There are so many things that can and do go wrong in our lives that we need a strong base to support us. This cannot be human or material but must be divine and spiritual. We have this innate longing to be better; lucky we have this wonderful teacher who said, “Not my will, but Thine.” And in the country today, I ask for the Grace of God to go to the children; they are being left behind by our society. I cry for them as Jesus cried for Lazarus and all of Jerusalem. The Romans of our day, our government, have taken all of the resources away from the poorest children of our society. I cry at their loss; I pray for the Grace of God to protect them, to soften the cruel hearts of our government to restore what has been taken from them.
We are what God made us. We think we are weak and flawed, but that is only because society says we are. Let’s put away all the harsh words, all the slander, anger, and bitterness, and remember that our dislike and hatred for another hurts us more than it hurts those we think we hate. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Can we at least try this first step to true friendship?
Spring is right around the corner. Spring, the rebirth of nature, the restart of God’s creation, the creation that never stops creating, is the time when we awaken to God’s perfection and realize that the Earth comes alive all around us. As we look around us this early Spring let’s remember that God makes His home within us, not out there in some distant heaven. If we open our hearts, our families, our communities, and our nations to this love that lives with us, that forms the very essence of our being, our life and our times would be greatly improved. Our life would be as simple as the joy of children playing together.
We (society) live in a world of choices, and sometimes our choices seem to sneak up on us (society) and tell us we have made a serious mistake. The terrible part of this is that we (society) are unable to change what we have done. We can be completely intolerant and blame it on the “other guy” (our neighbor). After all, it was his fault; he was the one who caused all the problems in the first place. Or, we can be tolerant, and roll up our sleeves and work together to fix the problems as they come along. Our first goal is to find a common place to start. We know that place; it has been laid out before us; it is within us; God has shown us the way. The lighted path will encourage us to work together to accomplish the work the must be done for us to be in control of our own lives. If we work together, we can gain control of our individual lives as God desires us to do. We have maximum control of our lives; not for the material goals of more money, but maximum control of life, true life, the life that matters, not the one constantly reaching out for material wealth The work God wants us to do, we can do together; it is non-adversarial; it is non-counterproductive, if that is such a word. When we work together to reach a fuller and richer life according to God’s wishes (and remember, they may be different for all of us), the result is a fulfillment not just for each individual but for society as a whole, Therefore the subject of tolerance versus intolerance really does not arise , since the fulfillment is the richness of each individual’s life. I have always believed that a full life of prayer and love will take us a long way to avoid intolerance in our world. Let us hold this spiritual truth in our minds as we walk together on the individual paths of our lives.
I was raised in a wealthy family, but not how you think. My father took a train to work every morning (we owned no car). My mother arose at four AM every morning to work in a bakery across the street from our third-floor apartment in which we lived. My sister and I walked to school every day carrying our deluxe lunches of lettuce and mayonnaise sandwiches. My father always told us before he left for work that God loves and protects us, and we should not be afraid of anything as we go to school. It was a code we were taught to live by. That was over 70 years ago. I have had a very good life, a sometimes-rough life, but a good life. My wife and I (together 57 years) live quietly, enjoy our children and grandchildren and occasionally get the chance to travel. My father was correct, God does not expect us to go it alone. Every time I fell, God was behind me to help me get back on my feet. With love of both God, my wife, and a lot of hard work, we gave life with lots of love to a healthy family hopefully raised in the old-fashioned way. As we begin a new year, we see our world as a very scary dangerous world. I see the headlines and there are no safe places to hide from those who want to do harm to whomever is in the way. New Orleans, Arizona, Virginia; individuals or groups have the intent to do harm to innocent people everywhere. My only defense is an offense, and that is to have love and peace in my heart and on my lips at all times, and to know that Love casts out all fears. So, trust God. You are not alone. God loves you.
I awoke this morning with the blood of God flowing through the veins in my body. If you ask me how I know, I will tell you that I live with the goodness that God has blessed me with allowing me to live for the better part of almost 82 years on this small orb we call Earth in the atmosphere somewhere in the vast milky way God created billions of years ago. After I thanked God for allowing me one more day, I kissed my wife, told her I loved her, and bounded out of bed (slowly creaked my ancient bones) to face the new day. Let’s face facts, our lives are difficult; we face some troubling times in our lives, but we make our way through these times. My grandmother always said that the tunnel may be dark, and it may be long, but there is always light at the end of that tunnel, and that light is God, and if you add one more letter “O” to God, which is :Good; and we know that God is Good., we are born of God; we are born of Good; therefore, we are all born with the strength of Good, the strength of God.
Meditating to Heal 
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