Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

The spark that lights your eyes So blue and sharp and bright From deep within your little soul It speaks of daddy's love But I cringe at the violence That will be done to your heart. When your friend shuns you, Or the careless boy makes fun. The innocent eyes Will grow older And time will whither the vine But wisdom will be born. I will do my best to guide you To cheer you from the bleachers To hold you when you're hurting And help you find your gifts. But now you are just walking Exploring the world in wonderment Sinking deep into my arms You look to me for comfort. You come to me, across the room, To fell secure and safe To drop the fear and settle in Without the distance between us How I wish it should always be But I know you must too soon  Grow strong and wise and passionate too, And grow away from me.

     Spiritual writing, for me, is a process of spiritual formation. I present myself a little dirtier than I think I am. But really what gets communicated is my best self. It is a place I would like to be. I think it was Thomas Merton that said that people who write spiritually are not yet the people they are in their writing. But, he said, let them write! He knew, as I believe, that this is a path for growth. And as I write these things I will grow into them. It is just how I am wired. My wife, and other people who are close to me sometimes get frustrated with me because  I fall so short of the person behind the pen. But as I told my wife the other day, the story is not yet over.       In some ways, I think I am the opposite of what my readers might expect. People close to me know that I can be moody and irritable, as a lot of creative people are. People closer than that know I struggle deeply with this. And people even closer than that love me in spite of it. For all the thinking

                “When I wake up, I’m afraid that somebody else might take my place.” Listen to this song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrWwtU7iyl0    I think it’s the soundtrack going on deep inside the subconscious of the people we interact with every day.  We are all fallen human beings.  If it doesn’t move you to tears knowing this is what is going on underneath in the people you interact with, you are not human. We carry the scars of our childhood throughout our whole lives.  We want to know we matter to someone.  We want to know someone else in this world will get outside themselves for a minute and listen to our soundtrack. When you are a preacher, and you are preaching to the congregation, or a spiritual writer, and you are writing to your audience, I think this is the soundtrack of the subconscious in the people listening to you or reading the tripe you write.  It’s the song of the deep need in every human being to know they matter to someone else.  When I am out at the ga

An Excerpt From my Book: "Zen Christianity:" Jesus encouraged us to practice radical, unconditional forgiveness. It is the very type of forgiveness that has proven to have the most health and relational benefits for ourselves and others. Jesus says in his famous Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’   But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” ( Matt 5:38-41, NIV) He was presenting a radical forgiveness that was a way of life.  “If someone asks you to go one mile,” as the oppressive Roman soldiers often gave the Jews their packs and had them carry them, “go two miles.” He showed us an example of radical

     I think the semantics of that phrase is a nudge from God. Jesus is coming again on Tuesday. And Monday. And today. There is a collection of Jesus' parables in Matthew 25 about the Kingdom of God and when it will come.  Jesus relates this parable:  “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.