Meditating to Heal

I’ve been beaten . . . severely,
yet God loves me and
does not bring me to death,

I Love today,
t’is the day given by God;
I rejoice and am glad.

By God’s grace,
I am what I am;
I will be what he allows.

God’s grace is within -
He allows me to work hard,
and shields my spiritual path.

His grace,
a call to hope, 
my strength, my salvation, my song!


© Russell Kendall Carter

Calmness of the dawn greets,
soft breezes mellow the mind; 
terns floating aloft;
bubbles in the newly submerged sand;
sand crabs scampering into secret hideouts.

A lonesome fisherman
casting into the surf;
wicker creel empty, lifted by the surf.
Jogger leaving ephemeral footprints,
decomposed by indefatigable tides.

Sun-filled brightness aloft;
azure sky luring us to tranquility.
Joining hands with my soulmate,
remembering another diamond beach -
fifty-five years ago . . . with a ring.

© Russell Kendall Carter

I am in no hurry to celebrate Easter Sunday. It is a day of glory, a day of completed promises. However, this day of interim, this Saturday,  is a time for reflection. Why be in a hurry for our resurrection and new life. The Christ will rise on the morrow, but our meditations on the meaning of Easter should be in the front of our minds today!

As we settle into our reflections today, we feel the Spirit of God upon us. As we await the storm of violence to pass into a time of love, we learn to dance in the rain, learn to give our troubles to God. The storm preceding the Cross has quelled. Our wait for God’s promise is soon upon us. The clouds depart; the glory of heaven is our true home, our lives with Jesus our lives with God.

Martin Luther King, Jr. re-opened the way of Jesus, when he gave us the vision on the mountain top. This was and is the meaning of the life of Jesus. If we allow it, if we open our hearts to the truth, we also will reach the mountaintop. We share the vision of Jesus proclaiming God’s omnipotence. When God brings us to this glory and wonder, we no longer walk in darkness. The light of the loving, living Christ is upon us.

We accept that our life, our times, are in the outspread hands of Jesus the man on the cross, Christ the God. We are challenged to walk in the world . . . as Jesus walked. If we accept this invitation to follow, we are led, we then lead others to the lighted path of forgiveness and love.

Jesus teaches me that my life is a lily. Each year I am reborn with new beauty to be shared with others. My rebirth each Easter, each coming of spring, exudes the gifts God has given me, the confidence of His Truth and the wealth of His Wisdom. God invites me to walk from darkness to light, from dormancy to life, His Life.

© Russell Kendall Carter

He whose kingdom is . . .
not of our world;
He prays!
God issued forth Him from Mary.
From His terminal anguish,
His light leads us.
He is oppressed,
yet merely offers prayers.
God lifts Him;
we praise Him.
His dominion is God,
given to us. . .
He prays,
and offers forgiveness.
He invites prayers;
He gives us a heart - 
a true eternal soul - 
through prayers only He offers
and blesses.
Jesus is prayer!



© Russell Kendall Carter

Jesus washes feet;
challenges us to acts of humanity.
His form - a servant!
Gives a new commandment: 
love one another, 
just as I have loved you.

Abba, Father,
O my Father, 
if possible, 
take this cup . . .
from me: 
yet . . .
not as I, 
but as thou wilt.

This cup of salvation,
this blood,
this deed of redemption
this sacrament - 
I remember.
I rejoice.

© Russell Kendall Carter

For all people, we are driven into our own person wildernesses, that barren, harsh, unfriendly space between where we should be and where we are. We bring this on ourselves and refuse to examine what pulls us from serving humanity less than the promises of God. We ignore our better, inner selves to jump for the brass ring and hoard what we have grasped in our hands.

This is not the way God wants us to live, wants us to treat each other. What brings us together is God’s love, for God is Love and Love is God. in these times of separation, physical, emotional, and ideological, we absently fall to distrust and sometimes hate, when dealing with the other. This is unfortunate. God knows us by how we treat each other, how we show love to one another. If we are not together, not one with each other, it is impossible to be one with God.

We pray in our churches and rooms and the depart our spiritual meditations and revert to the prejudices and oppressions of society. We must reverse this trend, or we will not be able to live free. Our aggressions many times turn to violence, violence in our streets, and violence in our hearts. If left unchecked, this accelerating violence turns to open warfare; then we are all lost.

It is God that binds us to one another; it is God’s Love that brings us together; it is God’s Love that invites us to forgive those who have overstepped accepted boundaries. It is this Love that we must use to overcome. As the Negro spiritual says, “We shall overcome!” Let us remember what binds us.

© Russell Kendall Carter

     The LORD knew me before I was born, formed in my mother’s womb . . . to be His servant. He knows and will always know all of us by name. We are all called to be His servant: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindis, and all people of faith all over the globe. We gain this through the power of Christ and the goodness of God. God gives us power; God gives us Wisdom, through the life experience of Jesus. It was He who showed us the Wisdom of God.
     We hear the voice of God; He speaks to us to benefit others, not for our personal gain. Our joy is received by hearing this and from the goodness we serve others in His name. Jesus shows us that there are no outsiders in this world; He leads us to accept that the only boundaries are those we artificially place before ourselves. God and Jesus know no boundaries. Let us tear down our artificial boundaries.
     Listen for this voice of God; it comes through our shared love, spoken our prayers, and our unspoken meditations. 


© Russell Kendall Carter

A blessed week is Easter tide . . .
great sorrow, then eternal promise.
Jesus leads us to love,
And opens our glimpse of paradise.

