October 10, 2022
#344 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Sunday, July 10, 2022 This might be the best advice on interpersonal relations that I’ve ever heard: “When you encounter another person, when you have dealings with anyone at all, it is as if a question is being put to you. So you must think, What is the Lord asking of me in this moment, in this situation? If you confront insult or antagonism, your first impulse will be to respond in kind. But if you think, as it were, This is an emissary sent from the Lord, and some benefit is intended for me, first of all the to demonstrate my faithfulness, the chance to show that I do in some small degree participate in the grace that saved me, you are free to act otherwise than as circumstances would dictate. You are free to act by your own lights. You are freed at the same time of the impulse to hate or resent that person. He would probably laugh at the thought that the Lord sent him to you for your benefit (and his), but that is the perfection of the disguise, his ignorance of it.” –from Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
October 11, 2022
They’re overseeding my course today and I’m overseeding my mind…
#345 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Saturday, July 9, 2022 There is a zen koan that has stayed with me since my youth: “If you want to be, act as if…” On the one hand, that seems like extreme hypocrisy–I should act happy when I am sad? And yet, why not? I often use it on the golf course. If I want to be calm, act as if… If I want to be positive… If I want to be confident… Think of applying it to the promises of God: “I have told you these things so that you may have peace.” (John 16:33) …act as if! “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him..” (Psalm 37:23) …act as if! Best one yet: “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:8) …act as if! The wisdom of the koan is not hypocritical–it’s transformational! I am the captain of my ship–I apply the promises.
October 12, 2022
Tip of my hat to Bethany…
#346 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Thursday, September 1, 2022 God is speaking to me through Willie again:
“There’s something to be said for getting older
Dusty bottles pour a finer glass of wine
An old beat-up guitar just sounds better
And wisdom only comes with time
I can spot mistakes before they happen
Separate the BS from the truth
I’m learnin’ when I need to keep my mouth shut
Like I couldn’t in my wild and wasted youth.”
–“Dusty Bottles”
October 13, 2022
#347 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Tuesday, September 6, 2022 “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Now? Here? It’s easy for me to believe on my back porch on a beautiful evening. What about someone who just lost her home in a forest fire? It either is or it isn’t–it’s not a relative statement. There’s a great mystery here–I can’t pretend to have solved it.
October 14, 2022
#348 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Monday, June 13, 2022 Interesting discussion at my Stephen Ministry zoom meeting tonight: Why did Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus not recognize Jesus by sight when He appeared to them? Perhaps because it was so unexpected or because God didn’t open their eyes. My theory is that our physical appearance is one of the most superficial aspects of our identity. Isn’t it ironic how in this world it is the one that is generally weighed most heavily? Another proof that transformation comes from the inside out.
October 15, 2022
#349 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Thursday, September 8, 2022. The African Queen (film) as metaphor: God has been showing me how complex marriage is. Not just mine–everybody’s! Think about how misfit Charlie and Rose were when they got on the boat. Not misfit destiny-wise, but misfit in their individual thinking–we all start like that. So we see what the river brings and how we handle it–it’s brilliant. We are supposed to be learning how to navigate the river as we learn how to love each other. It is not 50/50–it is 100/100 (contrary to my comic–or maybe not).
October 16, 2022
#350 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
Tuesday, August 23, 2022. I could spend days thinking about this: “Once more, all religious language is metaphor–I hope you know that. It’s the best we can do. We’re like blind people touching the side of an elephant, describing the tiny portion we feel with all the conviction we can muster.
But the Spirit was always the hardest to describe, and even Jesus acknowledges this: ‘The Spirit blows where it will’ (John 3:8); don’t try to control the Spirit by saying where the Spirit comes from, where the Spirit goes, or who definitely “has” the Spirit. God has many that the churches do not have, and the churches have many that God does not have.”
–from The Divine Dance by Richard Rohr
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