Spiritual Sisters
Spiritual Healing Serene Salad
Spiritual Voices Creativity Bakery
Meditations
Teachings
Musings
19 cases of frozen chicken later, Tiffany and I arrived back on Churchman Ave. looking forward to distributing two carloads of frozen chicken just in time for Christmas cooking. As we returned from the pick up point at Shepherd Communities, I had figured in my head that we had at least one chicken per person living in the double block of Churchman Ave.
Right away, we were joined by many of the young people who come regularly to The Living in Simple Faith House and working as a unit, we began to pass out chickens. We had barely gotten started when the rain came out of nowhere. It was a nice steady, soaking rain determined to discourage our spirits and our chicken distribution.
With lots of young people to help, the task did not seem daunting until the rain began to drive the young people back into their homes. Then tossing the 50 lb. cases of chicken around became less and less fun. As we were moving down the street past my own place, I saw a man with a lawn rake at my door. I stopped to inquire as to his mission and he asked if he could rake my yard--in the rain??--to get some money for food for his family. I offered him a case of chicken as a substitute. It was too heavy to carry so I drove him home. He may not have wanted chicken, but his wife was delighted.
Shepherd Communities has more chicken, but everyone on my street now has all the chicken their freezers will hold and the little church at the end of the block has two cases of chicken to give away.
As I sit here typing and playing Christmas music, let me tell you, "It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas".
If you don't hear from me for a while, I'll be back as soon as I get past the pneumonia brought on by passing out chickens in the rain.
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Musings
At the Living in Simple Faith House, we had received an abundance of used clothing over the weekend and the children were invited to look through the boxes for anything they might find useful. But it was early in the evening and there was too much pent up energy demanding an outlet, so Jerome took everyone outside to play ball. After the group had played hard, they’d be ready for a break and that would be a good time to look at the clothing.
It was many hours later, hours in which large quantities of food were consumed, and discussions were completed, when the boxes of clothing were finally attacked. The oldest girls held their noses in the air as they sifted through the "used" stuff, then the boys let go of their various games long enough to take a look.
One young man was quick to spot what he needed to turn his old T-shirt and his oversized jeans into an outfit to be envied by anyone who knew how to really dress. Over his white T-shirt went a man’s navy blue button-down dress shirt, left open and topped by a woman’s bright yellow hunting vest. Desmond looked good. He looked like he was ready to do a number at the closest hip hop spots.
When I noticed Gerald was holding some women’s sweaters, all of which had been neatly folded and stacked, I was more than a bit curious about his choices. Gerald smiled, now he would have Christmas presents for his older sisters. He was really pleased.
Last night I thought of the people who had donated the clothing—as they packed and carted, did they ever speculate about where the clothing would go and if it would be used? I remembered times I had callously tossed everything in a bag and considered the opportunity to discard it a "good riddance". Now, as I reflected on the children’s faces, I knew future opportunities to pass on things which were used but useful, must be accomplished in a state of grace--of honoring the one who gave all for us.
Ecclesiastes 9:7 (The Message)
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Meditations
All the arrangements are in place for the children of Churchman Ave. to go caroling up and down the street tomorrow and my Florida grandson is planning to arrive in time to join them. Thus the fast-paced holiday festivities have begun and will eventually culminate with the Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church.
Now is the special time I've longed for in recent weeks. For the next 24 hours, I will spend quiet time alone with my Lord in remembrance of the moment God came to the earth as a newborn in a filthy stable. Now is the time to dismiss all thoughts of worldly preparations and plans and come before The Father in thankful appreciation for all He has done. I live as though He were walking beside me all the time, but that is not enough. There has to be those times when He is my sole focus, allowing Him to guide me in the way He would have me be.
Psalm 56:12 (The Message)
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Musings
It had been eleven years since I'd spent time at Christmas with all my children together and that was my request this year. It happened. We had a lovely evening together and then the next day at the Children's Museum was the grandchildren's special treat. It wasn't much longer until I began to feel bad....
Even though I live alone (with two pampered dogs), I am never alone. The last two days that fact has become abundantly clear. As everyone scampered out the door in hopes of avoiding my fate, I did not experience that sad, lonely feeling of having been deserted on a holiday even though I understand the 'deserted on a holiday' feeling very well. I experienced it more than once after the children's father and I divorced and holidays were shared.
