Relentless Love

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Love relentlessly, she said,

and I want to slip these two words

into every cell in my body, not the sound

of the words, but the truth of them,

the vital, essential need for them,

until relentless love becomes

a cytoplasmic imperative,

the basic building block for every action.

Because anger makes a body clench.

Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.

I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.

I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—

how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,

how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,

rather seeds itself somehow inside it,

so even as I contract love bids me to open

wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring

until fear is not all I feel.

Love relentlessly

          Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Shared by Diana Butler Bass, The Cottage

_______________________________________

 

Love relentlessly

this is our call

we were made for this

 

for empathy and compassion

for welcome

 

we were made to take care of each other,

to walk each other home

otherwise, why are we here?

 

but is not easy to love when surrounded

by all the miseries of human creatures

as greed, and fear, and insecurity

ooze out of our pores

 

and eat away at love

like acid rain

persistent and unavoidable

 

we see injustice and inequity

iniquity too

we see the poor and the marginalized hurt

and we see the perpetrators

the predators

 

feasting

devouring resources and kindness

and love

 

and so comes anger

more than eager to slip into our souls

 

it is a conundrum

we are angry not because we hate but because we love

we love the refugee and the immigrant

the trans person who is told they don’t exist

the woman, the people of many colors who are told they are less

because they are not white

 

we see them marginalized and minimized

rejected and excluded

we sense the pain and the terror

 

and because we love

we get angry

and anger can become unrighteous

as it slides into the hot, brutal fire of hate

 

how do we love relentlessly

that which is not love

those who perpetrate injustice and cause so much pain?

 

I do not want to hate

nor do I want to walk through life with ears that do not hear

and eyes that do not see

 

I want to be both prophet and priest

I want to see the brokenness of the world

I want to be incapable of unseeing it

I want to feel the pain of injustice

and protest, loudly

 

but I need to do that without hating

those who are bragging and blaming

seeking to plunder and punish

consumed by the lust for power and wealth

 

how can I see beyond the abuse and cruelty

and find space in my heart for the child of God

who is in there, somewhere

and stay in the house of love?

 

only the One who loves me relentlessly

GodWithUs

can help here

 

I must let Sacred embrace me

consume me

I must know and feel that I am loved

relentlessly

by God

 

that is my only hope

as fragile as that might be

We are connected

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“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

 

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

          Martin Luther King Jr.

 

“I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” –

          Brené Brown

 

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”    John Muir

 

“All things are connected like the blood that unites us. We do not weave the web of life, we are merely a strand in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” –

          Chief Seattle

________________________________________

 

we are in this together

souls bound by Sacred Presence

 

we may not know it or understand it

we may not ever want it

 

but bound we are,

by something deeper and more powerful

than that which divides

 

we are Sacred Children, precious souls

each carrying within us Sacred presence

a little piece of the divine

 

and so the Sacred in me bows to the Sacred in you

bows with reverence, humility, and respect

Namaste

 

we are connected, you and I

woven into a Sacred fabric we call community

 

there are communities defined by time and place

by creed, values, or function

by blood

 

families, churches, mosques, synagogues

a workplace, the local bar

the local park or playground

 

in those communities, we share joy and compassion, pain and struggle

it can be beautiful

 

When we share a joy, and our joy explodes and dances

from person to person, growing strong with the laughter

and the shouts of joy

 

when we share our grief and it gets lighter

with every touch of the hand, every tear

every murmured prayer

 

but community goes beyond those smaller circles

we have chosen or stumbled into

 

for we are bound also to those who are far away

to those who do not think, believe, look, or act like us

we are bound to that child in Gaza, who stares at the sky in fear

to that trans person who has been told they are hated

to that BIPOC person who is told daily, in many ways, “You are less”

