Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Salt Shakers

"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth." (Matt 5:13) I'm going to propose something that is only partly true. But the part that is true, is truly true. What I propose is that as salt-like agents, we make the good flavors that are in the people around us, even better. This could manifest itself as drawing out from the people around us, "goodness-es" that they are not aware they have. We take who they are, and reflect back to them a better version of themselves. As salt agents, we can genuinely see their God flavor and draw it from them. Isn't that what people do who love us? Don't they always make us look better than we know we are? Isn't that what Christ does? I think Christ does this for the just and the unjust. I also think it makes Him happy when we receive/agree with His better-version-of-ourselves-assessment of us.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Womanizer, Womanizer, Womanizer . . .

I have a friend who was married to a womanizer. Her comment to me concerning her husband was, "You know, he could have had my body, my soul, and my spirit, but he was not interested - all he wanted was another woman's body." When she said that, I heard what could have been God saying, “That is the way it is for Me as well - I offer my people My Body, My Soul, and My Spirit - but they are not interested - all they want are things like jobs and friends and raises at work!"

Monday, March 15, 2010

A Planned Life

Joseph Campbell said, "We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so that we can live the life that is waiting for us." One of the reasons this is hard is because our identity is wrapped up in our "planned lives." But none of our lives go as planned and broken dreams are part of all of our lives. So it really does behoove us to grieve our broken dreams and not-as-planned lives, release them to God, and as Campbell said, get on with the life that is waiting for us.

The Most Self Important Member of Our Body

One of the more life changing "understandings" for me was the understanding that my mind was not necessarily my friend. My mind did not necessarily tell me the truth, nor did my thoughts go through a Truth Detector before they came to me. We think that our mind is our friend and that our thoughts are true thoughts. But our mind is just as unruly as every other member of our body and needs just as much adjusting and disciplining as our bones and muscles need adjusting and disciplining. As someone once said, "“I use to think that the brain was the most important organ in the body until I realized who it was that was telling me this!” Yes, we would do well to be suspicious of the thoughts that emanate from this most self important member of our body.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

A Joyful Mind

Without me being aware, I have put myself under an indictment that says to me, "Since the hard parts of the first two-thirds of your life have been the result of you not taking good care of yourself, you must make sure you don't make that mistake again and you must take good care of yourself for the last third of your life." All would be well and good with that resolve if it hadn't morphed into a subtle pressure that said, "You now must make sure your future is better than your past in order to prove you are taking good care of yourself." My heart exposed this slightly askew truth when she leapt for joy when reading, "A joyful mind is when your mind does not need the future to be better than the past" (Rohr).

I pay attention when my heart "leaps for joy." She is saying, "This is the way - walk ye in it!" My heart is a good compass - she is right - I don't need to make sure my future is better than my past in order to prove I can take care of Robin! If my future is not better than my past, it will not be an indictment that I did not learn to take good care of the gift that Robin is. Life is more complex than that.