Category Archives: Spiritual Reflections

Reflections

The New Golden Idol with All the Answers – Can’t Live without:

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Taught teen age class two weeks ago Sunday! 1st Reading Exodus – Moses on the mountain getting the Ten Commandments and the Lord said – your people have become depraved – they were worshiping a golden idol! So I had the teens get out their cell phones, we all sat on the floor and held our phones just like you see every where! A praying posture with total focus on a non living thing – Oh Lord my god – you have all the answers, keep me entertained and consume my being, I am totally dependent upon you Oh my cell phone! I can not live without you – you are my world!

Well? Anyone awake? The new golden idol has control of our children! Anyone know where to find the Ten Commandments? Oh yea – the government outlawed them! Good and evil exist in the same place! Where oh where are we to look for the salvation of modern man?

What was that 1st Commandment again?

Nature – Teacher – Teenagers

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Sitting uphill from my Lake – evening 7:15 PM sun shining somewhere behind me – you know the sun is always shinning somewhere! All we have to do is believe! So today I was with teenagers who had all kinds of questions about free Will, determinism, heaven and hell! It’s getting worse folks – the War no one talks about! Yes what we need is sixteen year olds giving us old folks hell – well they have the internet and other bright young friends! Anyone awake? We are losing the battle to teach conscience, sin, consequences, rationalization, and perhaps as importance observation – nature works without man’s help – the sun comes up every day without man’s help! Beauty surrounds us – yes even the treasure each teenager is! This picture is an expression of – Pure beauty – if only we take the moment to let it soak in! Yep God loves you just like you are and least I forget God planted a gift within to give away! So what do you say – let’s teach a teenager the beauty that surrounds!

Image may contain: tree, plant, sky, grass, outdoor and nature

Prison Bars – World in Chaos — Reaching beyond the Bars

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Went to prison today – oh so hot- and – wheres the rain — ready for fall! Got there and sitting waiting patiently for some one to show up – the count is on – no one can come until the count is done! I lay my head in my arms on the table waiting! I go sound asleep! About 20 minutes later I wake up and wonder where am I? Can you believe it – behind bars and asleep. Something about being cradled in the arms of one who loves you! Can you pass that – like your own home?

So one might wonder why the nap of peace? Well the 1st inmate shows. We talk about me sleeping and what’s going on in the world where chaos reins! How anger in the world manifests wounds buried deep in ones soul that can not rest it’s head on a table! How to heal wounds unseen? So he tells me he has one. He talks to his wife every week and she talks about suicide due to the stress generated from the stress of inheriting the head of the family from many many relatives! Wounds hiding behind behavior unfriendly – stress! She has taken the role of head of family – what to do – what to do hiding the unspoken where are you!

The unspoken question – what can I do from prison? The 1st reading Sunday is a cry – how long Oh Lord must I endure this trial – have you abandoned and forgotten me Oh Lord! I am with you always and everywhere – trust in my promise and rest in my arms!

How do we do that? Every time you talk to your wife, pray with her – speak the words of distress, anxiety, uncertainty, frustration and hope overextended! Then thank the Lord for the gift of a willing spirit standing in the midst of chaos, anger, woundedness and ebbing hope with the knowledge that grace comes out of the light darkness seeks to extinguish! Though you can not be where she is when the crises comes your joining prayer reveals and makes present a spirit of unity sealed with blessings one never stands alone when darkness seeks to extinguish the light!

Consistency of prayer provide the building blocks to endure the trials and begin to penetrate the barriers carefully constructed and wrapped around the wounds unseen. Yes – we are one, yes I am with you, yes we will overcome, yes we are never alone, yes we are hope where Hope appears spent, yes I love you, am proud of you and know you are stretching to fill a void for which forgiveness holds the key that opens the door to healing wounds unseen and embracing the healing power hidden in tears joined together to form an unexpected living waters to quench the thirst of voyagers through a lifeless desert! We are one in spirit and life!

An Orphan longs to Discover the Path that Leads Home:

