Looking back through the pages of past pursuits, i rediscovered an earnest attempt to seek salvation in salutary company.
Years ago, i was in the midst of an agreeable congregation. The presiding priest was a revered gentleman of august majesty. He humbly rose from his privileged chair, paused and stared intently as the congregation braced itself for his homily.
He was a gentle firebrand!
The reader’s attention is drawn to the fact that the priest paused, and then stared at his audience. Owning up to his wisdom, he declared: ‘God does not want you to do anything for Him. He just wants you to get out of the way’.
I was deflated!
The rest of the congregation was not faring better. In all charity, they also were disappointed. Reverence was at stake. Borrowing from a popular leader, they were previously ‘fired up and ready to go!’ Understanding beckoned.
Thereafter, i decided a dance with diligence was necessary to discern the truth of the priestly proposition. Brief sermons can sometimes leave questions unanswered. Longer sermons tend to be boring.
With the help of the Storyteller and a renewed spirit over time, daylight has dawned for me-with new knowledge. Here is a truism: it is a long journey and the traveler should always be in possession of ‘oil for the lamp’.
Light is the always needed beacon to hope. Priceless fidelity is faithfulness to first principles and ‘First Love’. This is the Storyteller’s constant admonition. Recovery is achieved by faith, prayer and grace (mercy).
The Word anoints! So does oil which keeps lamp lighted on a lamp stand to show the way. That same anointed oil also will heal. The prayer that travels unseen to the hearer may be said to travel aided by unseen light from an oil-filled lamp. Such prayer is also a gift. True freedom cannot be forced.It is from within.
Liberating piety (exolution) is Love’s gift. It too must enjoy full sway. Yet the journey is more tolerable with a companion. In this regard, the strength and quietude of Angels make life’s travel easy as wild streams over strange contours.
Believers of all faiths often trust that they can without fail control nature. However, there is a tolerance threshold for every aspect of nature.
Pastors, priests, religious etc. all travel a terrain, each apparently with a formula. The strive for holiness is but a journey in Wisdom, that awaits the Master’s knock. Depending only on one’s strength for this noble endeavor is perilous. One should not disregard nor take lightly the vector of nature’s wind gusts.
Only God can save!
We are confident in this fact: only the Maker can best synchronize the symphony of notes that make life’s melody sweet. Trust in God is humility’s demand. True humility is a garland for peace. She (humility) takes away the urge to sin.The urge to sin is inherent in the very nature of law (Rom. 7:7).
Grace-filled freedom is not bound by enslaving conventions. The law is already at work in natural cause and purposes. The spiritual requires spiritual discernment.
Highest Love brings order to nature, but not the order that is humanly discerned. It is the distinction between sex and love. Still, everyone has his or her own proper gift. The conscience should be crowned by selfless love. Paraphrasing an African adage: what one holds too tightly becomes inconvenient. Essentially, what one privileges becomes one’s lord.
The Creator is unimaginably beautiful!
The created is made nearly so in image;-by Love and Joy. Yet the priorities and ordering of society with logic alone- unaccompanied by spiritual discernment- has made even the bell in wind a noise instead of a song.
Sex and love are two sides of a good coin: marriage. Freedom is near and dear to Liberty. Trying to stem the tide of sexual indiscretions by solely holding tight to human strength is self-defeating. It is inconvenient. It will not work. One must zealously guard the frontiers of feeling by opening up to ‘Highest Love’ (God).
The wayfarer is well familiar with the contours of the road of travel. With Highest Love, there is an almost indescribable feeling of not being bound to sin. It is the experience of an almost transcendental feeling of freedom from the chain of reproachful conscience: the redeemed sinner’s pearl.
This was probably what the priest meant: a tilt in thought and a look at the possibilities under Grace.
In short; the blessings!
Among other things, opening up the conscience to Highest Love comes with a different kind of energy and thinking. It is energy consistent with Highest Love and in resonance with one’s heart desires.
Heaven’s Love is truest!
That Love does not nullify one’s desires. On the contrary, ‘Highest Love’ orders the desires and affirms passions aright. It is a matter of focus. The chain of hurtful relations and painful passions cannot be broken by futile calculations.
Only God can save!
The call is for a beautiful simplicity that enjoys nature as part of an inspirational mosaic or vision. The designers and artists well have this sense of time and space; colors and boundaries..
One must leave it to the Maker to ‘open rivers in desolate heights’ and to make of wilderness ‘a pool of water’ (Is. 41:18).Highest Love does not work by contrived logic.
Love’s discipleship is an education in itself. In the end; the result is recognizable: ‘depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord’ (Lk 5:8). That’s how magnificent it is.
(The contemplative life is a matter of choice. Yet even this is helped by this free piety).
The prejudices of religion are not necessarily the attributes of God (Highest Love). Transcending lust; all believers ought by Grace to move on to beauty and love without chains or shackles.
In Love, one is home and at home. Seemingly disparate things have a connection in fact and truth. Hence, Love as a life precept.
The Wisdom of Anonymous and the continuing Visions of Behemoth: treats of sundry cogitations!
Behemoth: Anonymous, your company affords me good pleasure.
Anonymous: So does yours! May we by grace, benefit from the longevity of the association. Amen.
Behemoth: Amen! I am touched by some of the visions.
Anonymous: May we be touched by the Truth. Let’s hear them.
Behemoth: A man told of a dream. He was in a school cafeteria and was hungry. There were some items for breakfast, but he felt he also needed lunch items as well. Out of necessity, he remembered there was another cafeteria on campus and thither he went. He saw a variety of foods there; but then he ‘d somehow left his wallet behind at the first cafeteria. Frustrated and disappointed, he went back to the first cafeteria to get his wallet.
However, at the second cafeteria before leaving to retrieve his wallet, he noticed someone eating a simple lunch meal-(Spaghetti and Chicken, as he remembered it); and he suddenly remembered he also had similar food in his microwave somewhere close by. He’d forgotten about that.
He was elated. He went to retrieve the wallet at the first cafeteria, with opportunity now for lunch for free. He now had in a sense his chicken for lunch and breakfast as well, if he so desired.
Essentially, his frustrations were inner workings and contradictions for good. Observe here that a vigilant frame of mind was necessary for his salvation or sight.
Anonymous: The Lord is your shepherd! Remember also that man does not live by bread alone.