Jimmy Kimmel on Vaccinating Your Children....

I came across an hilarious but enlightening segment from the Jimmy Kimmel show about vaccinations. His witty barbs were directed at the folks who are “more afraid of gluten than they are of smallpox.”

“If you are one of those anti vaccine people you probably aren’t going to take medical advice from a talk show host and I wouldn’t expect you to. I wouldn’t either. But I would expect you to take medical advice from….almost every doctor in the world.”

I did some online research for this blog post and I came across an article at the Atlantic website commemorating the 100th birthday of Jonas Salk, the inventor of the inactivated polio vaccine, The article is entitled, The Anti-Vaccine Movement Is Forgetting the Polio Epidemic.

The article begins:

It started out as a head cold. Then, the day before Halloween, 6-year-old Frankie Flood began gasping for breath. His parents rushed him to City Hospital in Syracuse, New York, where a spinal tap confirmed the diagnosis every parent feared most in 1953: poliomyelitis. He died on his way to the operating room. “Frankie could not swallow—he was literally drowning in his own secretions,” wrote his twin sister, Janice, decades later. “Dad cradled his only son as best he could while hampered by the fact that the only part of Frankie’s body that remained outside the iron lung was his head and neck.”

What a horrible scenario.

In the peak year of 1952, there were nearly 60,000 cases throughout America; 3,000 were fatal, and 21,000 left their victims paralyzed. In Frankie Flood’s first-grade classroom in Syracuse, New York, eight children out of 24 were hospitalized for polio over the course of a few days. Three of them died, and others, including Janice, spent years learning to walk again.

Then, in 1955, American children began lining up for Jonas Salk's new polio vaccine. By the early 1960s, the recurring epidemics were 97 percent gone.

I was born in 1956 at the tail end of the polio epidemic; a year after Dr. Salk’s vaccine was introduced and the number of polio cases dramatically declined. I don’t remember the polio epidemic firsthand because I was just a baby. Many (most?) of those opposed to vaccinations were born years, even decades, after the polio epidemic.  

And they….we... live in a country where many terrible, deadly diseases have been eradicated. We just don’t know or we forget what it was like to live with the fear of polio killing and maiming our children. Or how in desperate attempts to stop the spread of the disease, movie theaters closed, churches cancelled services and almost everyone avoided crowds. We are spoiled, privileged and complacent, even sneeringly ungrateful for the amazing progress medical science has made to improve our lives and to increase the average life span.

Having recently witnessed the complete freak out because of several cases of Ebola in the United States, I can imagine the reaction if eight children in a class of twenty four  were infected by the Ebola virus. And if a vaccine was available, parents would be lining up with their children just like parents did in 1955….thankful for a way to protect them.

But we just don’t know or we forget what it was like during the polio epidemic.

The Atlantic article also featured an interview by Peter Salk, the son of Jonas Salk. He had this to say about vaccinating his own son against pertussis:

When my own son Michael was born 31 years ago, the whole-cell vaccine was still in use. Whooping cough was essentially gone in this country by that time, so from one perspective, why should we take the risk of causing a high fever or other side effects in our own child? I know I certainly thought about this a lot. But I just couldn’t bring myself to take advantage of the good that other people had done by immunizing their kids—to take a free ride, so to speak. Michael did end up developing a fever. But I couldn’t have lived with my decision if we hadn’t given him the vaccine.

I thought long and hard about whether I should vaccinate Matthew. I lived in Iowa, then. It was all very holistic. My pregnancy had very few medical interventions (not even an ultrasound) The delivery was long and very close to a natural delivery.  I read Mothering magazine. I read Dr. Sears. I watched Penelope Leach. I was VERY reluctant to vaccinate him. But I researched (via the library) and thought and discussed and came to the conclusion that it was the right thing to do and the best decision for him and for society.

And I agree with Peter Salks. Anti-vaxers are taking a free ride on the risk that he took vaccinating his son and they are taking a free ride on the risk that I took vaccinating Matthew....and then Beth....and then Emily. Yes, it was to protect them but it was also to protect other children who cannot be vaccinated because of medical conditions or age. The herd immunity thing which is another way of demonstrating that I am my “brother’s keeper”

Now many states (20) allow an exemption not only for medical and religious reasons but also for reasons of conscience. My conscience dictates that I not only protect my own children from serious, potentially deadly diseases but that I protect other vulnerable children. And yes….that even includes those children whose parents opt out of overwhelmingly safe and effective vaccines because of misinformation and selfishness.

Optimists are right…..

In my last post, I included some quotes and statistics that indicated extreme poverty may be eradicated in our lifetime.  So I am following that post with another optimistic post that I happened upon in Reader’s Digest this month.  A post that points out 17 reasons why this is a great time to be alive.  Reason #17 says this….

17. Optimists are right

For 200 years, pessimists have had all the headlines—even though optimists have far more often been right. There is immense vested interest in pessimism. No charity ever raised money by saying things are getting better. No journalist ever got the front page writing a story about how disaster was now less likely. Pressure groups and their customers in the media search even the most cheerful statistics for glimmers of doom. Don’t be browbeaten—dare to be an optimist!

As I’ve mentioned before, optimism is not my default setting….and with all the doom and gloom and dire predictions we are bombarded with day in and day out, it’s hard to “look on the sunny side.”

But this article gives us 17 reasons why we should…and why it is better to live today than at any other time in history.  The good old days weren’t really all that good….except in retrospect…with all the rough edges smoothed out by our selective memory. 

Check out the article HERE…and below is a partial list of some of the stuff the author talks about

• The important stuff costs less
• Poverty is nose-diving
• Storms are not getting worse
• Great ideas keep coming
• The environment is better than you think
• Urban living is a good thing
• Oil is not running out
• Population growth is not a threat

Check out the article in its entirety on the Reader’s Digest website. 

Statistics on extreme poverty from atop my soapbox…..

I am not really an optimist…no big surprise to the people nearest and dearest to me.  I try to be.  I want to be.  Alas….not. Optimism is counter intuitive to me.  So this weekend….on the ride home from visiting my mom, I was challenged by a few quotes I read in a blog post on the Rebel God website.  (I was able to read on this trip because Keith came along.  It was nice having his company….and he drove!!!  Leaving me hands free to play with my new IPad on the trip there and back!!!)

