November 27, 2023
#795 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
September, 2023 As I’ve said before, God speaks to me through other writers. It is cool when a spiritual reading mirrors exactly my own life experience: “Over time I have learned two things about my spiritual quest: First of all, that it is God who is seeking me, and who has myriad ways of finding me. Second, that my most substantial changes, in terms of religious conversion, come through other people.” –Kathleen Norris
November 28, 2023
Marching along on Golf Tuesday..
#796 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
November, 2023 I believe my calling is simply the people whom God has brought into my life. For my 33 year teaching career, my calling was mainly teenagers. Now it is seniors, especially senior men, mainly through golf and church. Tough crowd. The biggest danger I have observed in growing old is our tendency to choose “same old” over “something new” and our willingness to become passive instead of active. And so John Donne wrote “…do not go gently into that good night.”
Ooops, forgot…Addendum to 11/28 post: Apologies…yesterday’s quote was Dylan Thomas not Donne (thanks, Roy). Another hazard of growing old is trusting a faulty memory.
November 29, 2023
#797 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
August, 2023 “All things are lawful…” (I’ve relied on the front end of that verse many times) “…but not all things are profitable.” (I Corinthians 10:23) So what is profitable?
Me: That which draws me nearer to this unimaginable love.
Universe: So, all the good things you do?
Me: It’s not like checking items off a list; it’s like sailing on a ship.
Universe: Difficult simile.
Me: The good ship Profitable has set its course for Attentiveness and Responsiveness and Trust. Sail on.
Universe: Sail on.
November 30, 2023
#798 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
October, 2023 Again, from C.S. Lewis: “The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.… But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience but shouts in our pain–it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
I must remember that my suffering, be it physical or mental or emotional, has a higher purpose, and I must become more sensitive to the suffering of others.
December 1, 2023
#799 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
October, 2023 A number of my relatives are outdoorspeople. They hike in the wilderness, they bike, they kayak, they ski, they camp, they climb mountains, they swim, they sail. For the most part, to my understanding, they are atheists or agnostics. I don’t get it. I can understand how, if we study humanity–our history, our culture, our government, our behavior, the state of our world–it’s easy to develop doubts about a Creator. My faith struggles with that. But nature testifies for Him. As the psalmist says, “In His hands are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to Him. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” (95:4–5)
December 2, 2023
#800 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
October, 2023 I have a fear of heights that to this day makes me feel queasy. I cannot say how annoying and frustrating this is to me. Hard to explain, but the fear is more that I will jump than that I will fall. Aghh! Is that tiny impulse toward self-destruction greater than the love of God, which surrounds me and protects me at all times? Of course it is not…yet I still get that queasy feeling.
December 3, 2023
Family Sunday in New Orleans…
#801 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
December 3, 2023 My first live NFL game (I’ve led a sheltered life). I thought it was a wondrous experience…the energy of the crowd–the interplay of Saints and Lions fans–the ringing in my ears–the reactions of people caught on the Fan Cam–the joy of a big play–the price of beer (astronomical)–old geezers dancing at halftime–the hush of a late game crucial turnover–the companionship of my brother and nephew–truly epic. Though I’ve often thought that fans’ passion for their team borders on the idolatrous, I have to believe God enjoys the spectacle.
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