And so it begins (again)...

In the quiet of the morning, my thoughts (re)turn to God...

 

"Let the words of my mouth,

and the meditation of my heart, 

be acceptable in thy sight,

O Lord,

my rock,

and my redeemer."

~ Psalms 19:14 ~
 

These hands, heart and mind which are mine have little value in and of themselves; for by themselves they have not gotten me far.  It is only, and always, as I apply myself unto Him that I find fulfillment, an (excited) peace, and rest...

 

Notes to self: 

• Organize my orientation that I might 'have to give.'   (More specifically, that I first take the time and effort to amass a good supply of that which I subsequently will have available to 'give')
• Owe no man anything which must be repaid, but owe God and men heartfelt words and services that are freely rendered in love
• Be clear to communicate, and further to demonstrate, a heart of devotion through radiant living and charitable service

 

Today, I do not strive with you,  my God and Maker.  I delight only in your presence and in your truth.  I gladly welcome the knowledge of you as revealed through scripture, which in turn leads me to bask in your actual reality and in your actual grace.

 

The form and forms of scriptural words which describe you, although breath-takingly beautiful and amazing, have in fact changed over time, but you have not.

 

Nor has the path to your heart...  

 

"Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, 

and into his courts with praise..."

~ Psalms 100:4 ~

 

And so it begins (again) for me.  How about you?...

Pondering Pivotal Points/Persons

A few years back I found myself in a reflective mood, and was taking stock of my life.  I had arrived (so far) at a pretty satisfying place.  Most of my life's major decisions were best viewed through the rear-view mirror.  Questions long ago grappled with and settled.  Such as:  Now that you are an adult, what are you going to do about it?  How are you going to support yourself?  Where are you going to live?  Will you marry?  Raise a family?  If any, who, what and where are you going to worship?  What do you hold most dear?  What difference will your having been alive have made to anyone, anyway?

In a sense, my life unfolded from a handful of choices I had made years earlier, and they were just playing themselves out.  My life had purpose, and it was filled with faith, family, and friends.  I pondered, 'Just how had my life been influenced along the way?'  I most certainly did not arrive at my current state by my own efforts alone...

It was very clear to me that there had been a handful of distinctly pivotal points in my journey.  Maybe you have had them, too?  You know, you are just cruising along, living your life, and then Bam!, you are suddenly struck by a person, an idea, or an event that captures your imagination, and everything changes!

Some new person, or insight, or happening interrupts life's equilibrium and causes you to just stop dead in your tracks, re-evaluate your path, and abruptly surge forward in a slightly, or entirely new direction!  The new path may be short-lived (and later abandoned), or it may lead you onto a life-long journey.  Ultimately, however, there are only a handful, 8 or 10 perhaps, of significant pivotal points in one's entire lifetime which explain how you arrived to become the person that you are today.

In that reflective moment, I determined to return the credit to whom the credit was due.  I made a record of the wonderfully pivotal people in my life, and noted their various contributions. 

I called my list:  Godly Pivotal People Who Helped Change my World.

Then I tracked them all down, those who were still living.  Why?  In order to personally thank them for their influence in changing my life and my world.  As a direct result of their influence, my life's direction was reshaped in a wonderful direction.  I have no idea how my life would have turned out if even one the the pivotal person's contributions had not been afforded.  I and many others have, and continue to be blessed because a handful of wonderful, caring people crossed my path and caught my attention...  

Since I have been fortunate enough to have had an impact on others along the way, I also was able to add with my personal thanks-giving the following sentiment:  "My Mom thanks you, my Dad thanks you, my Sister thanks you, my Brothers thank you, my Wife thanks you, my Children thank you--along with countless others that you will never meet!  We all thank you.  Your efforts have changed the world...!!! "

Well, it was fun, and time well spent!
Let me know how it goes if you try it....

