The paradoxical unity of suffering and joy, sadness and healing….

“Yes, for me the drama of a storm in nature, the drama of sorrow in life, is the best. Paradise is nice, but lacks the beauty of Gethsemane.” Vincent Van Gogh

“All of Reality is also symbolic at the same time.”

Joy and suffering are teethered to the same pole—that pole is The Cross of Jesus. This is why great art, reveals beauty in suffering.

Art is meant to serve us with a clearer picture of Reality! Reality is that Love is found in our suffering. Christ incarnates as The Cross always, and then the resurrection brings what St Peter calls, “a living hope”. Great art reveals both.

For sorrow is most beautiful here, because Jesus is still there.

Bright Sadness:

How can we, as St Paul put it, “be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”; how can we learn to live in the “living hope” which Peter spoke of, to have that bright sadness, which realizes that Jesus is always in the garden of Suffering, and already reigning silmultaneously.

The dutch artist, Van Gogh was asking this question in his own unique eccentric way. He found Jesus in sunflowers, worn worker’s boots, and in simple scenes of loneliness and human sufferings in the fields. How can we move into that bright sadness which Jesus walked and walks in-that yieldedness to suffering and God’s presence in the simple things around us? To be every joyful while in clear sight of suffering around us. How can we find the tone of Joy in the blues about us?!

Suffering exist in the continuum of a living hope, which is Peter’s reason to live well. In I Peter, he says with this living Hope before us, let’s endure our trials as places of transformation! Still true that.

(Signs speak to the healing of understanding, and wonders to the healing of the imagination. Art is a wonder, meant to make more whole how we image things. The symbolic is always present in everything around us, but we must help other’s see it.)

The role of art is to incarnate Christ”s Life into the symbolic dimension, so that we are in awe of God again. That’s a servant’s role, and so one must put their own art onto the Altar of His art of Life.

What art may be:
Art as incarnation, and ushering in the Kingdom into the symbolic.
Art as suffering well.
Art as expression of Christ on earth through the symbolic.
Art as tabernacle of meeting through the symbolic parts of us and God.

Social role of art:

Art is meant to mid-wife collective imagination, which is why the artist themselves must be in a servant position! We serve the healing of the imagination.

And yet…

“My art is less important than my family’s life.” Vincent Van Gogh. (So few artist get to that level of sacrifice!) Art must yield and enter into life’s suffering to be made whole.

Sorrow, pain and suffering makes the most beautiful art, because Jesus is always there in suffering—the One acquainted with all our griefs. For this reason the storms and gethsemane are where beauty is found. “This is the paradoxical unity of suffering and joy down here.” Vincent Van Gogh.

There is not escapism or romanticism or utopianism in true art, rather there is incarnation into the particular sufferings around us. Jesus is always meet-able in the storm and night car crashes around us daily.

The Cross and Resurrection work in daily tandem down here. I paint suffering, so that i will know joy more incarnately.

Art is meant to serve life, not the other way around. Van Gogh realized his own brother’s life was more important than his own art, and so was willing to lay it down if necessary so his brother’s and his son’s health would improve. Art yields to life!

The paradoxical unity of suffering and joy is my subject on earth. And certainly was Van Gogh’s!

Jesus is always sorrowful yet always rejoicing. How does art meet Him there?

Since we know that joy and sorrow are tethered to the same pole, and that pole if The Cross. How can our art reflect the beauty in suffering?

Sorrow is most beautiful because Jesus is always there! The One intimately acquainted with all our griefs shows up in suffering. And our best art, is made in that space!

It’s always resurrection in death down here, and that’s why great art finds Christ in suffering, and is therefore never just sentimental, escapist or romantic, but living spirituality whether overtly religious or not, meets Christ in daily moments of suffering.

Once, Van Gogh was willing to sacrifice even his art as less important than his brother’s life, i think his art got more profound. Once we get our art on the altar of sacrifice, then it becomes more useful.

Everything has a symbolic dimension, the artist makes that overt. But if that artist also lays down their life and gifts, they are able to get into another layer or level of beauty—the actual suffering of Christ in His Own creation.

This seeming paradox of the storm being more beautiful than a sunset, is one of the things Van Gogh left us with. That Christ is met best and most deeply in pain. The brightest glory is met in suffering. The resurrection is met through the Cross. All great art, has this inner understanding in it.

