Author: rkcdlitt

Chatter. . . chatter. . . is all we hear. . . all day long, on the radio, on the tv, from our cellphones. We are under a constant barrage of daily nonsensical chatter that only disturbs us. All we hear or read raises questions, most of which cannot be answered by our closed secluded minds. And this is not to mention (although I am about to) alternative facts. We do realize that there is no such thing as alternative facts; there are facts and non-facts, also called opinions.

With each new dawn comes a new life for us to experience if we open our hearts and minds lifted to the golden care of God. Listening is the core of life, but not listening to our distractions, listening to God, listening for His (or Her) tender, quiet voice.

Listening is the core of life! Listening creates bonds between people, and more importantly, bonds between mankind and God. God sees us as we really are; and if we listen carefully, God challenges us to grow, to improve. We can grow into the person we are meant to be, just by listening to God and for God. We are stewards and caretakers for each other; together we find the gifts of life; we find God’s Wisdom in our communal life and understanding. We become gifts for each other in life, in life with God.

I rejoice in the knowledge that God in my quiet hours of listening brings me both love and meaning to my life, my life with others. The Holy Spirit becomes strong in me, bringing me compassion for every soul in God’s creation.

My prayer for healing today:

Heavenly Father, Compassionate God, I am grateful for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We know we are the present messengers for your Son here on Earth. We thank You for the Wisdom of being able to live without fear. We thank You for giving us the questions in our quiet times so that we are able to answer them with wise and comforting responses to aid everyone we are blessed to meet in life. You share the Wisdom you possess with us, but we also understand that You are greater than all Wisdom.

Gracious God giving us the gift of listening.

© Russell Kendall Carter

We all pray! Even if we do not realize that we pray! I am in constant chronic pain, yet I awaken each morning with a “Thank You, God for another day on Earth.” This is the simplest of prayers. Reading scripture, I often come across the phrase, “Pray constantly,” or something to that extent. This often causes me to think that my life is constant prayer, mainly for others, but selfishly for myself, too.

So, I ask, “What spiritual language do you speak when praying?” Language does not matter; God understands all! We should never approach prayer timidly. Prayer is one of the most (if not the most important) thing we can do in our spiritual lives. Prayer draws the attention of God as He carefully looks at both humanity and the heart of those who pray. We are blessed to have this most important presence in our lives.

I look back on the good that I have done, and unfortunately, I also see the harm that I have caused. My past cannot faded from my memory, but I dwell not on the past, for God is more interested in my future, a future pledged to be one beyond the storms that inhabit our existences, a future that hopefully, with God’s eternal help, which benefits all my brothers and sisters who toil along with me.

Nothing in our world stays the same. Our hopes and our dreams walk side by side, as we do in our struggles. When I am in pain, so is my brother in Christ. What I do when my life is consumed by pain and what I do when my brother’s life is full of pain is recorded and reverberates throughout many lifetimes that follow. Our goodness and our evils affect our own and the following generations.

My life is an endless search for Truth; life is a sum total of all that we do, all that we share, and all that others do and share. When we share our spiritual language with all of the selfless love we can generate, we have an intimacy with God that is eternal and raises our souls (which are attached directly to God) to infinite heights.

What spiritual language do you use when praying? It doesn’t matter; God hears and shares with us the Holy words spoken by those who pray.

 © Russell Kendall Carter

The only way to seek unity with God is through prayer. As we know, prayer is the longing of the heart for God. Many of us use prayer only to ask God for something we are unable to attain ourselves, such as healing. This makes prayer extremely self-serving. Image what the world would be like if we used prayer solely for others.

In my prayers for the health and welfare of all, I experience great Love, great Hope, and a great increase in my belief and trust in God. My life is a roller coaster; one could say unpredictable. But with prayer, God and His Mercy comforts me. In Mark’s gospel, we encounter a very human Jesus; Jesus presents himself as a human affected by societal misbehavior and personal jealousies, greed, and prejudice. Jesus is always on the side of the downtrodden. He brings Grace into our presence.

Seeing the mortal Jesus in this venue increases our belief in honesty and Truth and the power of true Love as only God can give. The Love of Jesus and the Love of God invites us to tackle those hardships coming on the horizon. We are offered the opportunity to end all oppression and exploitation. We don’t look back for the future is ours and what we make it to be. Let us join in prayer, intimately, and bring God’s Word to life. If life is the sum of our choices, let’s opt for Truth.