 

they, too, are our brothers and sisters, and they matter

for when another is wounded, we are too

when another is excluded, we share in the pain and fragmentation of that exclusion

we share it all

and yes, when they experience success and joy, we should share that too

 

we must understand, we must, what happens to others happens to us

 

and what we do to others, we do to ourselves

 

when we hurt another, diminish another, oppress another

we hurt, diminish, and oppress ourselves

in a way that is, perhaps, far beyond our understanding

 

hate turns in on itself

 

in this time of great pain and chaos

when community is assailed

when people would intentionally divide us

when the common good is abandoned for partisan egocentricity

 

we must remember

experience

and live

that bond of love

created and maintained by the One who is love

 

for we are all in this

together

and we get to love, hope, joy, and peace

together

or not at all

 

Teach us to Love

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"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion,"

          The Dalai Lama

 

"I have no idea what's awaiting me or what will happen when this all ends. For the moment, I know this: There are sick people, and they need curing,"

          Camus (The Plague)

 

“If one of you has a child[c] or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?... 

          Jesus

_____________________________________

 

The Bible says….

Really!  Right here!

 

Keep the Sabbath

No shellfish, clams, oysters, urchins, or lobsters

No eating cats, dogs, and ferrets

No tattoos

Don’t mix fabrics

 

Do kill the pagans

All of them

 

Many point a finger at queer people and say “Bad!  Sinner!”

But what about the greedy, those who lack compassion

those who lie and cheat, commit adultery, get divorced, and

and

and

and

 

There are prohibitions everywhere, everywhere

the list goes on forever

 

no wonder so many devout souls look constipated

Dour, bitter, hard, closed

 

It is all about the rules

Keep them or else

Keep them and you are in, safe, headed toward streets of gold

Don’t keep them and you are out, doomed, and headed to

eternal punishment

 

But why are there all these rules?

Why are they there?

For God?

Or for us?

 

are they there to keep us in line, control us

or protect us and nurture us?

 

do we fully understand

why that law, in that place, in that time

 

Don’t eat shellfish

In that place and time shellfish were dangerous.

 

How about the ones now being used, manipulated

As a tool to gain power?

Those about homosexuality

 

Are we sure (in the first place) we know why?

Perhaps those rules were not so much about loving, monogamous relationships

as about a sexuality that was predatory, abusive

about rape, pederasty

the abuse of sex

 

Of course, THAT is wrong.

Just as it is wrong for any form of sex to be

Predatory, abusive, or forced

 

And we know they did not know, that there IS a gender spectrum

Brain imaging and studies of chromosomes and more

Suggest variety

Perhaps what was confusing is not so confusing now?

 

It is no secret that we pick and choose

Dropping some, Obsessing over others

 

It is also true that we “use” the rules

To control, to gain power (even political power),

And suppress and even oppress

 

That we use them to punish and control

 

Jesus turned the concept of law upside down.

It is not the law, imposed from without by the righteous powerful

that makes us God’s people

 

it is a law of love, written by the Spirit on our hearts

that makes us God’s people

Giving us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control 

 

against such things, there is no law

It is not a sin to be kind, gentle, patient, or loving

There is no sin of empathy

 

But to be the opposite

Cruel, harsh, controlling, and “not loving”

That probably is, sin

 

Alas and alack

It is confusing and sketchy.

 

So what do we do?

We filter all the rules through the filter of love

Because there really is only one law

One

 

Love

“Jesus said ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

 

He was even more blunt (John 13:34) “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

 

Paul (Romans 13:10) said, “Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”

 

I am sorry Lord, that we do not get it

Not very well

None of us

None

 

I am sorry when leaders use the law to gain loyalty

I am sorry when some deny the very existence of people you love

I am sorry when, as we try to figure it all out, we get it wrong

I am sorry when we use the rules as a weapon against people

 

Lord, teach us to love

Teach us to reject any way that is not love

Help us to take risks for the sake of love

So that if we err, and we will, we have erred on the side of love

 

The world is a right mess

We won’t get out of it by beating people over the head with a bible

We won’t get out of it through coercive control

We won’t get out of it by being retributive

 

There is only one way out.

