How can I work on being more present to God and being more present to others?
Do they still call roll in high school in the States, with the teacher opening the home room class period by murmuring through a list of first and last names, mispronouncing some of them, after each of which a teen shouts “present”?
Present…Presence… together in the here and now. In the increasingly fragmented world we live in, popular psychology is full of counsel to all of us to “stay more in the here and now”.
Really, where else could we stay? Our past is gone but in memory, and our future does not exist but in dreams. Memories and dreams can be immensely important and are a huge part of each of us! I don’t agree with the people who say, “All we have is the present”. That’s not true unless we happen to be a baby in utero, or one newborn, or someone on their deathbed. What an immensely valuable gift from God are both our memories and our dreams for our futures!
So much of God’s Word seems to be written in present tense! Psalm 23 says, “He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul.” Not, “He led me, last October 29th.” Or, “Once, a long time ago, I had a wonderful one-time experience of God restoring my soul – I remember it as if it were yesterday!”
In Acts 2:28, Peter (quoting the Psalmist) says, “You, God, make known to me the way of life. You enrapture me, diffusing my soul with joy, with and in Your Presence.” (AMP)
When I cultivate in myself the ability to “be more present” to God, and the ability to “be more present” to others, God’s love will grow in me and shine out to others, through me.
Re-reading a wonderful book by Nathaniel Branden.
The book’s called “The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem”. In it, he says, “My experience is that most people underestimate their power to change and grow.”
I like that very much and agree it’s probably true. To grow and change; to “travel”, so to speak…
How can I work on being more present to God and being more present to others?
Do they still call roll in high school in the States, with the teacher opening the home room class period by murmuring through a list of first and last names, mispronouncing some of them, after each of which a teen shouts “present”?
Present…Presence… together in the here and now. In the increasingly fragmented world we live in, popular psychology is full of counsel to all of us to “stay more in the here and now”.
Really, where else could we stay? Our past is gone but in memory, and our future does not exist but in dreams. Memories and dreams can be immensely important and are a huge part of each of us! I don’t agree with the people who say, “All we have is the present”. That’s not true unless we happen to be a baby in utero, or one newborn. What an immensely valuable gift from God are both our memories and our dreams for our futures!
So much of God’s Word seems to be written in present tense! Psalm 23 says, “He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul.” Not, “He led me, last October 29th.” Or, “Once, a long time ago, I had a wonderful one-time experience of God restoring my soul – I remember it as if it were yesterday!”
In Acts 2:28, Peter (quoting the Psalmist) says, “You, God, make known to me the way of life. You enrapture me, diffusing my soul with joy, with and in Your Presence.” (AMP)
When I cultivate in myself the ability to “be more present” to God, and the ability to “be more present” to others, God’s love will grow in me and shine out to others, through me.
Two Kids and a Crawdad
A Poem.
Two Kids and a Crawdad
by NinadesusOjos
Sun-shot shadows of skitter bugs, on moving amber water,
Our pant knees rolled, our cold wet hands touch
as we pry that biggest rock,
sharing expectancy.
We turn the rock. Mud spurts up
and scooting over our toes, he glides
beneath another rock.
We scream, step back and trip with icy splash,
becoming, briefly, part of
pebbled sunshine, mud,
and dappled crawdad’s world.
What happened in Cameroun when I was eleven…
It was a long school vacation time. Our next-door-neighbor family was going away to the seashore for two weeks of yearly holiday. The mom came up to me and asked me if I would like to earn a little pocket money daily feeding and also daily walking, on the end of his chain, their pet “baby” gorilla.
I happily said “yes” and received my instructions for my new responsibilities with conscientious attention. The particular “baby” gorilla in question was much loved by all the kids and teenagers, lived in a large chicken-wire cage/home in the neighbor family’s back yard, and had a general reputation for being tame. I was a fanatical animal lover, had several pets of my own, though none as exotic as a gorilla, and I thought I already had a great relationship with this tame gorilla.
Well! From the very first morning, the gorilla, who had been quietly growing from babyhood, and now was eight months old, (I wonder how old that would equal in people years?) demonstrated a HUGE mind of his own and, instead of walking pleasantly around the grassy yards on the end of his long metal chain, would PLANT himself in the grass and start getting mad at me, working himself up into a rage, then CHARGING me down the length of the chain, wrapping himself around my bony bare shins, and biting on my legs!
Maybe he was missing his family? Probably. Not that used to me, I guess. A few mornings of that and, I’m afraid poor Baby Gorilla didn’t get taken out each day for the rest of the two weeks! He got fed super well though, and petted through the chicken wire, and talked to a lot each day.
