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Bob Buehler's Wordpress blog
A Litany
I am deeply connected with all of humanity, and with every person in particular.
So long as anyone remains unloved, I am lonely.
So long as anyone remains hungry, I am not satisfied.
So long as anyone remains in need, I am poor.
So long as anyone remains imprisoned, I am not free.
So long as anyone remains in danger, I am not safe.
So long as anyone suffers from illness, I am not well.
Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
– Isaiah 55:6-7 (esv)
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
Every day is a new day.
I’ve been saying this daily for months now, on Twitter and Facebook, along with a different word of encouragement designed solely for my own benefit, but appreciated, apparently, by many others. Well, today, with the election finally in the rear-view mirror, is another new day. For about half of the people in this country, the outcome of the election is their word of encouragement already. For the other half, words of encouragement are needed — perhaps desperately so.
Whatever the outcome, it was going to be this way. Our political system in the United States, for over two hundred years, has tended to divide us into parties,although the Constitution does not envision a two-party system, in fact makes no mention of political parties at all. Half of us were bound to be deeply disappointed in the results of this closely contested presidential election, and the only question was, which half. I want to consider, today, that of those who identify as Christians in this land (still a majority), virtually all of us have prayed for God’s will to be done in this election, sometimes echoing the words given by our Lord: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Now, some will conclude that with the re-election of Obama, God’s will was done and we are indeed closer to an answer to that prayer, while others take the opposite view and are already lamenting a coming Apocalypse. What I want to ask is: What did we really pray for? Did we really think that God takes sides, choosing one leader or political party over another?
This nation has been led, in the past, by Jimmy Carter and by Ronald Reagan, by Jack Kennedy and by Dick Nixon, by Bill Clinton and by George W. Bush. We survived all of those leaders, as a nation, though the vision of apocalypse was raised by opponents of each in their own time. Now, as then, when we salute the flag, we pledge to remain “One Nation Under God, Indivisible.” Can we live up to that pledge, or do we pledge instead to be divided? My belief is that our system is strong enough to survive Barack Obama, and it would have survived Mitt Romney.
We who are believers are called upon (1 Timothy 2:1-5) to offer prayers, thanksgivings and intercessions on behalf of all who are in authority. We have the responsibility to do that, whether or not we like who is in such a position, and whether or not we approve of their actions, opinions, or policies, “that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in the sight of God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” At least half of the leaders named above were not the leaders I would have chosen, and pursued policies I disapproved of. I still particularly remember the day, in 1973, when by the prompting of the Spirit of God and in obedience to scripture I found it necessary for my soul’s own health, for me to personally forgive, and subsequently pray for, then-president Richard Nixon. Similarly, Christians today need to practice the Christian discipline of forgiveness with respect to those leaders, of any political persuasion, with whom we strongly disagree.
If we can do that, then and only then will the real spiritual renewal, for which we also fervently pray, be on the horizon. That will be a genuine morning in America.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High.
Sometimes you just have to start over.
A few days ago I was upgrading this and some other websites I maintain, and something went wrong: my personal website became inaccessible. Since most of what was on the site was imports from other places that also belong to me, I did a radical thing and deleted the blog installation associated with this domain. So now, in mid–October 2012, I start with content borrowed from elsewhere (all my own stuff, not to worry — and much of it also previously duplicated here). One of the things about the upgrade I was doing involved making this available also as an app for mobile users, so… hello world, again!
Sometimes people take the injunction to “pray without ceasing” to mean something like, “pray often.” This makes prayer into an activity, something we do, something that is separate from the rest of our lives. And yes, there are times when devoting ourselves to prayer, to the exclusion of all else, is appropriate. But even if you are a monk, there is a rhythm to life that includes eating, sleeping, caring for bodily needs, working, creating, interacting with others, learning, forming opinions, making decisions, resting, relaxing, entertaining or being entertained. What sense does it make to talk about praying without ceasing, if we have to cease praying to do one of these things? As long as prayer is seen as one activity in a list like this, it is impossible. So it has been suggested that prayer is more deeply a matter of being intentionally aware of the presence of God, whatever else may be going on. And this awareness has immense benefits, if we train ourselves in it. It is the secret to a peaceful existence. I said to a friend once, in a discussion about a difficult moment:
God provides a sort of a buffer between ourselves and the world, so we don’t need to calculate anything, but respond always to God, rather than react to what is around us. In this buffer zone is peace, humor, love, quietness, energy and thus we always can act from strength, whatever our weakness is. Even in the admission of weakness or failure, in that way there is still strength and ease of heart.
This requires, of course, the ability to perceive the presence of God in the immediacy of every situation. It is the intentional act of such perceiving that I would here call prayer, and to the capacity for such perception, I would assign the word: faith.
Comments are welcome.
“For the promise is for you, and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
The word for spirit in Hebrew and in Greek is the same as for breath, wind, air; and in both cases we are surrounded, immersed, in this on which we actually depend for our very existence. What makes us alive is not the spirit that surrounds us, but the spirit which enters into us and nourishes all of our inner being. It would be a completely artificial thing to somehow separate the two, as though the air in your lungs is of a different nature than the air in the room, but from within your lungs, there is a function being performed that can’t happen anywhere else.
It is in this way we can say that we are immersed in spiritual reality, but only benefit personally when the spiritual reality becomes our inmost source of being. Physically, we breathe…. inhale and exhale; and spiritually, we are continually filled with God and emptied of God.
So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
— Matthew 6:34
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. —-
Galatians 6:9