Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘faith’

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.

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

WHOM SHALL I FEAR?

Posted in Prayer, reflection, trust, tagged , on November 17, 2014| Leave a Comment »

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid. (Ps. 27:1)

Today, imagine you are sitting at the base of a beautiful waterfall. As it cascades down, the droplets of water glimmer in the sun. You are comfortable, warm, and at peace. Stay here for several minutes—or longer if you like.

.T

Why are we fearful? Most of us are, now and then, and some of us are afraid much of the time. We might want to ask ourselves what it is that we fear. What do we think might happen? Are we simply afraid of feeling fearful?
When our faith in God is secure, we might think that we should be fearless. Many of us may have faith, but still find ourselves afraid at times. Perhaps our fear is a warning and we need to take action to avoid hurt. More often, our fears are that we will not get what we want or that something we have will be taken from us. If we have sufficient faith and trust in God, we will know deep inside that nothing will ever happen to us that we can’t handle as long as we have God’s help.
There are times when God sends that help through other people, and we need to be cognizant of this. If we have prayed to have fears removed, we should then be alert for some form of assistance that God may be sending us. Often we fail to receive God’s answer or offer to help because we aren’t aware of the means God has used to send it to us. We may get relief from fear, from very unlikely sources at times. Can you recall such times in your life?
Today, be aware that God answers prayers in many different ways.  Be on the lookout for anything God may be sending to you, no matter how small or insignificant.   And be sure to also say thank you to God for all that you have been given.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for November 17th.

Read Full Post »

KNOWING GOD’S WILL

Posted in Higher Power, reflection, spirituality, Uncategorized, tagged , , on August 25, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Not my will, but thine, be done. (Luke 22:42)

 

 

 

Use this phrase as a mantra for your meditation today. Relax, breath deeply, and allow these words to sink deeply into your consciousness.  Can you honestly say that you are in full agreement with them? Are you completely willing to follow God’s will?

It is true that we do not always know with certainty if we are following the will of God. However, if we are honest, we know that many of the things we choose to do would not be what God would have us do. When we deliberately antagonize a family member or a coworker in order to pick a fight, we know God would wish us to respond in a different manner. We know, that is, if we have taken the time to think before we speak. This is not something human beings do with sufficient regularity.

For the most part, if our thoughts are loving thoughts, we will speak and act in a way that is loving and caring. Why do we allow anything but loving thoughts to enter our minds? Because we are “not God,” we are human beings with human responses. When we interact with others, we frequently find that our ego is conflicting with that of another. When this happens (and it always will), our thoughts will then determine what we do

None of us will likely ever be able to hold loving thoughts all the time.But we can make significant improvements if we simply become conscious of how and what we think. Today, allow yourself to monitor your thought processes. Be aware of how often your thoughts are unkind, perhaps even downright nasty. When we become aware of our thoughts, we will naturally begin to shift them so that they are more in line with God’s will. God has told us we should love one another.

Taken from “Talks with our Creator” for December 15th

Read Full Post »

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

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: