Being the answer

I used to pray that God would feed the hungry, or do this or that, but now I pray that he will guide me to do whatever I'm supposed to do, what I can do. I used to pray for answers, but now I'm praying for strength. I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us and we change things.”

                                                                                       Mother Teresa

_______________________________________________________

In general this seems to be what God hopes for from those who are

awake to the presence.

That what they do with their time, energy, and effort

And yes their money too

Would match up to what they say they with their mouths

That they would live the love of God

Love of self

And love of neighbor

If all those who say they loved God lived out Sacred Love, then

No children would be hungry

And no families homeless

If people let the Spirit roam within their souls

And shape who they are from the inside out

There would be no injustice

No oppression

No greed

If we would let God change us

What a wonderful world

This would

be

All about "me"

“I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing

than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance”

― E.E. Cummings

_________________________________________

Someone once posited a question

Can we ever do anything that is essentially selfless

Tough question

There are of course those moments when it is clearly

“all about me”

When I am striving, seeking, grasping

Looking for power, or wealth or, perhaps, affection, romance

Even love

But even when I think I am serving others….

Am I really?

Or am I doing it so I will look good, feel good, feel more worthy?

Am I doing it because it will earn me “points” with God?

I think this is one of the big problems with the church

We have moved from being a people for others,

To being people are fundamentally focused on us?

When we reach out

When we welcome people into our midst

When we do so much of what we do, to grow the church

Is it not really, to a great degree, about us?

“Hey look at us! We are growing!

We have young families!  We have a new building!

We are the spiritual hot commodity!”

I know we think we are doing it for God,

But I wonder

And I wonder if this is not why we struggle with inclusion

Why we struggle with the poor, the wounded, the addicted, the messed up

Because there is far less satisfaction in staying with the guy who shows up at worship drunk

Then in flaunting the person in successful recovery

Rachel Held Evans has it right in her book, “Searching for Sunday”.  She writes: So many “people fit right into church until… the divorce, the diagnosis, the miscarriage, the depression, someone comes out, someone asks a question, an uncomfortable truth is spoken out loud. And what they find is when they bring their pain or their doubt or their uncomfortable truth to church, someone immediately grabs it out of their hands to try to fix it, to try to make it go away. Bible verses are quoted. Assurances are given. Plans with ten steps and measurable results are made. With good intentions tinged with fear, Christians scour their inventory for a cure.

We must cure them, and way too much of the reason is, well

Us

I do believe that we have good hearts (bless our souls)

I do believe we want others to find peace, and joy, and wholeness

I just fear that all too often,

the “me” gets in the way

and we buy into a faith that is about us

and our individual salvation, and our blessing

the “me” gets in the way

and we find it difficult to stick with people whose response to our efforts

is “disappointing” to say the least.

Thanks God for those moments

When we are confident enough in God’s love

And grace

And blessing

To get past ourselves

And make it

All about

“him” or “her”

yes, that person right over there!

The Sun Rises

The sun rises

The day breaks

the chickens emerge, clucking

and the horses hanging longingly over the fence

a new day unfolds

but why doesn't it feel new?

Sometimes the road does indeed

seem to stretch on forever

twisting its dry dusty way

through the rocks and

sagebrush

of an endless desert

More meetings

another client

more fear

and hurt

and pain

to be faced

more tasks to be done

where does it come from

the love

the comfort

the hope

we need

we need to give?

Sometimes it helps

to be plugged into the Infinite