The quotes…..

Consider these statistics cited by Dr. Scott Todd from Live58:

"We used to say that 40,000 children die each day from preventable causes. In the 1990s, that number dropped to 33,000 per day. By 2008, it dropped again to 24,000. Now it is down to 21,000. That means that in a generation we cut that number in half.

1.4 billion people live in extreme poverty today. That's a staggering amount, but let's put those numbers in perspective: In 1981 52% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today it's 26%. Again, that means we have cut the number in half, and we did it in one generation."

and

As Scott Todd explains, there are many reasons for this unprecedented progress,

"Over 600 million people gained access to safe drinking water since 1990. This, along with an increased awareness of the nutrition in breast milk and the use of oral rehydration therapy, explain why water-borne diseases are no longer the leading cause of death for children under five. We are simply executing the practical strategies that work.
Vaccinations are another example of a practical, life-saving strategy. 733,000 children died of measles in 2000; but, that number dropped by 2008 to 164,000–a 78% reduction in only eight years. Simply using the vaccines that we’ve had for decades is saving hundreds of thousands of children every year."

Wow…and there are people who actually think we can end extreme poverty in our generation.  And there are lots of initiatives and programs and individuals working toward that goal. 

Another thing that struck me in the quote above was the dramatic drop in deaths due to measles… attributed to the vaccines we have readily available in this country. 

A soap box issue of mine…..those folks who refuse to vaccinate their children without a really good medical reason.  It’s only because of people like me….who chose to vaccinate our children in spite of the minimal risk….that they even have that option. If measles and diphtheria….pertussis…polio…. and the other diseases kids are routinely vaccinated against were rampant here in the States, they would not have that luxury.  Families like mine helped eradicate those diseases.  Families like theirs threaten to bring them back to life.

Many look on vaccinations as a plague…an evil forced upon the unsuspecting public by the big pharmaceutical companies.  Most of those 733,000 kids who died in 2000 didn’t have the option.  I choose to look upon the vaccines we have available as a privilege rather than an arbitrary harm forced on our kids.  And yes, I did the research before I vaccinated Matthew, my firstborn….with great trepidation and concern. I know there are risks.  I signed the consent forms that listed them in several pages of small print detail.  There ARE risks, I know that….but perhaps, in addition to protecting my own children from diseases that are, indeed, making a comeback in this country, I did it for the greater good? 

I digressed from the initial point of this post….but will leave it as is…hoping that I have not offended anyone who reads here.  This is one of those hot button topics.  At least for me it is.  Comments are, of course, welcome.

God be with you….and I mean it….

I happened upon a blog post yesterday…on my google reader feed entitled "Praying Them Home" on the Daily Episcopalian.  The post talked a lot about prayer....and the cloud of unknowing we join in shared prayer. 

In the post, the author (Maria L. Evans) tells the story of an encounter with a gravely ill man who was determined to embark on a long journey back to his homeland, postponing medical treatment. She tried to convince him of the very serious, possibly fatal, risk he was taking but he would not relent. Her conclusion?

All of us have times in our lives where despite our best efforts, our good intentions, and our fears for those we love, they will make their choices and we are left with no other tasks but to let them go, and "pray them home." I realized I had tried my best, and did what I could. As I left to go back to my office, I told him, "God be with you. I mean that."

A sentiment most parents, especially parents of teenagers or young adults, can totally identify with.  Let go and let God to the n'th degree.  Very. Difficult. To. Do.

Being the queen of the worst case scenario, I tend to let my imagination run away with me. I know it, my family knows it and it’s become a good natured, standing joke.

My daughter Emily posted a picture on my FB wall....ahhh, I mean my FB Timeline....the other day poking fun. She shared it with her sister, Beth. 

         

Point taken. And the truth of the matter is….the “paring knife” is usually…just a paring knife.  But every once in a while, the paring knife REALLY is a hatchet in disguise.  Our kids face dangers every day…the real ones and the ones that live in a mother’s imagination.  Sometimes the only option is to try to quiet our fears, accept their choices and simply pray “God be with you.”

11:05 pm….12-31-11

11:05....on New Year's Eve.  55 minutes until the ball drops. For me it's not New Year's until the ball drops in Times Square. Even when I lived in a different time zone....when the ball dropped in Times Square….that signaled the start of the new year.

This night has always been very sentimental for me. Memories of  New Year's Eves past...spent with family...many long since gone.  Memories of little kids, sound asleep in their beds..., stroking chubby little legs in terry cloth sleepers and pj's with plastic feet.  Whispering, "I love you" and "I'm so glad I have you." Memories of bigger kids...struggling to stay awake to ring in the New Year...to see the ball drop. And now....bigger kids still.  Two at parties...one babysitting.

Keith and I spent the evening here at home...wouldn't have it any other way.  His brother's family makes a yearly trek to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls to ring in the New Year.  Not me.  Not Niagara Falls....not the bars...not Times Square with an estimated 1.5 million people (can you imagine the traffic jam??)

I've been going through some of the articles I've annotated at the gym on my kindle. (I love my kindle) One in particular that talks about all this 2012, the world is ending stuff. The article points out that it is not the world ending...but an era.  An epoch....a mindset, a way of looking at things....a halt, an about face...perhaps a new beginning. Hopefully a new beginning.

Things are a bit mixed up right now....with the kids, and school, and vehicles and questions like "how the hell will we afford to help them with all these expenses?"

A quote from one of the articles (Navigating an Uncertain Future: Guidance for the Unpredictable Road Ahead ~ Alan Seale from The Evolutionary Mystic blog) stands out....

We really have to tune in every day and say, what am I to do now? Today? This period of life? This month? This cycle? This season? And then go and find the tools, the resources and the people to be able to do that work. We need to all be supporting each other in that.

and if you are afraid?

When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision—then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

I came upon an article about fear….

I came upon  an article about fear this weekend.  I forget what I was even googling, but the article, God’s Confidence vs. Our Fears, was there among the search results. The article emphasizes a great verse that I should commit to memory and repeat a couple hundred thousand times a day.

Proverbs 3:25-26: “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your feet from being snared.”

