Author: rkcdlitt

I always wonder whether we recognize, truly recognize, the good things in life. These can be perfect; but they can also be the antithesis of perfect, but still, they can be good. As humans, we are wounded. As children of God, we are perfect. Even though we do not recognize this all the time. The most precious thing in life is our belonging to God, not the wealth we attain or the possessions we grab hold of.

Jesus invited and reminded us that our most important commandment, and therefore rule of life, is to love God. A very close second is to love others as ourselves. There is no cost to this, except giving up ego. As I wait for the traffic light to go green, I hand the person asking for help a five-dollar bill and get a toothless bless you or may God be with you. This is precious. This is one of the truly good things in life.

With the love we show individuals such as this, we demonstrate our love for God. God hears us when we love these people who are destitute, and when God stops to hear us, we are blessed with eternal Life and eternal, everlasting Love. With God’s Love, we can overcome anything.

I am a wounded creature for I am mortal. With God’s Love, I can overcome my woundedness. Physically, I suffer from Asthma and COPD. Although at times it is difficult to breathe, I am able to look beyond this mortal deficiency and continue to pray, to write, to serve God through being a Stephen Minister, a prayer minister, and the chaplain for the local Marine Corps League. With a little fortitude, I overcome my wounds and enjoy the good things God gives me.

My suffering opens my eyes, allowing me to see the suffering of others and try to help heal them as God heals me. God blesses me by sharing His Wisdom with me so that I may share it with others. This is a good thing!

I rarely ask for God to forgive me, because I know He always does and always will. But I do ask God for the Wisdom to forgive myself for my faults and failures. For by forgiving myself, I can see the perfect human being hiding behind the false façade others put up in defense. This is how I recognize others as children and God, which makes them my spiritual brothers and sisters. And this is the best good thing there is on earth.

©Russell Kendall Carter

I lift my eyes to wonders in awe of greatness

To the infinity of the universe above me.

The vastness of this star-filled sky

challenges the core of my imagination,

asking “What is the magnificence of God?”

©Russell Kendall Carter

“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visits him?” Heb 2:6

The Psalmist writes: “Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: . . . for I lift up my soul unto thee.” What does this mean to us in this crime-filled, greed-driven world? The key is soul. The New Testament screams of man’s goodness for as Jesus says we are God’s children and God is nothing but good.

God promises to bless us with goodness, giving us the bounties of the earth. This is a theme that is humbly opened in many parts of the Bible. God is God; God loves us; if we recognize this, God fills us with universal love and therefore universal bounty. We are Love.

Not so deep within us is a soul.

There are those who say that our soul belongs to God. I have also written of the soul this way. But we are wrong; the soul, our soul, is God within us. My soul is God. My soul leads me to grace others with love and nurture. Our prayer proffers “Thy Kingdom Come.” For me, this means that God is ever-present in my life. My path is steady, difficult at times, but steady. God, my Soul, loves!

God’s Will is present in our lives; it is the determining factor in loving relations between all. This Love must be exercised daily all over our world. This Love must not be held back for any reason. We as humans are appointed caretakers of God’s good earth, which includes everything living on it. We are failing because we are not exercising our goodness, our love of God.

Too often, as we go from sorrow to joy, we forget the lessons learned. Mankind is essentially good. We see wars; we see greed; we see anger and pain all around. But we have to recognize the goodness that is overshadowed by this sorrow. As an example, here in the United States, we have suffered many natural catastrophic disasters from earthquakes to tornadoes to flooding. All are devastating for those who are in the paths of these horrific events.

Instead of seeing mankind rush away from those affected, fellow sufferers stop to help those in danger. Devasting losses helping devasting losses. This is beauty; this is mankind at its best. There is little greed, little theft of property. This is mankind helping mankind. This is true soul. This is true God within us. This is God’s Will universally done. This is mankind’s willpower at its best. Let us open our eyes to witness man’s goodness and God-given Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

In my daily meditations, I often picture what heaven and earth truly are, asking what differences there are and how we can join them together.

My absolute trust in God allows me to notice the seeming differences between the two. They are minor; the differences are magnified by the stubbornness of humanity in thinking that we are in control. God is all around us, always. Therefore, what we experience, named physical or mental illness, cannot be real. It is our self-made stress trying to add truth to these falsehoods. When we accept God surrounding us, we hear the message of Jesus, His invitation to love and then to act on this love; this is the solid rock of God within us. We can then enjoy living the life and exercising the strength and deeds of the apostles sent forth by Jesus to the world.

As we bring heaven and earth together, we must recognize that God is not always recognized in human and worldly affairs. The pain of the world is not caused by God, but by our obstinance in rejecting His Word. God will lead us from this pain, but we have to be prepared for this difficult journey. Remember the story of Jacob wrestling all night with God’s angel, he succeeds but is touched in his hip and walked with a limp for the rest of his life. Turning from our self-made devastation can be painful to us mere mortals, but we have to recognize when God steps in to give us help.

When we let go of our mortal wrongdoings, we deny the parts of ourselves that are truly false. We need to forgive ourselves for our misdeeds; this means letting go of those practices that offend God. We cannot pretend to follow God’s Word. It is all or nothing. When we accept all, the Peace of God is with us; His Love is unconditional and forever and comes to us without any strings attached to it, save love our neighbor as ourselves.