We are not meant to escape suffering, but meet God in and through it. That’s what Van Gogh was saying, among other things, through his paintings of worker’s shoes. He didn’t need to paint the cross, the Cross of Christ was present in those worn out tired and glorious shoes of the urban worker.

Christ is met best in our sufferings. Art is a servant of that way.

Lots of us want resurrection without death, but that’s simply not how life works. The best artists teach us to see glory in suffering.

When you lay down your own gifts or art, you want to serve a truer vision of what actually is. That vision is that God meets people in their pain, and suffering, and walks along side making us more whole. The meeting point is suffering, the outcome is glory. Art is meant to serve life, not the other way around.

To become the message of your art, is more important than making art. That He incarnates into you what you are trying to see and teach, is the message. When an artist does this, their life becomes the message they are trying to express. That’s the way of Christ in artists.

When your art is just a vehicle of incarnation and transformation something grand happens. Like King david your become the sign and wonder, you become a portent, model and piece of art made by God to express something. Few artists get there, where their actual lives become the symbol of what God was wanting to say through them about Himself. We become the art we are making as we yield it to Him, and place our whole being on His Altar.

At one point, the artist Van Gogh decided not to make overtly religious art, but instead to express His spirituality directly through the suffering around Him. He felt it best to disclose Christ through the peasants and village suffering around Him instead of painting the Cross.

He felt he could say more from painting glory in a storm well than painting the nails and blood. But he was still telling the same gospel story. “If I can’t meet Christ in the daily struggles around me, i certainly cannot attempt to paint an image of His Cross.” So much christian art has missed this basic incarnatiional point he was making through his art. So, we see so much sentimental or overtly religious art, rather than telling the gospel, His testimony, through the particulars of ours.

We don’t have to be overtly religious to express His Life in ours. His Spirit can be expressed through a painting of an old worker’s shoes. “One does not need to make overtly religious art, to express the actual message of a religious scene; that is, to capture the spirituality of Christ in that scene.” His Story can even be told directly through ours—as in the case of Jeremiah, Paul and others whose biographies became His. That is, whose life became living parables.

Van Gogh liked translating the parables into his current surroundings. That farmer, that woman who is tired, that afternoon when everyone in the village was depressed—contains all the old stories as well, if seen through the filter of the Heart of Christ! That was his main point, perhaps. We can see the gospel, all around us, if we look well and enter His suffering glory. We can be sorrowful but always rejoicing in all we see, as we enter Him and His vision. That living hope still stands, but we can’t avoid suffering or even try to escape it. Suffering is the most overt door into the house of Jesus. He’s always lived there.

This artist tried to overtly paint a Jesus scene, but just it didn’t feel true to him. Instead, he decided to paint the same incarnate message through pairs of old workers shoes, and storms at sunset, and potatoes in lament of lack of rain. I understand that way. And respect it. His one overt painting was Isaiah 53 about the suffering Servant. Makes sense, as he stated it indirectly through another prophet’s words. The suffering Servant and Gethsemane were perhaps this artist’s guiding inner images in his own struggle to meet Christ daily in life.

“All of reality is also symbolic at the same time, and Reality is filled with suffering and joy.”

Why paint personal:

“I’ve decided the paint the things closest to me as my true incarnation of spirituality!”

Religious art often tends to be too overt about its message rather than incarnational. Once the message has become who we are, we are free to express it through a flower or landscape, or a subway scene.

Afterthoughts: When an artist is more concerned with encountering God than expressing themselves, the trajectory of their journey becomes a teaching or message for others.

When we put our gifts on the altar of sacrifice, we become servants for others, and our art has another level of His Authority which enters.
Art as serving others, is still radical. Few artist make it to a place where they serve the whole with their creative gifts; most still need validation or fame, and don’t get to a Jesus like place of serving with your already king or queen—ness. It’s rare, but when it happens in a person, very beautiful. King David would be an example, as are many others throughout history. But it’s still unusual. The temptation for self glory are high.

Art as servant is still odd for many. But we are meant to serve with whatever gifts we were given. And art is just another medium of the formation of the Life of Christ in us—at least for those who have met Him.

Lastly, and perhaps the point of this raw entry: suffering is a place of always meeting God. And hope and joy are always hanging nearby on that corner.

