All Saints Day

We are surrounded by a great cloud of those who intensely love us, and who look upon us with great benevolence.  Those who have gone before us are, with Jesus, preparing a place for us.  But even now, they are supporting us with their prayers and positive energies on our behalf.  We are not alone on the journey; we have inherited great strength from those who surround us and support us.  And we can call on their support at any time. 

This is what it means to be the church, the body of Christ: their strength is our strength, even in our weakened state.  What they have attained is made available to us, even in this life.  We drink from the same fountain, which is Christ, and we are all nourished by His Body.  We have a share in His wisdom, expressed in myriad ways by all the saints, who are all eager to share with us what they have learned and acquired from Jesus.  Just as we ourselves are eager to share with others the all-surpassing knowledge of Christ given to us, so too the saints in heaven do not "rest," but continue to pray for those they have left behind on earth.  When Therese of Lisieux says she will let fall from heaven a shower of roses, she means that she will continue to do good to those who draw near to her in love and in fellowship with the risen Christ.  And who are they that we ourselves will continue to bless in the next life?

No more posts until Nov. 2.

"You shall be My witnesses..."

Those who wrote the Gospels were not primarily teachers, but witnesses.  They wanted only to testify to what they had seen and heard, as John says in his first letter.  It took Paul, who was well-schooled in the Book of the Law, to draw out the implications of what the Apostles had experienced.  He did this not by reasoning, but by the illumination of the Spirit, after meeting face to face with the living Christ.  Paul was a witness to his experience with the Resurrected Jesus, but he was also the first teacher of the new sect, the followers of the Living Christ.  The spirit of God illumined his mind to understand the Scriptures he had known from his youth.

Once we, like Paul, actually meet the Living Christ, we also become witnesses to His power in our lives.  There is a famous Greek icon which depicts Jesus holding either a closed or an open book---both versions of the icon "teach" the same lesson; the book is closed to us until He opens it to us.  We might read the Scriptures, but they remain obscure until the light of Christ illumines them.

Paul says in I Corinthians that the Spirit searches the deep things of God in order to reveal them to us (I Cor. 2:13 ff.).  We cannot understand "teaching" until we have the experience---after that, we ourselves become witnesses to the Truth.  St. John says, "we write about what we ourselves have seen and heard and touched, that your faith may be sure."  If we have not "seen and heard and touched" for ourselves, we remain unconvinced.  If we have had an experience with Christ, then we ourselves become witnesses to what we know to be true.

Be Still and Know that I am God....

The Lord says,

You are worried and anxious about things that cannot be changed (the past), but out of chaos, I drew light and beauty.  So it shall be forever, for those who trust in Me.  Cast your cares on Me, and I will heal you.  When you "cast" your cares, you cannot continue to worry over them as if you could somehow "fix" what has been done in the past.  All of your present care and concern will not change one moment that has gone.  Trust Me for your future---that alone is in your power.

I cannot now untangle the sins and influences of the past.  I cannot "do it over again," and even if I could, I'm not sure I could get it right a second time.  This is purgatory, if not hell---to see and recognize the wrong we have done and to be helpless to change one moment of the past---to see the suffering we have inflicted on others, people we love, and not be able to change or alleviate their suffering.  There is only one remedy:  Jesus Christ has taken upon Himself all the blows of the world and has transformed them into a new, resurrected body, which He now shares with us.

Peter's consciousness of His denial of the Christ kept his heart compassionate toward others in their weakness.  His very sin "qualified" him, so to speak, as head of the church, the hospital for sinners.  He had experienced the welcoming arms of Jesus; he could now hold out his own arms to those who had miserably failed.  Having the faith to have stepped out of the boat, he immediately sank beneath the waters, but the strong hand of Jesus brought him safely back to the boat.  Never again could he trust in his own strength or faith to save him.

Praying the 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my Shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.....

What is it I really "want" now?  What is my deepest need?  If the Scripture says, "there is nothing I shall want," what is it talking about? 

Most of us have a restless energy of some kind.  There is "something" we want, we need at the deepest level of our persons---something we need to be settled, to be at peace with ourselves and with others.  Something we need to establish our lives for the future.  What is that thing?  Can we identify it?  Does it have a name in our consciousness?

