Real World

Real World

“Often, as we conclude a retreat at Dayspring, someone will say: This has been powerful. I hope I can hold onto it back in the real world.” But the “real world” is not the one to which we are going. We return to the “unreal” world where the culture is distorted and trapped in pretense. The “real” world is the one we were just in, where our hearts were opened and we gave inner consent to rest in God.” N. Gordon Cosby, Seized by the Power of a Great Affection, June 20, 2018, Daily Quote, Inwardoutward.org

What an amazing concept that Gordon Cosby, the founder of Church of the Saviour in Washington D C, brings to us this morning. Real means not artificial or imitation. Real is genuine, not fake. Unreal is not living out of our true self, our core of love, the divine within us. Seeking power over others is artificial. Connecting to God, the power greater than ourselves, is real. Humility is real. Arrogance is imitating something we are not.   Holding a newborn baby in our arms is real. Having that child we love taken away from us is unreal. The white sands of the gulf are real. Oil stains on the beach are unreal.

 Living with the fruit of the Spirit, peace, joy, kindness, patience, faithfulness, goodness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) is real.  Living in fear is living in an artificial world, another world, not the real world that God made. This is a constant message from Jesus. “It is I, do not be afraid,” is Jesus’ message to his disciples as he walks on water towards them in a storm on the sea of Galilee. (John 6:20) “Fear not” are the first words all the angels say that God sends to us.  That’s how we suspect the presence of angels and even God when we hear these words. Making choices out of fear is not real. It is not the world of the God of my understanding.

Phillip Newell frequently writes that a major premise in Celtic spirituality is that our core is good, is love, as opposed to western or Mediterranean spirituality that tells us that our core is sinful.  So many of us live a life wearing many masks to prop ourselves up to hide our sinfulness. At other times we become so overcome by our sinfulness that we are paralyzed, we live in a mechanical trance, going through the motions. This is not a real life. We have become discontinued from the love within us as well as the love of God and our neighbor.

So what do we do? We change the world and ourselves by connecting to the core of love within us, the Christ within us, by trying to put ourselves in position to know that love. For many this means learning to live by a rule of life. We begin by trying to connect and spend time with our loving God. We try to love one person at a time, including ourselves.

 When we are confronted with fear, we say our prayers. My mind keeps reciting the old saying, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” The answers will come. We will begin to know and desire only what is real. It goes by the name of love.

Joanna joannaseibert.com  

Mosaic Community

 Mosaic Community

“When I am with a group of human beings committed to hanging in there through both the agony and the joy of community, I have a dim sense that I am participating in a phenomenon for which there is only one word...."glory."      M. Scott Peck

Andrew Ridley

This morning I think of groups I am in, especially a Wednesday morning book group who has meet for more years than I can remember. We started in one church as an Education for Ministry or EfM group who later morphed into a Disciples of Christ in Community or DOCC Transforming the  Literature of the Bible study group. We moved to other churches as the bishop reassigned me and continually collected different members. We continued to read contemporary literature and scripture and looked for patterns in the lives of those of our Judeo-Christian heritage that might speak to us today in modern language and agendas.

Very few now attend the same congregation, and we are always enriched by people of other faith groups.  On occasion, we have met at our home by our fireplace in the den. My husband always had fresh flowers on the coffee table. There was something about meeting in a home as well as meeting with a group of people who have learned to accept and know each other so well they can easily ignite “God moments” in this eclectic community.

  Another amazing image of such a community is a mosaic of pieces of cut glass of different shapes and colors. Each individual may be beautiful in its own right, but together a truly glorious multicolored image emerges.

I think of the story that I often tell children that was given to me so many years ago by Dean McMillin, another spiritual friend. God wanted to give part of God to God’s creation. God took a huge mirror, looked into it, and broke the mirror into many tiny pieces, sending them down to earth. God gave to every one of us a tiny piece, a reflection of God.  We spend years trying to find that piece of God within ourselves, and when we do, we get so excited, “I have found God.”

That is where it stops for so many who try to make their piece, their image of God as the only image that is truly of God. But God calls us to another task. We are to fit our piece with that of others, and the more pieces of God we find in others, the larger is our image of God. We sometimes meet people who say they have an image of God that is so different, so foreign from ours. Sometimes these people are our children! As we fit more and more pieces and see so many other parts that represent God, we come closer to their part way on the edge of  our God’s image.

This is a journey of a lifetime, finding God in ourselves, connecting it to the God in others, and enlarging our image of God. A beautiful mosaic. It is called community.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com

Outrage

Outrage

“We have lost, I think, our proper sense of outrage, and what God does is often outrageous for no matter how much we think we know how God will act, God frequently acts in other incomprehensible and outrageous ways.” Br. James Koester, Society of Saint John the Evangelist daily email SSJE

Ann's azaleas

 What is outrageous! The flowers and flowering plants and bushes and trees that appear in sequence in spring, the crocuses, camellias, redbuds, forsythia, daffodils, tulips, Bradford pears, climbing wisteria, azaleas, roses, lilies, irises, magnolias, hydrangeas, geraniums, and finally the crape myrtle that last the summer. Is there more? What about the yellow and red and orange autumn leaves on a crisp fall day? What about the secret waterfall that only you and a few friends and family know about? What about floating the Buffalo River? What about the view from Petit Jean Mountain or Mount Magazine?  What about Two Rivers Trail along the Arkansas River?

I am just starting and talking about a small part of Arkansas, but I know each of you has many more outrageous spectacles to share.

I don’t know about you, but Outrageous meets me at every turn. When we look for her, we only have words of gratitude. Outrageous are our family members and friends who still love us even after getting to know us better. Even more so is the outrageous love of God. This is love that God gives us in so more ways than we cannot understand, knowledge too deep for words. As we try to stay connected to God and listen, we get little nudges, “not right, yes this is right.” Whenever I go again those gut feelings, I end up in a bad place. 

I look back on my life and see that I have been so cared for even when I went down wrong paths. This is outrageous. This is the outrageous love of God, to stick with us in our one step forward and two steps back. We cannot comprehend it. We can only try in our feeble way to model it.

Joanna  joannaseibert.com