Shining Spirit

Sadness is a state of being for many people. They live in it, see life through it, and assume that this is the way it’s going to be from now on. And when this happens, sadness takes over, takes control, always whispering in your ear: times are bad and they won’t get better. And then one day, while out for a lonely, sad walk, you crest the hill, look down into the valley and gasp at what you see. The whole valley floor is covered in bright yellow flowers; not a few, but hundreds and hundreds. And without thinking, you run down the hill into the sea of yellow and dive into the beauty like you would a swimming pool. The aroma of the good earth, the fragrance of the shimmering flowers, the shock of it all…something creates a feeling of deep joy. You lay on your back, looking at a bright blue sky, surrounded by yellow flowers dancing in the gentle breeze. The whole valley seems to sing out its welcome. And you think to yourself: the cause of my sadness still exists, but I choose to live with it instead of in it. I can live with sadness if I must because now I have felt the touch of joy, the embrace of a gift. Sadness will finally give up and slip away, but joy lasts. Joy endures.

I wonder where all these beautiful flowers came from? you wonder to yourself. How was this valley transformed into a place of healing and joy. Here’s the answer: not long ago a man came through the barren valley with large bags carried on a wagon. And as he walked back and forth in the valley, he threw seeds into the air, and the air carried them all over the land and dropped them like a blanket. And rain came as the man left the valley, almost as if timed, and covered the seeds in nourishing water. And the earth opened her arms and welcomed the moist seeds, embraced them until they could contain themselves no longer and burst into joyful yellow flowers.

And then they waited. Waited for you to come along. How grateful we are to the One who creates the seeds and to the one who scatters them.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…where there is sadness, let me sow joy…”

When I was misinformed, mistaken, my friend said: “Let me throw some light on this subject…” and he spoke truth. His words were honest and filled with concern for me in the darkness of my confusion. He set me free. Light does that.

When Francis wrote this line in his amazing prayer, surely in the back of his mind was he sentence: “I am the Light of the world…” It’s this Light that Francis wants to sow in all corners of darkness. But how? I know the answer; the real question is: do I really want to do it? In the face of intentional or accidental darkness do I want to speak truth. In the deep darkness, do I really want to be light. Speak light. Be light. Weak knees and frightened minds are strengthened by The Spirit to carry Light into darkness. The darkness of untruth, fear, guilt or shame can become so comfortable that it becomes our “normal”, the way things are supposed to be. Thank God for someone like Francis who comes along with a seed bag full of Light. Thank God for you. Here’s your seed bag. Plant some Light today.

Lord…where there is darkness, let me spread Light so that you can cause the earth to blossom in radiant life. Amen

I can handle sadness because there is still a glimmer of hope. I can still see a little light ahead. Sadness comes to visit often but doesn’t move in like a permanent guest. Sadness causes me to pause, not to sit down and stare at the floor.

Despair, though, is different. Despair is the absence of hope. It is that hollow feeling like someone has ripped your heart out. Despair moves in and turns out all the lights. Francis, in his beautiful prayer, knows that the antidote for despair is hope. Just say the word: “Hope” and you feel your lungs move a little and you hear a faint heartbeat. Hope says: “it’s possible.”

What a wonderful gift you and I can give to the world, not an artificial “everything will be ok” but a redeeming, renewing hope based on a promise and a presence. Love is the seedbag from which seeds of hope can fall onto the dry ground of despair . When that happens, flowers bloom.

Once I was afraid and alone, and my friend came to me and sat by my side through the worst moments. A seed was planted. I lost my job and had no way to care for my family. A neighbor brought groceries and an envelope containing cash to help us get by. A seed. When my loved one died and grief was overwhelming, she called every day to check on me and was always available. Seed planted. I laughed at someone who found strength in faith; not for me. Then my friend told me what he called “good news” and slowly it all made sense. Over time, I learned so much about life from his faith explanations. Seeds.

Lord, where there is doubt or uncertainty or ignorance or indifference, give me the courage to plant seeds. Allow me to be a seed bearer for you and I will plant if you will bring the growth.

St. Francis would never claim to be the Master Gardner, just the seed bearer, the planter. By word, witness and work. May your life today, what you say and what you do, bring someone closer to the garden of God’s grace.

Words have sharp edges. Words cut deep. Sometimes words leave scars, if not on the body, certainly on the soul. In fact, some of us are still bleeding from the unkind, thoughtless word. Francis of Assisi, the author of this beautiful prayer, knows about injury caused by mean words spoken by mean-spirited people. He felt the sting of injury over and over again. But instead of seeking revenge, instead of plotting to get even, he prayed for the capacity to forgive . “where there is injury, (let me sow) pardon.”

There’s a pretty good chance that someone reading these words remembers the hurt and still carries that stone around with them. It’s time to put it down; also that stone of retribution. Let them go. Healing will come when I acknowledge my pain and join St. Francis in sowing seeds of pardon. I know; life has taught us to carry a sack full of rocks in case I meet that person who injured me, but Jesus, the man to whom Francis gave his life, teaches pardon and forgiveness. The sack of rocks gets heavier and heavier as revenge-filled time goes by. Pardon given is the doorway to freedom.

Why not make today the beginning of personal freedom? Put the rocks down; pick up the bag of seeds.
Sow pardon. Make the call, write the note, knock on the door and give to the one who opens it a bouquet of pardon. “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon.”