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There was a man who grew old only to discover the God he trusted and the church he dedicated himself had turned him into an orphan. Funny, I know, an old man becoming an orphan? Gosh, the good Lord sure finds strange ways to teach lessons!
Well, when one grows old you would think they would have things figured out! So how come this old man studied Theology of the Body – St. John Paul’s teaching about marriage! The old man was way way past prime time for making babies! We are supposed to know male and female were created to become one flesh and such – the source of new life = a child! The old man wouldn’t trade anything for that privilege! Heck, the old man’s old man told him when he was a young man – if God created anything better He kept it for himself! Did my dad tell me that? Yep!
Now, in God’s design every man has an instinct to protect and care for his family! Wanna find my fighting side attack my wife and kids! It’s the nature and design of a father.
Hmmmm! One flesh! God’s design! So what do you suppose might happen when God’s design for a Father is outlawed? What happens to the one flesh when the father’s design is over ridden and the father In the creation of new life is declared nonexistent. The father has been effectively murdered and the concept of one flesh over ridden by man! Ever wonder what has happened to so many men in the world today?
The old man walked through the bowels of Atlanta in his mid life and wondered why? HIV/Aids and God made me this way! The real threat of death brings out great thirst for answers! But man’s cocktail silenced the questioner!
The old man was a slow learner! So God sent an old man to prison to discover the design of father had been radically removed much like an abortion destroy’s a child. So many Young men full of anger and rage bouncing off walls crying out that something was amiss and having little idea how to articulate the outrage emerging from the cries and no one seems to hear!
How to speak truth to a world in a race pursuing me happiness without a clue where happiness is hidden in the first place! Everybody is happy right? No suicide among the young right? An orphan by nature begins the journey seeking to find the unknown something that lies securely hidden from the me emotions of the moment!
When the orphan finally surrenders to the spirit of one called Father, the designer of nature, one begins to become an orphan on a journey toward home though a soul can seldom see the purpose of the steps taken long long ago or now!
An orphan you see has a hole in his soul and forever longs to fill that hole! The question is what will the orphan choose to fill the hole —> ME?
Every child Long’s for the unity and completeness of the one flesh – three in one! Mom and dad and who?
There was this other man, stripped of every earthly thing, abandoned by all his best friends forever, rejected by those called to be his church, lead to a place of abandonment, cursed, spit upon, crushed with weight, whipped, humiliated with a crown, given sour wine as his body cried out in thirst all because he spoke the truth on how to fill the hole!
But he didn’t stop – He sent the spirit who calls – come follow me, I know the way to the Father who created the one flesh gift you Are in yours mothers womb! No mistake was made in the beginning before the journey began! What lies ahead is finding the key to the doorway hidden within drawing one to search to find the creator of all!

Blood the Connecting Thread!

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Pestering, Ornery Issues and People

Went to prison Friday 1 PM. Needed to get skid steer in for maintenance, spent too much time at church on way where ornery old woman I know was working. Gave her a hug and told her so! Worked up a sweat on a hot day trying to start skid steer! Finally forced to give in and do what I planned to do at start of day! Thought – Oh I could skip – but sensed the spirit was pestering me! Gave in! Took shower – got dressed – presentable – clergy! Went to prison!

Divided – so what do we have that links us?

No one was there! What do you have in mind for me today Lord? No one in prison comes until the “count” is complete and every inmate is accounted for! Then they came! A Georgia Tech grad, a drug runner, a Mexican Father and a boot camp young man. We talked the many issues of our day and the division! So what do we all have in common even those most radical- so what is it? Everyone bleeds the same red blood – without which life ceases to exist! And it is the willingness to shed ones blood for others the secret and mystery of new life lives! The life blood of the water of life changed into the finest wine – the only medicine with the potential to wash away causes of division and bring healing to wounds buried deep in the bones where blood is created!
We changed to Friday in hopes the boot camp juveniles could attend. We got our first one to attend and as we parted he said – please make sure they announce your service so I can come again and some others!

So now I understand the persistence of the voice that spoke to me as I debated all I wanted to get done!

War – Hate – Cost – Blood – Healing:

Our nation is divided and broken by a language of Hate! We are in a war without bullets – a war against God’s design – attack & destroy anyone who disagrees with self declared design – who among us is willing to shed blood to heal the many self inflicted wounds human nature’s willingness to listen to the voice of the one who seeks our ruin ?

Hearing the Unspoken Word:

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Load – Ready Aim Fire – Hold it!

The God Lord sent me on a journey as per the stories in scripture so I might gain eyes to see and ears to hear the unspoken word! Like many, my canon’s were loaded and ready to fire in regard to kneeling during the National Anthem and the burning of the flag. Somehow I managed to hold my fire and cool my jets!
So many people today are being fed the fuel needed to poke wounds long ago suffered often early in life before understanding, knowledge or wisdom in God’s design could penetrate and begin to heal wounds unseen!

Translating Groans with Discipline!

Again and again I have listened to the cries that can only come from the bottom of soul calling for someone to love them. It is the kind of love the world view can not provide. Healing love comes in the form of discipline! Weird right?
The human condition requires stroking (human touch)! Don’t get silly on me! I am not talking about sex! Yet do not underestimate the intensity of the cry and the lack of knowledge or wisdom of the crier who may very well confuse sex as love.
No no no! I am speaking of real love = discipline! Instinctively people, even little children demand disciple tough they haven’t a clue it is the medicine they need to heal deep wounds unseen they can not articulate!


