Thursday, October 10, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Chocolate
Ask and you will receive.
No God is not my sugar daddy. He might not care about my Christmas list, or my shopping list of any list I present to him. God is bigger than me, and his lists are longer than mine, and what’s more, his lists always end with us being loved and cared for all the way into heaven.
But wait. There are accidents and intentional crimes and illnesses and war, so whatever list I’m on to get to heaven isn’t one I can read. It’s not written in any language spoken on earth. We waylaid that language awhile ago at the Tower or Babel.
So on our journeys over the river and through the woods, we must stay in the moment rather than asking for anything more. And truly, there is something to be said for grandma’s house:
At Grandma’s house time slows,
adornments are outdated
and musty smells here and there.
At Grandma’s house I feel safe,
warm and wanted,
precious and loved.
At Grandma’s house, it’s all about me,
the games I like to play,
the food I like to eat,
the stories I like to read,
and the songs I like to sing.
At Grandma’s house I am so free to be myself,
dunked again into a bucket of goodness
like a chocolate dipped ice cream cone,
feeding my spirit with love and beauty,
grounding my life in love and beauty.
There’s no other place like Grandma’s house.
Take me there again. – Clarence Heller
Don’t eat me, don’t eat me. I just look like a chocolate dipped ice cream cone.
Seek and you shall find.
Ron Rolheiser points something out I haven’t experienced but which I’m sure is true: “If you have ever been at the bedside of a dying person, you know exactly when the soul leaves the body.”
Rolheiser is a philosopher as well as a priest and he explains the philosophical definition of a “soul.”
Philosophers have tended to define the soul as a double principle inside every living being: For them, the soul is both the principle of life and energy inside us as well as the principle of integration. In essence, the soul is two things: It’s the fire inside us giving us life and energy and it’s the glue that holds us together.
Does Jesus mean that when I seek, I will find my soul, if that’s what I’m looking for? The older I get, the more elusive that search seems, at least on some days. My fire is going out, and my glue is drying up. My body, the container for the soul God made in me, is wearing out.
What’s healthy for my soul on a given night depends a lot upon what I’m struggling with more on that night: Am I losing my soul because I’m losing vitality, energy, hope, and graciousness in my life? Am I growing bitter, rigid, sterile, becoming a person who’s painful to be around? Or, conversely, am I full of life and energy but so full of it that I am falling apart, dissipating, losing my sense of self? Am I petrifying or dissipating? Both are a loss of soul. In the former situation, the soul needs more fire, something to rekindle its energy. In the latter case, the soul already has too much fire; it needs some cooling down and some glue.
Yes there are still days when I feel on fire, and yes, a little Holy Spirit glue helps me quiet myself and breathe, rediscovering my still place, where God and I are always in love.
Knock and the door will be opened unto you.
Jesus stands at the door and knocks. When I open it, he comes in and shares a meal with me. This is a different door, I think, and Jesus might be seen inside, inviting me to come in. Either way, the Lord’s supper is there for us to share. And we might even share a bar of chocolate.
(Galatians 3, Luke 1, Acts 16, Luke 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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