Category Archives: observation

Like a Child

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At that time, the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 

If I’m asking where I am in the running for heaven’s #1, I reveal my willingness to consign others to a lesser eternity. What a terrible and terribly childish view of heaven to hold. As if any of us is loved less by God.

He called a child, who he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

This isn’t a statement of divine punishment or exclusion. The kingdom of heaven is wherever we fall into the limitless love God offers us. We consign ourselves to a self-constructed and self-chosen hell whenever we try to make heaven a prize to win or a goal to achieve.

Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 18:1-4 NRSV

Heaven is the home where we are always welcome. Like any child, we just have to know enough to go home.

[Eric Clapton, My Father’s Eyes, Pilgrim, Ocean Way and Olympic Studios, February 9,1998. ]

I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

Is my word good?

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And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, “I’ll pray for you,” and never doing it, or saying, “God be with you,” and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong. [The Message, Eugene Peterson, trans., Matthew 5:34-37]

Fidelity to every trust

Am I as good as my word? Not always.

If I commit to something, do I follow through? Not without exception, and sometimes begrudgingly.

Today, I will do my best to honor God’s gift of the people I meet, speak to, and think of. I’ll do my best to love the world and put in the work to leave it a better place. I won’t kid myself or others by shifting the blame to God or covering up the my shortcomings with church words or theatrics.

[For the complete prayer, click A Morning Resolve above.]

Fleas

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In 2010, our cat’s flea medication stopped working. We returned from a two week vacation to discover a house full of fleas. When flea bombing didn’t work, we called an exterminator. He sprayed the house and left instructions:

  1. Throw out food exposed to insecticide.

2. Wipe all the surfaces in the house.

3. Vacuum every inch of the floors and furniture daily for four weeks. 

The first we had already done. The second was a one-and-done. The third, something else:  two hours devoted to vacuuming every sofa and chair cushion, every baseboard heater vent, and the floors of every room in the house. Then repeated twenty-seven times.

For the first week, it felt like undeserved punishment: it wasn’t our fault, but we were stuck with the consequences anyway. Even worse, we would still see a flea every so often.

Week two wasn’t much better. There was a lot of swearing when the children weren’t around, and silent swearing when they were. The fleas appeared to be gone, but who knew if the eggs were still around?

Week three: cursing wasn’t necessary – we just got on with the business of getting it done. We didn’t even look for fleas.

At the fourth week’s end, it was over.

Every so often, circumstance requires more effort and time than I’d like to give – “getting rid of fleas” work, in the symbolic sense. Sometimes this is of my own making and sometimes it isn’t. Either way, I still have to put in the work. These days, I do my best to skip the whining and cursing and just get on with it.

…exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God. 

[This is one in a series. For the full prayer, click “A Morning Resolve” above.]

 

Sowing Seeds

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating, and sleep, which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit.

[A Morning Resolve, Forward Day by Day, Cincinnatti, OH: Forward Movement – prayer on the inside front cover. www.ForwardMovement.org]

Words you speak to me directly and what I overhear you say to another can take root in my soul. Mine can do the same in yours. Words send their roots deep into the heart, breaking it open to grow beyond its current limits or reducing it to rubble. I cannot be sure where the words I scatter will land and take hold, but I can choose what verbal seeds I throw out into the world.

Lord, with your help:

I will do my best to share a sense of humor, but not at the expense of another.

I will avoid sarcasm because it’s a weed that chokes the life out of conversation.

I won’t wield my words like a weapon.

When I am tempted to speak in anger and frustration, I will try to keep silent.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

 

 

Generosity in Giving

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I will try this day to…exercise generosity in giving…

My twentieth summer, I worked at Dockside restaurant in Alton Bay. One day, a stranger with a bed roll and backpack came in for lunch. He was thin, and his clothes were frayed. After giving the menu careful consideration, he ordered a cup of chowder and a glass of water.