 

We must follow the one law that counts the most

We must love

You, ourselves

And ALL others

 

 

 

Drawn to the light

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Magnetic fields draw us to Light; they move our limbs and thoughts

But it is still dark; if our hearts do not hold a lantern,

We will stumble over each other

 

Huddled beneath the sky

As we are

 

Rumi, as translated by Daniel Ladinski (Love Poems from God)

_________________________________

 

We are huddled in the dark.

those of us who love the light

it seems to have gone missing

 

our straining eyes see only a darkness

that grows,

if deep darkness can get any darker

 

desperately we search

everywhere, everywhere

for a spark, a glimmer

 

something that can reveal

a way

any way, forward

 

but the church windows are dark

the sky without stars or moon

it is always midnight, never dawn

 

but there is a secret only the hopeful know

 

there is light

if we will only turn inward

and look deep into souls shrouded with fear

 

when the veil is parted

we find that our hearts hold a lantern

that the One who is light and love

has a lit candle

in the deep darkness

that cannot be overcome

 

we carry the light

that should not, cannot be contained

but should shine

 

we can be the light

that reveals, guides, and comforts

we can be a light

for those who have lost the will to shine

 

the Light of the World

who lights our darkness

GodWithUs

 

says be light

rise, and shine

When my heart is desperate

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…there is a common core to feeling grateful:  we recognize a circumstance, event, or situation (even if it is a trial)  as a gift, we have received some unexpected benefit, we respond with words and actions, and we become our best selves in the process.  Gifts are not only pleasurable, but the right give at the right time can change us.

          Diana Butler Bass  Gratitude, HarperOne, 2018, p. 9

 

Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”

          Marcel Proust

 

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”

          Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

___________________________________

 

Black, turning red to orange to blue,

the sun creeping slipping into the sky

kissing the mountain

pink snow

and gratitude

 

My brain woke ungrateful

no visions of sugarplums

just shadow and fire

a world burning

a leader, fearful, hateful

retributory and small

 

but God’s grandeur

flaming forth

a gift

 

there are so many gifts

if you look for them

 

the people who gather each Sunday morning

who with their hunger for sacred

their openness and faith

make my soul blossom

 

the cat, insistent bumping

the cold nose of my big-hearted dog child

the whinny of the geriatric mares

 

GodWithUs

ever-present saying do not fear

 

when my heart is desperate

when I am swimming in anxiety

the gift comes

a heart set free

 

 

Relentless Love

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Love relentlessly, she said,

and I want to slip these two words

into every cell in my body, not the sound

of the words, but the truth of them,

the vital, essential need for them,

until relentless love becomes

a cytoplasmic imperative,

the basic building block for every action.

Because anger makes a body clench.

Because fear invokes cowering, shrinking, shock.

I know the impulse to run, to turn fist, to hurt back.

I know, too, the warmth of cell-deep love—

how it spreads through the body like ocean wave,

how it doesn’t erase anger and fear,

rather seeds itself somehow inside it,

so even as I contract love bids me to open

wide as a leaf that unfurls in spring

until fear is not all I feel.

Love relentlessly

          Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Shared by Diana Butler Bass, The Cottage

_______________________________________

 

Love relentlessly

this is our call

we were made for this

 

for empathy and compassion

for welcome

 

we were made to take care of each other,

to walk each other home

otherwise, why are we here?

 

but is not easy to love when surrounded

by all the miseries of human creatures

as greed, and fear, and insecurity

ooze out of our pores

 

and eat away at love

like acid rain

persistent and unavoidable

 

we see injustice and inequity

iniquity too

we see the poor and the marginalized hurt

and we see the perpetrators

the predators

 

feasting

devouring resources and kindness

and love

 

and so comes anger

more than eager to slip into our souls

 

it is a conundrum

we are angry not because we hate but because we love

we love the refugee and the immigrant

the trans person who is told they don’t exist

the woman, the people of many colors who are told they are less

because they are not white

 

we see them marginalized and minimized

rejected and excluded

we sense the pain and the terror

 

and because we love

we get angry

and anger can become unrighteous

as it slides into the hot, brutal fire of hate

 

how do we love relentlessly

that which is not love

those who perpetrate injustice and cause so much pain?

