The essential skill for the Life of the Spirit is listening, an inner ear attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit. It is an attunement to the voice of God within. Listening by itself, however, is not enough; we must then follow what God suggests. As we practice listening for God’s voice within, we […]
Each person has an inner lens through which s/he views the world. The lens can be clouded with prejudices, assumptions, preferences, self-serving attitudes or it can be clearer, able to see reality more truthfully. The source of these things that can cloud our vision of reality can be our religion, our culture and even the […]
What is your story, the one you cling to in spite of all evidence to the contrary, the one that justifies your life as you live it and keeps you in the same old place? Each of us grows into a story that we develop in our childhoods that can stay operative in us sometimes […]
I am just about at the end of preparing for a move from Charlotte to Baltimore. Now when I think of the word attachment, I just laugh. A move does that to you –it points out clearly everywhere you are attached. I am attached to my house here. In fact I love it. I am […]
This I know for sure about the rule/reign/kingdom of God: we are in it, under it—always. God is working in our lives—always. We are connected to God—always. Through God we are connected to all people and all life—always. God loves us—always. God forgives us–always. God welcomes us back—always. And we have little awareness of these […]
On Mondays I post my blog on my website, Facebook and our church ning site. Last week I began to post some brief thoughts for each weekday after Monday on Facebook at facebook.com/#!/pages/By-the-waters/146585815373488. On Friday I was essentially writing about bringing in the kingdom here on earth. The kingdom of heaven is very much on […]
Calved from the great glacier that inches its way each year across Greenland towards the Atlantic Ocean, an iceberg crashes into the ocean and floats freely with the currents. It carries with it some 5,000 years of accumulated debris, rocks and other things that are slowly released into the ocean as it melts away. Depending […]
When we talk about loving God, being human means that we are never totally, 100% in the relationship. We dance close to the Father or to Christ and we pull away. Again and again we dance closer and we pull away. From our point of view we either experience God as being close to us […]
I wish I had a concordance for my own writing. So many times I would like to be able to look up a word and see what I’ve written about it previously. I am making a small step towards that end by organizing and renaming the blog files by topic. By doing this I have […]
Continuing last week’s topic, Exodus being our story as well as part of the history of the Hebrews, I am writing this week about three ways I’ve been held captive in “Egypt” by powerful early influences in my life. The first and probably deepest capture of my mind started before my 2nd birthday when my […]