If we don't know what it is we lack, how then can we look to the Lord for its supply?  First, we need the light of grace to identify what it is we truly need; we need the Holy Spirit to help us give it a name.  We may be trying again and again to "fill ourselves up" with things that fail to truly satisfy us because we fail to recognize what we are really looking for.

When I was 19, I recognized within myself a vague longing for a close friend.  It was something that took a long time for me to "name," because at that time, I had many good companions.  I could enjoy being with almost any group of people, but I wanted something more, something that I had not yet experienced.  I wanted to be able to share the deepest part of myself with someone else; I was never satisfied with conversation that was mostly narrative.  I was always kind of bored with "what happened."  What I most needed was a philosopher-friend---someone who was more invested in what happens than in what happened. 

When I was finally able to identify what it was I needed, someone said to me, "The kind of friend you are looking for is a gift from God; you have to ask Him for it."  What a revelation that was!  I had been jealous of people who seemed to have close friendships, yet I had never thought to ask God for what I most deeply wanted.

Nor had I yet learned what C.S. Lewis defines as "friendship"--two or more people passionate about the same thing.  Most of us want a friend, but we have failed to develop the deep passions that draw others to us.  Most of us live in a matrix of companionship---people vested in the same enterprise--school, work, clubs, sports, etc.  Within that matrix, we will usually stumble across one or two others who share the same passions we do.  Friendship is not about two people looking at one another, but about two people looking at something deeply important to both.  They both agree that this thing is important---even if, as Lewis says, the "thing" is simply stamp collecting.  So, as we develop our deep interests and passions, we are also building a house where certain people will want to come and share those passions with us.

What is it we need?  We may need the Lord to help us name it so that He can then supply it to us, just as the shepherd must supply everything for the sheep.  He knows what they need more than they do---sheep cannot forage for themselves as for example, cayotes or other wild animals, as even a cat left outside overnight can do.  The sheep are totally dependent on the Shepherd for grazing, for water, for safety---they cannot even defend themselves against attack.

If we take the Lord for our Shepherd, He Himself will have to identify our deepest needs, help us to see what they are, and then supply them for us so that we can truly say, "there is nothing I shall need...."

What God Wants

God wants to become incarnate in every human life, to walk among every culture and race and people.  He wants only to enter into our lives and to be welcomed there.  Can we make room for Him?  Can we find a place for God in our lives?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one opens to Me, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me (Rev. 3:20).

He has not said that we must first sweep the house and prepare a gourmet meal; He has not said that we must hide the garbage can and unclutter the spare bedroom.  He has simply said that we must open the door, and He would come in.

We believe that God won't come to us until we clean up our act---but most of the time, we have no power, energy, or insight to do the necessary cleaning.  It's like saying that we cannot let the doctor see us until we are healthy.  If we want to know how to "clean up our act," we must let the Holy Spirit enter our lives and begin looking around at what is there.

In the Book of Nehemiah -- a reflection of the work of the Holy Spirit*---Nehemiah comes back from the Babylonian Captivity to oversee the re-building of Jerusalem, which had been leveled by Nebuchadnezzer in 587 B.C.  The glorious temple built by Solomen was now a pile of rubble; the protective walls of Jerusalem had been torn down---there was no protection for the captives who were trying to return to their beloved city. 

Nehemiah* (His name means "comfort," so he is a type of the Holy Spirit, the "Comforter,") walks around the city at night, observing the destruction and planning the work that needs to be done to re-build the walls.  He makes his observations at night so that the enemies/spies will not know what He is about to do.  Then He begins appointing people to work at specific places on the walls, while others were appointed to stand guard, to protect those who were working and could not hold weapons at the same time.  Slowly, despite mockery and ridicule and downright obstruction by the enemy, the walls of the city are re-built, and then people can dwell in safety, without fear, as they begin to re-build their own houses.

In the same way, the Holy Spirit walks around the torn-down walls of our lives in secret, planning the work that must be done to rebuild our lives in safety and security.  He appoints watchmen on the walls and workmen to build up the weak and torn-down areas.  Slowly, surely, He re-builds for us a place of safety and security, a place where God can dwell with us and walk with us.  That's all He wants--permission to come in and begin the work that needs to be done.  Why are we so determined to keep Him out?