 © Russell Kendall Carter

We all have a special assignment from God. Some of us never find it due to blindness to Truth. I am nearing my seventy-ninth birthday; I am also meditating about what God wants of me in my later years; I know I am not finished with my mission in life. In my prayers, I listen for God’s words, which leads to true Wisdom, which in turn leads back to God. I write the words given to me for they are not mine; they are God’s. All thoughts originate with God and are transported to us through our meditations and prayers.

I am blessed to have knowledge granted to me by God, but I also realize that I am only given a small sliver of True Wisdom. Unlike God, I cannot deal with all of the Wisdom He holds, but with what He gives me, I try to use it honestly. I wonder and speculate all the time; to me this is both the beginning and the ending of knowledge. With every word I read, I realize that I am closer to Wisdom. But with the time it takes to attain this knowledge I sometimes feel I am in a timeless realm of both simplicity and complexity. This, unfortunately, is our normal state as humans.

When I find myself floating in the vast mystery of life that surrounds me, I turn to my faith in God to be totally absorbed into His presence. This is the only way that I can retain and ascertain the simplicity of life in God’s realm. This gift of simplicity is where I find myself when I look for my special assignment. Even in my older age, I know that God brings the divine to my doorstep. And then I find myself on the path to the mission God has designed for me.

And. . . I am blessed.

© Russell Kendall Carter

In the Gospel of John, Jesus is interrogated by Pontius Pilate who demands to know if Jesus is the King of the Jews. He later had the sign INRI nailed above him on the cross. The reverend William Coffin (Riverside Church) called this powerless love vs. loveless power. I like to meditate on this interesting comment.

Jesus refers to mankind believing in earthly things and not heavenly things. As a man of faith, I strongly believe in heavenly things, but as we all, I must live in a society governed by earthly things. Our government does not care about God’s wishes for mankind. Some individual leaders do, but when governing God’s plans are laid aside. It is almost impossible to live and believe in heavenly things when our society is bombarding us every day with material wants, demands, and just about everything alien to God’s plans for us.

God gives us light, a light to live and a light to love by, and yet, more of us covet the darkness of anger, greed, and jealousy. We recognize the gifts from God; we know that His gifts do not include these three vices. When we are skeptics to the healings of Jesus; we are also skeptical of our gift of love. Before Jesus left His disciples, He asks, “Do you love Me;” and follows with “Feed My sheep.”

There is noting more intimate than prayer, prayer for mankind, and there is nothing more intimate than sharing prayer. Prayer and sharing are partners in our lives, partners worthy of God’s full attention. We can practice powerless love (bringing God back to the table) and feed His sheep or to practice loveless power feeding our ill-fated egos.

©Russell Kendall Carter

The Stronghold of all PeopleI am both old and young. I was born into the flesh in 1943, so, you might say I am old. But I say I am young also, because I believe that my spiritual being is eternal and being eternal, it cannot be aged. My spiritual side is my soul and that belongs to God; it is, therefore, eternal. This belief is snuggled into my zeal in the knowledge that God is my light, as He is for all. God is both judge and refuge for all people for all time before we are born to the flesh and forever after our flesh dies.

Although I am a Christian, I have studied many world religions. There are people around our small planet who are very devout and pray to God daily. There is only one god, but there are just as many names for God that there are religions on Earth. I understand that many people will not agree with me on this. I also believe in Jesus as the mortal manifestation of God on Earth. And I believe that reading in other religions, there are many manifestations of God on Earth. Could these other manifestations also be Jesus in other names according to the different traditions? Only Go knows; we cannot for we lack the Wisdom of God. If we believe in one all-mighty God, then we cannot denounce other religions just because different names are used. God’s doors are open to everyone. Jesus said, in my Father’s house there are many rooms; let us not forget that. The glory of God is manifold; we are all safe and secure in His loving arms. We listen for His voice within us and magnify His daily presence.

Let us join with others recognizing our shared glory in His eternal presence within.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Religion is about relationships, not about requirements. The first relationship is with God, of course. The second relationship is with your fellow congregants, which includes the minister; the minister, he or she, is merely a fellow congregant helping guide us to a stronger faith, allowing us to serve each other, serve others, and in doing so, serve God. God does not want us to serve Him, He wants us to serve others, and in doing so, we are in fact serving God here on earth.

Here is what my relationships have done for me.

My name is spoken, either by a fellow parishioner, even by God, and I am ready to face the day. I know that I am loved. I listen for others’ voices, knowing that their words are spoken either in love or in need; I respond to both with passion, and I know that others, as I do, speak in love or speak in need; both merit loving responses. I cannot allow ignorance of their needs to be bypassed, for we live in harmony with each other, and harmony cannot exist in a void.

