Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. ~ M Scott Peck
To live is to suffer. To survive is to find meaning in the suffering. if there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying.~ Viktor Frankl
Positive Psychology is founded on the belief that people want more than an end to suffering. People want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to cultivate what is best within themselves, to enhance their experiences of love, work, and play. ~ Authentic Happiness
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Treasure - For a cynical friend in mind
After "Treasure" was posted, I was reading of the biography of a pastor and the conversation between Saint Francis and Brother Masseo returned to me of a friend - who tends to see things in a very cynical manner. Friends often approach him for advice and counsel, even I do, as he does care and gives good counsel. Of course, many of us also like to approach him for his cynical attitude.
But as I recall this conversation, I ask if being cynical is part of being wise. Well, now I know it is not at all. I choose to know God's overpowering grace despite man's wickedness, rather just the latter.
And when Saint Francis saw that the pieces of bread obtained by Brother Masseo were far better and larger than his own, he was filled with great joy, and said,
"O Brother Masseo, we are not worthy of so great a treasure!" And when he had repeated these words many times,
Brother Masseo replied, "Dearest father, how can one call this treasure, when we are so poor, and lack so many things we need? We have no cloth, no knife, no dish, no bowl, no house, no table, and no man or woman to wait on us."
Then Saint Francis answered: “And that is what I call a great treasure, where nothing has been provided by human labour, but everything has been given by divine Providence, as we can see clearly in the bread that we have collected, in this fair table of stone, and in this spring of clear water. So I would have us pray God that he will cause us to love with all our hearts this treasure of Holy Poverty who is so noble that God himself is her servant.”
But as I recall this conversation, I ask if being cynical is part of being wise. Well, now I know it is not at all. I choose to know God's overpowering grace despite man's wickedness, rather just the latter.
And when Saint Francis saw that the pieces of bread obtained by Brother Masseo were far better and larger than his own, he was filled with great joy, and said,
"O Brother Masseo, we are not worthy of so great a treasure!" And when he had repeated these words many times,
Brother Masseo replied, "Dearest father, how can one call this treasure, when we are so poor, and lack so many things we need? We have no cloth, no knife, no dish, no bowl, no house, no table, and no man or woman to wait on us."
Then Saint Francis answered: “And that is what I call a great treasure, where nothing has been provided by human labour, but everything has been given by divine Providence, as we can see clearly in the bread that we have collected, in this fair table of stone, and in this spring of clear water. So I would have us pray God that he will cause us to love with all our hearts this treasure of Holy Poverty who is so noble that God himself is her servant.”
I could not get anything out of the sermon today
"I could not get anything out of the sermon today." A very common remark made and heard.
It may be true indeed that there are some occassions and some preachers that are bad - for whatever reasons: ill-preparation, not preachig according the Word, trying (to impress) too much... .
Apart from lovingly praying for them and lovingly telling them, we should not attempt anything beyond that. As we must understand the emotional attachments one can have towards one's sermon.
But what about ourselves? We have a recent sharing at our care group on why "I could not get anything out of the sermon today" as the words say "Blessed is he who reads, blessed is who listens."
Some of the "reasons" for "The message does not speak to me today":
- I don't remember it.
- I just sit there to "listen".
- It just does not click or click.
- My feelings, emotions, mind are not ready.
- It does not address the issues I have right now.
- I know all the points
Is not the words about HIM? The Bible is first the revelation of GOD, "WE" are the derived message.
The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Traveling Light
Twelve hundred years ago in China a middle-aged man named P’ang Yun loaded everything he owned onto a boat and sank it all in the Ting-t’ing Lake. After that, we are told, “he lived like a single leaf.”
See him there in the early morning, treading water in the middle of the lake, watching the last bubbles rise from the depths. The air crisp and quiet. The lake misty and as still as sky. Then turning, stroking toward the shore.
Traveling light - imagine this meaning: unencumbered journeying, a graceful way of traveling through life like a single leaf. Now imagine another: the light by which we journey, the light that shows the way. Our traveling Light.
“How much should I carry with me?” is the quintessential question for any journey, especially the journey of life.
See him there in the early morning, treading water in the middle of the lake, watching the last bubbles rise from the depths. The air crisp and quiet. The lake misty and as still as sky. Then turning, stroking toward the shore.
Traveling light - imagine this meaning: unencumbered journeying, a graceful way of traveling through life like a single leaf. Now imagine another: the light by which we journey, the light that shows the way. Our traveling Light.
“How much should I carry with me?” is the quintessential question for any journey, especially the journey of life.
Jesus: The Ascending Way of Man
Jesus: The Descending Way of God
Jesus: The Ascending Way of Man
“Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped. But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are, and being in every way like a human being, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8)
/... did not count equality with God something to be grabbed...
Jesus: The Ascending Way of Man.... He stooped himself so low.