Have no fear of sudden disaster?  Are you kidding?  Seriously? I am the princess of “What if?!!!!" My mother is the reigning queen.  She taught me everything she knows about worrying.  I learned from a pro. I am a pro.  I am so good at it.  I can conjure up the most unlikely and far fetched scenarios….usually focusing on the worst case ones.  They rarely happen.  And the article points out a quote by Mark Twain. 

“I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”

Yeah? Well what about the quote the gist of which is…

I know worry works. The things I worry about never happen.

Great quotes pointing out, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, the futility of worry….

Yet, somehow such fears of the unknown are not chased away by a clever quote. Knowing that most fears never happen doesn’t bring sleep late in a worry-filled night.

Worry usually doesn’t keep me awake at night.  It does, however, occupy my thoughts many, many days.  And often I am aware of danger lurking just around the corner.  Anticipating the rug being pulled out from under me….or the other shoe dropping. Thud!! It seems the fear of sudden disaster is always kind of hovering in the background. So what’s all this about the Lord being your confidence? 

I guess it’s all about perspective.  Enlarging our perspective from micro to macro.  Minor to major. Carnal to spiritual.  Earthly to heavenly.  This world is not our home.  This body is not the real us.  What happens to it, here in this realm, is of no lasting consequence and might even be for our ultimate good. (what?!!!) And when this whole concept is just too much for the egoic mind to wrap itself around, we can cling to the verse…my new mantra….the Lord will be your confidence. 

The Will of God

During this whole "living at the hospital" ordeal there have been times, events and circumstances that have been exercises in total frustration. When I went back last weekend to visit, she was doing much better after the second actual surgery to drain fluid and blood from both of her lungs and chest cavity.  When I say surgery I mean under total, deep anesthesia.  There were many, many procedures that required a lighter level of anesthesia....and some of the nasty things they did to her "didn't require" any at all.  She had three PICC lines put in with great, great difficulty (and total lack of functionality)....a pacemaker (that caused bleeding into the cavity around her heart and collapsed her lung...main reason for the second surgery) numerous scope things....down the throat...another round on the ventilator…so many unpleasant, frightening ordeals. Yet when I went back this weekend she was quite calm.  In a good mood actually. It was almost as if God held her there in the fire (hospital) until she stopped struggling.  And I am learning some lessons about struggling too. 

“A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps”(Proverbs 16:9)

Lest anyone think I've joined the total determinism gang, I haven't.  I do believe however that we are not totally free and there will be situations we get stuck in no matter how much we struggle.  No matter how much squawking and bitching and moaning we do, we are going to be held in the fire (a place or situation where we don’t want to be) until we stop struggling.  That is the essence of my car seat analogy.

When my kids were little they always...always… rode in their car seats the whole time the car was in motion. No exceptions.  Protesting…kicking, screaming, fighting made no difference whatsoever to the final outcome. The car seat was non negotiable. One way or another they were going in the car seat and they were staying there until we reached our destination.  Fortunately, they never put up much of a fuss and getting them into their car seat was no big deal but I’ve seen some life and death struggles going on in other vehicles…parent pitted against a 20 lb child.

Some of the situations God puts us in are also non negotiable (and for our good) and we cannot get out of them...no how...no way. Sometimes the only thing we can choose is our attitude.  My attitude throughout this hospital ordeal was pretty good.  Could have been better but I know my mom appreciated me being there. Looking through the “retrospectascope” I realize I should have struggled less and accepted more and I would have saved myself a lot of stress and frustration. The whole thing was a “carseat moment.” 

Reminds me of two similar thoughts about making plans.  One from the Qu'ran...the other from the book of James.  Both pretty much say the same thing...and remind me that I need to seek his will and way first.  To do otherwise is a bit like beating my head against a brick wall.  And you know the saying about how good it feels when you stop....

 SHAKIR 18:23/24 And do not say of anything: Surely I will do it tomorrow, Unless Allah pleases; and remember your Lord when you forget and say: Maybe my Lord will guide me to a nearer course to the right than this.

James 4:13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

So I spent all weekend hanging out in her hospital room.  She is feeling a lot better (and at this writing is actually in the rehab part of the hospital working on the final phase of her recovery) A lot of the time she dozed in the chair…and I sat quietly reading…making use of their guest wifi.  At one point, late on Sunday afternoon she asked me the same question she asked shortly after her surgery.....

"This was a wasted day wasn't it?"

"For who?"

"You....me.....both of us" she replied.

Ahhhhhh......but it didn’t feel like a wasted day.  And after all, in God's economy, nothing is wasted.  Eventually, all things work together for good, don't they?  I don’t think any of the time either of us spent in the “carseat” was wasted. Some of the lessons are yet to be revealed…but they are there, contained in the experience.  The tricky part is figuring it all out. 

My husband, Keith wrote a post about some of his struggles during this same period of time…from his perspective.  Check it out HERE.

ICU Psychosis

My mom did not do so well right after the valve replacement surgery.  (FYI…presently she is doing very well even though she has a long way to go to recover fully) Physically she was in good shape....but she let her mind and worries get the best of her.  Anxiety attacks...that raised her blood pressure very high, dangerously high, after heart surgery.  She thought she was in immediate danger.  The trite, oft repeated phrase, my  perception is my reality comes to mind.  Her perception became her reality.  Because she thought she was doing poorly...she did do poorly.  So began the balancing act.  Calm her down with meds so she had no choice but to relax...sort of.  The meds, however, disoriented her to the point of paranoia.  It was a classic case of (another trite saying) damned if you do, damned if you don't.  It was not pleasant.  It was not fun.  It was kind of the straw that broke the camels back (another one.....!) and I was impatient with her. 

I spent hours and hours of time.....sitting.....bedside... aware that I would much rather be spending my two weeks vacation time sitting beach side (with her sitting there with me....sipping frozen strawberry daiquiris)  Or probably more to my liking...sitting at home, reading and typing and pondering.  Two weeks of that would be, for me, bliss.  But no...there we both were, logging another day in the Butler Hospital...in ICU.  At one point, as if reading my thoughts she said..."This has been a wasted day, hasn't it?"  "It's just been a day, Mom. It's fine, I'm fine....you are fine... everything is FINE,"

I lied. It wasn't fine.  I was tired...and cranky and homesick....and she was in the throes of recovering from open heart surgery.  She was obviously less "fine" than I was....but neither of us was "fine."

