A Sunday at a House of Worship

   Silence and song

   Forgiveness and new possibilities

   Coffee, donuts and conversation

   Smiles and tears

   Prayer for self and others

   Children running down the aisle for their time

   Holy words of scripture

   Inspired words of interpretation

   Fellow shipping in the pews and out the doors

   Meetings held planning endless programs

   Choirs singing in preparation and during worship

   Bells and bands ringing out for God

   Candles being lit to let us know God is here

   Candles being extinguished to remind us we are God’s light in the world

   Babies cooing and talking

   Individuals feeling comfortable enough to nod off

   Birthdays and anniversaries celebrated

   Bread broken and wine poured

But most of all

   People entering in one form

      And leaving in God’s Form

I can hardly wait for another Sunday at a House of Worship

What does it mean to be Stoned

   When you aren’t talking about drugs

What does it feel like to wake up in a darkened place

   Where you can’t get out

What happens in the endless darkened night

   Where death is all there is

Jesus was stoned to death by a Tomb

   Where His only hope was to be annointed by his friends

But then

   In a moment when time stood still

You hear Your Abba Daddy God say

   Arise my Child

You feel a Hand unlike any other

   Move the Stone away from the door of our heart

We are no longer drugged by

   Darkness

   Feeling trapped in life

   The illusion of Death

We are invited to come forth

   To meet those locked in the upper rooms of their minds

      To join a Risen Christ

We are no longer Stoned

   We are now Bolder

For Blessed is the one who comes in the Name of the Lord

   The one who sees not because they have seen

      No the one who sees because they have felt the Touch

      Of a Resurrected Christ

Father’s Day

   How do we honor our Father God

Let me think of the ways

   By letting God be who God is

     Not who someone who doesn’t know God defines God

   By letting God not impose God’s Will

      We are in this together

   By letting God be a Father in the best sense

      Not as our earthy father defined it

   By letting God be a Loving Father

      It is acceptable for the masculine side of us to love

   By letting God be with us as God was with Jesus

      Not by saying God had only one son

   By letting God play with us

      So we don’t take life so seriously 

   By letting God never separate from us for any reason

      How could God ever separate from who God loves

   By letting God encourage rather than condemn

      Healthy love supports rather than tears down

How do we honor our Father God

   Let ME think of the ways

Grace

   A Wonderful concept

   A Godly quality

Grace

   Some words spoken before a meal

   Some words alerting us what to be thankful for in life

Grace

   More then our human nature can grasp

   More then any spoken word can define

Grace

   Empowering us to live fearlessly

   Empowering us to leave behind graceless thoughts

Grace

   Something given with no strings attached

   Something received with no strings attached

Grace

   A part of life to be grown into

   A part of life to never outgrow

Grace

I met a blind man

   He could see a God in song

      One we are often unable to see

I met a blind man

   His unseeing eyes often glanced upward

      I could see God reflected there

I met a blindman

   He used his other senses

      Now he brought me back to my senses

I met a blind man 

   It no longer mattered that he couldn’t see

      For there is an inner sight we all have

I met a man

   We didn’t see eye to eye

      No we saw spirit to spirit

I met Jesus in this man

   Who introduced me to a new song

      One I could sing with Jesus in me

I met a spiritual friend

   Who I can see even if he isn’t here

      Because God isn’t in our outer senses 

         God is in our hearts

Dear Spiritual Companions,

Our thoughts are always with us.  No matter where we go, do or don’t do, they are ever with us.  One spiritual perspective tells us to be mindful.  Another says empty your mind.  Is this the same thing or something completely different?  Can one be mindful of an empty mind?  Does any of that even matter?  Does one lead to heaven or nirvana, depending on your perspective, while the other leads to hell or suffering, which is probbably one in the same?  I tend to become confused, how about you?  Throw in doing it right, whatever that means, and suddenly there is chaos found in our thoughts.

I don’t really care!  I have thoughts and they are what they are.  Hard as I may try to empty my mind it only happens when I sleep and that is because I am not conscious of the thoughts.  Dreams come even when I am not awake reminding me of the spiritual thought processing going on when my internal defenses are down.  When I learn the dream langauage and how to wake myself up, then I have some very interesting thoughts to explore, now found in images.  But I digress, which is what thoughts do to you.  I like to digress sometimes because then I find myself becoming aware.

I want to become more awake to life, or as the Psychology World defines it – become conscious.  This, to me, means paying attention to my thoughts.   What thoughts keep popping up in my mind?  This can tell me what my inner being may be centered on today.  Which thoughts lead me into feeling fear, anger or some other emotion?  Are those thoughts related to individuals, activities, the past or future? Maybe by becoming mindful of my thoughts I can empty my mind?  Now that is an interesting thought!

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of fighting what is.  I want to let life BE.  Instead of reacting or trying to change what is, I simply want to respond.  Someone does something I don’t agree with or like.  Instead of fighting it I can either respond in some way or let it go.  Why do I have to right every wrong or have others think the way I do?  What kind of thinking leads to those thoughts?  Again by becoming mindful I can say no I don’t want to respond to them or yes I do.  Some people live in the inner peace of letting life BE.  I would like to follow their model.  Could their secret be found in their inner thoughts?  Maybe the answer for me is found in when I’m feeling peaceful even when my world is chaotic?

Those are my thoughts today.  What do you think?

