“Who Touched Me?”

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you. But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” Luke 8:43-46

On that morning the sky was intensely blue, the trees were washed, the grass was well-watered by the recent rains, and the driver with his passengers in the carpool lane who were taking part in a three-way conversation, or the people sleeping and eating on the train, or those walking along the road neither sought nor were given.

On that morning heaven was very close to the earth and there was a feeling of something sacred in the air. It was there among them, and among the tender, growing things of early spring. It was there, immense and simple, the love which not even prayer could reveal, and which the mind could not touch. It was there on this wondrous morning, the very life of life.

Yet you thought all you needed to do was move faster than the crowd. You believed if you worked hard in various ways for the betterment of society rather than for outward, personal gain that God would rush you to the front of the line. You imagined that everything you needed was in the church so you ignored the temple.

But you were wrong.

You have invested every penny on your dreams yet the bleeding won’t stop. You have used all of your education yet there has been no commencement. You have exhausted the wisdom of every life coach who has ever lived yet the ninety-nine in the field could never equal the one cloaked in glory.

You have listened to the scribe yet misunderstood the spoken word. You have passed the mid-term exam yet failed the final test. The sun has risen yet the dark shadows of doubt remain. The moon has flooded the windowsill of your soul with light yet the meaning of your whole life is in the shade of a single touch.

The hovering butterflies, the bamboo bridge, the bright red roses with their heavy perfume, the marigolds full of golden light, the infant suckling a mothers breast, the sweet soft tone of the flute, and the quiet villagers in their fishing boats have all deliberately touched the hem of life without noisy activity.

God’s Will Be Done

“You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.” J.Krishnamurti

The will of God is seldom done which is why Jesus prayed for the will of God to be done. This is why we are required to participate in our destiny. Even God’s destiny for us is not inevitable it is only possible with our participation.

This is why we must decide. Look at the seasons. Spring is here because winter had a timetable. Seasons come and exit our lives but the order of the seasons were decided by God eons ago.

Seasons are cyclical but as human beings who were created in the image of God, we have the potential to live in perpetual Spring or Summer or Fall or Winter. Why? Because we have the God-given ability to decide our seasons.

Remember this! Decisions decide seasons. Yet we continue to ask God what his will is for our lives.

God’s will for our lives was already decided in our mothers womb. His will for our lives is preordained. Thus anytime a person fails in life it is because they failed to make a decision. Not necessarily the “right decision” because inevitably only God knows if a decision is right or wrong.

Write this down! Not even Jesus was successful in every place. We may have to make a tough decision to put ourselves in a different place, in a different space, in the middle of God’s will.

Remember this! Like the order of the seasons our assignment has been decided by God. Our responsibility is not to decide our assignment but to discover it. Then we make a conscious decision to accept God’s assignment for our lives or reject it.

Knowing if we are aligned with God’s will for our lives requires faith. The Holy Bible teaches us that “Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen.” And decisions require faith and faith requires participation of ones will to decide to move forward.

Remember this! God only responds to faith not crisis. If you seek God’s will in a crisis it will not be there. For God doesn’t need a crisis to get our attention but He does require our faith and actions in order to prevent the crisis or to assist those in a crisis.

In Matthew 6:10, Jesus prayed that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This is why in 2010, we must discover our destiny and make a decision to fulfill it.

Hear this! The next 24 months are critical. For our success will be tantamount to our ability to solve a world problem (as it is in heaven). God’s will is seldom done unless we decide to do it!

The Language-Door

There is some kiss we want with our whole lives, the touch of  Spirit on the body. Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell. And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling! At Night, I open the window and ask the moon to come and press its Face against mine. Breathe into me. Close the language-door and Open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window. Rumi

Today is a new day. The night will eventually give way to morning. The birds will again befriend the trees. The leaves will dance and sway with the wind. A sign of good things to come…

Nothing lifts the spirits more than the dawning of a new day with all its bright interpretive promise —with all its endless skies.

Today I choose to write again because I want to envision the morning rising from my fingertips compelling me to live inside and outside my story.

It is Monday and I don’t need a day off in order to welcome this sunrise. I am living and loving and therefore distrusting my calendar because it tells me it is still winter even though nothing in me is hibernating —everything is breathing and waiting for the spring sun.

When I was a child I used to lie on my back in the fields of grass and depart on a nearby cloud. I used to feel the earth move beneath my feet like a captive genesis at my command.

I used to kiss the morning on the mouth and allow the leaves to cover me like a lover. And I knew my joy could fill the earth.

Today I am going to live the story I write. I am going to experience the heart of God’s love pulsing with excitement.

Today I am going to move outside of my inside story. I am going to move the coffee table out of the living room and push myself to get on my knees and pray [not out of religious ritual or province] but like I did when I was a child — when all wanted was to talk to God.

I am going to accomplish something today. I am going to live out a part of my story with no paragraphs or quotations or re-read sentences or regrets.

Will you come play with me and walk with me beyond the language door?

A Prayer for Everybody

Pray the prayer that is the essence of every ritual. God, I have no hope. I am torn to shreds. You are my first, my last and only refuge. Do not do daily prayers like a bird pecking its head up and down. Prayer is an egg. Hatch out the total helplessness inside.  from A Year with Rumi: Daily Readings by Jalal al-Din

Father God, forgive us! Forgive us for making such weak use of your imperial power.

Forgive us for dropping our association with heaven. And forgive us for losing faith in who we are.

Father, forgive us for interfering with the two worlds meeting. For it is written… that what is in heaven is to be reflected on earth, because we are citizens of both countries — heaven and earth.

Father, let us move forward in the knowledge that the only thing that exists between heaven and earth is fear. Bless us with the patience to exist on the boundary where the two realms meet.

Open our eyes so that we might see that we belong to life; that we belong to Eternity; that through Christ Jesus we have a heritage of immortality; that we are ambassadors of heaven and earth; that we are a significant line of poetry in your universal poem.

Amen!