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Current Events the real self

Living on the Doorstep of Hell

To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell.

Selfishness is doomed to frustration, centered as it is upon a lie.

To live exclusively for myself, I must make all things bend themselves to my will as if I were a god.

Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island, “Conscience, Freedom, and Prayer”

This from Thomas Merton brings to mind words of Jesus:

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.

Matthew 10:39, Peterson, Eugene H.. The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language . The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

You might be more familiar with the words this way:

Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Harper Bibles. NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (Kindle Location 75096). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I don’t even know where to start. Which strand of thoughts, of the many, do I pick up and try to pull from the knotted mess that’s there?

One is about the rampant corruption in politics in our country and around the world…bending all things to the will of powerful people.

Another is about the kind of economics that steals from the poor and gives to the already-wealthy…selfishness.

Another is about the stockpiling of weaponry, both nationally and individually…first concern is to look after yourself.

Another is about speech and how we choose to use it…exclusively for ourselves.

Each of these threads gets and deserves plenty of air time in our public discourse.

But I’m holding back the temptation to enter the fray.

Because maybe I need to start, to remember as best I can always to start, with the thread of my inner life.

The tragic and tragically flawed little god in there who rants and raves at even the smallest inconvenience daring to cross it’s path.

That spews all the correct answers to all the important questions and deserves accolades commensurate with this great wisdom, greater even than Solomon’s.

That can’t seem to go a day without chocolate of just the right darkness or coffee made from just the right bean brewed in just the right way.

Maybe that is the thread I should start with.

Maybe that little tyrant needs to be reminded about the quotes from Merton and Matthew first.

Before it commences tying all the other threads together into a tangle made in it’s own image.

Grace and peace to you…
dw

Door photo by dw

Categories
hope

Next to Last

By faith we understand, if we are to understand it at all, that the madness and lostness we see all around us and within us are not the last truth about the world but only the next to the last truth.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “Faith”

To have faith is to remember and wait, and to wait in hope is to have what we hope for already begin to come true in us through our hoping.

Frederick Buechner, Secrets in the Dark: A Life in Sermons, “A Room Called Remember”

May the last truth shine through to whatever truth you are experiencing now.

May the hope you are waiting for be true in your life now.

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Categories
hope Poetry

Song of Hope – Finale

I believe in God the Father

maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only

his only son, our Lord;

Conceived by the awesome power

of the Holy Spirit

And born in a lowly stable

of the virgin Mary;

Suffered under Pontius Pilate

was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended to the dead,

on the third day rose again.

He ascended into heaven

and sits at God’s right hand.

He will come to judge all nations,

his kingdom will have no end.

Jesus came

Jesus died

Jesus rose up from the grave

Jesus reigns in heav’n above

Angels bow before Him.

Bridge and final Chorus of Song of Hope by dw

The remaining bit of Song of Hope – if you missed the first three verses and choruses, they are in my previous posts.

If you want to hear the song, here it is:

Song of Hope – 1999 recording – Copyright dw

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Categories
hope Poetry

A Land

There is a land

that flows with milk and honey

Where there’s no room for any sorrow or crying,

only room for joy and laughter;

A land where living water

flows ever from the throne

And the praises sing the glory,

the glory of the Three in One.

There’s a place

There’s a time

There’s a land where glory reigns

There’s a God in heav’n above

Angels bow before Him.

Verse 3 and Chorus 3 of Song of Hope by dw

Verse and chorus three. Next comes the bridge and final chorus. I hope you find hope in these words.

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Categories
hope Poetry

A Time

There is a time

the whole creation’s been waiting for;

When all the evil

in this sore, sore world

will be laid bare and die.

And when that time does come

we’ll lift a shout of joy

For then our home is just around the bend

and by His mercy He will take us there.

There’s a place

There’s a time

There’s a land where truth still reigns

There’s a God in heav’n above

Angels bow before Him.

Verse 2 and Chorus 2 of Song of Hope by dw

I promised to share the next verse with you – here it is; one more to come!

Grace and peace to you…

dw