The promise of Easter is great,
God loves us, giving great comfort;
forsaken we are not;
Jesus rose and thus eliminated fear.

Nothing new under the Sun?
God is always with us;
God always is Love;
God always heals.

Nothing new under the Sun? Always . . .
Love God, be loved in return;
feal God’s renewed
Love and power to heal.

Imagine Jesus sitting with you,
washing your feet,
healing as only he can.
Everything is new under the Sun!


© Russell Kendall Carter

As a Christian, I pray that we will clothe the naked and minister to those who are homeless. I am willing to serve, regardless of who the oppressed are, what color they are, or what religion they practice.  I only need to feel the grace of God and have my heart and soul filled with love. God invites me to do this. And the invitation is for each person to share, the community, and yes, even the government. 

Individually we, the children of God, do fairly well, and many of our communities have programs to help those in need. I pray for the big businesses and the impersonal governments to not fall flat but to open the coffers of wealth to lift the poor and weak from their forgotten lives. I pray that we in the United States, who pride ourselves on being a Christian nation, will live up to this promise of God’s love. I pray that the corporations and governments will remember that Jesus did not serve the rich, those who hoard wealth and are a part of the top one percent. I pray that we will truly act as a Christian nation. My dream is that the war on the poor, on the people of color, and those who attend temples or synagogues will be declared over. Victory comes only when all of God’s children are lifted in praise. 

We walk in darkness most of our lives and
fear lifting the veil that shields us from doubt, from fear;
Nowhere is there help that we can see, 
When walking the path by the afflicted ; we lose 
empathy for those in need;
we turn our blindness to the sun,
saying all will be well,
when in fact, we are stumbling over our hidden -
prejudices and failures, 
ignoring the open graves of those we hate.

We turn to our churches and often hear
derision and exclusion; go away we don’t want you here.
To those we look down upon we say, 
“good riddance, you are different, we don’t need you infiltrating our church.” 
You are too dirty, living on our streets;
you are too brazen flaunting your screaming -
homosexuality in our faces.
Why do you think you belong here?
Go away, return to the camps of the lepers and
to the barrios on the edge of the cities.
This is where you belong; NOT HERE!

We learn from history and see that our forebearers -
held the same contempt of those we also persecute. 
We know we are correct;
our history tells us so; our white fathers tell us so!
Those not conforming should be shunned;
perhaps as in olden times they should be beaten, 
tarred and feathered,
forced to re-conform to society’s norms.
And, who sets these norms?
We do of course, we are the power; we are society.

Go away you leper; be gone you dark-skinned thief.
Crawl back in your hole you Nancy-boy; we don’t want to catch what you have.
You are no longer worthy of our love; you are not worthy of our aid.
You chose your life; we didn’t, so why should we pay for 
your sinful living when you choose to go against our rules?
It is not our fault you are gay, it’s not our fault you are black, 
or you have the slanted eyes of the foreigner, the snake, lurking, hidden in the grass.
Get away you heathens of the devil; you - are - not  -wanted - here.


But wait . . . what, you say?
I read my Bible; I study what God has said to us;
what Jesus has done for us.

What is it He is saying?
Why is it God that has chosen a poor shepherd boy to lead Israel?
What is the meaning of an outcast woman being the first to see, 
that the sacred body of our lord is missing?
Why is God choosing people who mean nothing to society?
Why is God always turning to the outcast to lead?
Why does Jesus care for women so much,
heal the lepers and those who are outcasts of society?

Those in power told Jesus “good riddance, we don’t need you infiltrating our Temples, our Churches, you are destroying the church it took centuries to build.” 
Why does Jesus tell us whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; 
just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve?
If Jesus walked the earth today, He would love the leper;
He would love the homosexual; He would love the black man;
He march arm-on-arm with the transvestite.

Have we built our society on a premise that is wrong;
are we as wrong as those who hung my Lord on a cross -
to suffer and die because he too was an outcast? 
He too chose to go against society and its rigid ungodly rules.
Jesus loves those forgotten and oppressed by society; 
if I love Jesus, I must also love the oppressed;
those murdered in the streets by the guns that government has allowed to proliferate.

Jesus loves the little children of color, who are denied a proper education.
Our society is built on a big lie, but we ignore this big lie - 
and build more oppression and hate.
What is wrong; how far have we strayed?
We have to find housing for the homeless;
we have to clear the barrios and bring
our brothers and sisters to better homes.
We must turn our guns into plowshares - 
and build the earth to feed all people.
And we cannot forget about the greed of our large banks -
and even larger corporations that underpay our slave laborers 
to pad the coffers of the fat rich men on the top of society!

We are all different, but we are all one family - 
the family of man.
It is not impossible to bring the dream of God’s abundant creation -
to satisfy all - fulfill all people, to love all!
What Jesus did with five loaves and two fishes is truly a miracle;
we can recreate that miracle on our own shores,
by turning our faces toward the oppressed, not away; 
we cannot ignore our petty dislikes; we must correct them;
nor can we ignore our innate hating of those who are not us - 
those that our society turns from . . . and forgets.
It is time to fulfill the two commandments given to us.
To love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
We must ask God for His forgiveness for accusing – 
Ignoring – oppressing – His children – our brothers – our sisters.
The time is now to bring all of the human family – 
Together – with joy – with song – with love . . . 
God’s eternal love.


© Russell Kendall Carter