Coincidentally, at the time I was reading a book called "Living on 24 Hours a Day" by Arnold Bennett.  At some point, don't remember when, I downloaded it (for free) onto my kindle.  It was an old book, written in 1910...missing the copyright restrictions by a decade.  He describes time as the most precious of commodities.....

The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it.

You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!

No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive. Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say:--"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste to-morrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.

I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not? 

Okay...so barring death we all get the same amount of time in our day.  24 hours.  But there's the rub.  (another one of those sayings)

You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul.

And thus the anxiety of wasted time....

Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say "lives," I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us is free from that uneasy feeling that the "great spending departments" of his daily life are not managed as they ought to be?

Which of us is not saying to himself-- which of us has not been saying to himself all his life: "I shall alter that when I have a little more time"? We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.

We are haunted, more or less painfully, by the feeling that the years slip by, and slip by, and slip by, and that they have not yet been able to get their lives into proper working order.

Yep...that's me.  I am keenly aware of time passing...almost to a point of preoccupation (bordering on obsession) with it.  I know I have a limited amount left here in this earthly realm...and want to spend it wisely since I have wasted vast years and years in the past.  Lost in my thoughts...my mind constantly getting the best of me....in a mental state not that much different than my mom's as she teetered on the edge of what they call "icu psychosis."

Most of us do it....waste time in a state of self induced psychosis.  Sometimes we waste time by struggling against circumstances....like I've been doing for the past 10 or 12 days.  Rather than going with the flow (<<<<<) and walking in the spirit and trying to live in a state of awareness of his leading.  Another trite saying I've heard concerning time management with the focus on spiritual things (which is most definitely not the main focus of Mr. Bennett's book)

There IS enough time to do everything God wants us to do...when we follow his leading and focus on discerning what he wants us to do. 

I was listening to a Gary Sigler message on my way to the hospital the other day.  He said that the answer to every situation we find ourselves in is within us.  That would include how to use our time wisely, no?  If we go inside and seek God's leading...he will lead us. He is the ultimate "day timer."  Franklin Covey's 7 Habits...David Allen's Get Things Done System pale in comparison to God's time management program.  More on that in the next post.... 

PS…In this post, I’ve pointed out several trite and overused expressions.  That’s because I learned another new word in the 24 Hour book…and I’m going to, perhaps, turn it into a post.  The word? 

Hackneyed. 

Definition?

banal: repeated too often; over familiar through overuse

It occurs to me that many Christian catch phrases fit this description…and thought it might be a good topic for a post or two.  Whether I get anything written or not…only time will tell :_)

Musings on the Arizona Shooting…

I've been reading a lot the past few days about the shootings...and murders in AZ...that included the murder of a 9 year old girl who attended the event with a neighbor to learn more about the political process. She had been elected to the student council at school.  Ironically, Christina Taylor Green, was born on 9/11/01.  When I see Christina's picture, I see a beautiful little girl, sparkly eyes, big smile.

Her picture takes me back to when my kids were that age.  And, since Christina is a girl, I think back on both of my girls at age 9. 

As a mom, this really hits where it hurts.  We go along pretending that we have some control over the wellbeing of our children.  We monitor their friends and activities. We warn them about talking to strangers and being ever vigilant about not ever going anywhere with anyone they don't know.  We watch what they eat and how much they sleep and what medications they take. When they are teenagers we warn them of the dangers of driving distracted, or in the snow, or alcohol abuse. We give them curfews and guidelines.  Always trying to forget that...out of the blue...in a split second we can lose them.  A car crash, an illness, an abduction....a crazed gunman nursing a grudge against an elected official.  Wrong place/wrong time taken to the nth degree.  And just like that...gone.  

Christina's dad was quoted as saying,

We were four people. Now we're three.

And that is every parent's worst nightmare.....

When Everything Falls Apart….

I’ve been listening to the local Christian radio station…now and then…usually on my way to and from work.  Lately, it seems that almost every time I tune in to WGRC there is a song playing with lyrics that grab my attention…a song I’ve never heard before.  Some are by performers of yesteryear…Petra, for example….and some are singers/bands that are popular right now.  Some are rock and rollish….some much more laid back. It’s the lyrics that usually break through my “gotta’ get to work/running late” preoccupation. 

I’ve been scribbling down snippets of the lyrics while stopped at red lights etc….then, later, google them.  I save the info I find in a file with the intent to post some of the lyrics and links and videos here on my blog. Today is as good a day as any to start.  It’s another interruption to the Clean Hands thing…which I have more to say about…but just not this morning. 

The You Tube Video I’m posting this morning is by a band named Fee. Emily knew the band and the song when I asked her about it, but they were to to me.  Most of their music is rock and roll and does not really resonate with me….but their song, Everything Falls, caught my attention the other day.

Oftentimes, life is a perpetual series of inconveniences and upheavals….major and minor….heart wrenching or just simply annoying. Jesus did give us a heads up about that when he said, “In this world you will have trouble.” So sometimes even when things seem to be going the best…or seem to be on an even keel, I get the nagging feeling that calamity is just around the corner. 

The second half of his “heads up” is not as easy to live out.  “But be of good cheer…for I have overcome the world.” 

In it’s usual wordy style the Amplified Bible renders John 16:33 like this:

I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]

And about that calamity waiting around the corner….again Jesus gives us a heads up.  This is from the Message…

"Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Matthew 6:34

And we get through it all by remembering that when “everything falls apart, Your arms hold me together” or in the words of a much older song…

What have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Video follows….

And speaking of dwelling in the now....

My last post made me think about a poem I came upon quite a while ago...but it's stuck with me through the years.  It fits with the dwelling in the now stuff...and Preston Eby's comments about the "I Am"...

My Name is "I AM"

I was regretting the past
And fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
“My name is I Am.” He paused.
I waited. He continued,
When you live in the past
With its mistakes and regrets,
It is hard. I am not there,
My name is not I WAS”.
When you live in the future
With its problems and fears,
It is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I WILL BE.
When you live in this moment,
It is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM.

And too...as I've admitted here before...several times...I like Southern Gospel music. There is a southern gospel song...written by Ira Stanphill entitled I Know Who Holds Tomorrow.  The following You Tube video features Allison Kraus singing the song with a decidedly different kind of country twang/style. 

