You are who you are...

Normally, I only post the spiritual stuff to my spiritual blog at http://joyfulDisciple.blogspot.com/

However, since my quote of the day blended so nicely with everything else going on the last couple of days, I thought I would cross post to my fun, everyday life journal at http://cartierobert.livejournal.com/

Last night I was contemplating how I got to where I am and it occurred to me that I have kind of taken the easy path than make any hard decisions. I was not the person I was meant to be, but the person my decisions and circumstances made me.

This morning my character study was on Lot. Lot was much the same. He always took the easy way, rather than make hard decisions (when he made any at all.) I typically have been a lot (ha) like Lot. Interestingly, Lot is considered by New Testament Christians as a man of faith despite the very wrong directions his life took, so perhaps there is hope for us all yet.

Streisand’s quote below speaks about the very thing I was contemplating last night as well.

“A human being is only interesting if he's in contact with himself. I learned you have to trust yourself, be what you are, and do what you ought to do the way you should do it. You have got to discover you, what you do, and trust it.”

—Barbra Streisand (b. 1942), singer, actress

This is the idea which was also been brought up in my meditations from Reconciling Journey. The following are passages from the Bible which reiterate this concept that we are what we were meant to be (at least if we try rather than let life decide for us). God has a reason for who we are. We often forget about these words as we try to reconcile faith and being GLBT and focus on trying to reason the other passages that people try to clobber us with.

Isaiah 45:9-12

Woe to you who strive with your Maker, earthen vessels with the potter! Does the clay say to the one who fashions it, “What are you making”? or “Your work has no handles”? Woe to anyone who says to a father, “What are you begetting?” or to a woman, “With what are you in labor?”

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker: Will you question me about my children, or command me concerning the work of my hands? I made the earth, and created humankind upon it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.

You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

I try to count them—they are more than the sand; I come to the end—I am still with you.

O that you would kill the wicked, O God, and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

those who speak of you maliciously, and lift themselves up against you for evil!

Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.

Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.

See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Observations

I decided to put the thoughts on the rest of The Power of Intention chapter 2 in a seperate psot, as it is much more personal and relates to something my neighbor said the other day. I was trying to decide how this shirt looked on me. I couldn't decide if it was nice or if it made me look fat and old. She said it better without even thinking. "It excentuates your curves." The author in the last part of the book gets at this idea of looking at things from a different percpective.

"Be like a MIRROR," not judging. Love people, including YOURSELF without making the judgment of fat, short, green, whatever the case may be.

Inspiration

I have always had a slight interest in Francis of Assisi as he has always been associated with animals and I love animals myself. But I did not know that this prayer is credited to him until I was reading the second chapter in The Power of Intention. It was primairly about what intention resembles or looks like and amazingly, as I mentioned before it sounds a great deal like God.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.

I am finding some excellent quotes and excerpts from other writers in this book. From Walt Whiman's Song of Myself:

I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least, Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself. Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropt in the street, and every one is sign'd by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go, Others will punctually come for ever and ever.

Faith

I got my new devotional/meditation book yesterday and started it this morning. I wish I had found it in 2001, but it didn’t come out until 2003 and I only found it a few weeks ago. It's called Reconciling Journey by Michal Anne Pepper.

It is more a journey of discovering who you are spiritually, than a defense of being gay like so many books on being gay and Christian.

The first week is about the faith experience. The author points out that the words in Greek for Faith (noun) and Believe (verb) are the same in today’s meditation. It is a nice reminder.

I found the wording of the NRSV interesting in today’s Biblical texts.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. ²Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. ³By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. Hebrews 11:1-3

The bold parts are particularly interesting as that last phrase relates so much to what I am reading in The Power of Intention. Everything is part of the same creative energy (God)...the invisible.

My neighbor who is a nurse made the interesting observation the other day, which was new to me, but apparently a person’s weight drops 28 grams immediately after death, as if something is leaving the body. At the very least it leads one to believe that our physical person is not all that there is to us.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, ²looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

I believe that the bold phrase above is where many of us GLBT Christians hit a road block in our faith at times. We just don’t feel that there is a cloud of witnesses who share in our faith or approve of it as the case may be. We are not certain that these are our ancestors. As I look back on my own heritage and the Judeo-Christian tradition, I do see the connection but only after several years of examination. Perhaps this study would have made this easier as it seeks to make the Spiritual rather than Defensive connection to our faith.

Adam and Eve

I finished A Cup of Life and am awaiting my new devotional material from Amazon.  During the gap, I am reading the character studies (if you can really call them studies…more like glimpses) in the Life Application Bible.

 

The story of Adam and Eve offered some valuable insight which is particularly applicable the last several months and more specifically this week.

 

1. You can’t blame others for how things turn out….you have a choice.
2. be happy with what you have.  Don’t forget all that has been given you and focus on the one thing that has not.

