Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Showing posts with label Praise and Worship. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Praise and Worship. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Doxologies of Praise





Doxology: God . . . tell me how


Beyond the beyond, you lurk behind the start
Of the times. Mystery is the skin that wraps
Your body (if you have one). In the pillar of
Cloud and the blazing bush, we heard you speak.
Like imprints, your footpaths are engraved on
The faces of rocks. Horeb said he accommodated you
And Nebo testifies to your visit. Red Sea said
your finger tickled a parting across like a barber’s
Clipper and like the wall of Jericho, permit you.
If I get you looking at me, God!
I’ll chat you with a billion lips of “how?” How?
After Okopi, did you pass life as a gas into the
Cave of Adam’s nose? A statue for multiplication.
And how did you carve him? Like an artist, you are?
A sculptor? Perhaps, a form-er. Perhaps, a build-er
Yet, your name isn’t Bob but a beautiful bard
You are. As a create-or. Tell me something, God!
Dear God, tell me how. How did you wire the
Bulbs you affixed on the chest of this vast
Canopy that marks the parting between you
And Cosmos? How did you put the bright smile
On the face of the sun and the dim fluorescence
As the countenance of the moon? How did you
Levitate land from the belly of the deep? When
After the fish, we fry for food and maggots munch
On man, will you hold me by hand and survey
Your cubicle to tell me how?


* * * * * * * *


Doxology:
Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow
(with lyrics)


Video Comment - My mom sang this to me when I was a little kid in my room. I must of been around 5? I don’t remember how old I was exactly, but I do remember how she sung it. I have a plaque with the words of this song hung on my wall in my room. I remember asking her what it was, as I never knew. She told me that it was a song. I asked her to sing it, so she did. I was little, but I still remember to this day in exact detail of that moment in my room. I remembered each note in my mother’s voice. The way the gentle sunlight flowed through my room and shined upon her. 12 years later, I still remember looking up at her singing this beautiful song. Knowing what that plaque in my room finally meant. I even remember the exact pitch, and could sing it in the exact key my mother sang it in all those years ago. I only just searched the song 12 years after to see if my memory held true. It did. The thing is, I only heard this song sung that one time. And I remembered it. At 5... 5 year olds don’t do that people. I like to think of that moment as the most special moment given to me by God in my life. And how I can vividly recall how my mother looked that day with the sunlight on her hair, and how she sung the song, in her beautiful voice. I’ve never experienced anything like that since. It’s a memory that I hold so dear to my heart. And I felt that God was in the room at the moment. Like he was the sunlight shining on my mom. I think he was.


* * * * * * * *


amazon link

Doxology: Poems in Praise of the Living God
by David Siefert
In Doxology, Dave Siefert pours out praise to God for his many blessings and points the reader to the need for faith in Jesus Christ alone for eternal salvation.
Doxology brings encouragement to those facing difficult circumstances, and gives hope to those who are spiritually searching. 

* * * * * * * *



Cloudnine Fairmane c9fm Jun 2022

CLOUDNINE'S TWENTY SEVEN PSALM OF DOXOLOGY
TO ADORE THY LORD GOD!


1 Make holy his glorious name and adore His powerful word.

2 Sing praises unto thee. And let every breathing creatures tremble at His footstool.

3 The Earth and everythang found therein. Lift on high His glorification and sing adoration unto the supreme Spirit of thy Lord.

4 Hallelujah! Thy Lord reingth till eternal.

5 From all entities through entities.

6 For He has magnified Himself and manifested Himself through every wondrous works of His hands.

7 Ruler of the universe, His glorious crafts exists even beyond the miutiverse.

8 Underneath Earth and above the skies may thy Almighty God be adored.

9 His right hand through seas His breathe roared the waters.

10 His voice quake the Earth and the foundation of the universe wary.

11 He looked and lightening from His eyes revealed the secret place of the wicked.

12 Let thy Lord be praised. He has smitten the jaws of His enemies.

13 Even Lucifer and his angels.

14 Thy Lord reignth till eternal.

15 Blessed be thy Lord our God; with psalms and doxologies thy Lord be worshipped. Selah!


When I think of all His awesome doings
all  around, my heart does praise.
And may it be count worthy before the Almighty.