So what was the source of this theory I have arrived at?

Uncomfortable and Powerless:

For ten years I listened to so many young men with HIV/AIDS cry out as they shared their grief through the story of questioning – why me & a secret being reveled they wanted kept hidden. But the stories exploded on me as I listened to parents of adult children speak of the love they had for their child and the anguish unfolding where the “Truth” could not be dismissed! It was a fast forward journey to a most serious mid life crises was thrust upon then and death was starring them in the face! I cried every trip! I wanted to run away – why did you send me here Lord? I am so uncomfortable and I am powerless! All I seem able to do is listen to what I really don’t want hear – groaning and cries without words and helpless! I was unqualified – yet the Lord in his wisdom sent me to teach me what I didn’t want to know!

Oh Man more!

Sorry, but like life this was not enough! Ten years in prison was to follow – again so many young men angry and crying out in upsetting way! A voice crying out from the depths of the soul asking – is there anyone capable of hearing the sound of my cry speaking in unspoken words! Scripture speaks of the groaning’s coming from the earth. The Lord was teaching me to listen with my whole being not just my ears.
Envy and jealousy are so much more powerful than most human can begin to comprehend! These are the sins rooted in the humans to crucify Christ! Ironically Jesus offered them the Truth – the way to freedom – love one another – not sex! Discipline – not individually decided – but the kind of discipline that can only be communicated with unspoken words reveled through the groaning that comes from enduring a cross!
So many in our nation no longer encounter real love, while porn and sex has exploded in every form while live births are dropping at an alarming rate. In some communities 70% of our babies are aborted. God’s design for men as Fathers to protect their children is voided by man’s law which legalizes a second abortion of the Father In God’s design of the one flesh.

Losing Our Soul

The older I get the more I cry for a nation losing it’s soul, while it engages in more and more sex, dismembers babies, consumes porn, is envious and jealous to the point of God’s design and natural law is hate! Propaganda has replaced truth, agendas override human dignity, emotions assassinate logic as the groaning increases and almost no one is willing or able to hear to make the trip and spend some quality time that uncomfortable place where the crying stretches ones soul to look into the mirror of truth where one can not hide!

Enough – Come with me!
And to those who wrote “No more sermons from the Deacon” Come with me and I will introduce you to the Gospel!

Adventure Hot and Sweating for a Dream –> Listen

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Yesterday’s adventure! It was hot – took corn out to feeders in woods – 50 lb bag – oh what fun – used to curl 50 lb in one hand – oh my I must be getting old walking through woods, stepping over logs, down the hill, up the hill – Feeder! Made it! Put down the bag, take off the lid, lift the bag – oh oh over head and pour! And this is just the first one, check the clock & battery , test- done! Onward to next station. Repeat grunt grunt, notice fallen tree with limbs blocking shooting lane! Get hand saw, cut cut cut, throw branches out of way, step over cut limbs and up my leg yellow jackets give me a greeting that remind me for the rest of the day – an ouch ouch breaks the silence in the woods followed immediately by run run knowing it’s not wise to look around for the greeter swam!

Am I sane?

Finally at a safe distance I pause to examine my sanity? Am I too old for this??? Then I remember why I am inclined to take this risk and will always be!! Unknowingly a grandson and son will venture out into this same woods on an adventure on a much much cooler day with high hopes they will encounter the dream dreamed this day! Yes I saw a nice buck – nice rack, pretty tall, foraging before my interruption.
The journey to the Already and the Not Yet only require an open spirit willing to take the necessary risk one may encounter bumps, bruises, and pain no one will ever know about!

I am gonna dream!

Yes a Father dreams a dream long before the dream begins to unfold! The pear trees were planted and now the limbs bending downward loaded with fruit! The persimmons are dropping and saw tooth oaks growing a harvest. The fields still need cutting, harrowing, fertilizer, planting followed by rain and sun.
The formula is nature’s brew and man must always wait and trust the magic of God’s design is not dependent upon the fickleness of man to recreate himself into something other than God’s original design!
I pray this day that every human encounter God’s design and learn to wait and trust God doesn’t make mistakes and God’s nature will lead humans to stumble all over themselves especially when they seek to redefine God’s design with a selfie design which one day will encounter yellow jackets to remind them his plan will win the day!

Turn yourself Off and Listen:

Yes Lord – so just what is it you have in mind for me today?
Oh Gosh Gospel for today! Make the better Choice! Turn your selfie off and Listen to Him speak!