I don’t know about tomorrow;
I just live from day to day.
I don’t borrow from its sunshine
For its skies may turn to grey.
I don’t worry o’er the future,
For I know what Jesus said.
And today I’ll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.

Many things about tomorrow
I don’t seem to understand
But I know who holds tomorrow
And I know who holds my hand.

 

Bonhoeffer's Answers

In my last post about Bonhoeffer, I listed some of his questions. There was a long list of questions.  In this post...and probably the next one....I will highlight some of his answers.   

About living in the now he says:

These theological thoughts are, in fact, always occupying my mind; but there are times when I am just content to live the life of faith without worrying about its problems. At those times I simply take pleasure in the days' readings- in particular those of yesterday and today; and I'm always glad to go back to Paul Gerhardt's beautiful hymns.

I discovered later, and I'm still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith.

Didn't Jesus do this?  Didn't he live completely in this world...partaking of its ups and downs, petty discomforts, major set-backs, small joys, earthly pleasures? Didn't Jesus know the "power of now"....what he called "eternal life?

This reminds me of Eckhart Tolle's teachings about dwelling in the now...not tomorrow, not next week...not even ten minutes from now. 

The ten minute rule was an especially helpful teaching a few years ago when Beth was running away and causing so many problems.  I am a worrier by nature and nurture...daughter of the queen of the worst case scenario. Reminding myself of the ten minute rule helped a lot during that very difficult time. As I type this post, it occurs to me that revisiting the ten minute rule might not be a bad idea.

Quoting Eckhart.....

Find the “narrow gate that leads to life.” It is called the Now. Narrow your life down to this moment. Your situation may be full of problems---most life situations are---- but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do you have a problem now?

I know some will quibble about the wording but in Christianese, I think Tolle is saying...

Find the narrow gate that leads to life....which is "the Christ" that dwells within...the light that lights every man that comes into the world.  Or what Preston Eby refers to as

the man’s “I Am,” a gift from the I AM who created him

In Christianese he is also saying as Galatians 5:25 declares walk in the spirit.  If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Gal 6:8)

So what is your problem, right now, this second?  By focusing on the moment at hand, we do not waste precious resources obsessing about something that might not even occur.  And when something does occur...within our ten minute window...we will be better able to deal with it when and IF it occurs. 

Bonhoeffer did not call it "living in the now."  Neither did Jesus...but the idea is the same..documented in the pages of scripture...in the "red letters" no less....

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Some loosely related thoughts....

Over the course of our week away, at the conference..... traveling to and from the conference….from several different (very far flung) sources I came upon unique ways of expressing some key concepts I’ve talked about on this blog.  The first one came from a sermon preached by David Levister. The conference focused almost entirely on the “finished work” of the cross so Jesus, his death and resurrection were a constant theme.  

I’ve often heard Jesus referred to as the mediator between God and man….but tweaking it just a bit in his sermon, he referred to Jesus as “the connector.” That fits with an example used in several of the sermons I heard (don’t ask me whose…I listened to 10 sermons in 4 days) In the example, Jesus reaches up and grasps God with one hand and reaches down and grasps mankind with the other.  Thus…the perfect connector.  An example that is not really contradicted by any of the standard theories of atonement. 

And another little ditty that stuck in my mind was from a song by the Lake City Christian Fellowship Praise Team.   David Bunch writes most of the music for the Praise Team and the lyrics reflect the beliefs of the church….the finished work of the cross.  You can check out some of the lyrics and even listen to the full version of about 10 or so of their songs here.

In a song called “The Tongue of Life” the lyrics talk about speaking life through Jesus Christ….and the finished work of the cross. It mentions one of the things that was accomplished at the cross which was:

Learned behaviors and second natures
Were swallowed up at Calvary

Learned behaviors and second natures.  Kind of an interesting way of describing the egoic mind/carnal nature, don’t you think? Which leads me to another idea that stuck in my head over the course of the week….

And it came from the Koran.  Yes…I did leaf through a book entitled The Essential Koran during the drive there and the drive home.  The book is a compilation of excerpts from an English translation of the Koran... translated into English by Thomas Clearly.  I base my faith on what I find in the Bible….but it so expands my view of God’s magnitude when I hear concepts from scripture in the sacred writings of other cultures…in contemporary literature, in movies and secular songs.  I love to hear his voice in unexpected places.  It really drives home the OMNIPRESENT facet of God’s nature. 

In several verses in Cleary’s translation, he refers to “satan” as the Obsessor.  Is Satan an actual being?  Maybe....but I know many times when scripture refers to satan it is talking about the egoic mind/pain body/adamic man/carnal nature. Since my egoic mind doggedly dwells on and obsesses about my problems, issues, worries, concerns, the term Obsessor is so fitting!

Just a few loosely related thoughts about a few loosely related words...

More On Stepping Over Our Anger....

Confession...I talk to myself.  Out loud.  Not only do I talk to myself, I talk to other people.  People who aren't there.  Usually people I am pissed off at.  I sometimes say what I wish I would have said...sometimes what I am going to say...and sometimes what I would say if there were no holds barred and I didn't care about the nuclear fall out from telling it like it is.  Or wait...probably telling it like I THINK it is would be a more accurate assessment. 

Eckhart Tolle talks about a woman who rode the same bus he did...a woman who kept up a running dialogue...a conversation with herself and an imaginary non existent person.  She was very angry...and expressed the anger, out loud, for all to hear.  Eckhart thought she was as crazy as a loon...

He writes about the experience in his book, A New Earth and I found an online interview from 2008 where he tells the same story.  I am thinking that he has probably told that same story countless times in countless interviews sort of like a singer who has a hit in the early days of their career and then are forced to sing that same song ad nauseam...for the rest of their professional lives. 

Ms. Tippett: You know, you told a story in A New Earth about an experience you had, which was actually a few years before you really had kind of a breakthrough and came out of that, where you experienced a woman talking to herself on the train, right? On the tube train.

Mr. Tolle: Yes.

Ms. Tippett: Tell that story. Kind of caught in her thoughts, and then you came to understand that you had some of the same problems.

Mr. Tolle: Yes. So she would — I would sometimes see her on the train. I call it the tube, the subway, in the morning. And she would continuously talk to herself or, rather, to an imaginary person in a very angry voice. Continuously complaining, "And then he did this to me. Then he said, and I said — then how dare he tell me this," and I watched in amazement how can anybody be so insane and still apparently have a job? Because she would catch the subway every morning.

