Parakalein

"No weapon formed against you will prosper!"

This is a scripture verse that many take to offset the idea that people cannot use or abuse me.  As I sat with someone who was feeling abused so feeling that this verse was not true for them so they needed to confess their failure and ask God to make it true of them.

I asked this person if she could ask that part of her that saw it that way, if that part would step back an d let her look at it in a new way.  A hesitant yes emerged from within.  Then as we tried to cultivate that inner voice two new perspectives emerged:

That while weapons that are formed against us do hurt us, wound us, disarm us, and harm us the promise is that they will not prosper that is they will not win, defeat us.  They may blow a mighty wind that bends us but they will not break us or rather they need not break us.  Jesus, himself, was wounded, beaten and hurt.  He was hurt by what weapons were used against him even though he refused to reach for a sword to defend himself.  Those weapons did not prosper.  They won for a day but on another day they appeared what they were, "powerless" to hold him down, to contain the energy of Spirit, or to let hatred win.  Love does ultimately triumph even though hatred has its days of triumph".

So the promise is not that there will come no hurt or pain into my living.  The promise is that the hurt and pain of living will not be weapons that prosper but weapons that will become instruments of my gaining strength of mind and courage of soul.  I will prosper in the presence of hurt and pain.  No weapon against me will prosper!

I have never seen this verse in that way for myself but this person helped me to see it differently, no the energy of Spirit-Self breathed new perspective into me from this verse!.

Breathe in what is good for you and breathe out what is not good for you!

In II Samuel 18, David instructs all the hundreds of soldiers to watch over Absalom, his son.
This was not because David loved Absalom more than any of his other children.  Preferential treatment was not part of the palace sop or was it?

During the battle vs 8 tells us oddly enough that "more soldiers died in the forest that by the sword".

Really, that seems odd.  With javelins flying through the air, swords wielded by the strong arms of warriors, and arrows flying through the sky, more soldiers died. What if tucked in this passage is an amazingly neglected truth.  Inside of people when they hold anger, hurt or violence they will eventually succumb to that violence or act that violence out toward others.  Absalom, who David knew held in his heart the anger and hurt of his half brother's murder of his full sister and more her silent banishment into a remote part of the palace to liv ever life our in shame and obscurity.  The real shame is that David cared more about what people thought than the life of his daughter.  Absalom took matters into his own hands and when in battle the opportunity arose he slew Amnon hi shelf brother to avenge his sister's hurt.  Amnon had raped her but Dad had raped her of her life by not standing up for her and offering justice.

So on this day when Absalom was riding throughout the forest of his own mental anguish he was not paying attention so the just and pain in his heart and the violence inside blinded him from good self care.  He ran in to a tree limb that hung him out to his death.  So true that our inner hurt an pain cause us pain in living and in death. This is why David wash concerned of his son and why when he learns of his sons death he exclaims, "I should had died instead".

The tragedy is had David stood for life of his daughter his sons would have lived in the green pastures of grace rather than die in the forest of confusion and pain.

I was in Huntington, LI the other day and observed that the local park was named after Billy Joel, who sang 25 years ago a song, "These five words I swear to you, I will be there for you!"

26 years ago when I shared my first NYC Marathon Worship Experience for fellow runners that was the song I used to present the simple truth that God, by whatever name you call, promises "I will be there for You".  These five simple words contain the might and power of the greatest force of energy in the world.  Every step along the journey of life is like every step of a marathon.  Life is one step at a time as is a marathon.  The "emanuel God" promises to be with you.  Emanuel means, God is physically present with you regardless of anything and with grace for everything.  In the physical world you may not always feel God present but nature assures us that as the sun is always there even when storms and clouds seem to block it out.  The sun is physically still and always present even though it seems that it is gone.

Even when Jesus on the cross felt like he was abandoned he knew what we all can know, that it was not true even though it seemed true.

Amy Grant sang a song years ago that reflect this theme that when something seems to be true it might not be as true as it seems.  On the other hand, what seems to be true may not be true at all!