Body, Mind, Spirit

Whether we are gardening, cooking, or making love, our best moments are when everything in us---body, mind, spirit---coalesces into a single whole.  The psychologists tell us to "be present in the moment," to "to be where we are."   One thing that yoga teaches us is to line up all that is within us --- body, mind, emotions, spirit.  We cannot 'do' yoga while ruminating about other things; if our body breathes, our mind breathes, our spirit breathes---all as one unit.

We have all had the experience of being in a classroom while our minds are a million miles away, usually trying to resolve an emotional issue.  We are distracted, divided, unsettled.  Again, how many of us have been in church, but impatient for the service to be over so we could be someplace else? 

Sometimes, as in knitting or in gardening, occupying our bodies with physical activity allows the mind and spirit the freedom to come together as one, to be at peace.  We are "in the moment" precisely because we are "where we are" and nowhere else.  If someone asks what we are doing, we can truly say, "I am gardening" or "I am knitting"---we are gardening and knitting our lives at that moment.

When the circles of our lives pull apart, we dis-integrate; we feel unsettled, restless; we cannot make everything in us line up.  We are here, but wish we were someplace else---or our minds are someplace else.

When the Lord says to us, "Peace, Be Still," He commands our minds, emotions, bodies, and spirits to have integrity---that is, to line up with one another into one whole unit.  This experience can happen in prayer, and the experience can draw us again and again into prayer until we become addicted to peace.

About a year ago, while I was praying, I heard in my spirit these words:

"You are not to worry about anything, whether physical, financial, or spiritual."  I wrote the words down and stuck them in the book I was reading at the time.  Even though I cannot today find the book with the piece of paper, the words have never left me, and I recalled them during the time I went through the experience of being diagnosed with lung cancer and having surgery:  You are not to worry about anything.....

It is so good to hand over one's life to the Lord and not to be pulled apart by worry and concern.  There is a unity and a peace that passes all understanding, that nothing can take from you.

The Eternal Christ

"He descended into hell" is an eternal act, as much as His death on the cross is eternal.  It was not only the souls who happened to be in hell at the time of Christ's death who benefitted from His descent; would it not also be all souls who have died beyond the reach of God who have the possibility of encountering Jesus in His saving act?  Does He not still "descend into hell" to recover the lost and damned?  Does He not still offer them the light of grace and glory?  Would not their loss of of all earth's pleasures and their present suffering make them more disposed to see Jesus as salvation, as hope, as rescue from the fires of hell?

Eternally, He lives; eternally, He dies; eternally, He descends into hell, that every generation might see the glory of God given to us in Christ Jesus.  He has delivered us from evil in life and in death.

What God Does

His glory is to take the weak and insignificant things of this world and to turn them into strength.  What man has no esteem for is precisely what God can use to manifest His love, power, and presence in the world. 

The ultimate manifestation of God's glory was the death of Jesus, in helplessness, by which God brought about a new creation, a new kind of existence on earth---men who could now live by the power of God in the midst of unbelievable circumstances.  No longer are we utterly defeated by the powers of hell and hatred, but we live by the power of God in us.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O holy and astounding Spirit, You catch me by surprise at least once a day with the freshness of Your love and the unpredictability of Your presence, especially in the humble things that somehow give me immense joy.

Some moments are completely new, full of joy, as uplifting as the dawning sun, and those moments come from you day by day.

Stand behind me today when I am right and ought to be more determined, and block my way when I am being stupid and ought to back off.  Teach me true compassion for those in need, so I can be of genuine help to someone.

Bless me today, Holy Spirit, and astonish me again.  Amen.

a friend sent me this prayer months ago; I keep it next to my computer so that I see it each day and now have grown to love it.  I don't know the source, but would acknowledge it if I could.  

The Comfortor

The names Noah and Nehemiah both have the same root in Hebrew---comfort, or "one who comforts."  Both were sent in times of disaster to "comfort" their people--Noah during the flood, Nehemiah during the Babylonian Captivity and return to Israel.

God is He who comforts His people, who builds up strength within us.  To be comforted in all our afflictions and trials---this is what it means to know God, who alone knows what we need and how to get it to us.  St. Paul says, "If God be for us, who can be against?" 

