Meditating to Heal

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,

for such sacrifices are pleasing to God (Heb. 13:16).

Both men and women are willing to go to great lengths for true Love. . . even to die for Love(an ancient concept). Think about this: God is Love. My girlfriend and I found true Love (God) and married fifty-six years ago. Each morning, as I pray, I think about the line, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and mentally change this to Give me this day my daily Love, praying that my wife of many, many years and I enjoy another day of God’s Love on this Earth. She is the Eve to my Adam.

For our lives, we have both been a force for God’s Love. My dear love has helped create a child day care center when she was in her twenties to a table to help feed the needy when she was in her seventies. Her life has been a gift of God’s Love. My serving God is less visible, I bring God’s healing Love to all whom I meet in a spiritual way and a prayerful way that blesses everyone’s life. This is God’s Love that is free to us all. People have laughed at me and criticized me, but I know and those I help know that God is Love.

I use the term God and Love interchangeably; I look around and see that modern, Western religion has confused this whole god thing. Maybe life would be easier if we did not have to contend with this whole god thing. To some, their god favors only whites, to others their god favors only Christians, or only favors Americans. God loves all His children.

One thing I am absolutely sure of; God wants our heart! Our heart contains our soul which is God’s property and God link to humanity. If we think with our heart, we love. This is what God wants. When we think with love, we think with beauty, and kindness, care for all of God’s creation. When we love one person, we love all people, otherwise we do not love. When we lift one person from suffering, we lift all people from suffering.

When we understand this, when we accept that we love all people, we are a force for God’s Love.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

Much has been written, taught, and spoken about contemplation. I find that the clergy spends too much time with the process, which confuses many people. It’s really simple; contemplation is thinking; deep thinking and reflection, yes, but it is basically concentrated thinking. Everyone can do this.

As for me, my periods of contemplation are very easy. I listen for God. I open my mind to learn what my relationship with God is. I think I know, but my brain will often not accept what we all know is true, but due to being trained by society to doubt everything, this habit is a blocking force we must break through. We must let go of false teachings.

John reminds us, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (8:31–32).” That is, free to understand and know that God dwells within us and therefore we do not need to search for God, but we do need to enter a quiet space to listen. This is contemplation.

I try to slow down at least twice a day, putting aside the trials of the day and refreshing my need for prayer. I must unchain the Holy Spirit within to take me out of my comfort zone and bring forth my spirituality, connecting me to God’s Love, and be in the world that God created, not man; the Holy Spirit encapsulating all of God’s Wisdom and hopefully my attention and presence.

I often gaze out my window, seeing the rains coming in torrents, the winds howling through the trees bending the branches to a near breaking point. I understand that we live in a tempestuous world that does not follow man’s rules, crumbling false secure structures built by man. And yet. . . I know that I am in God’s world, safe from any permanent harm. My zest for life is supported and built by my love for God’s creation. And God’s creation is based on Love.

In my periods of contemplation, God speaks to me. I am quiet, and for a former college lecturer, that is difficult. I rise to the task because I cherish my eternal relationship with God. And it is within my periods of contemplation, my times of thinking, that I receive God’s words, love, and blessing.

©Russell Kendall Carter

“Searching for Treasures in the Sand,” a line from the musical, Ragtime; a sad but promising story of promises made and promises broken down in the early 20^th century. This was a time period when there was great tension between the races; much has changed since then, but the atmosphere and tensions between the races has not really changed since then. There are still many Caucasians who look down on those of color.

I was born in the middle of World War II in Newark, New Jersey; ours was a unique neighborhood with Whites, Blacks, Christians, and Jews. All of the children played stickball and touch football in our streets – even some of the girls. Most of our fathers were fighting in Europe and the Pacific. All of our mothers treated us boys the same. With a huge wooden spoon. We skinned our knees, tore our dungarees, and ran from the cops all together; the N-word was never used.