 

I do not want to hate

nor do I want to walk through life with ears that do not hear

and eyes that do not see

 

I want to be both prophet and priest

I want to see the brokenness of the world

I want to be incapable of unseeing it

I want to feel the pain of injustice

and protest, loudly

 

but I need to do that without hating

those who are bragging and blaming

seeking to plunder and punish

consumed by the lust for power and wealth

 

how can I see beyond the abuse and cruelty

and find space in my heart for the child of God

who is in there, somewhere

and stay in the house of love?

 

only the One who loves me relentlessly

GodWithUs

can help here

 

I must let Sacred embrace me

consume me

I must know and feel that I am loved

relentlessly

by God

 

that is my only hope

as fragile as that might be

There is work to do

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The more we open our eyes,

the more the heart breaks.

Still, the invitation to open our eyes,

to choose to live broken heartedly,

as on this day when I hear again

of the greed and cruelty of humans

and the heart breaks and breaks

and I feel how it is in the breaking

the heart stays open.

On the windowsill, the amaryllis

has opened two enormous blooms of red

and I am so rich with the gift of it,

as if this one flower is teaching the heart

how to unfurl its lush petals

as it moves from tight bud

to spaciousness, dusting

the world around it with gold.

                     Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

___________________________________

 

I want to close my eyes

squeeze them tight and hope it all goes away

 

ah, if I could close off all my senses

so I do not have to smell the foul stench of burning homes

or hear the cries of the detained and deported

see the violence and injustice

 

taste the bitter draught of hate

 

it is an assault

my soul is abused

and I want to curl up, tightly

 

fingers in my ears

eyes shut

muttering muttering muttering

no, no, no, no, no, no

 

but there is work to do

people to be helped

words to be spoken

 

I am called to unfurl

to stand

and shine brightly

 

like the One who came

who saw, experienced, and felt it all

and yet

kept his heart open

and had his body broken open and his blood poured out

by the malign forces of this world

 

I must stay broken open

the light leaking out of my cracked soul

opposing, resisting as best I can

the darkness of fear

the coldness of enmity

 

may I be rich

in love

 

may I be sanctuary

compassion, mercy

and blessing

 

may I, like a fragile ray of sun

filtered by the trees,

dust the world around me

with the light

of Sacred love

Thy Kingdom come

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the Kingdom of God

the Kingdom of Heaven

the Kingdom is near

at hand

within reach

 

it is the treasure we reach for

rather than hope for

it is the reality we live into being

 

we think we understand kingdom

kingdoms come through power

they conquer

and dominate and control

 

they are willing to do anything to grow

anything

others

 

brutality is a tool

intimidation and humiliation too

making others less

marginalizing and minimizing

expelling, eradicating

 

I am thinking of kingdoms today

the kingdom of earth

the kingdom of America

 

ruled by shaped by

what?

 

not God

not love, justice, and joy

 

we see the kingdom of earth personified

in one swathed in scandal

unrestrained, unaccountable

one with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket

and what he can put over on a kingdom

of the angry and resentful

the fearful

who embrace and cheer

 

Thy kingdom come!

what can I do today

how can I reach out and help pull it into being

 

that kingdom shaped by self-giving and sacrifice

through compassion and reconciliation

a kingdom that seeks to serve

protect all (all)

 

on this day when the Kingdom of Love

seems out of reach

fading, disintegrating beneath the weight

of hate and ego

 

let us reach for the kingdom,

and each other

Waiting to be free

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“Men are so quick to blame the gods: they say

that we devise their misery. But they

themselves- in their depravity- design

grief greater than the griefs that fate assigns.”

          Homer, The Odyssey

 

“The depravity of man is at once the most empirically verifiable reality but at the same time the most intellectually resisted fact.”

