September 16, 2024
#1190 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
May 21, 2024 An old Zen koan keeps coming to mind: “If you want to be, act as if…” I used to use it to pursue ego goals–as if I am confident… as if I’m in control… Never worked very well. Now I realize it is aimed at “fruit of the Spirit” goals. If I want to be patient… if I want to have self-control… if I want to be loving… if I act as if, I am becoming.
September 17, 2024
Golf Tuesday, pressurized…
#1191 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
September 10, 2024 I play in our club championship tomorrow. It is our biggest event of the year, and I am a little nervous about it. The stakes are higher, but it’s about more than money. Everybody wants to play their best in the club championship, but rarely does it happen. Because I am nervous, I have prayed about it, and this is what I got from Jesus: Let Me join you.
September 18, 2024
#1192 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
July 27, 2024 I love this: “What this story highlights is something that is too often lost within spirituality, namely, that the highest compliment someone can give to a gift giver is to thoroughly enjoy the gift. The highest compliment we can give to God, our Creator, is to thoroughly enjoy the gift of life. One should never look a gift universe in the mouth.” –Ronald Rolheiser
No dour Christianity for me…my Savior says: “I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)
September 19, 2024
#1193 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
July 17, 2024 Circumstances have led me to go through my entire book collection, a bittersweet experience. My library is at least 50% unread. Ah, there is so much I have intended to read! Reading has been one of God’s most pleasing gifts to me, from boyhood to right now. He intended it to enhance my life not replace it, so I have no regrets over unread books. Now if I only knew how to give them away…
September 20, 2024
#1194 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
August 4, 2024 I have lost my glasses. Another example of my mind slipping. I don’t know whether to attribute it to happenstance, carelessness, the long-term effect of drinking, a natural result of aging, or the dreaded D word rearing its ugly head as I descend–some combination of the above, I imagine. My response is more significant than attribution. I resolve to:
a) pray to find them; b) look for them; c) be thankful that I have others; and d) trust God for my overall health and well-being.
September 21, 2024
#1195 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
July 15, 2024 We are having restoration work done in our house because of water damage. The Bible tells me there is a purpose to our trials, so this is what I am coming up with:
*God is having me re-examine my attitudes about money; having it, saving it, spending it, and giving it.
*God is reminding me to make a distinction between temporal things and spiritual things.
*God is encouraging me to let go of the artifacts of my past by decluttering.
September 22, 2024
Family Sunday, and it’s too quiet…
#1196 HOW GOD SPOKE TO ME TODAY
August 10, 2024 Silence. My daughter and two granddaughters returned to Ann Arbor today. There is abundant peace and quiet, but it’s the empty kind. The back porch is different without the possibility of one of them strolling out to join me. Silence is wonderful, but family is even better.
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