Doubt

Doubt brings vulnerability! Dare yourself to open up to this vulnerability and ask the question, “What’s next?” Only then can you open yourself to the openness of your spiritual journey. Dare to hope! Listen for the Good news! Over and over again, even when you can’t see the way, try, overcome that darkness, see the light.
God doesn’t look at us with doubt. She looks at us with love; she looks at us with deep love and compassion for what we have achieved in life. We are who we are because of God, and it is because of God that we can accomplish what lies ahead; there is no room for doubt.
©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

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If Only

I look at the world and wonder, on a daily basis, if only. Then I asked myself if only what? What am I looking for? There is so much out there that could change. Look at the person on the street making a home where I fear to go. And I used the word fear because I’ve never been there. Jesus went there. Unafraid! He lived with the poor. He lived with the sick. He believed that in them. He knew he had to live with those people. Those people. My people. My brothers, my sisters, truly less fortunate than me. Like Jesus, I know who’s out there who needs help. But I fear going there. If only. Two very powerful words. Teo words that dare us. To go where we don’t want to go. If we could shine some light on that passage, we might try; however, it is the darkness of the nights and our ignorance and the madness of those areas that we refer to as “if only” that scare us. Scare us away from working with those that need our help, that we know who we are out there, waiting. . . just waiting for us to turn and see.
If only.
Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.


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Disconnection

Unfortunately, we are trained to be disconnected people. All of our heroes in life are go-it-alone supermen who conquer all the villains that life throws in front of them, who then hop in their vintage cars and drive off into the sunset. Many of our books and most of our movies have the same theme.
We have this theme because in reality our life is a series of burdens and uncertainties that disappoint us in our shallow, uninteresting daily lives. At some point, whatever our employment is, the joy and gloss is torn off to reveal the toil and mundane existence of the boring everyday existence of modern life. In our hearts and minds, we gradually deteriorate to a state of nothingness and joylessness that looks for any excitement it can find. Our physical world cannot give us this excitement forever.
The light in our hearts must rise out of this mundane state allowing others to share in the will that God has put in the very core of our being that other people can observe and share, seeing the joyful difference, but realizing the similar internal feelings in their own very beings. When it does, this light from our hearts, that we all share, bears the image of God, raising us out of the mundane existence of human drudgery that no longer needs the artificial movie hero we formerly worshipped.
We have overcome the enormous of influential disconnection to the message that Jesus taught so long ago and still teaches today, Love, God’s unending Love is always with us and outlasts all of our troubles, connecting us in infinite Love.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

If you are inspired, read my latest book. (3.99 Kindle eBook)

Interrelationships; Work of the Lay People

Do you see that person standing in the back of the crowd? She’s the one who is always sitting alone, many times hiding her face, too shy to speak her voice. Those few people who know her say that she has a very gentle heart, a very caring heart. When she speaks, she speaks with authority about the plight of the oppressed; she cautions that God wants us to value and respect people of all traditions and cultures equally. She laughs when she says that we should be a part of humane-ity. We should love one another as Jesus says. Could she be called by God to be our leader with her too-gentle heart? She offers God’s Grace fully and often, could her wholeness suffer the cruelty of our harsh world?

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

If you are inspired, read my latest book.

Life is Good

In the spiritual adventure of what we call life we discover that our life is like a drop of water in God’s eternity. With our family and friends always walking beside us, catching us when we falter, we are always assured that we are on the safe and treasured path that God has given is yesterday, today and tomorrow, allowing us to walk in His grace. When we forever take God’s Love and Grace as our everyday mantra, we treat all whom we meet with love and peace in our hearts and on our lips.
Truly, Life is Good.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

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A New Year

Here it is, the end of another year! As true with all years, we have had to climb a few hills, but we also had some smooth paths to walk also. Generally, God has been good to us. As we approach the new year let us all keep on the path that God has paved for us. Greet others with a smile and share with them God’s love. Know your own heart and its ability to grow every time you meet others. Be in good health and trust your instincts; God put them there for a reason.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

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Light within you

Do you feel it deep within you?
It’s always there but not beating.
Not beating like your heart.
It’s a warmth that’s always there.
Sometimes you try to ignore it.
But it shines through regardless.
This light is the soul that God
places in our hearts that shines
up through our faces for others to see;
we feel, but cannot see it in ourselves
as others do. We can only see it shine
in others. It is God’s wonderful plan
seeing the light within you shine
for others to see, and for you to see
their light shine to see their beauty.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

