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Creating well-being

I wanted to save this post from MinEmergent to ponder through Easter….
Is our primary responsibility to ourselves or to the world? When it comes to creating peace there is only one answer that makes sense. I need to be in peace myself before I can possibly help anyone else to be in peace. I have heard this countered like this: helping others has the result of also helping ourselves. But that is a fallacy. Dirty water cannot make other water clean. A hungry person cannot feed a starving person. The blind cannot lead the blind. It was not God’s intent that we should come into the world and suffer greatly for the sake of others who are also suffering greatly. That’s ridiculous. Suffering creates more suffering. But, healing creates more healing. It works the other way too. Well-being creates more well-being. It’s contagious, just like suffering is. We are all holding up a tent pole underneath a heavy canvas tarp. The higher I raise my own tent pole the easier it is for the person next to me to raise his or hers.
Stephen Muires
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Christ’s presence

Our arts and worship class pondered wisdom and the presence of wisdom. We looked at how Christ embodies wisdom. Here is a quote from “Becoming a Blessed Church” by N. Graham Standish that I’m thinking about this morning.

How do we preach Christ’s presence? We do so by constantly and consistently saying to people, “Look, there’s Christ in your midst, and there, and there, and there!” We do it by showing people that even if they are in darkness, they can find Christ’s light shining through the love of a family member, the kindness of a friend, a phrase in a book, or the inspiration form a song. We can also preach Christ’s presence by reminding people that Christ is in Scripture, in the sacraments, and in all of worship. We preach Christ’s presence by pointing to the incarnation of Christ in everything: our sufferings, our joys, our relationships, and our hearts.

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Change the world

 Another great thought from the MinEmergent newsletter today…  


You know when you are around someone that realizes every moment of their life is a precious gift and they will do everything they can to infuse their truth in that moment. There are so many distractions in this world from the profound potential to do Good. To Live God’s will. So many thing distract you from the right here from the right now. Right now in this moment you can change the world.
Cory Booker 

So, what will I do in the moments of today to change the world? May I have the courage to try.
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Healing

My prayer for this week of Thanksgiving is that healing is made real in the lives of the people close to me who need it, and we can find a well-spring of joy and thankfulness.

Father, we are so hesitant
in asking for healing,
real physical healing.
So hesitant in asking
your Spirit to touch our lives.
It is almost as if we are afraid
that in hoping for a trickle,
we unleash a torrent.
Forgive our timidity, Father,
our lack of faith
in the Creator of this universe.
Forgive our unbelief,
as we take your Word,
apply it to our hearts,
open the floodgates,
and anticipate a deluge.

Find this prayer at:
http://www.faithandworship.com/healing_prayers_3.htm
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Take God seriously

A quote from Anthony Smith…

You don’t need human permission to participate in God’s revolution. All you have to do is take the invitation seriously.

I want to take God’s invitation seriously. My prayer is that my whole life reflects this priority, and not priorities from other people. I want to reflect God’s love to those around me – this is my part in God’s revolution.

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God in other people

What we can do, as flawed as we are, is still see God in other people, and do our best to help them find their own grace. That’s what I strive to do, that’s what I pray to do every day.

Barack Obama

Another gem from minEmergent that is a challenge for myself to remember every day.
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Your agenda


Thought provoking post from Seth Godin…

Most of the time, if you ask someone about their agenda, it turns out that it involves doing what’s on someone else’s agenda.

I need to do this for my boss, this for my husband, that for the PTSA and this other thing for the kids. As soon as you turn over your agenda to others, you’re giving up one of the biggest opportunities you have to contribute. Setting an agenda is often as important as checking the boxes.

Obviously, you can’t be part of any system without engaging with other people and their agendas.

But perhaps we’ve absorbed that habit so completely that we’ve ceded all responsibility and in fact don’t even have an agenda any longer…

 See Seth’s original post

I want to rediscover my agenda (and maybe God’s agenda for me)

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Prayer works

From Peter Rollins blog….. on Prayer Works

A friend recently shared the following story with me (via her as yet unpublished novel),

One evening, just before bed, a little boy was saying his prayers with his Mother on one side and his Grandmother on the other,

“Please bless my Mommy, Daddy and Grandma,” he said, “and help us all get a good nights sleep”

Then he looked up for a moment and shouted, “AND DON’T FORGET TO GET ME A NEW RED BYCICLE FOR CHRISTMAS”

His Mother was shocked and said, “You don’t need to shout dear, God isn’t deaf”

“I know that,” replied the little boy, “But Grandma is”

This little story can perhaps help us to understand the underlying structure of prayer. In prayer we speak out to another and yet there is a second form of communication taking place simultaneously: we are also speaking to ourselves. We need to do this because we are a little deaf.

Read the rest of the post at http://peterrollins.net/?p=3312

When I spend time in contemplative prayer, I can let go of my own point of view and spend time in other’s shoes. This is a good thing, because I need to get out of my own skin and think bigger and care more.

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Dance in the rain

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…
It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.

Stopped at the light on my way home I was behind a Subaru covered with bumper stickers. You know how your bumper stickers mirror who you are – well this must have been a hopeful person. The top center bumper sticker was the phrase above.

I want to dance in the rain!

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Soaked in love

Wisdom from friends at minEmergent – to remind me…

God is love. He created us in love, and to love Him and other people. If we miss the mark of love, He forgives us, and renews our lives in love. If we need help loving Him or others, He enables us by filling our lives with His love. One day, He will make a new Heaven and Earth where there is nothing but love forever. 

 

Steven Boggan