Ms. Tippett: [Laughter] She was going somewhere, right?

Mr. Tolle: And one day I was sitting opposite her on the subway, and she got off at the same station that I needed to get off to go the university library. I followed her, and we got closer and closer and finally I realized, oh, my God, she's going to the university.

[Laughter]

Mr. Tolle: Because at that time, I still thought the university was the great temple of knowledge, and the professors and so on, they had all the answers and I would eventually find them too. I was washing my hands in the bathroom and I thought, "My God. Her voice. She never stops talking." And I suddenly realized, well, I do that too, except that I don't do it out loud. And then I thought, "I hope I don't end up like her," and somebody next to me looked at me and I suddenly realized in shock that I had actually said these words aloud just like her. I said, "I hope I don't end up like her." [Laughter] So I realized my mind was as incessantly active as hers. Our only difference was that my thought was mostly based on feeling sorry for myself. It was kind of depressed kind of thinking. My patterns were fueled by anger. But that was only a very brief …

Ms. Tippett: Right.

Mr. Tolle: … flash of realization. But I always remember it because that was — it took years before I finally was able to really step out of the stream of thinking and realize there is a place inside me that is far more powerful than the continuous mental noise with which for many, many years I had been completely identified, just like that woman.

Yep...I know that feeling well.  The constant audio going on in my head.  And I've actually...dare I admit this without concern that the guys with the white coats will show up unexpectedly at my door...I've blurted out things in public places.  Just like Eckhart did.  Just like the lady in his story.  I remember distinctly one sideways WTF look from a woman in the parking lot of the grocery store...when, as I pushed  my empty cart to the cart corral, I said a few things to myself out loud.  Yes...out loud in an annoyed tone....with nobody anywhere near me to be annoyed with.  Hmmmmm. 

I told this little tale to Emily yesterday as we chatted in the kitchen.  She laughed and said, "Mom, you're nuts" and then suggested I get a blue tooth earpiece and wear it 24/7...or at least when I am out and about in public...to dispel any concerns about my sanity  :) 

But back to the women in the parking lot. I wonder if, perhaps, she was doing the exact same thing I was doing...conversing with the voice inside her head....but with the good sense not to do it out loud.

This reminds me of a quote I ran across recently in a book by Henri Nouwen, Home Tonight, Further Reflections On The Parable of The Prodigal Son.....

 There is one sort of person who seems to be silent, but inwardly criticizes other people. Such a person is really talking all the time. From Desert Winds by Yushi Nomura

So where am I going with all this?  A lot of what fuels this inner dialogue...this merry go round, whirlwind....sink hole ...of thoughts is resentment.  As  expressed in the quote by Nomura, even if the words are only spoken silently, in our minds, they are still just as hurtful, harmful...dysfunctional.  We must rid ourselves of the resentment...the old anger, the wounds that we've covered with a bandage and left to fester and ooze their toxins...

And that is why this 4th Step from AA's 12 Steps seems brilliant. 

More on that....tomorrow...

All Scripture or Every Scripture That Is - 3

Some of the following was written several years ago on the Beautiful Heresy Message Board.  It was a post within a thread that discussed  the Old Testament...and the inerrancy of the words written there.  So...and this feels kind of weird, let me quote myself...and then the peanut gallery will comment on the peanuts gallery's yesteryear musings.  Hmmmmm....

Beth, my little agnostic, has a big problem with the OT. Heck, as recently as a few years ago, I had a huge problem with the OT. How many people have rejected God simply because of what they see him depicted as in the OT? Go to any of the skeptic sites on the internet, that dissect and criticize and defame God because of how they see him depicted there.

Beth the agnostic?  Yep that was written several years ago.  The agnostic?  That might be a bit of an understatement.  You mean the angry, defiant teenager who wore the YOUR GOD IS DEAD T-shirt...last year?  The shirt she hand painted with angry red and black graffiti like letters?  The one she wore on her walk to the library one day...a walk that just happened to coincide with quitting time for the new pastor at our church.  As he was driving home, he saw her walking.  The t-shirt was impossible to miss.  YOUR GOD IS DEAD?  Them, there's fighting words for a United Methodist pastor.  He went around the block to try to find her and talk to her...but she was out of sight (no doubt offending people in the library with the sentiments expressed on her shirt)

And so she became the sermon illustration the following Sunday.  Being new he had no idea her mom..and sister...were sitting right there listening to the sermon. Distressing moment during a time I was sure things with Beth would never get any better and would never be okay.  Anyway...I am digressing big time...so do I go back to the subject at hand or plunge farther into the valley of digression?  Hmmmmm.  Okay...lets plunge...

The following is a post I wrote...about a year ago...to EU chronicling the very upsetting experience.

A few weeks ago when Beth was at her angriest (I actually called the police on her when she was trashing her bedroom) she painted a shirt that said in big graffiti letters "YOUR GOD IS DEAD".  She wore it last week on her way to the library.  Part of it was anger at God....the other part was, of course, up yours defiance, and to get attention.  She wrote about it on her myspace blog....and a confrontation she had with a man who stopped to defend God.  He wasn't the only one who noticed the shirt .....and she got attention all right.  She made the sermon yesterday at church.  All three sermons!!!  About six hundred people heard about the girl in the Your God Is Dead T-shirt. 

The sermon was about "who is Jesus to you" based on the scripture when Jesus asked Peter "who do people say I am" "Who do you say I am?"  Peter answered, "thou art the Christ, the son of the Living God". 