Like I Should Care

I don't go looking for causes much these days.  Each new day brings to my doorstep enough of its own challenges, adventures, and rewards which test and re-test my mettle, and give me a chance to give.  Although I've heard that the race goes to the swift, I have to admit that I am not as fast as I once was, and find myself "in the dust" much of the time.  And actually that is generally O.K. with me.  To be sure, I am still in a race of sorts, but I try to pretty much stay out of other people's way who are in a hurry trying to get to their particularly important place, i.e., "the Cause."  For the world's sake, I only wish them well.  But there is plenty enough for me to do around here.


To be fair, each cause is to be evaluated on the basis of its own merits, and attracts its own set of supporters.  There are zillions of areas of concern, interest and need in life, both great and small.  One does not have to look very far to notice a spot where one might fit in and be a blessing. 


There are many benefits of getting involved with life's needful causes and varied interests.  There is a connectedness, a brotherhood so to speak, that develops among the supporting members of a common cause.  Efforts are expended together; sacrifices are made together; successes and disappointments are shared together.  Change may be effected.  In some new found way, your life matters, and the world becomes a better place.  When you invest the coinage of your time into some pursuit, you trust it will have the return of having been time "well-spent."


I have written before that "I have not been called to change the world, I will leave that for others.  But I have been able to change my world, and for that I am thankful."  You do not need to be among the fastest to stir up a little dust along the way.  But if you are fast and in a hurry, please, do not let me stand in your way.  By all means, go for it!  There is endless work to be done!  Thanks for your effort!


Know what I mean?  There's something for everyone to do. 
There's no law against love.

     

Thoughts with a capital T

It's a dreary Sunday morning in SoCal.  Here I am sitting at the keyboard in my bathrobe.  It's quiet.  I like that.  I can think.  Well, I wouldn't exactly call it thinking,  I'm not all deep and stuff.  More like I have thoughts.  Things occur to me, or I see patterns, look for explanations, endeavor to make sense of it all.  As I expressed in my profile, in my life I have been interested in a couple of things--one of which is appreciating what is right about people. 


I don't know exactly why this interest caught my attention early on as a child.  Scientists of behaviour might examine the crucible of my early family life.   As a second son in a family of five children, I precociously noted which childish behaviours were rewarded with warm parental approval and which were not.  Behaviours which elicited either an icy coolness of parental indifference or an heated explosiveness requiring parental intervention were to be avoided.  Most kids glean from their parents an  initial ideal of what's right about people, and tangentially how to act..  Because children yearn to be appreciated, and long to be adored, they make the necessary adjustments on their way toward adulthood.


Could life be that simple? Is the road to the promised land of adulthood as simple as Just Please Your Parents?  To simply think like they would want you to think?  and do just what they would wish you to do? 


Oh, if only life were that easy.  The problem is that I don't always think like my parents would have thought, nor do I do what my parents would have done.


For me, it has always been much easier to notice that which is to be avoided, than to clearly see that which must be embraced.  What really is right about people?  And what was really right about me?   And what about that mysteriously large gap between knowing what one ought to be doing, and what one actually finds one's self doing? 


The forge of personal experience teaches us what not to do, but it only hints at what to do.  The lessons of what is right about people and their behaviour start in the family, but they only go so far.  It is interesting to keep an eye out for what is right about people and how to bring out the best in them....


What have you noticed?

Spiritual appetite?

Having reflected on the blog post, Reactions to Pie, a reader queried: 

I was just wondering about those who seem to have no appetite at all for spiritual things? Your article did not address that, but it made me wonder whether or not you would "condone" it? 

I responded with the following:

  

God, taking the initiative and acting first, prepares a feast for His handiwork. Does He not know what to serve? If He knew much of His handiwork were plagued by no appetite, why go to all the trouble to put on the spread? "Let's just be content to watch the televised football game, instead." Why waste every one's time with useless food? (if indeed the food is useless, or merely discretionary.)

As His handiwork, it is helpful for us to occasionally reflect on whose part in the mystery of life is whose?  For me, the break down in Proverbs 1 clearly resonates:

Wisdom uttereth her voice in the streets--It's God's job to put on the feast.

If thou wilt receive my words--It's our choice to avail ourselves according to our own individual appetite...