God so loved us that He sent His comfort incarnated in Jesus, so that we could see it, touch it, feel it, taste it, hear it, smell it on a daily basis.  He did not leave us without comfort, but sent His Son so that all who would receive Him would know/ experience His love in the flesh.

But He did not stop with the historical Presence of Jesus; Jesus promised to send the Comfortor when He left.  In fact, He said, "It is better for you that I go away, for if I do not go, the Comfortor will not come.  But if I go, I will send Him to you."  The historic Jesus would always be limited in time and space, but God's comfort cannot be limited by circumstances.  If we ask for the Comfortor, He will not refuse us (Luke 11 and Matt 7).  How could He refuse to give us Himself?

The Saints

Who are the Saints, but those who, like Ester,

were "called for such a time as this"?

Those windows of the earth

through whom God can pour in His light of grace and truth;

Those in whom His glory shows,

His power resides,

His truth reigns;

Those who prove to the world

that God is with us;

those who have surrendered their lives to the power of God

and who allow God free reign within them,

who put no obstacle in His path,

who have prepared a highway for our God,

and destroyed every power that asserts itself against Him,

those who say, "Yes, yes, yes, Lord---

do with me what you will;

I am your servant only

and desire nothing more."

Reformation

To reform one's life means only to open oneself to the divinizing shaping (re-forming) of the Holy Spirit.  "Re-formation" means dying to the sin that has enslaved us all this time and rising to a kind of life we have not yet lived or known.  And if we do not yet know it, we cannot thereby create it for ourselves.  So the Spirit of God working in us must put to death the "old man," with its empty way of life, and give us the "new man," breathed into us by the breath of God.

The term used for "Spirit" in the Hebrew is "ruah," which can mean "breath, spirit, wind, breeze."  In the beginning, the Spirit/ruah of God hovered over the dark abyss, waiting to bring order and light.  In the beginning, God breathed His Spirit/ruah into the lifeless body of Adam and "the man became a living soul."  The darkness within us awaits the Breath of God to restore order and harmony; our dead spirits await the living Spirit to bring us into a new kind of life.

Jesus said, "Behold, I make all things new again."  That's what He was sent to do---to destroy the work of the devil (John 10) and to make new the things that have descended into the dark abyss.  He once and for all descended into hell to bring back those who had no hope, who were, like the Chilean miners, buried in darkness.  But, if we are willing, He will bring us up out of the depths into the light of His glory and grace.  He will re-form us even while we are still helpless to re-form ourselves. 

Someone once told the story of a tightrope walker who used to walk across Niagra Falls.  One day he appeared with a wheelbarrow and asked a man, "Do you believe that I can cross the Falls with this wheelbarrow?"  "Yes," said the man, "I believe you can do that."  "Then get in," said the tightrope walker.

So that's the story.  It's not enough to "believe" that Christ can re-form our lives.  We have to "get in the wheelbarrow" and allow Him to take us where we could not go ourselves. 

Casting Fire upon the Earth

I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled...

And what is this fire that Jesus speaks of but the self-bestowal of the Trinitarian God upon mankind?  Karl Rahner, the Catholic theologian of the 20th century, says that the entire aim of his theology, that is, his life's work, was to bring people to the point of experiencing God Himself.  Shouldn't that be the entire aim of all religion---to know the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwelling within ourselves?

I have been watching the PBS special on God in America, and I am amazed to find over and over again God "breaking out" of the staid church rules and regulations in order to visit the common folk.  The Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' time are evidently still with us in every generation, as the church (any church) becomes rigid and stifled.  But God is not contained---there seems to be a new Pentecost in every generation, much like the prophecy in the Book of Joel:

Then afterward, I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind.

Your sons and daughters shall prophesy,

your old men shall dream dreams,

your young men shall see visions;

Even upon the servants and the handmaids,

in those days, I will pour out my spirit (Joel 3:1-2).

To watch the history of religion in America is to watch God at work in the ordinary people, even while the church leaders are befuddled as to what is happening.  Our best hope is to catch some of that action and to watch what God is doing among His people.



The Trinity and Us

No one has ever seen God, but the only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed Him (Jn. 1:18).