#gad #praise #adoration #doxology #psalm
Cloudnine Fairmane c9fm

Written by Cloudnine Fairmane c9fm  28/M/Nigeria
     

* * * * * * * *



Cloudnine Fairmane c9fm Nov 2021

CLOUDNINE'S TWENTY SIXTH SONG OF 
DOXOLOGY: "TO BLESS THY LORD"


Let God be
praised and let
Himself praise Himself.
Let His people
joyfully praise Him,
and let the whole
world and its hosts
and the firmament
and its bodies
laud Him praises,
He who was
and who is to come
He who reinth for
evermore, word
without end. And from
the east pole
of the earth, to the
north of the
south reaching the
west, laud His praises.
In the deepest
part of the sea
sing Joyfully
doxologies of
glorification and
adoration to
worship Him
beneath the earth
and underneath His
throne were twenty
and four holy spirits proclaiming His
praises for He his
worthy to be magnified.
Praised be thy
Lord our
God till eternal.
Amen !


* * * * * * * *




The Best-Known Hymn in History
Why We Keep Singing ‘The Doxology’

Article by 
Executive Editor, desiringGod.org


Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

These 25 words, known to many around the world today as “The Doxology,” comprise what is likely the single best-known verse of all Christian hymnology and poetry.

On the surface, these lyrics are surprisingly modest and memorable. Few of us remember first hearing them, and few recall straining to learn them. Yet, as simple and accessible as these four lines are, Christians have been singing them now for more than three centuries. Because simple doesn’t mean shallow. Plain does not exclude profound. Which is one of the striking truths at the heart of our faith — and one of the great evidences for its truth — from the Gospel of John, to the early creeds, to the most widely known and enduring lyrics we share with the global church today.

“The greatest realities about God and his world can be captured in the humblest of terms.”

The greatest realities about God and his world, when understood aright, can be captured in the humblest of terms, even as they are bottomless in their depth. And yet we find an enduring quality in “The Doxology” absent from many of our passing modern choruses. Substance hides in the brevity and singability. Though short, the hymn is a coherent progression, rather than a loosely connected attempt at memorable phrases, and turns on the profound theological truths of God’s aseity and generosity, and God as Trinity.

Morning, Evening, Midnight

Thomas Ken (1637–1711), who crafted these plain and profound words in the late 1600s, wrote them as the final and “doxological” stanza of three hymns he published, first for students at Winchester College at Oxford University.

Ken, who was an Anglican minister, royal chaplain, and eventually bishop, first penned verses for his students at Winchester to sing upon arising in the morning, and at bedtime each evening. Later he added a third hymn, to rehearse at midnight, were students to have trouble sleeping. Each hymn was a confession of faith, and an invocation of divine blessing, tailored to its particular moment of the day. And each hymn ended with the same 25-word doxological verse in praise of God, three in one.

Ken’s hymns have by no means been lost today. However, it is his final verse — our beloved “Doxology” — that has endured, so well-known is it that it needs no placeholder in our hymnbooks. Christians the world over simply know it, almost without fail — both Ken’s timeless words and the tune, which Ken did not write, but which much later began to accompany the song. The tune, called Old One-Hundredth, originally designed to accompany the singing of Psalm 134, and later Psalm 100, first appeared in the Geneva Psalter in 1551 and was written by Louis Bourgeois (1510–1561), who served as head of choirs and music, alongside famous pastor and theologian John Calvin.

Source of All Good

What, then, has been the power of these 25 words? Why have they endured, and for many become one of the most basic and repeated expressions of the Christian faith?

For one, our God is indeed the one from whom all genuine blessings flow. He himself is the Blessed One (1 Timothy 1:116:15), the only one in whom is fullness of joy and pleasures forever (Psalm 16:11). Yet, unshakably happy as he is, he is not a God inclined to keep to himself but gives generously. He is happy enough to be outgoing.

God delights to give, to overflow with joy, to bless his creatures and share his own happiness in them and then with them. He is the giver of “every good gift and every perfect gift” (James 1:17). “From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

Three in One

This blessed God is also sovereign over all. He is both the singular source of all true good, and he is the Almighty. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all nature, and all the heavenly hosts above, and “all creatures here below.” Here and there, above and below, he is God and “does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). As the great humbled king of Babylon learned to declare in his own doxology, our God “does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand” (Daniel 4:35).

“God is glorified in our heartfelt expression of praise. God made us for praise. He made us for doxology.”

Still, this God, utterly complete in goodness and power, has revealed himself to his people. He is one and three — one God, three persons, working in history to redeem and restore his people from their sin and rebellion. He is a God three times for us in a great salvation, which is arranged by the Father, accomplished by the Son, and applied by the Spirit.

And so, we praise him as three in one, and one in three, just as we baptize “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19), and pray with the apostle, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Our Joy, His Glory

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. “The Doxology” has served as a ready-made form, and occasion, for Christians to connect the very purposes of God in all he does with our heart’s deepest desire. God made our hearts to ache for happiness. And he made the world, and us, to glorify him. And in this act of praise (which “The Doxology” directs and assists), our souls both rejoice and go public in expressing their delight in him.