To embody or incarnate the teachings of being in Christ is more important than representing them, and as we prioritize that, our art will reflect it.

But life comes before expression-being precedes symbol-yet, both inform one another. Expression is meant to serve being and be in tandem with it. If our art, is a place of meeting and devotion, it may be blessed to express that deep to Deep inner dialogue which will outlast us. Like our spirituality gets to be overhears—like St Paul and Jeremiah’s. Few artist get there. When they do, their lives and art become the same Message.

Art then is one sense, is just a medium to meet God through. In another, it reveals the symbolic part of that meeting. So when an artist actually seeks God, and comes into intimacy with Him, their art becomes a testimony. And a story for us all.

When art becomes a window into conversion and ever growing intimacy with God, that artist themselves become a living portent or symbol of how humans are meant to relate to God. That was the case in King David, and many others throughout history, but is still rare, and worth noting forever.

To discard fame, celebrity and entertainment and enter actual out loud spirituality and public death and rebirth is still perhaps the highest calling of the priestly role of artists. To live out loud in our spiritualities, to walk the wire in the publics view, is a rarefied sacrifice which God always takes note of, i think. Those who have, leave a legacy of more than fame, but on of participating and incarnating a much longer and potent story of being for us all.

Last thought: suffering is a place to meet God. We meet Him in the suffering around us, and we find ironically, His Joy there. When artist avoid suffering a place of meeting, their art loses it’s force of life, and goes flat or untrue to what is. This is because Jesus is always in suffering, and making it beautiful. Beauty is met best in suffering. If we can see the glory in pain, we can get a glimpse of Jesus’ heart. And then express it.

My heart is undivided, yet often in many places.
Part of me is always in heaven, part on earth, and part somewhere in between in dirt and glory….with those i love….
Feeling like this this week-a wide range of emotions and thoughts, intuitions and inner lament celebrations; but also feeling that belgian sky today, as we have a dear friend over at our place in Antwerp!
I love how sadness and rejoicing are tethered to the same pole in the Spirit, and deepen one another! And how the heart works in tandem.

Speaking the languages and the mediums of Love! How can we translate our love into the other person’s language and into their medium. The best medium they receive the weight and impartation of that love? One of the questions i often ask in communicating with friends globally is how can convey the message, the love, in a way which imparts the tone of my heart towards them?! What is the medium which most blesses them, and allows them to receive the love I have in my heart for them.

The key is discerning love regardless of medium. There are different weights of communication. We can discern them on line or off. Tone is everything, of course, but also considering how to speak in the tone of love in a medium which makes sense to the other person, matters!

There are different levels of intimacy, but when everything is equalized in media, we have to discern the weights of glory, the inner tone and weight of each communication. That’s just part of discerning the heart in our times!

Social media can challenge this, but can also be a great source of blessing to those who receive in that medium. I have some friends who can send two words via text or chat, and I cry from the amount of Love behind and between the lines. Others, i like a whole letter, with paragraphs and commas. It’s interesting the weight of communication in an era when there is so much communication. It’s still probably primarily about the intentions of the heart! How discern love behind and in between the words, becomes the receiver’s challenge!

I think you still can sense the weight of love behind the words, regardless of medium! Everyone is different, some people need that face to face in order to know Love. Other’s a long email, others a quick caring like. Good to know what makes you feel and enter Love, and also how others receive it.

But it is always about looking at the heart’s intention behind a gesture of love! That’s what i try to do anyway. And pray into figuring out what might make this person feel the most loved by my communication! Everyone is unique in that–how they receive love and give it! Of course, my dad delineated the five love languages, but how to put those in the many mediums now available to us is a new and exciting challenge, i think! Is this person a text person, a Facebook person, a long hand written letter person, a go visit face to face person etc. Good to consider as stewards of Love!

How can speak love in one another’s mediums of reception! This is an especially important question in a social media age! And it’s also often, a generational question. How can I convey my care to this person in their language, and in a medium which carries the weight of that Love!

The languages but also the mediums of Love matter. How the other person best receives your love matters. And is worth considering. I often ask before writing someone, since my language is language itself—words; is this the best medium to convey my heart’s care for them. Is email or a hardcopy letter better; is a phone call, a text… each of my friends tend to communicate in a unique medium. Should i make them a piece of art to express my care (which is one of my favorites!). Should i just go see them, or plan a weekend with them? Should I like their posts etc…good to think about not just the language, but now the medium to convey our love for one another in this era!

