Shining Spirit

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

Today is a dancing day!
First things first.
Stand up, clear some space.
Dance.
By yourself?  Why not?
Slowly, just move with that rhythm 
you hear in your mind.
Nobody's looking.
So what, if they were?
And if you can't stand and twirl,
use that vivid imagination and dance
in your heart.
Dance to the day.
Dance to life,
the Gift of waking.
This is your Dancing Day!

When I was in early elementary school, I came home one day and old my mother I had learned a new word on the playground. She was busy and her response was “that’s good” or “how nice” or something like that. Next I wanted to impress my elementary school classmate, Barbara, when she came over to the house to play in our spacious backyard. When the time was right, I inserted the four-letter word into the conversation and she never blinked an eye. The storm started brewing when Barbara went home and tried to show her mother how smart she was by using my, or our, new word. It wasn’t pleasant facing both startled moms.

With that confession as background, let me tell you that I learned a new word this morning, and I’m well past the second grade. It’s an African word: Ubuntu, which, according to writer Mark Nepo, means “I am because you are….You are because I am.” In short, it has something to do with how we need each other to be complete. It means, writes Nepo, that in our deepest joys and most profound sorrows, we are each other. We need each other to be complete. I know. It’s a deep subject and this might stretch into lots of pages if I let my imagination play. Ubuntu: “I am because you are…you are because I am.” Isn’t this the deep spiritual connection, the absolute oneness, that Jesus preached? Because we are all connected, because of Ubuntu, you and I are relatives of mountains and rivers and people who live in remote areas of Africa or in the crowded streets of New York City.

Life will be very different when we understand and respond to Ubuntu. We will honor the core sameness but go beyond that. We will see ourselves in the other who angers us, or frustrates us, and, seeing one’s own self, we will be hesitant to do damage to the other. So it is in the arena of spiritual understanding. When we grasp the deep oneness we have in Christ, when I really know that I am not just my brother’s keeper, but I am my brother, the world will regain balance, peace will be a possibility, and justice will flow like the river. Soon, please God.

As this remarkable day begins, I make this heart-felt prayer:
Lord, have mercy on your hard-headed people
who squander the moment in worry and fear,
forgetting the strength and power of Love,
ignoring the truth that you’re always here.

Take from our minds all divisive thought,
help us remember the truth you conveyed
through the life of that man from Bethlehem,
that division and hatred are pathways to death,
that the light of truth shines brightly through him.

Save us, Lord, from the power of hate
that brings darkness to so many minds.
Help us find courage to overcome,
to find common ground that benefits all;
the pathway that leads to peace and to hope
in the steps of our Savior, Your Son.

Amen

It’s a very hot day, but just around the corner, just out of sight, you will discover the following:
a small stream carrying water since it’s monsoon season in the desert, large boulders stacked randomly according to nature’s design plan, ancient drawings scratched into the boulders, the entrance to Stations of The Cross, several large trees on either side of the stream, and a wooden bench set comfortably in the shade of the tree branches.

Someone sits on the bench and looks up in your direction when you round the corner. Who is it? And what do you want to say to the one waiting? What needs to be said? Hello? Goodbye? I forgive you? Thank you? Forgive me, please? I’m sorry? I love you?

There is an opportunity around the corner today. Be watchful for the moment. In the midst of all you do, be ready to say or do what is really important. “The Holy Spirit will give you words to say at the right moment.” Luke 12:12

The meeting was over, I was tired, the evening air was heavy and hot, and I was ready to make the twenty-minute drive home. I tossed the backpack of group material in the seat next to me, punched all the necessary buttons to wake the car, seat belt on, off we go. When I made the turn from the parking lot onto a quiet side street, I hit the brakes. Not because there was a traffic danger but because there was a divine wink in the sky before me. The conversation in the group meeting had focused on being sensitive to the surprising presence of The Holy. And there it was, hanging in the darkening sky.

How could I not stop, turn the car engine off, and breathe in the message and the Mystery? Some people would see the same dramatic sky as beautiful. They might even take pictures of the moment, just like I did. I saw it, though, as God’s wink of confirmation that all is well. All is well. It was a very pleasant drive home from that revealing moment. Be on the lookout. Keep your spiritual eyes open. “The heavens declare the glory of God…” Keep your head up and travel the journey with confident hope. We are not alone.

A lot of people are worried today. Are you one of them? Worried about family problems, about the future, about cultural changes or political unrest, about something very personal. A lot of people are worried today and a lot of them suffer from GAD. GAD! Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Here are some symptoms: pain in the back, fatigue, restlessness, irritability, nausea, lack of concentration. I’ve got them all! I’m a GAD carrier! What can I do? How can I rid myself of his debilitating disorder? Well, you can try the Big Three: take pills, practice self-care, and/or go see a therapist. The usual. And/or you can listen to good advice: “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” Thank you, Maya Angelou. “Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.” Thanks to some old Swede who stated the Proverb. “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” Aristotle is right.

Allow me, Sir, to expand your good thought about seeing the light. You and I can or do have the remedy inside of us, present and waiting to blossom. And when we realize or remember this truth, life begins to regain balance and some stability. Here’s the answer in the wonderful chorus of a song that sings the solution to the pain of GAD: “the second you realize what you have inside, then it’s only a matter of time until…. you Sing, so the back row can hear you; Glide, cause walkin just won’t do; Dance, you don’t have to know how to; Laugh til your whole side is hurtin; Smile, like you just got away with something….the second you realize what you have inside! Grace Got You! That’s the name of the song by MercyMe, and it is number one in the list of remedies for GAD: Grace, God’s Grace, is inside you. Grace Got You! And when I realize it, remember it, then it’s only a matter of time until light begins to replace darkness.

GAD be gone! Grace got me! You, too! Come on…let’s dance!