God is glorified in our heartfelt expression of praise. God made us for praise. He made us for doxology. He made the world that he might be praised. And these simple yet profound words serve that simple yet most profound human act of devotion — and all the more when we join our voices and sing together.

Friday, December 19, 2014

The Experience of the Absence of God in the Christian Life


The Absence of God

well, at least the Old Testament has one thing going for it
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2014/12/well-at-least-the-old-testament-has-one-thing-going-for-it/

by Peter Enns
December 16, 2014

I kid of course. I happen to think the OT has a lot going for it, which is why I force my hapless undergrads to deal with it.

But not too long ago it snuck in the backdoor of my mind that the OT has something of core spiritual value that the NT doesn’t–the repeated observation and lamentation over God’s absence, the sense of God’s abandonment.

The OT, as we all know, has a serious dark side–what Walter Brueggemann calls Israel’s “counter testimony.”

In Israel’s main testimony, the story from Genesis through 2 Kings (from creation to exile), Israel’s plan for what it means to be the people God is laid out (albeit with all sorts of intersting and unexpected bumps and grooves): obedience to God leads to life in the land while disobedience leads to divine punishment and eventually exile.

The blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience are laid out nicely in Deuteronomy 27-30, and the same general idea in poetic form can be seen in Psalm 1.

But a key dimension of Israel’s tradition is the observation that the “rules of the game” that God insists on can’t be counted on.

Psalm 73, for example, notices that–contrary to God’s promise–the wicked prosper all the time and the righteous endure long days of suffering. Psalm 88 is a cry for help to God, but he is a no-show–darkness is the psalmist’s only companion (see the last verse). Right next door is Psalm 89, which in effect calls God a liar for failing to keep his promise that David’s line will continue forever (v. 36). The throne is empty now that Israel is in exile. God is, therefore, a promise-breaker.

And don’t get me started on Ecclesiastes and Job. Qohelet, the main character in Ecclesiastes, is seriously depressed and not a little ticked off at how God has set up the world. We go about our work day after day, it’s all the same, and we never actually have anything to show for it, because at the end of the day “you can’t take it with you.” Death cancels out all our achievements. “This is how God has set up the world, so don’t talk to me about blessing and curses, rewards and punishments.”

And nowhere in the book is there any attempt to “correct” Qohelet. In fact, the end of the book pronounces Qohelet as “wise” precisely because his words are painful, like spiked sticks used for driving sheep and cattle.

And poor Job. “Suffering” is too shallow a word to describe how his life utterly obliterated the neat world of  “actions have consequences” that we see in Israel’s main testimony. Job’s friends try again and again to help Job see the light: “You’re suffering Job. Read your Bible. You suffer because there is some sin in your life. There must be. Actions have consequences.”

Job’s response throughout is, “I don’t care what you say. I didn’t do anything to deserve this.” Even though Job’s friends merely repeated the “actions have consequences” idea that is hammered home elsewhere in the OT, at the end of the book God himself turns to Eliphaz, one of Job’s friends, and says, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has” (42:7). Even God isn’t held to the “biblical teaching” of the main testimony.

My point is that this sort of honest and even unnerving grappling with “what in the world God is up to and why should any of us bother with this God who lays out a plan that doesn’t seem to work in the day to day world” is all over the OT.

But you don’t find it in the NT.

In a word, the NT has a more triumphalist tone. In Christ, God has shown up definitively, finally. The NT writers tell us that in the gospel we see God’s final plan worked out before all the world–in an suffering, executed, and raised messiah.

The NT no doubt grapples with the question of suffering–no happy clappy world does the NT present–but we do not see the same anguish over the sense of God’s absence and abandonment that we see in the OT.

The exception is Jesus’s own cry of God’s abandonment in the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” which is a citation of Psalm 22:1, one of those “Where are you when we actually need you, God?” psalms uttered by the ancient Israelites–the crucified Jew’s abandonment by God sums up and embodies Israel’s experience throughout much of its own history.

But as interesting as that observation may be, that’s not my point here. This is my point: the sense of God’s absence, that anyone who has been a Christian for more than 45 minutes can attest to, finds its biblical echo the OT, not in the NT.

The NT, after all, tells the “end” of Israel’s story–in the sense that “this is where the story of Israel winds up.” The purpose of the NT is not to raise the specter of God’s abandonment but the trumpet call of God’s triumph for Israel and all the world.

But in my experience, this is precisely the problem for people who don’t feel triumphant.

