Yesterday I went for a walk to the Point for a time of reflectionby the Lake. On the way home I noticed a road sign that showed the winding road and curves ahead. I thought how great it would be if our journey was like that and we could know what is ahead. But of course we don’t and would that be good? Would we then be quiet and listen to Him in trust? So often we go to the Lord telling Him we need this or that, or even just tell Him we are His child. But He already knows that and knows our heart and intention far better than we do. How much better it would be to sit in quietness with Him and remember that He prays within us. Sometimes I wonder if the Lord doesn’t want to just hush us up so He can communicate to us in our inmost being. As I read today from Michael Molinos, “The transformation of your soul consists not in speaking to God nor in thinking on God, but in loving Him greatly.” He goes on to say this is acquired by silence of our words, silence of our desires and silence of our thoughts. Today in our women’s class the leader had us close our eyes and listen to the Word she read, followed by sharing what spoke to us. I think I received more today than many other studies that were so full of information. The Lord wants to guide us to the place where He alone communicates Himself to us. It is in that place that I believe He transforms our soul!
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Devotions from Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat.
How childlike are we in our walk of faith? Jesus said , “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.” Matt. 18:3-5.
As we think of the characteristics of a child he is so open, trusting, dependent, playful, simple, sensitive to feelings, open to new ideas and surprises of the Spirit, and risky for opportunities for growth.
The gospel of grace is that of a child who has never experienced anything but love and who tries to do his best because he is loved. Even when mistakes are made he knows he doesn’t jeopardize the love of the parent. Therese of Lisieux said that we should be as a little child in that we recognize our nothingness, expecting everything from God. We don’t need to get disheartened by our faults because like children we fall too, but are too little to hurt ourselves much. Later in life a child may accomplish a lot but it comes from the overflow of being loved, not to gain approval. We are loved not because we deserve His love, not because we try, but simply because He has chosen to love us. He loves us just as we are and calls us by name!!
Often when men gather for “wildman” saturdays the conversation will often turn to the struggle men have with feeling inferior “spiritually”, especially to our wives. I suppose this reflects part of our competitive nature. That is why it is good for men to process their feelings about spirituality with other men, since most men have the same struggles. We can help affirmed in each other healthy expressions of the spiritual life, which is obviously different from our wives. But because women seem to be able to express themselves more confidently spiritual, men tend to take a “back seat” to our wives. As Parker Palmer observed “the soul is shy.” This is very true of men.
It comes as a breath of fresh air, for men to be able to acknowledge their weakness and feelings of powerlessness, knowing that God works through weakness. We are reminded of the words Paul received from the Lord, when he was struggling with his weakness. The Lord said to Paul, “‘My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.’ Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness.” (II Cor 12:9 – The Message). What a relief for men. We can actually give our weakness to Christ and gain his strength
I was reminded of this fact, when I was meditating recently in Hebrews. Several times writer of Hebrews exhorts us to be confident. Again because our male tendencies, we have a hard time admitting that we don’t feel very confident in our walk with God. We wonder more about failure then walking humbly and loving with the Lord. In Hebrews 4:16 we have this encouragement given to us. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Heb. 4:16) The Message puts it this way. “So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help”
What can we take from this verse? It seems that God far more ready to give us the help that we need then we are willing to ask. We are able to come with confidence. Th help that we need is available. But to receive the help, we must admit our weakness and need. Grace and mercy are available to those who have a need. So God doesn’t expect us to come to him all “cleaned up and polished.” We are to come as we are. We come in our need and and our weakness. It is then that we can experience the strength and power of God in our lives.
Devotions from Brennan Mannings book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
Often we feel like we are wasting time when we aren’t doing something productive and accomplishing something. We may feel guilty and selfish when we take time to go off alone. But spending time in quiet before God is not wasting time but a time when we grow in awareness of our identity of His beloved. It is not possible to know another person intimately without spending time together. It is like water that needs to settle. When we are constantly in the midst of others we can’t see ourselves as we really are because of all the confusion and disturbance. But as we slow down and wait we come to know ourselves better and the sacredness of others. We connect best with others when we connect with the core of ourselves. We can listen to others more attentively and love them more unselfishly. We can speak and act with greater strength, to forgive rather than nurse wounds, to focus on the things that really matter, and to actually have more energy. So let us not feel guilty when we make room for silence and solitude and let Him tell us how very loved we are.
Devotions based on Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
The author’s spiritual director told Manning to define himself radically as one beloved by God. God’s love for each of us constitutes our worth. We need to accept that and let it become the most important thing in our lives. The basis of our personal worth is not in possessions, our talents, the esteem of others, our reputation, or the applause of everyone telling us how important we are… we are anchored in God before whom we stand naked. And He says to us, “You are my beloved one.” Our false self draws identity from past achievements and adulation of others, but the true self claims identity in being His beloved. Let us encounter God in our ordinariness of life and at the core of our existence. If we draw life and meaning from any other source than this, we are not spiritually alive. May we hear His whisper to our ears that we matter to Him for He loves us just as we are.