Jesus makes the Father known to us;

the Spirit makes Jesus known to us;

the Father gives the Spirit to those who ask Him;

the Spirit is the same Spirit who animated Jesus Christ in the flesh.

If we want to know God, the Gift of the Spirit is indispensible.  The "one thing necessary" is to ask for the Gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives; without Him, religion is in vain.  Only He knows the Father, and He reveals the Father to those who seek Him.  Only He knows our deepest secrets, and only He knows where to start in our lives, opening the doors to our hearts and minds.



Freedom from Fear

He went walking and leaping and praising God (Acts 3:8)

The energy of God touching our lives is so powerful and "releasing" that we are like men drinking, freed at last from our long-held-onto inhibitions and chains.  We want everyone we know to experience what we have experienced.  For the first time in our lives, we experience "electricity" in living.  Suddenly, fans run, clothes and dishes are cleaned, our houses are air-conditioned, we have hot water mysteriously appearing on demand----all without effort on our part. 

The Holy Spirit enters into every part of our lives with His divine energy, and our lives go from pioneer-living to 21st-Century life.  But to someone who has never known the power and joy of that kind of energy, our words have no resonance.  They do not "know" electricity, so they consider us as a "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," as people drunk, delusional, as we jump up and down in our joy.

Plato used the analogy of the cave and of men experiencing shadows on the wall as their real lives.  Those who have never experienced the freedom of the Spirit of God remain in the shadows of fear and anxiety.  When the angel of the Lord says, "Be not afraid," it is much more than a command or an admonition---it is the energizing word of release from fear; the word itself takes off the chains of fear.  It is the same energy-word as "Light! Be!," the word that began the unfolding energy of creation.

When God enters our lives, He brings energy and strength and release from fear.  Living in houses without electricity, we have been like men sitting in the dark.  Once the house is "wired," we have access to the power at all times.  And then we can go walking and leaping and praising God; our chains have fallen off, and we are free.

Isaiah 9:2 puts it this way:

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined

Come, Light of the World, shine in the dark areas of our lives and release us from the power of evil!  Take off our chains and send us walking and leaping and praising God!



If God has given us a desire for a spiritual gift, it is because He is ready to answer that desire in us.  If we want peace, or joy, or to know Him better, it is a sure sign that He is getting ready to give us what we are seeking.  If we want to be free of anger, or anything that is destroying us and others, we can know that God is at work in us to set us free. 

Andrew Murray's writing on The Two Covenants makes it clear that

...the one difference between Old and New [Covenants] is that in the latter everything is to be done by God Himself....Our whole being is so blinded to the true relation to God; His inconceivable Omnipresent Omnipotence working every moment in us is so far beyond the reach of human conception, that our little hearts cannot rise to the reality of His infinite love making itself one with us, and delighting to dwell in us, and to work all in us that has to be done there...We are such strangers to the knowledge of what God really is, as the actual life by which His creatures live....Only they who confess their ignorance, and wait very humbly and persistently on our Blessed God to teach us by His Holy Spirit and what that all-working indwelling is, can hope to have it revealed to them.

Jesus told His disciples, "If you, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask."  And herein lies the secret to everything---asking for it.  For we know that if we desire it, it must be that the Holy Spirit is awakening in us the desire and therefore, He wants to fulfill it. 

Most of us would rather work for something and therefore earn it because we thereby deserve our reward, but Jesus tells us to ask for the "Gift" of the Father, which is the Holy Spirit.  Many scholars looking at the Acts of the Apostles have commented that the book should have been called The Acts of the Holy Spirit, for it is pretty clear that the Apostles were just hanging onto the coattails of the Spirit once He had been poured out on them and on everyone present that Penecost Day.

Twelve men alone could not have changed the world, but 12 men filled with the Spirit of God did change the world forever.  The lesson is clear:  we must simply ask and wait for what we desire in the realm of the spirit.

Jesus the Teacher

We often think of Jesus as a great teacher, but don't really expect Him to teach us today.  We tend to think that all His words have already been spoken and recorded in the Gospels.  But He is still a teacher today, and we are His students.  It may be difficult to hear His voice over and under the din of all the other voices in our environment and in our heads, but I think it is possible if we ask.

