Sunset at the North Pole

From a friend: A scene you will probably never get to see, so take a moment and enjoy God at work at the North Pole. This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. And, you also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others. The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this: "When someone shares with you something of value, you have an obligation to share it with others!"

Thy Kingdom Come

“To want all that God wants, always to want it, for all occasions and without reservations, that is the Kingdom of God which is all within.”
~Francois Fénelon (1651-1715)

“The Kingdom of God is simply God’s power enthroned in our hearts. Faith in the Kingdom of God is what makes us light of heart and what Christian joy is all about.”
~John Main

“God is over all things, under all things; outside all, within but not enclosed; without but not excluded; alone but not raised up; below but not depressed; wholly above, presiding; wholly beneath, sustaining; wholly without, embracing; wholly within, filling.”
~Hildebart of Lavadin

Opportunity

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work"

~ Thomas Edison

Local Food For Thought

Check out the whole article by Molly Schwartz & Donna Schaper
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070709/watch_your_foodometer

Something very strange has happened to food in the richest country of the world. We can get a bad tomato just about any time of day in any season. We eat out of paper bags and drink the magnificent beverage of coffee out of Styrofoam cups. While we are drinking the coffee, we worry about the possibility of nuclear war over oil. We eat alone. We eat while driving. We eat but there is nothing sacred or beautiful or slow about it. My own people come to meetings and leave half a foreign country's worth of paper and Styrofoam behind. We have our coffee hour with paper cups. Kids eat chicken fingers over and over again--and slow food has to organize as an (increasingly popular and fast-growing) international movement. Imagine having to organize politically for the right to eat slowly and well. The fast food economy has created a world in which we have to protect ourselves from it.

Fast is the enemy of feast. In this supposedly wonderful world, many of us no longer know how to eat, or sleep with the peace of a shepherd. Imagine giving up eating and sleeping in order to follow orders about how to eat and sleep. Remember, (the pizza gal) falsely said, "I can make that for you fresh."

When we get real about food, we look like utopians to others. They make fun of us as silly and wide-eyed. One look at her pizza and one made fresh ought to take that argument straight to the landfill. Every interaction in good food is slow, whole, just; every interaction in fast food is fast, distorted, tasteless and unjust. Who is the utopian? And who the fool?

Loving Prayer

I was thinking today about answers to prayer...some examples of healing...and I realized that in all instances the person or creature received a lot of love and attention. I've been thinking about the power of love lately and I suddenly realized that love is a intergal part of prayer and healing.

Sock Puppet Church

From "Sock Puppet Church" - Sojourners Digest

Lately, I have been reading Bill McKibben’s fine new book, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. McKibben argues that growth—based on “hyper-individualism”—does not create human happiness, health, and wholeness. Rather, local community and close connections make us happy. We must shift away from a Wal-Mart economy to what he calls a “deep economy,” defined as “the economics of neighborliness.” Less stuff, he suggests, will create more connections by transforming the human economy and makes a “durable future” for the planet.

Although McKibben writes of economics, his argument carries over to faith. Successful American churches are Wal-Mart type congregations, built on the idea that bigger-is-better, hyper-individual faith, and entertaining programs meet an infinitely expanding religious market. That vision creates a culture of religious sameness across the country—indeed, across the globe—that subsumes local cultures in its wake. Want your church to grow? Attend the latest pastors conference offered by a celebrity minister. Do 40 days of purpose or seven steps toward mission. Put on a dazzling Christmas spectacular. Buy Vacation Bible School in a can. You, too, can have a successful church if you lay out the cash.

My mother is nearly 70, has had two heart attacks, and is slowing down. When I think of her—as I do a lot these days—I remember sitting in the piles of scraps, creating biblical worlds together. I remember making the Virgin Mary out of a sock. I remember the deep economy of being Christian, of practicing our faith in the living room with scissors and glue, not the size or success of our congregation. I remember our neighborhood church, small and quirky, where we produced our spiritual lives with our hands and from our hearts.

I no longer want to belong to an efficient church, a big one, or even a successful one. I just want to be part of a good sock-puppet church. And, as I have traveled this year, and spoken to many thousands of Christians, I had heard them, too, longing for sock puppet church, a deeper congregation, a community that stitches memory from scraps, one that (as McKibben says) “rebalances the scales” of our religious economy—and, in the process, may well transform the world.

