Spiritual Gems

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A few spiritual insights I'd not considered before...

We are but dust, blades of grass, withering and dying, blowing away in the wind. But for Jesus Christ. Through him we have eternal life, no longer susceptible to death. Amen!

Worry means we don’t trust God, doubting He has the power and the will to provide for us. Sorrow is different. We may sorrow through suffering and tribulations and yet still trust God with the outcome.

Yes, we should pray over everything. By not praying, we depend on our strength, not God’s. We know where we should place our hope and trust, and it’s not with ourselves.

The glory of the Lord is like the appearance of a rainbow on a rainy day.

God is like sweet cold water to a parched tongue. He fills our parched souls with compassion, mercy, and hope. Hope is like cold water to the thirsty soul. It revives one caught in the desert of suffering. Be like a drink of cold water to other thirsting souls.

In the story of the woman taken in adultery, the Pharisees knew Jesus had only two ways to respond, and both were wrong. If Jesus excused the woman’s sin, he denied Moses’s law that a woman caught in adultery was to be stoned to death. That choice would mark Him as a false prophet. His second choice was to stone the woman, but then he’d run afoul of Roman law. Only the Romans had the legal right to execute. However, being God, He chose a third option. He turned the situation into an examination of the religious leaders instead of the woman, and they walked away, leaving her untouched.

Evil will continue to grow until Christ comes. Until then, we are to continue in our faith, trusting all things to God.

In turn, do I love God as much as He loves me? Enough to die to self and bend to His will?

We aren’t saved because of our good works, but we are saved to do good works.

Dear Lord, thank you for sharing your wisdom through Scripture and wise teachers. They enrich my life, giving me guidance on how to live in this trouble filled world. Amen. 

 

 

 

 

 

The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself

Franklin Roosevelt spoke those famous words during his inaugural address in 1933. Going back even further, in April of 1816, Thomas Jefferson stated in a letter to John Adams, “There are indeed... gloomy & hypochondriac minds... disgusted with the present, & despairing of the future; always counting that the worst will happen, because it may happen. To these I say how much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened!”

Fear steals our present happiness. For the most part, very few of those disasters we obsess about, happen. Those that did, we obviously survived. But if we don’t, our Christian faith says we will enter Paradise. Yet knowing that, I still cling to the things of this earth as if there were nothing more. I succumb to wringing my hands and sleepless nights. 

An offhand comment during a recent conversation with my dad ignited another bout of anxiety. Evidently the state that pays my husband’s retirement is facing a financial disaster. I know from experience my dad has a history of seeing the worst. Is he reporting accurately, or is it another case of the sky is falling? 

 

I once told a friend going through a crisis, “Hard times are like staying one night in a bad hotel. They pass, and we move on.” She told me later that thought carried her through a divorce, and cancer. Several years later, a few weeks before her death, she told me Jesus stood at the foot of her bed, and said, “Do not be afraid.” 

So, why do we fear? 

 

Scripture tells us to fear only those things that can rob our souls of our chance for eternal life: hate, lack of forgiveness, doubt, and unbelief.

Once again, I pray the Prayer of Saint Francis. I cling to scriptural promises of God’s love and compassion. I strive to do my best, an hour at a time if need be, to make the world a better place where I am right now, not in some future time. 

In return, I won’t live in fear. After all, the troubles for today are enough, and God has them, and me, in his hands.

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up

Finally, after 30 plus, and almost another 30 plus years, I  know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be a Kingdom Person. 

Richard Rohr in today's daily meditation from describes a  Kingdom Person  as a surrendered, trustful person who has given control to Another, which paradoxically allows them to calmly be in control. This gives them the ability, and freedom, to do what they need to do with joy. This behavior encompasses the "best of the conservative and the best of the progressive types." (For more go to: The Center for Action and Contemplation )

I want to be like that, to live in peace, trusting God in every situation, not necessarily physically happy, but joyful in spirit. As St. Paul so eloquently stated in his epistles, what others find as gain, he considered loss. He suffered incredible physical suffering, eventually dying as a martyr, but in his eyes he gained everything. 

For too much of my life, I have been concerned with external beauty,obsessing about numbers on the scale, and the size of clothes I wore, how many of the newest gadgets I possessed, and  how much financial security I acquired. 

Granted, I need to follow healthy practices, taking care of this earthy body God gave me to use, and it isn't a sin to have possessions or some savings, but they should not be my life's focus. Our society bombards our senses with its models of  beauty and security and it is a constant battle not to be sucked in, relinquishing what I know to be better truths. 

By becoming a Kingdom Person my focus changes from physical comfort to matters of the heart, giving control to Another and  finally gaining the peace and joy St. Paul exhibited even in the worst circumstances, and I finally understand what I want to be when I grow up.