 

 

 

The Power of Intention - Chapter One

I am reading a new book that I got on freecycle. I started the first chapter and found it interesting and appealing enough that I am considering buying some of the author's (Wayne W Dyer) other books.

So far it seems to me that what he is referring to as Intention is what we sometimes refer to as predestination or perhaps God's will. He keeps referring to Intention as the direction of the omni-present creative force or Source gives our lives.

He even goes to lengths to defend the existence of both Intention and Free Will, which drew me even further to the conclusion he was almost speaking of Predestination. I happen to agree with much of what he said about the possibility of the coexistence of Free Will and Intention (aka Predestination).

He brings up the idea about the Spark of the Divine that keeps coming up in my reading. There is a spark of the Source in each of us and for that matter in all creation and if we yield to it, we can find our "happy place"...our purpose or meaning in life. Plants and animals fulfill their Intention.

It is reminding me of many ideas I got from Living Buddha, Living Christ.

He makes a statement which I have believed true, though not always learned from, that our ego is what prevents us from living out our Intention or in Christian lingo..following God's will. He quoted Castaneda again, "Having lost hope of ever returning to the source of everything, the average man seeks solace in his selfishness."

It is our Free Will that gets in the way of fulfilling our Intention. Intention is the best that we can be, but our own ego can get in the way of us reaching that Intention. Man is the only creature that has this issue and it is because of that unique piece we possess, which trees and bunnies do not. I think it is the soul. I believe that while the rest of creation will return to the Source, we will maintain our continued idividuality along side of God.

Quotes

The following quotes are related to the book I am currently reading, The Power of Intention, which I will be discussing later today.

 

“Every beauty which is seen here below by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all come…”

 

-Michelangelo

 

“Self-realization means that we have been consciously connected with our source of being…”

 

-Swami Paramananda

 

It's never too late?

It should be out to the left but, in case you don’t see it, here is today’s FBL Quote of the day:

 

“It's never too late to be what you might have been. ”

—George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-1880), novelist

I find it interesting how things just seem to all come together sometimes.  I think it is about recognizing the work of the Omni-present Creative Power of the universe as the writer of my current book says.  I refer to this power as God.  He comes close to it, but usually just comes ever so close as not to say it.

 

It’s about looking for God to speak and listening.  This quote just seemed to relate so strongly to me and the post I made a few days ago about my conversation with my friend.  Of course, now I must determine (as if I did not know) what it is I might have been under other circumstances and how I am going to arrive there now.

 

 

A thought to ponder...

Today's quote from the Foundation for Better Living was, “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”



I have been considering for some time, how I might get back into the ministry, now that I am back in the right place Spiritually.



It reminded me of a conversation I had with a dear friend a few weeks ago. My friend is not particularly religious, but he said basically the same thing to me.



He suggested that I had some thoughts and ideas which need to be shared that others want to hear. He's the 3rd person to suggest I start a church in North Fulton. It is something I have considered, but at the same time, I am causious, because I am not interested in defending my faith or becoming a spokesman for GLBT Christians, which is what I feel I would inevitably have to do as a gay Pastor.



I simply want to provide a place for people to worhsip and ask questions...where people can be comfortable as they seek God for themselves.

Song of the day - Walk On

Some find their solace in a bottle of gin

Some find it still better when their horse comes in

It's a way to deal when life ain't grand

You just pack it up, hang your head, and fold your hand

Mmmm, Hmmmm

She worked all day long on a street named despair

In a town with no pity she was going nowhere

Funny how her heart, well it grew colder and colder

With the weight of thw world, crashin' down on her sholder

But when the goin' gets tough 

And the tough are long gone

Walk on walk on walk on walk on

You can take your words amde of psycho-babble

I don't need no shrink to see my life's unraveled

Pay you a mountain of gold to candy-coat my lies

I'm at the end of my rop, time I realised

That when the goin' gets tough

And the tough are long gone

Just to

Walk on walk on walk on walk on

Walk on walk on 

Yeah yeah yeah yeah

Walk on walk on

Yeah yeah yeah

Well I know we ain't seein' the best of times

And I long stopped dreamin' those crazy dreams of mine

These days get so long and my heart grows weak

But honey we ain't livin' on no easy street

But when the goin' gets tough

And the tough are long gone

It's just you and me baby, left to

Walk on walk on walk on walk on Walk on walk on

Yeah yeah yeah yeah 

Walk on walk on

Yeah yeah yeah

Chronicles of Narnia: Price Caspian

I am not sure why I am including my review of the movie here rather than my regular blog, except that it is based on a series a religious novels.

With this movie, they took more liberty than the previous one and have almost overshadowed the story with new scenes that do not contribute to the saga, which is the Chronicles of Narnia.
huge
The fact that Prince Caspian is so much older than in the book is not as distracting as the interjection of the romance between he and Susan and the huge castle invasion which was not in the book.

I was disappointed and am not sure I want to see more in the series.