"God is Already Here"

A snippet of an interview with Philip Yancey:

When I think about your writing, I think about the introduction to your book Finding God in Unexpected Places, where you talk about a South African woman named Joanna who began a prison ministry that radically transformed one of her country's most violent prisons. When you asked her how she did it, she told you: "Well, of course, Philip, God was already present in the prison. I just had to make Him visible."

Yes, I love that line because that's what we're called to do as Christians. That's kind of like pulling up the blinds again, isn't it? God is already here in the world. We just have to point Him out to people. So many people have the idea that you have to leave joy, leave life, and go into the house and wait to die like Sister Lychen. But God is already here.

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Lots of other things (like the story of Syster Lychen) you can read here.

Entry #17 Do You Know Who You Are?

SoulCravings, Erwin Mcmanus

There may be no greater proof of God than the power of community. There may be no greater gift than a place to belong. While it may seem that you're selling out to admit that you need people, the irony is that you'll never really know yourself until you're in a healthy community. We only truly come to know ourselves in the context of others. The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity.

When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others, but we lose ourselves. Sometimes the most irrational things we do are in response to our lack of identity or to our pursuit of a sense of identity. When we don't know who we are, when we have no clue as to who we were meant to become, we try to become something that we are not. Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us. Sometimes that can even be someone we've never really even known.

Also, our ability to know ourselves is dramatically diminished when we do not know our God and Father. Ironically, even if you do not believe in God, your life may be more shaped by your lack of relationship to Him than any other relationship in your life. Of this I'm convinced.

This is pretty funny...

This short video contains the five (hard) core values of the Church most of us attend:

http://mosaic.org/2007/01/
11/our-five-core-values/



www.mosaic.org

The one, the only Kahlil Gibran

On Love

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

"When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips."


Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Inspirational

A Look at an Autistic Savant's Brilliant Mind

If not a little hard to believe, this is pretty inspiring to hear what the human mind is capable of doing:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6860157

Excerpt from his book about how he envisions numbers in his mind:
http://www.npr.org/documents/2007/jan/Blueday.pdf

A Manifesto (on Travel)

A Manifesto
I travel because I believe and want to know that there are places outside of this one.

I travel because sometimes, when I’m wise, I return with a greater appreciation for home and a more intense longing to go again in the near future. It’s a beautiful cycle.

I travel because one day, God said to Abram, go, leave your home and I’ll take you to another land; make you into a great nation so that you can bless others.

I travel because in my heart of hearts I fear it; the strange locale and scenery, the inconvenience and confusion; the waiting, the misunderstanding, the lost luggage, the stolen wallet, the toilet conditions.

I travel because despite of myself sometimes I need to leave this comfort zone, this routine, to feel like I’m human – able to move, connect, improvise, lose and find, rise and fall, help and be helped. Life’s too short to only know what you know.

I travel because it reminds me I need God.

I travel because I hear there’s a hole-in-the-wall that makes the greatest fried chicken in the world. I also hear the guy across town channels Coltrane and his wife sings like she’s part angel.

I travel because beauty is worth the distance. And the money.

I travel because people are fascinating. They are so different yet so similar.

I travel because I want to be rich.

Posted by Faetryn... check out more on Faetryn's blog at: http://faetryntravels.blogspot.com/

Poet, Intellectual Giant, American; Emerson

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." -Emerson, 1841

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius." -Emerson, Self Reliance

Don't know if you saw "Night at the Museum" with Ben Stiller and Robin Williams lately, but I loved it! Beyond the humor was a story about finding one's strength and believing in one's greatness and place in the world. Don't know about you but it excites me to know that this is an extremely universal theme. Ralph Waldo Emerson in the early 1800's blew America away with this type of thinking, and was shunned by the University and the Church alike.

I recommend taking a look at his essay "Self Reliance"!

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/14.htm

You can download free Emerson essay podcasts on Itunes. Would love to hear how this strikes you!

Living What You Do Every Day

From NPR: This I Believe

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6431548

"I believe in being what I am instead of what sounds good to the rest of the world..."

Ever thought about Jesus as a pre-teen?

From This American Life

Act Three. My So-Called Jesus. Heather O'Neill reflects on what it would mean to be the savior of all mankind, but still in middle school. (13 minutes)

http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/05/305.html


Click on the blue speaker icon on the left side of the page and start playing at around 23:00