FINDING GOD

5/26/2015

FINDING GOD

How do you connect with God?  Is it hard?  Do you find the one-sided aspect difficult?  Many of us do.  Buddhists and other mystics speak of meditation and complete surrender to the higher power that they experience and I always feel unable to relate.  The problem I think is actually of God’s making.  That pesky free will gets in the way of so much not the least of which is communication with God.  Free will is driven by ego. Aldous Huxley once said that the task of life is to overcome the fundamental human disability of egoism.  It’s possible that sinking into God without ego is the peace we speak of when people die.  Until that day we have to constantly strive to perfect our relationship with God.  We have to face the fact that it will never be perfect, that it will be strained sometimes but the effort is worth it.  Read the prophets; they all experienced the ups and downs of communicating with God but God always comes through the fog.  One prophet sought God in the wind, the storms, the fire, etc. but God spoke to him in a whisper.  The lesson there is that God is always near and if we are just patient and quiet we will hear what we are meant to hear. 

DEATH AND TAXES?

May 18, 2015

There is an old saying that the only sure things in life are death and taxes but there is one more and it is change.  As I take my morning walk through the park I watch from spring to spring the changes that take place in nature.  No matter how much I wish the apple trees would stay in their magnificent state longer, they begin to lose their petals after only a week and nothing can alter that.  I must accept it and enjoy the shade they provide all summer.   Much of the discomfort of life, fear and anxiety, come from fear of change or the actual change itself.  The Feast of the Ascension of Christ offers us a glimpse into what change meant to the Disciples of Christ.  Notice that Jesus prepares them for the change to come by telling them to remain together in Jerusalem and wait for the Spirit to descend.  They had just been through a whirlwind of change and now this. Jesus was actually leaving them for good.  What went through their minds and hearts was exactly what goes through ours when unavoidable change comes.  "Where do we go from here?" "Have I the strength to endure this and do what is expected of me, and oh, by the way, just what is expected of me?" No wonder they remained staring up at the sky!  I imagine the atmosphere in the upper room awaiting the Spirit was pretty tense.  You have families; imagine what it would be like for you all.  But if we stand back and look at the whole picture,  we can see the plan. First the Creator, then the Redeemer and finally the Spirit.  It is complete.  God has given us all we need to live our lives in Him.  The Disciples rose to the occasion and so can we.  They had no more going for them than we do.  Trust in Jesus, remember his words, call on the Spirit and move forward.

TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN

"..to whom much is given, much is expected"  Luke 12:48

 It is really tempting to believe complacently that those words are meant for the rich.  By doing that we can let ourselves off the hook of responsibility.   Christ does not single people out based on their economic circumstances when he teaches us the ways of God.  People of faith, that is people who truly believe in Jesus and are striving to live and think as he does, need to understand that the much  in that quote has to do with faith itself.  We have been given the Good News.  That gift is not just for our personal use to keep to ourselves.  "Much is expected"  is a not so subtle command to us to share the Good News.  If we examine our lives in light of what our faith means to our peace of mind, our optimism and our general sense of well-being, we see that such a thing must be shared in the same way our wealth must be shared with those in need.  Certainly we see as much need for faith in God in the people around us, if not more, than the need for material goods.
What holds us back from sharing the faith?  That is the thing we must solve first before we can share. Second we must truly examine our own faith life.  Test the depth of it and if it is weak, build it up through prayer.  Make no mistake, when Christ makes a demand on us He will always be there to back us up as we strive to obey.  He wasn't kidding when He said, "I am with you all days".  You really have to believe that before you can begin.  Trust me on this.

THE FIX

May 4, 2015

 “Fix it Lord!” 

             Whenever things go awry especially when we are frightened, worried and can’t fix it ourselves this cry goes out.  Of course we use formal words like “We beseech, thee, O Lord” but the meaning is clear.  We want a fix done now.  Then when the fix is not immediate, we launch into a litany of pleas, day after day, sometimes hour after hour.  We behave as though the God to whom we pray is either deaf or indifferent and yet everything we know about God denies this. 

We must rely on Scripture and experience to find patience.   Notice how the first words of every first responder to a person in turmoil are “calm down”. If God seems remote to us, certainly Jesus does not.  Jesus, whom we love, and who knows exactly how we feel is God!  There are not two of them; one we know and one we fear.  God, the Creator the Redeemer and the Sanctifier is One and loves us beyond measure. The real problem is that what we want and what we need are not always the same and God knows it.  Think of that image of the stone thrown in a pond.  The ripples go out and the effects are numerous.  Things happen, the consequences are many and only God knows them all.  We have to learn to trust in His judgment.  It is the path to peace.  Just know this “If God brings you to it, God will bring you through it.”