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Posts Tagged ‘inner life’

The Good Work

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 26, 2010| 1 Comment »

The good work is transformational. God initiates that good work and the Holy Spirit contributes to its continuance in partnership with me. The part that I play is my unique contribution. The light is pure while I am the nicked, scratched, yet functioning crystal prism.

Philippians 1:6
. . . being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

The good work is polishing the glass, repairing the damage, making my vessel a more accurate expression of what is within.

Sometimes I lose my confidence that God is still working within me to transform me. But then, in brilliant moments of clarity or flashes of understanding, I see Truth. My role is to embrace my life and all that has been given to me, the challenges as well as the joys, the hardships and the plenty, the health and the disease, all of them are my share of the good work.

As I hold fast to the unwavering inner light, that one and only Holy Spirit, I can give that hope (also called the blessed hope) to others. I have never been moved by the salvation message regarding some heaven or hell of the future, but I am sure of the power of God to fill a life today to stand against all things, from the tragedies of Job, to the ravages of war, or the blindness of greed and ambition.

This is the hope of glory: the Light within working goodness outward.

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Husband as Sacred Other

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »

If love is a type of submission, as I believe it is, then that is the best place to start with this controversial passage about wifely submission. You see, if ALL are to submit to one another, why must the “wife to husband” submission be “greater” or more submissive as some people imply?

Ephesians 5:22, 24
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. . . . Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

I’m still taking baby steps when it comes to loving as Christ loved others. Here’s my theory: if I can love/submit to my husband a fraction of what Christ models for me to love/submit to everyone, we’ll have a transformed marriage.

The same habitual sins I experience with others in my daily life are magnified at home. For instance, if I judge others, even people I don’t know in the grocery line or sitting in a restaurant, is there any surprise that I judge those closest to me?

Probably, the love/submission relationship was supposed to be easier with our mates, after all, we’ve made a promise to love them, to cherish them, to stand beside them through joys and sorrows, to create families, to build a microcosm of the Church (i.e. Body of Christ). Instead, we build mini-cultures that reflect the culture in which we live. In some families, that means an environment of greed, ambition, violence, mistrust, disease, and manipulation.

I missed something along the way and forgot that my own husband is “sacred other.” He is Holy Spirit illuminated too. And that is the One to whom I am to submit within him. It is not the veiled man, but the core that is holy. And it is the core of man that is more than worthy of love and yes, even submission.

Some of his veil I caused. When two people hurt each other or become estranged in any way, the darkness covers the light within on both sides. I have been looking through two layers of sin: my own and his.

It’s a uncertain business to begin peeling the layers of “outer self” in a relationship while the other is fully clothed and protected. But I am pretty sure that “outer me” cannot love/submit to anyone in the way of Jesus.

Today, I have intention and mindfulness with love and submission for the Holy Spirit.

(FD 9)

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Living in the Light

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2010| 2 Comments »

God's Light by Max Ash

God is light [I John 1:5]; God is love [I John 4:8]. And I am offered a chance to live my life in the circle of both: light and love. I ask for God’s indwelling and both are available to me. So, why do I continue to shutter the light and edit the love? Why do I “kick against the goads?”

Ephesians 5:8-10
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.

This is the prayer that Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity would recite each day (by John Henry Cardinal Newman)

Dear Jesus,
Help me to spread Your fragrance everywhere I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me
that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others;
the light, O Jesus will be all from You;
none of it will be mine;
it will be you, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching,
not by words but by my example,
by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.

It’s a process, that’s why. It’s a daily prayer, a daily unveiling, an awareness, a practice.

I’m thinking this is more difficult alone than in a group. The whole point of fellowship with other light-minded people is to help keep the light shining, to fan the flame, to encourage the embers, to light the darkness.

“Kindle in me the fire of your love . . . ”

(FD5)

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Strength & Inner Being

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010| 1 Comment »

I cannot really strengthen my inner being on my own. About the only thing I can do with that part of myself is work toward discovery. This place is where the Holy Spirit joins with my own personal spirit. And that kind of strength within is a gift.

Ephesians 3:16
I [Paul] pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, . . .

Because I have such a terrible tendency to start projects and peter out, I’m much more tentative about long term commitments than I used to be. I know myself that much. I have started and stopped diets, exercise programs, methodical housecleaning, vegetable gardening, interior decorating, and a score of hobbies. In most cases, I go great guns for awhile and then, eventually, the enthusiasm dwindles and I am stuck with half-done projects or worse, I am further back than I started (one step forward, two steps back).

Fortunately, my prayer life and time with God has held a certain amount of consistency that heretofore has been missing. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the more stable uses of my time and energy. All the same, this relative success has come from a certain determination along with a greater imparting of grace from God.

I believe I will need something more now to step up to the next level, to integrate and implement the truths I have uncovered these past three years, I will need a different kind of strength and power from within. I don’t believe that more prayer or more reading (as in physical exercise) will necessarily give me the power/strength I seek or require. It would be an error on my part to think I can pull myself up to this next stage of devotion and submission to Christ.

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Live By the Spirit

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2010| 3 Comments »

Easy, peasy. Just live by the Spirit and all shall be well. Why? Because the Spirit can crowd out my desire for all the other stuff. The Spirit is big, a consuming fire, a powerhouse, a counselor, a wise and holy One. So what’s the problem? Apparently, the Spirit is also a bit finicky about the conditions of its dwelling place.

Galatians 5:16-17a
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.