We are never alone unless we have made life choices which leave us alone. Taylor Caldwell says it best:
"I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the word seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses."
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Teachings
One teaches a very rigid, angry, legalistic view of God, more like an abusive parent than anything else. The other I am expecting to declare as a member of the Emergent Movement any day now. To bring two such divergent views together in cordial discussions about God is quite remarkable so it must have implications for the remainder of the group, including me, as well. What I do understand as a spiritual person is that God works miracles through "minds wide open" dialogue. I believe all of us will gain greater spiritual health as we examine our own prejudices and the endless possibilities God has laid before us in the greatest mystery of all time, the Bible.
Somewhere along the way, in my journey toward a relationship with my Creator, I began to detach from organized religion. I have stayed in church as I believe we must all come together as each other's pupils and teachers in order to encourage each other in our own journeys. But I no longer absorb rules, rituals, dogma and declare them as the way things should be. I make a sincere effort to listen with my mind wide open and then let the Holy Spirit give further guidance.
The last year of my life has been spent devoted to others instead of being practical about retirement arrangements. It has been a very good year. Therefore, I love what Philip Yancey says about spiritual health:
"A spiritually healthy person is usually very others-directed, globally. There’s a quote I use in one of my books from a second century theologian that says a spiritual person is a person who’s 'fully alive.' Not someone closed off, with blinders on, pulling in, afraid to sample the world. But, instead, someone utterly convinced this is God’s world, and here to explore and to reach out and to try to represent God and His hands in this world. Of course, that means caring for the needy, but it also means flat out enjoying the great goodness of this world around us. Boy, I look at the spiritually healthy people in the Bible and they’re characters, every one of them. They’re wild people. They’re out of the box. We’re not supposed to be cookie cutter, uptight people. We’re supposed to be fully alive." --Philip Yancey
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Teachings
One scripture which has given me difficulties in taking Jesus literally is Luke 9:27. Jesus, during his time on earth, said, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." We do not know of anyone who is still living after 2,000 years so this simple verse became a stumbling block for me. If the Kingdom of God is Heaven and that's a place I cannot enter until I have died, then how could someone living over 2,000 years ago be told they'd see the kingdom before they died? How can this be possible? If it is not possible, have we been told a lie?
In my sixth decade, I have begun to see a glimmer of truth so simple it was beyond my capability to understand. I have begun to understand the kingdom is here among us just as Jesus was God among us. The kingdom resides in the quiet moments when simple people make simple gestures of love which in preponderance would turn the earth back into the kingdom of God first established as the Garden of Eden.
Have you ever loved an angry dog into submission? Dog lovers do it all the time and think nothing of it while those who fear dogs get bit. Think about it before writing me off as out of touch. Angry dogs are experiencing fear and they are responding to the fear of the person they feel compelled to bite for their own self-protection.
The earth is filled with fear; all-consuming fears have taken control of the minds of so many at such an early age. The earth is also home to people of peace who seem to build a serene sanctuary in spite of all the chaos surrounding them. I want to share an example of how young people can bring love to other young people and even though it's just one example, to me it exemplifies the big picture as well:
In Indianapolis, Park Tudor's upper and middle school adopted an inner city kindergarten, School 14. "Students at the Indianapolis Public Schools elementary come from some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. School 14 has the most homeless students of any elementary in the state. The Park Tudor delegation brought bags of toys and set up a gift shop for kindergartners, who were invited to choose gifts for loved ones. Every child received a bag full of canned and boxed foods for their families, and students from Park Tudor's upper school and middle school read to them.
"The schools have partnered in a long-term arrangement in which Park Tudor will work with this year's kindergarten students until they leave School 14 after sixth grade. That means Park Tudor's sixth-graders will work with the kids until graduating from high school. All of the students were excited about the visit, said Eileen O'Keefe, a kindergarten teacher at School 14. And the chance for her students to find gifts for parents and siblings teaches an important lesson, she said. "You just can hear that this isn't all me, me, me," she said. 'They're bringing the true spirit of Christmas.'