If all we read is the NT, we are left with a sense that, however difficult things may be at the moment, stick with it: Jesus has come and he is coming back very soon.
There is no articulation on the part of NT writers of the deep sense of God’s absence that we find among the OT writers, who are there over the long haul, day in and day out, waiting for God to show up and stick to his own plan.

If all we read is the NT and we are also living though a period of God’s absence, abandonment, a period of doubt, a dark night of the soul, we may likely conclude that there is something very wrong with us for feeling this way.

If we don’t walk around in more or less a state of perpetual triumph and spiritual “victory” we will think we are some lower form of life, further down the ladder of spiritual maturity.

This is why we need to hear the experiences of the ancient Israelites to relieve us of our spiritual shame.

Their experiences are very much like ours today: life is hard, and life of faith does not automatically make it easier. It may actually make it harder at times.

Spiritual struggles are normal for Christians. They are not to be sought after, but they are normal. They are not to be romanticized, but they are normal. They are not to be shown off and bragged over, but they are normal.

To speak otherwise is to ignore the counter testimony. The Bible tells me so–and I’m glad it does.


Friday, June 6, 2014

R.E. Slater - Kindred Fellowships (a poem)



Filming Heaven





Serenity, Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada



Kindred Fellowships
by R.E. Slater

Have you ever watched the morning sun rise
while stalking knee-high clovered fields wet in dew?

Or felt the deep rumble of dark storm cloud's approaching
shrouded within stilled airs soaked in fresh ozone?

Or witnessed a cold fog envelop a murky beach
against a restless sea moving in endless rhythm?

Or listened the wandering night sky's starry silence
upon a far hillside from setting dusk to waking dawn?

In all these things God's handiwork abounds,
written across the laden heavens,
across this good earth we live and breathe,
filling our hearts with wondrous mysteries.

Whose very lives are held so dear,
so adorned by redeeming love,
so cherished by grace and mercy,
so lost in a world so complex and feared.

We, who are the living temples of God's Word,
who tred upon the mounts of His holy creation,
who delve into the Holy's inmost sanctuaries,
impassioned by all that inspires and devotes.

We, who keep the night watches and morning suns,
who inhale the early mists of evening's lingering whispers,
who are blessed and wouldst give blessing,
who seek, and grasp, and fall, and fail.

Let us praise our heavenly Sovereign for His wisdom,
our mighty Creator for all that is good and strong.

Let us sing our Savior's wonders and mercies,
met new everyday upon the souls of men.

Let us seek harmony's peace amid grand fellowships,
giving thanksgiving for heaven's abiding love and devotion.

And for this good earth on whose fellowship we tread,
scribing a poet's inspiration to a Redeemer's heart filled with tears.


- R.E. Slater
June 6, 2014
revised June 7-8, 2014

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved




Calla Lilies along the Big Sur, Garrapata State Park, California







Wednesday, October 10, 2012

How Full Is Your Life? Is It Filled with the Important Stuff?