The springboard was the "Living God" part....because from there he went on to say that the other day, when he was driving home he saw a girl walking down Market Street....wearing a T-shirt.....and he could not believe what it said.  Emily and I looked at each other.  OMG, we knew where he was going.  Yep...the T-shirt said, "YOUR GOD IS DEAD" He went on to say that he turned his car around to go talk to her but she had disappeared by the time he got back to where he'd last seen her.  He said he could not imagine how sad and lonely (and he used a few other adjectives) that girl's life must be to wear a T-shirt that not only said her God was dead but that YOUR God is dead too.   Em and I, of course, knew who the girl was....and the two youth leaders Emily is so close to and who Beth was very close to at one time knew...and another girl who is friends with Em (and used to be friends with Beth) 

Later, when the service was closing, Spencer (youth leader) asked if he could say something....and he said something about if you are here and do not know who Jesus is, ask one of us...ask the person who brought you....because, that girl in the T-shirt......I know that girl". "she's been to our home...she's been to this church".  He said some other stuff, too, about being Christ to people.  The pastor had no idea, I'm sure.  As I said, he is a new pastor there and I'm sure he thought the girls' parents were sleeping off Saturday night's hangover and definitely not sitting in his new sanctuary.  (It was the consecration of the newly remodeled sanctuary....big crowd Sunday) 

There were refreshments after the service, but I left right away.  Later I wrote him an email introducing myself as the mother of the girl in the Your God Is Dead T-shirt...and let him know that my other daughter, Emily, is very active in the church and in the youth group.  She is part of the youth leadership committee etc.  He wrote back today and said he would pray for Beth. 

Just another one of life's interesting moments.  Ya' gotta' wonder what was God's purpose in it. Shrug.

Still haven't figured out God's purpose in all of it, although I will say that things have improved somewhat with Beth.  Thanks to any and all (Jack) who prayed for her.  And please keep praying because she turns 18 this month which is sure to involve a learning curve for all concerned. 

Tomorrow...I'll get back to the topic at hand...

Which Reality?

Back to the Starcke Interview.  In the snippet below, Starcke mentions that during sleep, "consciousness"...as in egoic consciousness (carnal reasoning/adamic mindset...whatever you choose to call it) has been off guard.  I wonder if perhaps it is not more than that...if perhaps God communicates with our spirit as we sleep?  As our "flesh" saws logs...as we slumber...are we refreshed and revitalized more than on just a physical level?  Perhaps?

I find that for me the best time of the day to meditate is when I first wake up in the morning. It's like taking a psychic bath. I've taken on a degree of personal sense in the previous day, and my consciousness has been off guard during sleep, so my morning meditation is the time when I let go of the personal sense, get rid of it all, and open myself to the experience of the presence. This is when I am most likely to experience that inner "click" of realization.

I've seen the shadow side of this...the con rather than the pro.  Our consciousness may be off guard when we sleep...but when we wake...it can come swooping back in with a vengeance. During times when my life was in shambles, I have wakened in the morning (or the middle of the night) and within moments my worries and fears come flooding back.  Heavy, frightening, hopeless.  Ahhh-ha...the egoic mind has me in its clutches yet again. 

But I've also experienced the reverse.  The quiet, almost pristine time in the very early morning shortly after waking (after, perhaps, a sip or two of coffee) when His Presence fills the room and I am keenly aware that he is there...with me. 

But doesn't His Presence still fill the room (an us) on those mornings when we are drowning in a sea of vain imaginations? When we are lost in the throes of carnal angst? Is he any less with us?  Isn't he ALWAYS with us?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. (Psalm 139:8 NIV)

Perhaps it's all a matter of perspective...

Let Me Put That Another Way...

There is a song I hear now and then...with very catchy lyrics (that I cannot find...even via google) It words this casting down vain imaginations thing a little differently.  I like it...

I surrender my opinion to Your dominion.

Doesn't that mean when I am riddled with doubts, plagued with fears, consumed with hurt I can reflect on what He says..look at things through His eyes?  Surrender my opinion about my circumstances?  Easy to say...not as easy to do :) 

He who dwells in the secret place of the most high....

Sometimes, when I am to and fro-ing Beth to work, I hang out a while at the Borders bookstore at the mall. I think I wrote about some of my experiences there in a blog post not too long ago.

The last time I was there, right next to the Christian section…where the Psychology books reside, I found a really cool two volume, hard back set of books by Paramahansa Yogananda called The Second Coming of Christ The Resurrection of the Christ Within You.

The following description is from Amazon:

In this unprecedented masterwork of inspiration, Paramahansa Yogananda takes the reader on a profoundly enriching journey through the four Gospels. Verse by verse, he illumines the universal path to oneness with God taught by Jesus to his immediate disciples but obscured through centuries of misinterpretation: "how to become like Christ, how to resurrect the Eternal Christ within one's self."

Never before available in its entirety, this landmark work by one of the most revered spiritual teachers of our time transcends divisive sectarianism to reveal a unifying harmony underlying all true religions. A groundbreaking synthesis of East and West, it imparts the life-transforming realization that each of us can experience for ourselves the promised Second Coming -- awakening of the all-fulfilling Divine Consciousness latent within our souls.

Yogananda said, "In titling this work The Second Coming of Christ, I am not referring to a literal return of Jesus to earth. He came two thousand years ago and, after imparting a universal path to God's kingdom, was crucified and resurrected; his reappearance to the masses now is not necessary for the fulfillment of his teachings. What is necessary is for the cosmic wisdom and divine perception of Jesus to speak again through each one's own experience and understanding of the infinite Christ Consciousness that was incarnate in Jesus. That will be his true Second Coming."

And the link that connects this book with the gist of the post from yesterday? Well, I came upon a section in volume 2 that talked about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God WITHIN you….the secret place of the most high….

One who finds within himself the Secret Place of the Most High” becomes suffused with supreme happiness and divine security. Whether he is mixing with friends or sleeping or working, he keeps that place only for God. With his consciousness centered in the Lord, he finds Maya’s concentric veils suddenly lifting; in joy the devotee sees God playing hide and seek with him in the blossoms and the stars shining with a stronger Light and the sky smiling with the infinite. When his eyes are spiritually opened the devotee beholds peering at him through the eyes of everyone, the eyes of the Infinite. From the Second Coming of Christ Vol 2 Page 1188

There was more…and I was writing as fast as I could…but I ran out of time and had to go…but the next time I go back I will finish reading that section and share it here.

The point, however, is that the place of supreme happiness and divine security is found in the Secret Place of the Most High.

Preston Eby often refers to it as the Inner Sanctum….and according to Eby wondrous things can be found in that sanctum….