The cook/owner, Lois, took one look at him through the kitchen window, and said in a low voice, “Oh Lord, someone looking for a handout.” I wondered if she would refuse to serve him, ask him to leave, or just send out the cup of soup and hope he left quickly and quietly. After a minute or two, she rang the bell for me to pick up the order. Lois had put pasta bowl full of chowder and three large pieces of grilled bread on a plate, garnished with a mini salad. “He’s hungry. Take it on over and don’t charge him for it” was all she said.

When he was down to the last piece of bread, he began counting out coins to pay for his meal. I told him the owner took care of it. He said thanks, asked for her name, and left a while later.

On the table was a remarkable mandala drawn in pencil on a clean napkin; on the bottom, the stranger had written these words:

Thank you, Lois. You are a gift from the universe.

Food for the body given on a plate, food for the soul returned on a napkin: Generosity in giving going both ways.

[For the full prayer, click A Morning Resolve above.]

 

Exercising Economy

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With God’s help, today I will:

Recognize the difference between wants and needs – and spend accordingly.

Remember that, beyond the basics, happiness doesn’t come from possessions. If life wasn’t enough before buying that new toy, it won’t be enough after; if life was enough before, it will continue to be enough with or without it.

Amen.

I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly ever thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

In particular I will try to be faithful in those habits of prayer, work, study, physical exercise, eating, and sleep, which I believe the Holy Spirit has shown me to be right.

And as I cannot in my own strength do this, nor even with a hope of success attempt it, I look to thee, O Lord God my Father, in Jesus my Savior, and ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

[Forward Day by Day, A Morning Resolve (inside cover),Cincinnati, OH: Forward Movement; www.ForwardMovement.org]

Be Quiet

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O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore.

 Psalm 131, NRSV

God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain. I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. 

I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart. Like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby content.

Wait, Israel, for God. Wait with hope. Hope now; hope always! Psalm 131, The Message

Like moments of true darkness, moments of silence are rare. There’s almost always the hum of traffic or the squawk of on-screen voices within earshot. When those rare moments of silence do find us, we’re apt to fill them with whatever sound we can – music, television, our own footsteps and voices. We live within walls of sound, the noise in our environment and our own inner cacophony. To dwell in inner and outer quiet doesn’t just happen: we must make a time and space for it. I must make a time and space for it.

In silence, I find the Spirit and I find myself. I cannot hide behind the noise of distractions, and I cannot reduce life to less than the holy experience it is.

When I dare to make silence a habit, I can’t reduce anyone or anything else to less than a holy reality, either. Then, like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is content.

…cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence… 

[For the full prayer, click A Morning Resolve above.]

 

 

Charity

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity, and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence… [A Morning Resolve, Forward Day by Day]

Charity isn’t a virtue if it means giving the least amount of money possible to maintain the appearance or feeling of moral superiority above those who receive it.

Charity is a vice if writing a check is a way to avoid seeing the poverty of others.

True charity is building half a bridge out of my God-given resources, trusting that the rest will be built out of someone else’s need.

True charity is knowing it’s an honor to cross over from either side, and a blessing to meet friend or stranger in the middle.

 

Great Soul

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Cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

Magnanimity: Loftiness of spirit enabling one to bear trouble calmly, to disdain meanness or pettiness, and to display a noble generosity. [merriam-webster.com. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary]

The other day, I tested a new product: window markers. Since my drawing abilities are somewhat limited, I drew a simple heart in red. It wasn’t very noticeable through the storm splashed, February filthy window.

Passing my office door a couple of days back, I noticed a new mark on the floor.

Had someone Sharpie’d a heart on my carpet? That’s what I thought, until I looked up.

The unremarkable heart on my window had cast its colorful shape.

Perhaps magnanimity is just the same: standing in God’s light in all our imperfections and in all circumstances, casting a reflection of love so much bigger than ourselves.

[For more on this prayer, click A Morning Resolve above. A Morning Resolve, Forward Day by Day, inside front cover; Cincinnati, Ohio: Forward Movement. www.ForwardMovement.org.]

Selfish

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere, and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity and self-seeking.

Every time I’ve tried to get what I want at someone else’s expense, I’ve ended up living a lesser life.

[For the full prayer, click A Morning Resolve above.]