Jesus would feed or make breakfast for some people. For others, teach them, like Nicodemos; at other times, he would just sit with people to let them know they were loved. His Heart was always love, but He translated it into many mediums. So should we. So, what and how God is communicating His love to others both matter! Good media meditation today! For, the mediums carry the messages of Love.

Can I learn to speak better not just in the languages of love, but in the mediums which carry this love into another’s heart?! Been thinking about and trying to practice that recently!

Just as when reading a book or poem,to get towards the real meaning, we have to ask, what is the author’s tone–his or her orientation towards the words. So it is with modern media. The heart is what matters most in interpretation. Then as the heart grows, learning to speak on one another’s love languages and mediums become part of discerning and expressing God’s orientation towards one another!

Fun thinking about language and mediums both expressing our love towards one another well! Let’s become masters of communicating Love into one another’s hearts! Let’s become more like Word made flesh towards one another, and into one another’s lives!

Midrash on repentance as a daily basic spiritual practice:

“Whoever (person, city nation) conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy”.[Pr. 28:13]

“Repentance is given before anything else, by definition.”

To repent is to agree with how God says things really ARE. We are sinners, and in need of forgiveness and Mercy. It is to align with the facts about Reality. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as Isaiah puts it. So we all need to repent—to confess, change and turn away from sin and towards God.

Looking at repentance again today! Good meditation in our times—the practice of repentance. The first commandment Jesus gave was repentance!

Repent-turn from and toward, change your mind about things, and act differently. Confess-agree with Him that you are a sinner. And accept His forgiveness, and offer it to others. Change starts in confession. It’s metaphysical, as we are sinners, and He is not, we need His Actual Life to make us pure or whole. God looks for a contrite (turned) heart.
To lust after is sin, for instance, because it means we do not trust God to provide what we really need, and instead take it by ourselves. It’s a sin related to coveting what is not ours. Forgive us Lord for lack of trust. For striking rather than speaking to the rock.
Greek—repent means to think differently after.
Talmud Yoma 86a). “Repentance and works of charity are man’s intercessors before God’s throne”.[5] Sincere repentance is equivalent to the rebuilding of the Temple, the restoration of the altar, and the offering of all the sacrifices.[6]

In the New Testament, the first command that Jesus gave was to repent.[Matthew 4:17] He thus repeated the message of John the Baptist.[Matthew 3:2][25] Jesus sent out disciples who “proclaimed that people should repent”.[Mark 6:12] In his Pentecost sermon, Peter the Apostle called on people to repent,[Acts 2:38] an appeal he repeated in his sermon at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple: “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out”.[Acts 3:19] Paul the Apostle likewise testified “both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God”[Acts 20:21] and said that “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent”.[Acts 17:30]

The Greek word used for repentance in the New Testament is μετάνοια (metanoia),[26][27] and the Greek verb for “to repent” is μετανοῶ, contracted from μετανο-έω (metano-eo),[28][29] as in Mark’s account of the initial preaching of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

Confession is our way home, if we believe in sin. It places us in the right orientation to contact the outstretched God.

When I worked with elderly who were dying they tended to either have regrets or true repentance at the end. Repentance can come earlier if we let it! It’s an orientation, to life. It was also the first commandment that Jesus gave. And John the Baptist made obvious. They were saying, get yourself in a place where you feel like confession is necessary. And turn away from what you are currently doing;. Change your mind and turn around.

God does’t want regret, He wants a contrite heart, that is true repentance. Regret is still us trying the fiend for ourselves. repentance, is realizing, we can’t.

Regret at the end, is un-dealt with sin. Repentance, is owned sin which can put us in a position to transform!

We have Peace on our land, that maybe the best gift for our creatures.

Regret is different than repentance—repentance includes admission of guilt, reception of forgiveness, and restitution to the degree that we can. At the end of life, people tend to either have regrets or repentance. Sorry God i sinned….Repentance means confession thanks praise and restitution…

In the New Testament Jesus told this parable: “There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’ I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.[Matt. 21:28-29] The word used here for “repent” means to change one’s mind, thought, purpose, views regarding a matter. It is to have another attitude or mindset about something.

