Being Chased!!!

How many of you have felt chased in your life.
This thought came about as I was chatting with a friend and I remembered the story of King David being chased by Saul.   A great series of passages in the life of two families facing a change in power. Not too far distant from our world. For the Biblical families were slightly dysfunctional.
SO we don't have to lose hope when it comes to having fruitful lives. We are going to face dangers and hardships.

The passages from 1 Samuel 18-21 also feature the great battle that David has to fight with Goliath.

Exploration

T.S. Elliott had a marvelous quote that my cousin John quoted and I wanted to share it with you. 
"We shall not cease from exploration , and at the end of our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."  This really describes the journey of life.  We tend to go in circles sometimes.  This is a cycle.  Of taking the time to return to center and gain much more understanding of what we did not know and to find out how much we still need to learn about.

This aptly describes the NASA space program in which they sent up over 100 shuttles to space and brought them back to earth each time.  Those journeys yielded answers to the questions that they posed but also raised questions at the same time.  And there are those times that the Challenger shuttle did not complete one of their missions successfully when it exploded in mid air 73 seconds into flight and the time Columbia disintegrated upon its landing from one of her missions. But even amid the failure of these two missions, learning went on of how to prevent future disasters and grow, expand and build a base of knowledge.
And it demonstrates that any exploration involves a degree of risk.
Even from disaster, the Challenger has birthed approximately 7 Challenger Learning centers that have taught kids and adults to work in teams and on projects

Our memoir class at the Bridgeport Public Library has been a place where we have been able to talk about memories of where we grew up when we were young.

The hurt and the pain

Life brings some tragic blows on many in this world.

I heard that there was another shooting in Bridgeport this past evening and affected a city Pastor's relative.

This week I attended a healing poetry workshop where we wrote about healing through the power of poetry.  I reacted to several poems and walked around the City Lights Gallery in Bridgeport where there were about 70 artworks from collages to paintings that depicted the violence that people were affected by.

Then I reflect back to when Jesus was on the cross and how he got insults hurled at him and was beaten beyond recognition.  And how he showed courage and love towards his oppressors.  

And I thought of what Jesus must have felt and of how after being with his disciples and followers and the religious establishment in Jerusalem.  For some of them did not get what he was all about.  After all that he had done for them and of how His father created the world and had markers along the way that pointed to Him.

And I fast forward that to today. And of how our society does not always get or understand what we are all about. Yet the miracle is that the Gospel of Jesus still goes out to the world and is changing many lives.

So my challenge to this audience is to reach out and identify with one hurt and pained individual and offer them hope with your words. Just like Jesus did on the cross. And along the dusty roads of Bethlehem.  Without taxi or bus or car.  But on foot and donkey mainly.

It can be done by cold cups of water or just sitting at another's feet or hugging them offering the solace and balm for the soul.  Of Gilead.

God's peace and shalom.

The Journey Home

Mark 8:3 "If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, for some of them have come a long distance." Back in Biblical times, the people did not have Ipods or Macs or PCs to get the scoop on eternal life.
They HAD to walk to hear of the increasing fame and power and love of Jesus.
Jesus wanted to feed them for that long journey back and in Mark 8:8, "the people ate and were satisfied.

" All from those 7 loaves and 5 fish that were given to them.
My challenge tonight is for us to realize that the journey home is ongoing. For we are all seeking something to give us rest, comfort and encouragement through this world.
That is offered through Christ on the journey towards Heaven.
May you find rest and encouragement through that journey of life.

Blessings through the many potholes along the way.

The Temptation Narrative

One of the major themes throughout Scriptures is the temptation narrative.  We have in the book of Genesis the devil coming in the form of the serpent to Adam and Eve questioning them about God.
For God wanted them to rely on Him and not the serpent. It was just Adam and Eve and God vs. the Serpent.
Today the same battle exists for our souls. For the enemy and God are in a wrestling match over who will control us.  For we must surrender to God for the positive outcome.
We have many encouraging Scriptures. One is found in James: Submit to God and the enemy will flee from you.

Before Jesus began his public ministry, He faced the test of the devil.  The devil tried to trick Jesus by offering him the whole world then if he would take the bait of his trickery.  Yet, the enemy did not win for Jesus went to the Scriptures and said often, It is written.  For Jesus was entrusted with the world and did not need to be given it.

And we are offered in the letter to the Corninthians the promise that no temptation has seized us except what is common to man.  And a way out is offered.
So weaved throughout this narrative is the common theme of redemption if we only will take that proper route so we can find peace and joy in the process!!!

Peace be to God for His power is greater than any physical or psychological or metaphysical force put against us!!!!

The lessons of Empowerment

I heard a shocking statement when I listened to the second part of the documentary on PBS, "Half the Sky."  The statement was that talent is universal and opportunity is limited. It is the same in the economic world.  The world has these limited resources but there has to be a way to make these resources available to many through ingenuity and imagination.  It is shocking since these problems have been going on for a long time but the results of progress have been very slow.

In the program, Gloria Steinham provided a quote, "there is progress in the imagination of equality."

It can happen through the involvement of people in their dreams. 

Think back through history of how many pioneers struggled through their challenges to make a difference for the blacks to gain suffrage/voting rights.

The benefit of empowering women is to provide them with a chance to provide for their children to go to school and to have their own business and live in a decent house.

Writing about this is a challenge for me since I don't experience the issues of women since I can not go undercover as one. But as I watched and learned from those going through struggles and saw how progress was being made, I learned more about what empowerment was. I typed much on empowerment but now I have a clearer understanding of what that really is.

So I encourage people to enter into the global dialogue as we help to make the problems fade away.  Then there can be a complete clear blue sky that we can all live underneath.

I welcome a dialogue from readers and writers so we can make lessen the depths of these problems.

Thanks and blessings.

The Hidden Beauty

Today the sky was very beautiful and inviting. I looked out my bedroom window and saw the blue sky with the white puffy clouds.  I went outside and almost could kiss the sky. Yet, its horizon was far off. It was that desire to be able to do that though.

About a month ago, I attended a leadership summit hosted by Willow Creek Community Church.  Its goal is to provide leadership solutions and dialogue to a world that is struggling with economic poverty, justice concerns, education and social change.  Tough issues to solve in one simple solution.
One saying that I heard this morning is that there is no silver bullet to any situation.
Yet to challenge the status quo is extremely important.

That is what Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn have done.  They chronicled the lives of women in the world that have suffered from traficking, rape and abuse. Words that I normally don't use. Words that are not in my vocabulary.  But words that are in many of the lives of women in this world.
Their story and mission are on PBS on a two day documentary on channel 13 and also at www.pbs.org/halfthesky

This brings me to the thought and teaching of Jesus as he approached the children.  He said in Matthew 19:14, "let these little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."  I can only think back to the documentaries of that underworld of suffering that I see and hear about at mission updates or see on a Unicef commercial.  Not usually a lengthy dialogue of the suffering.

I only wish the world could open its arms the way Jesus did and welcomed the children to himself.  For they deserve that kingdom of God.  And the beauty is that Jesus left His original kingdom and dwelt among us.  And that Word was with God in the beginning too.

So I am at a loss of words of how I can physically change their world. A spreading of awareness, a special prayer maybe.  Or the shedding of a few tears as well.
And maybe just a smile to a girl or woman struggling at school, at home, or in the marketplace.
A place where we can be a world that has all the opportunities to live successful lives.

So when you look outside at the sky, remember to kiss it on your journey. And also remember the other half of the sky, that half-the women- who are fighting for a chance to succeed in this world.

Thank you!
Blessings.