DANGEROUS THINKING

Funny how something comes to you in the wee hours before the dawn. Today it was a quote from Shakespeare's "Tragedies of Julius Caesar."  Into my head popped, "Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; such men are dangerous." Caesar is speaking. Cassius is the instigator in the conspiracy against Caesar. The plot consists of a combination of political ideology and personal envy.  Cassius does indeed have the skill of reading other people accurately.  In this instance, however, his better judgement is overwhelmed by Brutus and others emotionally driven to destroy Caesar. (At this point I was almost detoured into thoughts about the current political scene, but that is not where my early wonderings went.) We are all blessed with the gift of thought, but I was aware this morning of how dangerous too much thinking can be to our own peace of mind. Even Shakespeare's Caesar went on to say,  Such men as Cassius are "never at heart's ease." Instead of taking whatever God sends my way today, I will probably wind up over-thinking it.  Instead of accepting what is, I will be inclined to analyze it, name it, compare it to somebody else's experience, wish it were different and wind up afraid of what might happen.  I will let my mind project some imaginary future instead of taking one day at a time.  That will only lead to confusion and the feeling of being overwhelmed.  And where will all this thinking get me anyway? Does not God say, through Isaiah, "My thoughts are not your thoughts."

DISTURBING THE PEACE

I'm guilty of disturbing the peace--my own peace. I repeatedly do that by overvaluing my own opinons.  When I cling to a certain viewpoint as if my life depended on it and fail to see that such an opinion is no more than something I thought up, I am easily disturbed when someone challenges it. I get into that trap by wanting something desperately or when I am afraid something bad might happen. On the other hand, when I trust God to supply my every need, I am calm. Isaiah understood, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee." This is what Thomas a Kempis suggested to his fellow monks in the middle ages, by advising them to stop paying so much attention to each other and focus on their own inner self and on God. I get out of the trap by refusing to give all my attention to things going on in my world and get very still. There I experience the difference in the temporary and the eternal. Let there be peace on earth and let it begin in me.

SINGING BIRD IN THE PERFECT STORM

Its before dawn and I am a singing bird in the perfect storm. I am in a loving space in a tsunami tossed world. Even my own beloved country can't right itself. Other countries are either sinking or trying to adjust to new leadership roles. Long-held values are playing fruit basket upside down. Soon I will be confronted by all the mental noise of this world.  My hope for maintaining my inner peaceful space is to surrender to what is. Don't fight it and don't deny what is happening. For me the opposite of denial is to be more spiritually conscious. There I become more fully aware of a loving God in the control tower moving us along through the storms with divine directions. The most important directions according Jesus is to be more involved in loving God and all others while I am in this loving space myself.  In this three-way relationship I discover that the cosmos is not out of control after all. In this storm I don't just sing, as cool as that is. Today I may have the opportunity to resume my God-given role of co-creator with God. In this space I no longer fret about what the future will hold. Maybe I will see what the New Testament writers were saying when they talked about the end of the world. From their viewpoint the end of the world as they saw it was the ushering in of a new age. As Paul said, "The present form of this world will pass away." The new era of love and grace involves the fuller presence of Jesus. And it requires my fuller presence, living with gratitude and kindness in the here and now as the sun comes up.

THANKSGIVING 2011

Early yesterday morning, Thanksgiving Day, I read in the paper an item that gave me an insight: gratitude and grumpiness cannot coexist. This will be a different day.  I will not turn on the world news. Thanksgiving does not fit with anger. I will be thankful all day. My frequent ego-driven upset with people, places and things can't hang out with an attitude of gratitude. Today I will surround myself with family for whom I am supremely thankful. Sure enough as I thought appreciation, I gave myself a full day of thanksgiving and joy.  I remembered Thanksgiving 1966.  After a year of separation from my family, I was ending my year of ministry in Viet Nam. I flew to Saigon, enjoyed a Thanksgiving celebration of turkey, dressing and sunshine on the roof of the Rex Hotel and prepared to fly home the next day. No matter what the calendar said it was indeed Thanksgiving Day. And so is everyday.

NO SUCH THING AS BAD BREATH

Number one on my Thanksgiving list: God's gift of my breath. I received it on my day of birth and it will be with me until I die.  These go together: breath and life.  Both are sacred.  They are God-breathed. Breath and spirit.  Holy breath, holy spirit. Divine inspiration. I'll take a deep one and say, "Thanks be to God."

LOOKING FOR TRUTH IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

CHARLIE WONDERS today if he has been looking for truth in all the wrong places.  Truth may be in the cartoons that I have passed over with only an occasional chuckle. In my reading today I was referred to the cartoons to look for the real that is never obvious.  Cartoons point to something that is very different from the "reality" that we normally see.  So do the so-called "reality shows." In the cartoons the victim (mouse) is chased by the evil cat, but always outsmarts him.  What we think we see with our eyes is really an illusion. There is far more that meets the eye. Most movies approximate reality according to the way things normally look to us, but this falls far short of how they really are. Colorful animated cartoons don't even try to copy "real reality".  They love to  break the world's rules. No one ever dies, the classical music plays on, and we all laugh and clap. When I try to see you and you try to see me, we might as well be watching a cartoon. What we see in each other approximates, but falls far short of who we really are.  Again, there is far more to each of us than meets the eye. Call it soul or whatever name we want.  As I age, I am increasingly aware of this truth. And it is beautiful!

VETERANS' DAY 2011

THANK YOU, friends and family for your thoughtful expressions of gratitude on Veterans' Day.
Whatever service I rendered to God and country came about rather naturally for this Oklahoma boy who grew up during World War II. In that war most kids made their contribution collecting things for the war effort. Supporting the troops then was a family affair.  While some of our extended family went off to military duty, the remaining family "fought the war" any way we could.  As kids we were challenged by our leaders to buy war stamps that eventually would be cashed into war bonds. We collected any scrap metal we could carry all to way to gum and candy wrappers.  We got medals for bundles of papers we turned in. As a family we were challenged to conserve on dish washing soap and were rationed on gas and tires. The women volunteered for Red Cross jobs such as wrapping bandages for the wounded and serving as hostesses for the USO.  Perhaps the conflicts we have had in our country since the Korean, and Vietnam wars and the more recent conflicts in the Middle East are in some measure related to a civilian lack of understanding of the wars and a personal investment in them. For a few days after 9-l1,  some of us thought we would have a sober, thoughtful,  prayerful response to that tragic attack. Instead, we turned it over to the politicians and the military. All we were asked to do was to cheerlead the troops and go shopping.  There came a time in my life when I  could cheerfully sing, "Ain't gonna study war no more." The message I get from the Bible is the time is still coming when we will live in a peaceful kingdom and beat our swords into plowshares.