This change is well illustrated in the action of the Prodigal Son.[Luke 15:11-32] The issue of repentance is also discussed in connection with the will and disposition. One of the Hebrew words for repent means “to turn”. The Prodigal Son said, “I will arise…, and he arose”.[Luke 15:18,20] The Prodigal said, “I have sinned against heaven”.[Luke 15:21]

In the well-known story of the Pharisee and the Publican, the Greek word used for repentance means “to be a care to one afterwards”, to cause great concern to another. This meaning is exemplified by the repentant person who not only has profound regret for his or her past, but also the fulfilled hope in the potential of God’s grace to continually bear the fruit of healing and true reconciliation within the individual, with others, and most especially with God. The Hebrew equivalent is strong as well, and it means to pant, to sigh, or to moan. So the publican “beat upon his breast, and said, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner’ “, indicating sorrow of heart.[Luke 18:9-14]

The part played by one’s will and disposition in repentance is shown in the confession of sin to God: “I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin”.[Psa. 38:18]

Let’s repent, confess, then thank and praise our way into His Presence today!

God made a covenant with Noah which included the creatures, in addition to the seven commandments for all of humanity, that last one dealt with ethical treatment of animals.

He wanted to tell us something about how to treat and relate to His creatures, how to partner with him in being better humans while on earth.

Been thinking about that recently-even in the jewish tradition, to be a righteous gentile-to follow Noah’s 7 commandments- includes ethical treatment of animals and the earth.

That it is for our own good to tend things well, even people who are weaker than us (you see the commandment to care for the poor-to do charity, was the only one which St Paul and Peter agreed on to transfer to christianity; St Paul, said it was the very thing, he was most eager to do!), and more vulnerable to our mistakes.

A good study to look at God’s care for the earth, and how He teaches us to be better people through care of His Creatures! Why God wanted to save, preserve and teach us how to care for the animals-Noah was not alone, he had all the animals with Him!

Maybe they are here to teach us of Him, still–just a meditation I’ve been having. Of course, He also made a covenant with the earth itself, which is a great mystery worth surveying!

Thinking about this as one of my dogs is sick this week. We are temporary parents of the planet, let’s do our creative partnership parts friends. Each sparrow, the Father has named. Just has He has each of us! Each name and identity matters forever!

When he let Adam co-name the animals–what a moment in the grand narrative. Are we not still learning their names-how to speak and call them forth in Love, and to speak, or have spoken, our own as we do!
Like

Music is always playing around us, if we listen well.

Taking The Risk of Engagement:

To the degree i risk engagement in Love, i and others will be made more whole; to the degree i hold back my heart, it and the other’s shrinks. Love calls forth true identity in all directions. We know something—art or people, or cities and nations- to the degree we risk engaging ourselves in Love for and with them. That’s also how and the degree to which we are healed and become healers of others.

Take the risk of depth engagement today! Why not! We are all worth it, in the end. And either way, we will meet God as we engage in Love, for as St John told us, God is Love. And Love is always where God is. This is one reason we are commanded to love the strangers, orphans and widows, and weak. It’s for our own good to do so.

To love your enemy is also to transform them and yourself. Love calls forth identity on both sides. Love always works in all directions. Part of the reason to love the “stranger” is to know ourselves! This is why both Jews and Christians were so adamant about this command—originally, of course, all Christians would have been the strangers intended!

We know one another, to the degree we engage in the relationship. That’s true with God and others. Love is not osmosis, it is active risk pursuit of Loving other to know them, especially those with the least Love extended towards them. I was a stranger and you let me “in”! Let’s let one another “in”! It’s for our own good as well to bless one another. For, it places us in the old Way-the position of Grace.

How art and healing relate—one of my favorite topics! Working towards and article on it! Thanks for your kind patience as i do….just some raw seeds of contemplation here:

What art can teach us about living well; how can we view art as a practice of empathy! How art appreciation relates to healing the planet and one another!

Don’t underrate perception in the healing process! As I see you, i will treat you! If I see you through my wounds, i will interpret you like that. If I see you more as God does, i will find myself loving you, and working towards your wholeness. Jesus saw the hearts of people, and acted accordingly. He did not judge by surfaces.

Most writers talk about being surprised by the perspective of their characters. I didn’t know they felt or thought like that. Something about entering into true empathy with others is one of the roles of art in spiritual development, and appreciation of art. Art is not superfluous to spiritual development! It’s a basic way of learning to be better people.

