Wake Up... We are not Alone.

There is no greater waste of one's time than worrying over what someone else may or may not feel, think or say about you. *

We Are Not Alone!!

 

No natural need can exist without that which has been created to directly answer it. For instance, a creature couldn't thirst for water if water didn't preexist its need to drink. This feeling of attraction that we have -- whether to take a drink of water or connect with the world above us -- is proof of the existence of two parties. First, is the part of us that feels this draw, and then there is by necessity something acting upon us to create the longing itself. As paradoxical as it may seem, if we are moved to seek the Divine, it's because the Divine is calling us!

Let's pause here to see how this celestial need expresses itself through some simple examples that are common to all of us: Where does our longing for someone to love originate? Is it not with the awakening of an internal force urging us to explore and experience the deepest parts of ourselves? When we say -- or feel toward another -- "You complete me," what we're really saying is something like "Through you I've realized parts of myself I wouldn't have known even existed; you have helped introduce me to who I really am."

Perhaps we've a yearning to learn how to paint, write poetry, climb a mountain, or become a chef. We are drawn to that pursuit -- whatever its nature -- for much the same reason we search for a lover. Something in us knows that it is only through this relationship that we will be introduced to -- awakened to -- our own higher possibilities.

C. S. Lewis, the great author, essayist, and Christian apologist, supports this important finding:

All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it -- tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if IT should really become manifest --if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself -- you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, "Here at last is the thing I was made for." We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our spouse or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows spouse or friend or work. —The Problem of Pain

The need for whatever it may be that we're drawn to is the yet to be realized presence within us of that very thing to which we are drawn. This means that no matter how distant seems our guiding star, or how isolated we may feel in our journey towards its light, these higher truths we're learning would have us know otherwise; we are not alone....

* I am reading a uniquely captivating book just now.  Part of the above is excerpted from that book entitled  The Seeker, The Search, The Sacred: Findley 

John Keats' Eremite

Bright Starby John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite*,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No— yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever— or else swoon to death.
*Eremite: a hermit, particularly a religious recluse who lives alone in the wilderness

Choose Something Like a Star

Some friends and I have been engaged in an online debate with an atheist. It’s not a debate really. We try to reason. He mostly rants. One of the points we’ve tried to make him see is that human beings need some external standard for things like morality, ethics, justice, love, even beauty.

So, I thought of a poem by Robert Frost that I memorized in High School. It expresses this human need. It was set to music and we performed it at the State Choral Competitions. I still sing it some days.  The poem made no sense to me when I learned it, but over the years I’ve discovered the wisdom for interpretation.

O star (the fairest one in sight)
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.

It is difficult to understand things that are high above us. Other things (like clouds) come between and interfere. Darkness is not a fit metaphor of this difficulty since Light shines in darkness.

Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone, repeat.
Say something! And it says, “I burn.”

Why does mystery turn into pride? It made no sense until I was reminded that “becomes” can also mean “makes attractive” as in, That color becomes you. So, the lack of understanding makes marvelous things more majestic.
The poet gets frustrated by the complete silence of the star. The silence is broken by two words which echo what Moses heard at the burning bush. Is that enough? The poet doesn’t think so.

But say with what degreeof heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.

My atheist friend is all about the scientific understanding of things. He thinks science demonstrates that we don’t need God. Robert Frost knows better. Even though science is helpful (“does tell something“), it cannot supply what we need (“strangely little aid“).

And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.

“Keats’ Eremite” refers to a sonnet by the Romantic poet who wished he could remain in a moment of bliss with his lover. He wanted to remain constant and unchanging as a star he called “nature’s patient, sleepless eremite.” (An eremite is one who has left human society to focus on spiritual growth; a hermit.)
The poet has run out of questions, so now the star does the asking.

It asks of us a certain height,
so when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,

Ever been there? Criticized unjustly, or justly but without grace. Or lauded until it goes to your head. Humans almost always go too far!

We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

And be Staid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keats' Eremite is a reference to am excerpt from a poem by John Keats. Keats wanted to take a blissful moment with his lover and store it way like a hermit hides from civilization, to make it last forever. Eremite is another word for hermit. So when Robert Frost says 'and steadfast as Keats' Eremite/ not even stooping from its sphere,' he's describing the star's constant place in the sky for us to focus on in difficult times.