          Malcolm Muggeridge

______________________________

 

Thank you, Facebook, for your memes, posts, and reels

(and YouTube and Twitter too)

 

without you I might have failed to perceive

how bad it is

 

how bad we are

how full of ego, hate, fear

racism

 

how empty of compassion and generosity

 

how incapable we are of joy

empathy

even a simple celebration of something good

 

it matters not what the topic is

it might be something political

or religious

 

it might be about sports

basketball, football, or soccer

 

but it really doesn’t matter

it can be a story about kindness

 

it might show kittens or dogs

incurably cute

 

no matter

in they come

the toxic males (and sometimes females)

who have to prove how

tough/athletic/smart (add your own word) they are

 

commenting, judging, correcting, minimizing

marginalizing

 

no hit is too brutal (players today are weak)

the rules (that keep players from brain damage) are silly

(when I played, we played real football)

 

The people who could

of course, do it better, even if they can’t do it at all

 

those who have to prove their knowledge

(but are often wrong)

 

the second guessers

the judgers

the haters

 

the racists and fascists

“if the right people had won the war,  England would be a lot whiter”

 

they are like piranhas

feeding off of each other

stripping the bones of their victims

 

invective piled on invective

hate piled on hate

until all decency is gone

 

thank you

for the reminder that we are a mess

that we have lost touch with our original blessing

that sin is real

and depravity is a thing

 

thank you because it reminds me

how much hurt there is

how much fear pain, and insecurity exists

how much we despise ourselves

(and project that on others)

 

thank you for helping me to look at myself honestly

for reminding me how much our world needs understanding

and love

 

thank you for reminding me

that there is so much work to do

the hard work

of reconciliation

 

be kind and compassionate Paul tells us

Yours is a ministry of reconciliation

 

OK

I’ll try

 

Sometimes all I can do is silence

or avoidance

 

and sometimes the best I can do

is prayer

for them, for me, for all of us

 

for behind all that “depravity”

is a child of God

waiting to be set free

 

 

 

Its not all about me

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As I fell asleep each night, Papa Ji would sing the Mool Mantr, the foundational verse that opens the Guru Granth Sahib, our sacred canon of musical wisdom. It begins with the utterance “Ik Onkar,” which means Oneness, ever-unfolding. “All of Sikh wisdom flows from here,” Papa Ji would say. All of us are part of the One. Separateness is an illusion: There is no essential separateness between you and me, you and other people, you and other species, or you and the trees. You can look at anyone or anything and say: You are a part of me I do not yet know.

          Valerie Kaur (Sage Warrior)

 

“ALL IS ONE”

While we cannot understand an infinite universe, we can remember we are part of something infinitely larger than ourselves. When our own lives seem small and pointless, it can be helpful to remember that our lives are just pinpricks in a much vaster story. For us to live a self-centered lives would be like the internal organs deciding to become free agents. Sometimes our lives only make sense if we give them on behalf of a larger context.

          Jim Rigby

___________________________________

 

my incapsulate self

has shattered

 

there are pieces of me scattered

everywhere

 

they have assaulted me

and occupy my head, my heart, and my soul

 

those people who are not me

are not like me

 

those whose thoughts, values, priorities

perceptions

differ from mine

 

I have given them so much power!

like demons they torment me

they make me sick

physically and spiritually

 

I do not understand them

they do not understand me

we are alienated one from another

 

any yet, the great teachers remind us

Jesus, Buddha, Nanak

we are all one

and our oneness should be ever-unfolding

 

be of one mind

live in peace!

 

as if

 

but that is the problem isn’t it

“they” or so I believe

do not see the beauty and value of people who are

queer, immigrant, poor, old, mentally ill

“not white”

 

they are focused on money and power

they live in a world they have created and does not exist

 

they are without compassion

retributive by nature

and cruel

the list could go on

 

they on the other hand

see me, and those like me

as clueless, arrogant, weak,

faithless

 

as people with the wrong values,

priorities, thoughts

and perceptions

 

they are other to me

I am other to them

we are divided

 

and we will stay that way

in this abnormal and toxic place

until

 

until I can see

that we are all part of a Sacred unity

we all participate in and share the same Sacred reality

 

we all, originally come from Love

 

until I can understand

separateness is an illusion

and that person over there

who I have decided to hate, or fear

dehumanize or deride

 

whom I have chosen to ignore and neglect

or oppress and manipulate

is part of me

 

that each person

is “a part of me I do not yet know”

 

I can lament what is happening

but it is happening to all of us

 

even if another does not understand

in the same way, I do what is happening

it is still happening

 

not just to me

but to them

 

we share the same planet

the same nation

the same future

 

staying divided will not solve our problems

seeing the other as other

will not get us where we need to go

 

I am not Jesus, Buddha, Nanak.