Mercy and Justice a Marriage

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Mercy and Justice – one can not exist without the other. They are a couple that require a balance and cannot be separated without taking the life of one or the other. Mercy and justice are the opposite ends of a scale, a pair, like a married couple of one man and one woman. The difference is what makes possible a proper balance. The creation of new life body and soul depend upon the hope of redemption which is only possible when mercy and justice are balanced. One can not exist without the other. Mercy and Justice a marriage.

Yet humanities fallen nature and weakness to sin leads many to seek self gratification and self glory which ignores God’s scaled design between mercy and justice resulting in the elevation of man to creator of self.

God’s wisdom created a scale to be balanced that humans cannot escape without running the risk of creating chaos, heart ache and a real mess! Will humanity turn to the spirit of the one who said these words? “Forgive them Father they know not what they do!” In those words lies the secret to humanity finding the pathway out of a self created darkness into the real possibility of hope! Mercy and justice resting on opposite ends of scale yet operating as a the power source of new life and spiritual health.

Can we overcome the magnetic field of the worlds selfie agenda to chose and worship self interest that seeks to isolate us as it strips away the prerequisite intimate balance that draws and holds mercy and justice woven together? The secret ingredient is the voice of truth which speaks even when there is no sound! Mercy and Justice a marriage.

Playing with Fire

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Playing with Fire! Well actually this is a prescribed burn and what it looks like. Use fire to extinguish fire. The dead wood and brush of the earth are converted to ash! Catholics should know except maybe they haven’t figured out ash contains nutrients that serve as fertilizer for new life!! Kinda like confession to rid the soul of death in exchange for the essential grace that sustains the rebirth of new life! I am gonna smell like smoke when I get home! Thank God I have a laundry woman! Don’t step a foot in this house until you Give me them clothes!!!

HIV / AIDS / Prison / Orphan = Cries from the Soul:

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There was a man who grew old only to discover the God he trusted and the church he dedicated himself had turned him into an orphan. Funny, I know, an old man becoming an orphan? Gosh, the good Lord sure finds strange ways to teach lessons!
Well, when one grows old you would think they would have things figured out! So how come this old man studied Theology of the Body – St. John Paul’s teaching about marriage! The old man was way way past prime time for making babies! We are supposed to know male and female were created to become one flesh and such – the source of new life = a child! The old man wouldn’t trade anything for that privilege! Heck, the old man’s old man told him when he was a young man – if God created anything better He kept it for himself! Did my dad tell me that? Yep!
Now, in God’s design every man has an instinct to protect and care for his family! Wanna find my fighting side attack my wife and kids! It’s the nature and design of a father.
Hmmmm! One flesh! God’s design! So what do you suppose might happen when God’s design for a Father is outlawed? What happens to the one flesh when the father’s design is over ridden and the father In the creation of new life is declared nonexistent. The father has been effectively murdered and the concept of one flesh over ridden by man! Ever wonder what has happened to so many men in the world today?
The old man walked through the bowels of Atlanta in his mid life and wondered why? HIV/Aids and God made me this way! The real threat of death brings out great thirst for answers! But man’s cocktail silenced the questioner!
The old man was a slow learner! So God sent an old man to prison to discover the design of father had been radically removed much like an abortion destroy’s a child. So many Young men full of anger and rage bouncing off walls crying out that something was amiss and having little idea how to articulate the outrage emerging from the cries and no one seems to hear!
How to speak truth to a world in a race pursuing me happiness without a clue where happiness is hidden in the first place! Everybody is happy right? No suicide among the young right? An orphan by nature begins the journey seeking to find the unknown something that lies securely hidden from the me emotions of the moment!
When the orphan finally surrenders to the spirit of one called Father, the designer of nature, one begins to become an orphan on a journey toward home though a soul can seldom see the purpose of the steps taken long long ago or now!
An orphan you see has a hole in his soul and forever longs to fill that hole! The question is what will the orphan choose to fill the hole —> ME?
Every child Long’s for the unity and completeness of the one flesh – three in one! Mom and dad and who?
There was this other man, stripped of every earthly thing, abandoned by all his best friends forever, rejected by those called to be his church, lead to a place of abandonment, cursed, spit upon, crushed with weight, whipped, humiliated with a crown, given sour wine as his body cried out in thirst all because he spoke the truth on how to fill the hole!
But he didn’t stop – He sent the spirit who calls – come follow me, I know the way to the Father who created the one flesh gift you Are in yours mothers womb! No mistake was made in the beginning before the journey began! What lies ahead is finding the key to the doorway hidden within drawing one to search to find the creator of all!