Show me your secret said
the seeker to the saint.
No I ain’t,
you would faint
at the picture I’d paint.
Posted by: John | October 13, 2013
The Saint’s Secret
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: John | October 8, 2013
Internet Temple
Today one can Google-ize
and find google lies,
a google prize,
google whys,
google My’s
or google sighs.
I’m looking for
google highs.
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: John | September 26, 2013
Judgement
Aviation weapons system on the E-2C require
search radar to find targets.
That’s analog.
Targets presented to radarscopes,
appear as smudges
as the sweep goes ’round.
Computers paint digital targets,
create files of altitude,
aircraft type,
heading and speed.
Our emotions find a target –
another human or an ugly
situation – while our intellect
paints a logical image
of the target.
The radarscope analog smudge
gets covered by crisp,
new digital image.
Select the digital target
to see related info over,
or near, the analog smudge.
Yes, that’s what we do.
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | September 25, 2013
I Can’t Stay Alive
“All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down,
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and he who cannot keep himself alive.”
Psalm 22:27-29
While reading Father William Meninger’s commentary on Psalm 22 in his book, The Loving Search for God, I was startled by this phrase, “and he who cannot keep himself alive.” Wow. On the one hand, of course, no one can keep himself alive. We are all destined to die in the body; we are all incapable of avoiding sin (a kind of “death”) as well. Christians have reason for hope and joy, however, because Jesus has saved everyone through His death and resurrection.
This phrase, “and he who cannot keep himself alive,” has an even deeper meaning for me personally. Oh, the agony! Truth be told: As hard as I try, I cannot love life in this world. I do not wish to be in the world. Never have, even as a child. Often, it seems all I can do is survive day-to-day and struggle to avoid committing suicide. I am beginning to see this as a worthwhile battle, though, because the Lord is on my side. I bow down in praise of the Lord for creating me, saving me, calling me to do His work in the world, and sustaining me moment-to-moment. Without His strength and love, I know I cannot stay alive today or any other day.
There are other people in this world who fight this battle with me. We’re hidden. For the most part, we don’t speak of our trials because we know most people won’t understand. (That’s okay. The Lord understands – and that’s all that really matters.) We worship the same loving God along with those who are “proud” and those who are in “the dust.” In the end, all people – even those who consider themselves unbelievers – will bow down in worship of the same God.
I look forward to that day.
Posted in Spiritual Life | Tags: all people will bow before God, Psalm 22, Religion and Spirituality, suicide
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | September 21, 2013
Living Out of Love
In one of my LinkedIn groups, I ran across a post questioning the validity of religion since all it seems to do is calm people’s fears and make people feel “better” than others who are not being “saved.” The author calls religion a kind of “armor” and claims that, “the day you drop all your armor means you have dropped living out of fear.” I can see how religion serves those functions for certain people. However, I posted this response:
I’d say that people don’t need to necessarily drop their religion completely. Rather, as they mature, people grow beyond the limited mindset of their own religion and their own concept of God to see that all people are brothers and sisters – children of the same God. We all worship the same God. Once we begin to realize that, then we’re able to live out of love rather than fear. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). So for some people, this may mean dropping religion; for other people, it means remaining in a religion but transcending dogmas and artificial boundaries that keep people apart. It’s possible to become truly mature, open, inclusive Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims (or any other religion). We’ve all met such people at times. Such people are often called saints.
Posted in Religion | Tags: Conceptions of God, fear, love casts out fear, saints, spiritual maturity
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | September 19, 2013
The Test of Love
Some people seem to think the Roman Catholic Church teaches that sexuality is dirty and sinful. Not exactly. Sex is seen as a very beautiful human experience – as long as it’s used in the proper setting: Only between a man and a woman who are married to each other and not using any type of artificial contraception.
Which brings up the issue of how realistic this teaching really is. I mean, how many people can honestly say they are called to either celibacy or parenthood – and that there are no other options? Maybe the majority of people could lead fulfilling lives with such restrictions centuries ago, but what about now?
In my opinion, the Church would be better off addressing the issues that are relevant to people NOW, rather than insisting that the same old teachings are still appropriate. So many people are condemned and left with guilt and shame for living lives that are less than “perfect.” But the truth is: Nobody is living a perfect life. Even the people who believe it’s their place to dictate to everyone else.
The real test of the “holiness” of our lives is love. How well do we truly love?
Posted in Religion | Tags: Birth control, Catholic Church, celibacy, sexuality and Catholicism
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | September 17, 2013
Slaves
Yes, we’re all slaves –
of our habits,
our desires,
our employers,
our creditors.
We’re supposed to be
slaves of God.
But how do we serve
God when we’re
endlessly tied
to lesser powers?
There’s some point
to it all –
though our eyes
be darkened
and our hearts
tied down.
Posted in Poetry
Posted by: Jivani Lisa | September 15, 2013
Contemplative Prayer
About eight years ago, I read The Cloud of Unknowing for the first time. Written in the 14th century by an anonymous monk, the book teaches us how to love God more deeply through the practice of contemplative prayer in the Christian tradition.
Last weekend, I met Father William Meninger, OCSO, at a retreat in Smithfield, VA. He is a Trappist monk who has authored several books, including, The Loving Search for God: Contemplative Prayer and The Cloud of Unknowing. This book closely follows The Cloud and helps the reader modernize and make sense of some of the seemingly obscure teachings in that spiritual classic.
I’m finding that the two books really work beautifully together. They are inspiring me to move away from a preponderance of vocal/mental prayer – and toward a quiet, simple, loving encounter with God on a daily basis.
Won’t you join me?
Posted by: John | September 3, 2013
Dashed Line
In my forty plus years of flying, I’ve tried to learn as much as possible about weather. I learned early on to look at a map and see the Cold fronts with their icy triangles, the Warm fronts with their toasty humps, and the stationary and occluded fronts with both humps and triangles. I learned the acronym COWS (Cold, Occluded, Warm, Stationary) as a reminder of the intensity of the weather.
But lately, the “trough aloft” has crept onto the weather map. Whenever I see the weather turning to crap, I look on a map and see a sneaky dashed line, often with a “L” attached. That’s the bad guy right there.
Oh well. Nothing lasts forever, not even shitty weather.
Posted in Journal entry | Tags: trough aloft, weather maps
John and Lisa's Blue Skies Blog - Soaring with God 