(painfully obvious)

 

but perhaps I can learn

maybe as I stop, and breathe

reflect and open my soul

 

to allow Sacred Presence

to soften my hard edges

change how I see

calm the demons

 

so that I can see them as a part of me

I do not yet know

and live accordingly

 

Will they see me that way?

at some level, it does not matter

I must do

what I am called to do

 

love Sacred

love myself

and love the other 

 

Being found

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“For most of my life, I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life—pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures—and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.

 

Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not “How am I to find God?” but “How am I to let myself be found by him?” The question is not “How am I to know God?” but “How am I to let myself be known by God?” And, finally, the question is not “How am I to love God?” but “How am I to let myself be loved by God?” God is looking into the distance for me, trying to find me, and longing to bring me home.”

          Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

_______________________________________

 

how are we to be found?

as we blunder through each day

trying to make life happen

 

trying to find success, power, wealth, and love

seeking, manipulating, grasping

 

we are so busy

so occupied

that we fail to notice

the beauty underfoot

the truth when it is there, right in front of us

 

instead, we trample on the good

and create our own truth

blindly striving

 

trying to make it work

to make reality fit our preconceptions

we recreate the world

an alternative reality

we create God in our own image

 

and we become impervious

to truth and love

unable to find the way

and we subvert life

 

 

Lord, you seek us

You find us, every day

You meet us where we are

 

And say

 

Come home

 

Lord help us come to our senses

help us to quiet the noise

loosen our fists

open our hearts

 

that we might give you room

in our souls

to love us

 

and then secure in that love

let us be found

forgiven

loved

 

until our longing is satisfied

our fear allayed

and we can

quiet and reject the voices of hate and fear

that are within

that assail us from without

 

and embrace  the truth

and walk in your way

See the Sacred

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Dear God, please reveal to us

Your Sublime

Beauty 

That is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere

 

So that we will never again

Feel frightened

 

My divine love, my love

Please let us touch

Your face

          Rumi per Daniel Ladinsky (Love Poems from God)

__________________________

 

It is easier than we might think

to lose sight

of all that is sacred, all that is love,

 

as the planet burns

and foul people consolidate power

and plan evil

 

as we are besieged from every side

by hate and fear

 

we can no longer see

the divine

 

we are lost

stumbling, flailing and gasping

as those in the midst of a conflagration

where there is only flame

and smoke

and darkness

 

all is lost!

we cry

 

ah, dear ones

look up

 

where does our help come from?

who can rescue us from ourselves?

 

cannot the Power that created the mountains

that lifted them up

lift up you and me?

 

I gaze in awe at the mountain

 

after what now is

is no more

after we and our troubles

and those who consider power a thing to be grasped

have vanished from history

 

that mountain will still be there

soaring into the sky

 

and even if

“all the greed and corruption destroys

even a place like this

it will bide its time, heal, and be beautiful again,

whether we are here to see it or not”*

 

it is true!

it is undeniable

on the face of the mountain

in the eyes of a baby

in the wrinkles of an old soul

 

we can see

the face of God

 _________________

 

*this section was inspired by a comment from my friend

 and brilliant soul, Robert Crawford.  Who managed to survive me glancing

 a discus off his skull in high school.

This little light of mine

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I believe the gospel itself… is primarily communicated by richly symbolic human lives that operate as prime attractors and exemplars: through actions visibly done in love; by a nonviolent, humble, simple, liberated lifestyle; by a happy identification with poor and excluded people; by obvious happiness itself; and by concrete and visible people who “give others reasons for spiritual joy”... When such people then speak or act, their words burn, and their actions convict! 

          Richard Rohr (Daily Medications 1/12/2025

_____________________________________________________

 

I believe the gospel

do I?

I believe in Jesus

Lover, disturber, martyr

 

The one who said “Live like this”

 

But do I believe in the Christ

The ever-present presence

In me

Hope

 

There is so much that is anti-Christ

There are so many people, we can name them

Who lie and divide, and promote hate and chaos

 

But there are systems too.