These memories are mine in the sand.

On my 13^th birthday, we moved from center city to the suburbs where the few “Negro” families were outcasts except for sports in high school. It was truly a new experience for me. This lasted until at the age of twenty, I entered the Marine Corps where we were again equal. . . we were all green.

I am now rapidly approaching my 80^th birthday, so I am no longer a child at the Jersey shore, digging for unfound treasures in the sand. However, what I am now is a fledgling author, writing a daily blog about love, God’s Love, God’s Love for all mankind. I have many friends, Black, White, Christian, Jew, Muslim. It is like I am back on the streets of Newark. I am once again searching for treasures in the sand of  my life, finding more riches than I ever expected or truly deserve, found in the people I meet.

Perhaps my searching for treasures in the sand is in fact my searching  for God. Found in the faces of those who I meet, faces spanning many colors of God’s rainbow – in Mankind. We are the treasures found in the sands of life.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

Amen.

©Russell Kendall Carter

We try in vain to please God. In our simple minds, everything we do may seem a transgression against God. But we cannot always see ourselves wandering from the lighted path that Jesus paved for us. Remember the words of Jesus, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” Matthew 5:6.

As human beings we are flawed. The see God placed in your mother’s womb and is spiritual perfection come alive; but our society taints us with all of its greed, all of its struggles for power and influence. We forget our source. We are created in love; we are born in love. We are born children of God, and nothing can change this. If we want to please God, we practice on simple thing; we must love. Remember what Jesus teaches: love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Love.

This is our connection with and to God. Perfection is demonstrating our ability to love each other, and God desires nothing but this perfection. Let this eternal truth be in your heart and govern your life. Forgive others for what they may do; see God in their smiling or scowling faces. He’s there; it is up to us to see Him.

We will need forever to try to tell God how awed we are with His Love and His Grace. Is it no wonder that many people who call themselves Christian are leaving churches to commune with God without a clergy that cares more for liturgy that relations with God. Are they, are we, because I am one of them, are we going in the right direction. What we recognize is that the church and our Christian society is more concerned with all else besides God.

We gather together on Sundays to recite by rote the same old passages we were made to memorize as youths, hear a sermon from an over-enthusiast preacher who many times does not act as he preaches, and share a wafer and a sip of wine or grape juice. Then we go home or out for lunch with fellow congregants and forget everything we just professed.

If the church is our Ark, it just sank. The Ark, traditionally our stronghold, our ancient connection to God, has ceased to be a safe refuge for many of us, forcing us to turn inward and recognize that God dwells within us, as Jesus promised. We are relearning the eternal Principles that is God; through our prayers, we understand how the Holy Spirit guides and protects us. God speaks to us directly, without the false prophets of the church.

To tell God how much in awe we are of His Love, we adopt the three values of Jesus, we forgive, we always choose good over evil, and we recognize the flow of Love coming from God, open our hearts to share this with others. When we seem to be at our weakest, we are strong with the Love of God flowing through us. This is how we tell God we Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Time and the Future     

Is our future determined only by time?

I realize that our lives are run by the clock. Alarms awaken us in the morning and the late news puts us to bed at night. If we are employed, we are controlled by the train or bus schedule, when the next meeting is, our lunch with a client, then schedule phone or zoom calls. This repeats itself day after day. Our lives run like a clock. Or do they?

Now I realize that I am retired, but if I allow it, the clock can determine my life. I still have meetings, many on zoom. My doctors appointments and therapy sessions, both physical and mental, are frequent; and my yoga classes at the local YMCA are on a schedule. The clock may not control my life as it was when I was teaching, but it still tends to dictate my week.

But let us ignore (if possible) all of these minor distractions and concentrate on something much more important and much more agreeable to ponder and to place in the forefront of our thinking. We are not just mortal! Putting the efforts of Galileo and Christiaan Huygens aside, which govern our mortal body, it is our spiritual side, the eternal side, that should not be determined by time.