She sang, "Storms may come and storms will go, wonder how long it will take me to know you are there always with arms of love,  even when the skies are grey teach me to stay in your arms of love"

What ever is rapping on your life journey remind your heart what it already knows: that it is wrapped in arms of love from the God above and the God within you.

I swear even when I swear in frustration I know
by faith and experience that what God swears God delivers!

The Great I am is in You!  I swear!

I was in Huntington, LI the other day as a keynote speaker at a Wellness Day where I saw a t-shirt which read, "If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns!".  I mused about the safety of our world and what will make it a safer place for my 14 year old grandson, specifically or personally,  and also generally for the next generation as well.  It is not laws that make the world a safer place and space or the multitude of laws on the books would already have created a safer world.

As I was musing this I heard the news report of a shooting in Dorchester, MA where two young woman in a parked care will killed and two other sent to the hospital in an early morning shooting in that town.

I found myself further musing that it is the letter of th flaw and focusing on the letters of any law that not only kills but fosters the freedom to kill.  So how might I want to change that t-shirt if I would wear it.  No part of me does not get the sentiment of that woman sporting.  Her t shirt probably reflected her  concern for safety in her neighborhood or perhaps because she had been a victim of violence of one kind or another.  The world is full of tragedies of people who had gun violence that violated the space of pace and safety.  The reality is no gun laws will outlaw the anger and hurt that perpetuates violence in our world.

So here is my musing of a t-shirt:
"Hearts of Calmness and Compassion offer to
Wounded Hearts that might Reach for Guns the Courage
that Might let Grace not Guns settle their hurt"

Shortened:

"The Might of the Responsibility to bear Arms of Grace is
Mightier than the Right to bear Arms and Guns"

What will make our world a safer place is to help people who hold "hurt, pain, and anger" in their hart for experience a healing of the hurt, the liberty of healing, and the justice toward all.  Laws will never protect people form violence, no matter how well crafted and regardless of how protective of the right to bear arms and or how protective of society front hose who bear arms to do harm.  Violence will only cease when the hurt, pain and anger that is held in the heart is balanced by the holding and healing of that hurt heart. Violence toward others is an expression of the violence held in the heart.  Only when violence of the heart is healed and released form its burden will peace come and safety follow.

Intentional Acts of Kindness will lead people to Change to promote liberty and justice for all.
Hold it, Guns are not the problem People Are
People are not the Problem, They Just Hold It

Hold In
Hold Up
Hold Out

Last week I visited with my grandson from Seoul, Korea the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

Back in the day when James Naismith walked the streets of Springfield, he had an idea prompted by a focus of heart and on God.  This was when kids were getting in to trouble because they had nothing to keep them out of trouble, and when people who worked for the YMCA were very clearly and decisively Christian.  He had joined a movement called "Muscular Christianity".  This was a movement that believed that it was not just about soul and spirit in the monastic tradition but it was about nurturing the whole person.  All the body parts, all the emotional parts, all the spiritual parts.  It was a "Wholisitc" before the word "Holistic" was adopted.  The sport of basketball got kids off the street not only in Springfield but gradually all over the world.  today it is one of the Summer Olympic events.

From that orientation of faith and health he put a peach basket on a pole and used a round object later to become a basketball to encourage people to put the ball in the basket.  That was the beginning of what today is a sport that in the flow of its inception continues to take kids off the street and in some instances give them a life they could never have had without it.  A gift that keeps on giving is at the heart of the true Christian orientation and catalyst of love and peace in the world.

Christianity is about Building muscles in the body, faith muscles in the spirit, and courageous muscles in the soul.

It is about the gospel for the whole person and the whole person the focus of the Gospel.

I was at an Ecclesiastical Council review of a candidate for ordination in the UCC and was stimulated in my own personal journey as I mused about a shift from child like faith to adult faith.  She mentioned that her non-thinking child faith had been schooled into adult knowledge of faith.  I asked her a question that channeled my thought.