Lessons of Life
from a mayonaise jar, some golf balls,
and a couple of cans of Beer...
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and 2 beers....
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full.
The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed....
'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else---the small stuff.
'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Spend time with your children.
Spend time with your parents.
Visit with grandparents.
Take your spouse out to dinner.
Play another 18 rounds of golf.
There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.
Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter.
Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.
The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'
The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The Pursuit of God’s Peace
in an Anxious World
posted October 17, 2011
The world in which we live is an anxious one, rife with fear and doubt. Economic markets rise and fall, employment fluctuates, conflicts erupt in unexpected places, and each year seems to bring a threat of some new virus that threatens mankind. We are all continuously faced with events outside of our control. As time passes the future takes on greater uncertainty. Indeed, it is often our struggle with uncertainty that plagues our spiritual life and gives birth to fear and worry.
Our society today has seen a dramatic spike in what psychologists call anxiety disorders. Many who struggle with these conditions wrestle with trusting, with uncertainty, with not having control. Not all who struggle with fear and worry, however, have a “disorder,” for such struggle is universal and comes with living in the world. There are many secular treatments and potential remedies for anxiety. As Christians we have all these, and much more, at our disposal in our fight against fear and anxiety. To the challenge of not having control, we have the ultimate answer and solution: God is in control. Those who deny God’s existence or who do not turn to Him in their lives, deny themselves the greatest treatment for fear, anxiety, worry and doubt. Our God offers us something that the world cannot give us, and that is His peace.
In the Gospel of John, our Lord tells us during the Last Supper, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; . . . not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). God’s peace is real and tangible. It is there for all who desire it. Jesus posits His peace as the opposite of fear, and says that His peace counters fear and a troubled heart. We also know that God’s peace has protective qualities to it. St. Paul writes in Philippians 4:7, “And [may] the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your minds and hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord.” God’s peace is a gift of God and part of His grace. The peace of God is more than just a mere feeling, it is something given to those who genuinely desire God and a life in communion with Him. The peace of God comes from continual awareness of God, of His presence, and from communion with Him through prayer. It is a quiet contentment and joy that comes from knowing that God is present. To define God’s peace completely, however, would be an impossible feat, as confirmed by the Apostle Paul.
The peace of God, and fear or anxiety, cannot coexist. Fear, doubt, and mistrust are of the devil. As Christians, we may fluctuate with having and preserving God’s peace inside us, only to lose our focus on God and become filled with fear and doubt. It is a struggle, but there are steps one can take to obtain and preserve the peace of God in our hearts. Indeed, the peace of God must be desired, pursued, and maintained.
Prayer is the single most important activity we can do to obtain the peace of God inside of us, and to reacquire it if lost. When we go into our room, close the door, and genuinely seek God, we are opening ourselves for an encounter with the peace of God. Our God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. The events in the world and at times even in our life may seem chaotic and out of control, but they are not, for there is a beginning and an end. He is in control. When we bring ourselves into contact and dialogue with God, we are bringing balance and stability into our life.
That balance and stability, however, must be maintained. St. Isaac the Syrian often made analogies between how a ship sails from island to island, taking on supplies, and how we pray. We go through our lives sailing from prayer to prayer until we reach our destination. Each time we pray, we are taking on the peace of God which gives us balance and stability. Archimandrite Sophrony, a student of St. Silouan the Athonite, speaking of prayer, said, “Prayer affords an experience of spiritual liberty of which most people are ignorant. The first sign of emancipation is a disinclination to impose one’s will on others. The second is an inner release from the hold of others on oneself.” It could be stated that Archimandrite Sophrony is speaking of the effects of the peace of God on one’s soul. The peace of God has a liberating effect, for to allow oneself to fear what others think or to be driven to impose our opinion or will on others is to lose our spiritual and emotional balance. Indeed, the peace of God has a balancing effect on our lives as well.
One step we can take to preserve the peace of God in us is to be cautious about what we expose ourselves to. As a society, we have become increasingly dependent on the media to keep us informed. We are depending, however, on a media that exploits our fears in order to boost ratings. It is to the media’s benefit to create fear, doubt, and worry. To be dependent upon an institution that encourages fear and uncertainty is disastrous for our spirituality and brings us much unnecessary struggle. It is good for us as Christians to be informed, yet we must stay balanced, and beware falling into fear and worry and then repeatedly returning to the news for reassurance. Those who do this will only find more reinforcement for their fear. If we find ourselves in distress about something on the news, it is important only to give ourselves small doses, remembering always to turn it over to prayer. If a potential danger is resolved, the media will not offer reassurance, but will often simply cease to report on the topic, as it has then become insignificant. As part of maintaining God’s peace, we do not want to feed our fear.
Another step to preserve the peace of God in us is to walk and live according to God’s will, not just following His commandments, but also walking the path that He calls us to walk. As we hear noise when a car starts going off the road, so in our life we “hear noise” when we stray off the path that God has prepared for us. The noise in this case would be the loss of God’s peace. We then reacquire it once we have corrected our straying or wandering. Our work here is twofold: first we do our best to flee from sin moment to moment in our life; and second we keep our life on the path that is according to God’s will. When we sin, it is like the car going off the road; however, we can also lose our way completely and begin heading down a path that can lead to us becoming entirely lost. Such is the case when we try to live a life that is other than what God called us to live. We need to strive to live in a state of being attuned genuinely to God’s will. Such an open heart would readily become a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and not be subject to any distress from a lack of direction.
Finally, and especially in today’s world, we need to recognize the source of our anxiety, and consciously give up control, trust God more, and tolerate uncertainty, being at peace with not knowing all the details. Sometimes we try to control even the events in our life that we clearly can have no control over. Indeed, the more we try and control things we cannot control, then the more out-of-control we may feel. This is one of the fastest ways to lose the peace of God in our hearts. Many feel that, by worrying, they are somehow doing something about the problem, and as a result get a false sense of control. In the end, however, the worrying exhausts them and leaves them void of God’s peace.
The peace of God is a beautiful thing; it is there for each of us if we desire it. Assuredly, just as we miss the sound of a gentle wind blowing through the trees during a busy day, so we is all around us. Pray in silence, flee from sin, stay on the path that is according to God’s will, guard your senses, and allow yourself to give up control and trust God. Truly then we can have the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, and which will fill our minds and hearts.