            It is true that Christ stands outside the church systems of man, knocking, that he who hears may open the door.  That is the sense of the meaning of Christ’s message in its corporate application.  There is, however, a further and deeper sense in this message on the individual and personal level.  The Christ who knocks at the door of our individual heart is on the inside of each of us, in our spirit!  There is a pure realm within man, an inner sanctum, an eternal dimension — the Holiest of all.  Christ is in our spirit, and though we hear His voice as part of the corporate body of Christ, yet, is it not from Christ within our spirit that His voice comes to us?  You see, my beloved, Christ is in our spirit, knocking on the door of our soul!  He is in our spirit, knocking on the door of our body!  He is saying, “If any (outer) man hear my voice, and open the door, I will not only be joined to your spirit and be one with you in spirit, but I will come into your soul and sup with you there, I will come into your soul and be fused with your soul; I will come into your body and sup with you there, I will come into your body and be fused with your body, and you will know in the totality of your being the fullness of my perfection, wisdom, power, life, and incorruptibility!”  From the Candlestick to the Throne Part 62

Floyd Watson from Stones of Fire says:

” Now we must find again our source of life…IT IS WITHIN where we find the garden of Life our peace, our joy, our strength, our happiness and our true life. It’s called the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God…the inner sanctum….the Secret Place of the Most High…an eternal dimension…the Garden of Life…The Christ within, The Presence, The Stillness….

And he who dwells therein…who lives out of his Christ nature…will know no fear.

I’m hopeful that someday the Princess of the Worst Case Scenario (and her mother the Queen) will relinquish the throne to abide in the Kingdom of God….under the shadow of the Almighty, Abba Father…in perfect Love where there is no fear.

The Serpent Becomes a Dragon...

annie posted this to EU recently…...

Fear can manifest only because of a belief in separation. As long as you are something apart from God you will experience, in one form or another, fear. It is subtle and hidden like a poisonous serpent coiled in the grass, liable to strike at any time--at the most unguarded moment, when least expected.

Its only power is given to it by thought, and it can be swollen by thought from a serpent into a dragon. All thoughts of evil are like toy balloons in that they are enlarged until finally the capacity is overtaxed and they burst. Sooner or later a fear will explode itself, however much or little damage it has done. Walter Lanyon

to which I replied….

Oh, yeah' been there, done that.  So many things can grow to epic, horrifying proportions in our minds.  I am the "what if princess".....my mom is the queen. Imagining the worst case scenario is second nature for her and she so graciously passed the worry gene on to me. I often have to talk myself out of the ever escalating “what if’ scenarios.

But I am not alone….because lo and behold a few others on the list also fessed up to being in the royal family of worrier/fretters right along with me.

I know that perfect love casts out fear. I know that “fear not” is sprinkled throughout scripture. I know that Jesus overcame the world….but sometimes it is hard to “be of good cheer”…to not be afraid…to keep things in perspective.

About fear, Eckhart says…..

The psychological condition of fear is divorced from any concrete and true immediate danger. It comes in many forms: unease, worry, anxiety, nervousness, tension, dread, phobia, and so on. This kind of psychological fear is always of something that might happen, not of something that is happening now.

Although the body is very intelligent, it cannot tell the difference between an actual situation and a thought. It reacts to every thought as if it were a reality. It doesn’t know it is just a thought. To the body, a worrisome thought means, “I am in danger,” and it responds accordingly, even though you may be lying in a warm and comfortable bed at night. The heart beats faster, muscles contract, breathing becomes rapid. There is a buildup of energy, but since the danger is only a mental fiction, the energy has no outlet. Part of it is fed back to the mind and generates even more anxious thought. The rest of the energy turns toxic and interferes with the harmonious functioning of the body.

The voice in the head tells a story that the body believes in and reacts to. Those reactions are the emotions. The emotions, in turn, feed energy back to the thoughts that created the emotion in the first place. This is the vicious circle between unexamined thoughts and emotions, giving rise to emotional thinking and emotional story-making.

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

The ego cannot distinguish between a situation and its interpretation of and reaction to that situation.

Hmmmmmm….okay…..back to the Bible….what does it say about fear…. besides fear not?

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
(Psalm 46:1)

In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
--Psalm 56:11

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
--II Timothy 1:7

Sounds encouraging…..

And what did Jesus say?

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
(John 14:27)

And where oh where do we find this peace Jesus talks about????

Perhaps we find it in the “secret place of the most high” from Psalm 91…..under the shadow of the almighty…..”

The christ within?

More tomorrow…..

Snippets of wisdom gleaned at the Houston Airport....

I posted the following on EU this morning.  I had intended to post about snippets of wisdom from the Max Lucado book I just read.  The one I mentioned in a recent post (yesterday's?)...but alas, I have dinked around far too long and I have to get ready for work!!  So I am going to "double post." I usually don't do that...

During our three hour layover in Houston, I turned on my laptop...plugged it into a Samsung "charge your phone" electrical pole (along with a bunch of other people)  I didn't spring for the internet (8 bucks for a "day pass" on boingo or some similar name) but read a bunch of posts from another list I had saved on my computer....posts that had piled up in "real time" and I had not gotten around to reading.  Following are a few random snippets that I gleaned and saved. 

Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.
--Native American Proverb

And can't the same thing be said about tomorrow?  Don't let what might happen tomorrow use up too much of today?  I am much better at letting go of yesterday than I am about not dwelling in thoughts about tomorrow. (what I have to do...what might happen...what might not happen...usually things I dread rather than things I am looking forward to)

When I speak of suffering, I am referring to what could be called "unnecessary" suffering, when you are wrapped up in replaying your own or the world's dramatic stories
over and over in your mind. GANGAJI

Ah, yes...yesterday and tomorrow...full of dramatic stories that take our attention off of TODAY. 

Do not say, "I follow the one true path of the Spirit,"
but rather, "I have found the Spirit walking on my path,"
for the Spirit walks on all paths. Khalil Gibran

Say not, 'I have found the truth,'
but rather, 'I have found a truth.' Khalil Gibran 

And often that truth is a universal kind of truth and not limited to one spiritual tradition....not even to Christianity!!!

"Every one of us alone has the power to direct the course of our lives by choosing what actions we will or won't take. While sometimes it's easier to believe you don't have a choice, the reality is that you always have a choice to behave differently."
Francine Ward

The free will / sovereignty thing which has dogged me for years and years!!!  Not so much anymore, though.  I do think that while we might not always have a say in our circumstances, we do have a say in how we react. 

Anyway...just a few snippets....