Learning Jesus

Pardon me for getting older.  Getting older means  taking more time to reflect on who I am, what I have done, whether I have accomplished anything worthwhile, what priorities I have and have had that were silly, to mention only a few things I think about and pray about.  Let me think a bit about one reflection.
When I was younger I thought I needed to "learn about Jesus."  When that only went so far I made it more personal:  I thought I would figure Jesus out.  (As you can tell, Jesus is rather in the center of my thinking, acting and believing and has been most of my adult life.)  So I tried to figure Jesus out.
I think that is the wrong priority for me now, and probably was for most of my life.
I think the better priority is to "learn Jesus".
Moses offers a lot.  Mohammed offers some value.  But Jesus, as I  see it, offers everything a human could want -- agape' love, behavior that respects others, values that confront prejudice and pride in the self as well as in others, understanding ("He knew what was in man. . . ") and so forth.
Although his teaching seems essential, his living what he taught is even more important to me now.  I am not Jesus.  Jesus lived in an occupied country with violence and violations I can hardly imagine.
I want to , and I need to, learn Jesus.
What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

Thomas Merton's Prayer

I saw this, or was sent this.  I am helped by this.

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. 
I do not see the road ahead of me.
 I cannot know for certain where it will end. 
Nor do I really know myself, 
and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You.
 And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
 I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. 
And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone." 

From http://goo.gl/haLv2

As I age, as I live more experience, as I wonder about relationships I thought I understood, and as I am pounded back to a few experiences I know were real, this prayer works for me most of the time.

How about you?  Would you try living with this, and then leave a comment.  Let us know whether, or how, this expresses something authentic for you (or not).

Can Anyone Tell Me Where To Go?

I never asked that questions.  I didn't know enough to ask that question.  But I lived that question.

"Can anyone tell me where to go to learn about God, about Jesus, about faith, about living?"

I was a junior at the University of Washington.  I was open.  I was searching.  God found me, I didn't really find God.  So, what next?

The student association associated with the church where God found me embraced me.  I played intramural football with them.  I went to group meeting, listening, learning.  Probably some of it was useful.  I know the sense of being accepted and welcome was useful.  But remember -- I was brand new.  These new friends had been raised in churches.  As it turns out, they were mostly answering the wrong questions and asking very few others.

I was after answers.  I believed in answers.  I wanted answers.

One young man tried to help me embrace questions.  He had questions.  He had doubts.  He had hooked on to a philosophical position that asserted that we cannot know anything.  We cannot even, he said, know if the floor will hold our weight when we take the next step, or even if will will have a foot to step with.

He took his life when he was twenty.

His extreme position with an extreme result resonated with me.  I wanted ANSWERS, dammit!

Can anyone tell me where to go?

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let me know.

Conflict and Conscience

As the world population increases, as potable water supplies become more scarce, and as food shortages increase, I find my conscience in conflict with itself.  I wonder if you do as well.

My faith doesn't help me very much.  Maybe a little, but it also intensifies the conflict.

Here is what I mean:

• As resources become scarce, do I have a responsibility to die in a timely fashion?
• As population increases what is my responsibility to the unborn?
• As faith tells me to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and tend the wounded do I have a responsibility to let nature take its course?
• As new wells deplete aquifers not only in Africa but in Colorado and Nebraska, USA, is my job to lobby for every deeper wells, for for less irrigating even though that may mean higher food prices and food shortages?
• Although the Old Testament of the Christian Bible (Bible for people of the Jewish faith) commends having a lot of children, should I press for limits on births?  Fight for better and mandatory contraception?  Resist the Roman Catholic teachings?  

I can find arguments on both sides of each questions.  I can speak to both sides of these issues.  I can find scientific data and faith data.  What I cannot find are obvious answers.  I have to act and live by faith at each moment as I respond to these questions and others like them.  By faith, I don't mean "the faith" but trust that I will find my way at least part of the time.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.

One Way

As a boy and a young man I heard this saying hundreds of times:  "There is one right way to do everything, and thousands of wrong ways."  Since I had some reason to believe my elders, I believed it.  Eventually I grew up.

Eventually I was apprehended by God and began to search for the "right way" to be a person of faith.

Eventually I discovered hundreds if not thousands of "right ways".  There seems to be more than one right way to do many, many things.  But I digress.

For some, the "right way" is to read the Bible every day.
For others, the "right way" is to pray a prayer of surrender every day.
For others, the "right way" is to attend church at least twice a week and stop drinking alcohol.
For yet others, the "right way" is to participate in a spiritual formation retreat twice a year.

A person may have to try several approaches over the years to find the way of having faith and growing in faith for herself/himself.  And, guess what?  We humans may not have discovered all the ways yet!  The best way for you may be a combination of approaches no one has tried yet.

We are all "works in process".  And what works in our twenties may need to be replaced in our thirties, forties, fifties and so on.

What do you think?  Or, do you ever think about faith?  Leave a comment and let us know.