Diana Butler Bass (www.dianabutlerbass.com) is the author of the award-winning Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith (Harper, 2006). Her daughter is not attending Vacation Bible School this summer, but Diana is collecting socks to spring a puppet project on her in August.

Shane Claiborne: Love Wins - Always

Monday, June 25, 2007
Shane Claiborne: Love Wins - Always

The power of community, interdependence, and burden-bearing is so penetrating... It just busts through the pain of loss like grass through concrete. I live with tears in my eyes right now, every moment, mesmerized by this big family we have.

In Iraq some folks taught us a saying in Arabic that translates: "When all is well, it's easy to forget who your friends are. But when things get hard, you will know exactly who your friends are." I have learned once again the depth of their wisdom, a wisdom that comes from many tears.

Moments of crisis seem to bring out the best or worst in people. Tragedies can paralyze us in despair or they can be a catalyst for hope. This week we have seen hope shine. While it is very true that this fire did not have to happen like this (this was the third fire in this factory this year) ... And while it is unmistakably clear that in any other neighborhood a hazardous factory would not have continued to lie vacant after multiple tragedies and deaths inside ... While it is clear that there has been a deliberate economic bias and neglect toward families in one of Philly's poorest districts, who have relentlessly voiced their concerns ... Hope is thick in the air.

Since the 7-alarm fire that destroyed half our block, including our home and arts space, we have come to remember that the best things in life are free, and cannot be bought and sold, or stolen.
Within hours folks were eating together out of our 3234 house (we didn't even have electricity). Everyone offered their gifts—Brooke was serving meals, Michael had launched a new Web site, Darin had established emergency relief funds, Jamie had created a video, Lee wrote a poem, Eastern University had organized a donations drive, Tim was fixing kids' bikes, Amber was giving massages, lawyers were offering help, Ryan was calling together a board meeting, our EAPE friends were answering a couple dozen calls an hour. ... Unbelievable.

One of the kids on the block told us: "That wasn't just your house that burnt, that was my house. And I will help rebuild it."

We have received literally hundreds of e-mails and calls from folks offering prayers and gifts. And the incredible power is that this sense of solidarity has not just been with us here at TSW, but behind our whole neighborhood in a tough but beautiful time. For this reason we have set up two Emergency Relief Funds to make sure we are good (and transparent) stewards of those gifts—one is for our home and community here at TSW, and the other is for the families of our Kensington who will also be rebuilding their lives. We are confident that God does work out all things for good. All things. And words cannot express how deeply moving it all is.

The point of this note is not to ask you for money, but to thank you for love. As many of you know, we not only lost the building of a non-profit, but we lost our home. A reporter asked me how it felt to lose everything, and I told her I wouldn't know: I feel like one of the most blessed people in the world, even though most everything I owned just went up in flames.

So the simple way is still simple (and it just got a little simpler, ha ha ha). And may we never forget that we are people of resurrection—we resurrected this same old building from absolute ruins 6 years ago ... We can do it again. That is what we mean when we talk about "practicing resurrection." We will keep practicing.

Love wins. Always.

Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian, author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia.

Prayerful Mindfulness

From "A Retreat With Brother Lawrence and the Russian Pilgrim" - Kerry Walters

[Practicing the presence of God through ceaseless prayer] transfigures the commonplace by creating a point of intersection between two worlds. Ceaseless prayer repairs the rupture between the sacred and the secular by enabling us to recognize God's prescence even in our most "mundane business". As Brother Lawerence discovered, prayerful mindfulness consecrates any activity - kitchen work, shoe repair, the purchase and transport of victuals - when such "small things" are done in and for the "the love of God".

God help me think before I speak so my thoughts and words are in line with Love and not my ego.

"When we pray, we're like the importunate widow in Jesus' parable who sits day after day in the judge's vestibule in hopes of finally having a word with him. She knows she is powerless to force his hand or dragoon him. So she stills her heart and simply waits. She puts herself at his disposal and says, "Here I am."

Luke 18: 1 - 8
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!'

And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?

God help me to have the courage to rest in you, look to you for guidance and accept your timing.

Love Is For Always

For not only do people need food, but they need also the touch of a hand, the sound of a voice. For food lasts but a day, but love is for always.

- Mother Teresa

Direct and Eject

I continue to be a willing participant in God's "Direct and Eject" plan. The deal is, I said I'd do God's will. So, I've been listening and allowing him to direct me even if it didn't make a whole lot of sense. But I keep hitting deadends...getting ejected from situations I thought God wanted me to be in. The last few months have been very puzzling and frustrating but, in trust and with the spiritual support of several friends, I fought discouragment and kept plugging away. Well, the truth is, I've been trying to fit my rough edged self into a neat square hole...and God won't let me do that.