 

How May We Allow Everything in Life to Work For Us?

Nothing in Real Life actually works against us... other than when our sleeping mind starts resisting its own imagined conclusions.

There is a The Hope and Promise of Timeless Ideas...

What if timeless ideas like the ones you are about to read were introduced to the whole world in such a way as to reveal their secret story? Could the light of these truths -- the hope and promise they hold about our own latent higher possibilities -- help liberate us from the host of fears that hold our consciousness hostage?

By the very thing you seek.
To know when to stop
To know when you can get no further
By your own action,
This is the right beginning!
—Lao Tzu (ca. 570-490 BCE, China)


It is only when everything, even love, fails that with a flash, man finds out how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he catches a glimpse...of the beyond. It is only by giving up this world that the other comes; never through holding on to this one. —Vivekananda (1863-1902, India)


Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -- Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare. —Anthony de Mello (1931-1987, India)


The only sane thing to do with the world is to let it struggle with its own problems. You can do this only when seeing clearly that the world prefers to struggle painfully with its problems, never really wanting solutions. —Vernon Howard (1918-1992, United States)


Insights such as these illuminate the skies of passing time, like stars on a moonless night. Yet, by their far-flung light, we don't just read the history of our possibilities, we are also made aware of a latent interior greatness that awaits us now. This means that regardless of when in time, or where on earth, one of these truths appears, its effect is always the same. By its deft touch, "the sleeper awakens" and the meaning of our life takes on a whole new magnitude.

Sometimes the Difference You Make is Hard to See

In the morning I type blessings, looking through the screen at the faces of people I love who live halfway across the country or even on the other side of the world.

And, sometimes, in the quiet moments I wonder if what I do really makes a difference.

“You can’t see it in person,” hisses the enemy, “You can’t touch it. How do you know it’s real?”

Then I think about how I should be doing something tangible–rocking a baby, handing out food, building a house. I feel a heart-hunger to know the results with my five senses.

I whisper this to Jesus one morning as sunlight spills in through the open window. I ask Him if I’ve gotten it all wrong–if I should be doing something else.

A verse pops into my heart like a present left on the front porch…
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

I’ve always thought of those words in the context of believing in God.

But this morning it seemed the One Who Loves Us whispered that part of faith is also about believing that our obedience makes a difference–even when we can’t see the results.

Sure of what we hope for…that our words matter in the world, that hearts out there really are encouraged, that the flicker of a screen can bring light to a life again.

Certain of what we do not see…that that the bonds we make, the needs we meet, the prayers we lift up are as real as what’s right in front of us–that the great I am is everywhere and in all we do in His name.
I think then of a conversation I had with Ann many months ago about much the same thing. We tossed and turned thoughts around between us until at the end we nodded, smiled and said…
How can we say that the virtual doesn’t matter when the Spirit is virtual?

The Kingdom has always been about more than what we can sense. It’s more about what we know in our hearts–and about following faithfully the One who whispers to us there–believing that in all things He is working together for good.

Sometimes that good is something we can see, touch, taste and smell.

And sometimes it’s built of eternal things that we won’t know until heaven.

And in the center of that musing the little bells jungle...... 13 notes in repsonse to todays "Blessing Project"
Hearts warmed.  Tears shared.  Love exchanged. All as I was pondering. Obedient.

Keep the faith.

Do what you do, be who you are, walk in that sometimes blind, always beautiful obedience.

Yes, each of us really makes a difference.

The Right Doors Open

You try one door after another, yet no one responds to your résumé.
No university accepts your application. No doctor has a solution for your illness. No buyers look at your house.

Obstacles pack your path. Road, barricaded. Doorway, padlocked. Do you know the frustration of a blocked door?

God uses closed doors to advance his cause.

He closed the womb of a young Sarah so he could display his power to the elderly one.

He shut the palace door on Moses the prince so he could open shackles through Moses the liberator.

He marched Daniel out of Jerusalem so he could use Daniel in Babylon.

And Jesus. Yes, even Jesus knew the challenge of a blocked door. When he requested a path that bypassed the cross, God said no. He said no to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane so he could say yes to us at the gates of heaven.

It’s not that our plans are bad but that God’s plans are better.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8–9 NLT)

Your blocked door doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you. Quite the opposite. It’s proof that he does.