Meditations Category

I remember my mother warning me to warm up my freezing hands with cold water not hot. I had come in from playing outside in the snow and my hands were icy-cold. I did not listen to her and used hot water instead. I was instantly sorry.

My hands felt like they were on fire! Right away I turned the tap to cold and like magic my burning frigid hands became warm.

This made me think about various Bible verses that point to God’s judgement as a refining fire.

Like …

“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. “He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the LORD offerings in righteousness.” Malachi 3:2-3

For our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:29

John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Luke 3:16

… among others.

What if fire in this sense is really a metaphor for Love? If a person’s heart is cold and/or hardened, perhaps Divine Love feels like flames burning off the chaff or dross as it transforms one’s heart. This perspective could certainly alter our viewpoint and experience of God’s judgment.

Frankly, I have come to believe that the only way anyone and everyone is judged is in and through the lens of Love. All life is judged worthy of Love, to be Loved as Love.

For those who are lost, could this judgement of Love feel like an unpleasant scorching sensation in their souls … much like my cold hands under the hot water?

One evening I was in Dollar Tree looking for shelf milk for my father. Since I was having difficulty locating it, I asked a clerk. A tall young man with multiple tattoos and piercings, ear lobe plugs, long dreadlocks and a pleasant countenance gave me detailed directions to my item in the next aisle over. He was so present and loving I almost hugged him.

When I found the milk, I playfully said loud enough for him to hear me “I found it. Thank you.” And he responded in kind, “Your welcome.”

A couple of days later, I had a similar experience at Xfinity where I was taking care of some business with my internet/TV account. This time the sales representative was a stunning slim-built person, again with tattoos, piercings, ear lobe plugs, and red-dyed hair swept up in curls. I told them what I needed and they amended my account quickly and efficiently. I thanked them profusely.

I have no tattoos, two pierced ear lobes for earrings I rarely wear, and long, straight brunette hair with a gray streak. On the outside, I seem to have little in common with these human beings. On the inside, both encounters, and other similar ones, have left my heart smiling. I hope their hearts were smiling too.

Twenty years have passed since the movie ‘Love Actually’ premiered; it is one of my favorites. Diane Sawyer interviewed some of the actors from the film in a recent television special. The last question she asked each of them was to fill in the blank, “love actually is ___________.”

What would you say?

United Methodist congregations all across the United States are making decisions to disaffiliate with regard to openly LGBTQ+ clergy and the denomination’s stance on same-sex marriage.

Should a congregation decide to disaffiliate, stiff financial penalties will be enacted upon them by the larger Methodist governing body. Because of this, some churches are pursuing legal recourse to protect their assets from what they deem as punitive and unfair actions in the hopes that, should they win the lawsuit, the lack of penalties will make the vote to disaffiliate appear ‘fair.’

Other congregations—those choosing to remain affiliated with the historical UMC denomination–are listening to the often, painful stories of LGBTQ+ congregants and deciding to “err on the side of love.” By choosing to embrace the disenfranchised, they are bringing healing into this hurting world.

How would you vote?

The fog was as thick as pea soup when I was coming home after dark from a Holden prayer service at church. Even though I knew turning on the high beams would not help me see better, I still tried it a few times opting to continue with low beams. I kept looking for familiar landmarks, but everything looked different. Even a large four-way stop light on a dual highway, was engulfed in misty eeriness.

Ordinarily, I would have become frightened in this type of situation … but I didn’t. As I watched the light play out on the murky gloom, I thought about the seasons of Advent and Lent. Two seasons in the Christian year where light and the absence of light have significant allegorical meaning in preparing one for the holy days of Christmas and Easter.

My views about the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus have changed dramatically over the years. By asking questions, my spiritual growth has moved from a “private notion of salvation” to my “communion with everybody else”—as Richard Rohr says—from an ‘escape plan’ to a universal Christ awareness where Christ is in everyone and everything thus making all things Holy–as characterized by Brian McLaren.