This morning some stuff that has recently happened started making sense. It reminds me now of the stories of Christ's disciples not understanding what Jesus was telling them at the time and then suddenly, much later, realizing what he meant. God seems to work that way. Revelation! Anyhow, I realized that, while two years ago I would not have seen myself getting a part time job in an artsy Charter school, upon calmer reflection, that is the best placement for me at this point in my life. Praise God! This job allows me financial security, creative license and free time. God continues to provide for my needs in all areas of my life.

Born Again

The last two years, I've thought a lot about the Christian phrase "born again" because I felt turned inside out, burnt to ash and actually born again after my re-conversion. Something did change forever inside of me and those who knew me before see it. But the changes that occured were primarily on the spiritual level. On the material level, I find I'm still the same person with all the same challenges. The difference I see in myself, on the material level, is God convicts, guides and comforts me in ways I was not open to before. So, what I'm describing in my last post is not some state of worldly perfection. I don't think that's Christ's aim in saving us. He knows we cannot be perfect in these bodies and if our goal is to be perfect we will waste the gift he has given us. He has made us perfect spiritually through the gift of his death and resurrection. So what does he ask us to do? Surrender to that truth, love him, do his will, and become one with him. Once we have opened our hearts to God's love, and accepted him as our master, he wants us to grow closer in relationship with him. Why? Because he loves us and Love's natural response is unconditional forgiveness and a desire for intimacy on all levels of being. Just as a love based commitment of marriage between a man and woman (the human counterpart to our relationship with God) can, over time, grow emotionally deeper, magnify our purpose and enrich our being, if that is our intention, we can choose to live and grow similarly in relationship with God. There is no greater joy or satisfaction than knowing God.

The gift Christ gives us is free access to God. We can choose that gift or not. In God's embrace, his compassion and unconditional love allows us to gain the strength to forgive and accept our human weaknesses. We can then stop worrying about being perfect, we are already perfect. We can rest in the Lord and open our hearts, without fear, to our created purpose which is to use our imperfect bodies to do God's loving will on earth.

Wholeness

In answer to a friend...

Jesus made whole what man had torn asunder...that is wholeness in true union with God. Wholeness is not given only to those who do good works, have great mental focus or are exceptionally pure of heart. Wholeness is the result God's gift of faith by surrender to God's will. Once I surrendered, God effected a real change within me through the work of the Holy Spirit. I died to the material self and was reborn as newly sanctified creature washed in the blood of the lamb. My physical self now is instructed by the Holy Spirit. But I have free will. As I choose to listen and allow God to bring the physical and spiritual aspects of my being into greater harmony, I enjoy more peace and wholeness of being.

This ultimate union with God is spoken of in all meditative traditions.

Creative Chaos

Well, I accepted a job as the part-time RSP teacher at a local charter school. It was kind of a scary step in faith. I don't get benefits because it's part-time. However, there is a chance for more work and that could put me over the hourly percentage in the near future. I decided to go for this job because of the schedule (two days per week) and because the consortium this charter is in is a new school format. The psychologist said they hired me because, being a theater director, I had learned to be mentally flexible, open to learning and able to stay focused amid creative chaos ...To a point! I am able to stay afloat quite nicely in the midst of a storm of ideas amd emotions and somehow my mind sifts through the input and comes up with something coherent. Of course, there are limitations to my tolerance for mismanagement.

Newness in Prayer

Prayer and meditation have an important part to play in opening up new ways and new horizons. If your prayer is the expression of a deep and grace-inspired desire for newness of life—and not the mere blind attachment to what has always been familiar and "safe"—God will act in us and through us to renew the Church by preparing, in prayer, what we cannot yet imagine or understand. In this way our prayer and faith today will be oriented toward the future which we ourselves may never see fully realized on earth.

- Thomas Merton
Contemplation in a World of Action

Faith

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1

The few faithful men and women of the old testament did what God asked them to do. Their action in accordance with God's will was evidence of their steadfast hope that what God promised he would bring to pass in the future. Their complete surrender to doing God's will, even if they did not see the sense in it or would never see the results, was evidence of an authentic, loving response to God. Then...does the phrase "the evidence of things not seen" mean the faith these stewards of God enjoyed was founded in first hand experience with God's spiritual action in their lives and in the material world?

