Posts Tagged: loving God

“ON THE MAKING OF LISTS”

On March 19, 2018 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

I like to make lists.

Of course, as with everything else that I enjoy, I tend to overdo it at times.  Sometimes, my lists become a disease, multiplying like a fast-moving virus.  I import the expectations of others, in addition to my own excessive self-demands.

However, the fact that a thing can become demonic doesn’t mean that it wasn’t once angelic.  The Bible seems to indicate that the demons are actually fallen angels.  Whether or not demons can ever be rehabilitated, I don’t know.  But I think that lists can be.

So, what do lists do for me?

Well, for one thing, they keep my attention-deficit-mind a little more focused.  I don’t want to oversell this, but lists do help me—provided, of course, that I can remember where I put the list and remember to look at it every once in a while.

Also, there is a satisfaction that comes from checking off, one-by-one, the items on my lists.  It is a pretty cheap form of entertainment, but it entertains me nevertheless.  Years ago, I heard someone speak of “the satisfaction of a bill marked PAID.”  There is a similar satisfaction that is the fruit of an item on the list that is checked off.

Of course, a TO-DO list is no substitute for having worthwhile goals in the first place.  And these goals must themselves flow from a commitment to good, solid values that not only serve me well, but also serve other people, our planet, and God.  A list populated with trivia is still trivial, even if I check it all off.

However, it is precisely at the point of my values and goals that I find the greatest benefit to lists.  Here is how this works for me: Lists often make me ask difficult questions that I don’t really want to ask.  Lists invite me to ask such questions as  these:

  • Do the items on this list reflect my best values and goals?
  • Does doing this item and crossing it off my list make me a better person?
  • Do the things on this list have a shot at helping to make other people better?
  • Does what I’m doing benefit the planet?
  • Does this list and the items on it make God look as good as God is?
  • If the answer to any of the above questions is “No” or “I don’t know,” why am I doing this stuff?

And then, I can ask two more questions:

  • What can I take off the list to make room for the things that do matter?
  • What do I need to add to the list?

I am comforted a bit in my list-making by the fact that God apparently likes lists as well.  There are of course, various lists in the Bible: lists of sacrifices, lists of holy days, and so on.  One of the most famous lists is the Ten Commandments.  It is always good to remind myself that I must not murder anyone today.  (I think that, by extension, this might include not assassinating anyone’s reputation.)

The most famous list of the New Testament actually quotes and puts together two commandments from the Old Testament.  Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment.  Jesus did not answer with one commandment.  Instead, he made a list of two: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Perhaps my individual lists would be improved if I remembered this two-item list.

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“BEYOND HOLY WILLFULNESS: LOVING GOD BECAUSE GOD LOVES ME”

On June 23, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Richard Rhor wrote some much-needed words for me in a post I read of his this morning.  (Okay!  So perhaps Rhor did have me particularly in mind, but it feels that way!)

In the Franciscan reading of the Gospel, there is no reason to be religious or to “serve” God except “to love greatly the One who has loved us greatly,” as Saint Francis said. . . .  Religion is not about heroic will power or winning or being right. This has been a counterfeit for holiness in much of Christian history. True growth in holiness is a growth in willingness to love and be loved and a surrendering of willfulness, even holy willfulness (which is still “all about me”).

Yes, I fear—and more than half suspect— that even my “holy willfulness” . . .  is still all about me.  So, is my willfulness really even holy?  The question answers itself.

Many years ago, my mom said to me, “Sometimes, I think that you think too much about improving yourself, and not enough about other people!”

I have heard it said that, if you throw a brick at a bunch of dogs and one of them yelps, it means you hit it.  When Mom said that, I definitely yelped.  (I am not advocating, by the by, throwing bricks at dogs!)

I am going to let Rohr have the last word.  “Doing anything and everything solely for God is certainly the most purifying plan for happiness I can imagine. It changes the entire nature of human interaction and eliminates most conflict.”  (For his entire meditation, see his website and the meditation for June 22, 2017, accessed 06-22-2017.)

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“LOVING GOD, MYSELF, AND OTHERS IN AN AS-IS WORLD”

On June 12, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Today, my twelve-step affirmation is as follows:

“Today, by God’s grace, I will do one good thing, do it as well as it deserves to be done, and then move on to the next good thing.  Good things fall under three broad categories:

  1. Good things that express my love and respect for God directly to God.
  2. Good things that express my love and respect toward other people and all of creation.
  3. Good things that express my love and respect toward myself.”

The first and third category are the hardest to understand.  What does God really need?  God seems pretty self-sufficient to me.