Peace,

Gary

A number of years ago I went to a Writing Workshop at Chicago Theological Seminary.  I was in my early 20′s and was introduced to writing poetry.  The Professor invited us to come up with images which could invite others into our words.  My image was a Treasure Chest.  The image meant it was the place where I kept my personal treasures.  The Teacher said that kind of image would invite the reader to look at what a Treasure Chest would mean for them.  I was stunned.  I had been taught when you read a poem everyone is supposed to come up with the same answer.  I never came up with that answer.  Now I was free to let others words speak to my definition of what those words meant to me.  In addition, I was told you didn’t have to ryhme the words who even have punctuation.  I was sold and have been writing poetry ever since.  I have had some published in devotional magazines.  I also have a book of poetry, “Mystical Musings.”  It is for sale for $10 plus postage.  You can also find my poetry on the web site.

I am also an Author.  You will find my weekly Spiritual Thoughts on this website. In addition, I also share some of my personal spiritual reflections in my letters.  Like my poetry my words come from a place deep inside of me.  I listen to the leadings of God in my own life and feel the urge to share them with others.  I am in awe of this gift because I never saw myself in this way until the middle of my life.  God has been leading me on a very exciting journey of putting words together ever since.  I have a CD for sale at $10 plus postage.  It is entitled “Poetry, Prose, Paradox and Prayer.”  Now that I am retired I plan on wiritng a great deal more.  Watch for further updates.

I want to introduce myself to you.  I could list my degrees and various accomplishments, but that only gives you a picture of my outer self.  If this is important to you I will be glad to share that information with you.  Instead I want to give you some inages of my inner self.

I am on a journey with God.  I am a Christian, but am very open to the many ways God has revealed God’s Self in other places and cultures.  I am not stuck on this or that particular Name for God.  I am more concerned with the Being I call Unconditional Love.  I have spent my life letting go of the Image of God based on fear, strings attached and this being the only way.  I believe these are simply human definitions of the Undefinable.  To me God is Love found in a deep personal relationship freely entered into by us.

I was a Pastor for 35 years and the most surprising experience was the way my outer identity as servant revealed my inner identity as a lover of life.  I have found this in my relationships with myself, wife, daughters, parishoners and friends.  It continues in my developing work as Spiritual Director, Friend or Companion along the way.  It also reveals itself in my writing, workshops and work in helping to rebuild New Orleans.  I know not where my path is leading, I just know I am on it for whatever time I have left in this human form.

If who I am touches who you are let me know.  I am always looking for companions along the way who are Awakening to the gift of life.

Peace

Gary

Dear Spiritual Friends,

I live in New Orleans.  As many of you know we had a major hurricane – Katrina hit us August 28, 2005.  We have been trying to put our communities back together ever since.  It has been a big challenge.  We have run into many problems related to factors out of our control.  It has been quite a teaching to see how I handle the parts of life I simply can do nothing about or change.

How about you?  What is your response to being helpless?  If you are like me you might have times of simply running away.  Eat something, drink something, watch sports, read, talk with friends and on and on.  You might also try to fight it.  The rotten government, those who don’t care, doesn’t anyone see our plight and on and on.  I have tried those various possibilities all to no avail.

What I have learned is to be vulnerable.  Cry when tears begin to fall from my eyes, feel the anger because my world has been violated, sense the happiness found in someone caring.  There is more, but the real key is found in my weakness.  My spiritual director said, “Pain is a given in life, suffering is optional.”  Hurricanes are a part of Nature as are tornado’s, snow and ice storms.  When you live in this world the natural unfolding  of life events will occur.  It is what we do with them that create suffering or possibility.  Fight or flight doesn’t work.  Standing still and resting in what is may be the way to wisdom.

What is it about letting life be what it is that causes us problems.  Maybe it calls into question our illusions.  The biggest illusion is we are in charge.  We supposedlycan make anything we want happen.  It is in our culture and often in our religion.  If you try hard enough you can make it happen. If we believe enough then we will get what we want.  In truth, maybe what we think we want is the worst thing for us.  Maybe even worse is the thought we can make life happen.  We become god.  We no longer need God.  Notice the small “g”? We have shrunk God to our size. It simply doesn’t work.

God, by whatever name we call God,will not punish us for trying on It’s Identity.  No this Higher Being will wait until we come to awareness and leave our illusions behind.  When we are weak God becomes strong.  The apostle Paul wrote those words.  Now comes the hardest part – God’s kind of strength is not ours.  Life is let to be what it is.  Hurricanes are not changed.  They are simply left to be what they are, invitations to vulnerability.  We don’t run away or attack them, we deal with the fallout.  We see what happens and simply live in the midst of them.  We use them as opportunities to put our lives together.  We see loss and let it go.  We see opportunities and help them grow.  We feel weak and do nothing. We ………… you fill in the blank.  The courageous individuals are the ones who simply show up.

I have talked about hurricanes because that is affecting my life.  What is the hurricane in your life affecting yours?

Peace

Gary

What do we Fall for

   Autumn is a good season to ask this question

So what do we Fall for

   Leaves

   Humid less air

   Shorter sun lit days

Is it the kind of leaves on the trees

  Or the invitation to leave life be

      Both ours and those we love

   Or the call to leave God be God

      So we don’t have to step into a position already filled

   Or the ability to leave our prayers with God

      Rather then doubting their outcome

Is it the humid less air

   The one which is no longer sticky

      So those problems attached to us fall away

   The one which allows us to breathe

      So God’s Breath can fill us

   The one which doesn’t have the close feeling

      So now we can be close to what matters

Is it the shorter sun lit days

   Where we enter the darkness

      To find life less threatening

   Where we do less

      So we can be more

   Where we don’t need sun shine

      But rather Son shine

What do we Fall for