In her book The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron suggests that if we begin writing what she calls "morning pages," we will ultimately arrive at the still small voice speaking within our inner child---the voice of creativity, the voice of God.  Parts of her work are online and you may be able to find a reference to morning pages there.  

However we access the still small voice of God in us, it remains true that He still wants to teach those who want to hear.  The Book of Wisdom in the Bible is a wonderful place to begin; if that does not make us crave wisdom, probably nothing else will. 

George Washington Carver said that he used to go into the woods early each morning to collect botanical specimens for class that day; in those very still and quiet moments, he received his instructions for the day, and then he went to carry them out.  Once he said that he never had to "devise" his methods for research, but that the methods came to him immediately as he conceived the thought of his next experiment.  That is wisdom---knowledge beyond what already lies within our minds. 

Once we have a taste of receiving wisdom on a daily basis, life becomes an adventure, even in our own back yards. 

Inexpressible Comfort

My help is in the name of the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth

I am so grateful for knowing this verse (Ps. 121); I said it over and over in March, after my surgery for lung cancer, when I was struggling to breathe.  Even going into the operating room, it seemed almost that the Holy Spirit Himself was saying that prayer within me, and it always brought me strength and calmness.

In the Book of Romans (8:26), Paul says, "The Holy Spirit Himself helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit prays within us with unutterable groanings...."

Hearing this prayer within my very being, I knew I had nothing to fear, and that my struggle to breathe would eventually get better.  The Creator of heaven and earth was in charge of my life and my healing---what more did I need to know?

It's not over yet....

Our relationship with God is a living, breathing, growing phenomenon.  Like moving water, like the waves breaking on the shore, it never remains static, but is always in motion, like the thoughts of our hearts.  Even when the waters of the sea appear still and calm, powerful currents are moving underneath, bringing life to all the creatures of the sea. 

The Holy Spirit, like those silent currents, is always moving and searching the mind of God, making us aware of the unseen motions of God's love in us, bathing us, changing us, renewing us.  God is always "washing our feet," renewing our spirit, healing our wounds.  Even when nothing seems to be happening on the surface, His powerful currents are still moving in our lives. 

We must trust the Author and Finisher of our faith to complete in us the work He has begun.  One of my favorite quotations, even though I don't remember its source, is this:  God, it seems to me, is a verb.  Probably only an English teacher can appreciate this quote, but the definition of a "verb" is "a word that expresses action or being."  Verbs are not static, but moving.  Even the verb "is" implies movement---a table "is," but science tells us that within that apparently "still, unmoving" object, atoms are spinning in huge amounts of space.  If that is true of a table, how much more true of our lives!  Life is dynamic, ever-changing, ever-renewing, ever-healing of old wounds----why should we not allow the Divine Energy to bathe us with His all-powerful light and healing waters?

Our Daily Bread

In his book In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan says that because of the use of chemical fertilizers, our soil has fewer nutrients, so Americans are eating more and more calories in our attempt to gain the nutrients our bodies need. 

As I read his book, it strikes me that the same thing is true of our spiritual lives; we need that energy that flows into us from the Divine Person, but since we are not getting it from a relationship with God, we are seeking more and more "empty calories" from movies, electronic games, sensational experiences (food, drugs, alcohol, sex, etc.).  All of these things, like the empty calories from food, satisfy us temporarily, but we still crave the permanent Source of Energy we need to be at peace. 

Jesus said, "MY peace I give to you, not as the world gives."  His peace is energy and comfort, security, not fear or anxiety.  We can rest, even as we work, knowing our Source will not run out or fail us.  And how do we GET His peace?  He said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone will open to me, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me."  Once we open the door and allow Him access to our inner lives, to the things we are 'eating' on a daily basis--to the fear, the anxiety, the restlessness---He will eat at our table, sharing in our daily bread.

But like a good nutritionist, He will allow us to eat at His table, substituting His peace, His joy, His insight, His relationship with God for our empty calories.  No more "empty calories" for me; I am craving pure energy from good solid food---the Bread of Life!  

Thanks, Michael Pollan, for the insight from the natural world!