I believe in miracles; I also believe in angels. I have experienced both. I also believe that we are angels to each other. We are shaped by our relationships because each person we meet and remember becomes a mentor, who bring us closer to God. We each have a vision; my vision is different than your vision. My vision is shared by God, as is yours.

Unfortunately, being flawed humans, our plans sometimes fall apart. It is during these times when God’s angel step forward to help us, help us to get back on the right track, help us to attain our vision. God’s angel is Love, and this Love may come from the relationship you have with others in your relationships. . . with God and with Grace.

I attend church; my church is not so much about the rules other men have set for the religion. Man’s rules may not necessarily be God’s rules. My religion is the people I share my love and my relationships with. My religion is agape love. My religion is God.

© Russell Kendall Carter

We need community! None of us are loners; we depend on others for simple things. . . such as life. All people are considered to be community. We find a way to relate to others, finding kindness, finding sanctity. It is in our DNA. We believe in one another for that is God’s wish. It is the innate kindness within us.

When we follow the teachings that Jesus taught, and we understand how we are to live. I imagine a world of peace and understanding. The risk in this is the disapproval of those seeking power only. When we celebrate the eucharist, we share the bread and wine blessed by God; some do not understand that when we share a regular meal with others, our food is also blessed by God for He knows us when we do this simple thing.

Part of our community is the land we live on. This also must be loved and respected by us to truly feel the blessings of God. I see the birds flying high overhead and the four-legged creatures in the woods around my home. These are our earthly family; these we must also love and honor. God placed them their for our benefits; we need not waste.

I read and study the Gospels of Christ; I believe in them; I trust them. To all who follow God’s lead, blessings are received, and salvation is given. First the Jew, then the Christian, and our brothers, the Muslims, finally all the remaining people on Earth. All are blessed children of God. All are welcome at my table.

My prayer today is that we all recognize the truth as written in our Bible and the bibles of all religions. All are welcome at our tables.

© Russell Kendall Carter

One of man’s greatest desires is to live at peace, at peace with others yes, but at peace with self, which is probably more difficult than being at peace with others. Experts say that to actively have a good relationship with others we should determine the value of the relationship, talk, and be honest. This is not so easy when the problem is self. Living at peace with self can be much more difficult because our values and desires for self are problematic. We want more than we have, and I am not referring to money or wealth.

For years I struggled with dissatisfaction about what I was and what I should have been. Most of this changed when I became a teacher, but some doubts and dissatisfactions persist. I want to be better than I am. But then I remember. . .

I am whom God made! My will and faith is my hope for the world; this translates that my faith is also for the comfort in my own future. Therefore, I know I will live with internal peace. Jesus promises that I will have a divine comforter in my travels; call this God or call this the Holy Spirit. I have this eternal protector saving me from all evil. I shout for joy and sing God’s praises.

Jesus also goes on to say that He will come back because He loves me; as I love God, I am loved by God; as I love God, I love others and others love me. This is my blessing. This is my comfort. This is my sustenance, for the bread from heaven is God and gives me eternal life. I know this because each time I go out at night, I am awed by the appearance of the eternal in the night sky. I am at peace with the world. I am at peace with myself. I share this peace with others.

© Russell Kendall Carter

We are made in the image of God, but we cannot imagine how God looks. But we need no imagination to feel God within us. God is now; the Spirit is now, and the Goodness of God is all around us and within us. In God there is perfect freedom, where our souls take to soaring above the mundane problems of this world.

We need not imagine how affective our vision is for the world; see the good we have done for others. What we do for the world we do with the blessings and wishes of God. The image of God is within us, bringing us to be in a state of spiritual imagination, imagining what our deeds will do to bring society back to God. Community profits when servants (us) reach out and disregard any and all differences to help one another.

There is room at God’s Table for all; God awaits in silence for our capitulation to this one true fact. People of color, women, and other oppressed individuals throughout history have been disregarded and forgotten, only to be creators of great inventions for mankind. And yet, we ignore them and oppress them. This is not the way of God. As a white male, I take the risk of derision each day as I recognize the importance of all individuals, not just those who look the same as me.

In my servitude for others, I laugh, I sing, I dream that God’s peace surrounds us. This is my way of feeling God’s presence within us. This present moment is like none other and has no competition. We are truly blessed by God’s presence; this is image, not imagination.

© Russell Kendall Carter