"In the old testament a prophet named, Isaiah said, "A little child shall lead them" and a new testament apostle wrote, "put away childish things" so please comment on the relationship of "unthinking child like faith" and "thinking adult faith'?

She gave a great answer about it being both.  Here are my musings:

In Child faith that becomes adult faith...

The World of make believe becomes the work of believing that "all things are possible"

This past weekend "Curiosity" the flying space station landed on Mars.

I was intrigued and interested in the name "Curiosity".  Curiosity is a neutral sense of adventuresome exploring,  Internal Family System's (Richard Schwartz) is a therapy modality, a way of being in the world, and a way of servicing resolving conflict in the world.  While compassion, calmness, courage and creativity are the four fundamentals of the system, curiosity plays a decisive role.  Curiosity is an non-judgmental, non-efficacy, non-critical, and non agenda oriented way of being with one's parts and with parts of others in the world.

Curiosity as a quality does not question but explores.  It expands knowing through opening the mind, the heart, and the spirit, opening body soul,

Queen Esther was not just an other pretty queen.  She was a woman with character as deep and rich as her ravishing beauty.  Esther, a Woman who has her won Book of The Bible to honor her distinct call to woman of all ages, was willing to put in jeopardy everything she had achieved, everything she had, and even her very life to right an injustice, to expose a wrong, and to model that might is not right, and that right is about honor and honesty.

Her Uncle Mordecai was a threat to Haman and his ways so Haman had bullied and bartared the King into approving the death of Hamn at the Gallows as a way of declaring owed and control over the Jews.  Esther spoke up, standing head and shoulders above the weaseling and whining Haman, and stood up for  honor and honesty with clarity and cumin.

She came into the King's presence without being summoned and without permission. The King according to law had to have anyone who acted so aggressively immediately killed.  The only exception to the rule was that he could, if he so chose, offer the person the golden scepter which if the person reached out and touched would be similarly listened to.  The King extended the royal scepter to her not because she was his wife but because as his wife he knew she knew the rules and for her to do such a thing he had to be incredibly and strategically important for him to listen to her. He knew and trusted her.  She on the other hand knew and trusted him.  Mutual trust is at the heart of an honor and honest system.

As Esther told the story, she vindicated her people and her uncle, validated the call for peace and cooperation, and called for truth, justice and honor to determine the King's response.  The King ordered Haman to be hung on the Gallows he created for Mordecai.  He loved Esther more for her courage than her beauty as the one will fade while the other is eternal.

Woman of Rare courage stand up even when it can cost them everything they have and more.  They also stand down in humility when it is the right thing to do.  Honor, Honesty, and Humility are her legacies.

As I was walking I imagined the world as God made it, intend it it to be, and hoped it would be.


All living things giving to and receiving from each other as they all grow and develop.  Survival of the fittest becomes "Fit for Survival".  All things adding to each other in some way expanding life and living on the planet.  It is not about take overs but give overs.  For this to replicate adn multiply agendas have to be released and acceptance employed.


Agenda exploits the good as a veiled expression of evil and a suppression of righteousness and goodness while simultaneously draining good energy.  Agendas are essentially self serving, self protecting, and self propagating. 

I imagined as I walked that the fields were all filled with good soil and every seed was growing naturally and abundantly free of constraints.

There has been centuries of debate about humanity begin essentially good and self-efficient in goodness or essentially bad and needing redemption to be good.  What if both are true.  There is a seed in us of goodness, kindness, gentleness, faith, patience, perseverance, self-control, peace and love.  There is a seed of narcism, anger, hurt, pain, control, constraint, absorption, entitlement and hopelessness.

Thic Naht Hahn a Buddhist wrote, "What seeds are you watering".
Jesus wrote, "What seeds are you sowing"

I ask myself , "today what seeds in you are you watering?"  In all of us are many different seeds. The ones that grow and take over are the ones we water and care for.

Paul said, "Some plant, others water, but God is the author of increasing our sense of being and are energy for living!"