Author: rkcdlitt

See my new book at Amazon or Barnes and Noble

time to simplify

a time for everything

under heaven

a time to remove complexity

a time to simplify

true change ends untruths

a time for renewal

tranquility replaces chaos

calm follows chaos

render basic beliefs

make life simple

make life easy

a time to tear down

a time to build up

My house has a special room

its name is trust

with many windows and doors

People may enter

those who enter this room change

They spurn this room

a lack of faith disappoints them

petrifies them

Opinions enter this room

they decompose

Ideas are amplified here

Truth takes the prize

God broadens all true ideas

Trust is its name

Only the faithful remain

But all are loved

These are the commands of God, as given to us by Jesus. His mercy and grace are ours, for when we ask, we receive; when we search, we find; and, when we knock, the door is opened. This is a promise to us all, no matter whom we are, or where we live, or, how we live. It is freely given without restrictions or our doing anything to deserve it.

We make this better for us when we ignore those who want to captivate us with words of anger and hatred. Their deceitful philosophies are not those of god, are not those of Jesus. Even though we live in a corrupt, base, primitive world, we are all children of the living God; He is eternally alive within us. This is the promise given us by Jesus.

In the Old Testament, we ask God to increase and multiply His mercy upon us. My view is that when we ask, search, and knock for the mercy of God, we are in fact multiplying His mercy for the world to see, for the world to benefit from. We are living in His eternal mercy.

One of the things my grandmother used to say to us when we wanted to start a fight was to turn the other cheek. I no longer say this; I say that if we give love to people, we will receive love in return. Sooner or later, this love, like the ripples in a pond, will spread continually. The promise of this love includes the dismantling of the false promises of material rewards.

Our short lives on this earth are not fulfilled by accepting the illegitimate words of those who spread discord and violence. Walk in the sunlight of God’s mercy. My life is wonderful when I practice this.

Memory

Too soon, death

Are we forgotten

Too soon, I fear

We lived, we loved

Sufficient as a memory

Only God knows

Love transcends life

Love transcends death

Love is the bridge

The only survivor

The only meaning

Memory is nothing

Wholeness

 Here is a thought: what is wholeness and how can we practice wholeness. Wholeness is being undivided; but another word for wholeness is integrity. Mystics look at wholeness as  critical element in the structure of a person. If one achieves wholeness, one can see wholeness in others. One who achieves integrity can see integrity in others. My grandmother used to say that if you look for evil in others, you’ll find evil; if you look for good in others, you’ll find good.

In our heads, hearts and body, we must achieve wholeness to see wholeness in others. When we honor the goodness in ourselves, we honor the goodness is all. We can honor the divine in us (our relationship with God); this lets us recognize the God in others. One way to say this is to see the face of God in those we meet. When we see God in ourselves and in others, we realize that neither of us deserve it; it is given freely by God as one of His eternal graces.

If we can accept the unmerited presence of God in our lives, we can heal ourselves of the disappointments and failures that we meet in everyday life. This only possible if we recognize that others also need to heal themselves. When we accept this, our healing becomes complete. We know that in our imperfect lives, lives that we share with other imperfect beings, we can begin to see God in all that we see. We can achieve wholeness in our lives.

Can we use language that honors others, expresses the beauty of life, the love of God and our joint union with God? Maybe not, but we can certainly try; we can certainly try to achieve the wholeness that we all deserve.

In these modern times, do we really understand

the significance of the cross that bore the body of Jesus.

Many of us have lost what the cross means in our modern daily lives. But this does not have to be the case. The early Christians believed and taught that God, by becoming human, not only approved of our world, but said yes to all humans and their reasons for living. In other words, He approved of our acting on our own behalf. Unfortunately, I think that we have all lost this basic belief. We no longer understand the ramifications of this approval.

We have become so inured to our way of life that we have forgotten that God is the basis of why we are alive; we no longer accept the affinity systems to recognize the actual inner experience of God. We have to return to the concept of experiencing a mystical (spiritual) relationship with God through Jesus, the Christ. This is what the cross represents in my life. Without this inner experience, I cannot follow the ethical example of Jesus.

The vision of Jesus on the cross is the reminder to me that his sacrifice is a vital reason for my believing in the concept of the messiah, or in our words, Christ. Jesus, the human, is Christ, the God, without which I am unable to accept the true purpose of why I live. Ministers of all religions teach us that Christ is everywhere. Jesus, himself, said that God is within us. Therefore, Christ is within us. We can revel in the beauty of this reality.

Many people make a lot of noise about honor; but, what exactly is honor? I am presently reading a book about the journey through the nine circles of Hell by Odysseus and Diomedes; their version of honor was to kill a man if he insulted you. I don’t think that works for us today.

When I was a young boy, growing up in Newark, NJ, Honor meant fighting for your rights, fighting when someone did something to slight you. The phrase turn the other cheek was not honorable; as a matter of fact, it was considered cowardly to turn and walk away from a fight. Life was measured in how many honorable moments you had.

I have a different idea of honor today; I still measure life by doing honorable deeds, but none of them involve violence. To me, violence in the dishonorable way to react. If someone were to make a fortune by cheating others our of their share is also not honorable; to me this is just greed. It may make this person rich and powerful, but we can see that honor has nothing to do with it. Honor is not and cannot be measured in gold, jewelry, or money.

Life is measured honor. God honors us with our human frailty and our families. Being responsible is honorable. Our friends give us honor; we do not ask for it. They honor us just by being our friends. Honor is community. Even if the world throws our lives into a tornado of spinning terrors, our community strength is a gift from God with which we can accomplish a better world. Personally, I ask for God’s help and blessing every day.

God is pleased when He is fully immersed in our limited, loving, and broken human community. We give God honor and love when we build our mutual communities that exclude nobody. We just have to have the patience to earn this, to earn this by listening for His word. I believe that if people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d be a lot more honorable. And happy.

Our lives are truly mysteries; but they are mysteries of our own making. A mystery cannot be explained; we can explain our lives. We are so caught-up in our daily insignificant problems that we forget what life truly means. We mistrust our instincts because we are assured by others that they know better than we do.

But they don’t. we are not alone in this universe; we are here together, and we belong to each other. We heard a sermon from the pulpit this Sunday on the Parable of the Good Samaritan. They lesson is that we must care for each other. As children of God, we are one people, not separated by color, or language, or religion.

We pray to God and feel that He never answers. Maybe we should thank God for creating all of us; thank him for the beautiful life He has blessed us with. Jesus taught that we should love one another; this means to love the unloved. When are Good Christian tells me that someone does not belong to God, I know that this person is not has he proclaims. Everyone belongs to God; we are all God’s people.

My prayer for the day is that we may all find the Love of God so we can live a better, happier, more blessed life and thus remove the mysteries we are so concerned with.

We do not abide alone

in our subliminal society

disallowing derision and hatred

We rise to be dutiful

to other’s needs

We denounce evil and

accept others as good news

We accept gifts from God

and praise others

as they do God’s work

We do not praise ourselves

we live not alone

we share with all

with people

with butterflies

with hummingbirds

We live

in the newborn rabbit hutch

with the cockroach and rhinoceros

We live in a world of good

We live in the world of God