In my daily meditations, I am confident that humanity can bring heaven and earth closer together by living the Word of God.

©Russell Kendall Carter

God loves me, unconditionally, and I put my complete trust in God, knowing that I am a faith-filled, loved child, a loving child. As a mere mortal, I devote my life to following His commandments for they are Truth for Life. God, the Father, gives me Love, self-discipline, and the power necessary to do His bidding, those things He wants me to do with my life. I gladly serve God for His abundance is eternal and is meant for every living soul.

there is no Rock like our God. (1 Sam 2:2)”

The Bible invites us to trust in God; can we do any less? Our mortal lives are filled with trouble, disappointment, and violence. We live in this uncertain world, as did Jesus. He prevailed; we can also. Our words and our deeds can show others who God truly is; we can be assured of His Love and protection forever. We pray not only for the strength to prevail in this troubled world, but for the knowledge that we (all humanity) will be delivered from our trials and given the strength to overcome them. We can only do this with God.

With the knowledge and strength of the Holy Spirit within us, we deliver the sweetness of God’s purifying water of life. We unite the Goodness of God with the strength of our eternal lives to bring Love, Truth, and eternal Life to all. . . just as God promises. God is our Rock.

©Russell Kendall Carter

Spirit, (the true Spirit), is the sustenance of mankind. None of us can be here without this Truth. My life is a result of the wondrous grace of Spirit. My body may pass from this earth, but I am spiritual and eternal. God teaches me that I am neither disposable nor material, because when He created me, I am forever!

Spirit leads me to love, cherish, and aid others. Thus, Grace is in action always and all benefit. Spirit leads me in all that I say and do throughout the day. It is in this framework that God invites me to help those I meet. And the longer I do this, the more I live to this level of spiritual beauty, all of God’s Creation shows itself to humanity. God’s Life and Love are no longer hidden from us; they are visible to all who see.

As a child of God, I live in the Truth, Life, and Love of His creation; I am forever bonded to God through Love and Grace and am therefore eternally bonded to all in humanity. I look around me and I see darkness and despair, due to mankind’s shortsightedness, and yet I see beauty in all things because God’s Spirit is present. I bring the mortal wounds of society to God’s healing hands. He allows me to breathe deeply for He knows that with my love, our love, of the Spirit within all of us that all will be well.

We are children of God and therefore have the Spirit of Love and Truth within us. Let us recognize the beauty we share.

©Russell Kendall Carter

I went to bed defeated last night;

I know not why.

I awakened feeling abandoned,

confused and alone am I.

I went to bed empty, and

in my broken mind do I lie.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter

The old saying is “Silence is golden;” but silence is also Godly. For it is when we are silent that we hear the whispers of God in our lives. When we are silent, we hear the response to our prayers because God is present in our silence.

But silence is also important in our daily lives, interacting with those around us. I often wonder if people stay silent to really listen to what others are saying, or if they are only thinking of a response. How can we respond to others unless we listen to them? And, sometimes listening for what the bodily position is. Silence is patience and therefore creates a space for Wisdom.

God is Wisdom and when we create this space, our silence allows reflection and compassion. Compassion then brings in a time of vulnerability as we courageously surrender ourselves to others, to God. By surrendering to silence, every cell in our body is actively involved; as difficult as this seems, we feel God enter calming us as our outward persona then emits a tenderness only present when God is present.

I listen; the presence of silence engulfs me; and God takes control.

©Russell Kendall Carter

In the Old Testament, God often speaks of love. In Hosea, “When Israel was a ^[a]child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son. (1:1)” this is Divine Love that only God can give. We are God’s creation; we are His children. We are called to Love. When we love, we find no limitations on our life and none on our actions for it is at this time that we are indeed God’s perfect children.

Jesus reminds us that Love is all that matters; it is the only commandment. We cannot walk on God’s path of life without recognizing His Love and our commitment to His Divine Life. Our miracle is God’s Grace in our very core. It is the basis of God’s Love for us, our Love of God, and our love for each other. This is the shining light of Love; this is the shining light of our lives.

There is no other existence than living with God’s Love. All other imitators are falsehoods. They cannot last with the test of time nor the test of trial. They are not the Divine Principle of Love that God gives us, and Jesus invites us to share. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. (Psalm23:4)” I walk on the path of God’s Divine Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter

I often pray, asking God to hold me in His loving hands; in return, God asks me to hold Him in my hands, saying, “Russ, use your hands for good; use your hands to serve others.”

When I promised to do so, my life changed; I became a servant for all humanity. It is only through acknowledging that God is my guide that I am able to cast off the frailty of my mortal existence with its aches and pains and physical limitations of age. This also allows me to continue the work God has for me. I can only serve people through love and caring, understanding and patience. I cannot project ignorance or violence, a lack of hope, nor can I withhold the love in my heart for whomever I am with.

God’s perfect work in us never fails; only we can deny its existence. We are not living alone; we are here to honor our commitment to God and to Jesus by loving one another as we love ourselves and as we love God. We are community! The work we do together is the work that God wants of us. We join hands, together, as children of God to live in His prefect world.

 ©Russell Kendall Carter