My faith in God was a gift. I had never been able to find faith by myself. I'm too skeptical and analytical. My busy "monkey mind" always throws up questions and doubts. The gift, the internal change that occured, allowed me to believe in God despite my doubts. I'm confident this is a gift because, though my doubts are still as strong, they fall away, burnt in the steady light of the Holy Spirit...and I can only surmise I continue to believe by the grace of this Holy Spirit.

Even though God has given me this undeserved gift of faith in him, I need endless help having faith that God will always respond to my needs. Like the Isrealites wandering in the desert, my needs are always met...often specifically or at the last moment. But again like the Isrealites, I eventually turn my mind away from knowledge of God's providence and again start to worry future needs might not be met. Or I may be shaken by challenging and puzzling directives I don't understand. God asks me to wait patiently for understanding with faith in God's timing. Instead of having peace and resting in him, I often start to pace my cage of worry. As more time passes, the fear arises that I may not ever get what I desire or God's answers won't fit into my already established plans.

God, I need your help to turn my eyes back to you and trust, in faith, that you are always working in the world on my behalf. Help me open my eyes, ears, heart, mind and soul to your loving guidance. Help me to follow the path you set before me with joy. There is no goal but you. Therefore, help me be flexible in surrender to your will, invested only in your love and able to blindly follow you in courage and faith wherever you lead me.

Cavorting in Graveyards

I just got back from walking the dogs (or being walked by them) in the old, local graveyard. I started walking in the newer graveyard after my gram died and it's become a routine to take the dogs there almost every day for their walks. After the gravediggers got a bit too friendly, I gravitated more to the older graveyard. There's not as much action there and the grave stones are more interesting. It's an old pioneer graveyard housing the town's founding fathers, both the famous and the infamous. Since I'm doing research for a children's book about a local pit miner it's fun to actually see the graves of the people I'm reading about.

The dogs love the graveyard and can't wait to get out of the car. We all run and cavort in the quiet. Today as we were sprinting over several turn-of-the-century graves it struck me that I sure was not being very reverent. I was definitely into an "animal" mentality of living in the moment. We roamed the far reaches of the lawns avoiding the maintenance guy because I had Sophie off leash (If he caught us I imagined telling him the sign said "Keep pets on leash"and Sophie is not a pet...she's just a homely little girl) Anyway, we were having fun in the 93 degree heat...in a grave yard. Most people would think that's kind of weird.

I've thought a lot about the possible "weirdness" of hanging out in graveyards since it seems to be one of my sole outings during this busy season in my life. I think it's been a good experience. At first, it was a way of staying close to my gram and walking the dogs in a safe place. Then it evolved into a way to become comfortable with the reality of death. I've hit that big milestone, middle age, when some people realize they've wasted a lot of life and start examining how they will live the remainder of that precious gift. On top of growing up through an interesting mid-life crisis, I renewed my belief in God. That has also led me to an examination of what death is from a spiritual and biblical perspective. I find I'm not afraid to die. Death is not a tragedy or an ending. I figure I'll live as long as God can use me and then I'll move on to better work. That's a good thing. Why worry about death? By God's grace I have come to believe he values and cares for me as his child and will continue to take care of me when my body finally wears out. My hope is I use this time on earth to do what God created me to do by staying open to his guidance and living what he teaches me.

Hey! Maybe graveyards are not places of sorrow. Maybe they are places of celebration. Maybe it's OK to cavort among the graves.

Origin of Phone Phobia

It's not food and it doesn't rattle...
What in the heck is this thing for?
And...heh, man! Stop flashing lights at me?

Patience

I am feeling overwhelmed right now with the magnitude of what I need to accomplish in the next month. I know God is there for me and is providing for all my needs but, I guess, I still cannot release my anxiety. My anxiety is coming out as impatience and frustration with people around me. I feel like there are some folks who just don't get my priorities...that I need to focus on certain things before others...and I'm allowing that to become a burden. I have not been being very loving in the heat of the moment. As always, God kept knocking on the door I'd closed. This morning, I finally answered and listened and he basically let me know all my burdens are here to teach me patience and stewardship and love in the face of adversity. Maybe these are not burdens. I do know I need to turn to God all through the day...especially before I open my mouth...and leave my heart undefended, plyable and open to his will. I have goals I may need to let go of, but it sure eases the heart to know that whatever happens God considers that the best thing for me. I do want to live and have time to love the people who are important to me.