Our spiritual beings are eternal; they always were, and they always will be. To really enjoy our lives, we have to open ourselves to something greater than ourselves. As a youth, I often climbed the stairs of the apartment building we lived in, climbed the short ladder to the roof, and lay myself down to gaze at the stars at night. . . and dream. Now I go to my back yard, sit in my picnic chair and look up. I no longer dream because my over-educated mind is in awe of what is above me. I am in awe of the vastness of God’s creation and how small I truly am.

But then I overthink my existence and realize that if God did truly create me, and He did, then I am just as important to God as everything I see in the sky, the billions of stars seen and planets not seen. There is not one thing out there greater than I am nor I greater than anything out there. This is a dynamic thought! I write a lot about love, because God created me in a moment of spiritual and physical love. God is Love; therefore, I am love.

With Love, there is no past; there is no future; there is only the present, and the present is eternal.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,

for such sacrifices are pleasing to God (Heb. 13:16).

Both men and women are willing to go to great lengths for true Love. . . even to die for Love(an ancient concept). Think about this: God is Love. My girlfriend and I found true Love (God) and married fifty-six years ago. Each morning, as I pray, I think about the line, “Give us this day our daily bread,” and mentally change this to Give me this day my daily Love, praying that my wife of many, many years and I enjoy another day of God’s Love on this Earth. She is the Eve to my Adam.

For our lives, we have both been a force for God’s Love. My dear love has helped create a child day care center when she was in her twenties to a table to help feed the needy when she was in her seventies. Her life has been a gift of God’s Love. My serving God is less visible, I bring God’s healing Love to all whom I meet in a spiritual way and a prayerful way that blesses everyone’s life. This is God’s Love that is free to us all. People have laughed at me and criticized me, but I know and those I help know that God is Love.

I use the term God and Love interchangeably; I look around and see that modern, Western religion has confused this whole god thing. Maybe life would be easier if we did not have to contend with this whole god thing. To some, their god favors only whites, to others their god favors only Christians, or only favors Americans. God loves all His children.

One thing I am absolutely sure of; God wants our heart! Our heart contains our soul which is God’s property and God link to humanity. If we think with our heart, we love. This is what God wants. When we think with love, we think with beauty, and kindness, care for all of God’s creation. When we love one person, we love all people, otherwise we do not love. When we lift one person from suffering, we lift all people from suffering.

When we understand this, when we accept that we love all people, we are a force for God’s Love.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

I am a retired literature professor; I taught at a small Virginia community college. I loved it! And, I miss it!

One thing I always stressed was that regardless of what a student is reading, be it literature or history, it was a story. The story of mankind – never changing; always changing. This story has no beginning, and it is eternally unfinished. Our only beginning is God and our works, and our stories are His story (history); we merely add some flavor and many disappointments to them.

We read our Bible, or our Qur’an, or any number of religious books justifying what changes we try to make to God’s story. This is our history, and it has plagued us since day one. The eternal Truth and Unity of God’s story is all around us. . . if we only open our eyes to its beauty. I have read and studied many prophetic books of many cultures; the unifying idea is one God, no matter what name we assign to Him. If we truly believe in one God, we have to accept this as Truth. Our loyalties to God must be all inclusive, not separated by language or societal custom. He is one God, and we are made in His image.

The study of history and literature  is the study of storytelling episodes of the family of man. It begins with the story of creation and continues through all until today. And then into tomorrow! We must unite and put aside all discriminations that plague our communities. We are one mankind equal in all respects; at least according to God. Our avoidance to recognize the condition of the poor and our persecution of someone from another culture is evil in God’s eyes. The story of God is Love, and we sin against this story every time we persecute one another. There can be no love with this human persecution.