Hate: an intense dislike; an intense feeling of ill-will.

Sometimes it starts with a thoughtless comment, a word taken the wrong way. Maybe it is an intentional slur or a calculated action taken that causes pain. Something triggers hate. Something pokes the sleeping monster and it growls back.

Francis recognized that the antidote to hatred is love, but that most of the time, love needed time to put down some roots and grow into the hatred. Like sowing seeds; they don’t come up overnight. Love planted needs tending, maybe for a long time, but the seeds of love finally blossom.

Francis knew also that love has to be planted in the midst of intense dislike, where it lives and flourishes. Seeds of love don’t do much if they are contained in journals or literary publications. Love has to look hate in the eye, stand in the place where hate appears to be winning, live in hate’s neighborhood if it is to transform. I once knew a man who said we ought to love “promiscuously.” Lavish love, sown in hate’s backyard, will eventually produce the inevitable transformation. Nobody said living like this is easy. There’s a precedent.

It is said that Francis of Assisi gave away everything he had…his standing in the community, name, personal wealth, friends, even his family. Legend has it that he stripped out of his elegant robes, a public spectacle, and walked about from life into Life. His heart was changed and he changed the world. Like Jesus, Francis took the form of a servant and called others to his side. Out of those efforts and on behalf of the lost in his time, Francis produced this remarkable prayer that has borne his name forever…The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. Reflect on these magnificent words with me:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…”

The first word of the prayer reveals that Francis is no longer bound to rich family life, wealth, or power. Francis has a “Lord” who gives life and is life. Francis no longer belongs to himself. “Make me…” Transform me! Reshape me! Shape the clay any way you desire, not into more abundance but into new poverty. “An instrument” What instrument would you be if you had the choice? Francis became the soft, authentic, completely honest music of the harp, truly an instrument of peace. “Your” peace, not mine.

Begin this day praying the words of Francis and then again and again and again throughout the morning and into the heat of the day. Reflect on the words, be with them until they quietly become your own word. May peace find you and embrace all your busy-ness.

Sometimes wonderful things happen in two hours and 47 minutes. I bought a simple office desk yesterday. It looked great on the showroom floor, just what I wanted, deal done. “Do you think I can get it in the back of my CRV,” I asked the salesclerk. “Oh, yes sir. Absolutely. No problem. Just pull your car around to loading dock number 2 and we will help you load it.” What a nice young man.

Loading dock number 2. The big door opened and there stood a man with a long box. Must be for somebody else, I thought. Where’s my desk? When the football-tackle sized man tossed the box into the back of my car, it suddenly occurred to me that I had bought a desk and it was in 2,376,389 parts in a very heavy cardboard box. “Have fun,” the man chuckled as he walked away. When you assemble a complicated item from the long box using 6 pages of instructions, do you ever have to take it apart and do it a second time. Sometimes Part 7 that fits into Part 12 will also fit into Part 3 and when you discover that 7 is supposed to go into 12 and you’ve tightened it down in 3 by mistake, you have to disassemble and start over. Not that I did. I was just curious if that ever happened to you.

But two hours and forty-seven minutes later I had it finished. My wife said, “Nice job. Does it lean to the left just a little?” Yes, sometimes wonderful things happen quickly, sometimes it takes two hours and forty-seven minutes, sometimes longer. My consolation is that it took God several days to put the universes together…several days. And every day I stand in awe of the creative hand that fashioned light and suns and darkness and living creatures and everything else I encounter each day. What other response can there be but deep gratitude for this day and all the ones waiting to be born? I thought God did an especially good job on the clouds I saw this morning. My guess is that it took God only the snap of divine fingers…and there it was.

Nice job!

Do you recognize this beautiful scene? Think hard. Maybe you’ve been here before and memories come rushing back. Remember? Recognize? Well, don’t work too hard and give yourself a headache. You haven’t been there. There is no “there” because the fake-photo is the product of two words put into the hands of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The publishing service that I have used for almost 15 years of Shining Spirit has added an AI component, which means that if I don’t have the photo I want to use, I can create one. In the case of the beautiful sunrise here, I wrote two words, “mountain sunrise” in the AI box and twenty seconds later, here it is.

Everyone has known for a long time that the implications and opportunities of AI are staggering. What is real? What is true? Honest? Suddenly we have shifted to a conversation about ethics and honesty, about truth. What is true? And this is a topic that has clear relevance to our daily activities. It seems that you and I were made to live life fully in what Jesus called “the Kingdom of God.” That is not a specific place on the roadmap. No, it is a state of mind, a perspective, an outlook built on a particular foundation, one laid by Jesus. In this Kingdom relationship with Christ, everything we do or say is held up to spiritual principles: truth, mercy, compassion. This Kingdom of God in which we live every day is all about ethical and moral principle. There is nothing Artificial about it. I pray that life in the future, the days of our great grandchildren and beyond, will maintain the balance between what is real and what is artificial. When He said: “I am the way, the Truth, and the light…” he meant it and he laid out the principles that must guide human beings through life. What is truth? An urgent question in today’s culture.

Night to day to night
Darkness to light to darkness
I am grateful for the light of this morning
I am grateful for The Light that never goes away
Even in my darkness, the Light is still there.
The earth turns by design
I turn away by my choice
Thank you, Source of my life,
for your constancy.
Walk with me through the light of this day.

Amen