Around the world in three or four hours ...

Here's a great story by Don Belt that illustrates how a solitary life can have a global impact:

ON A MOUNTAIN overlooking the Mediterranean near Beirut, a hermit rises at three in the morning, reaching for a flashlight amid the lumpy familiarity of books that are both his life’s work and his lifelong bedmates. The hermit, who’s 73, long-bearded, and known by the name Father Yuhanna, works there until dawn, translating ancient Christian hymns from Aramaic, the language of Jesus, into modern Arabic, copying them into a giant, leatherbound volume the size of a seat cushion. Then he prays, eats a piece of fruit, pulls on his black habit and cloak, and merrily sets off to deliver 10,000 blessings to every place in the world.

His first stop, always, is Alaska, where he “stocks up on fresh air.” Then he drifts down through North and South America, jumps to Africa, moves up through the Middle East, sweeps across Europe, then heads east into Russia and Asia before working his way south to Australia. Everywhere he goes, he distributes blessings, counting them off one by one on a string of woven rosary beads that fly through his fingers like doves. This daily trip takes three or four hours, and most days—if he doesn’t linger too long over the trouble spots—he’s back home by noon. To the untrained eye, he’s just an old man walking around in a garden. To his friends and followers, who come by the hundreds to hear his teachings about Jesus, he’s a saintly figure, a descendant of influential hermits like Simeon the Elder—a fifth-century ascetic who lived atop a stone pillar in the Syrian countryside for more than 30 years, attracting the pious devotion of locals.

By Don Belt, “The Forgotten Faithful: Arab Christians,” National Geographic, Vol 215, No 6 (June 2009), 86-7.

Cultivate an ability to say no ...

Anonymous:
The desire to be well thought of makes people reluctant to say no to anyone regarding anything. We should cultivate an ability to say no to activities for which we have no time, no talent, and in which we have no interest or real concern. If we learn to say no to many things, then we will be able to say yes to things that matter most. —Sunshine Magazine

A laminated clipping of this quote from Readers Digest many years ago is slipped in the front of my wallet as a much needed constant reminder.

Be still and know ...

Be still and know …

I was on the move again today, driving, as I often am, this time just the 46 miles home from visiting a good friend. In motion. Traveling. Thinking about time and space. Is it only because I was a homeschooling father that RT=D story problems are burned into my consciousness?! And is it only me that finds nearly endless fascination with the deep questions of existence—involving space and time—-embodied in that simple equation?

And along with the rambling thoughts, a strange wanderlust, a restless hunger to get somewhere to stop and rest, finding a place to BE. Many haunts sometimes serve the purpose: coffee shops (the upscale espresso kind, like Chaps, Rockwood, Rocket, Delicio, or Service Station), bars (the upscale microbrew kind, like Twigs, Twigs, or Twigs!), or parks (the upscale manicured kind, like Manito, Finch, Riverfront, or Corbin). But driven, I kept driving, passing them all by, headed HOME.

The spirit was talking. And the Spirit. Whispering the Word: Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

Stabilitus. (Latin for stability.) That monastic vow that captures in concret practice this BEING STILL. Committing to A PLACE. A place to BE. To STAY where one is. To be in A PARTICULAR space for all of one’s earthly life.

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you (Psalm 116:7). Here the Hebrew has in view a resting place, the home of a person or the lair of an animal, with the focus that this is a place of rest, satisfaction, and contentment (Kohlenberger).

Is it possible that one must cease traveling in order to know God? That in motion, on the move, we cannot fully know God? The One who transcends time and space absolutely requires of us finite creations in his image that we STOP and BE; that we occupy a time, the time, a place, the space, to be with, to learn from, to know him?

Now of course he travels with us. But for us to fully know him we may need to adopt his speed: Stopped, resting, still, quiet: all the things our hurried, harried, snowbirding existences find so foreign.

I went home. I am here, now. In my place, in my space. Settled. And thrilled BEING in his presence.

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One Thing ...

“One thing” is such a wonderful and significant phrase in Scripture. I think of it more now as I say it frequently in both morning and evening prayers from the Northumbria Community. How different from our long to do lists is the idea of doing just one thing. It is a great antidote to the perfectionist’s all-or-nothing thinking. Just do one thing! NOW!

I walked past a piece of litter, as I have other mornings doing chores, procrastinating. But this morning I stopped, turned back, and picked it up. Victory! A small victory, to be sure, but why must things be big to be important?

I love these two references in this regard: “Despise not the day of small things” (adapted from Zechariah 4:10) and “The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little.” (Deuteronomy 7:22; compare Exodus 23:28-30.)

“One things” are often little things. But done faithfully, they accumulate. Litter gets picked up one piece at a time. Live is lived one day at a time. Relish small victories!

Resurrection Just Around the Corner

Well, the previous post was after a year, and now this one is after two! A friend has recently committed to faithfully blogging as part of his morning devotional routine for the next two years, a stark contrast to my two year silence here. Just now, posting to his last reflection motivated me to come here.

I note my last post was on Easter, and Resurrection Sunday is just two weeks away. I can't promise to resurrect this bog to the same degree of life as my friend's, but I am pleased--and I know my risen Lord is pleased--that I have wakened this morning with these words flowing from my heart:

"I arise today
Through a mighty strength,
The invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation."

From another "Christian holiday" celebrated recently, St. Patrick's Breastplate.

Easter 2007 Rumblings and Ramblings

Here it is about 3 a.m. Easter morning, and I am wide awake. It has been a year since I last posted here! (Does anybody care?) I continue to journal "by hand," but I obviously don't yet relate very well to this blogging business.

I've been on the internet googling a couple names. Both, now divorced from each other, have left their fundamental evangelical background and ministry and are active and public in their reactions to it. Their stories sober me, especially in light of my efforts to make sense of my own similar background.

I went back to bed and lay there, conscious of it being Easter, reviewing the basics: Jesus, the Christ, lived, died, and rose again! I belive that; I believe him. The basic, FUNDAMENTAL, essential question is, What do you believe about Jesus? Everything else flows from that.

I choose to hang on for dear life to this root belief, wrestling with all that follows. My rampant flesh loves any justification of indulging its temptations. But I cannot let go of Jesus. He is Lord. He is risen. He is risen indeed!

An Intersection of Psychology and Philosophy

I've been thinking about Change over Time. I'm not the same person I was years ago, or even a moment ago! except I am! This tension between continuous existence and continuous change intrigues me, mystifies me, as I try to grasp it, to understand it, especially in terms of my own sense of myself, especially in the light of my journaling. This seems an intersection of philosophy and psychology, and suggests another possible topic for a masters thesis when I get that far.