They would none of my counsel--or not;  again, it's our choice according to our own individual appetite, or inclination.

So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices--Everyone is respectful of everyone else's choices. 

All choice's will be honored, even in the face of the Creator's clear declaration to all His handiwork that:

the prosperity of fools shall destroy them;  

and that those who hearken unto God shall be quiet from evil, shall understand righteousness, ... and every good thing.

Save us from our overly inflated selves.

Let God be God, and let us not try to be (God.)

However, if you find God to be a crappy cook and host, please feel free to do the entertaining.

It's our choice. 

Let me know how it's going.  We're all in this together...

Reactions to Pie

One thing I love about my Father is that He is not overly pushy.  He is a beneficent, loving provider, not a barking, unappreciated requirer.   I guess I am sensitive to this because on my 5th birthday, I had a "mildly" traumatic experience:  Mom served apple pie for dessert at lunch.   "What a treat!,"  she thought.  "And I gave you the biggest piece!" 


Well, as delectible as that apple pie may have been for her, I did not find it appetizing in the slightest.  And I did not touch it.  Long story short, I was to be kept at the table until I finished that piece of apple pie.  The kids went off to play, but I had to sit there until I woofed it down, and apologized for being such an unappreciative son.


Well, after a lengthy standoff, I was dismissed from the table and restricted to my room, having left the pie untouched.  "Whose birthday was it anyway?," I thought as I sulked....  It took me over 20 years to get over that episode, and actually sample a piece of apple pie.  I found it to be pretty good! 


One verse I love to consider, especially at Thanksgiving time is Matthew 5:6 where Jesus revealed a bit of the Father's point of view:
    Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.


I am not a bible expert, but I was taught that the standard of this filling was not a filling according to capacity, nor one which might result in overflowing, but a filling 'according to the standard of one's appetite.'  I love that.  Why?  Because our loving God allows for variations of appetite. 


I think about a wonderful piece of pie.  When offered to me as the the grand finale, after I have just stuffed myself at the Thanksgiving table, I usually say, "No, thanks.  Maybe later..."   However, were I to be offered that exact same piece of pie after a day of not having eaten, I would devour it, and lick off my plate.  My eating, or not eating, of the pie is no reflection on the pie.  It has more to do with my appetite.


Do you have a big spiritual appetite?  God says, Eat and be blessed.  Do you have a small spiritual appetite?  God says, Eat and be blessed.  Are you spiritually stuffed?  God says, That's Okay.  Food is ready when you are.  My Father's end game is to show His love and to bless.  I like what's on the menu, even when I'm not particularly hungry.  It's easy to love God, because He is so loving to me.  He seldom sends me to my room because I am not ready for His pie.


Maybe later....

Some things I know!

We generally tend to associate with people who look like we look, who dress like we dress, and think like we think.   Because we share some basic core element, we give such people a wider berth, a wider latitude of acceptance in our relationships.  We enjoy the company of people who vote like we vote, who worship like we worship, etc. There is an ease and comfort which fills the air whenever we are surrounded by such wonderfully like-minded souls.  No new story there.

The interesting part to me is, what happens within me when my comfortable world is interrupted by people who are not like me at all?  People who are blatantly (or sometimes even only slightly) different from me:  different in dress, different in thinking, different in values, different in needs, different in expectations.  Why should I even bother to care about them?  They do nothing to reinforce all that I hold dear in my life.

'You're just weird, stay away!'  I catch myself thinking.  'Not the style, nor behavioral choices I, or anyone I know, would have made.  Just plain weird.  There is a name for people like you:  Weirdo!  I don't get it, and I certainly don't get you.  What are you thinking?'

Then when I get back together with my like-minded souls -- we are in pretty constant contact -- Boy!  Do I have a discussion point for us to chew on!  You are not going to believe this!  There are people out there who are SO different from us, have you noticed?

We agree that the world is full of bizarros, and would be a much better place if everyone dressed, thought, and acted like we do....!

(Uh, ya know?  Somehow that thinking just doesn't seem to sound quite right either...)

Let me get back with you on the things that I know!