"Reilly Martin, a seventh-grader at Park Tudor, helped launch the partnership between the two schools. She said she learns a lot just from seeing the different world the children live in. Working with the students over the next several years will be a chance to make a difference, she said. "I think that will be cool...it's important because this school has the most homeless in the city. It's important we give, and it felt really good to help." --Andy Gammill, Indianapolis Star.
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Copyright Jane Mullikin used by permission of Project Ripple
the Paschal Mystery
The mystery of suffering and how it transforms us into the likeness of Christ.
December 03, 2006
They sprinkled today's conversation with comments about a book, Death by Suburb which their pastor had highly recommended. Even though I have not yet had the opportunity to read the book, I do have strong feelings about the plasticity of the suburban world killing a person's soul. So many years I considered the suburbs my home and had no desire to live anywhere else. I was aware of some of the simple rules: no sitting on your porch or being seen messing around in the yard, always painting with colors which harmonize with the neighborhood, always looking like your neighbors. I did not recognize the dulling of my senses, the loss of independent action, of creativity, until I left the suburbs and came to live in the city.
The author of the book, David L. Goetz, has his blog on the site I've given as a link above. In his blog, he speaks of the Paschal Mystery—"the mystery of suffering and how it transforms us into the likeness of Christ. The art of all true spirituality is the art of letting go of self, of power, and my notions of what constitutes the good life."
To be able to let go of the power which affords the comfortable lifestyle, the freeing of self from the rigidity of the plastic world while remaining in the suburbs, is a mystery to me. A better person than I may have no problem transforming themselves into the likeness of Christ in comfortable surroundings, but I had to move into a world where real people suffered through real situations in less than supportive surroundings.
I proudly wear the label "eccentric" as I passionately pursue a greater understanding of the God who came to earth for the sole purpose of dying for us all.
Life is good; it is very good.
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The Secret Message of Jesus
Uncovering the truth that could change everything
December 10, 2006
I have long been on a journey to find the kingdom of God of which Jesus is speaking in the first four books of the New Testament (Bible). Many of my encounters with the Christian faith have left me cold and empty. By the way, Jesus was not a Christian--that term was birthed after his death.
Among the ups and downs of my adventures have been those wonderful moments when the spirit would rise within me and the world would be changed; wonderful moments when reality held no meaning for me as the fountain of joy overflowed within me and I knew not where I was nor where I was going. As I read of the secret message of Jesus, I felt those wonderful moments must have been moments when I was experiencing the kingdom of God.
The secret message is not a new revelation. It has always been there. What is changed is the way you respond to the message as you are taken through a kingdom focused on injustice, poverty, education, integrity, the environment, hospitality, medical care, the healing of the earth, pollution, exploitation, greed, etc.
McLaren is sure the kingdom of God is populated by people from all religions, not just Christianity. It is open to all but those who actively oppose it. As a matter of fact it is possible that some Muslims, Buddhist and Hindus might “begin to ‘take their places at the feast,’ discovering the secret message of Jesus in ways that many Christians have not”. Of course, “there is always hope that we Christians will not be the last to rediscover the truth that could change everything”.
The peace of God's kingdom comes not through the violent torture and merciless extermination of the king's enemies, but rather through the suffering and death of the king himself. This is not the peace of conquest but rather the peace of true reconciliation. The king achieves peace not by shedding the blood of rebels but by shedding his own blood.
Please read the book as though you were reading a political, socio-economic, and spiritual mystery.
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19 Cases of Frozen Chicken
Maybe this was Christmas come early
December 13, 2006
Stylin
Relish life; each day is God's gift.
December 16, 2006
Seize life! Eat bread with gusto, Drink wine with a robust heart. Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure! Dress festively every morning. Don't skimp on colors and scarves. Relish life with the spouse you love each and every day of your precarious life. Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange for the hard work of staying alive. Make the most of each one! Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
One Quick Moment of Retreat
Now is the special time I've longed for in recent weeks
December 19, 2006
"God, you did everything you promised, and I'm thanking you with all my heart. You pulled me from the brink of death, my feet from the cliff-edge of doom. Now I stroll at leisure with God in the sunlit fields of life."
My Way -- NOT!
I think I tried to do things my way again.
December 24, 2006
What is Spiritually Healthy?
A spiritual person is a person who’s fully alive.
December 27, 2006
Searching for the Kingdom
The kingdom is here among us just as Jesus was God among us
December 30, 2006