I had to give up a promising job interview yesterday to go to a funeral of a dear friend...the dad of the four brothers I grew up with. When I got the call for the interview, for a few seconds, it seemed to be a tough decision and then God stepped in. I told the Human Resource person I couldn't make it because family comes first. On the way to the funeral, I got another call from our local district Human Resource person for a job interview for a position at a school located one mile from my house. God works in mysterious ways.

When we finally got to the church, it took a while for me to shift from director/teacher/person who is incredibly busy mode to being present in the moment. I could have felt ashamed that I felt no sorrow but I felt no need for sorrow. My friend had lived a good life and had died in peaceful surrender to God's will surrounded by a family who now prepared to celebrate his life with tears and laughter. I finally cried for their loss but not for his gain. After the funeral we were going to go back home because I needed to teach and mom had a show that evening. They didn't want us to leave. Family comes first. I called and canceled my lessons. Yes, my students might quit because this is the second time I've canceled lessons this month, but I felt I needed to be there. I was right. They needed to remember their dad and their life as children.

One of the brothers wanted us to stay for a slide show of their dad's history, family and friends. Each picture brought back memories. When we were young we basically lived at each others houses. I was their "adopted" sister. After the slide show, the two younger brothers told me how they now tell their kids about all the adventures we had as children. They and my brother and I are the main characters of these bedtime stories. As they were telling me this, I suddenly realized what it means for me to have known these men before they went to college, married beautiful women, became successful lawyers and managers, created sweet families and grew up to be upstanding community members. When I look into their eyes, we remember who were were and who we really still are. Together, we see the old neighborhood. We go back to the days when we played outside all day, swam in their family's new pool, rode our bikes to Sandy Gulch store without helmets, risked death playing in a raging creek, crashed our bikes, hunted madly for the KHSL Bug, pulled pranks, climbed our backyard Ropes Course, ran everywhere, had various disasters, played Hogan's Heroes at night with flashlights, shared pets, had tearful fights, created cool things out of junk and learned all the amazing things that made us the people we are today. We are part of each other in a way no one else can be. Shared childhood is a profound and lasting bond.

God help me reconnect with this dear family.

Authentic Prayer

When we pray authentically we are in the presense of God. Initially, this is a frightening place in which to find ourselves. Who, after all, can stand before the living God amd not be consumed? Who can see God and live? But gradually, as one grows into the prayerful life - or, more accurately, as the Holy Spirit leads one more deeply into it - the realization dawns that such immolation (and death to self) is precisely the point. The final purpose of prayer is to offer ourselves up as oblations to God, to be so consumed by the intensity of divine Love that our petulant demands, self-pitying petitions and indifferent hearts melt away. When this happens, we are no longer persons who say prayers. We are persons who have become prayers. This is the mystery of what Saint Paul's injunction to "pray ceaselessly" gestures.

Excerpt from A Retreat With Brother Lawrence and Russian Pilgrim -Praying Ceaselessly by Kerry Walters

Ceaseless Prayer

I'm reading this interesting book that takes the reader on a armchair retreat. I guess the book could be used on a real retreat as well. I'd like to take some time out each day and read each section as a mini-retreat. Anyway, the theme of the book is ceaseless prayer.

I've been thinking and reading about prayer a lot lately because I and a friend are starting a prayer line at church. God has laid it on my heart to do this in reponse to what I felt was a need in the church. Now that my pastors son is ill in the hospital that need is direct and immediate. When my friend and I began to meet about the prayer line we realized, as leaders of this prayer line. we might be asked about prayer. So I'm trying to figure out what I believe prayer is.

The premise of the book is if we learn to pray throughout the day our lives become a prayer in, by and through God's love. Ceaseless prayer is living eternally in God's Word. It is intentional. It is a mindful surrender to God's will with the intention of developing a listening and responsive spirit. In this sense, rather than asking God favors, we ask God how he will use us in each situation. Pray is thus a dynamic and proactive state of being rather than a meaningless religious activity or superstitious ritual of appeasement or supplication.

Blessings!

Higher Reality

We take the laws of nature too seriously. We think of the world as though it exists just as its Creator exists. Therefore, we have miracles. A miracle is a state of enlightenment that says our reality is nothing but a glimmer of a Higher Reality. In that Higher Truth, there is no world. There is nothing else but Him.

A Daily Dose of Wisdom from the Rebbe
words and condensation by Tzvi Freeman Sivan 15, 5767 * June 1, 2007