Oppressive, foul, dishonest, cruel, greedy

Without empathy

 

They pull us back

These anti-Christs

Back into the darkness,

Back into fear, and hate, into obscene consumption

Into hoarding

 

Until we pile power and wealth around us

So that we do not implode into our own emptiness

 

They pull us away from Christ.

Who draws all to himself

All to compassion and service

To truth

And love

 

They have power!!!

But

Are we powerless?

 

Do we not contain all that is holy and good

Does it not roar through our souls like wind and fire

Like flame driven by a Santa Ana wind?

 

Changing us forever

 

Can we not so live

Like the saints and the mystics

and draw people forward

Into the light?

 

People are drawn to the light.

There may be people who are anti-Christ

But we are Christ’s presence

We are the light of the world

 

And now more than ever

We have to shine

The Kingdom

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the Kingdom of God

the Kingdom of Heaven

the Kingdom is near

at hand

within reach

 

it is the treasure we reach for

rather than hope for

it is the reality we live into being

 

we think we understand kingdom

kingdoms come through power

they conquer

and dominate and control

 

they are willing to do anything to grow

anything

others

 

brutality is a tool

intimidation and humiliation too

making others less

marginalizing and minimizing

expelling, eradicating

 

I am thinking of kingdoms today

the kingdom of earth

the kingdom of America

 

ruled by shaped by

what?

 

not God

not love, justice, and joy

 

we see the kingdom of earth personified

in one swathed in scandal

unrestrained, unaccountable

one with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket

and what he can put over on a kingdom

of the angry and resentful

the fearful

who embrace and cheer

 

Thy kingdom come!

what can I do today

how can I reach out and help pull it into being

 

that kingdom shaped by self-giving and sacrifice

through compassion and reconciliation

a kingdom that seeks to serve

protect all (all)

 

on this day when the Kingdom of Love

seems out of reach

fading, disintegrating beneath the weight

of hate and ego

 

let us reach for the kingdom,

and each other

 

We will not break

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We may bend but we will not break. We may struggle but we will not surrender. We are the family of hope. We are people from around the world who believe in a peaceful future for the Earth and all her children. We value love and practice justice. We are keepers of a promise made long ago. We are the unexpected change that many have prayed to see.

          Steven Charleston

 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,

    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,

    and the flame shall not consume you.

          Isaiah 43:2

____________________

 

We live in a world of wildfires

And floods

 

Constantly threatened

On the edge of doom

 

Hurricanes, droughts,

Wars

Fascism, genocide

 

Wave after wave the waters come

Driven by the winds of

Hate and fear

 

Roaring, driven by the wind

It has created

The fires rage

 

Where do we go when the floods come?

          How do we escape the fire?

 

We seek a hiding place, where we can be safe

A rock on which to stand

 

But sometimes we cannot hide.

And underfoot is nothing but sinking sand

We will pass through the waters

We will be burned

 

The flickering light t of our computer screens and smart TVs

Proclaim impending doom

 

Breathe

Deeply

Remember, remember, remember

Sacred is woven into the planet

Sacred dwells in us

 

Even though, even though, even though

Malevolence is certified,

the planet burns,

And hate seems to prevail

(where o where is love)

 

We believe (help our unbelief)

We the carriers of the Spirit

are keepers of the promise

 

We, small, inconsequential, unimportant,

Lurking on the fringes

Of the systems of power

 

Are salt flavoring

We are yeast, changing

 

We are overcomers

Choosing Herod

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“Soon earth will cover us all. Then in time earth, too, will change; later, what issues from this change will itself in turn incessantly change, and so again will all that then takes its place, even unto the world's end. to let the mind dwell on these swiftly rolling billows of change and transformation is to know a contempt for all things mortal.”

          Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

___________________________

 

Like an intrusive guest

It has made itself at home

Taking up space in head and heart

 

It is like a needy child

Pestering me for attention

Relentless and intrusive

 

The fear that we have made a mistake.