However, God might not need anything from me, but he might enjoy some things from me.  It is a beautiful dawning to what promises to be a hot summers day.  I feel that God would enjoy it if I took a walk with God.  So, I will!

But for me, the second category is the easiest to understand, and the most difficult to do.  I like people, as long as they do precisely what I want.  (They almost never do.)  I like creation and reality, as long as creation and reality conform to my fantasies.  (They almost never do.)

Have you ever been to a used car lot, and seen a sticker on a car that read AS IS”?  That means that the car has no warranty.  As the old saying goes, “Ya pays your money, and ya takes your chances!”

All of life, every day and every relationship is “AS IS.”

And God is as God is.  God is abundant and complex, but God is not a smorgasbord.

The serenity prayer is well-known, even beyond twelve-step programs.  However, there is a longer version that is beautifully true, though less well known.  Here it is.  Pray this prayer today, and I’ll try to do the same!

”

God, grant me the Serenity
To accept the things I cannot change…
Courage to change the things I can,
And Wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His will.
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with Him forever in the next.
Amen.“

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“SEVEN DAYS TO JUDGMENT”  

On February 27, 2017 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

 

“8 Elah son of Baasha began to rule over Israel in the twenty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. He reigned in the city of Tirzah for two years.

  9 Then Zimri, who commanded half of the royal chariots, made plans to kill him. One day in Tirzah, Elah was getting drunk at the home of Arza, the supervisor of the palace.

  10 Zimri walked in and struck him down and killed him. This happened in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah. Then Zimri became the next king.

  11 Zimri immediately killed the entire royal family of Baasha, leaving him not even a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends.

  12 So Zimri destroyed the dynasty of Baasha as the LORD had promised through the prophet Jehu.

  13 This happened because of all the sins Baasha and his son Elah had committed, and because of the sins they led Israel to commit. They provoked the anger of the LORD, the God of Israel, with their worthless idols.

  14 The rest of the events in Elah’s reign and everything he did are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.

  15 Zimri began to rule over Israel in the twenty-seventh year of King Asa’s reign in Judah, but his reign in Tirzah lasted only seven days. The army of Israel was then attacking the Philistine town of Gibbethon.

  16 When they heard that Zimri had committed treason and had assassinated the king, that very day they chose Omri, commander of the army, as the new king of Israel.

  17 So Omri led the entire army of Israel up from Gibbethon to attack Tirzah, Israel’s capital.

  18 When Zimri saw that the city had been taken, he went into the citadel of the palace and burned it down over himself and died in the flames.

  19 For he, too, had done what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam in all the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.

  20 The rest of the events in Zimri’s reign and his conspiracy are recorded in The Book of the History of the Kings of Israel.”

In my daily Bible reading, I am slogging through a dismal section of 1 Kings, in which there is more sin and palace intrigue than you can encounter in an afternoon soap opera.  It is not an encouraging section of the Bible.  It is too realistic to be encouraging.

Evaluations are given to each of the kings, but these evaluations are rarely positive.  A corrupt king follows a corrupt king, who follows a corrupt king, who . . .  Well, you get the picture.

Zimri had assassinated Elah, who had reigned only two years.  However, Zimri’s reign was somewhat shorter.  He reigned for seven days.

Seven days isn’t a lot of time.  Yet the narrator of 1 Kings sums up Zimri’s reign in verses 18 and 19 as follows: “. . . [He] died in the flames.  For he, too, had done what was evil in the LORD’s sight. He followed the example of Jeroboam in all the sins he had committed and led Israel to commit.”

It would appear that “God’s summarizer” (the narrator) can pronounce God’s judgment on even a seven-day reign.

I decided to pause and think about this a moment.  I’m glad that I did pause.  It is early Monday morning, the beginning of my work week.

I asked myself an uncomfortable question: What would be God’s evaluation of me, based on my upcoming week?

And then, I asked myself an even more uncomfortable question: How should I live this week, this day, this hour, so that I will have a shot at a good evaluation?

Ouch!

So, what are my basic goals for the week, in light of the fact that I believe in an Evaluator with a capital “E”?  How will I live, so that, if God had only this week to go on, God could give me a good evaluation?

I suppose that I ought to put God first.  If there is such a being in and beyond the universe, that might be rather important.

Then too, there is loving other people—even (especially?) those who are difficult to love.  After all, they probably need more love than other people.

There is also the matter of denying my worse self and cultivating my better self.

In many ways, my seven-day evaluation would boil down to this: Am I making good decisions moment by moment.

I am not the king of Israel, but I am the ruler of my moments.  By God’s grace, perhaps I can rule them well.

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