passion: let me not beg for the stilling of my pain

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield,
but to my own strength.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant that I may not be a coward,
feeling Your mercy in my success alone;

But let me find the grasp of Your hand in my failure.”

by Rabindranath Tagore

being thankful

This morning I was watching a TV program with a friend.  The show took place in Saudi Arabia.  A camera crew placed a hidden camera inside a drive-through coffee stand.  They monitored whether not not people said 'thank you' to the salesperson after they got their coffee.  Then they would stop the car after it drove through to ask the person why they did or didn't say thank you.

As the show was in Arabic, I didn't catch all that was said.  However, those that didn't say thank you seemed to say that it was because of peoples' different personalities on why or not they said thank you (I don't know if I'd agree with that argument). 

The point of the show was to call attention to a Quran verse that reads, "He who does not thank people, does not thank Allah."  I thought that was probably pretty true...  If you can't thank people, how can you thank God?

in thoughts in solitude

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

by Thomas Merton

a Christmas prayer

O Lord, may the spirit of Christmas fill our hearts this eve,
And may the prayers of the holy birth fill our prayers tonight.

In the spirit of God, may it all be for something.
In the spirit of the prophets, may our dreams become reality.
In the spirit of the angels, may the whispers of hope fill our songs.
In the spirit of Mary, may our fear turn to faith.
In the spirit of Joseph, may our doubts turn to trust.
In the spirit of the shepherds, may our call to worship come loud and true.
In the spirit of the star, may You ever guide us in our journey.
In the spirit of the magi, may our gifts for You be of value to You.
In the spirit of King Herod, may our greedy desires be fruitless efforts.
In the spirit of Jesus, may Your presence touch the earth and may our hearts be re-born.

In the spirit of that one night when light was born, may our hearts be filled with the peace and stillness of Love.

Amen.

Jesus the human

As a Christian, I've been pondering this...

Why did God choose to make Jesus a man? How would things have been different if Jesus was a woman? Isn't God gender neutral? What are the implications of all this?

Before I say anything on the subject, I need to say this: I believe God was right in making Jesus a man (as God always seems to do the right thing), and the implications of this are huge and are not always thought about and taken into account. First of all, the time period in which Jesus lived was extremely patriarchal. If Jesus was a woman, he would not have had the same impact and credit that people gave him. Granted there were women prophets in that time period, but they didn't have the same kind of influence. One thing the church has struggled with and still does today is that Jesus had/has feminine qualities (he is moved to pity, has compassion, weeps openly for his dead friend, etc.). How do you approach that? I think it's something to be embraced, not ignored. Sociology has proved that masculinity and femininity are determined mostly by social construction, not biology. In other words, we as a society choose what men and women's qualities are. Men are more restricted in their gender roles when it comes to "feminine qualities." Jesus opens up a whole new door.

While we largely ignore parts of Jesus' sex and gender, we over emphasize other parts. We say, "the Father and Son." What about the Mother, the Daughter? Are we all not God's children? This is another reflection of the time period. In the Bible it calls us to protect the widows and the fatherless. This is because if you didn't have a father, you weren't anybody. You had no home, no income. You were powerless. The man, the head of the household, was the provider.  He gave the family a name.  But God is gender neutral. There is a mother heart to God. God is like a parent.  Jesus is not masculine or feminine.  He represented all of humanity.  

There is the saying, "God created us in His image, and we returned the favor."  Is this our attempt to make God more human and thus more comprehensible and understandable?

There is still much to be said on this, but this is just a taste...

a prayer

I came across this Franciscan benediction and really liked it.  Not your typical prayer...

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them
And turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen

eternal truths, etc.

The other day I listened to Ruth Cranston's contribution to the This I Believe project.  She was one of the original contributors back in the 1950's, and the title of her essay was "These Eternal Truths."  Essentially, she discusses the wisdom (or eternal truths) common to all major religions and their prophets.  The itunes podcast actually contains a little bit of extra commentary from the guys running the This I Believe show these days, and one of their comments struck me.

There has always been a lot of strife between people of different religions or different sects of religions.  Each believing that their way is the best way, and other people are wrong for not holding the same beliefs.  However, the commentator on that particular podcast contends that the mystics of various religions have always gotten along famously.  He attributes this to them having an understanding of this common wisdom, or eternal truths, and that they understand that different religions are all just different paths to the same thing.  The latter argument could be contested by some, but I would support the first.

I wonder how understanding of common wisdom would affect people's views of their religion's outsiders.  In addition, I have come to find that most ideas that there are some religious doctrines that encourage hatred and violence are actually unfounded.  It's people that create that ugliness.

I also have to wonder what else mystics have or believe that allow them to live more harmoniously.  I have a few ideas, but I think I'll leave you to ponder that yourself...