Wednesday, September 26, 2012

How I see life

How We See Life
Howard Thurman

Life is seen as being something to conquer, to struggle with and against. Life is the enemy. It is not be embraced, to be lived. Hence we creep through our days, reacting to our world as if our faith were in magic, rather than in life.

[Humans] must experience life; they must feel it run through their whole being that life belongs to them and they to life.... The test of life is to be found in the amount of pain, of frustration, they can absorb without spoiling their joy in living. To keep alive an original sense of aliveness is to know that life is its own restraint and a [human] is able to stand anything that life can do.

Source: The Inward Journey

How I see life

Got the above just this morning in my email. It describes me pretty well and gave me cause to stop, think and examine; for I do see this life as described in the first paragraph. While not completely as indicated there’s still quite a bit of accuracy in it. I ascribe to the theory that time here is sort of a “tempering” for “better times ahead” and without that promise this transitory life would be difficult indeed.

So, I think I’ll look to the wisdom of the second paragraph in the hope of finding something to uplift me today and henceforth, that “joy of living” if you will; and hopefully enjoy better days for it.

Friday, September 07, 2012

Communion

So, in doing my weekly EfM Group mailing, I included the following; as it had just come across my email this morning. It spoke to me, and I felt compelled to share:

Communion
Daniel Berrigan

Sometime in your life,
hope that you might see one starved man,
the look on his face when the bread
finally arrives. Hope that you
might have baked it or bought it
or even kneaded it yourself.
For that look on his face,
for your meeting his eyes
across a piece of bread,
you might be willing to lose a lot,
or suffer a lot,
or die a little even.

Shortly I received back a reply from one of our more learned scholars in the group who said:
"Re: Daniel Berrigan--It’s always intriguing to me how persons considered to be radicals or on the fringe at one time can eventually become seen as wise and more or less mainstream.
Thanks for sharing it!"
To which I replied:
"You know, I didn't pick up on the author when I read this, only the message. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
I suppose, after due consideration, there could be some deep theological reflection over our recognition of wisdom and truth, no matter who the source or what the politic behind it."
For  I believe that when we search for matters (particularly those of faith) that we can agree on, those which fundamentally divide us can be recognized as being of worth in the eyes of others and we can then work towards unity in all things rather than division.