Devotions based on Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
So often we want to present a perfect image to others that they may admire us but consequently they don’t know us. Augustine wrote, “There can only be two basic loves, the love of God unto the forgetfulness of self, or the love of self unto the forgetfulness of God.” When we refuse to live out of our authentic self and refuse to be our true self even with God, we will lack intimacy with Him. We need to accept the reality of our sinfulness which means accepting our true self. Judas could not face his shadow; Peter could. When we accept the truth of what we really are and surrender it to him, we will be enveloped in peace. We can burn the old tapes of self-centeredness and let go of our fear of the Father and dislike of ourselves. We belong to Him! The more we are in His presence, the less we will need to have the adulation of others. He is enough! In His presence we can discover the joy of living by grace and not by performance. . We can speak honestly to Him any time, any place, under any circumstance. We don’t have to wear masks but come to Him dirty and ragged and in our brokenness. He will embrace us.
Devotions based on Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
The author said that what is denied cannot be healed. If we remain in hiding and deny the reality of our sin, we deprive the community of our healing gift. “In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve.” ( Thorton Wilder) If we conceal our wounds, out of fear or shame, our inner darkness cannot be illuminated or become a light for others. But when we dare to live as forgiven people, we join the wounded healers and draw closer to Him. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads us to be gentle with others. Henry Nouwen implies that grace and healing are communicated through vulnerability and brokenness. Just like AA members who don’t forget their brokenness are able to bring healing to others and lighten their pain. Our own pain and sadness makes us aware of our inner poverty so that Christ can pour his healing into the empty space inside us. Like Paul we can say that we can boast in our weakness that the power of God would be seen. ( II Cor. 12:9)
Devotions from Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
God wants us to stop hiding and openly come to Him. Why do we hide what we feel ourselves to be ( which we assume is unacceptable) and put on the appearance of what we are not? God loves who we really are—whether we like it or not, and calls us to come out of hiding into a safe place. No amount of spiritual posturing makes us more presentable to Him. To feel safe is to stop living in our heads and sink down into our hearts and to feel accepted. It is feeling relaxed without need to impress and with out self-consciousness. All we do is to surrender our poverty and acknowledge our nothingness before Him. Whether we understand it or not He loves us, He is present to us, He lives in us, He calls us, He saves us, He offers us compassion and love. Let us experience that we are the one He loves!
Devotions from Brennan Manning’s book, The Rabbi’s Heartbeat
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are.” I John 3:1
The Father doesn’t want us to be perfect but real. Yet at times we try so hard to please God and impress others that the energy is sucked right out of us. We want to present a perfect image but it leaves us feeling brittle, lifeless and fruitless. We need a divine transfusion, and to know that He is for us not against us. He wants to cut away our hypocrisy so that vitality can come to our souls. As we accept ourselves and receive His love, then we can revel in His grace. God’s sorrow is our fear of him, our fear of life, and our fear of ourselves. He longs to draw us into His embrace as His beloved child. No matter what our past has been or our present we can come back to the shelter of His love. Thomas Merton said, ”Quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only His child redeemed by Christ.”
Richard Bode in his book “First you have to row a little boat” has this to say about life, “The day will come when I will die. So the only matter of consequence before me is what I will do with my allotted time. I can remain on shore, paralyzed with fear, or I can raise my sails and dip and soar in the breeze.” I shared this quote along with two stories of Jesus in Mark, one with him in the boat and the other with him on the water, with some spiritual companions last Saturday. It seemed to have spoken to the fear and uncertainy of some on their spiritual journey.
I have been thinking about this quote for myself as a man. I don’t think that I am alone in my reluctance to get in the boat and go out to sea. I prefer the shore where it is safe and I am in control. Getting in the boat means a lot of uncertainty. One way I would like to suggest that we as men need to risk getting in the boat is in regard to our relationships. You see we can stay on the shore, be uninvolved emotionally, especially with our wives, attempting to stay in control and make rational sense of the storm. It just will not happen.
What God is wanting us to do is to get out there on the sea, that is, the sea of emotional turbulance, when we encounter an “emotional storm” with our wives. For most men, this is a fearful event, since we have no idea how or when the storm will ease up. But our task, as men is to stay in the boat and ride out the storm. Now take the two stories of Jesus found in Mark 4:35-41 and Mark 6:45-52 and apply them to our being in the storm. In the first passage, Jesus in asleep in the boat with his disciples. So I can take heart that He knows my fear and uncertainty. In The Message the disciples are addressed by the following words, “Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?” I can easily be a coward when I emotionally turn away from the storm. Jesus wants me to have faith not in my ability to endure the storm, but in His presence with me. I am not supposed to avoid the storm, but stay in the storm, learning how Jesus wants me to respond.
In the second passage, Jesus comes walking on the water during a storm. The text tells us, “He (Jesus) intended to go right by them.” Jesus know full well their fear of the storm. He wanted them to notice His presence in the storm. But they thought it was a ghost. So He tells them, “Courage! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” Wow, this is a good word for us as men in the emotional storm. Far to often we think we are all alone in the emotional storm, trying to figure out how to get throught the turbulance. But Jesus is right there saying to us as men, “Courage! It’s me. Don’t be afraid.” In other words, he is saying, “I know how you feel and what you are going through emotionally. I’m really here with you. Look to me for help to know how to respond properly in the emotional storms. I’m not a ghost. I am here for you.”
So men take courage and be willing to endure the emotional storms in your relationships, especially with your wives. Jesus’ presence is with you. He will help you with the right responses. He will give you the grace and emotional strength to endure and learn from the storms.
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