This is not the life
dw
that gives life;
That is given
so we might live
both.
I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.
Jesus (John 10:10)
Grace and peace to you…
dw
Copyright © 2023, becomingflame.com
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
Update on 31 May 2020: Since I wrote this post last year, serious allegations have been raised and confirmed by L’Arche that Jean Vanier had coercive sexual relations with six women. Here is an article from the Washington Post that goes into depth about the allegations: https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2020/02/23/jean-vanier-once-talked-about-nobel-or-sainthood-candidate-is-accused-abusive-sexual-relationships-with-six-women/
I feel betrayed by yet another spiritual leader. I, who am full of faults, do not condemn him…but I do feel duped and betrayed.
To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: “You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust yourself.” We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things by themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.
Vanier, Jean. From Brokenness to Community (p. 16). PAULIST PRESS New York and Mahwah, N.J.. Kindle Edition.
I’m speechless
because I’m guilty,
swallowing hard at the extent of my collusion
with the deceiver within me,
the extent of my obstruction of the justice due you
to be the one who sees my desperate need,
who rescues me from my delusion
that you are the one who needs rescuing,
not me.dw
I’m deeply challenged by Vanier’s perspective, both in the quote above and in this video.
Hope deprives us of everything that is not God, in order that all things may serve their true purpose as means to bring us to God.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island, Sentences on Hope
What is this hope that dashes all hopes,
yet is the only sure remedy for hopelessness?An anchor that holds us, drowns us,
baptizes us clean, clean,
cleaner than we ever wanted to be
(but always wanted to be)
in water that is life itself
if we will only drown ourselves in it,
suck it in knowing it is the death of us,
us as beings with the right to choose,
for our own selves,
what we hope for,
even if what we hope for
would be the death of us.dw
Copyright © 2018, becomingflame.com
There is a false and momentary happiness in self-satisfaction, but it always leads to sorrow because it narrows and deadens our spirit.
— Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
This follows from last week’s post and reinforces the connection with addiction.
It brings to mind the scripture
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
–Matthew 7:13-14
Harper Bibles. NRSV Bible with the Apocrypha (Kindle Locations 74929-74932). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The bitter irony is that the path that seemed so wide at first narrows quickly and imperceptibly until we find ourselves trapped in the dark, narrow place named Addiction. The seeming freedom of choice leads to enslavement; the habitual self-satisfaction to self-loathing; the exhilaration to despondency; the life-enticing to death-dealing. Our life narrows to the one thing that sucks life out of us.
The impossibly good news is that, in that narrowest of places, there is a narrow gate. Always. And it’s open. It’s just wide enough for us, but too narrow for our addiction. And there’s a gatekeeper, a good Shepherd, who calls us by name:
Softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling for you and for me.
See! On the portal he’s waiting and watching,
Watching for you and for me.
“Come home, come home. Ye who are weary, come home.”
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, “O sinner, come home.”— Will L. Thompson, 1880
He will get us through the gate, if we ask.
“But the gate is so narrow, and the way seems so hard.”
That narrow gate leads, over time, to the widest of all paths, broad enough to accommodate us all, to lead us to life with no death mixed in, to a place that is more “home” than any place we’ve ever known.
Do we hear him? Dare we ask?
dw
becoming flame 