“Looking at art and beauty well, teaches us how to look at one another better! The practice of appreciating art from the heart, is a spiritual practice which teaches us how to treat one another as those “in God’s image”, which is our most basic human ethical imperative!” From a great book I’m reading on Christian/Jewish dialogue called, “For the Sake of heaven and earth”.

Or, as Martin Buber, the great jewish poet philosopher, might put it, “To the degree I engage others in Love, I will see them as they truly are, and know them into or towards wholeness. I can only know even a piece of art, to the degree that I risk my “I” in encountering and calling forth, their “thou”!

I still think this is true in art and life! To love our neighbors as ourselves, or to love the stranger, (which is a command in judaism, and implied in christianity, as Christians were the originally implied strangers-as were all gentiles)- who in our times is everyone, as we have become so inter-connnected- requires another level of ethical spiritual technology, or formation or incarnation of His Spirit in us, as MLK put it!

Viewing art and others well is one spiritual practice towards learning to love our neighbors as ourselves. Another level of the “heart of Christ” in us! Let’s implement that heart tech! So we can appreciate the art of others around us!

This is how looking well at art becomes an ethical practice for treating others as neighbors and family! In this sense, aesthetics, isn’t just for breakfast anymore-learning to see the beauty of other, the image of God in them, leads to how we actually treat one another.

It’s an imperative ethical practice to see well these days (sight comes before speech!)-good spiritual aesthetics, or seeing others and art more as they actually are through the lens of Love. For, if I see you more as God does, i will perforce, find myself loving you!

To see one another well—i.e. more as God sees us and them-is to help repair and heal (make more whole) our friends, cities, nations and planet. Let’s be participators in that grand reconciliation of true sight, friends!

Let’s be better art appreciators with one another. Sometimes, it just starts with looking at art well, as a practice. Empathizing our way into His Loving Vision of one another. In this sense, art becomes our learning to enter into God’s empathy for His Own Creation! Let’s! Aesthetics are underrated as a spiritual practice!

Learning to look well at art and one another displaces a pornographic vision of life-looking through our wounds versus looking through His.

It heals us, as we look well at art and one another-this is how viewing art can become a spiritual practice, rather than a superfluous luxury activity. To learn to see is penultimate to learning to Love well!

That’s my thesis anyway. We come into a deeper fellowship and communion with His vision and suffering by looking with Him at art, others and life, rather than viewing things only from our own vision. Art, in that way, becomes perceptual communion. We join His Sight of other. And our orientation shifts by conjoining with His!

In doing so, we become better people, art and life appreciators! Looking at art well is a practice for looking at others in God’s image and living well.

This is why aesthetics still matter as a spiritual practice. Art’s not just for breakfast anymore people! Our view, and interpretation of the world around us, is how we end up treating it! So let’s nurture our lenses well! And pick the right ones!

When we look at art with God, it helps us see more of how things actually are, or, will one day be. We then, become collaborators in seeing and being healed and healing (making more whole others and ourselves) what’s around us through the depth of our collaboration of sight! See well, to be well.

Everything wants to be fathered!
Each item, technology, plant or gadget, or person or city, looks eagerly unto fathering!
We are each children and potential fathers and mothers, meant to be stewards-potential parents.
We all look eagerly unto fathering! We want to be fathered. All of us.
Even when i look in my kitchen, at utensils and ingredients, they all want to be creatively fathered, yielded into order and identity in kindness, gentleness and wisdom. Everything wants to be fathered. It’s an intrinsic need of us all.
I’ve never encountered anything, which didn’t have an inner desire for fatherhood! We may not trust Father, but we all have a secret desire to be Fathered.

If you want to teach us Life through death, then do; death is just another deepening of trust; or, if you want to teach us through daily living, then do. Whatever the medium, teach us Yourselftoday, meet us through our passing circumstances, and teach how to be with You in everything. The medium is less important than the Message coming into us! Impart yourself through our daily circumstances Lord, whatever season of our lives we happen to be in, so we can be content while becoming who we really are while here!

Help us play whatever our parts are ours now!

I personally pray for EXTRA LIFE! Lord, thanks. I want to, like Joshua in Your Old story, live through three of Your great ideas!