Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

Pursuit I look for you in the galaxies Spinning in the endless night Above my head. I look for you in the soft Whisper of raindrops falling on the pavement Outside my window In the cool of the evening. I see you in the endless fields of grass Windblown reeds bowing To your great majesty Under an endless blue sky.  I find you in the ancient texts: Where you speak to me In stories of men and women Running headlong into you In the pages before me. You tell me of the endless river That flows from your hand It turns and twists Undulating in rapids And slowing To meander through quiet eddies Widening and flowing Into the floodplain Of my frail human soul. I see you in the eyes Of a wrinkled old man Soft and loving He bids me to come Sit with him in the quiet evening Around an ancient fire And talks to me in a hushed voice Of wonders beyond my understanding. A nomad I wander these lands Deserts of pavement and ...

"You can learn a lot about a person by the friends he selects, and nothing about God proves more suprising as his choice of companions, the hand-picked objects of his intimacy. Abraham pimped for his wife, Jacob cheated his brother, Moses murdered, David murdered and committed adultry both - yet all of these end up on God's list of favorites. Jacob got his new name "Isreal" (meaning God struggler) after an all night wrestling match with God and ever since the name for God's people has harked back to that context. God's people are, literally, "the children of struggle."  Philip Yancey

I am reading 1 Samuel on the bus on the way to work. God listened to the Israelites. When they wanted a king instead of God, he used Samuel to appoint Saul as king. Sometimes I think when praying that my petitions fall on deaf ears. But over and over again in the Old Testament god listened to the people and did what they asked, even if it was not god's  original plan. I am reminded of Jesus's story about the widow who kept going before the judge, repeatedly pleading before him and eventually he granted her desire. Jesus told this story because he knew the god of the Old Testament would listen to his people. And so he listens to us because god never changes.

I am reading a commentary on Job. It is not as much a book about suffering as it is a book about faith. Job suffers, but in his suffering he proves his faith and comes face to face with God. It makes the point that our suffering is not ordained by God and though he doesn't always release us from it, we are caught up in a bigger cosmic story of which we cannot know the reasons or the battles tha t are going for our hearts and minds. I still have trouble articulating to people who are suffering the answers to their questions about why do I suffer? Where is God? And why is he not powerful enough or willing enough to set me free? To this I can only say, Job shows us that in this state, He wants us to call out to Him with our cares, concerns, and rantings, even if we blaspheme him to his face. He wants this honest side of us because he loves us and nothing can take us from his presence, except (in Job) the pseudo-religious piety that he sees right though. We can pray to him like we conv...