There are times that what goes on inside of an individual is not at all apparent to those outside. We all know that, the thoughts, the secrets, the ideas simmering at a level just below articulation, sometimes no one else can even begin to know.
For me, it has been that kind of a week. Thoughts that push the envelope of my comfort, contemplating decisions that affect those I care about as well as myself, getting my mind, heart and spirit all on the same page. We all live there. And it is so easy to get so caught up in those interior musings, that we go robotic through our daily lives.
I think life is pretty simple. I think faith is pretty simple. And when I choose to make my life complex, I need to remind myself of the elegantly simple messages occasionally to pull myself back on track.
Someone sent me this link earlier this week. It helped. And I am grateful. I apologize for not being able to put this into a link form. I am technologically challenged. But copy and paste it. It might remind you.
http://www.andiesisle.com/creation/magnificent.html
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
With Fear And Trepidation
So I started this blog, and in some ways I am sorry that I did. I was talking with a valued friend today about it, and remarked that what weighed on me was that now I feel like I am supposed to produce something, that I need to have something to say. The reality is, I am really a pretty simple guy, and I usually feel that I don't have that much to offer. She kindly remarked that it was my mind that was intriguing, and I told her that I feared for her sanity, if such is the case.
I don't follow things like blogs very religiously. Some of you know that I don't do anything religiously. But there is one blog that I always read- Don't Eat Alone, by Milton Brasher Cunningham. I never met the man, but I relate. Tonight I read his latest column and he mentioned an article that I subsequently read, by Parker Palmer, "Taking Pen In Hand."
The author was recounting how he started writing, and how what he wrote eventually became a book. He writes.
So here's my own Zen koan: we can do things we don't think we can do if we don't think about doing them. I also learned that if you can't write a book, write a lot of essays. If you can't write an essay, write a lot of paragraphs. If you can't write a paragraph, write a line or a word. And if you can't do that on the page, write your truth with your life, which is far more important than any book.
He is definitely on to something. My whole motivation for doing this is to share that part of me that is bigger then I am - Faith in the God of change. I sure don't claim to know God, or even begin to comprehend God, at times I am not even sure what/who God is. But I want to believe (and I do believe it) that there is something big and wonderful at work in the world and in my spirit and I know that as God. And that excites me to think about, and write about, and live within.
Mr. Palmer says it well. And why believe in God if the God we believe in is so small as to be contained and controlled within our finite words and forms? The aim of our writing about faith, and of our living in faith, is to let God be God: original, wild and free, a creative impulse that drives our living and our writing but can never be contained within the limits of who we are or what we think and say and do
Maybe keeping that thought in mind will make my keeping up with this thing easier. I sure hope so.
I don't follow things like blogs very religiously. Some of you know that I don't do anything religiously. But there is one blog that I always read- Don't Eat Alone, by Milton Brasher Cunningham. I never met the man, but I relate. Tonight I read his latest column and he mentioned an article that I subsequently read, by Parker Palmer, "Taking Pen In Hand."
The author was recounting how he started writing, and how what he wrote eventually became a book. He writes.
So here's my own Zen koan: we can do things we don't think we can do if we don't think about doing them. I also learned that if you can't write a book, write a lot of essays. If you can't write an essay, write a lot of paragraphs. If you can't write a paragraph, write a line or a word. And if you can't do that on the page, write your truth with your life, which is far more important than any book.
He is definitely on to something. My whole motivation for doing this is to share that part of me that is bigger then I am - Faith in the God of change. I sure don't claim to know God, or even begin to comprehend God, at times I am not even sure what/who God is. But I want to believe (and I do believe it) that there is something big and wonderful at work in the world and in my spirit and I know that as God. And that excites me to think about, and write about, and live within.