I will extol the Lord.
“I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips. I will glorify the Lord; let the afflicted hear, and rejoice. Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34: 1-4
Two Kids and a Crawdad
A Poem.
Two Kids and a Crawdad
by NinadesusOjos
Sun-shot shadows of skitter bugs, on moving amber water,
Our pant knees rolled, our cold wet hands touch
as we pry that biggest rock,
sharing expectancy.
We turn the rock. Mud spurts up
and scooting over our toes, he glides
beneath another rock.
We scream, step back and trip with icy splash,
becoming, briefly, part of
pebbled sunshine, mud,
and dappled crawdad’s world.
Telling Stories under the Full Moon all around the World
Recently, I heard a true story about a thousands-year-old tradition in Damascus of having Professional Story-Tellers. “One Thousand Arabian Nights”, as a major piece of Syrian literature is a direct part of the historical tradition of this nation, and I believe what is now the book of that title was primarily oral literature up until Richard Burton’s translation of the same, into English, in the last quarter of the 1800’s.
Lonely Planet travel guide says that the last professional Damascene story-teller retired in 1974. At the same time, there was a young guy in Damascus who used to love reading and story-telling so much that he would often run away from his job at the local library in order to have enough time to enjoy his life’s passion of reading more books! When the last Official Professional Story-teller retired, this boy began dressing up in ancient traditional Syrian costume and going to a public square every evening, and telling stories. He’s been continuing the tradition for many decades now, even though sometimes his audience is sparse.
How SAD to think that he may have had to STOP because of this terrible war! He may have even been killed!
Many of this man’s stories were the traditional age-old ones of the Middle-East. He would have stacks of handwritten books, that authorities had entrusted to him, that he would display beside him and, at times, hold in his hands as he would tell the tales. Some evenings, he would use much drama in his story-telling presentation, and often would make up new stories, of his own, often ones that shrewdly illustrated or poked cynical fun at world-wide political realities.
“Desire, when harnessed, is power.”
“Desire, when harnessed, is power”. – Jack Shwartz in his book The Magic of Thinking Big, as recommended in Melody Beattie’s classic, Codependent No More.
So, I was in the market just now…
So, I was in the market just now, which is a section of pavement of the street. But with some of the more major weekly vendors having rigged sailcloth shades, on rebar extensions, to mark out their “puesto” (stand) and provide a little partial shade.
And, my eye was drawn to the colors of the yarn. I approached a woman selling yarn and, as I came closer, I saw that she had not only yarn but hand-knitted items of all kids; baby sweater sets, mostly. It was beautiful work!
So, I asked for one skein of yellow yarn and she said, “Two?”. I said, “Just one, please.” I could see she wondered what I would be wanting with just one skein, but she was too polite to ask. As she placed my lonely little skein into a plastic bag and handed it to me I said to her, “Yeah, I’m just practicing and don’t do this very well yet, but I want to learn. You don’t know anybody who gives knitting lessons, do you?”
Her whole face brightened immediately and she said, ” Well, I don’t, but my friend does; she’ll be here next Saturday, you know, that other woman who was here with me last week. You two could just sit here, for half an hour, and she could give you pointers!”
YESSS!!!
With a huge smile she told me her name, and her friend’s name, and I told her my name! I’m making a new friend, maybe two!
And, hopefully, learning how to knit faster without cramping my shoulder!
A sight that was a little gift from God to me, at “go to market” Saturday. Just sitting there, on the pavement! Cochabamba, Bolivia!
God has filled the world with all manner of delights.
peonies in Pike Market, Seattle
“God has filled the world with all manner of delights.” – author unknown peonies in Pike Market, Seattle
God has filled the world with all manner of delights.
peonies in Pike Market, Seattle
“God has filled the world with all manner of delights.” – author unknown peonies in Pike Market, Seattle
The Paradox of Hedonism
“Happiness is like a cat; if you try to coax it or call it, it will avoid you; it will never come. But if you pay no attention to it and go about your business, you’ll find it rubbing against your legs and jumping into your lap.” – William Bennet
The Joy of the Lord
“The choir sings; on a mauve wall Rembrandt’s Christ breaks the bread, Communion, and the words of Teresa of Avila play in my head, a beckoning refrain;
Just these two words He spoke,
changed my life,
‘ENJOY ME’.
What a burden I thought I was to carry!
(A cross, as did HE).
LOVE once said to me, ‘I know a song,
Would you like to hear it?’
And laughter came from every brick in the street
and from every pore in the sky,
After a night of prayer, HE
changed my life when
HE sang,
‘Enjoy ME’.
