Discovering the Divine in the Ordinary Lanscape of Life
In the Trinity, God offers us his inner life, he opens to us endless, unfathomable depths. Open this door of Grace and you enter the heart of creation. Energy flows, circuits connect, The Father gives, the son responds, the spirit is poured out. The Trinity is meshed and mirrored in everything. It’s a Love both immanent and transcendent.
June 11, 2017
Alyson and I arrived on a Sunny Saturday morning. We held hands in the back seat of the taxi. I was so happy to see her returning to a city she loves, and I just love to hear the sound of her voice when she speaks in French.
We drop our bags at the hotel and set foot on the street. Jet lag comes in waves, and I feel like Im on a boat rocking, the ground is spongy, not solid. My eyes are dry and burning slightly from the cabin air and the tears from watching the inflight movies. I feel a slight tremble in my hands.
Our hotel room is only slightly larger than a double bed. The windows open wide with no screens or bars, inviting in the street below. As we swoon in an out of sleep, trying to nap off our jet lag, the sound of scooters, clinking of plates in the brasserie, and women’s heals on the cobble stones fade in and out.
June 10, 2017
Everyone is looking up, looking through lenses at towers and monuments. Snapping images, getting a record. I was here. I saw it too! I saw it just like you. I am alive and here too.
But I’m tired of looking up, exhausted by grand symbols ,events, and crowds, so I look down, and discover the gorgeous Paris streets. These warm, worn stones have supported millions feet stepping through time. The same stones have supported the rich and the poor alike. Absorbing history, holding in its heat by day and breathing it out at night.
The softer mortar has receded around the cobbled stones making them stand out, separated by time. They are well worn, uneven under sole yet making a deep impression on the soul.
Jun 10, 2017
Some movies have a way of lingering with you. I saw such a movie recently called “Paterson”. There was no plot. Paterson is an introverted poet with an externally boring Life as a bus driver. He Lives in a town of the same name, Paterson NJ. On the surface his life is inconsequential, boring and painfully routine. He writes poems that are Zen like and reflect a deep mindfulness. He is detached and yet very porous, taking everything in with an artists sensitivity and connectivity. He refuses to get a smart phone and does not mind being trapped in a mind numbing blue collar job. He has the inner freedom and solitude of an urban monk. Every little detail seems alive with depth and curiosity. The feel of paper turning in a notebook, the click of a pen, are magnified by the director. This is how I feel and see the world at times, but only at times when I slow down, and allow life to expand, can this mindfulness arise. It’s about getting underneath ideas into “this ness” and being.
Jun 10, 2017
How does one balance becoming a responsible leader and provider and yet remain a child at heart, a child before God that is free to play, trust, and change as the spirit leads?
Jesus says we can not enter the Kingdom unless we become like a child. Not a very powerful image of the virtuous man. A child is one who is totally dependent and surrendered into the care of another.
Yet we are still called to “grow up” and take our place in the community so that others can rely on us for support, to be a rock for others, and ultimately, to become like Christ in the world. That’s a high calling and we should aspire to it, but not confuse it with losing our spiritual childhood. Our fundamental identity remains as that of child, playing before the Father, taken up in his arms, and surrendered into his hands without a care beyond the present moment.
Jun 3, 2017
I recently attended a U2 concert and while they played all the oldies from the Joshua Tree album, they ended with a new song called “The little things that give you away”.
The phase has been haunting me the past week. It’s a very cleaver play on words. And a profoundly simple truth.
To those we love and those closest to us, it really is the little things that seem to define us the most. The kind word, the cleaning up, the remembering of a detail. It reveals that we are fully present for the other.
We may try to express ourselves in big concepts, or ideals, but it’s only in the little acts of love, that we give our self away.
May 24, 2017
Excerpt from Into Your Hands, Father, by Wilfred Stinissen
“The infinity of God comes to us through a funnel. It become so little and so narrow that it is difficult for us to recognize it. It comes only drop by drop through the small opening. The funnel is the present moment. When I put my mouth to the funnel I am nourished by infinity. Even this is something we can experience. The more concentrated we are and the more we live from moment to moment, The more space opens up to us and we feel we are living in a kind of boundlessness. The present moment is the incarnation of Gods eternity”.