The Pursuit of Peace

What a great ministry it is to pursue peace with men of good will---peace in one's household, peace in the church, in the place of work, peace in the city, peace in the country.  To be at peace with all we meet, to be joyful at meeting with them---this is a gift of God. 

If we observe the world at large, it is not like this.  The "world," as it is referred to in Scripture, is always ready to exclude others, to refuse the hand of love and friendship, to cast out the stranger.  But the kingdom of God is not like the world.  The poor, the lonely, the frightened, the outcast---all find a place in the kingdom.  Scripture says, "Even the sparrow finds a home to lay her nest near Your altars, O Lord of hosts."  If we receive the Lord of hosts into our hearts, minds, and bodies, we become like He is---welcoming and extending peace to all who will receive it, and even to those who will not.

On the Eternity of God's Acts

We tend to think of both Creation and the Incarnation of Christ as moments in time, a part of history, something like the birth of George Washington or the assassination of Lincoln.  However, since God's actions are eternal and continuous, both events are still occurring. 

The act of Creation happens every day, with new freshness, overcoming the chaos of death and non-life that man "creates" by his destructive force on the earth.  The earth is forever being "born again" into life.  Scientists tell us that the world is held in balance by equal parts of matter and of anti-matter, with one small exception:  there is always one-plus matter to minus-one anti-matter.  Without that one-plus, the world would disappear.  The Gospel of John puts it this way:  The Light has come into the world, and the darkness has never overcome it.

In the same way, although we think of one moment in time when the Virgin was overshadowed by the Spirit, and the Incarnation of Christ occurred, the same event happens whenever the Holy Spirit overshadows a pure heart, and Christ is born again into the world.  There He continues to live in our time, in our circumstances, bringing the same peace, forgiveness, joy to earth.  In the secret dwelling places of our hearts, He meets sinners, He extends a hand to the poor, He encourages the broken-hearted.  We go to meetings, and He is there.  We walk our neighborhoods, and He is there.  We stand beside the sorrowing, and He is there.   St. Paul said, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me to the glory of God." 

The Incarnation, like Creation, is on-going and new every morning.

Praying and Listening

One of my favorite books for over 35 years now has been a little book entitled God Calling.  I get it at Barnes and Noble for 5.99-7.99, depending on when and where I pick it up.  The book has an editor (A.J. Roussel), but no author.  The two women who wrote it called themselves "two listeners;" each day, they sat down to listen together to what God would say to them.  Although I may not read the entries every single day, on the days I do read, it does sound as if God were truly speaking to me that day.  I have given this book to hundreds of people over the years; some of them have told me that this was the best thing I had ever given to them.

The lasting endurance of this small volume can teach us something about praying and listening.  It is no secret that God does want to speak to us and guide us, but as the Psalm says, "Let me guide you with mine eye; do not be like the horse or the mule that needs a bridle."  God's guidance is so soft and quiet that we must be still and listen to hear it.

Buying a journal is a good first step; sitting down with a notebook is an act of faith---you are expecting the Lord to teach you, every bit as much as the student who walks into a classroom with an empty notebook.  That expectation will bear fruit---but it is not necessary to worry about what you will "get," nor is it even important that you write anything at all.  You are not "writing," but capturing the word of the Lord to you, if He chooses to speak.

To sit in His Presence, expectantly, is enough.  We want to be with the people we love, even if we are not speaking to one another at the moment.  Adrienne von Speyer says that when people have been married a long time, all the stories have been told, and there is not always a need to speak.  Their being together is a prayer in itself.  So, too, when we sit in the Presence of God; just being there is a prayer.  If we need help, a good book is always a prayer-starter, according to Teresa of Avila.  The church calls it "Lectio Divina," or "holy reading."  That too is a gift, if we allow the Holy Spirit to direct us to the one book we need to be reading at that moment of our lives. 

If we set aside a place in our homes as a place of prayer, whether it's the bed, a comfortable chair, or the front porch, we will soon find ourselves praying whenever we are in that place.  The "place" becomes associated with prayer in our brains, and the connections are automatic after awhile. 

What God has to say to us is always surprising and fresh.  There is nothing stale about God, for He is creativity itself, and creativity involves movement.  The fun part of prayer is not what we have to say to God, but what He has to say to us!