Tag: healing

Not as the World Gives

The thing we are most afraid of is always what is within us.

Unsettling feelings about immoral and unethical conduct in a crisis (e.g. scammers, opportunistic leaders) may be addressed by resolving to do the caring thing. This can work its way into the soul (see previous post) to assure and encourage us about what is true and enduring.  Similarly, finding something of peace to focus on, beyond our self-preoccupations, might just quiet our deepest fear, that is, of what lies within us. It is what we suspect lies within us that we fear even more than exterior threats.

Jesus, in pledging his peace, said, “I do not give to you as the world gives” (John 14:27). Neither virus nor inner primordial fear will get the better of the person you are made to be and to be part of what God eternally has in mind for you.

How Controlling Are You?

It has been widely reported in the last couple of days that there is now a blood test that can determine if y ou are at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The question is then asked, “Would you want to know?” Setting aside the possibility of false positives, many people apparently would say “yes,” saying it could help them and their loved ones prepare.

It might be worth pondering if you would want to know, even as an exercise in attitude toward how we feel about having control in life.  There is no point in any of us claiming that there is not some degree of control freak in us. On the other hand, I find I enjoy going to meetings more now that I am not in a position to chair them. I think one reason I like public transit is that, if anything is going to go wrong, there is nothing I can do about it anyway, so I just relax.
But knowing with some precision when someone else will have to take charge of my ordinary business of life? I honestly don’t know. But considering the question might be a way for any of us honestly to examine our issues around control in the here and now.

Closer to the Source

lakeshore_01

It is a holiday weekend. Many of us are flocking to places where we experience the meeting of the elements. We seem drawn to places where air, water and land come together. Such places tend to be refreshing, invigorating, and we get the sense of sharing something together. Many of our best memories are of times together in such places.

Maybe there is something else. May we recall something primal, elements of wind (or spirit in Biblical language), land, water, and place made for us and all living creatures. There, we are closer to the source.  For the Christian this may lead to a further connection, with heaven and earth coming together in Christ, the Word of creation (John 1). Maybe it’s a less obvious but powerful way in which we are drawn to him, and why he has the ability, as well as the will, to bring together the various elements of our life and make whole people of us.

Photo: Lake Ontario at Ajax, Ontario

Authentic When and Though it Hurts

The Spanish prime minister is being criticized heavily for what is called a “cut and paste” response to the horrible train tragedy in the north of his country. He is not alone in this kind of thing. Either through awkwardness and fear of saying the ‘wrong’ thing, or just outright aloofness and insensitivity, there are those of us who seem to have a catalog of prepared platitudes and facial expressions for any occasion. This kind of approach might work in business, legal dealings and backroom politics, but I have even known and experienced it to be used in church circles. We certainly need to be more authentically human, which is to say Christ-like, with one another than that.