LIFE BALANCE: Thoughts for Today

~THOUGHTS~

GOD
God lifts me up when I am down,
  holds my hand when I am weak,
    and shelters me when I am afraid.

MEMORIES
Sunday I went to church with my Dad at the retirement home. The pianist played "His eye is on the Sparrow" for the offertory. It's a beautiful old song. How lovely to be like the sparrow. "I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free. His eye is on the sparrow and I know he watches me."

LIFE
Be gracious. Be loving. Be kind. Allow your life to minister to others.
Be strong. Be brave. Be resolute. Allow your life to find its strength.
Be aware. Be honest. Be authentic. Allow your life to speak its truth to all you meet.

BALANCE
Spiritual life involves the heart, mind and soul. I suppose that is why scripture says to love God with heart, mind and soul. Doing so initiates and keeps in balance the purity and energy of the Christ life. The mind is often the emphasis, but it is incomplete without the heart.

JOY
Do you ever have feelings of goodness well up in you? I love it when that happens. I could call it, spontaneous joy. While I drive country roads--pass acres of farmland, notice native oaks and plants, view the Western, Eastern, and Sutter Butte mountain ranges--happiness stirs in me.

MOTHER
My mother taught me how--
-to cook, can, clean, and sew,
-to play and appreciate music,
-to take good care of my things,
-to do and be my best,
-to be kind,
-to be courteous and respectful,
-to know about God and to pray,
-to be helpful,
-to serve,
My mother taught by example.

AN UNLIKELY JOURNEY

  AWAKEN

WE SPIRITUALLY AWAKEN in fits and spurts. Not one size fits all. Individual though it may be, how far or deep the awakening rests with the individual. They must want it. The desire then blooms. Once it does, a craving for spiritual truth opens it up. 

To go ‘further still’ requires intention as the pursuit unleashes an energy that loves what is being pursued. 

The more the pursuit intensifies, the more delight it brings, and the more the soul finds its satisfaction. The real kicker is when spirituality becomes more than an intellectual pursuit of knowledge to become a personal pursuit of knowing God. Spiritual living became this to me in 2002, after decades of service in the church.

My spiritual journey is an honest one at least as much as is possible within me. I am a seeker of God and a follower of his way. God has healed me and renewed me. My life is changed because of God. I owe him a debt of gratitude. 

Father God blesses me at his table of grace and fills me with his ever-deepening love. I have received God’s unmerited favor. I experience his unadulterated peace and holy presence. To be God’s child is lovely beyond loveliness. I am safe and secure in my Father’s house.

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The Christ-Life Speaks Joy to the Soul

Freedom versus Bondage

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. --John 10:10 NIV

Christ-following is not rule-following. 

Christ is life; not a burden, not working harder, not being buried under a weight of guilt unable to meet all the requirements of "righteous" living. Bondage to an ideal is not the stuff of freedom in Christ, contrary to what many have been taught, and in some ways, as I was taught.

Joy is repressed when the Christ-life is reduced to a list-following duty. You see, Christ came to set us free. We can access that freedom by living in close relationship with Him. He is life. Real life is an over-flowing of Christ in us that is life-giving and real.

Liberating in essence, Christ-following is crying out to Him with your heart and soul, to know Him, to love Him, to being filled with Christ's life now bringing -- and His Life now being -- life in you. Christianity is about Christ, His hope, His love, and His life. Pure and simple, it is all about Christ.

Many Christians live in duty-bound bondage to the religious form that has little to do with the "life" of Christ in their daily living. Christ came to set the captive free. He is life eternal. Through Him we partake of Living Life. His Life brings life with its joy to the soul. We become fully alive in our spirit.

Belief is rooted in what you believe. If it is reduced to a list of rules, traditions, and religious practices, then it will fail to bring life to the soul. Instead, it will cause bondage to the practices. Opening your life to Christ and focusing on Him is what gives life to your inner being. This is freeing and breaks the bonds of do-good-ing religiosity. Trying to achieve holiness in our own strength is not possible though it may be well intentioned. Striving to be godly will fail. Its motivation is from the wrong source. Godliness originates from Christ, in us and transforming us.
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What goes on in the heart is where we must look to find our true spiritual state. As we are in our heart, so are we. Why we do what we do is important to know. A self-examination is in order. What does your heart love? Therein you will find your spiritual truth. Is it in Christ the Savior or is it in the practices and forms? I mean, really look for what is true in you. The wearing of "spiritual masks" is commonplace. They quite effectively hide the true truth about your spiritual condition. Seek God until He mirrors your soul's condition to you. Then you're ready to access freedom through Christ and in Christ.

Grace, joy, and peace come through Christ living in us. Embracing Christ, loving God, seeking spiritual truth through Father, Son, and Spirit -- through God's Word, and through a life enkindled in its reality through love in Christ, prayer and meditation -- is life-giving goodness. It is then you live spiritual life from a place of light and beauty rather than bondage and servitude.

It doesn't get any better than that.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

The days are so beautiful right now. They remind me of Southern California. When I was a child, we would visit my grandmother in Glendora. We spent our time skating on the sidewalk or playing in her lovely backyard. There was this vibrant peacefulness and a unique scent in the air. 

Glendora still has that mystique. Recently we were in Glendora for my Mum's graveside service. Afterwards, the reception was held at the church where my mother (as a child) and grandmother attended two blocks from my grandma's bungalow. 

We breathed the air and walked the circle from the church to her house and back, me with my two adult sons. We walked down the alley out back. The citrus trees and avocado tree, with the best avocados ever, in the backyard are thriving. How I miss our visits. I often dream of being back in that house for a visit.

My oldest two sons remembered their younger years and visits to Great Grandma's and the neighbors just down the street. Visits to Grandma's house were always a delight, for me and for them. 

Those are special memories that will not to be replicated. Wonderful. Today is like being back there, with the sounds of the city and the lazy, crisp beauty of another day. 

I feel soft inside with a tenderness that joy so richly imbues in the remarkable moments that give goodness to our days. Life is good. How precious is each moment.

The picture is from a visit to my Grandma Weigold's in Glendora around 1994. We're standing in front of her sweet little home on a Sunday morning, ready to walk to church. The boys are wearing shirts my mother made them. What a blessed memory.