Mr. Palmer says it well. And why believe in God if the God we believe in is so small as to be contained and controlled within our finite words and forms? The aim of our writing about faith, and of our living in faith, is to let God be God: original, wild and free, a creative impulse that drives our living and our writing but can never be contained within the limits of who we are or what we think and say and do
Maybe keeping that thought in mind will make my keeping up with this thing easier. I sure hope so.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Prone To Wonder (Wander)
Friends have encouraged me for quite some time to do this. I am not at sure that they know what they are asking. I've threatened it myself occasionally. So I guess I am welcoming you to the first post of Dangling Toes. Anyone who knows me knows the name is appropriate.
Much of my time is spent reading, stories of faith, stories of life, stories of struggles (and let me add, reading is something I encourage everyone to do often). Words have shaped my life, influenced my thinking and aided me in painting pictures of my thoughts. I want the words I share here to encourage your thinking too.
Originally, I had hoped to have something grand and glorious to say, but I don't. In many ways, it is a lot like my life. It's not at all what I expected, but I am liking where it is. I had always thought that by the time I was 5___ something years old that I would have a well established career, a lasting effect on people's lives, or at least have my act together. Instead, I mostly have questions, lots of doubts, and blisters on my feet from a journey on uneven terrain. I thought becoming older meant that I had answers, instead I have learned it means I know how to articulate my questions better. I thought that it meant that I was well on the way to my destination, instead I am often lost in the woods.
But in the woods I am, and the nice thing about being here is you discover a new vista around every curve, and I am learning to take the time to dangle my toes in the streams and reflect.
I was doing that today. Thinking, about this journey, and it struck me that I am actually glad that life isn't turning out the way I had planned. It is so much more exciting this way. Even my thoughts about God are changing. I shudder when I think about sermons that I preached 25 years ago. The words might have been true, but the arrogance behind them was appalling. If I have learned anything it is that we all take our own paths. And mine, mine zig-zags all over the place. What I know today, I question tomorrow. Almost everything, I question tomorrow.
I am into my second half century, and there is only one thing that I am sure of now. I am not on this journey alone. I have you, and I have my understanding of God. And for tonight that's all I need.
This afternoon an old hymn lodged itself in my spirit. I think it has always been among my favorites. It is what inspired these thoughts(for whatever they are worth). Written by Robert Robinson, it is the third verse that gets me.
.
Much of my time is spent reading, stories of faith, stories of life, stories of struggles (and let me add, reading is something I encourage everyone to do often). Words have shaped my life, influenced my thinking and aided me in painting pictures of my thoughts. I want the words I share here to encourage your thinking too.
Originally, I had hoped to have something grand and glorious to say, but I don't. In many ways, it is a lot like my life. It's not at all what I expected, but I am liking where it is. I had always thought that by the time I was 5___ something years old that I would have a well established career, a lasting effect on people's lives, or at least have my act together. Instead, I mostly have questions, lots of doubts, and blisters on my feet from a journey on uneven terrain. I thought becoming older meant that I had answers, instead I have learned it means I know how to articulate my questions better. I thought that it meant that I was well on the way to my destination, instead I am often lost in the woods.
But in the woods I am, and the nice thing about being here is you discover a new vista around every curve, and I am learning to take the time to dangle my toes in the streams and reflect.
I was doing that today. Thinking, about this journey, and it struck me that I am actually glad that life isn't turning out the way I had planned. It is so much more exciting this way. Even my thoughts about God are changing. I shudder when I think about sermons that I preached 25 years ago. The words might have been true, but the arrogance behind them was appalling. If I have learned anything it is that we all take our own paths. And mine, mine zig-zags all over the place. What I know today, I question tomorrow. Almost everything, I question tomorrow.
I am into my second half century, and there is only one thing that I am sure of now. I am not on this journey alone. I have you, and I have my understanding of God. And for tonight that's all I need.
This afternoon an old hymn lodged itself in my spirit. I think it has always been among my favorites. It is what inspired these thoughts(for whatever they are worth). Written by Robert Robinson, it is the third verse that gets me.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let they goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
Tune my heart to hope and healing, to grace and gratitude. And help me, help us, find our way home. Please.
Let they goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
Tune my heart to hope and healing, to grace and gratitude. And help me, help us, find our way home. Please.
.
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