And have chosen values and priorities

And thus leadership

That will take us to dark places

 

I keep thinking of Herod

The great builder

The guy who melted down his treasury to feed the people

The guy who killed children

 

Poor fear-determined Herod

King Herod, until Jesus comes along

The moment the prophecy is read

“From you, Bethlehem shall come….”

 

King Herod becomes

Just

Herod

If Jesus were king, the Herod could not be

 

And Herod loses it!

And that becomes the story of his life.

 

Then there was Herod Herod’s son.

The Herod of Jesus’ death

Who mocked his kingship

Who (along with Pilate) had the power of life and death

Over this One from Nazareth

 

If Herod were king, then Jesus could not be

The son accomplished what the father did not

 

It matters who leads us.

Who we have put in power

There can only be one

One

No one can serve two masters

 

The choice of one master excludes the other

We cannot serve God and money

Possessions, fame,

Status, power

Retribution

And God

 

We either choose the way of the world

Or we choose the way of God

We choose Herod or Jesus

 

So, have we chosen poorly?

 

Perhaps the true question is this.

 

If we give power to a person

Whose values, attitudes, and behaviors are antithetical to Jesus,

If we place them in the seat of power,

Have we deposed Jesus?

 

And what is the consequence of doing this?

Herod killed children

His son killed John the Baptist, and later

He was an accomplice in the death of Jesus.

 

What happens when we give power to one

who is not merely “other” than Jesus

but seems to be, profoundly,

the opposite of Jesus?

 

What happens?

Can God use that person?

Maybe?

Will the price of eggs drop?

Will we be safer?

Will the economy soar?

 

But what happens to our souls,

And ultimately

To our world?

To us?

 

But more importantly, what happens to

The poor, the vulnerable?

The ill and the elderly?

The children?

Those blessed and prized by God?

 

I do not know the future.

I cannot say with certainty what will happen.

 

And maybe I have it all wrong.

 

But on this day I am anxious

I know change happens

I know rulers come and go

 

I hear the words attributed to Gandhi

When I despair, I remember that all through history,

the ways of truth and love have always won.

There have been tyrants and murderers,

and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall.

Think of it — always.".

 

I think of it

And I believe in Love (and that love wins)

And yet I know the pain and destruction

Which pave the path to new beginnings

So “Lord, I believe;

help my unbelief!"

 

this day

What kind of world do we create?

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We get the kind of world we ourselves create by our faith.  Change the faith, change the assumptions, and the perceptions will change.  Change the perceptions and the attitudes will change.  Change the attitudes and the actions will change.  Change your faith and you will get a new world.  Get rid of the notion of measuring deserts.  Replace it ith generous unconditional love…  Feel absolutely safe with God who loves us into being and sustains us always

                     Beatrice Bruteau

_______________________________

 

There is not enough they tell us.

Not enough money

Not enough food

Not enough power

Not enough housing

 

This is a world of scarcity

Everyone is competing

This is a world of “us” and ‘them”

“They” are outsiders and aliens

“They” are threats

 

So we must fear them, hate them

Control them, subdue them

 

Ah, fear

It is so powerful

It causes us to grasp and horde

To put up walls

Buy guns

Attack nations

And hate.  Yes, fear leads to hate

 

It is so useful for those who would

Dominate and control

 

But God says “Be not afraid.”

Trust in God.  Trust in GodWithUs

Trust that God is within us

Us

All of us

 

Trust that there is not scarcity but abundance

There is enough of God’s love for all

There is enough air, water, land, food

There is enough power

For everyone to have

Enough

 

Enough to flourish

To live

To find peace, hope and joy

 

If we understand that we have abundance

Which can be shared

Which must be shared

For earth to be heaven

 

God is in us

We are in God

We are all bound together at the deepest level

Community, communion, union

 

We do not have to be afraid

(although we often are. At least I am)

We do not have to create a world of scarcity

Hostility and insecurity

 

We can create a different world

As we define our world and ourselves

From the perspective of abundance not deficiency

As we understand, and have faith that we are

Absolutely loved by God

 

And then manifest that love

Live that love

And let Love cast out fear