the Holy Spirit. Let us remain responsible in our use of power and consider ways to expand it to the benefit of all.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for August 9th

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CATASTROPHES AND GOD’S WILL

Posted in acceptance, faith, Love, tagged , , on July 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I would like to dedicate this piece to all of those in pain because of the recent massacre in Colorado.  

 

When horrific things happen in this world (and they always do, it seems) many folks seem to have some questions about how God can allow such things to happen.   I believe that God cries with us when such things occur.  While I firmly believe that God is always available to us and that He or She does direct our paths when we wish to follow His will, I believe also that God gave man free will and does not intervene to stop nature from taking it’s course.

 

There is simply no way that I could accept that the God in whom I believe would will to have tragedies happen.   Slaughters, mass murders, natural catastrophes and the like are caused either by Nature or by man himself in some sense.  I cannot believe that these things happen because God intends for them to happen.   However, I also believe that out of all tragedies come good things eventually.  I am only able to see an infinitesimal portion of the mosaic of my life, so I am required to have faith and trust that God will take care of all of us.  Our Creator knows what She is doing.

 

I hate it when others are in pain, but I know I am not powerful enough to take away that pain.  God is powerful enough and will do so, eventually, if He is summoned.   As many in the media have already said, I pray that those involved will find comfort and, eventually, peace of some sort.  God might not prevent disasters from happening, but He is surely available to comfort those who need comfort.   When bad things happen to good people, I used to feel quite cynical and insist that this was just the way of the world.    God has helped me to see that cynicism does nobody good, while prayers and hopeful thoughts can work wonders.

 
My brother recently suffered a tragic loss when his beautiful home in the Roosevelt National Forest was consumed by Colorado’s fires.   Thankfully, he and his wife (and their dogs) got out safely, but everything was lost.   Why did it happen?  Why was his home in the path of the fire?   We can always torture ourselves by wondering why terrible things happen.   Or we can slowly but surely try to accept that these things are part of our lives.  We don’t and can’t know why these things happen.  But we can help one another to get through them.

 

 

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GOD IS LOVE — ALWAYS

Posted in acceptance, Love, spirituality, tagged , on July 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)

Would you agree that God is love? Would you agree that whoever does not love does not know God? Think about this as you reflect and consider those people in your life that you love. What does it mean if you do not always feel love for them?

Meister Eckhart once said, “The best chance of finding God is to look in the place where we left him.” It is odd to think of losing God, but we humans often seem to be out of touch with our Creator—especially when we are not feeling loving. Whenever God seems far away from us, we are the ones who have moved. God is always available to us if we wish Him/Her to be.

As much as I like to think I stay focused on spiritual things, there are many times in any given day when I get caught up in busyness and forget to seek God. In a definite crisis, I generally am sure to think about God, but in the usual, day-to-day activities of life (where God is often most needed), I forget. Perhaps we all forget to practice the presence of God.  If we happen to be feeling angry or resentful, we most likely have grown out of touch with God. We might then ask ourselves, “Where did I leave God?” And the answer is that we didn’t leave Him, we temporarily forgot that He is always with us. We have simply forgotten to be aware and that God is love.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for May 17th

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BECOMING COMFORTABLE WITH CHANGE

Posted in acceptance, changes, reflection, tagged , on July 18, 2012| Leave a Comment »

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  (Rom. 8:18-21)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the very beginning, this universe we live in has been growing and changing, shifting and merging, and cooling and refining. It is filled with constant births and deaths. Popes, presidents, kings, queens, and ordinary people all eventually die. From time to time certain species become extinct but the universe continues on.

 

 

New popes are elected by the college of cardinals, new leaders are elected by the people, new kings and queens follow those who have gone before. Those in places of power are replaced by others who then adopt the power. Change happens all the time.

 

 

Growth and change can be painful, but the alternative is usually worse in that it leads to stagnation. Making changes involves taking risks and quite a few of us do not do that well.  It is entirely possible that our Creator meant for us to befriend the process of change and use it to our advantage.  Spring is perhaps a very good time for risk-taking. God always allows for transformation in our lives when we are open to it.  Today, reflect on how you are doing with taking risks and take some if you feel it would benefit you.

 

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for April 12th

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