Jesus, give me a push -- to my career goals, to my financial goals, to my desired relationship, to a better future.
Spiritual Trial
How horrible it must have been for the apostles when it seems as if Christ had deceived them – luring them with attractive prospects – and then reversing the whole thing so dreadfully on the cross.
But it cannot be otherwise in our relationship with God. There has to come a moment (specifically, when all our purely human world of concepts is toppled), when God seems to be a deceiver. Yes we will have many weak moments when we will long for the good old days, when it will seem to us that we could love God better if our relationship with him were as it once was, when God pulled us along by adapting to our own ideas. But God in his love will not comply.
This is the truth. Really and truly. Anyone who has the faintest idea of what it actually means to die to the world knows that this does not take place without terrible agonies. No wonder, the, we cry out, sometimes even rebel against God, because it seems to us as if God is deceiving us, we who from the beginning became involved with God on the understanding that God would love us according to our idea of love but now see that it is God who wants to be loved and according to God’s idea of what love is. But, of course, God is still infinite, infinite love. Just hold fast to this – that it is out of infinite love that God performs this excruciatingly painful operation. Yes, it is painful, yet it is all the more necessary.
“If a person is actually to be an instrument of God’s will, then God must first of all take his from him. A fearful operation!”
Taken from Provocations – Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, complied and edited by Charles E Moore. Section VI - Thoughts that radically Cure: Excerpts and Aphorisms
But it cannot be otherwise in our relationship with God. There has to come a moment (specifically, when all our purely human world of concepts is toppled), when God seems to be a deceiver. Yes we will have many weak moments when we will long for the good old days, when it will seem to us that we could love God better if our relationship with him were as it once was, when God pulled us along by adapting to our own ideas. But God in his love will not comply.
This is the truth. Really and truly. Anyone who has the faintest idea of what it actually means to die to the world knows that this does not take place without terrible agonies. No wonder, the, we cry out, sometimes even rebel against God, because it seems to us as if God is deceiving us, we who from the beginning became involved with God on the understanding that God would love us according to our idea of love but now see that it is God who wants to be loved and according to God’s idea of what love is. But, of course, God is still infinite, infinite love. Just hold fast to this – that it is out of infinite love that God performs this excruciatingly painful operation. Yes, it is painful, yet it is all the more necessary.
“If a person is actually to be an instrument of God’s will, then God must first of all take his from him. A fearful operation!”
Taken from Provocations – Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, complied and edited by Charles E Moore. Section VI - Thoughts that radically Cure: Excerpts and Aphorisms
When the Burden Is Light
Christ does not lead people out of the world to paradise where there is no need for wretchedness. He does not, by magic, make this life into worldly delight and joy. No, he teaches what he demonstrates by example: that the burden is light even if the suffering is heavy.
Often, when we speak of carrying burdens, we distinguish between a light burden and a heavy one. We say that it is easy to carry the light burden and hard to carry the heavy one. But what about a burden is both heavy and light? It is about this marvel I want to address.
When someone is on the verge of collapsing under a heavy burden, but the burden is the most precious thing he owns, he declares that in a certain sense it is light. When in distress at sea, the lover is just about to sink under the weight of his beloved, the burden is most certainly heavy and yet – yes, ask him about it – it is so indescribably light. He wants only to save his beloved’s life. Therefore he speaks as if the burden did not exist at all; he calls her his life. How does this change place? How is the heavy burden made light? Is it not because a great thought intervenes, a though that marks his love? Is it not with the aid of the thought of being in love that change take place?
Similarly, Christ says, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30). There is only one thought, one single idea that contains faith’s transformation of a heavy burden into a light one. This thought is that the burden is beneficial, that the heavy suffering laid on one can have a purpose.
Taken from Provocations – Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, complied and edited by Charles E Moore. Section VI – Anxiety and the Gospel of Suffering
Often, when we speak of carrying burdens, we distinguish between a light burden and a heavy one. We say that it is easy to carry the light burden and hard to carry the heavy one. But what about a burden is both heavy and light? It is about this marvel I want to address.
When someone is on the verge of collapsing under a heavy burden, but the burden is the most precious thing he owns, he declares that in a certain sense it is light. When in distress at sea, the lover is just about to sink under the weight of his beloved, the burden is most certainly heavy and yet – yes, ask him about it – it is so indescribably light. He wants only to save his beloved’s life. Therefore he speaks as if the burden did not exist at all; he calls her his life. How does this change place? How is the heavy burden made light? Is it not because a great thought intervenes, a though that marks his love? Is it not with the aid of the thought of being in love that change take place?
Similarly, Christ says, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30). There is only one thought, one single idea that contains faith’s transformation of a heavy burden into a light one. This thought is that the burden is beneficial, that the heavy suffering laid on one can have a purpose.
Taken from Provocations – Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, complied and edited by Charles E Moore. Section VI – Anxiety and the Gospel of Suffering
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