That’s His song! ‘I rejoice in you. Come rejoice in ME.’ The song that plays the world awake, the song that fuels joy; “Enjoy ME! Enjoy ME!”
Is there a greater way to love the Giver than to delight wildly in His gifts?”
pp. 218, 219 from “One Thousand Gifts” by Ann Voskamp
Unplugging
“On my last birthday, a colleague sent me an e-mail birthday wish, but he never made it the ten steps between our two office doors. I am as guilty as the next guy when it comes to convenience but, somehow, this sort of “interaction” feels a bit sinister to me. Have I, in fact, left the world of interpersonal communication and entered that brave new fragmented world of technospeak?
The more I think about this, the more I wonder if Richard Mouw isn’t right when he suggests there is no “inter” to the Net. The galaxy of information the World Wide Web has offered me has fragmented my world and relationships, and has left me alone.” – p. 86, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook-Practices that Transform Us, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Inter varsity Press.
What happened in Cameroun when I was eleven…
It was a long school vacation time. Our next-door-neighbor family was going away to the seashore for two weeks of yearly holiday. The mom came up to me and asked me if I would like to earn a little pocket money daily feeding and also daily walking, on the end of his chain, their pet “baby” gorilla.
I happily said “yes” and received my instructions for my new responsibilities with conscientious attention. The particular “baby” gorilla in question was much loved by all the kids and teenagers, lived in a large chicken-wire cage/home in the neighbor family’s back yard, and had a general reputation for being tame. I was a fanatical animal lover, had several pets of my own, though none as exotic as a gorilla, and I thought I already had a great relationship with this tame gorilla.
Well! From the very first morning, the gorilla, who had been quietly growing from babyhood, and now was eight months old, (I wonder how old that would equivocate in people years?) demonstrated a HUGE mind of his own and, instead of walking pleasantly around the grassy yards on the end of his long metal chain, would PLANT himself in the grass and start getting mad at me, working himself up into a rage, then CHARGING me down the length of the chain, wrapping himself around my bony bare shins, and biting on my legs!
Maybe he was missing his family? Probably. Not that used to me, I guess. A few mornings of that and, I’m afraid poor Baby Gorilla didn’t get taken out each day for the rest of the two weeks! He got fed super well though.
Two Kids and a Crawdad
A Poem.
Two Kids and a Crawdad
by NinadesusOjos
Sun-shot shadows of skitter bugs, on moving amber water,
Our pant knees rolled, our cold wet hands touch
as we pry that biggest rock,
sharing expectancy.
We turn the rock. Mud spurts up
and scooting over our toes, he glides
beneath another rock.
We scream, step back and trip with icy splash,
becoming, briefly, part of
pebbled sunshine, mud,
and dappled crawdad’s world.
Keller Quotes
Another Tim Keller quote. For my own day.
“So, we should not expect to be able to grasp all God’s purposes, but through the cross and gospel of Jesus Christ, we can know his love. And that is what we need most.” – Tim Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, %67 on Kindle
Job 37: 5 – 7
“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways;
he does great things beyond our understanding.
He says to the snow, “Fall on the earth”,
and to the rain shower, “Be a mighty downpour”,
so that all people he has made may know his work.”
some of God’s breathtaking winter beauty in New Hampshire
How can I work on being more present to God and being more present to others?
Do they still call roll in high school in the States, with the teacher opening the home room class period by murmuring through a list of first and last names, mispronouncing some of them, after each of which a teen shouts “present”?
Present…Presence… together in the here and now. In the increasingly fragmented world we live in, popular psychology is full of counsel to all of us to “stay more in the here and now”.
Really, where else could we stay? Our past is gone but in memory, and our future does not exist but in dreams. Memories and dreams can be immensely important and are a huge part of each of us! I don’t agree with the people who say, “All we have is the present”. That’s not true unless we happen to be a baby in utero, or one newborn, or someone on their deathbed. What an immensely valuable gift from God are both our memories and our dreams for our futures!
So much of God’s Word seems to be written in present tense! Psalm 23 says, “He leads me beside the still waters; He restores my soul.” Not, “He led me, last October 29th.” Or, “Once, a long time ago, I had a wonderful one-time experience of God restoring my soul – I remember it as if it were yesterday!”
In Acts 2:28, Peter (quoting the Psalmist) says, “You, God, make known to me the way of life. You enrapture me, diffusing my soul with joy, with and in Your Presence.” (AMP)
When I cultivate in myself the ability to “be more present” to God, and the ability to “be more present” to others, God’s love will grow in me and shine out to others, through me.
GlobeRoamer 