Tag Archives: bible

For these reasons.

Posted on by
Reply

It floors me that something initially written by an apostle and shared around the first century still has a clarity and resonance to this day, without the need of reformatting it into our current language.

Perhaps some of you upon seeing the word “apostle” within will be urged to click away. I hope not. Though this was penned by one who would later be martyred for his beliefs, the progression of the thoughts behind these words truly leads one to what life can all about.

And become.

Ttoday, they could be fashioned into some business or athletic team mantra. Perhaps a personal daily devotion, of the secular, or the non variety. The construction of his thoughts just happened to sit just right within me earlier this morning for some reason. While the prompt then didn’t really appeal to me, sharing my thoughts on this did.

“…make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control,

self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion,

devotion with mutual affection, mutual affection with love.”

Peter

Wow.

Faith can be directed towards and embraced in a higher power, as you understand it to be. And virtue is simply how you abide by the direction-of-travel-arrow within your personal moral compass. An inculcation of knowledge, knowing both yourself and the world in a deeper understanding works back towards the supplementation of faith and virtue while feeding the growth of self-control and its twin sibling, self discipline.

That aspect of this journey was not designed to be a sprint, but instead a marathon. Thus, endurance in every aspect – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual – needs to be enhanced and built over time in order to reinforce the journey. This act lends itself towards a genuine devotion towards this path.

Then, once this level of change begins to embrace and transform you, its presence within your being becomes increasingly evident. As such, you cannot help but share this evolution with both the world and those all around you. It will never affive asdirectives or directions, but moreso in the form of you as exemplar.

Through compelling honesty and open vulnerability, an affirming level of intention will generate trust and a burgeoning fellowship withn all your interactions. As it matures, true mutual affection will emerge towards others. Wanting what is best for them.

And when this occurs, ultimately, all that was before, will then become. love.

Wow.

Whether 64 AD or June 1, 2026, his words remain and ring true.

To this man.

For these reasons.

Drydock can be a blessing.

Posted on by
Reply

Something dawned on me a day or so ago regarding an oft used expletive.

It seems to explain a sense of dismissal, mockery and ultimately degradation regularlybencountered of late. Well, not of late, pretty much for decades. It is just that now, this particular perspective may help create a path not just toward deeper understanding, but avoidance on multiple levels. A deeper honesty in the context of thought, word and deed.

Six letters in total, the first being “F” and the last being “U”, constructed to create two words generally employed to incite, demean, diminish, create an aura of false bravado and shock others. These days, seems like that combination is thrown about in a perpetual motion, no matter the setting. Wonder what those in the field of semantics have to say about that. Heck, the language I grew up knowing? It is pretty much gone.

Sorry, back to the point.

When I would tell someone I was committed, going to do it, take care of it, follow up on it, handle it , assume responsibility for it and make it happen – but didn’t – I was essentially conveying those two words back to the receiver. Indirectly. Yet purposefully. With the warmth of purpose.

Same with saying I would listen, would try to understand, be patient, work with them, remain in contact, stand with them, help in any way I could – but didn’t. Subtly, yet delivered in a falsely comforting and empathetic manner.

How about acting like I knew it all, was never wrong, had the best way through and out, had done it all before, you cannot handle this and you need to get out the way so I can again? A flagrant confirmation of those two words, but now illustrated through some machismo theatrics.

So what brought this to mind?

Finally realizing and appreciating what it was like to be on the receiving end of it. I now find it to be the best way to describe a thought process designed to dismiss, mock and degrade another, through your “well intentioned” promissory thoughts, words and deeds, meant to inflate you while deflating the other.

Indirectly, subtly, flagrantly, in action. In person. It is essentially, F – – – Y- – . But with a smile and a comforting arm around the shoulder.

Stealing the wind from their sails, so you can drive your misguided adventure.

Drydock can be a blessing.

And therein lay the healing.

Posted on by
Reply

This morning’s gospel John 5:1-16, was broken down into an amazing insight.  At least for this guy.  You can always read the words but unless deeper perspectives from others are offered and shared in a meaningful way, you may find yourself living in quite the linear manner. 

The intention within this biblical discourse is apparent.  But when other ways of looking at this particular interaction at a healing pool in Bethesda are provided, the connection takes on a whole new mass.  It truly reflects what the name literally means, “house of mercy, or grace.” 

“Do you want to be well?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; while I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me.”

Father pointed out that the man, invalided for thirty-eight some years, did not answer His question.  Instead, he went on to describe his life, wrought of isolation, abandonment and hopelessness.  Not just that I have no one to help me into the pool, but pure and simple, “I have no one”.  

Father suggested that perhaps when he was younger, family may have helped him move about to partake in some of these healing moments in the water.  But now, approaching the middle of his life, he is essentially by himself. 

Alone.  

“While I am on my way, someone else gets down there before me”, emphasizing the utter disregard of others and his worthlessness to society. 

Imagine that.

Not just crippled for life, immovable and unable. But deemed unneeded, untouchable and unloved.  Being so crippled by that horrific experience that he didn’t even hear the question posed.

And it wasn’t asked a second time either.  He just healed him and sent him on his way.  Too bad some of that healing didn’t waft its way over to the clerics admonishing him for having the audacity to carry his mat, for the first time in his life, on the sabbath. 

