day two, post tt\09surgery. No pain excep

pre-surgery

I never cease to be mazed by the disconnect between conscious mind and the body. It's 5:30 a.m., day of surgery and though my mind said, "I'm in the Lord's hands. There s nothing to fear," sleep was sporadic. Check in with y ou shortly. Romans 15:13

Gary's thoughts on Life's Purpose

"Just how much do I want to be shocked by the transition to being in His presence in heaven? Would it not be far better to live as close to His image now, to take His values as my own, to expend my energies on His desires, to have my heart beating with His now than to wait for Him to perfect me after I die.

"My goal is to make the transition the least traumatic as possible, to live in Him now and right on through death into the next phase of life. I desire for my life to all be “with” Him.

"Practically, how better to be prepared to be with Him than to be with Him? How better to demonstrate His image in this world than to live with Him and express Him in all of life, to be His now as well as then?

"Yes, the other side of physical death will be different but I don’t want to experience the shock of totally different focus because I lived on this side for myself and then transition to for Him on the other side. My desire is that the rest of my life, including beyond physical death, would be a continuum in journey with Him. And he was no more because he walked with God. "

Thanks Gary for you insightful challenge.

Having hip replacement Tuesday, so will be out of blog pocket for a few days. Would appreciate your prayers for Theresa, that her load will not be heavy as she "coaches" me.

Longing for God - nuggets 3

From the book "Longing for God" comes this nugget. Success or failure in the eyes of society is meansured in terms of wealth, power, prestige and personal achievement. But success in our spiritual life is measured in terms of our ability to understand and address our own spiritual condition as well as the spiritual needs of others. Yet there is almost nothing in our contemporary culture that directs us this way.

Evagrius of Ponticus tells us, "The spiritual life is a journey that will see us react to the gravitational pull of eight deadly thoughts: gluttony, anger, greed or avarice, envy or vainglory, pride, lust or impurity, indifference or impatient discouragement -sloth, melancholy or depression.

We can overcome the disorientation of the eight deadly thoughts only through the orienting effects of the eight godly virtues: temperance overcomes gluttony, mildness overcomes anger, generosity over greed and avarice, happiness over envy, humility over pride, chastity over lust and impurity , diligence over indifference, wisdom over melanchholy.

The mind is the first and, in many ways, the most central arena of this battlefield in the moral life. Seeing the progression, gluttony is the most basic of the passions and temperance, the most basic of the virtues.

"Longing for God" Nuggets -2

A good friend is priceless. John Vawter

Endeavoring to share some concepts from the book "Longing for God." by Foster and Beebe, some thoughts today from Bernard of Clairvaux. Bernard writing in the 600’s, lists twelve steps of spiritual demise.

Loss of love of neighbor
1. curiosity
2.Light-mindedness (little discernment between weighty and trivial)
3. foolish merriment (pursuit of pleasure for distraction)
4. boasting
5. trying to be different (excessive regard for self)
6. arrogannce

Comtempt for one’s superiors
7. presumption
8. self-justifcation
9. insincere confession
10 rebellion

Contempt for God
11. Feeling free to sin and creating habitual patterns of sin
12. Showing utter disregard for the Ten Commandments.

Next post will view Bernard’s 12 steps of spiritual progress.

Longing for God Nuggets

Continuing in my quest for stimulating your desire to read "Longing for God." by Foster and Beebe, herewith quotes from Augustine of Hippo:

Committing to knowing God and how he works means we must create habits that incline us to look for him. Augustine’s interpretation of reality is that humans are estranged from God. On our own we cannot return to him. God, who sees our need and recognizes that we will never meet it on our own, sends Christ. But it is extremely difficult for us to recognize our own need because of three temptations:

the love of power,

the pervasivenes of lust and

our inability to find contentment.

When our will is oriented to God, our judgments and motivations are based on love. History reflects one of two things, either we love ourselves or we love God. Either we align our will with his or we are self-willed.

We cannot manufacture God’s initiative, but we can prepare for it by orienting our will to him. Lack of knowledge of God eventually leads to a lack of love for God.

Augustine on his lust: “Desperately longing for genuine love, I polluted …the stream of friendships with the foulness of lust, and clouded its purity with the dark hell of illicit desire.”

May these thoughts be an encouragement to you.

Spiritual Discipline

I'd like to stimulate your appetite to read the book "Longing for God" by Foster and Beebe. They have compiled advice from the godly sages beginning with Origen of Alexandria, born in 185, on up to the more current theologians/ philosphers. I'll share some tidbits in the next few posts.

Spiritual disciplines: study, prayer, reading and memorizing scripture, service to others, reflecting on God’s activity in nature and history, solitude, silence and fasting, all facilitate spiritual formation. But these activities can also misfire and become burdensome, killing the very life we seek. All spiritual disciplines require care to produce growth and progress.

How would you evaluate yourself in this arenal of spiritual discipline? And, why spiritual discipline? "Because I want to be a godly man."

I leave you with the question: "Why do you want to be a godly person? " LEt me know at rburwick@mindspring.com. That is a question I'm wrestling with now. Would appreciate your thoughts.