Christmas … not a birthday celebration, but God reconciling the world to Gods-self by becoming one of us. Easter … not the punishment for our sin, but Jesus demonstrating that NOTHING—not even death–can separate us from the Love of God.

In God we live and move and have our being.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Love actually is … ALL that matters.

… maybe these weren’t random thoughts after all.

*My dog Polly Ann loves everybody, which is why I am using her image for this post.

**Dedicated to KEV and JN.

Dear Grandchildren,

I have pondered for a while now about the one thing that I could possibly tell you as your grandparent that would have the most abiding and valuable effect on your life.

Here it is: question everything!

Listen up … I am not promoting the intentional rejection of authority or rebelliousness just for the sake of it! Rather I am encouraging you to use your God-given curiosity to explore, examine and analyze your own intellectual, spiritual, and emotional growth.

Question why you believe what you believe about politics, about religion, about spirituality, about God, about authority, about institutions—and do not let anyone make you feel bad about doing so!

Jesus said it this way:  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye. shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

In other words, it is perfectly acceptable for life and beliefs about life to be messy. This messiness is not a reflection of who you are or to whom you belong; therefore, lean into the mess.

Better yet, let the mess pass through you. This way of being often feels unsettling at first—that’s to be expected in your metamorphosis. As you deconstruct and evolve, you will eventually grow accustomed to the process and it will become second nature to you.

Somewhere along the way, though, someone is bound to tell you to simply have faith or “you’ll just have to take it–whatever ‘it’ is–in faith.” I am not certain that is true at all, mostly because it makes faith sound so passive.

I have been walking with Jesus for 50+ years as of this writing, and I am still asking questions.

For example, what does “for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” really mean?  Is it simply an “escape plan” or could it be something more?  And if so, what?

I am still making choices; fine tuning my beliefs. I am still letting the mess pass through me. Surprisingly, the more I learn, the less I know. Sound ridiculous? Yes, but THAT is what faith is—a paradox–to know without “knowing,” to be without doing. Paradox is anything but passive.

As we learn to question our own beliefs, we also begin to realize it is possible to CHOOSE what we believe even when we are uncertain.

Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said, “blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Just prior to saying this, one of the twelve apostles, Thomas—often called Doubting Thomas—said, “unless I see the holes in his (Jesus) hands and feet, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe (that Jesus had risen from the dead).”

I can just hear Jesus telling Thomas, “Right on, man! As soon as you are sure about something, question it some more because faith is admitting that you do not know and therein lies the path of Freedom and Oneness.”

The Christian faith calls that freedom and oneness atonement or at-one-ment; as Richard Rohr says our “union with God and all things.”

Some folks may tell you that your grandmother is wrong, that she is off her rocker.

All I can tell you from my own experience is that in ‘not knowing,’ I experience God’s presence more deeply and more genuinely, than at any time in the past when I was absolutely certain about what I ‘knew’ to be my beliefs.

Certainty can breed contempt. Dualistic thinking is seemingly fixed and therefore cannot lead one into transformation. Paul in the book of Romans says “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Ask questions, be your own person with your own ideas and do not let anyone–especially “religious” people–make you feel guilty about it!!

It is in the Not Knowing or Unknowing that you will know Love and Peace and Forgiveness and Truth and Beauty, because that is who you are—as Christ is, so are you!

There is much more that could be expressed here, fine tuning to what I have written that could be done but I think it best if I leave you wondering.

I love you all so very much and I hope that I am alive when you read this so we can talk about it in person. If not, I will still be around.

Love,
Nana

I failed …

I saw God and I failed to acknowledge him.

She was standing on the sidewalk outside of Martins Grocery Store. Pregnant, heavy with child, she held a sign that said, “homeless, please help” and I drove right by her.

I drove right by her!

Because any money I would have given her wasn’t easily handy, I made the excuse that she was working a scam … and I drove right by her … even after she waved at me!