Photo by Cherie Stangis

If I were to compare my inner habitat to a house with many rooms, I think, most of the rooms would be considered pig pens while the Spirit is hanging out in one of the closets. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen this closet. I’ve even been in there. It’s immaculate, orderly, clean, and full of light and color. Additionally, it’s not unlike the Tardis from Dr. Who: once I step in there, it’s a lot bigger on the inside than it looks from the outside.

All right, it might not be quite as bad as that. I mean, there have been seasons of my life, when the Spirit had an expanded domicile into some of the other rooms, but I haven’t been very cooperative and a lot of those rooms have gone back to their original condition. You know how it is, the Spirit wants to paint a room yellow and I’m in the mood for red. So what does polite Spirit do? Lets me have a red room with all that goes with it. One difference, the Spirit doesn’t hang in there with me. My choice. My free will. My loss.

Intellectually I understand all of this. If I just let the Spirit re-decorate the whole place, without my interference, it would look and feel so much different. And the more I consider and study, I’m sure a wholly Spirit-run establishment would become a miracle-working address (mountain moving and so forth).

Face it. I still want to be in control (Harumph! As though I have “interior” decorating experience). I’m not that different from the original Sarah (you know the story: “let me show you how to make God’s promise happen with little Hagar here”). [Genesis 16]

Red, green, and black rooms, all stuffed with furniture while windows are covered with heavy blinds, and electronic gizmos sit in every corner. You know, of course, every room has a refrigerator and a pantry too. There’s one room that has nothing in it but disappointments. Another room has chalk boards filled with all the things I’ve said to hurt others. Another room has pictures of people in my past plastered everywhere; I go in there for target practice. But undoubtedly, the biggest room of all is the courtroom. I have my own dais and gavel and when the memories float by, I pound out my judgments. It’s quite crowded and noisy in there.

How do I begin to tackle all of this? Mind boggling. Frightening. HUGE.

Does this sound possible? First, I find my way back to the Spirit Closet and call that “home base” (need to be sure I can get there from anywhere). Then, from there, with the closet light shining out, I will start on the immediate area near the closet. One square foot at a time.

In the organization business, there are only three choices: throw it away, file it, or act on it. Although I know that courtroom is the biggest and hardest room to clean up, I won’t jump in there just yet. I will start smaller and get a little experience behind me, particularly the “throwing away” choice.

If I give over each of these rooms to the Spirit, I know, most of the stuff I’ll find is junk. I’ve been hoarding. I know it. But, confession, I’m pretty sure, when I get to those really messy rooms, I’ll probably need some help. That’s where community comes in. Can I count on you to help?

It’s time for a little Light housekeeping.

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Faith Expressed Through Love

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

I am surprised again how so many weighty discourses in the Epistles come back around to the one foundational element that is the under girding of a believer’s life: love. My faith is nothing if it isn’t reflected through the words and actions of love. And not just the actions or words themselves, but the intent.

Galatians 5:6
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

I think too many Christians (including me) get caught up in all things “should.” I should be praying more, I should be working with the poor in the inner city, I should be attending church every Sunday, I should be volunteering at the church, I should teach at Vacation Bible School, I should go on a mission trip, I should be tithing and so on and on and on.

The flip side: I should not be watching R rated movies, I should not be cursing, I should not be reading fantasy or horror or literature with bad words in it, I should not be listening to New Age music or Rock and Roll or God forbid–HipHop or Rap, I should not wear a bikini, I should not go out with non-believers, I should not be in debt, I should not buy a 2500 square foot house with 3.5 bathrooms while people are starving in “pick a place,” I should not watch television, and of course, the “should not” list can much longer than the “shoulds.”

Here’s my point. I could do any or all of these things the right way and still miss Jesus. I could follow all the shoulds and the should nots and still be without the peace of Christ. If love is not there binding my heart and soul to the action or inaction, I am kidding myself and the people I serve.

Many of the “shoulds” are important and are examples of how the love of Christ might manifest. And, in the same breath, the “should nots” may be red flags in our lives that our path is being diverted away from a better way. But in an of themselves, they are not the litmus test of my faith.

I want an inner life so rich in Christ that the “should nots” are a non-issue and the “shoulds” are a natural outgrowth of that love, devotion, and relationship with the Spirit within.

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Body Seed

Posted in Ordinary Time, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 30, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Had some fun this morning thinking of my body as a seed being prepared for planting. Each seed is different. Each seed has its own characteristics and with each 3-D life event, the seed is affected (both good and bad). Each seed then creates a “plant” — a new entity.

I Corinthians 15:36b-37
What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

It never occurred to me before that a resurrected entity would have as much diversity (or more) than these human bodies we now have.

Really, until Jesus “revealed” himself to the disciples after resurrection, they didn’t really recognize him. He had to manifest something they could understand: the nail-driven hands and feet, the pierced side. But they certainly didn’t recognize his clothes or his features at first.

What else don’t we recognize? They say we “see what we want to see.” We see what we expect to see. For all we know, the resurrected guys are walking around among us. I’m just sayin’…

In the parable of the sower and the seed, the success of the seed had a great deal to do with environment and circumstances. Some of this environment we cannot control initially (caustic families, poverty, etc.) but as we mature, we are presented with more choices. We can actually seek change. We can look for good soil. The human seed does not have to be passive. And apparently, when a bunch of seeds get together they can really transform circumstances.

I know these are just flights of fancy, but word pictures are important because I cannot really fathom anything about this “other” world I have called “heaven” all my life. It’s not just a place . . . it’s a state of being.

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