Let us continue our storytelling, but highlight how we have sinned against the story God wants for us. And change our future chapters back into storytelling of Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

 

 

Mary Elizabeth Mastroantonio says these upsetting words in the movie January Man, as they were about to capture a mass murderer. If we believe this, then we are born, we live for 60, 70, or 80 years and then we die. And all our deeds die with us.

So, why do these small, insignificant words matter?

Life is eternal; when our soul was implanted in our mother’s womb, we did not begin life, an important event occurred, our soul began a material existence. Then, when we are born, our life again goes through a change, we cease being fed and nurtured by God and our mother’s body and begin an independent life, spiritual and material. Unfortunately, as we age, we leave the spiritual side behind, placing it aside until we die, when we return to spirituality.

As we walk through our mortal lives, we are driven by stress producing physical and mental illness. Our bodies affect all types of problems for us. We are on a never-ending roller coaster of health and happiness, being controlled by our humanity. But think about this for a moment; before we are conceived and after our bodies dies, we live in an eternal world where these mortal failures do not exist. We are spiritual; we do not need to succumb to these short-lived material deficiencies in our eternal lives.

Turn around!  Open your eyes to Truth, to Wisdom, to God’s Love for us. God does not give us sickness and short lives; in God’s world we are eternal. Our futures are not problematic, are not hopeless. There are no false doctrines or dogmas hindering our spiritual growth. The is no bitter disillusionment. So, in 100 years, we will not be dead; we will be enjoying and eternal life of God’s Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

What does it mean to say that God’s right hand holds me?

Over the course of our lifetime, we become so much attuned to what society wants of us that we forget who we truly are. Our spiritual side becomes covered by so many layers of vulnerable humanity that it is almost impossible for us to see our true selves.  Aren’t we fortunate that God comes to us and listens to our hidden cries of helplessness and hopelessness? This is repeated more times than we are aware.

Throughout our lifetime, we are on an endless journey whose destination is often hidden and therefore never reached. Both our purpose and our destiny seem to be without end, hidden by our institutionalized view of our lives. Hidden but not lost! When we see the Truth, the one God wants from us, we shudder, fearing the impossible, unbelieving to hear God’s voice reminding us of why we are where we are.

God breaks through the clouds of misunderstanding that humanity has taught us throughout our lifetime. Brotherly love replaces jealousy; affection and honor enrich our relationships. Our walls of artificial strength are pierced time after time by God’s Love and God’s message that we in fact become love. We become that perfect reflection of God, immortal, eternal.  

©Russell Kendall Carter

I really do not know how to say this so that I do not raise anyone’s hackles, but I speak from experience. We fail because we are weak!!! Read what Paul writes to the Philippians: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Phil. 4:13).” We are weak only because we want to be, only because we look for excuses for not being like others. We are not like others; we are individual children created by God.

When we realize, truly realize, that we are of God, there is nothing, nothing, in this world as beautiful, as wonderful as walking with God. When you accept and experience this, you will understand how wonderful life is. I was taught by my grandmother but did not really understand until I was much older, that when I confront a problem, I recognize that I need help to solve it and the best help comes from God. We serve God when we are strong; we serve God when we are weak. He loves us. He loves when we do His deeds, good deeds.

I also know that when I am in need and suffering, I find that when I go outside of myself to serve others, many times I am well-equipped to bring God’s Love and Comfort to those I serve. I call this strength through suffering, because in my suffering, the presence of God is so much stronger, allowing me to both serve and be relieved of my own problems. This is a blessing all around. In my own weakness I recognize the weakness in others and when serving others, I see the weakness in me. We both gain; we both share God’s Grace.

The story of my life with its many varied episodes boils down to one simple fact – I was lost, stumbling through my days until I accepted and remembered that God  loves me, and God loves all of us. I am weak, and I am tired; however, I am strong, and I am tireless. Isaiah teaches, “God gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint (40: 29-31).”

Regardless of what happens, God is Love, and I am strong. God overcomes weakness and failure.

                                                                                                

©Russell Kendall Carter