truth

Practicing Resurrection

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Here is a list I found of ways you can practice resurrection right now. These 12 ways are taken from Richard Rohr’s book Immortal Diamond.

  • Negativity: Refuse to identify with negative, blaming, antagonistic, or fearful thoughts (you cannot stop ‘‘having’’ them).
  • I’m sorry: Apologize when you hurt another person or situation.
  • Power of positivity: Undo your mistakes by some positive action toward the offended person or situation.
  • Lies: Do not indulge or believe your False Self—that which is concocted by your mind and society’s expectations.
  • Your relationship with God: Choose your True Self—your radical union with God—as often as possible throughout the day.
  • Look within: Always seek to change yourself before trying to change others.
  • Do for others: Choose as much as possible to serve rather than be served.
  • Good: Whenever possible, seek the common good over your mere private good.
  • Look after others: Give preference to those in pain, excluded, or disabled in any way.
  • Justice: Seek just systems and policies over mere charity.
  • Your voice: Make sure your medium is the same as your message.
  • Love: Never doubt that it is all about love in the end.
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The Seven Last Words of Christ: Meditations on the Cross

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(Full disclosure: The author of this book is my friend.)

Yesterday, while in the middle of reading Jeff Blake’s new book “The Seven Last Words of Christ: Meditations on the Cross,” I had to stop and write to tell him how powerful it is. This short book is HANDS DOWN the best book I’ve read on the message of Jesus. At less than 40 pages the message is distilled to perfection, cutting through any filler or unnecessary repetition while also offering brief personal experiences by Mr. Blake that never take the reader off course.

My belief or faith is far, far away from rock solid. Like reading a passage from Richard Rohr, Henri Nouwen or Thomas Merton the words in these pages feel like an anchor of truth.  How so? While reading I felt the “how it isness” wash over me. I felt carried and at peace.  I also became aware of wanting to flee to distraction in the other direction to avoid letting it all sink in.  Am I the only one who does this? Stoping mid-chapter to write an email is a pretty good indicator I am misdirecting myself. (“Stop reading! Do something else! Tell the world!” You gotta love the ego. No really, you have to or it won’t leave you alone.)

I can’t say enough good things about “The Seven Last Words of Christ: Meditations on the Cross”, by Jeff Blake, so I won’t try. It’s awesome. Pick it up for Lent and read it. Read it more than once. You’ll be very happy you did.

Power Is Borrowed

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“If history teaches us nothing else, it is that power is borrowed. At best, power is something granted not something taken. That means, in Western democracies at any rate, that those who have power need the gifts of discernment and judgement, because if we recognize the temporary nature of power, then equally, we need to recognize what in the activity of dissent is valuable.

The principle at issue is the temporary nature of power, and the necessity of service and humility, the necessity of seeing what truth is being cried out in an act of protest.”

~ Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

In This World

In This World
by Wendell Berry

The hill pasture, an open place among the trees,
tilts into the valley. The clovers and tall grasses
are in bloom. Along the foot of the hill
dark floodwater moves down the river.
The sun sets. Ahead of nightfall the birds sing.
I have climbed up to water the horses
and now sit and rest, high on the hillside,
letting the day gather and pass. Below me
cattle graze out across the wide fields of the bottomlands,
slow and preoccupied as stars. In this world
men are making plans, wearing themselves out,
spending their lives, in order to kill each other.