Crippled may carry with it the connotation of strictly physical limitations.  But it may come to impart its will on one’s mental or emotional state.  Perhaps even spiritually.  It can be an all inclusive state.

So while He mended his body, He truly mended the man’s spirit.  Giving him life in more ways than one. We are all asked to do the same.  To be there for others.

One way alms were described to me was to simply give of yourself.  Your time.  Your empathy and compassion.  And therein lay the healing. support.  Your love.  Your presence. All forms of personal wealth we can access and share abundantly without ever breaking the bank.

So when you find yourself in a house of grace, do your part to offer alms of healing as best as you can.

You will never be expected to say ““Stand up, take your mat and walk.”

That is what He does. 

But you can definitely listen with true compassion, offer them support and love, and help them to rise from defeat and isolation.  

Simply be present for them, in that house of mercy.

For He would want you to.  

And therein lay the healing.

Boy do they ever.

Posted on by
Reply

This time of year is especially wondrous for me.

I veered off this path for whatever reason some years back. If you are not present, you cannot appreciate where you are and what what you are becoming. Shiny things can appear and once they begin to catch on and command your attention, they multiply. Hiding honesty about a past and inhibiting the truth yet to be. My focus is much better. I am seeing things for what they are.

These past twenty seven days have been illuminating to say the least. Things are different. The written and spoken word have new meaning and depth. Cannot say I have the answers, but man do things make some semblance of sense. Finally. Just keep that clock ticking so I can experience more.

Please.

So, there was the story in John this week about His encounter with a man, blind since birth. I read many of the reflections shared about it and the significance and meaning of His gift. It found a home in my thoughts that have since grown to become some rare and perpetual insight for this old man.

We are all of the earth. And once it is our time, to that we shall return.

But in the interim, by no means is our vision meant to be held solely to those worldly matters. Dirt for lack of a better term. I cannot speak to the man who came into being on this earth blind. But it struck me that He made a hyrdating compress consisting of dirt and His holy water and applied it directly to his afflicted vision. He wished him to be held souly to what He saw in and for him.

Those that pranced about in their costumes and “Holy” garb monitored His actions closely. Taking account of his sabbath violations and untoward behavior. Actually tending to those that needed it most no matter the penalties that would be accrued towards and against Him. Strange how they too were blind to what was really happening. Pride, position, status and most of all – ego – blend themselves into a compress of blindness all their own. Distorting sight to an appreciation of only those things to be had here. Of this earth.

So the man of no known origins, once gifted his heavenly mud pack, was then sent to Siloam. To bathe and allow the waters to cleanse him. Baptismal in nature? A washing away of the sins of this world, emphatically covering his eyes, so that he could finally possess sight? Not just things of this world. But actually “see” what life can be here and now, using a loving mold of His making.

To bad those adorned in the dirt of this world refused to take heed of the same exact offering. Too offensive a suggestion to remove the attire of earthly desires so they too could actually see. Chances are, many if not all of them were too blind since birth. If I can be honest, that seems to have been my challenge as well. So caught up with ego and what is made only here that I was never able to see what is given so that I may last forever. Grace that will shepard us far beyond the dirt from whence we came.

He applied it to my eyes long ago. I just never consented to listening so that I would consent to wash it away. Didn’t think I needed to. Afterall, I was in charge. Plus, it would have violated my personal sabbath rules and regimen. My pharisee-ical nature would never have allowed that.

Consent isn’t so much the correct word. It means I have control. Talk about misnomers.

Acceptance is far more like it.

Since I let go, He removed the dirt. An ongoing baptism if you will.

And with that, things sure look so different.

Boy do they ever.

As only a father could.

Posted on by
Reply
Daily writing prompt
What is the last thing you learned?
View all responses

“Chora makra”.

Well, not the last thing. But this morning when I came upon it, some things in life were no longer Greek to me.

Sorry. It’s genetic.

The parable of the prodigal son in today’s gospel according to Luke, related the story of the two sons, that in their own ways, left their father. The younger, requested his inheritance up front, bid adieu to his loving father and travelled to a “distant country” – chora mokra.

The elder, though he chose to remain at home, made the same trek, in his own way, far away from his father, also to chora mokra. Distancing himself from that unconditional love through resentment, anger and jealousy.

While chora mokra is often ranslated as “distant country”, the reflection that followed from Bishop Barron brought to mind the literal meaning in a spiritual emphasis.

“The great emptiness”.

Think about that now for a moment.

The younger son took his inheritance in advance, a slap in the face of his loving father, to splurge it on a venture laden with debauchery that only served to wrought upon him a great emptiness.

In mind.

Body.

And soul.

Meanwhile, the elder son, remaining at home out of duty, disguising ego, discredited his father’s genuine love for him and his sibling in a fit of jealous resentment. In so doing, he too found his own way into the great emptiness. Removing himself from his father and what he was gifted unconditionally, in a childish fit of spite. Bringing with its own inherent brand of emptiness.

Of mind.

Body.

And soul.

Both went their own way, literally and figuratively, to a distant country.

And both were warmly welcomed back from their chora makra.

Without condition.

As only a father could.