present

"...hope frees us from the need to predict the future and allows us to live in the present..."

Henri Nouwen

prophetic contradiction

“The most powerful thing you can hear, and the only thing that ever persuades any of us in our own lives, is if you meet somebody whose story contradicts the thing you think you know. At that point it’s possible to question what you know, because the authenticity of their experience is real enough to do it.” Ira Glass

The gift of prophecy is not always expressed in words about future things. Sometimes it means living out the story God is writing into you and me... Being present to Presence in a manner that clarifies aspects of the Spirit’s narrative... Becoming human renditions of new ways of being...

worry

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
Corrie Ten Boom

presence

Is there a difference between the omnipresence of God (his ‘everywhere-ness’) and his real presence or manifest presence (his ‘right-here-ness’)?

It certainly feels different, but is that due to changes in us or changes in him? …Or both?

Is it our perception of God's closeness that changes as we yield our splintered wills to his One Will? ...Our cloudy truths to his Clear Truth? Or is God actually pressing nearer to us during certain holy moments?

Inhabiting Littleness

I can only be this person, in this place, in these relationships...

Finite, temporal, limited...

I have instant access to the most superlative instances on the planet of anything I might attempt in my local sphere. So my efforts will necessarily pale in comparison unless I am the very best in the world.

Frankly, this does not inspire me; it freezes me. It could be because I’ve lost touch with the parameters of my own given context. I have misinterpreted my world as the world, which is far too expansive a playground for me.

Somehow, I have to rediscover the wonder of the littleness of my life. I must inhabit my actual sphere of influence (as opposed to the global sphere visible to me via the 12-inch screen of the iBook I’m using to type these words).

It is another facet of presence: to be here, fully incarnated and engaged within the littleness of my life.

the p-word

Is patience a tiresome drudgery to which we subject ourselves only to secure a privilege or payday of some sort?

Is it more or less a chore -- on par with bill-paying, clock-punching, gutter-cleaning, dog-bathing, etc.?

Or is patience, in and of itself, a sweet thing?
Is it a component of personal formation?
Is it a change agent?

[Do you find yourself exercising an inordinate amount of patience just reading through this blog entry?]

Patience seems to be a critical attribute of presence -- the art of being where I am... of feeling the feelings of my life... of becoming present. To me, this is one of the most remarkable things about Jesus. It's a characteristic of his that I long to emulate.