Talk about guilt …

I drove my grocery laden van home, quickly unloaded my bags, and headed back out with cash ready in hand, praying the whole time, “please let her be there, please let her be there.” A thunderstorm had been brewing and was in the midst of erupting as I drove, so I did not know what I would find when I arrived a short ten minutes later … “please let her be there.”

She wasn’t.

God was still standing there, though not a pregnant woman this time, but a rangy, scruffy homeless man. I did a U-turn in the parking lot, rolled down the window on the passenger side, waved at him and gave him the money in my hand.

Through a semi-toothless and gentle smile, he said, “God bless you, ma’am.”

What a humbling experience!

I felt—and still do feel—like Jesus washed my feet.

He’s blessing me?! A woman—with all of her adult teeth–driving a recent year mini-van, who lives in a modest three-bedroom home with her father and dog, with a nice yard, a closet full of clothes and a pantry full of food, and more ‘nice things’ than I care to count … and he is blessing me?

And yet all of my ‘stuff’—as wonderful and of sentimental value as much of it is—means very little in light of his blessing. My heart feels deeply touched, warmed, and moved–burning in fact.

On the way home, I wondered if I had really seen a pregnant woman at all. Did anyone else see her? Was the bedraggled fellow really standing there? Was my mind playing tricks on me? Both beings and their energy seemed very real and vibrant to me.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

As I meditated on the above Bible verse that came to mind afterward, the word that struck me was hospitality, “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.” (Oxford Languages) Somehow, though, that did not quite feel like the whole of what I was seeking in my heart, which led me to search for synonyms for hospitality such as friendliness, kindness and helpfulness.

All good replacements, but still lacking insight.

How about hospitable? … “friendly and welcoming to strangers or guests.” (Oxford Languages)

That’s not it either–not really much different from hospitality.

Then I saw it … hospital-ity. As I scrolled down further in my Google search results, I found the following Wikipedia entry:

Why is it called a hospital? The word “hospital” comes from the Latin hospes, signifying a stranger or foreigner, hence a guest. Another noun derived from this, hospitium came to signify hospitality, that is the relation between guest and shelterer, hospitality, friendliness, and hospitable reception.

In the movie “The Green Mile,” Tom Hanks’ character, Paul Edgecomb, is explaining to an employee the importance of remaining calm in the death-row facility of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary where they worked as prison guards. He quietly explains, “Men under strain can snap; hurt themselves, hurt others. That’s why our job is talking, not yelling. You’ll do better to think of this place like an intensive care ward in a hospital.”

“You’ll do better to think of this place like an intensive care ward in a hospital.”

I love that line because that’s it! Isn’t it?

Here and now, in this form and in this space, we are all literally and figuratively living in a hospital. You could say our planet is in the intensive care unit and all of its inhabitants are in one ward or another due to the tremendous strain and pressures of the current times we are living through. We are hurting ourselves and others because of it. Additionally, we are all merely visitors here; this is not by any means our permanent home. We are just passing through and at times we take the role of guest or we take the role of shelterer.

The suffix -ity is defined as: “quality: state: degree.” (Merriam-Webster)

How well we inhabit guest or shelterer depends upon how mindful we are that God is in and among us.

This is an important consideration to bear in mind especially now that Christianity has been hijacked by ultra-theocrats like MAGA Evangelicals and men like Trump, Carlson, Orban, etc. who would have us endorse exclusion, hate, judgment, power, greed, and control.

By heeding the Spirit within us and each other, we can live in and act out of trust, forgiveness, love, compassion, mercy and generosity.

To that end, whatever your spiritual inclination may be, I conclude with the following prayer by Richard Rohr.

Lover of All

Lord, lover of life, lover of these lives,
Lord, lover of our souls, lover of our bodies, lover of all that exists . . .
In fact, it is your love that keeps it all alive . . .
May we live in this love.
May we never doubt this love.
May we know that we are love,
That we were created for love,
That we are a reflection of you,
That you love yourself in us and therefore we are perfectly lovable.
May we never doubt this deep and abiding and perfect goodness
That we are because you are. Amen

… this deep and abiding and perfect goodness that we are because you are.