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“Les Anges Dans Nos Campagnes”

It is that time in church when we sing hymns of praise celebrating the birth of Jesus so many years ago. For all the non-French students out there, the title translates as “Angels We Have Heard on High,” truly one of my favorite carols, if not for the angels that have stayed with me since my near-death experience four years ago.
I believe in angels; mine have kept me on the path of righteousness, allowing me to greet all whom I meet with God’s gentleness, but more importantly with God’s everlasting Love. So, I try to go through life with a song in my heart and the words on my lips: “What the gladsome tidings be, which inspire Your heavenly song.”
Merry Christmas, all my beloved brothers and sisters.
©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

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Exploration

I walk out on my front lawn at night and look up at the night sky. I am in awe at the portion of the great Milky way that is splayed out for me to see. The beauty is overwhelming. Not being a scientist, I am truly amazed at the grandness of the universe that is beyond my imagination. I am envious of those who are capable and have the equipment to see the beauty of the colors and hues of the cloud structures that surround the planets circulating the stars that are our nearest galaxies.
As a youth growing up, I was a Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers fan in the 1940s and 1950s; I faithfully watched Star Trek but was not a Trekkie; and Star Wars was interesting until it got too violent. All this means that I am one that mankind is truly interested in investigating what we refer to as outer space.
I think our space exploration is an excursion into another realm of God’s creation. Do we have the intelligence to understand and accept any differences we meet? Or will we meet these differences with the violence shown to us from the Buck Rogers days to the Star Wars Days?
I walk out on my front lawn to see the peace of the night skies. . . to see the peace of God’s creation and be blessed by God’s love.

©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.

If you are inspired, read my latest book.

The Virtue of Dreaming

“And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.” Numbers 12:16
Any student of history is familiar with these words: “I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” Of course, these come from the very moving speech given by Martin Luther King in 1963.
They were in an important message to all God-loving people to open our eyes to the status of the poor and the Black families in the United States. They moved a people to demonstrate in the streets against this almost 400 years of oppression to people of color.
But there are other ideas of dreaming. Mama Rose in Gypsy sang the following: “I had a dream, a dream about you, baby. It’s gonna to come true, baby.” Of course, she ended up singing about how everything’s coming up roses, for herself. It was a self-positive wish in a troublesome movie. This is true also when Lun Tha and Tuptim sang “I have dreamed and enjoyed the view,” about their forlorn and impossible love in the King and I. My favorite, however, is from The Man of La Mancha: “To dream the impossible dream,” a forlorn reverie by a slightly daffy landowner in Spain.
In all cases, the dreams are promises of better things to be.
Not all dreams are happy dreams; but that is a later note. I am in constant pain/discomfort, and I awake two or three times at night due to this condition. The dreams I awaken from during the night are precious to me; they always are dreams of great promise. I feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room, during the night. The dreams are pleasant; they are happy dreams. The unpleasant dreams come in the morning, telling me to get out of bed, I have been lazy too long.
I also meditate a great deal; I find myself meditating when I first get into bed; I also pray for those who I know need God’s love and affection. I rarely pray for myself. The meditations I have are always in the mode of a prayer. Not a prayer for forgiveness, but a prayer for a better understanding of who I am, what my relationship with God is. Through my meditations, I have learned to listen for God’s voice; it is very gentle; it is the wisp of the wind rustling the outer edges of my consciousness. It is a true reverie of beauty. I sit on the patio behind our house; it is a favorite place of meditation. More often than not, I will picture a beautiful cardinal; when I open my eyes, I am surprised when a cardinal is sitting on the table in front of me. One time, I was a little upset, only to open my eyes and see a hawk snatch a mouse from our back garden. At first, I was terribly upset, but then I realized that both creatures were of God and what I saw was a normal occurrence.
This brought me closer to understanding how God is directing my life. I no longer fear my pain; so, I decide to write about my dreams and what dreams are for.
When I meditate, I am almost in a dream state; many of the ideas that come to me are a result of these meditative times. I do not consider the dream states as a time of unconsciousness, because my mind is so active learning who I am and what my relationship with God is, what my relationship with my family is, and what my relationship with all whom I meet, old friend or newly discovered friend. Oh how blessed I am when the virtue of dreaming turns to meditation.
©Russell Kendall Carter, BA. MAT. Dlitt.


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